The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum Read Free Book Online Page A

diamond exchange on the Tolstraat, he undoubtedly would have been shot.
    He was admitted into the safe-house by a nondescript maid of indeterminate age, a servant convinced that the old house belonged to the retired couple who lived there and paid her. He said he had an appointment with the owner and his attorney. The maid nodded and showed him up the stairs to the second-floor sitting room.
    The old gentleman was there but not the man from State. When the maid closed the door, the owner spoke.
    “I’ll wait a few minutes and then go back up to my apartment. If you need anything, press the button on the telephone; it rings upstairs.”
    “Thanks,” said Scofield, looking at the Dutchman, reminded of another old man on a bridge. “My associate should be along shortly. We won’t need anything.”
    The man nodded and left. Bray wandered about the room, absently fingering the books on the shelves. It occurred to him that he wasn’t even trying to read the titles; actually he didn’t see them. And then it struck him that he didn’t feel anything, neither cold nor heat, not even anger or resignation. He didn’t feel
anything.
He was somewhere in a cloud of vapor, numbed, all senses dormant. He wonderedwhat he would say to the man who had flown thirty-five hundred miles to see him.
    He did not care.
    He heard footsteps on the stairs beyond the door. The maid had obviously been dismissed by a man who knew his way in this house. The door opened and the man from State walked in.
    Scofield knew him. He was from Planning and Development, a strategist for covert operations. He was around Bray’s age, but thinner, a bit shorter, and given to old-school-tie exuberance which he did not feel, but which he hoped concealed his ambition. It did not.
    “Bray, how
are
you, old buddy?” he said in a half-shout, extending an exuberant hand for a more exuberant grip. “My God, it must be damn near two years. Have I got a couple of stories to tell
you!
”
    “Really?”
    “
Have
I!” An exuberant statement, no question implied. “I went up to Cambridge for my twentieth, and naturally ran into friends of yours right and left. Well, old buddy, I got pissed and couldn’t remember what lies I told
who
about you! Christ Almighty, I had you an import analyst in Malaya, a language expert in New Guinea, an undersecretary in Canberra. It was hysterical. I mean, I couldn’t
remember
I was so pissed.”
    “Why would anyone ask you about me, Charlie?”
    “Well, they knew we were both at State; we were friends, everybody knew that.”
    “Cut it out. We were never friends. I suspect you dislike me almost as much as I dislike you. And I’ve never seen you drunk in my life.”
    The man from State stood motionless; the exuberant smile slowly disappeared from his lips. “You want to play it rough?”
    “I want to play it as it is.”
    “What happened?”
    “Where? When? At Harvard?”
    “You know what I’m talking about. The other night. What happened the other night?”
    “You tell me. You set it in motion, you spun the first wheels.”
    “We uncovered a dangerous security leak. A pattern of active espionage going back years that reduced the effectivenessof space surveillance to the point where we now know it’s been a mockery. We wanted it confirmed; you confirmed it. You knew what had to be done and you walked away.”
    “I walked away,” agreed Scofield.
    “And when confronted with the fact by an associate, you did bodily injury to him. To your
own man!
”
    “I certainly did. If I were you I’d get rid of him. Transfer him to Chile; you can’t fuck up a hell of a lot more down there.”
    “
What?
”
    “On the other hand, you won’t do that. He’s too much like you, Charlie. He’ll never learn. Watch out. He’ll take your job one day.”
    “Are you drunk?”
    “No, I’m sorry to say. I thought about it, but I’ve got a little acidity in my stomach. Of course, if I’d known they were sending you, I might have fought