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The
Debriefing by Robert Littell Rating: ••• (Recommended) |
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Indistinguishable Robert Littell’s
success with his New York Times bestseller
The
Company, led Overlook Press to reprint some of his earlier spy novels,
including one we missed in the late 1970s and recently read, The
Debriefing. This tightly written exploration into deceit reveals that the
difference between the good guys and the bad guys can become
indistinguishable, a disturbing conclusion. Along the way, Littell delivers fine writing, a thoughtful exploration
of the ways of espionage, and the choices individuals make in exploiting
power. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 3, pp. 28-35: The
image that leaps to Stone’s mind is that of a lap dog in heat—a combat
between instinct and decorum. With decorum coming out second best. He spots
it first in the taut faces of the Marine guards at the entrance, in their
hands making edgy passes over the undone flaps of their Navy-issue holsters.
He sees it in the maniacal gleam in the eyes of the ambassador’s woman
Friday, a near-sighted career officer who speaks seven languages, none of them
really well. Muttering under her breath in ancient Greek, she plucks Stone
out of a gaggle of journalists being held at bay by the Marines, plows
through corridors full of milling staffers as if she is the prow of an
icebreaker, barges past the civilian security contingent into the oak-paneled
inner sanctum, with the limp American flag at one end, hissing hysterically,
“He’s come, he’s here, I have him in tow.” Stone sees it—shoots of panic breaking
through what appears to be an ordered surface—in the person of his holiness
the ambassador, a tall, heavy-handed, very rich political appointee whose
name appears regularly on someone or other’s ten-worst-dressed list. “Welcome
aboard—yes, indeed—welcome aboard,” gushes the ambassador, wringing Stone’s
hand as if he is trying to pump up water from a reluctant well, smiling all
the while with his facial muscles but not his eyes. “Mighty glad,” he mutters,
and he repeats it several times without specifying precisely what he is
mightily glad about. He takes Stone by the elbow and steers him toward an
enormous suede couch, out of earshot of the half dozen or so first and second
and third secretaries, clipboards at the ready, parked around the vast room.
Stone, worn out from the trip, sinks gratefully into the soft cushions,
catches a glimpse of several framed photographs over the couch. One shows the
ambassador chatting amiably with a woman Stone takes to be his
government-issue wife; others show him chatting amiably with various
Presidents or Heads of State or Film Stars. In every photograph his
expression is precisely the same: his shoulders are hunched, his head is
thoughtfully inclined, frozen in a nod of agreement, his lips are pursed, his eyes are squinting as if he is hard of hearing. “Let me put you in the picture,” the
ambassador begins. In keeping with the atmosphere, which has more in common
with a library reading room than an ambassador’s inner sanctum, his voice is
a hoarse whisper. “What I’ve got is trouble with a capital T.” He
impatiently waves off one of the young second secretaries, who tiptoes over
with an outstretched clipboard marked “Incoming—Eyes Only.” “I’ve got this Russki courier, name of Kulakov,
holed in upstairs with a diplomatic pouch chained to his wrist which he says
will blow up if anybody tries to take it away from him by force. I’ve got
State breathing down my neck to open the pouch and take a look-see what’s in
it, never mind the guy it’s chained to. That’s for starters. I’ve got the
Russian ambassador lodging diplomatic protests with anybody dumb enough to
return his calls. I’ve got security people at the airport telling me the Russkies are flying so many warm bodies into town you’d
think they booked the Parthenon for a convention of Old Bolsheviks. I’ve
got—” One of several phones on the large
mahogany desk purrs. The woman Friday lifts the receiver, listens, says
something in modern Greek, smothers the mouthpiece
in her ample bosom. “Mr. Ambassador,” she
stage-whispers, “I’m afraid it’s the undersecretary of foreign affairs, Mr. Tsistopoulos, on the line again. He is very insistent.
They have him on hold.” “Hold him on hold,” whines the
ambassador. To Stone, he offers this as a potential last straw. “I’ve got the
Greek undersecretary of foreign affairs, Mr. Whoosis—” The woman Friday coughs discreetly to
catch the ambassador’s attention. “Mr. Tsis-to-poulos,”
she prompts him. The ambassador’s eyes strain for a
moment at the top of their sockets. “I’ve got the Greek government climbing
the wall for us to get this guy out of here, with or without his pouch,
before the whole diplomatic shebang comes down around our heads. I’ve got the
English and French and Germans—our Germans, of course, not theirs—clamoring
for a piece of the action. I’ve got a passel of congressmen of Greek ancestry
flying in day after tomorrow. I’ve got a reception on some Sixth Fleet
aircraft carrier scheduled for five P.M. I’ve got an operation that’s ground
to a dead standstill. Did you see them standing around the halls downstairs?
You couldn’t get a passport processed here in anything under two months, for
love or money. What else I got? I’ve got journalists from countries I never
heard of shooting questions I’m not sure I’m supposed to answer even if I
knew the answer, which most of the time I don’t. Sweet Jesus! For all I
know, the only thing in the damn pouch is Brezhnev’s unpaid laundry bills!” The catalogue of trials and
tribulations has worn the ambassador down; feeling very sorry for himself, he sinks back onto the couch and presses a large
palm to his large forehead to calm a migraine he senses is lurking just
behind his eyes. “What I need,” he says weakly—for a fleeting instant Stone
is actually afraid the ambassador will burst into tears—”is official guidance.” Drained, the ambassador stares hopefully
at Stone. The woman Friday and the army of first and second and third
secretaries actually take a step or two in his direction. Stone studies his shoes longer than he
has to; he can’t resist. He wonders at what point silences become silly, at
what point someone will suddenly see the ridiculousness of it all and burst
into laughter. But everyone holds out. When Stone finally looks up, the faces
peering at him are still intense. “Mr. Ambassador,” Stone says slowly. The
sound of a human voice speaking out loud echoes through the vast office and
appears to shock several of the secretaries. “I’m going to do better than
give you guidance. In two hours, two and a half on the outside, anybody asks
you about the Russian upstairs, you’ll laugh and say, ‘What Russian are you
talking about?” There are two Marine sergeants posted
in the stairwell, and two embassy security men outside the door of the room
within a room, constructed by the Seabees so embassy people could talk shop
without worrying whether their conversations were being picked up by hidden
microphones or delicate sensors that can lift voice vibrations off
windowpanes. Inside, the decor is State Department Conference Room, beige,
with the only touch of color coming from a bouquet of plastic daffodils in a
vase filled with the stale water that nobody has changed for years. Two more
civilian security types are playing gin across a corner of the conference
table and casting an occasional bored look at their charge, the diplomatic
courier Kulakov, who is stretched out on the cot
that has been set up for him. His face at first glance seems like a death
mask: leaden features that will never change expression, eyes that appear to
have closed from the weight of the lids. The diplomatic pouch, still chained to
Kulakov’s left wrist, is in full view on his
chest. As Stone enters, Kulakov
swings his legs off the bed, sits up, gazes dully at
the feet of the new arrival. Stone addresses the security men.
“Could I trouble you gentlemen to step outside for a few moments?” They look at one another, then back at Stone. “We got instructions to maintain
ourselves here,” one starts to protest. “It’s all right,” the ambassador’s
woman Friday stage-whispers from the doorway. “He’s from Obediently, the two collect their
playing cards and cigarettes and leave. Stone scrapes one of their chairs
over to the cot, sits down, without a word offers Kulakov
a cigarette. The Russian studies the pack as if he is drawing lots and there
is a prize to be had for a good guess. Eventually he settles on a cigarette
and plucks it from the box. He accepts the book of matches, looks without
curiosity at the advertisement on the cover, strikes one. His fingers tremble
on the match. Stone looks away so as not to embarrass him. “What. . . are.. . you?” Kulakov
asks in his slow, accented English. Stone answers in Russian. “I’m a
representative of the American government. I’m here to help you.” There is a spark of interest in Kulakov’s eyes—the first Stone has seen. “You speak
Russian”—Kulakov reverts to his own language—”so
you are from the famous CIA.” Stone isn’t from the CIA, but he
doesn’t correct him, not now, not ever. “I’m here to protect you,” he says.
“To protect you and to help you. This is the beginning of a new life for you.
The first step.” Stone is careful to use short
sentences, to deal with Kulakov as he would deal
with a child, but Kulakov’s attention wanders
anyhow. “My stockings got wet,” he complains. He takes a deep drag on his
cigarette, chokes on the smoke. “I don’t know how they got wet. I must have
walked somewhere in water. I must have. . .“ The thought trails off; Kulakov makes an effort to hang on to the thread, but it
slips through his fingers. Suddenly he leaps to his feet and starts pacing
agitatedly. “Why is there no window in this room? Where is the window? What
month are we, January or February?” He returns to the cot, grips Stone’s
wrist. “I must telephone Stone’s eyes drift to the diplomatic
pouch. Kulakov follows his gaze, clutches it to
him. A cloud passes across his face. Dark suspicions hang there like suits in
a closet, cleaned, pressed, ready to wear. “Would you be willing,” Stone asks
quietly, “to let me have the pouch?” “When I arrive in “Do you have any idea what’s in it?” Kulakov can’t restrain a sneer. “Papers that are too important to send through the mail.” The woman Friday suddenly pokes her
head in the doorway. “Do you have the pouch?” she stage-whispers in English. Kulakov, startled, clutches the chain in his right hand
and prepares to pull on it. “Get out,” Stone coldly orders her.
“Don’t open that door again until I tell you to.” The woman Friday shrinks
back in confusion. The door clicks closed. “Have you eaten?” Stone turns back to Kulakov. “Have you had something to drink?” The Russian nods. “They gave me a
sandwich, a beer.” “Listen to me carefully,” Stone tells
him. “If all we wanted was the goddamn pouch, we could have slipped you a
drug and taken it. All we had to do then was find the key. It will be hidden
in a coat lining, or tucked behind a collar. We could have taken the pouch.
We could have dumped you back into the hands of the local KGB. But that’s not
how we operate. We’re not like them. You’ll see that for yourself, Kulakov. You’ll see we’re not like them. You keep
the pouch. I’ll take you to “Okay,” Kulakov
agrees. “Okay.” Stone stands up. “I know this
is very difficult for you—not knowing what’s going to happen to you,
wondering if you did the right thing after all. You have to hang on to two
things. You can’t undo what you’ve done. If you go back, they’ll kill you.
The second thing to hang on to is the belief that it will all work out.” He
puts a kindly hand on Kulakov’s shoulder—the first
of many gestures Stone will make to win his confidence. “It will work out, I
promise you. It always works out.” The arrangements take longer than Stone
thought they would. He has difficulty getting authorization from the Navy to
commandeer one of their mail planes parked on the Fifteen minutes after the convoy
departs, a small Greek van with the faded markings of a laundry company on
the panel sides pulls unobtrusively to a side door. Two workmen in white
overalls carry in several large straw hampers, and return moments later with
the hampers full of dirty linen, which they stow in the back. The van starts
off down the side streets in the general direction of the coast. In one of
the narrow back alleys in the rat’s maze of roads between At that moment, the ambassador’s
bulletproof Cadillac, with Kulakov in the back seat
and Stone riding shotgun, is pulling through an unmarked gate of the Robert
Littell has written more than a dozen novels, and
in The
Debriefing, his stark economy of words increases the compact unity of the
novel, and allows readers to appreciate the nuances of behavior unfolding on
these pages. Steve
Hopkins, August 26, 2004 |
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ã 2004 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the September
2004 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Debriefing.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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