The Parsifal Mosaic

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Book: The Parsifal Mosaic Read Free
Author: Robert Ludlum
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those of the faculty and administration whose support Harry thought might be helpful. Michael’s opinions had been sought “casually” over coffee, drinks and dinners; men and women had looked at him as if they considered him a promising candidate. Lewis had done his missionary work well. At the end of the fourth day Harry announced at lunch:
    “They like you!”
    “Why not?” his wife said. “He’s damned likable.”
    “They’re quite excited, actually. It’s what I said the other day, M.H. You’ve
been there
. Sixteen years with the State Department kind of makes you special.”
    “And?”
    “There’s the annual administration-trustees conference coming up in eight weeks. That’s when the supply-and-demandquotients are studied. Horseflesh. I think you’ll be offered a job. Where can I reach you?”
    “I’ll be traveling. I’ll call you.”
    He had called Harry from London two days ago. The conference was still in progress, but Lewis thought there would be an answer momentarily.
    “Cable me AX, Amsterdam,” Michael had said. “And thanks, Harry.”
    He saw the glass doors of the American Express office swing open just ahead. A couple emerged, the man awkwardly balancing the shoulder straps of two cameras while counting money. Havelock stopped, wondering for a moment if he really wanted to go inside. If the cable was there, it would contain either a rejection or an offer. If a rejection, he would simply go on wandering—and there was a certain comfort in that; the floating passivity of not planning had become something of value to him. If an offer, what then? Was he ready for it? Was he prepared to make a decision? Not the kind of decision one made in the field, where it had to be instinctive if one was to survive, but, rather, a decision to commit oneself. Was he capable of a commitment? Where were yesterday’s commitments?
    He took a deep breath, consciously putting one foot in front of the other, and approached the glass doors.
    POSITION AVAILABLE VISITING PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT FOR PERIOD OF TWO YEARS. ASSOCIATE STATUS PENDING MUTUAL ACCEPTANCE AT THE END OF THIS TIME. INITIAL SALARY TWENTY-SEVEN-FIVE. WILL NEED YOUR REPLY WITHIN TEN DAYS. DON’T KEEP ME HOLDING MY BREATH .
    EVER, HARRY .
    Michael folded the cable and put it in his jacket pocket; he did not go back to the counter to write out his own cable to Harry Lewis, Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.A. It would come later. It was enough for the moment to be wanted, to know there was a beginning. It would take several days to absorb the knowledge of his own legitimacy, perhaps several days thereafter to come to grips with it. For in the legitimacy was the possibility of commitment; there was no red beginning without it.
    He walked out onto the Damrak, breathing the cold air ofAmsterdam, feeling the damp chill floating up from the canal. The sun was setting; briefly blocked by a low-flying cloud, it reemerged, an orange globe hurling its rays through the intercepting vapors. It reminded Havelock of an ocean dawn on the coast of Spain—on the Costa Brava. He had stayed there all night that night, until the sun had forced itself up over the horizon, firing the mists above the water. He had gone down to the shoulder of the road, to the sand and the dirt …
    Stop! Don’t think about it. That was another life
.
    Two months and five days ago by sheer chance Harry Lewis had stepped out of a taxi and started to change the world for an old friend. Now, two months and five days later, that change was there to be taken. He would take it, Michael knew, but something was missing: change should be shared, and there was no one to share it with, no one to say, What will you teach?
    The tuxedoed waiter at the Dikker en Thijs ground the lip of the flaming brandy glass into the silver receptacle of sugar; the ingredients would follow for café Jamique. It was a ridiculous indulgence, and probably a waste of very good liqueur, but Harry Lewis had insisted they each

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