Castro Directive Read Online Free Page B

will find out. You can count it."
    "I hope you do."
    Carver took another glance at the envelope on Pierce's desk, then walked over to the door. "Don't go making any deals for a free trip with your travel agent friends, either. Stick around."
    Bellinger followed Carver as far as the door, where he glanced back. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward Carver and smiled. "He's really a nice guy."

Chapter 4
     
    H is code name was Thor, and he drove a dark blue Mercedes with tinted windows. It was his second car, and he drove it only while performing special duties, the ones that would ensure him a special place in a very special future. This afternoon he was to meet Frey in the parking lot of a Quick Stop Grocery in Coral Gables, and as usual Frey was late.
    After waiting five minutes, he got out of the car and stretched his arms. He gazed up at a tall pine tree, and squinted because the sun was directly behind it. He knew it was called a monkey puzzle tree, and this one stood nearly a hundred feet high.
    Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man walk from the Quick Stop to his car, and he imagined the guy stopping and asking him what he thought about the tree. He'd surprise him with his knowledge. He'd tell him that the monkey puzzle was native to the western slopes of the Andes in Chile, and that even though the tropics weren't the ideal environment for the tree, it was plentiful in South Florida.
    And if that curious fellow would say he was asking because he was thinking of planting a tree like this one in his yard, he'd tell him to forget it. The evergreen was majestic and symmetrical, but it was trashy and dangerous. Its cones weighed up to ten pounds, and one of them falling from seventy or eighty feet could knock a grown man out cold.
    Not to mention what it could do to the hood of a Mercedes, he thought. No need to take a foolish risk. He backed the car out, moved to the next space.
    He knew about the monkey puzzle, and lots of other exotic trees that grew in the tropics, because his family owned a nursery out at the edge of the Everglades. He'd worked there from the time he was twelve through high school, and then summers while he was going to college. His father wanted him to take over the business, but that wasn't going to happen. Thor had other plans for himself, and it wouldn't be long till he could own all the nurseries he wanted.
    Frey arrived ten minutes later and pulled up next to the Mercedes. Thor slid into the passenger seat of Frey's Camaro, which was still running. The breeze of the air-conditioning blew against his face; he took in a deep breath of the cool air. "No problem. Just as planned."
    "Pierce got a make on Gore."
    Thor shrugged. "It happens. Orders should've been to kill him, too. He's trouble."
    Frey gazed through the window at the towering tree. "Odin has other plans for him."
    Frey always thought Odin was right, never questioned him. It was a sign of his weakness. A flaw in his personality. "What plans?"
    "I don't know. I'm sure we'll see when the time's right. He wants you to keep an eye on Pierce for the next few days."
    Thor's brow knitted in a frown. "Christ, I'm already on surveillance."
    "That's hardly surveillance," Frey said quietly.
    "It still takes time . . . and I've got other responsibilities, you know.
    "You want me to tell Odin it's too much?"
    Thor looked out the side window. He didn't want Frey taking advantage of the matter, but most of all he didn't want to offend Odin. He knew Odin stood at the crossroads of the future. He could open doors for him in the new world to come, but he could also close them.
    Just then he heard a bang; both men jerked their heads, and Frey reached for his weapon. "What the hell was that?" Frey was looking around for the source of the noise, but Thor was laughing.
    "A pinecone hit your hood."
    Frey got out, touched the dent in the Camaro, then picked up the cone. It was as large as a loaf of bread and spiky-sharp on the edges. "Biggest fucking