“Okay, let’s move on.”
They drove for about two miles along the winding sand-shell road until they came to the arched opening in the pink-stone wall.
“This is where we part for a while,” Uncle Charlie said. “I’ll drive on up to the hacienda. You wait until you see me enter. Then make like a beagle and sniff out the other buildings fast.” Charlie looked at his watch. “I’ve got six-fifteen. How ’bout you?”
“The same.”
“Okay, Biff. We’ll rendezvous outside this gate at exactly six forty-five. It will still be light by then. But darkness comes fast. Night falls as fast as a theater curtain in the tropics. One minute it’s daylight. The next it’s dark. Dusk lasts about one minute. All set?”
“Right. And I hope you see double when we rendezvous.”
“See double?” Uncle Charlie was momentarily puzzled.
“Derek and me,” Biff said, grinning.
“Oh. I get you. Guess I’d stopped thinking clearly for a moment this time. Good luck, Biff.”
Charles Keene started the car and drove toward the hacienda.