Robert Ludlum - The Parcifal Mosaic.txt

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by The Parcifal Mosaic [lit]


  fall in diagonal sheets. The man reached for his hat but it was too late.

  Caught in an updraft, the hat was lifted off his head and hurled against

  the side of the coupe.

  294 Roi3ERT LuDLum

  He walked across the grass to retrieve ft. Even In the darkness the shock of

  white could be seen streaking from his forehead through his wavy black hair.

  In truth, Nikolai Petrovich Malyekov was annoyed, and his dripping hair was

  only part of his irritation. Time was running short. In his identity as

  Undersecretary of State Arthur Pierce, he would have to change his clothes

  and make himself presentable. A man in his position in the United States

  government did not run around in the mud and the pouring rain; he would

  phone for his limousine the minute he reached home, He bad agreed to have

  late-nigbt drinks with the British ambassador, as there was another OPEC

  problem, matters of state to be attended to.

  It was not what his people in Moscow wanted, but knowledge of another

  Anglo-American oil strategy was not to be dismissed. All such information

  brought the Voennaya closer to the power they bad been seeking since Yagoda

  set them on their path over a half century ago. Yet only the man who could

  not be found, the man who knew the secret of Anthony Matthias, could lead

  the Voennaya to its destinyfor the good of the world.

  Arthur Pierce, raised as an Iowa farm boy but born in the Russian village

  of Ramenskoye, turned toward his car in the rain. There was no time to be

  tired, for the charade never stopped. Not for him.

  Ambassador Addison Brooks stared at Bradford across the dais. "You say this

  mole knows who Parsifal is, knew about him before we didl" be exclaimed. "On

  what basis do you make that extraordinary statement?"

  "Costa Brava," said the undersecretary. "And the past seventy-two hours."

  "Take them in sequence," ordered the President.

  'In the final hours of Costa Brava, Havelock was provided with a radio

  transmitter whose frequency calibrations bad been altered by CIA

  technicians in Madrid ' They were working under blind orders; they had no

  idea what the transmitter was for or who was going to use it. As you know,

  the entire Costa Brava assignment was controlled by a man named Steven

  MacKenzie, the most experienced black-operations officer in Central

  Intelligence; the security was guaranteed."

  "Completely," interrupted Berquist. "MacKenzie died of a

  TrrE PArtsrFAL Mosmc295

  coronary three weeks after we pulled him out of Barcelona. There was nothing

  suspicious. The doctor's a respected, well-known physician and was

  thoroughly questioned. Macm Kenzie's death was from natural causes."

  "Only he knew all the details," continued Bradford. "He'd hired a boat, two

  men, and a blond woman who spoke Czech and was to scream in the distance-in

  the dark-during the grisly scene they were performing on that beach. The

  three of them were the dregs-small-time narcotics dealers and a

  prostitute-picking up a sizable fee. They didn't ask questions. Havelock

  sent out his transmission in KGB code to what be thought was a

  Baader-Meinbof unit in the boat offshore. MacKenzie caught it on his

  scanner and signaled the boat to come in. A few minutes later Havelock saw

  what we wanted him to see-or be thought he saw it. The Costa Brava

  operation was over."

  "Again," interrupted the ambassador impatiently, "General Halyard and I are

  aware of the essentials-"

  "It was over, and except for the President and the three of us, no one else

  knew about it," said the undersecretary, rushing ahead. "MacKenzie bad

  structured it in fragments, no one group knowing what the other was doing.

  Tbe only story we issued was the trapped-double-agent version, no buried

  reports, no flle within a file that contradicted it. And with MacKenzie's

  death, the last man on the outside who knew the truth was gone."

  "The last man, perhaps," said Halyard. "Not the last woman. jenna Karas

  knew. She got away from you, but she knew."

  "She knew only what she was told, and I was the one who spoke with her at

  the hotel in Barcelona. The story she was given had a dual purpose. One, to

  frighten her into doing exactly what we asked of her so we could ostensibly

  save her life; and two, to put her into a disturbed frame of mind that

  would startle Havelock, help convince him she was a KGB officer if be had

  any last doubts or emotional hurdles. If she'd followed my instructions

  she'd be safe. Or if we'd been able to find her, she wouldn't be running

  from the men who have to kill her now-and kill Havelock-so as to keep the

  truth about Costa Brava secret. Because they know the truth.-

  Ambassador Brooks whistled softly; it was a low, swelling

  296 ROBERT LuDLum

  whistle, the sound made by a man genuinely astonished. We've reached the

  last seventy-two hours," be said, "beginning with an untraceable call to

  Rome preceded by an authorization code established by Daniel Stem."

  "Yes, sir. Col des Moulinets. I saw the outlines of the connection when I

  read the agent of record's report, but nothing was clear. just shapes,

  shadows. Then it became clearer when be told us here tonight the things be

  did."

  "A man named Ricci he'd never seen before," said Brooks, "two demolitions

  experts he knew nothing about."

  "And a massive explosion that detonated some twelve minutes after the

  gunfire at the bridge," added Bradford. "Then his description of the woman

  as a 'needle' for the Soviets, a Russian plant that Moscow could have back

  and be taught a lesson."

  'I"feb was a lie," objected Halyard. "That bomb was meant for the car she

  was in. It killed how many? Seven people on the road to the bridge? Christ,

  it was powerful enough to blow that vehicle out of sight and everyone in it

  beyond recognition. And our own people weren't to know a goddamned thing

  about it."

  "By way of a man named Ricci," said Bradford, "a Corsican no one knew and

  two so-called small-arms backup personnel who were in reality explosives

  experts. They were sent by Rome, but the two who escaped never tried to get

  in touch with the embassy afterward. In our agenes words, that's not

  normal. They didn't dare return to Rome."

  "They were sent by our people," said Berquist. "But they didn't come from

  our people. They bad a separate arrangement with the same person who made

  the last untraceable call from Washington to Rome. Ambiguity."

  "That same person, Mr. President, who was able to reach into Moscow and

  pull out an authentic KGB code-anything less would never have been accepted

  by Havelock. Someone who knew the truth about Costa Brava, and was as

  anxious, perhaps as desperate, as we are to keep a blackout on it."

  "Why?" asked the general.

  Because if we went back and examined every aspect of the operation we might

  find be was there.-

  The President and the general reacted as though each had been told of an

  unexpected death; only Brooks remained im.

  TIM PAItSWAL MOSMC297

  passive, watching Bradford carefully, a first-rate Mind acknowledging the

  presence
of another.

  "That's a bell of a jump, son," said Halyard.

  "I can't think of any other explanation,. said Bradford. "Havelock's

  execution bad been sanctioned, the sanction was understood even by those

  who respected his record. Hed turned; he was a 'psycho,' a killer,

  dangerous to every man in the field. But why was the woman at Col des

  Moulinets to be sent across the border? Why was the point made that she was

  a 'needle,' a plant? Why was her escape supposed to be a lesson to the

  Soviets, when all the while a bomb timed to explode minutes later would

  have blown her away beyond recognition?"

  "To maintain the illusion that she had died at Costa Brava," said Brooks.

  "If she remained alive, she'd ask for asylum and tell her story; she'd have

  nothing to lose."

  "Forcing the events of that night on the beach to be reexamined," the

  President said, completing the thought. "She bad to be killed away from

  that bridge while still preserving the lie that she bad died at Costa

  Brava."

  "And the person who made the call authorizing Havelock's execution," said

  Halyard, frowning, with uncertainty in his voice, "who used the Ambiguity

  code and put this Ricci and the two nitro men in Col des Moulinets by way

  of Rome

  . you say be was on the beach that nightr

  "Everything points to it, yes, General."

  "For Chrises sake, why?"

  "Because be knows Jenna Karas is alive' " replied Brooks, still watching

  Bradford. "At least, he knows she wasn't killed at Costa Brava. No one else

  does."

  "naes speculation. it may have been kept quiet, but we've been looking for

  her for nearly four months."

  'Vithout ever acknowledging it was her," explained the undersecretary,

  "without ever admitting she was alive. The alert was for a person, not a

  name. A woman whose expertise as a deep-cover agent could lead her to

  people she'd worked with previously under multiple identities. The emphasis

  was on physical appearance and languages."

  "What I caet accept is your jump." Halyard shook his bead, the gesture of

  a military strategist who sees a practical gap in a plan for a field

  maneuver. "MacKenzie put Costa Brava together in pieces, reporting only to

  you. The CIA in

  298 ROBERT LuDLum

  Langley didn~t know about Madrid, and Barcelona was kept away from both.

  Under those conditions, how could someone penetrate what wasn't there?

  Unless you figure MacKenzie sold you out or loused it up."

  "I don7t think either." The undersecretary paused. "I think the man who

  took over the Ambiguity code was already involved with Parsifal months ago.

  He knew what to concentrate on and became alarmed when Havelock was ordered

  to Madrid under a Four Zero security."

  "Someone with maximum clearance right here hi the State Department," the

  ambassador broke in. "Someone with access to confIdential memoranda."

  'Yes. He kept tabs on Havelock's activities and saw that !omething was

  happening. He flew to Spain, picked hirn up in Madrid, and followed him

  back to Barcelona. I was there; so was MacKenzie. He almost certainly would

  have recognized me, and as I met with MacKenzie twice, ies reasonable to

  assume we were seen together."

  "And presuming you were, ies also reasonable to assume that Moscow had a

  file on MacKenzie thick enough to alarm Soviet intelligence." Brooks leaned

  forward, once again locking his eyes with Bradfords. "A photograph wired to

  the KGB, and the man we're looking for, who saw you together in Barcelona,

  knew a black operation was in progress."

  'It could have happened that way, yes."

  'With a lot of conjecture on your part," said Halyard.

  "I don't think the undersecretary of State is finished, Mal." The

  ambassador nodded his head at the papers Bradford bad just separated and

  was scanning. "I don't believe he'd permit his imagination to wander into

  such exotic regions unless something triggered it. Am I right?"

  "Substantially, yes."

  "How about just plain yes," said the President.

  'Yes," said the man from State. "I suppose I could be prosecuted for what

  I did this afternoon, but I considered it essential. I had to get away from

  the phones and the interruptions; I had to reread some of this material and

  provoke whatever imagination I have. I went to the classified files of Cons

  Op, removed Havelock's summary of Costa Brava under 'Chemical Therapy and

  took it home. rve been studying it since three o'clock-and remembenng

  MacKenzie!s verbal

  THE PARsiFAL MosAic299

  report after he came back from Barcelona. There are discrepancies."

  "In what way?" asked Brooks.

  "In what MacKenzie planned and in what Havelock saw."

  "He saw what we wanted him to see," said the President. 'You made a point

  of it a few minutes ago."

  "He may have seen more than we think, more than MacKenzie engineered."

  "MacKenzie was there," protested Halyard. "What the hell are you talking

  aboutr

  "He was approximately seventy yards away from Havelock, with only a

  peripheral view of the beach. He was more concerned with watching

  Havelock's reactions than with what was taking place below. He'd rehearsed

  it a number of times with the two men and the blond woman. According to

  those practice sessions, everything was to take place near the water, the

  shots flred into the surf, the woman falling into the wet sand, her body

  rolling with the waves, the boat close by, within reach. Ile distance, the

  darkness-everything was for effect.-

  "Visually convincing," interrupted Brooks.

  "Very," agreed Bradford. "But it wasn't what Havelock described. What he

  saw was infinitely nwre convincing. Under chemicals at the clinic in

  Virginia be' literally relived the entire experience, including the

  emotional trauma that was part of it. He described bullets erupting in the

  sand, the woman running up to the road, not down by the water, and two men

  carrying the body away. Two men."

  "Two men were hired," said Halyard, perplexed. "What's the problem?"

  "One bad to be in the boat; it was twenty feet offshore, the engine

  running. The second man was to have fired the shots and pulled the woman

  into the water, throwing her 'dead body' into the boat. The distance, the

  darkness, the beam of a flashlight-these were part of MacKenzie's scene,

  what he'd rehearsed with the people he'd hired. But the flashlight was the

  only constant between what MacKenzie planned and what Havelock saw. He

  didr* witness a performance; he saw a woman actually killed."

  "Iesus." The general sat back in his chair.

  "MacKenzie never mentioned any of this?" said Brooks.

  "I don7t think he saw it. All he said to me was 'My em- 300 Roi3ERT LuDLum

  ployees must have put on abell of a show.' He stayed where he was on that

  hill above the road for several hours watching Havelock. He left when it

  began to get light; be couldn't risk Havelock's spotting him."

  Addison Brooks brought his right hand to his ebin. "So the man we're

  looking for, the man who pulled the trigger at Costa Brava, who was given

  the Ambiguit
y code by Stem and put Havelock 'beyond salvage,' is a Soviet

  agent in the State Department."

  'Yes," said the undersecretary.

  "And be wants to find Parsifal as desperately as we do," concluded the

  President.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Yet, if I follow you," said Brooks quickly, "theres an enormous

  inconsistency. He hasn't passed on his astonishing Information to his

  normal KCB controls. We'd know it if be had. Good God, we'd know itl"

  "Not only has he held it back, Mr. Ambassador, he's purposely misled one of

  the ranking directors of the KGB." Bradford picked up the top page of his

  notes and slid it respectfully to the silver-haired statesman on his right.

  "I've saved this for last. Not, incidentally, to startle you or shock you,

  but only because it didn't make any sense unless we looked at everything

  else in relationship to it. Frankly, Im still not sure I understand. It's

  a cable from Pyotr Rostov in Moscow. He's director of External Strategies,

  KGB."

  "A cable from Sotiet inteUigence?" said Brooks, astonished, picking up the

  paper.

  Contrary to what most people believe," added the undersecretary,

  "strategists from opposing intelligence services often make contact with

  one another. They're practical men in a deadly practical business. They

  can~t afford wrong signals.... According to Rostov, the KGB bad nothing to

  do with the Costa Brava and he wanted us to know it. Incidentally, Colonel

  Baylor in his report said that Rostov trapped Havelock in Athens, and

  although be could have gotten him out of Greece and Into Russia by way Of

  the Dardanelles, he chose not to..

  "When did you get this?" asked the statesman.

  "Twenty-four hours ago," answered the President. "We've been studying it,

  trying to figure it out. Obviously, no response is called for."

  Tim PARsYrAL MosAic301

  "Read it, Addison," said Halyard.

  "It was sent to D. S. Stem, Director of Consular Operations, United States

  Department of-" Brooks looked up at Bradford. "Stern was killed three days

  ago. Wouldn't Rostov have known tbat?'

  "He wouldn't have sent it if he bad. He wouldn't have permitted the

  slightest speculation that the KGB was involved in Stem's death. He sent

 

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