Robert Ludlum - The Parcifal Mosaic.txt

by The Parcifal Mosaic [lit]

  mHavelock."

  "Son of Havlf6ek.w

  'Yoed do well not to remind me."

  "Me gun is in my hand, not yours." Rostov eased the hammer of his automatic

  back into its recess, the weapon still leveled at Micbaers head. "But

  that's in the distant past and has no connection with me. Your recent

  activities, however, are very much my concern. Our concern, if you wilL"

  'nen your moles areet earnmg their money

  26

  TIM PAWWAL MOSAJC27

  "They file reports with irritating frequency, if Only to justify it. But

  are they accurate?"

  "if they told you I was finished, they were accurate.

  " Tinished? A word with such finality, yet subject to interpretation, no?

  Finished with what? Finished with one phase, on to another?"

  Finished with anything that might concern you."

  "out of sanction?' asked the KGB officer, rounding the border of the

  doorframe and leaning against the wall, his Graz-Burya steady, leveled now

  at Havelocles throat. "No longer employed by your government in any

  official capacity? VS difficult to accept. it must have been a blow to your

  dear friend Anthony Matthias."

  Michael studied the Russian~s face, lowering his eyes to the huge gun aimed

  at him. "A Frenchman mentioned Matthias the other day. Ill. tell you what

  I told him, although I don't know why I should. You paid him to bring up

  Matdd&s namc"

  "Gravet? He despises us. Hes civilized toward us only when he!s walldLng

  through the galleries of the Kremlin or the Hermitage in Leningrad. He

  might tell us anything."

  'TAy did you use him, then?'

  "Because hes fond of you. It's far easier to spot a lie when the liar is

  referring to someone he likes.7

  "Then you believed him."

  'Or you convinced him and. our people had no choice. Tell me. How did the

  brilliant and charismatic American Secretary of State react to his krafayes

  resignation?"

  "I have no idea but I assume be understood. It!s exactly what I told

  ~i;vi~. I haven!t: seen Matthias or spoken to him in months. He's got

  enough problems; theres no reason why those of an old student should be

  added."

  "But you were far more than a student. His family knew your family in

  Prague. You became what you are---"

  ~Were," interrupted Havelock

  '~-because of Anton Matthias~*

  "It was a long time ago."

  Rostov was silent; he lowered his weapon slightly, then spoke. "Very well,

  a long time ago. What about now? No one!s irreplaceable, but you7re a

  valuable man. Knowledgeable, productive."

  28 RoBERT LuDLum

  "Value and productivity are generally associated with oommitment. I doet

  have it anymore. Lefs say I lost it."

  "Am I to infer you could be tempted?" The KGB man lowered the weapon

  further. "In the direction of another commitment?"

  "You know better than that. Outside of personal revulsions that go back a

  couple of decades, we've got a mole or two in the Dzerzhinsky. rve no

  intention of being marked 'beyond salvage.'.

  "A hypocritical term. Ithnplies compassion on the part of your

  executioners."

  "It says it."

  "Not well." Rostov raised his automatic, thrusting it forward slowly. 'Ve

  have no such problems with verbal rationales. A traitor is a traitor. I

  could take you in, you know."

  "Not easily." Michael remained still, his eyes locked with the Russiaes.

  "There are corridors and elevators, lobbies to pass through and streets to

  cross; there's risk. You could lose. Everything. Because I have nothing to

  lose but a cell at the Lubyanka."

  "A room, not a cell. Were not barbarians."

  "Sorry. A room. The same kind of room we have reserved in Virginia for

  someone like you-and we're both wasting money. When people like you and me

  get out with our heads still on, everything7s altered. The Amytals and the

  Pentothals are invitations to traps."

  "There are still the molm"

  "I don't know who they are any more than you did when you were in the

  field-for those same reasons, those same rooms. None of us do on either

  side. We only know the current codes, words that take us where we have to

  go. Whatever ones I had are meaningless now."

  In all sincerity are you trying to convince me a man of your experience is

  of no value to us?"

  "I dicWt say that" Interrupted Havelock. "rin simply suggesting that you

  weigh the risks. Also something else, which,

  off with reasonable success two years ago. =Yo'kY:umVVf yours who

  was finished, ready for a farm in crasnov. we got him out through

  Riga into Finland and flew him to a room in Fairfax, Virginia. He

  was injected with everything from scopolamine to triple Amytal,

  and we learned a lot. Strategies were aborted,.whole networks

  re-

  THE PARSIVAL MOSAIC29

  structured, confusion the order of the day. Then we learned something else:

  everything he told us was a he. His head was programmed like a computer

  disk; valuable men became useless, time was lost. Say you got me to the

  Lubyanka-which I doet think you could-how do you know I'm not our answer to

  what you did to us?"

  "Because you would not expose the possibility." Rostov pulled the gun back,

  but did not lower it.

  "Really? It strikes me as a pretty good blanket. I mean, you'd never know,

  would you? On the other hand, we've developed a serum-which I know nothing

  about except that it's injected at the base of the skull-that voids the

  programming. Something to do with neutralizing the lobus occipitalis,

  whatever the hell that is. From here on we can make a determination."

  "Such an admission astonishes me."

  "Why should it? Maybe I'm just saving our respective directors a lot of

  aggravation; that could be my objective. Or maybe none of ies true; maybe

  there is no serum, no protection, and rm making it all up. Thaes also a

  possibility."

  The Russian smiled. "Khvadd You are outl You amuse us both with logic that

  could serve you. You7re on your way to that farm in your own Grasnov."

  "rhaes what Ive been trying to tell you. Am I worth the risk?"

  'Lees find out." Suddenly the Russian flipped his automatic, barrel up; he

  slapped it back in the palm of his hand and threw it to Havelock on the

  bed. Michael caught the weapon in midair.

  "What am I supposed to do with this?"

  'What do you want to do with it?"

  "Nothing. Assuming the first three shells are rubber capsules filled with

  dy% rd only-soil your clothes." Havelock pressed the magazine release; the

  clip dropped to the bed. oles not a very good test, anyway. Say the firing

  pin works and this thing makes any noise at all, twenty khrwchei could

  break in here and blow me out of the park.'

  "The firing pin works and there's no one outside in the hallway. The

  Arethusa Delphi is very much in Washington's camp; it's watched and Im not

  so foolish as to parade our personnel. I think you know that. It's why

  yotfte here."

  'What are you trying to prove?"

  30ROBERT LuDLum

  The Russian smiled agai
n and shrugged. "rm not really sure. A brief

  something in the eyes, perhaps. When a m&s under a hostile gun and that gun

  is suddenly his, there is an instant compulsion to elin-dnate the prior

  threat-assuming the hostility is returned. It's in the eyes; no amount of

  control can disguise it-if the enmity is active."

  "What was in my eyes?"

  "Absolute indifference. Weariness, If you will."

  "rm not sure you're right, but I admire your courage. les more than rve got

  The firing pin really works?"

  "Yes.00

  "No capsules?"

  The Russian shook his head, his expression conveying quiet amusement. "No

  bullets. That is to say, no powder in the shells." Rostov raised his left

  hand and, with his right, pulled back the sleeve of his overcoat. Strapped

  to the flat of his wrist, extending up toward his elbow, was a thin barrel,

  the trigger mechanism apparently activated by the bending of his arm.

  'Snotvomoye.' he said, touching the taut, springlike wires. "What you call

  narcotic darts. You would have slept peacefully for the better part of

  tomorrow while a doctor insisted that your odd fever be studied at the

  hospital. We'd have gotten you out, flown you up to Salonika and over the

  Dardanelles into Sevastopol." The Russian unsnapped a strap above his wrist

  and removed the weapon.

  Havelock studied the KGB man, not a little perplexed. 'You really could

  have taken me."

  "Until the attempt is made, one never knows. I might have missed the first

  shot, and you're younger, stronger than 1; you could have attacked, broken

  my neck. But the odds were on my side."

  "rd say completely. Why didnt you play them?"

  'Because you're right. We doift want you. The risks are too great-not those

  you spoke of, but others. I simply bad to know the truth and rm now

  convinced. You are no longer in the service of your government."

  "What risks?"

  'ney're unknown to us, but they are them. Anything you can't understand in

  this business is a risk, but I doet have to tell you that."

  'rell me 8omething. I tust got a pardon; rd like to know why.*

  THE pApsIFAL MoSAJC31

  -17ery well." The Soviet intelligence officer hesitated; he walked

  aimlessly toward the double doors that led to the miniature balcony and

  opened one several inches. Then he closed it and turned to Havelock. "I

  should tell you first that rm not here on orders from Dzerzhinsky Square or

  even with its blessings. To be frank, my aging supeW~rs in the KGB believe

  Im in Athens on an unrelated matter. You can either accept that or not."

  "Give me a reason to or not. Someone must know. You fedratele don't do

  anything solo."

  "Specifically, two others. A close associate in Moscow and a dedicated

  man-a mole, to be sure-out of Washington.'

  "You mean Lanjfty?'

  The Russian shook his heaa.He replied softly, "The White Hous&"

  ,,rm impressed. So two ranking kontrolyorya of the KGB and a Soviet mole

  within walking distance of the Oval Office decide they want to talk to me,

  but they don't want to take me. They can fly me into Sevastopol and from

  there to a room at the Lubyanka, where any talking we did would be far more

  productive-from their point of view-but they woet do that. Instead, the

  spokesman for these three-a man I know only from photographs and by

  reputation-tells me there are risks associated with me that be can't define

  but knows that they exist, and because of them rrn given the option of

  talking or not-about what I haven't the vaguest idea. Is that a fair

  readingr

  "You have the Slavic propensity for going right to the core of a subject."

  "I doet see! any ancestral connection. les common sense. You spoke, I

  listened; thaf7s what you said-or,what yoere about to say. Basic logic."

  Rostov stepped away from the balcony doors, his exp~ges pensive. "I'm

  afraid thafs the one factor thafs miss-

  . ste logic."

  "Now were talking about something elm"

  "Yes, we are."

  "What?'

  'You. The Costa Brava."

  Havelock paused. The anger was in his eyes, but it was controlled. "Go on."

  "The woman. She!s why you retired, isn't sher

  32 ROBERT LUDLUM

  "This conversation is terminated," said Havelock abruptly. "Get out of

  here."

  "Please." The Russian raised both hands, a gesture of truce, perhaps a

  plea. "I think you should listen to me."

  "I don~t think so. There's nothing you could say that would remotely

  interest me. The Voennaya is to be congratulated; it was a hell of a job.

  They won, she won. And then she lost. It's finished, and there's nothing

  further to say about it.

  "There is."

  "Not to me."

  "The VKR are maniacs," said the Russian quietly, urgently. "I don't have to

  tell you that. You and I are enemies, and neither would pretend otherwise,

  but we acknowledge certain rules between us. We!re not salivating dogs,

  we're professionals. There's a fundamental respect each has for the other,

  perhaps grounded in fear, although not necessarily. Grant me that,

  priyatel."

  Their eyes were level, penetrating. Havelock nodded. "I know you from the

  files, just as you know me. You weren1 part of it."

  "Wasted death is still death, still a waste. Unnecessary and provocative

  death a very dangerous waste. It can be hurled back tenfold in fury at the

  instigator."

  "Tell that to the Voennaya. There was no waste as far as they were

  concerned. Only necessity."

  "Butchersl" snapped Rostov, his voice guttural. "Who can tell them

  anything? They're descendants of the old OGPU slaughterhouses, inheritors

  of the mad assassin Yagoda. They're also up to their throats in paranoid

  fantasies going back half a century when Yagoda gunned down the quieter,

  more reasonable men, hating their lack of fanaticism, equating that lack

  with treason against the revolution. Do you knoto the VKR?"

  Enough so as to stand far back and hope to hell you can control it."

  "I wish I could answer confidently in the affirmative. It's as if a band of

  your screaming rigbt-wing zealots had been given official status as a

  subdivision of the Central Intelligence Agency."

  "We have checks and balances-sometimes. If such a subdivision came to

  be-and it could-it would be continuously

  TEM PARSWAL Mo&uc33

  scrutinized, openly criticized. Funds would be watched

  closely, methods studied; ultimately the group would be

  thrown out. 11 activi-

  yoeve had your lapses. Your various un-American ties committees, Your

  McCarthys, the Huston Plans, Purges in the irresponsible press. Careers

  have been destroyed, lives degraded. Yes, you!ve had your share of

  lapses.-

  ,.Always short-lived. We have no gulags, no 'rehabilitatior~ Programs in a

  Lubyanka, And that irresponsible Press has a way of becoming responsible

  now and then. It threw out a regime of arrogant hot shots. The Yemlin!s

  wilder ones stay In place.0

  "We both have our lapses, then. But w6,re so much Young

  er. youth is allowed mistakes-"'to compare

 
; ~~ there!s nothing," interrupted Michael, with the VKrs pantinyatchik

  operation. That wouldn't be tolerated or funded by the worst Congress or

  administration in history."

  Another paranoid fantasyl" cried the KGB officer, adding derisively, "The

  paminvatchikil Even the word is a corruption, meaninglessl A discredited

  strategy mounted decades agol you can't honestly believe it still

  flourishes."

  "Perhaps less than the Voennaya does. obviously more than you do-if you!re

  not lying."

  "Oh, come, Havelocki Russian infants sent to the United States, growing up

  with old-line no doubt pathetically senile, Marxists so as to become

  entre;&d Soviet agents? Insanityl

  h [)gically unsound-if not disas

  Be reasonable. les PSYC 01 ed

  trous-to say nothing of certain inevitable comparisons. W- -

  lost the majority to blue jeans, rock music and fast automO

  biles. We'd be idiots."

  Now YoI;re lying. They exist. you know it and we know it."

  Rostov shrugged. "A question of numbers, then. And value I might add. How

  many can be left? Fifty, a hundred, two ~undred at the outside? Sad,

  amateurishlY conspiratorial creatures wandering around a few cities,

  meeting in cellars to exchange nonsense, uncertain of their own values, the

  very reasons for being where they are. Very little credence Is given these

  so-called travelers take my word for it."

  "But you haveet pulled th;;~ out:,

  "Where would we put them? Few even speak the Russian

  34RoBEnT LUDLUM

  language, theyre a large embarrassment. Attrition, priyaK thaes the answer.

  And dismissing them with hp service, as you Americans say."

  "The Voennaya doesn7t dismiss them."

  "I told you, the men of the VKR pursue misguided fantasies."

  "I wonder if you believe that," said Michael, studying the Russian. "Not

  all those families were pathetic and senile, not all the travelers

  amateurs."

  "If there is cun-ently--or in the recent past-any movement of consequence

  on the part of the paminyatchiki, we are not aware of it," said Rostov

  firmly.

  "And if there is and yoere not aware of it, that would he something of

  consequence, wouldn1 it?"

  The Russian stood motionless; he spoke, his voice low and pensive. 'Me VKR

  is incredibly secretive. It would be something of consequence."