interested in them. This practice, in concert with Amendments IV, V and VI
of the Bill of Rights, made it virtually hnpossible to trap a paminyatchik;
he was a citizen and entitled to the protection of the Constitution of the
United States. By the time probable cause eliminated unreasonable search,
or a grand jury returned a presentment or an indictment, and the accused
was informed of the nature and cause of his possible crime the traveler had
long since departed, only to surface in weeks or months with another
identity, a wholly original r&UM6, and not infrequently a new face,
courtesy of surgeons in Moscow.
However, as Rostov had pointed out in Athens, the irony
536 ROBERT LuDLum
of this long-range Soviet penetration was found in the practical results.
Far too often the American "experience" served to undermine the Soviet
commitment. During his rare but necessary trip to Moscow's Dzerzbinsky
Square, the paminyatchik was made aware of the inevitable comparisons be-
tween the two countries. In the flnal analysis, the travelers were far less
productive than the KGB felt it had a right to expect in light of the money
and the effort it expended. Yet to threaten one was to court exposure of the
whole program.
Futility was not always the province of those with God on their side,
thought Havelock.
Yet, again, there were the exceptions, and exposure would never come from
them. A mole called Ambiguity, who roamed the sacrosanct corridors of the
State Department, and a bright, persuasive pathologist named Colin
Shippers, who could grassbop from laboratory to laboratory-bow often were
these laboratories branches of United States intelligence?-these justifled
the expense and whatever manpower Moscow allotted to the paminyatchik
operation. Ambiguity was obviously Shipper's superior, the on-site control,
and without doubt a respected satellite in the KGB firmamentbut he was not
keeping his normal KGB channels informed of the present crisis. Costa
Brava, and all the madness it represented, was not only disavowed by
Dzerzbinsky Square, but what little they did know about it alarmed men like
Pyotr Rostov.
It had to; events bad taken place that could not have taken place without
complicity in Moscow. A VKR officer had been trapped and wounded in Paris
by the central flgure at Costa Brava, and it took little imagination to
know that the orders the officer followed were obfuscated so as to be
untraceable within the complex machinery of Russian intelligence. Of course
Rostov was alarmed; the specter of the fanatical VKR was enough to frighten
the most dedicated Marxist, just as it frightened Havelock. For the unknown
Ambiguity obviously sent routine dispatches to his controls in the KGB but
reserved his most explosive information for his masters in the Voermaya.
Rostov sensed it, but be could not pin it down, much less expose it. It was
the reason for his offer to a former counterpart in Consular Operations. He
says Ws not your enemy any longer, but others are who may be his as welL
THE PARsiFAL MosAic537
If Rostov had any idea how valid his instincts were, he would risk a firing
squad to make contact, thought Michael. But Rostov was wrong; the Russian
was his enemy. Essentially neither could trust the other because neither
Washington nor Moscow would permit such trust, and not even the horror of
Parsffal could change that.
Futility in a world gone mad-as mad as its former savior, Anthony Matthias.
"How long do you think it will take?" asked Jerma, sitting across from
Havelock in the small, sunlit alcove off the kitchen where they bad their
morning coffee.
"It's difficult to tell. It'll depend on bow convincing Randolph is and bow
quickly Shippers suspects that an insurance company may be something else,
something that alarms him. It could be today, tonight, tomorrow . . . the
day after."
"I'd think you'd want Randolph to force him to react irnmediately. Can you
afford the time?"
"I can't afford to lose him; be's the only link we've got. His name didn't
appear in the laboratory report-which was easy for him to insist on in
light of Randolph's decision to cover up what be thought was a suicide.
Shippers knows the only way be could surface would be for Randolph to
incriminate himself, which he'd never do. Beyond practical considerations,
his ego wouldn't permit it."
"But swiftness is everything, Mikhail," objected Jenna. 'I'm not sure I
understand your strategy."
Havelock looked into her eyes, his own eyes questioning. "I'm not sure I
do, either. I've always known that to make things work in this
business-tbis so-called profession of ours-was to think as your enemy
thinks, to be him, then do what yoere convinced he doesn't expect. Now I'm
asked to think like someone I can1 possibly relate to, a man who literally
has to be two people." Michael,sipped his coffee, staring now at the rim of
the cup. "rhink about it. An American childhood, adolescence-tbe Yankees,
the Knicks, the Denver Broncos, the Lakers-friends at school and college;
going out with girls, talking about yourself, conflding in people you
really like. These are the years when secrets are for telling; ies against
human nature to keep them to yourself-part of growing up is revealing
yourself. So explain it to me. How does a man like this, a paminyatchik,
keep the one secret he can never reveal so deep inside him"
538 RoBEYtT LuDLum
"I don't know, but yoeve just described someone I do know very well."
"Who?"
"You, my darling."
"That's crazy." Havelock put his cup down. He was anxfous to leave the
table; that, too, was in his eyes.
"Is it?" jenna reached over, putting her hand briefly over his. "How many
friends at school and in college, how many girls and people you really
liked did you tell about Mikhail Havlf6ek, and Lidice? How many knew about
the agonies of Prague and a child who hid in the forests and carried secret
messages and explosives strapped to his person? Tell me, how many?"
"It was pointless. It was history."
"I would never have known-we would never have known-except that our leaders
insisted on a thorough background check. Your intelligence services have
not always sent the best people into our part of Europe and we paid for the
mistakes. But when the dossier of Havli6ek and the Havlf6ek family was
brought to us-all easily verified-it came sealed with a man from the
highest office of your State Department, who took it away with him. It was
apparent that your immediate superiors-our normal contacts-were not aware
of your early days. For some reason they were concealed; for some
reason-you were two people. Why, Mikhail?"
"I just told you. Matthias and I agreed; it was history."
~You didn't care to live with it, then. You wanted that part of your life
to remain hidden, out of sight."
'nat'll do."
"I was with you so many times when older people spoke of those days and you
never said anything, never let on that you were there. Because if you had,
it could have led to your secret, the years you didn't care to talk about."
'rbafs consistent."
"Like this Shippers, you'd been there and you were staying out of sight.
You were there but your signature didn't appear anywhere."
"It's a farfetched parallel."
"Different, perhaps; not farfetched," insisted jenna. "You can't make even
the usual inquiries about Shippers because informants might alert him and
he'd disappear, protecting his
THE PARsiFAL MosATc539
secret. You're waiting for him to consider Randolph's call; finally,
perbaps-you bope-bell decide that be should find out whether or not this
insurance company is really-How do you say it?"
"Balking," offered Michael. "Asking last questions before agreeing to the
final settlement on MacKenzie's policy. les standard; they hate like bell
paying money."
"Yes, you believe he'll do this. And when he discovers there are no
questions, he'll be alarmed, then make his move to contact his control,
again you hope, Ambiguity."
"I think that's the way he will behave. It's the best and the safest way I
can come up with. Anything else would send him underground."
"And each hour he Jenna shook her head, searching
for words.
"Thinks about it,- said Havelock. "Concentrates."
"Yes, concentrates. Every moment is a lost moment, giving him time to spot
his surveillance, the men who worry you because you don't know them and you
can~t give them the true background material on their subject."
"I don't like it, but it's been done before."
"Hardly under these conditions, never with such terrible consequences for
error. Swiftness is everything, Mikhail."
"You're trying to tell me something and I don't know what it is.".
"You're afraid of alarming Shippers, afraid he might disappear."
"'Terrified' is a better word."
"Then don't go after him. Go after the man who was silent, who was at the
Medical Center when MacKenzie died, but whose signature did not appear. As
you were two men in Prague, he is two men here. Go after the one you see
because you have no reason to believe he is two men, or has a secret to
conceal."
Havelock touched his cup, his eyes fixed on Jenna's eyes. "Go after a
laboratory pathologist," be said quietly. "On the assumption that someone
had to be there with Randolph. . . . Corroboration. The insurance company
insists on a corroborating physician."
"In my country five signatures are barely adequate for any one document."
"Hell refuse, of course."
540 RoBETIT LuDLum
'Can he? He was there."
"Hell tell Randolph he can't support him, can't agree openly to the
diagnosis of aneurysm leading to aortal hemorrhage. .
"Then I think the doctor should be quite firm. If thaes Shippers's medical
position, why didn't he take it before?"
Michael smiled. "That's very good. Blackmail an extortion. ist with his own
material."
"Why not? Randolph has-how do you say 0-the leverage. Age, reputation,
wealth; who is this Shippers to oppose him?"
"And none of it makes a damn bit of difference, anyway. We're simply
forcing him to move quickly. For his own protection-not as a traveler, but
as a doctor-he'll have to determine how serious the insurance people are.
Whether it*s a routine measure or whether they mean it. Then he finds out
there's nothing; he's got to move again."
"Whaes today's schedule?" asked Jenna.
"Initial surveillance will pick up Shippers when he leaves his apartment
this morning. Secondary will take over inside the Regency buildings."
"How? . . . I'm sorry, I wasn't listening last night when you were on the
phone."
"I know you weren't, I was watching you. Are you going to have something
for me?"
"Later, perhaps. How did your men get inside the buildings?"
"The Regency Foundation's a private firm with its share of classified
government contracts. That's obviously the reason Shippers went there; a
lot of those contracts are defense-oriented. Regency was the company that
first projected the radius bum-level of napalm. it's common for government
technocrats and GAO personnel to be around there, shuffling papers and
looking official. Starting this morning, there are two more."
"I hope no one asks them questions."
"They wouldn't answer if anyone did; that's standard. Also they've got
briefcases and plastic ID's on their lapels that identify them. Theyre
covered if anyone checks." Havelock looked at his watch as he got up from
the table. "Randolph's making his call between ten and ten-thirty. Lees go.
III reach him and give him the new word."
THE PARsiFAL MosAic541
"If Shippers reacts," said Jenna, following Michael down the hall toward
the paneled study, "he won't use his office phone."
"There are three mobile units in the streets, separated by blocks, everyone
in radio contact, wrist cameras activated by Arm movements. They can move
out on foot or by car-cars alternating in traffic. If they're any good,
they wonI lose ljdm..
"They do worry you, don't they?"
"They worry me." Havelock opened the door of the study, holding it for
jenna. "They'd worry me more if it wasn't for a fellow named Charley who
wanted to put a bullet in my head down on Poole's Island."
"The one from Consular Operations?"
Michael nodded, going to the desk. "He flew up last night-my personal
request, which didn't exactly thrill him. But he's good, he's thorough, and
be knows that Shippers is involved with the Matthias crisis. Thaes enough
to make him better than he ever was. He's in charge, and if he doesn't
choke on the mobile phone he1l keep me posted, let me know if anything
breaks."
jenna had gone to her own desk-tbe couch; on the coffee table in front of
it there were neat, narrow stacks of papers and several pages of
handwritten notes. She sat down and picked up a bound typewritten report
from the pile on the left. She spoke while reading, her voice indefinite,
her concentration split. "Have you gotten in touch with the insurance
company?"
"No, that's a risk I don't want to take," replied Havelock, sitting down at
the desk and watching jenna, but his interest was diverted. "MacKenzie's
policy might be flagged."
"You're probably right."
"What have you got there? Ies the same thing you were looking at last
night."
"Ies the report from your Central Intelligence Agency. The list of
potential Soviet defectors over the past ten years, none of whom
materialized."
"Look for a nuclear scientist or an armaments strategist who disappeared."
"Others disappeared too, Mikhail," said jenna, reading and reaching for a
pencil. ~
Havelock kept his eyes on her for several moments, then
U2Roi3E:IIT LUDLUM
looked down at a sheet of paper on which were scribbled various telephone
numbers. He checked one, picked up the phone, and dialed.
"He's a cold son of a bitch, I can tell you," snapped Dr. Matthew Randolph.
"O
nce I laid it out for him, be clammed up, asked a couple of questions like
a mortician settling with a family lawyer and said he'd get back to me."
"How did y~u lay it out, and what were his questions?'
asked Michael, putting down the page of Pentagon stationery
on which were written the identities of the senior officers on
the Nuclear Co ' ntingency Committees. He had circled a
name. "Try to be as accurate as possible."
, III be completely accurate," objected the surgeon testily.
"I only meant in terms of the words, the phrases be used."
"It won't be hard; they were damned few and damned short... Like you
figured, he said I had no right to involve him, that was our understanding.
He simply brought me his findings and how I altered them was my
responsibility, not his. So I said I wasn't a goddamned lawyer, but if my
memory for trivia served me, he was an accessory and there was no way
around it and I was going to be fried in bell before Midge MacKenzie and
those kids got screwed out of what was coming to them."
"So far very good. What was his response?"
"He didn't have any, so I blasted along. I told him he was a damned fool if
he thought he was invisible around here four months ago and a bigger fool
if he thought anyone of the staff would believe I'd spend hours in a
pathology laboratory over the body of a friend all by myself."
Very good."
"He had an answer to that. Like a talking piece of dry ice, he asked who
specifically knew."
Havelock felt a sudden spasm in his chest, the specter of unnecessary
executions rising. "What did you say? Did you mention anybody?"
"Hell, I said probably everybodyl"
Michael relaxed. 'Tou can get on the payroll, Doctor.*
'You couldn't afford me, son."
"Please, go on."
"I backed down a bit told him he was getting all worked up over nothing. I
said the fella who came to see me from
THE PAmFAL MosAic 543
the Insurance company said it was just a formality, that they required a
second signature on the path report before sending the check. I even
suggested he call Ben Jackson over at Talbot Insurance if he was worried,
that Ben was an old friend--r
'You gave him a natneP"
"Sure. Ben is an old friend; he set up Mac's policy. I flgured if anyone
Robert Ludlum - The Parcifal Mosaic.txt Page 68