Robert Ludlum - The Parcifal Mosaic.txt

by The Parcifal Mosaic [lit]

  jemla was right. Laughter was not inconsequential. Her laugh was not, he

  suddenly wanted desperately to hear it. Wlu" was she? How long did it take

  to find a roll of tape and a couple of bandages? Every sterile house was

  fully equipped with all manner of medical supplies; they went with the

  territory. Where was she?

  He got up from the antique bench, suddenly alarmed. Perhaps other men-men

  not assigned to sterile Five-were Prowling the grounds outside. He had a

  certain expertise in such matters. Infiltration was made easier by a

  profusion of woods and underbrush, and Sterile Five was a country house,

  surrounded by trees and foliage-natuz-al cover for un-

  THE PAPswAL Mosmc 479

  natural experts bent on penetration. He could intrude, invade, undoubtedly

  take out opposition silently, and if he could, others could. Where was she?

  Havelock walked rapidly to the window, realizing as he approached it that

  the thick glass which was impervious to bullets would also distort movement

  outside. It did; be turned swiftly and started for the door. Then he

  realized something else: he had no weaponI

  The door opened before he reached ft. He stopped, his breath cut short,

  relief sweeping through him as jenna stood there with one hand on the knob

  and the other holding a plastic tray filled with bandages, scissors, tape

  and alcohol.

  "Mikhail, what is it? What's the matter?"

  "Nothing. I ... I felt like getting up."

  "Darling, you7re perspiring," said jenna, closing the door and coming to

  him; she touched his forehead, then his right temple. "What is it?"

  "rin sorry. My imagination went a little off the track. I ... I thought you

  were gone longer than . . . I expected. rm sorry."

  "I was gone longer than I expected." jenna took his arm and led him to the

  bench. "IRes get the shirt off," she said, placing the tray down and

  helping him.

  " Just that?" asked Havelock, sitting down and looking at

  'her while removing his arms from his sleeves. "Just longer

  than you expected? That!s it?"

  'Well, outside of two brief affairs under the staircase and a mild

  flirtation with the cook, rd say it was sufficient. - - -Now, hold still

  while I take this off." jenna carefully, expertly sliced through the

  borders of the dressing on his shoulder and peeled it back, then removed

  the bandage. "Actually, its healing quite well, considering what yoifve put

  it through,* she said as she stripped the tape and reached for the alcohol

  and cotton. "More initation than anything else. The salt water probably

  prevented infection. This will sting a bit."

  "It does," said Michael, wincing, as Jenna swabbed the flesh around the

  wound, then stroked the residue of tape away. "Outside of that activity

  under the staircase, what the bell were you doing?" he asked while she

  placed squares of gauze over his sidn.

  "Concentrating on the mild flirtation," she replied, reeling

  480 ROBERT LUDLUM

  out the surgical tape and strapping the clean dressing In place. 'Mere. You

  won't feel any better, but you look better."

  "And you're avoiding me."

  "DonI you like surprises?"

  "Never did."

  'Kold&r she said, drawing out the word, while laughing and pouring alcohol

  over his exposed skin. "In the morning we'll have kold&~" she added,

  massaging his baclr-

  "Sweet roW ... You!re crazy. You're positively out of your mind We've spent

  twenty-four hours in a goddamned hell and you~re talking about hot cross

  bunsl"

  "We must live, Mikhail," said jenna, her voice suddenly soft beside hlm~

  the movement of her hands slowing to a halt. "I did speak with our

  armed-to-the-teeth cook, and I'm sure I flirted. In the morning hell make

  sure we have apricots and dry yeast, nutmeg he has-and ground mace. He'll

  order it all tonight. In the morning, koWe-"

  "I don't believe you--2*

  "IW and you'll see." She laughed again, and held his face in her hands. "In

  Prague you found a bakery that made koU6e. You loved it and asked me to

  bake some for you."

  "in Prague there was another set of problems, not whaes facing us now."

  "But it is us, Mikhail. Us once more, and we must have our moments. I lost

  you once, and now yolire here, with me again. Let me have these moments,

  let us have them

  even knowing what we know."

  He reached for her, pulling her to him. "You have them. We have them."

  'rhank you, my darling."

  "I love to hear you laugh, have I told you that?"

  "A number of times. You said I laughed like a small child watching a

  marionette show. Do you remember saying thatr

  I do, and I was right." Michael tilted her head back- "It fits, a child and

  sudden laughter ... a nervous child sometimes. Broussac saw it too. She

  told me what happened in Milan, how you stripped that poor bastard, colored

  him red, and stole his clothes."

  "As well as an enormous si- of moneyl" interrupted jenna. "He was a

  dreadful man."

  THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC 481

  wgine said you laughed about it like a small child remembering a joke or a

  prank or something like thaL"

  "I suppose I did." jenna glanced at the fire. "I was so frightened, hoping

  so much that she would help me, thinking she might not. I think I was

  holding on to a memory that amused me, that might calm me down. I don7t

  know, but ies happened before."

  "What do you mean?" asked Michael.

  Jenna turned back to him, her wide eyes Inches from his but not looking at

  him-instead, looking beyond, seeing images from the past. "When I ran away

  from Ostrava, when my brothers were killed, and I was marked by the

  antiDub6eks-when my life there was finished-I came into the world of Prague.

  it was a world filled with hatred, a world so violent that I thought at

  times I couldn7t stand it anymore. But I knew what I had to do, I couldn't

  turn back to a life that wa=1 mine any longer. . . . So I would remember

  things, relive the memories as if I were actually there, not in Prague, not

  in that world of fear. I was back in Ostrava, my adoring brothers taking me

  for rides, telling their sister outrageous stories to make me laugh. Durbig

  those moments I was free, I wasn't afraid." She looked at him. "Those

  memories were hardly like Milan, were they? But I could laugh, I did

  laugh.... Enoughl rm not making sense."

  "Yoere making sense," said Michael, pulling her to him again, his face

  against hers. "Thank you for that. Not much sense is being made these days.

  Anywhere~"

  "Yo&e tired, my darling. More thari tired, you!re exhausted. Come on, lees

  go to bed."

  "I always obey my doctors.'

  "You need rest, Mikhail."

  "I always obey my doctors up to a poine

  Ziot~,- said Jenna, laughing softly against his ear.

  Strands of her blond hair were layered over his face, her arm across his

  chest, but neither was asleep. The splendid, warm comfort of their

  lovemaking did not bring sleep; the unthinkable was too much with them. A

  soft shaft of light came from the partially closed bathroom door
.

  "You didn7t tell me everything that happened to you on PooWs Lsland, did

  you?" said Jenna, her head next to his on the pillow. "You told Bradford

  that you did, but you di&t."

  482 R013ERT LUDLUM

  'Almost everything," replied Havelock staring at the ceilIng. "I'm still

  trying to figure it out."

  jenna took her arm away and, supporting herself on her elbow, faced him.

  "Can I help you?" she asked.

  "I don~t think anybody can. les the bomb in my head."

  "What is, my darling?"

  "I know Parsifal."

  'You what ... ?"

  'Maes what Matthias said. He said I saw them all coming and going, the

  'negotiators of the world,' he called them. But there was only one and I

  must have seen him. I must know him.11

  -17hat was the reason he did what he did to you? To us? Why he wanted you

  out?"

  "He said I could never understandthe deadliest

  treaties were the only solution."

  "And I was the sacriflce."

  'Yes. What can I say? He's not sane; he wasn~t when be ordered up the case

  against you. You were to die and I was to live, live and be watched."

  Michael shook his head in. frustration. "Thaes what I can~t understand."

  "My deathP"

  "No, my liting."

  "Even in his insanity, he loved you."

  'Not him. Parsifal. If I was a threat, why didn~t Parsifal kill me? Why was

  it left to the mole to put out the order three months laterr

  'Bradford explained that," said jenna. "You'd seen me; you were reopening

  Costa Brava, and it could have led you back to the mole."

  "It still doesWt explain Parsifal. He could have had me taken out twenty

  times over. He didwt. Thaes the gap. What kind of a man are we dealing

  with?"

  "Certainly not rational. Thaes what so terrifying."

  Havelock turned his head and looked at her. I wonder," he said.

  The ringing was harsh, unexpected, reverberating throughout the room. He

  bolted up from a deep sleep, his hand reached for a nonexistent weapon. It

  was the telephone, and Michael stared at it before picking it up from the

  bedside table. He

  THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC483

  glanced at his watch as he spoke. It was four-forty-five in the morning.

  "Yes?"

  "Havelock, it!s Bradford.*

  "What!s the matter? Where are you?"

  "In my office. rve been here since eleven. Incidentally, rve had people

  working through the night. Everything you wanted will be at Sterile Five by

  ten o'clock, except the records at PooWs Island. Therell be a few hours'

  delay with those."

  You called at this hour to tell me that?"

  "Of course not." Bradford paused, an intake of breath fillIng the moment.

  "I may have found him," he said rapidly. "I did as you suggested. I looked

  for someone who might not have been where he was supposed to be. I won't

  know for certain until late this morning; that!s the delay with Poole!s

  Island. If its true, ies incredible; his record is as dean as they come,

  his military service-"

  "Don't say My more," ordered Michael.

  "Your phone is as sterile as that house."

  "Mine may be. Yours may not be. Or your office. just listen to me."

  "What is it?'

  "Look for a puppet. He could be alive or dead:'

  "A what?"

  "Someone filling in, the strings leading back to your man. Do you

  understand that?'

  "Yes, I think so. As a matter of fact, I do. les part of what rve found

  already.-

  "Call me when you know. From the street, from a booth. But donI close in,

  don't do anything." Havelock hung up and looked at jenna. "Bradford may

  have found Ambiguity. If he has, you were right."

  "Paminyatchik?"

  "A traveler."

  29

  It was a morning Sterile Five had never experienced before and would

  probably never see again. A persuasive inmate had taken over the somber

  asylum. Despite the tension, despite the anticipated call from Bradford, by

  eight-thirty jenna had commandeered the kitchen, the gun-bearing Escoffier

  relegated to the position of assistant. Ingredients were measured and mixed

  to the accompaniment of glances of approval and the gradual breaking down of

  culinary barriers; the armed cook began to smile. Pans were selected and the

  outsized oven was turned on; then two additional guards emerged on the scene

  as if their nostrils belonged to hounds and the kitchen had become a meat

  market.

  "Please call me jenna," said jenna to the others, as Havelock was demoted

  to,a comer table and dismissed with a newspaper.

  First names were exchanged, wide grins appeared, and before long there was

  conversation interspersed with laughter. Hometowns were compared-bakeries

  the basis of comparison-and a kind of frivolity took over the kitchen at

  Sterile Five. It was as though no one had ever before dared lighten the

  oppressive atmosphere of the security-conscious compound. It was lightened

  now and jenna was the bearer of that light. To say that the men-these

  professionals familiar with the deadly arts-were taken with her was too

  modest an

  484

  THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC485

  observation. They were actually having fun, and fun was not normal at

  Sterile Five. The world was going to hell in a galactic basket and jenna

  Karas was baking koWe.

  At nine-fifty-five, however, after quantities of sweet rolls had been eaten

  in the kitchen and dispensed throughout the grounds, the serious air of the

  Sterile house returned. Static on a dozen radios erupted, as inside bells

  and television monitors became operational. An armored van from the Depart-

  ment of State had entered the long, guarded drive from the highway. It was

  expected.

  By ten-thirty Havelock and jenna were back in the ornate study to examine

  the papers and photographs, which were separated by classification. There

  were six stacks, some thicker than others: four on the desk in front of

  Michael; two on the coffee table, where jenna sat reading on the couch.

  Bradford had been thorough, and if more was more, his only error was in

  duplication. An hour and twenty minutes passed, the near-noon sun filling

  the windows; refracted in the bulletproof gjass, the rays scattered across

  the walls. There was silence except for the turning of pages.

  The approach they used was standard when dealing with such a mass of

  diverse information. They read everything rapidly, concentrating on the

  totality and not on specifies, trying first to get a feel for the

  landscape; they would get to the details later and relentlessly scrutinize

  them. Despite the concentration on reading, a comment was inevitable now

  and then.

  "Ambassador Addison Brooks and General Malcohn Halyard," said Michael,

  reading a page that contained the names of all those involved-however

  remotely, with or without knowledge-with the Parsifal mosaic. "Theyre the

  Presidenes backups if he!s forced to expose Matthias."

  "In what sense?' asked jerma.

  "After Anton, they're among the most respected men in the country. Berquist

  will need them."

  Several min
utes later jenna spoke. "Yoxere listed here~*

  "Where?"

  "An entry in an early Matthias calendar.*

  "How early?"

  "Eight-no, nine months ago. You were a house guest of his. It was when you

  were flown over for the Cons Op per~

  486 RoBjmT LuDLum

  sonnel evaluation, I think. We hadn't known each other very long..

  "Long enough for me to want to get back to Prague as fast as I could. Those

  sessions were usually a monumental waste of time."

  "You told me once they serve a purpose, that the field often has strange

  effects on certain men and they should be periodically checked."

  "I wasn't one of them. Anyway, I said usually, not always. On occasion

  they'd pick out a ... a gunslinger."

  jenna put the page down on her lap. "Mikhail, could it have been then? That

  visit with Matthias? Could you have seen Parsifal then?"

  "Anton was himself nine months ago. There was no Parsi-

  f4l.11

  "You said he was tired-Aerribly tired' were the words you used. You were

  worried about him."

  "His health, not his sanity. He was sane~"

  "Still-"

  "You think I haven't gone over every minute in my mind?" interrupted

  Havelock. "It was in Georgetown, and I was there two days, two nights, the

  length of the evaluation. We had dinner twice, both times alone. I didn't

  see anybody."

  "Certainly people came to the house."

  "They certainly did, they never gave him a momenfs peace, day or night."

  "Then you saw them."

  "I'm afraid I didn~t. Yoed have to know that old place; ies a maze of small

  rooms in the front. There's a parlor to the right of the hallway, a library

  on the left that one goes through to get to his office. I think Anton liked

  it; he could keep people waiting who probably wouldn't see each other.

  Petitioners in stages, moved from one area to the next. He'd greet them in

  the parlor, then they'd be taken to the library and, finally, the sanctum

  sanctorum, his office."

  "And you were never in those rooms."

  "Not with anybody else. When he was interrupted at dinner, I remained in

  the dining room in the back. I even used a separate side entrance when

  coming or going from the house, never the front door. We had an