The Infant of Prague
- Автор: Granger Bill
- Серия: November Man #8
- Год: 1987
- Язык: французский
- Год: Warner
- ISBN: 0446347809
- Жанр: Триллеры
Электронная книга - «The Infant of Prague». Краткое содержание книги:
For in a humble Chicago parish church, the sacred statue of the Infant of Prague is found weeping real tears. A visiting Czech child star actress, transfigured by the wondrous event, declares, on live television, her intent to remain in American in the name of Christ and freedom.
Only an operative as cynical and seasoned as the November Man can sense the sinister link between two dramatic, yet apparently unrelated defections. A miracle has plunged him into a vast global adventure. And it will take a miracle to get him through it alive.
The defection of a highly visible Czech sparks an international crisis, and the November Man is caught in the middle.
“You can tell me about the trade. What was the message?”
“I want Anna returned to Prague. And you will be returned to your countrymen.”
“What did they say?”
“I use one of my old runners. One of my trusted runners, he is in Brussels now, he puts the message to your Section. No, don’t deny all this. There is Section and you are part of Section R. So they answer: Yes, but it will take several days to arrange. All right. But what do I learn now from my runner?”
“What do you learn now?”
The room was bleak with silence. Cernan stared at Devereaux with sadness, the look reserved for people we know are dying.
“Anna is kidnapped. It is the way it is in your violent country. A woman is killed, and Anna is gone. What a mad place is your country. I meet Americans and they all look mad to me. Is it the madness you all share that is destroying you? Madness. One minute I can talk to rational people and the next minute.…”
Devereaux saw tears. He did not expect tears. He felt suddenly shaken to see the tears. Why was this strong man crying?
Devereaux saw the hand tighten around the trigger of the very good copy of an Uzi.
“Let me ask you: Why were you assigned to this matter when you already were working to get Anna returned?”
Cernan blinked, the tears stopped, the eyes were wet. He stared at Devereaux as though trying to understand the question. And then he realized it was the same question he had been asked by Gorkeho in Prague. Why was Cernan so important to the matter of getting Miki back? Twelve hours ago, he had made a secret contact with Gorkeho and told him everything and Gorkeho, who had not approved the trade in advance, said he could proceed for as long as it was “useful.” It was Gorkeho who told him how frantic Henkin was to make contact with him. It was Gorkeho who told him not to contact Henkin under any circumstances. Intrigue was haunting Prague as well as this farmhouse in wet, cold Belgium.
“There is no connection.”
“You have made the connection,” Devereaux said.
“That is a way out for me. To get rid of you and get Anna returned.”
“No, Cernan.”
Cernan waited.
Devereaux stared at him, saw it almost as a shape. “You’re a senior man in your service. Is this the job of a senior man?”
“What do you mean?”
“To get Miki.”
“It might be.”
“Why was it you?”
“Because it was me.”
“Was this Anna Jelinak matter… was it ongoing?”
“I do not understand.”
“What were you doing about Anna when you were told to get Miki?”
“I do not see any connection.”
Devereaux felt sweat like fear on his lip. He wiped his hand across his mouth. He had to make Cernan see the same shape he saw.
“Miki is in film, Anna is in film, I never heard of Anna until a moment ago,” Devereaux said. “But the connection is obvious, isn’t it?”
“I ask Miki this about Anna Jelinak. Believe me, he does not understand this matter.”
“There has to be a connection and you have to be the connection, otherwise there’s no sense in why you’re involved in both of these matters.”
Cernan started. It was perfectly true and he did not understand it at all.
“If a man sees an accident one morning and then sees another, very similar accident in the afternoon, would you believe he had any connection to both accidents? Other than merely seeing them?”
“Yes,” Cernan agreed. “It is too much coincidence.”
Devereaux nodded. “But perhaps the first accident was merely an accident and the witness saw it. But maybe then he planned the second accident.”
And Cernan thought of Henkin. Cernan saw the shape of Henkin’s arrogant face and saw that everything had come from Henkin — the assignment to pick up Miki, the fact that Miki was for sale at all, the security arrangements for Anna, the urgent advice of Gorkeho twelve hours ago not to make contact with Henkin.… What was happening in Prague at this very moment?
“But Miki and Anna, they are… defectors… at practically the same time.”
“So they are accidents,” Devereaux said. “But at a late stage, you are called in to take part in both matters.”
“I was assigned the matter of Anna from the first. It was my security that had failed.”
“And Miki?”
“I had nothing to do with Miki.”
“Until when?”
Cernan thought about it.
“There is no connection.”
“You are the connection, Cernan.” Almost gently. “Who is Anna Jelinak? Why is she important?”
“She is important to the film of Czechoslo—”
“Let me interrupt. She is no more important than a tennis star defecting. Perhaps less important. Why are you willing to offer an American agent for the return of a little girl?”
“Because you are of no importance,” Cernan said.
“Why did you cry?”
Cernan did not deny it. He said nothing and thought of Henkin and thought of Anna kidnapped somewhere in the vast, hideous interior of the United States.
“Who is Anna?”
“A little girl.”
“She is more than that.”
Cernan looked at the American with heavy eyes. “It should be enough to be a child.”
Devereaux frowned.
Cernan stared at him and the gun felt heavy for the first time.
Devereaux understood and it brought no pleasure to him to solve the riddle.
“Anna is yours,” he said.
Cernan said nothing.
“Your child,” Devereaux said.
The countryside still pervaded the room. Outside the window, the single oak tree shed its last leaf of autumn.
“You guess this thing. You make a guess to everything.”
“And no one knows,” Devereaux said.
“Do you read hearts?”
“I read your eyes. You sit in Belgium with a prisoner and a returning defector and you sit here for two days, making a private deal that falls through. Anna is not that important.”
Cernan said, “Go to hell.”
“She never was that important. You arranged her security and it broke down. Suddenly, you’re assigned like a junior officer to pick up baggage in Belgium. Come on, Cernan. If you’re going to kill me now, tell me the truth.”
But Cernan pursed his lips like a child who would not speak, no matter how dire the threats made against him.
“Your child,” Devereaux said. And saw it was true.
Cernan stared at him without tears because he did not cry at all. Just for one moment and the American understood.
“It does not matter,” Cernan said.
“You make a trade for me and they accept. Then Anna is made to disappear. You know and I know that it wasn’t the same people in both cases. There is more here than Anna. And if it involves you, it must have to do with Miki.”
Cernan slowly put the Uzi on his lap. He was staring at Devereaux but only seeing his own thoughts. It was Henkin, he saw. If he was the connection at one level, Henkin was the connection at another level.
And Gorkeho understood. That’s what was going on in Prague. That’s why he was permitted to stay in the field a little longer. This was between Gorkeho and Henkin, and Anna was just a little puppet who didn’t understand anything at all.
And Cernan’s eyes filled with tears again.
20
The merchants of Bruges built the money houses in a time when there were kings and when faithful people in other parts of Europe built cathedrals. The very first money exchange was in Bruges and was called The Bourse because that was the name of the owner of the house. He engraved his family coat of arms on his house and it is still there. His coat of arms consisted of three money purses. Bruges was made of commerce and the sea. When the sea retreated, it left Bruges the fine old buildings of the first merchants and the canals and the great public squares and the lingering holiness of commerce past.