Joseph Kanon - The Prodigal Spy

“Was he any better?”

“Times change, Nick,” he said gently.

“You think he’s changed?”

“Dick? No. He doesn’t have an idea in his head. Never did.” He took a sip of wine. “He had instincts, though. I guess that was all he needed.”

“And now his instincts are telling him to end the war.”

“No, the polls tell him that. He just doesn’t know how.”

“So you’re going to help him.”

“I’m going to help him.” Larry nodded. “My gray hair. My years of experience,” he said sarcastically. “You can read about it in the papers. I’m going to give him-” He searched. “Credibility. Self-preservation’s a powerful instinct. You can work with somebody who’s got that. They’ll do anything, if you find them an out.”

“No matter what they said yesterday.”

“They don’t remember yesterday. They’re not stuck in the past.”

Nick took the point and looked away. “What if you’re kidding yourself?”

“Well, what if? I don’t think we can wait another four years to find out. This thing-riots, for Christ’s sake. It’s like watching somebody having convulsions. Sometimes it feels like another country to me.” His voice was almost wistful, and Nick saw suddenly that he was older, propped up by the straight shoulders of his tailored suit. “You wonder where the other one went.” Larry looked up. “Nothing’s been happening in Paris, you know. Nothing. They argue about where to sit.”

“And you’re going to change that.”

Larry said nothing, then leaned forward, a gesture at once earnest and conspiratorial. “We have to save face, Nick. We can’t get out of this otherwise. Does it really matter if it’s Nixon’s face that’s being saved?”

Nick looked away. “Why tell me, Larry? What difference does it make?”

Larry kept his eyes fixed on him. “When you lie down with dogs, you pick up a few fleas. Maybe I want you to know why I’m doing it before they start to bite. You’re my son, Nick,” he said, the words drawing Nick back. “I don’t want to be one of your bad guys.”

Nick looked at him, touched and disoriented, as if someone had tried to embrace him in this public, overdressed room. “I’d never think that,” he said.

Larry leaned back in his seat, drawing away. “I know what he is. I’m not buying a car from him. I just want him to make the peace. You don’t have to be honorable to do that. Not even a little. Not to make a deal.”

“You just need a good lawyer.”

Larry nodded, with a faint smile. “You just need a good lawyer.”

“Who knows his way around. God, how you love all this, Larry,” he said, then stopped, suddenly hearing another voice, back at the study door.

But Larry had heard only his. “That’s how it gets done, Nick. Nothing ever got decided in the streets.” He paused, letting the ball hit its court, then shifted in his chair. “Anyway, I didn’t bring you down here to argue about Nixon. I wanted to talk to you before your mother comes down. She hates this sort of thing-she thinks we’re all immortal. Of course, she may be,” he said, smiling.

“What do you mean, immortal? Is something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing like that. I’m in the pink. Twenty pounds too pink, according to my doctor, but what does he know?”

He caught Nick’s look. “I’m fine, Nick. It’s not that.” He motioned to the waiter to refill his wineglass. “But I’m not getting any younger either, so we have to think about these things.”

“What things?”

“Money.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Then, seeing Nick’s face, he laughed. “No, I’m not trying to give you a fiver. Here.” He handed Nick a card. “There are some papers you need to sign. Needles is sending them to that address-it’s the firm they use over here. They may already be here, for all I know. Anyway, give a call and they’ll set up a time, okay? It’s not very complicated, but they can walk you through them. Of course, you can still draw on the trust, but this will be yours outright.”

“Larry, what is all this? I don’t need any money.”

“It’ll all be yours one day, Nick. Unless your mother runs through it first. Which she’s capable of doing,” he said, a verbal wink. “Anyway, it’s taxes. Needles says if I don’t start signing some of it over now, the Government will get it later. I’ve given Uncle Sam the best years of my life. I don’t have to give him all my money too. So why wait?”

Nick looked at the card, too surprised to respond. Larry’s heir. He ran his finger along the edge. It was just a card, a harmless token of this easy generosity, yet he felt that merely putting it in his pocket would mark a turning, make what had been provisional something permanent, a formal acceptance.

“You don’t have to give me anything, Larry,” he said quietly. “I never expected-”

Who else?“

“What about your family?”

“Who? My sister? I wouldn’t give Phyllis the time of day. Besides, she’s got her own money.” He leaned forward again.

“Nick, you’re my family. Legally you’re my son. I’m not likely to have another one.” He covered Nick’s hand with his own. “Anyway, I’m happy with the one I’ve got.”

Nick looked up from the card. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, ‘thank you’ is always appropriate.”

Nick nodded slowly. “Thank you,” he said, then pocketed the card, feeling a lightheaded letting-go. He took in the jewel-case room and grinned. “Does this mean I’m rich?”

“Comfortable. You don’t have to vote Republican yet.”

Nick smiled. “No strings?”

“No strings. Of course, you have to take care of it if you want to keep it. There’s always that string. But talk to Needles when you get back. He never loses a dime.”

“Am I coming home?”

“When you do,” Larry said, maneuvering. “You don’t want to stay away too long.”

“What’s wrong with London?” Nick said lightly. “I’m having a great time. Girls try to pick me up in the street. People take me to lunch and give me money. I’d be crazy to leave.”

“Just don’t let Wiseman talk you into another year. You’re not getting any younger either.”

“And now I have-responsibilities,” Nick said, toying with it. “All those money strings reeling me back in. Was that the idea?” He smiled. “You’re an operator, Larry, I have to hand it to you.”

“You haven’t got it yet,” Larry said, playing along. “It has the opposite effect on most people. Maybe you’ll go wild instead.”

“No. You know me. I was Eagle Scout, remember? Look,” he said, leaning forward. “I know what you’re worrying about. I haven’t gone AWOL. This is‘-he waved his hand-’I don’t know. R and R, I guess. I’ll finish the degree. Then after, I’ll go home and put on a suit and everything’ll work out just the way you want it to. You don’t have to buy my way back.”

Larry looked at him and smiled. “Then there’s nothing more I could ask,” he said, and for an instant Nick thought he would actually reach over and shake hands.

“You’ll think of something,” Nick said, teasing.

“Well, don’t tell the ambassador where you were this morning. Ah, here’s your mother.” He glanced toward the entrance. Two maitre d’s were leading her across the room, a liner guided by tugboats, and Nick watched, amused, as heads bobbed up in the wake.

“They’ll take you at two-thirty,” she said, touching the back of Nick’s neck as she took her seat. “Downstairs. Evangeline’s thrilled you’re coming.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Well, she is. You know how she loves a party. Sad, really, their having to leave. She’ll miss all this,” she said, waving her hand, as if the room were an extension of the ambassador’s residence. “Have you ordered? They’ve got five hundred coming for drinks, if you can believe it. Sort of a last hurrah, I suppose. I wonder who they’ll send.”