The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum

‘His people wouldn’t accept that,’ said Eric Sundstrom.

‘In any event, they won’t have a choice, sir,’ answered Varak, his voice softly convincing. ‘The manipulation will take place in four stages. Within three months our basically anonymous man will rapidly become visible, within six months he will be relatively well known, and at the end of the year he will have a recognition quotient on a par with the leaders of the Senate and the House, the same demographics targeted. These may be considered phases one through three. The fourth phase, several months before the conventions, will be capped by appearances on the covers of Time and Newsweek as well as laudatory editorials in the major newspapers and on TV. With the proper financing in the required areas, all this can be guaranteed ‘ Varak paused, then added, ‘Guaranteed, that is, with the proper candidate, and I believe we’ve found him.’

The members of Inver Brass stared at their Czech coordinator in mild astonishment, then cautiously looked at one another.

‘If we have,” offered Margaret Lowell, ‘and he comes down off the mountain, I’ll marry him.’

‘So will I,’ said Gideon Logan ‘Mixed marriages be damned.’

‘Forgive me,’ interrupted Varak, ‘I did not mean to romanticize the prospect. He’s quite a normal person, the qualities I attributed to him are mostly a result of the confidence born of his wealth, which he earned by extremely hard work and taking risks in the right places at the right times. He’s comfortable with himself and others because he seeks nothing from others and knows what he is capable of himself.’

‘Who is he?” asked Mandel.

‘May I show him to you?” said Varak, speaking respectfully without replying as he took a remote control unit from his pocket and stepped away from the screen. ‘It’s possible some of you may recognize him, and I shall have to take back my remark about his anonymity.’

A bolt of light shot out from the console and the face of Evan Kendrick filled the screen. The photograph was in colour, accentuating Kendrick’s deep tan as well as the stubble of a beard and the strands of light brown hair that crept down over his ears and the back of his neck. He was squinting into the sun, looking across water, his expression at once studious and apprehensive.

‘He looks like a hippie,’ said Margaret Lowell.

‘The circumstances may explain your reaction,’ answered Varak. ‘This was taken last week, the fourth week of an annual journey he makes down the rivers of white water in the Rocky Mountains. He goes alone without company or a guide. ‘ The Czechoslovakian proceeded to advance the slides, giving each a beat of several seconds. The photographs showed Kendrick in various scenes of riding the rapids, on several occasions strenuously balancing his PVC craft and careening between the treacherous intrusion of jagged rocks, surrounded by sprays of wild water and foam. The mountain forests in the background served to emphasize the perilous smallness of man and his vessel against the unpredictable massiveness of nature.

‘Wait a minute!’ cried Samuel Winters, now peering through tortoiseshell glasses. ‘Hold that one,’ he continued, studying the photograph. ‘You never said anything about this to me. He’s rounding the bend heading towards the base camp below the Lava Falls.’

‘Correct, sir.’

‘Then he must have passed through the Class Five rapids above.’

‘Yes, sir. ‘

‘Without a guide?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s crazy! Several decades ago I rode those waters with two guides and I was frightened to death. Why would he do it?’

‘He’s been doing it for years—whenever he came back to the United States.’

‘Came back?’ Jacob Mandel leaned forward.

‘Until about six years ago he was a construction engineer and developer. His work was centered on the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. That part of the world is as far removed from the mountains and the rivers as one can imagine. I think he simply found a certain relief with the change of scenery. He’d spend a week or so on business then head out to the Northwest.’

‘Alone, you say,’ said Eric Sundstrom.

‘Not in those days, sir. He’d frequently take a female companion.’

‘Then he’s obviously not a homosexual,’ observed the only female member of Inver Brass.

‘I never meant to imply that he was.’

‘Nor did you mention anything about a wife or a family, which I’d think would be an important consideration. You simply said he now travels alone on what are obviously holidays.’

‘He’s a bachelor, madame.’

‘That could be a problem,’ inserted Sundstrom.

‘Not necessarily, sir. We have two years to address the situation, and given the probability factors, a marriage during an election year might have a certain appeal.’

‘With the most popular President in history in attendance, no doubt,’ said Gideon Logan, chuckling.

‘It’s not beyond possibility, sir.’

‘My God, you’re covering the bases, Milos.’

‘A moment, please.’ Mandel adjusted his steel-rimmed glasses. ‘You say he worked in the Mediterranean six years ago.’

‘He was in production then. He sold the company and left the Middle East.’

‘Why was that?’

‘A tragic accident occurred that took the lives of nearly all his employees and their entire families. The loss profoundly affected him.’

‘Was he responsible?’ continued the stockbroker.

‘Not at all. Another firm was charged with using inferior equipment.’

‘Did he in any way profit from the tragedy?’ asked Mandel, his gentle eyes suddenly hard.

‘On the contrary, sir, I checked that out thoroughly. He sold the company for less than half its market value. Even the attorneys for the conglomerate that bought him out were astonished. They were authorized to pay three times the price.’

The eyes of Inver Brass returned to the large screen and the photograph of a man and his craft careening around a wild bend in the rapids.

‘Who took these?’ asked Logan.

‘I did, sir,’ replied Varak. ‘I tracked him. He never saw me.’

The slides continued, and suddenly there was an abrupt change. The ‘prospect’ was no longer seen in the rugged clothes of the white water rapids or in day’s-end fatigues and T-shirts around a campfire, cooking alone over the flames. He was now photographed clean-shaven, his hair cut and combed, and dressed in a dark business suit, walking up a familiar street, an attach้ case in his hand.

‘That’s Washington,’ said Eric Sundstrom.

‘Now it’s the steps leading up to the Rotunda,’ added Logan with the next slide.

‘He’s on the Hill,’ interjected Mandel.

‘I know him!’ said Sundstrom, the fingers of his right hand pressing into his temples. ‘I know the face, and there’s a story behind that face but I don’t know what it is.’

‘Not the story I’m about to tell you, sir.’

‘All right, Milos.’ Margaret Lowell’s voice was adamant. ‘Enough’s enough. Who the hell is he?’

‘His name is Kendrick. Evan Kendrick. He’s the representative from the ninth district of Colorado.’

‘A congressman?’ exclaimed Jacob Mandel, as the photograph of Kendrick on the Capitol’s steps remained on the screen. ‘I’ve never heard of him, and I thought I knew just about everyone up there. By name, of course, not personally.’

‘He’s relatively new, sir, and his election was not widely covered. He ran on the President’s party line because in that district the opposition is nonexistent—winning the primary is tantamount to election. I mention this because the congressman does not appear to be philosophically in tune with numerous White House policies. He avoided national issues during the primary.’

‘Are you suggesting,’ Gideon Logan asked, ‘he has true independence and integrity?’

‘In a very quiet way, yes.’

‘Quiet and new and with a somewhat less than imposing constituency,’ said Sundstrom. ‘From that point of view your anonymity’s safe. Too safe, perhaps. There’s nothing more dismissible in political prime time than a newly elected, unheard-of congressman from an unknown district. Denver’s in the first, Boulder the second and the Springs in the fifth. Where’s the ninth?’

‘Southwest of Telluride, near the Utah border,’ replied Jacob Mandel, shrugging as if apologizing for his knowledge. ‘There were some mining stocks, very speculative, that we looked into several years ago. But that man on the screen is not the congressman we met and who tried rather desperately to persuade us to underwrite the issues.’

‘Did you underwrite them, sir?’ asked Varak.

‘No, we did not,’ answered Mandel. ‘Frankly, the speculation went beyond the calculated risks of venture capital.’

‘What you call in America a possible “scam”?’

‘We had no proof, Milos. We just backed away.’

‘But the congressional representative from that district did his best to enlist your support?’

‘Indeed he did.’

‘That is why Evan Kendrick is now the congressman, sir.’

‘Oh?’

‘Eric,’ interrupted Gideon Logan, shifting his large head to look at the academic inventor of space technology. ‘You said you knew him, at least his face.’

‘I do, I’m sure I do. Now that Varak’s told us who he is, I think I met him at one of those interminable cocktail parties in Washington or Georgetown, and I distinctly remember that someone said there was quite a story behind him… That was it. I never heard the story; it was simply a statement.’