Robert Ludlum - The Parcifal Mosaic.txt

by The Parcifal Mosaic [lit]

  Jenna leaned into him and held his shoulders. "You must take bold of

  yourself, my darling. You're not being rational;you're in some kind of

  shock. Can you understand me?"

  "No time," be said, removing her bands and reaching for the phone. "I'm

  okay, and yoere right. I am in shock, but only because it's so incredible.

  Incrediblef" He dialed, breathed deeply, and spoke: "I want to be connected

  to the main switchboard of Andrews Air Force Base, and I want you to give

  instructions to the duty officer to comply with any requests I make with

  regard to information."

  Jenna watched him, then backed away to the table with the decanters. She

  poured him some brandy and banded it to him. "You're pale," she said. "I've

  never seen you so pale."

  Havelock waited, listening as the head of the White House Secret Service

  gave his instructions to Andrews and, conversely, the electronic

  verification check made by the colonel in charge of field communications.

  The incredible was always

  THE PARsiFAL MosAic615

  rooted in the credible, he thought. For the most credible rea

  sons on earth he had been on that beach at the Costa Brava

  that night, observing the extraordinary, and a mere gust of

  wind had blown a man I s cap away. Now he had to know if

  there was substance in the observation. Both observations.

  "There are calls from New York constantly," said the colonel in answer to

  his question.

  "I'm talking about those five to ten minutes," countered Michael.

  "Transferred to a maintenance hangar on the south perimeter. It was less

  than two hours ago; someone has to remember. Check every operator on the

  boards. Nowr

  "Christ, take it easy."

  "You take it fastl"

  No operator at Andrews Air Force Base had transferred a call to a

  maintenance hangar on the south perimeter.

  "There was a sergeant driving a jeep, ordered to pick up cargo labeled

  Sterile Five, marine equipment. Are you with me?"

  "I'm aware of the Sterile classification and of the flight. Helicopter,

  north pad."

  "What's his name?"

  "The driver?"

  'Yes."

  The colonel paused, obviously concerned as he answered, 'We understand the

  original driver was replaced. Another relieved him on verbal orders."

  "Whose?"

  "We haven't traced it.-

  "What was the second driver's name?"

  "We don't know."

  "Thank you, Colonel."

  Paminyatchikf

  "Find me the dossier on Pierce," said Havelock, looking up a Jenna, his

  hand on the telephone button.

  "Arthur PierceP" asked Jenna, astonished.

  "As quickly as you can." Michael dialed again, and said, "I can~t make a

  mistake, I can't make a mistake. Not here, not now." Then: "Mr. President?

  It's Havelock. I've been with Pierce and tried to help him.... Yes, sir,

  he's bright, very bright and very good. We'd like a point clarified; it's

  n-dnor but it would clear something up for both of us. He had a lot on his

  mind, a lot to absorb. At the meeting this afternoon,

  616 ROBERT LuDLum

  after I called you, did you bring up the Apache operation at the Randolph

  Medical Center? . . Then everyone's current. Thank vou, ~4r. President."

  M;chael replaced the phone as Jenna handed him a dark-brown file folder.

  "Here's Pierce's dossier."

  Havelock opened it and immediately turned to the synopsis of personal

  characteristics.

  The &ubject drinks moderately at social occasions, and has never been knoum

  to abuse alcohol. He does not use any form of tobacco.

  The match, the open flame unprotected, extinguished by the wind . . . A

  second flame, the flare of light prolonged, unmistakable. The sequence as

  odd and unmistakable as the cigarette smoke emerging solely from the mouth

  and mingling With the curling vapor of breath, a nonsmoker's exhalation.

  A-signal. Followed moments later by an unknown driver delivering an urgent

  message, using a name be was not supposed to know, angering the man be was

  addressing. Every sequence bad been detailed, timed, reactions considered.

  Arthur Pierce had not been called to the phone, he had been making a call.

  Or had be? There could be no mistake, not now. Had an operator transferring

  rapidly incoming calls throughout the vast expanse of an air force base

  forgotten one among so many? And how often did soldiers take over innocuous

  assignments for friends without informing their superiors? How frequently

  did highly visible men appear to be on the side of the avenging medical

  angels by never smoking in public but in a crisis pulling out a concealed

  pack of cigarettes, a babit they were sincerely trying to kick, the act of

  smoking actually awkward? . . . How many men had streaks of premature white

  in their bair?

  No mistakes. Once the accusation was made it could not be taken back, and

  if it could not be sustained, trust at the highest level would be eroded,

  possibly destroyed; the very people who had to communicate with one another

  would be guarded, wary, commanders in silent conflict. Where was the

  ultimate proof?

  Moscow?

  There is fiW the KGB; all else follows. A m4n may gravitate to the VKR, but

  first he must have sprung from the KGB. Rostov. Athens.

  THE PAnwAL MosAic 617

  He says he is not your enemy ... but others are who may be his as well. A

  Soviet agent. Kennedy Airport.

  "I can see it in your eyes, Mikhail." jenna touched his shoulder, forcing

  him to look at her. "Call the President."

  I have to.be absolutely certain. Pierce said it would take at least three

  hours for the vault to be opened, another two to sort out the documents.

  Ive got some time. If be's Ambiguity, he's trapped."

  "How can you be absolutely certain about a paminyatchik?-

  "At the source. Moscow."

  "Rostov?"

  "I can try. He may be as desperate as I am, but if he ign't, IT tell him be

  should be. We've got our maniacs, and be's got his." Havelock picked up the

  phone and dialed the three digits for the White House switchboard. "Please

  get me the Russian consulate in New York. I'm afraid I don't know the

  number.... No, I'll hold on." Michael covered the mouthpiece, speaking to

  jenna. "Go over Pierce's file. Look for something we can trace. Parents, if

  theyre alive."

  "A wife," said jenna.

  "He's not married."

  "Convenient. Lovers, then.*

  "He's discreet."

  "Naturally." jenna picked up the Me from the desk.

  'Dobriy vyehchyer," said Havelock into the phone, his hand removed. "Ja

  khochu govories nachar nikom, okhrany." Every operator at every Soviet

  embassy and consulate understood when a caller asked to be connected to the

  director of street security. A deep male voice got on the line, ac-

  knowledging merely that he bad picked up the phone. Michael continued in

  Russian: "My name is Havelock and I have to assume Im speaking to the right

  person, the one who can put me in touch with the man rm trying to reach."

  "Who might that be, sir?"

  "I'm afraid I didn't get his
name, but be knows mine. As rm quite sure you

  do."

  "That's not much help, Mr. Havelock."

  "I think it's enough. The man met me at Kennedy Airport and we had a

  lengthy conversation, including the means I n-dght employ to reach him

  again; a forty-eigbt-hour time span and the New York Public Library figured

  prominently

  618 ROBERT LuDLum

  among them. There was also some discussion about a missIng Graz-Burya

  automatic, a splendid weapon, I think youll agree. les urgent I speak with

  that man-as urgent as his message was for me."

  "Perhaps if you could recall the message, it might be more helpful, sir."

  "An offer of sanctuary from the director of External Strategies, Pyotr

  Rostov, KGB, Moscow. And I wouldn't say those words if I were taping this.

  You can, but I can't afford it."

  "There is always the possibility of a reverse order of events."

  "Take the chance, comrade. You can't afford not to."

  "Then why not talk with me ... comrade?"

  "Because I don't know you." Michael looked down at the list of the direct,

  unlisted numbers he had been assigned; be repeated one to the Russian. "III

  be here for the next five minutes." He bung up and reached for the brandy.

  "Will he call back, do you think?' asked Jenna, sitting in the chair in

  front of the desk, the Pierce file in her hand.

  7my not? He doesn't have to say anything, just listen.... Anything there we

  can use?"

  "The mother died in 1968. The father disappeared eight months later and has

  never been seen since. He wrote his son in Vietnam that be 'didn't care to

  go on without his.wife, that he'd join her with God! -

  "Naturally. But no suicide, no body. just a Christian fadeout."

  "Naturally. Paminyatchik. He bad too much to offer in Novgorod."

  The telephone rang, the lighted button corresponding to the number be had

  given the Soviet consulate in New York.

  "You understand, Mr. Havelock," began the singsong voice in English

  unmistakably belonging to the Soviet agent from Kennedy Airport, "that the

  message delivered to you was offered in the spirit of compassion for the

  great injustice done by those in your government who called for the

  execution of a man of peace-"

  "If you~re doing this," interrupted Havelock, "for the benefit of any

  recording on this end, forget it. And if you're auditioning for the

  consulate's, do it later. I haveet got time. rm accepting a part of Rostovs

  offer."

  "I was not aware that it was divided into parts."

  Tim PARSIFAL MOSAIC619

  'Irm assuming prior communication."

  "I assume that's reasonable," said the Russian. "Under extremely limited

  circumstances."

  "Any circumstances you like, just use this telephone number and have him

  get back to me within the hour." Michael looked at his watch. "It's not

  quite seven o'clock in the morning in Moscow. Reach him."

  "I don't believe those circumstances are acceptable."

  "Theyve got to be. Tell him I may have found the enemy. Our enemy, the word

  temporary, of course, assuming again there's a future for either of us."

  "I really don't think-"

  "Don't think. Reach him. Because if you don't, III try myself and that

  could be acutely embarrassing-to you, comrade, not to me. I don't care

  anymore. I'm the prize." Havelock replaced tbe,pbone, aware of the beads of

  perspiration that bad broken out on his forehead.

  "What can Rostov actually tell you?" jenna got up from the chair and placed

  Pierce's dossier on the desk. "There's nothing here, incidentally. just a

  brilliant, modest bero of the republic."

  "Naturally." Michael wiped bis forehead with the back of his hand and

  leaned forward, supporting himself on his elbows. "Rostov told me in Athens

  that one of his sources for Costa Brava was a mole operating out of the

  White House. I didn't believe him; it's the kind of shock treatment that

  makes you listen harder. But suppose be was telling me the truth-a past

  truth-because he knew the mole was out and untraceable. The perfect

  traveler."

  jenna raised her band, pointing to the dossier on the desk. "Pierce was

  assigned to the National Security Council. He had'an office in the White

  House for several months."

  "Yes. And Rostov meant what he said; be couldn't understand, and what you

  can't understand in this business is cause for alarm. Everything he had

  learned about Costa Brava-which I confirmed-told him it couldn't have taken

  place without the cooperation of someone in Moscow. But who? These

  operations are under his direct control, but he didn't have ' anything to

  do with it, knew nothing about it. So he tested me, thinking I could tell

  him something, bringing in the mole for credibility, knowing that we both

  accepted a

  620 ROBERT LunLum

  mole's information as being reliable. The truth-as he was told the

  truth-except it was a lie."

  "Told by a KGB officer, a paminyatchik mole, who had transferred his

  allegiance from the KGB to the Voennaya," said Jenna. "He throws off his

  former superiors for his new ones."

  "Then proceeds to intercept and take over Costa Brava. If be was at Costa

  Brava. If . . . if."

  "How will you handle Rostov? He'll be taped; bell be monitored."

  "ItT be light. He is, after all, director of External Strategies. I'll play

  on the power struggle. KCB versus VKR. He'll understand."

  "He won't talk about the paminyatchik operation over the telephone, you

  know that. He can't."

  "I won't ask him to. Ill name the name and listen. Hell tell me somehow.

  We've both been around a long time-too long-and the words we use have never

  been written to mean what we say they mean, the silences we use never

  understood except by people like us. He wants what I have-if I have it-as

  much as I want what be can confirm. Tenwork. Somebow. Hell tell me if

  Arthur Pierce is the mole-if be's convinced the mole has gone around his

  back and joined the maniacs."

  Jenna walked to the coffee table, picked up a note pad, and sat down in the

  leather armchair. "While you're waiting, do you want to talk about

  Commander Decker?"

  'ChrWl" Havelocles right hand shot out for the phone, his left centering

  the list of numbers in front of him. He dialed as he spoke, his voice

  strained: "I mentioned him to Pierce. Oh, God, did I mention himl ... Raise

  the Decker escort, please. Hurry."

  "Naval escort. In position."

  The words over the radiophone were clear, and the sudden throbbing in

  Michaers temples began to subside. "This is Sterile Five. We have reason to

  believe there could be hostile activity in your area."

  "No signs of it" was the reply. "Everything's quiet, and the street's well

  lighted."

  "Nevertheless, I'd like additional personnel."

  "We're stretched pretty thin at Sixteen Hundred, Sterile

  TIIE PARSIFAL MOSAIC621

  Five. Why not call in the locals? They don't have to know any more than we

  do, and we don't know a damn thing."

  "Can you do it?"

  "Sure. We'll label it diplomatic and theyll get overtime. By the w
ay, how

  do you read the activity?"

  "Abduction. Neutering you first, then taking Decker."

  "Thanks for the warning. We'll get right on it. Out."

  Havelock leaned back in the chair, his neck stretched over the back, and

  stared at the ceiling. "Now that we know -there still is a Commander

  Decker, what did he tell you?"

  "Where did you leave off? I went back over everything."

  Michael closed his eyes, remembering. "A phone call," he said slowly. "It

  was later, after their Sunday meetings at the lodge. He tried for days,

  weeks, to get in touch with Matthias, but Anton wouldift talk to him. Then

  someone called him ... with an explanation. That was it, he said it was an

  explanation."

  jenna flipped through her notes, stopping at a page, then going back two.

  "A man with a strange voice, an odd accent-2clipped and rushe& was the way

  Decker described it. I asked him to recall as thoroughly as possible every

  word the man said. Fortunately, that call was very important to him; he

  remembered nearly everything, I think. I wrote it down."

  "Read it, will you?'

  Jenna rolled the page over. "The man identifled himself as a colleague of

  the Secretary of State, and asked Decker several questions about his naval

  career, obviously to make sure it was Decker. . . . Then here it begins -I

  tried to write it down as though I'd heard it myself. 'Secretary Mattbias

  appreciates everything you've done, and wants you to know that you will be

  mentioned prominently and frequently in his memoirs. But you must

  understand the rules, the rules cai;t be broken. For the SecretaWs global

  strategy to be effective, it must be developed in total secrecy; the

  element of surprise is paramount; no one in or out of govermnent-2" jenna

  paused. "The emphases were Decker's," she added.

  -zn or our of government aware that a master plan has been created.'" Again

  jenna stopped and looked up. "Here Decker wasn't precise; the man's reasons

  for excluding people in government were apparently based on the assumption

  that there were too many who couldn't be trusted, who might divulge secrets

  regardless of their clearance."

  622 RoBERT LuDLum

  "Of course he wasn't precise. He was talking about himself and it was a

  painful reference."

  "I agree.... This last part I'm sure was accurate, probably word for word.