thought he was.”
‘Maybe hes a better one.”.
rhaes sophistry.- She squeezed his jiand. A single~ overextended wave
lapped across their bare feet A silent gall swooped down from the sky into
the water offshore; its wings flapped against the surface, its neck shook
violently. The bird ascended screeching, no quarry In its beak.
‘Greenberg knows rve got a very unpleasant decision to make.”
Yoteve made it. He knows that, tm”
Matlock looked at her. Of course Greenberg knew; she knew, too, he thought.
“Therell be a lot more pain; perhaps more than justified.”
Thaes what theyll tell you. They’ll tell you to let them do it their way.
Qxiietly, efficiently, with as little
THE MATLOCK PAPER 383
embarrassment as possible. For everyone.*
“Maybe tes best; maybe they’re right.”
‘You don1 believe that for a secone No, I done
They walked in silence for a while. The jetty was in front of then-4 its
rocks placed decades, perhaps cenbuies ago, to restrain a long-forgotten
current. It was a natural fixture now.
As Nimrod had become a natural fixture, a logical extension of the
anticipated; undesirable but nevertheless expected. To be fought in deep
cover.
Mini-America … just below the surface.
Company policy, man.
Everywhere.
The hunters, builders. The killers and their quarry were making alliances.
Look to the children. They understand … We’ve enrolled thenL
The leaders never learn.
A microcosm of the inevitable? Made unavoidable because the needs were
real? Had been real for years?
And still the leaders would not learn.
‘Jason said once that truth is neither good nor bad. Simply truth. That’s
why he sent me this.* Matlock sat down on a large flat rock; Pat stood
beside him, The tide was coming in and the sprays of the small waves
splashed upward. Pat reached over and took the two pages of the newspaper.
‘Ilds is the truth then.” A statement.
`Their truth. Their judgment. Assign obvious labels and continue the game.
The good guys and the bad guys and the posse will reach the pass on time.
just in time. This time.”
Whaes your truth?’
384 Robert Ludlum
“Go back and tell the story. All of it.”
“They’ll disagree. They’ll give you reasons why you shoulddt. Hundreds of
them.”
“They won’t convince me.’
“Then theyll be against you. They’ve threatened; they won’t accept
interference. That’s what Jason wants you to know.”
“Thaes what he wants me to think about.”
Pat held the pages of the newspaper in front of her and struck a wooden
island match on the dry surface of a rock.
The paper burned haltingly, retarded by the Caribbean spray.
But it burned.
“Thaes not a very impressive funeral pyre,” said Matlock.
“It’ll do until we get back.”