He said, when the mortars are falling
all around you and things look
terrible,
and, believe me, there were times when
the world looked pretty terrible to
me he said, think of the good things
you've done, the accomplishments, the
contributions. Don't ponder your
mistakes or your sorrows; that only
puts you in a depressed state of mind.
And a depressed state of mind is not
equipped to take advantage of that one
moment that could arise and save- your
ass. It's all a question of mental
attitudes."
"What the hell has that bullshit got
to do with the fact that I don't have
any clothes?"
"Not an awful lot, I guess. It's
just that you sounded so depressed.
That's no way to face the Hawk."
Devereaux started to answer blindly,
angrily. Then he stopped, looked at
the sincerity in Ginny's eyes and
began again. "Wait a minute. 'Face the
Hawk.' You mean you want me to fight
him? Stop him?"
"That's your decision, Sam. I only
want what's best for everyone.
"Will you help me?"
Ginny was pensive for a moment, then
replied firmly. "No, I won't do that.
Not in the way you're thinking. I owe
MacKenzie too much.'
212
1 ''-l
"Lady!" burst out Devereaux. "Do you
have any idea what that lunatic is up
to?"
Mrs. Hawkins number one looked at
him with an expression of suddenly
imposed innocence. "A lieutenant
doesn't question a general officer,
Major. He can't be expected to
understand the intricacies of command
"
"Then what the hell are we talking
about?"
"You're a smart fellow. The Hawk
wouldn't have promoted you if you
werent. I just want him to have the
finest advice he can get. So he can do
whatever it is he wants to do the best
way possible." Ginny rolled over under
the eiderdown quilt. "I'm really very
sleepy."
And Devereaux saw them on the
bedside table next to her head.
A pair of scissors.
ala
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"Sorry about the clothes," said the
Hawk in the huge drawing room. Sam
glared and retied the curtain sash he
used as a belt around the eiderdown
quilt. "You'd think the laundry would
have more than one key, wouldn't you?
These big fancy places don't trust
anyone; shows the kind of house guests
they must be used to, I suppose."
"Oh, shut- up,t' mumbled Devereaux,
who found it necessary to double-loop
the sash because the silk kept
slipping. "The laundress will be here
in the morning, I presume."
"I'm sure of it. She's one of the
few who go home at night. To the
village. That'll change, of course;
there'll be a lot of changes."
"Just tell me there'll be one change
and I'll go back and have dinner with
Azaz-Varak."
"Come on now, Sam, you've.got a
one-track mind. Let's get on to other
things. You sure you don't want a
shirt and a pair of trousers? just
take me a minute to go upstairs...."
Hawkins made a gesture past a dozen or
so overstuffed, antimacassared
armchairs toward the great hall.
"Nol I don't want anything from
you! I take that back. I do want
something. I want you to call off this
crazy business and let me go home!"
MacKenzie bit off the chewed end of
his cigar, spitting it between the
feet of a suit of armor. "You uphill
go home, I promise you that. The
minute you centralize the company
finances and make a few deposits that
can be tapped under certain
conditions, I'll drive you to the
airport myself. That's the word of a
general officer."
214
of'
"It's the reasoning of a brain
soaked in linseed oil! Do you have any
idea what you're asking me to do?
That's not chopped liver you're
talking about, it's forty million dol-
lars. I'm marked for life! They'll
have a record sheet on me in every
Interpol headquarters and police
station in the civilized worldl You
don't put your name on forty million
dollars' worth of bank transfers and
expect to go back to a normal law
practice. Word gets out."
"That's not so, and you know it. All
that Swiss banking stuff is
confidential."
Devereaux looked around to make sure
no one else was within hearing. "Even
if it's supposed to be, it's not going
to be once a . . . certain attempt is
made to snatch a. . . certain person
in Rome! And that's all it will be! An
attempt! You'll have your ass in a
net, and every contact you've made
since China will be put under a
microscope and my name will surface
and so will forty Sucking million
dollars in Zurich and that's the
baligame!"
"Now, goddamn, boy, we've been over
that! Your job's finished now. Or will
be soon's you take care of the money.
You don't have to be involved anymore.
And you're clean, son. You're a
hundred percent Clorox!"
"I'm not." Devereaux choked as he
whispered and clutched the eiderdown
quilt. "I just told you: The minute
you're nailed, I'm nailed!"
"For what? Say you happened to be
right which I don't for a second
consider remotely possible what can
they nail you for? Banking funds for
an old soldier who told you he was
raising money to support an
organization dedicated to spreading
religious brotherhood? Let me ask you
a question, Mr. Attorney. Could you,
under oath, testify to any
wrongdoing?"
"You're insane!" broke in Sam,
stumbling slightly as he stepped
forward. "You told me! You're going to
kidnap " Devereaux stopped and made
charade-like gestures that included
hauling a body over his shoulder and
the sign of the cross.
"Well, hell, boy, there are oaths
and there are oaths! Be reasonable.
Anyway, that's hearsay. Not
admissible."
Sam closed his eyes; he began to
understand what 215
martyrdom was all about. He continued,
his whisper strained but controlled.
"I walked out of those archives with
that Sucking briefcase chained to my
wristl"
- "Outside of that," mumbled
MacKenzie. "Anyhow, that's army stuff;
neither of us has much use for the
army. Anything else?"
Devereaux thought.
"Circumstantially, it's the mother-
loving end. There hasn't been a single
aboveboard transaction."
"That's subjective," said Hawkins,
shaking his head, confirming his own
judgment. "There's been no violence;
no one's lied. No theft, no collusion.
Everything voluntary. And if the
particular methods seem unusual,
that's the prerogative of every
individual investor, as long as he
doesn't infringe on the rights of
others." Mac paused and held Sam's
eyes. 'There's something else, too.
You said yourself that a lawyer's
first responsibility was to his client
not abstract moral dilemmas."
"I said that?"
"You surely did."
"That's not bad "
"It's goddamned eloquent, that's
what it is. You've got a silver tongue
in your head, young man."
Sam stared back at the Hawk, trying
to see beneath his guile. But it
wasn't guile; he meant what he said.
And since personal sincerity was the
momentary leveler, Devereaux decided
to be personally sincere.
"Listen to me," he said quietly.
"Say you go through with this this
insanity, because that's what it is,
you know. Say you really do it. You
actually kidnap the pope and get away
with it. Even for a few days. Do you
know what might happen? What you could
trigger?"
"Surely do. Four hundred million
green samolians from four hundred
million howling mackerel snappers. No
offense intended, just a harmless
phrase."
"No, you gung-ho son of a bitch!
There'd be international revulsion!
And recrimination. And then mainly ac-
cusations! Governments would point
their fingers at other governments!
Presidents and chairmen and prime
ministers would use blue lines and red
lines and then very hot lines. And
before you know it, some asshole
recites a code 816 i
from a tiny black box in a briefcase
because he didn't like what some other
asshole said. Jesus, Mact You could
start World War Three!"
"Goddamn! Is that what you've been
thinking about?"
"It's what I've tried not to think
about."
Hawkins threw his cigar into the
cavern that was the Machenfeld
fireplace and stood arms akimbo, a
flame dying in his eyes. "Sam, boy,
you couldn't be farther from the
truth. You know, son, war isn't what
it used to be. Hasn't any spirit to it
anymore. Bugles and drums, and men
caring for men, and hating an enemy
because he can hurt the things yop
love. That's all gone now. Now it's
buttons and shifty-eyed politicians
who blink a lot and wave their hands
without meaning very much. I hate war.
I never thought I'd hear myself say
it, but I'm saying it and learning it
now. I'd never allow a war."
Devereaux bored into the Hawk's eyes
he would not let MacKenzie look away.
"Why should I believe that? Everything
you've done reeks of con. Immense con.
Why should a war stop you?"
"Because, young man," replied
Hawkins quietly, returning Sam's stare
in full measure., "I just told you the
truth."
"All right. Suppose you provoke one
without meaning to?
"Goddard! Now you're pushing me too
far!" MacKenzie strode from the
fireplace to a second suit of armor to
the right of the mantel. The face
piece was open so he slammed it
shut-"I put in damned near forty years
and got Sucked by the plastic merit
Your Words, boy! Now, I don't feel
sorry for myself because I knew what
I was doing and was accountable for my
actions! But, goddamn, don't,ask me to
feel sorry for them or be accountable
for their stupidity!"
So much for personal sincerity,
thought Devereaux. Like Options One,
Two, Three, and Four in the morning,
it was shot to hell. This time in a
burst of self-righteousness. There was
nothing for it but to find another
way. One would present itself, Sam was
convinced of that. The Hawk had a way
to go before the pontiff of the
Catholic Church blessed the edelweiss
at Machenfeld. Something would turn
up; and Option Seven Options Five and
Six 217
,
1
happily avoided was coming into focus.
For the moment he had to calm
MacKenzie down and under no circum-
stances lose his confidence. And then
Mac did have a point. A legal point.
He, Sam, was clean. Legally clean.
In every other way the mud was an inch
thick, but in evidentiary considera-
tions, he was not a good case for any
prosecutor.
"Okay, Mac, I'm not going to fight
you. You were screwed and I did say
it, and I believe you. You hate war.
Maybe that's good enough. I don't know
anymore. Personally, I just want to go
back home to Quincy, and if I read
about you in the papers, I'll remember
the words of a scarred but honest
warrior spoken in this room."
"A tongue of silver, boy! I admire
that."
"As long as it's not a head of lead,
I'll accept that. Do you have the
papers for the Zurich bank?"
"Don't you want to hear the amount
I've. . . accrued for your
participation? How do you like that
'accrued'? I'm a corporate president,
you know;'we don't fuck around with
second-rate vocabularies."
"I'm impressed. What's the entry
figure?"
"The what?"
"The accrual, that's the noun root
of the verb 'to accrue.' "
"Smartass shavetail. What do you say
to a half a million dollars?"
Sam could not say anything. He was
numb. He saw his hand move in
astonishment, and he watched it with
a certain fascination, not sure if the
appendage belonged to him. It must
have; when he thought about jiggling
the fingers, they jiggled.
A half a million dollars.
What was there to think about? It
was as insane as everything else.
Including the fact that he was not
indictable.
It was Monopoly time. Let's buy
Boardwalk and Park Place.
Stop. Co To Jail.
Why worry?
It didn't do any good anyway.
"That's reasonable severance pay," Sam
said. ale
"That's all you've got to says With
what I banked t'or you in New- York,
yo
u can hire that Jewish fella and
he'll be happy to take the job."
MacKenzie was the injured party. He
obviously expected Devereaux to
practice a little bit of his
well-advertised overreaction.
"Let's say I'll erupt with
enthusiasm when I'm looking at those
figures in a bank book in Boston with
my mother sitting across the room
complaining about the new management
at the Copley Plaza. Okay'?"
"Do you know something?" said
Hawkins, his eyes squinting. "You're
kind of weird."
"I'm. kind of. . ." Devereaux did not
finish the sentence. There was no
point.
There was the abrupt, episodic
clicking of high heels. Regina
Greenberg walked through the cathedral
arch into the drawing room. She was
dressed in a beige pants suit, the
rather severe jacket buttoned over
Titanics. She looked, well, rather
efficient, thought Sam. She smiled
briefly and addressed Hawkins.
"I've met with the staff. Five will
stay. Three couldn't; they'd have to
live in the village and I explained
that wasn't acceptable."
"I hope they weren't hurt."
Ginny laughed confidently "Hardly. I
spoke to each individually, and gave
all three two months' wages."
"The rest understand the
conditions?" MacKenzie reached into
his pocket for a fresh cigar.
"And their bonuses," said Ginny.
"Minimum three months. All with
families to explain that they've been
hired for resident staff work in
France for the duration. No questions
are to be asked."
Robert Ludlum - Road To Gandolfo.txt Page 31
