Descent from Xanadu

by Harold Robbins

  “Can we come down a bit and circle them?” Judd asked.

  “We’re cleared for forty-four thousand, sir,” the captain said. “They’ll raise hell if I change it.”

  “Fuck ’em!” Judd said. “You take it down to thirty-six. I’ll take the responsibility.” He turned to Merlin in the seat next to him. “What the hell? This is what we came here for.”

  Merlin was silent, his eyes glued to the screen.

  The first factory was coming on screen. Grayish black plumes of smoke rose from six giant stacks. There were long docks tied to cargo ships and a covered conveyor belt from the side of the factory led directly to the cargo ships. “That’s the paper mill,” Judd said.

  The picture on the screen moved and another factory began to appear. Now the picture became clearer and he could see that the factories were built on the land but anchored in the river to be flush against the land. “This one manufactures wood planking and finishing,” Judd said. “It’s the waste wood that is sent on down to the paper mill.”

  “Unbelievable,” Merlin said. “Factories like this in the middle of the most primitive jungle on earth.”

  “D. K. is a genius,” Judd said. “It was his idea. He knew that they could not do the actual construction there. So he had the factories built in Japan, towed across the ocean and put in place. Almost overnight they were anchored there and in operation.”

  A third factory appeared on the screen. Beyond it, the river flowed on relentlessly, although completely covered with logs, thousands, hundreds of thousands of logs, tumbling over and over each other as if in the gaping maws of some gigantic prehistoric monster.

  “That would be the lumber mill, stripping and cleaning and sorting,” Judd said. He pointed to the top of the screen. A giant concrete dam was beginning to appear. “There’s another sign of the genius of Ludwig. Never a need for oil or nuclear energy. Nothing but water. Hydroelectric power, supplied by nature’s bounty. Not only did he think of that, he anticipated the needs of nature itself and a future supply of raw material. He developed a reforestation program that tames the forest to give a new crop every twenty years!”

  “I don’t understand it then,” Merlin said. “Why should he want out?”

  “Two things, I think,” Judd said. “One, the jungle fucked him. He figured a twenty-year turnover for the forests. But the whole jungle moves at racing speed, like nothing man’s had to contend with. Ludwig found he needs at least ten thousand men simply to hold back the jungle from overrunning his manufacturing facilities.”

  “And the other thing?” Merlin asked.

  “D. K. himself. The man’s over eighty and I think he’s beginning to understand that he could be running out of time.” Judd was silent for a moment, then looked at Merlin. “Do you think he would want out if he had the gift of immortality?”

  Merlin did not answer.

  Judd pressed the intercom. “You can resume your course, Captain,” he said. “I’m finished for now. Thank you.”

  “Very good, sir,” the captain said. “We’ll touch down in Brasilia in three hours and thirty-five minutes.”

  Bridget came into the cabin as Raoul raised the window screens. Sunlight flooded in. “It’s that time again,” she said, holding the tray in her hand.

  He took the pill and swallowed it with the glass of orange juice. “Don’t you get bored doing this?” he asked.

  “It’s my job,” she said. She looked down at him. “Dr. Ivancich is awake,” she said.

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “Fine,” she said in a cool voice. “She’s dressing, but Dr. Sawyer insisted that she keep her arm in a sling.”

  “I’ll drop down to see her,” he said.

  “You don’t have to,” she said, still in the same cool voice. “She’s planning to come as soon as she puts some makeup on.”

  Judd looked at her. “Me thinks I hear a tinge of jealousy in your voice.”

  “Not of her,” Bridget said sarcastically. “She’s practically old enough to be my mother.” She left the cabin with a faint swinging of her hips that he had not noticed before.

  He looked toward Merlin. “I have a feeling that Nursey is thawing out a little.”

  Merlin laughed. “Maybe,” he said. “But the kind of figures that I’m into add up and down, not sideways.”

  Judd smiled. “Anything new on the South and Western bank situation?”

  “Every government agency you can think of is in there with both feet. The only thing that might intrigue you is that it seems the biggest partner you have in it is Castro.”

  “Shit,” Judd said wryly. “Why is it that all politicians want to be businessmen?”

  Merlin got to his feet. “Is it okay if I catch forty winks? I’ve been awake most of the night.”

  “You better grab it while you can,” Judd said. “I have a feeling that today will not be an easy one.”

  He watched the door close behind him and called to Fast Eddie standing behind the bar. “Cherry Coke.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  Judd was just sipping his drink as Sofia came in. She stood in front of the door for a moment as if she wasn’t sure of her welcome. “Come in, Sofia,” he said easily, putting down his glass.

  She moved to his chair and bent down to his cheek. She kissed him gently. “Thank you,” she said.

  “You all right, my dear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “No pain?”

  “No, Judd. It’s fine.”

  He looked into her eyes. “You don’t have to apologize for or explain anything, Sofia,” he said. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

  “Yes, yes,” she said. “I had hoped so.”

  He gestured to a chair. He waited until she was seated. “Each of us does what we feel we have to do.”

  “I was afraid that you might feel that I betrayed you,” she said.

  “Did you really believe I’d think that?” he asked.

  She didn’t hesitate. “No.”

  “Then you didn’t,” he said.

  “It’s an old story,” she said. “Do you want me to tell you about it?”

  He shook his head. “You don’t have to. I already know all about it.”

  “And you’re not angry?”

  He laughed. “No. I’ve lived long enough to learn that old loyalties die hard.”

  She was silent. She looked at the glass before him. “You’re not supposed to take that stuff, you know.”

  “I know,” he said. “But that, too, is an old loyalty.”

  She was quiet.

  “And you’re not on duty right now, Doctor,” he said.

  “That’s right,” she said.

  “You look tired, Doctor,” he said. “May I offer you a toot?”

  “I could use a lift,” she said.

  He nodded toward Fast Eddie, who came over with the gold vial. Sofia held the vial, but couldn’t manage it with the sling on her arm. Fast Eddie held the spoon to her nostrils. She took two dynamite snorts. Fast Eddie went back to the bar.

  “That helped,” she said. Her eyes met his. “You’re a strange man, Judd Crane.”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Do you really think you’ll live forever?” she went on.

  “I didn’t say forever,” he said. “Immortality was the word I used.”

  “It’s the same thing, isn’t it?” she said. “Semantics.”

  “I never majored in languages. Nevertheless, however you say it, that’s what I hope.”

  “And for your sake, I hope so too.” She paused for a moment. “Your new nurse doesn’t like me.”

  “That’s not important,” he said.

  “You’re fucking her, of course.”

  “No, as it happens,” he said.

  “Don’t you want to?”

  “Probably,” he answered. “But that, too, is not important.”

  “I’m having an abortion next week,” she said.

  He nodded. “I know.”
/>   Her eyes went into him. “I would like to keep your baby.”

  His voice went flat. “I don’t want that,” he said. “We all knew it was nothing but another experiment.”

  “One out of ten isn’t that much of a loss for you,” she said.

  “It would be one too many,” he answered. “It was an experiment and that’s the way it will remain, Sofia.”

  “But what will remain if you die?” she asked.

  “I will not die,” he said. “And even if I should, nothing will be lost.”

  She became silent for a moment. “May I have another snort?” she asked.

  He gestured at Fast Eddie without answering her. Slowly he sipped his drink and watched her snort two more hits. She turned to look out the window of the plane. “The sky is so very blue,” she said.

  “It always is at forty-four thousand.”

  She turned back to him. “I’m afraid,” she said. “I don’t want to die.”

  “You won’t die.”

  “You don’t know them,” she said. “They’re not like you. In their world, they believe I betrayed them. And they never forget. Sooner or later, they will kill me.”

  “You can be lost,” he said. “In America many have been hidden away from them and never been discovered. Some of their greatest scientists have been forgotten, even by them.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “But not me. My crime was not only betrayal but also murder of a person just one step from the Politburo itself.” She took a cigarette from the box on the table and lit it. She pulled the smoke deeply into her lungs. “I was never good at running,” she said. “I might as well go back.”

  He nodded. “Very well.”

  She looked at him. “Then it doesn’t matter that I will die?”

  “You won’t die,” he said. “You’re forgetting something very important. They need you.”

  “For what?” She stared at him.

  He smiled. “Brezhnev. Your next patient.”

  She was silent.

  “Do you think they’ll dare endanger his life simply because you blew the head off a third-rate asshole son-in-law of a Politburo bureaucrat? Andropov at the KGB is not stupid. If you can prolong Brezhnev’s life for even two more years, it gives him that much more time to consolidate his position in order to step into Brezhnev’s shoes.”

  She looked into his eyes. “You believe that?”

  “I can guarantee it,” he said. “Crane Industries also has important contacts in the Politburo.”

  25

  Brasília was a brand-new city, so new its heart had not yet begun to beat. The streets were wide and clean, the buildings modern, concrete and glass. Even the automobiles and buses, powered by a combination of ethyl and grain alcohol, added no pollution to the clear blue sky above the city.

  The conference was held in a large window-walled room, twenty-two stories above the city avenues. They were seated around an oval, burled-oak table in comfortable high-backed chairs covered in soft glove leather the same color as the table.

  Judd was placed opposite the chairman of the Brazilian delegation across the widest part of the oval table. On either side of him sat Merlin and Doc Sawyer. The Brazilian chairman, for his part, was also flanked by two men.

  They all spoke English, but Judd could hear a faint accent of German in the chairman’s voice. “Dr. Schoenbrun,” he said. “If I understand correctly, Mr. Ludwig has invested a half billion dollars in this project.”

  Dr. Schoenbrun nodded.

  Judd gazed across the table at him. “And what do you expect from me?”

  Dr. Schoenbrun’s Germanic accent was getting slightly more pronounced. “In this project, Mr. Crane, we want nothing from you.”

  Judd masked his surprise by remaining silent, even though several things came to him at once.

  “Our negotiations with Mr. Ludwig have been completed,” the chairman went on. “The Brazilian government will take over the project completely. Mr. Ludwig has agreed to a fair share of the profits and to a long-term low interest rate. His principal capital return in accordance with various economic factors we’ll agree on in good time.”

  “My congratulations, Dr. Schoenbrun,” Judd said. “In my opinion, you have achieved an important contribution to the economy of your country.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Crane.” Dr. Schoenbrun allowed himself a faint smile of pride.

  Judd nodded. “Then you must have another proposition in mind for me. Otherwise why did you invite me here?”

  “We do, Mr. Crane,” Dr. Schoenbrun said. “But first I must apologize to you for misleading you about the real reason. The world has many ears, and we felt it vitally important that we keep our discussion for us alone.”

  “Agreed,” Judd said.

  “I speak to you about Crane Pharmaceuticals,” Dr. Schoenbrun said. “That industry is one of the weakest sectors in our economy. I must tell you honestly that we have already made various approaches. First to Hoffman-LaRoche, but they decided to be based in Costa Rica. Then to Bayer Chemical Weltgeschaft, but they are only in household products, and the more heavy part of industry they prefer to keep closer to themselves.”

  Judd looked at him. “Du Pont? Monsanto?”

  “They might have been interested,” Dr. Schoenbrun answered, “but they were concerned by President Carter’s human rights policies. They felt that they would end up with more problems than they could handle.”

  “Then Crane came up at the bottom of your list?” Judd said dryly.

  “Physically, true,” Dr. Schoenbrun said candidly. “Actually, not at all. In one area especially, we have always been more close to each other than to any of the others.”

  “To what do you refer?” Judd asked.

  Dr. Schoenbrun looked directly across the table at his eyes. “Nuclear medicine,” he said.

  After a moment Judd spoke one word: “Germany.”

  The chairman nodded. “After the war many of the German scientists fled here, as you know. Under the conditions of surrender, Germany was not allowed to develop a nuclear industry for any purpose. Brazil had no such prohibitions. And so Germans, and even more Germans, came here. ‘The Silent Industry’ we call it. No one speaks of it, but it is there. Today, we have two completely modern facilities already in operation, supplying electric power to Brasília, Rio and São Paulo.”

  “All manned and staffed by Germans,” Judd said.

  “Not only by Germans,” Dr. Schoenbrun replied quickly. “We have many Americans and French.”

  Judd looked at him. “You have the bomb?”

  “No,” Dr. Schoenbrun said. “But of course, we can have it if we want it.”

  “More nuclear bombs don’t excite me,” Judd said.

  “Nor do they excite me.” Schoenbrun looked at him. “We have another installation that might be interesting to you.”

  “What is that?”

  “On the plateau of an extinct volcano in the Andes, four hundred miles north of Ludwig’s development, we have built a nuclear generator three hundred meters below the crater. Ludwig had the idea that we could supply all the power for his development. Then he pulled out, and we ran out of money because of the financial crisis. Now it’s just lying there, waiting for the jungle to bury it.”

  “What do you want me to do with it?” Judd asked.

  “I thought you could use it to build a nuclear medicine facility. We have three billion dollars in it now. We’ll turn it all over to you for one billion. Another two billion will build you the most modern plant in the world. And even more important, it’s deeply secret and inaccessible to intruders. That’s why it was named Xanadu.”

  “How would we find the personnel to build it and man it?” Judd asked.

  “We have solved that problem. Full staff is already on standby.”

  Judd thought for a moment. “That might present a possibility for me. When can I see it?”

  “At your convenience,” Schoenbrun answered.

  Judd rose to his
feet. “I will get in touch with you.” He held out his hand. “Thank you, Dr. Schoenbrun.”

  ***

  “It’s creepy,” Judd said to Doc Sawyer as Bridget handed him his orange juice and pill. He swallowed it gamely. “All they want is three billion dollars.”

  “A real bargain,” Doc Sawyer said sarcastically.

  Judd laughed. “It makes Mexico seem like a heaven of integrity by comparison. All these guys want is a corner of the corruption market.”

  “Then, I take it, you’re not going to make a deal with them?”

  “Of course I’m making a deal with them. Maybe not exactly what they want, but enough to bait them into a feeling of security about us.” He smiled wryly. “In order to negate, sometimes you have to integrate.”

  Doc Sawyer paused for a moment. “Where do you think all their equipment has come from? All the instructions and signs on the machinery are in English. But it can’t have come from the States. Carter would never have allowed it.”

  “I’ll bet my ass, France,” Judd answered. Then seeing the incredulity on Doc’s face: “Don’t be naive. Despite the antiproliferation agreement between France and the United States and the other Western nuclear power countries, when it comes to money, France will find a way.”

  “Our friends,” Doc said sarcastically.

  “With friends like that, you don’t need enemies.” Judd glanced out the window and pressed the intercom for the captain. “Are we anywhere near Rio?” he asked.

  “It’s approximately two hundred and sixty nautical miles behind us, Mr. Crane,” answered the captain.

  “Let’s go back. Call them for clearance. We’ll stay the night,” Judd said. He turned to Doc Sawyer. “It’s time we had a little fun.”

  “You’re supposed to be in bed by nine-thirty,” Doc Sawyer said.

  “Just once, Doc,” Judd said, “forget you’re my doctor. I’m getting bored out of my skull with the hand-job treatments I’ve been getting. Besides, the girls from Ipanema are really everything the song says. It might even do you a little good.”

  ***

  The sound of laughter awakened Bridget. She looked around the total darkness of her stateroom. The night clock glowed three-thirty. From her window she could see three or four girls leaving two limousines pulled up beside the plane. They giggled as they followed Judd and Doc Sawyer to the elevator.