“Not me.”
Tell me then… how did you manage to get hooked up with Marlon?”
“I’m not “hooked up” with Marlon!”
“That’s how it looks!”
“Julia… I’m here to keep an eye on things for the Brits., make sure things don’t get out of hand. I’m the governor of this little enterprise. On what authority he thinks he can order me to go and kill someone is beyond me!”
“It’s bizarre…”
“I’m so excited about dinner tonight,” Buck said sarcastically. “I’m holding my breath. I just can’t wait to see what delicacy the lunatic dishes up this time. You wait – he’ll drag us through the evening – bore us to death – then, around dessert… ”
“He’ll serve up a special, hand-made bullet, personally engraved by the Chairman on a silver platter, with coffee?”
“Good one!” Buck laughed. “But seriously, I can’t see anyone condoning this. It’s just not on.”
Julia wasn’t so sure about that. She’d met the Committee – they are as mad as Marlon.
“Tell me – what are your people saying about this?” she asked.
“I’ve been told to just… wait it out.” Buck sounded unconvinced.
“Surely they can do something to stop Marlon… can’t they?”
“They have difficulty making decisions, my chaps.”
12.2
The dark cloud settled over their table, rumbling ominously. For a short while the three of them sat in a moody, uncomfortable silence as Marlon waited for a bottle of wine.
“This order you have Marlon,” Buck said. “Who issued it?”
Marlon sat up –
“It’s not an order… yet.”
“Oh… right!”
“I told you to wait in your room, that’s all.”
“I see,” Buck laughed. “Well then… would you mind telling us, if it did become an order, who then could we assume it would have come from, exactly?”
“The CU triple A.”