“So, my boy, it looks as though you knew what you were talking about,” Lucas White said. “As usual, of course.”

Collins pressed the phone against his left ear and covered his right ear with his free hand. “Speak up, Lucas. I can barely hear you.”

“You and your damn penchant for pay phones,” Lucas said, chuckling. “The rest of the world long ago entered into the era of the cell phone. You should consider joining us.”

“Old habits are like old friends. Besides, I feel safer doing it this way.”

“You need not worry. This line is static free. You can take my word on it.” Lucas tapped the bowl of his pipe into the ashtray. “You’re convinced it was Deke?”

“Yes.”

“But Deke and Cardinal were close, weren’t they?”

“At one time, yes. But I’d say they had a falling out of sorts, wouldn’t you?”

“Looks that way.” Lucas paused to light his pipe. “Where do you figure Seneca fits into this little scenario?”

“Primary executioner.”

“And you are convinced he’s involved?” Lucas said, exhaling a puff of smoke.

“More than ever. Deke would never do something like this on his own. He never could say no to Seneca.”

“That damn Indian. What the hell could he be up to?”

“A hit, Lucas, a takeout. And whoever it is must be big. Very big. Seneca and Deke are involved, and obviously they were trying to recruit Cardinal. But Cardinal would never hitch on with those two. So he said no. When he did, his fate was sealed. They had no choice but to eliminate him.”

“I am truly sorry about Cardinal. I know you were especially fond of the man.”

That was true. Collins had always cared deeply for Cardinal. Perhaps it was because Cardinal was the oldest and most out-of-place member of that first (and best) group of recruits. Out of place because he, unlike the others, detested killing, hated it to the very fibers of his soul. Seneca thrived on the kill. Deke did it blindly, obediently. It was simply part of the job for him. The same with Snake and Moon and Rafe, the only one to die in combat. Not so with Cardinal. The taking of a human life was abhorrent to him, even in a combat situation. He did it, reluctantly, and he did it for those long-forgotten reasons of duty, honor, and patriotism. Even with that to fall back on, he seldom succeeded in convincing himself the killing was justified. Cardinal was the odd duck in that first group, the one who probably shouldn’t have been there. He was too decent, too humane. Yet, when you got right down to it, he was the one whose reasons for being there were the soundest. If, indeed, there is ever a sound reason for killing.

“You there, my boy?” Lucas finally asked.

“Yes.”

“Where do you go from here? There seems to be precious little to go on.”

“I have Taylor’s last words. ‘Fallen angels.’ You do remember that, don’t you?”

“I remember. What was the term you once used to describe it?”

“Magnificent maybe.”

“Yes, that’s it. How did you put it? Let’s see, I think you said something very poetic, like ‘Operation Fallen Angels will always go down as a great magnificent maybe.’ That may not be precisely verbatim, but it’s close.”

“Operation Fallen Angels, had it been given the green light, and had it been successful, which it would have been, would have ended the Vietnam mess three years earlier. Ended it favorably, I might add. You know I’m right, too.”

“My boy, we’ve debated this a million times. Another debate is useless. I have always said the payoff would have been great, but the risks were too high. I was never able to convince myself that it could have been done successfully. Maybe I was right, maybe not. It was a judgment call.”

“Lucas, we could have been in and out of Hanoi before anyone had a whisper of what was happening. You know that. Old man Ho and his bunch would have been history. We could have taken them out. Without them, there would have been total chaos in North Vietnam for months. No way they could have recovered.”

Lucas sighed out loud. “Perhaps. But we’ll never know.”

“No, I don’t guess we ever will.”

Lucas sensed the old fire was gone from Collins’s argument. For that he was thankful. It was a debate that had gone on long enough, a debate that had no final resolution.

“How do you go about finding Seneca?” he asked.

“By finding Deke.”

“Where do you start?”

“Chicago. Where else? Go to enough blues joints and you’ll eventually run into Deke. He can’t stay away from them.”

“Keep me posted. If you find out anything concrete, let me know about it. The same applies here. If we learn anything, I’ll get it to you pronto.”

Collins laughed.

“Why the jocularity?” Lucas asked.

“You work in military intelligence, Lucas. You guys never get anything first.”