For a long time her statement seemed to hold in the air, but then she turned again and smiled wistfully.
“You are a formidable and pavoroso man among men, Kirk McGarvey. In another time and place, under different circumstances, I could have loved you more than my country. More than my life itself.”
“Whatever you do next, just no more killing, no more blood,” McGarvey said. “Something can be worked out.”
María got to her feet. “Give me the keys to your car.”
“They’re in the ignition.”
“If you try to follow me, or send the police after me, I’ll defend myself. And I am a very good shot.”
“I’m sure you are.”
She gave him another long, searching look and then, keeping her pistol trained in their general direction, backed out of the kitchen and disappeared down the front hall and out the door.
“Aren’t you going after her?” Otto demanded.
McGarvey shook his head, and it seemed to him that he hadn’t slept in days, maybe not in years, maybe not since his first kill in Santiago when he was nothing more than a very young husband with a baby daughter at home. Now they were all dead and buried, just as so many others who’d become close to him were.
“We’re just going to let her go?”
“She has nowhere to run,” McGarvey said.
And maybe he’d finally had his fill of it all. Maybe if he thought hard enough about it, his life had been pretty much a waste.
Otto and Louise were watching him. And after a beat, Louise reached across the table and put her hands on his.
“Think about Audie,” she said.
“I do all the time.”
“Then it should be enough.”
“I’m not following you.”
“You’re feeling sorry for yourself—I can see it in your eyes from a mile away.”
Coming from Louise just now it stung. “You’re probably right. And it’s why I let her go. I’m tired of the blood. Up to my neck in it, and it’s time for me to back off.”
“Go back to your Greek island to lick your wounds?”
“Something like that.”
“And then what?”
McGarvey wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“There’ll be something else for you,” Louise said. “You do know that much at least.”
“I’m getting out.”
“No,” Louise blurted.
“It’s over.”
“What about the rest of us, what are we supposed to do? Me and Otto?”
McGarvey held his silence.
“You have a gift, Kirk. Rare and terrible as it is, we need you.”
“All the killing.”
“All the lives you’ve saved. What about them, or don’t they count?”
“My wife and daughter were murdered because of my gift, as you call it,” McGarvey shot back. His anger was rising. “I’m done.”
“What about your grandchild? Are you going to just walk away from whatever comes her way?”
“That’s not fair, goddamnit.”
“No it’s not,” Louise said. “But it’s the hand you were dealt.”
She was right, of course. He knew it in his heart of hearts, just as he knew that he would have to go back to Serifos at least for a little while. A month or two, before he could work up the courage to come back to Casey Key, reopen the house he’d shared with Katy, and pick up the threads of his life. If he had the courage.
But Louise was smiling gently now, sadly. “Anyway, Happy Birthday, kemo sabe,” she said.
McGarvey looked at her. “What?”
“It’s your birthday today, Kirk. Otto and I were hoping that this business would be done soon enough, because I planned a party. With Audie. Turns out she likes chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate milk.”
EPILOGUE
It was five of a bright, sunny afternoon in Havana, when María, dressed in starched and crisply pressed olive drab fatigues and bloused highly polished boots, entered Raúl Castro’s office. She marched across the room, came to attention in front of his desk, and saluted.
“Señor Presidente, Colonel León reporting as ordered, sir.”
Castro returned her salute, then picked up the telephone to his secretary. “I am not to be disturbed for the next hour.”
Exciting new things were happening in Cuba because of her uncle. Private businesses were beginning to thrive, the formerly government-controlled private property market had been newly opened—apartments and houses could be legally bought and sold, which meant a lot of money was starting to flow into the country and the strict restriction on tourism from the States that had been in place for fifty years was finally beginning to relax with the promise of even more foreign capital.
But in María’s estimation, it was not nearly enough. They—the island—needed much more.
Castro motioned for her to have a seat. “Your mission was not a success,” he said, but his tone was not harsh.
“But not a failure, either,” María said.
“Tell me.”
“I spoke with my friend in Seville, Dr. Adriana Vergílio, who has come up with fresh evidence. Something new. On the second Spanish expedition to New Mexico, one of the enlisted men who survived was actually a spy for the Vatican. His name was Jacob Parella, and he kept a diary.”
“Your friend has this diary?”
“No, but she thinks she knows where it might be found. Parella made it back to Rome, but he never reached safety in the Vatican. Instead he was murdered and robbed, supposedly by a street gang. But Dr. Vergílio thinks it was the Voltaire Society.”
“What’s next?”Castro asked.
“I’m going to find it, of course,” María said. “Jacob’s diary is the key to the treasure.”
“You’ll need help.”
“Yes. Kirk McGarvey.”
BOOKS BY DAVID HAGBERG
Twister
The Capsule
Last Come the Children
Heartland
Heroes
Without Honor*
Countdown*
Crossfire*
Critical Mass*
Desert Fire
The Expediter*
Abyss*
High Flight*
Assassin*
White House*
Joshua’s Hammer*
Eden’s Gate
The Kill Zone*
By Dawn’s Early Light
Soldier of God*
Allah’s Scorpion*
Dance with the Dragon*
The Cabal*
NONFICTION WITH BORIS GINDIN
Mutiny: The True Events That Inspired The Hunt for Red October
FICTION WITH SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN
Blowout
*Kirk McGarvey Novels
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID HAGBERG is a former U.S. Air Force cryptographer who has traveled extensively in Europe, the Arctic, and the Caribbean and has spoken at CIA functions. He has published more than seventy novels of suspense, including the bestselling Allah’s Scorpion, Dance with the Dragon, and The Expediter. He makes his home in Sarasota, Florida.
Visit his website at www.david-hagberg.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CASTRO’S DAUGHTER
Copyright © 2012 by David Hagberg
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs by Getty Images
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Hagberg, David.
Castro’s daughter / David Hagberg.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2021-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-4636-0 (e-book)
1. McGarvey, Kirk(Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women intelligence officers—Fiction. 3. Illegitimate children—Fiction. 4. Castro, Fidel, 1926—Fiction. 5. Cuba—Fiction. 6. Spain—Fiction. 7. Mexico—Fiction. 8. Spy stories. gsafd I. Title.
PS3558.A3227C37 2012
813'.54—dc23
2012011648
e-ISBN 9781429946360
First Edition: July 2012
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Part Two
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Part Three
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Part Four
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Epilogue
Books by David Hagberg
About the Author
Copyright
Castro's Daughter Page 37