Jeff Abbott - Panic
Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Jeff Abbott - Panic» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Жанр: Триллер, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.
- Название:Panic
- Автор:
- Жанр:
- Год:неизвестен
- ISBN:нет данных
- Рейтинг книги:5 / 5. Голосов: 1
-
Избранное:Добавить в избранное
- Отзывы:
-
Ваша оценка:
- 100
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Panic: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация
Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «Panic»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.
Panic — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком
Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «Panic», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.
Интервал:
Закладка:
Carrie traced Jargo’s face, looked at Mitchell’s. ‘There’s a resemblance with your dad.’
‘I don’t see it.’
‘Their mouths,’ she said. ‘He and Jargo have the same mouth. Look at their eyes.’
Now he saw the similarity in the curve of the smile. ‘They’re both just grinning big.’ He didn’t want to look at the men’s eyes – the nearly identical squint. It couldn’t be, he thought. It couldn’t be.
She inspected the back of the photo. ‘It just says Artie, John, Julie.’
He flipped over to the other picture of Jargo that Phyllis had shown him. ‘John Cobham.’
‘Cobham. Not Smithson.’ She clasped both his hands in hers.
‘The photos are faded,’ he said in a thin voice. ‘It blurs features. Makes everyone look the same.’
She leaned back. ‘Forget it. I’m sorry. Back to what you said. Whether Bedford knows. He must not, he wouldn’t have bothered to send us here.’
‘So what are you going to tell him?’
‘The truth, Evan. Why not?’
‘Because maybe, maybe this is a CIA embarrassment Bedford doesn’t know about. Bast brought these kids here, set up names for them, made it hard for anyone to ever trace their records, and he worked for the CIA.’ Evan leaned forward. ‘Maybe the CIA took these young kids and raised them to become spies and assassins.’
‘That’s a crazy theory. The CIA would never do this.’
‘Don’t take the CIA’s side automatically.’ Evan lowered his voice, as though Bedford sat in the next booth. ‘I’m not attacking Bedford. But don’t tell me what the Agency – or maybe a small group of misguided people in the Agency – might or might not do, or have done over forty years ago, because we don’t know. Bast was CIA. He brought our parents here. For a reason.’
Carrie held up a hand. ‘Assume you’re right. But, at some point, this group took on new names and new lives, and they all went to work for Jargo. Why? That’s the question.’
‘Bast died. Jargo took over.’
‘Jargo killed Bast. It has to be.’
‘Maybe. At the least, Jargo had a hold on our parents and maybe these other kids. An unbreakable hold. I want to go to London.’
‘To find out about Alexander Bast.’
‘Yes. And to find Hadley Khan. He knew about the connection between Bast and my parents. It can’t be coincidence.’
‘It can’t be coincidence, either, that your mom picked now to steal the files, to run. She knew you’d been approached about Bast.’
‘I never told her. Never. You know I don’t talk about my films when I’m concepting. You were the first person I told.’
‘Evan. She knew. You e-mailed Hadley Khan, trying to find out why he left you that package about Bast. She could have looked on your computer. Maybe she saw Bast’s name in an e-mail to Hadley. Or when she met me… maybe I reminded her of my dad. Maybe she was afraid you’d be recruited. And she just wanted a permanent escape hatch for your family.’
‘She spied on me.’ He knew it was true. ‘My own mother spied on me.’
She reached past their cold coffee cups to take his hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Evan.’
The photo of Bast, scattered among the pictures of their parents and Jargo a lifetime ago, smiled up at them.
They called Bedford from the plane and explained what they had found. ‘We want to go to London,’ Evan said. ‘My mother’s last travel photo assignment was there. Hadley Khan is there. And Bast died there. Can you get the CIA office in London to get us the complete files on Bast’s murder?’
‘There is no record in Bast’s file about this orphanage,’ Bedford said. ‘Are you sure it’s him in the photo?’
‘Yes. Could his record have been expunged if someone at the CIA wanted to hide his involvement?’
‘Anything is possible.’ Bedford’s voice sounded tight, as though the rules of engagement had just been rewritten. Evan could see the heightened tension on Carrie’s face: What the hell are we dealing with here?
‘London,’ Evan said. ‘Can we go?’
‘Yes,’ Bedford said. ‘If Carrie feels well enough to travel.’
‘I’m fine. Tired. I can sleep during the flight,’ Carrie said. ‘I’ll arrange a pickup for you in the London office. I’ll talk to our travel coordinator, but I believe you’ll have to have a fresh pilot. Change in Washington. And, Carrie, I’ll have a doctor check you before you leave for Britain, and another doctor for when you get to London.’
‘Thank you, Bricklayer.’
Bedford hung up. Carrie went to the restroom. Evan closed his eyes to think.
He heard Carrie return to her seat. He kept his eyes shut. The jet roared above Ohio, turning toward Virginia. Leaving a patch of ground that was the first step in the long lie of his family’s existence.
He pretended to be back in the study in his Houston house, digital tape downloaded onto his computer and him threading his way through twenty hours of images, paring away all the extraneous gunk and talk from the heart of the story he wanted to tell the audience sitting in the quiet dark. He had read once that Michelangelo just took away the chunks of marble that didn’t belong and found the David hiding within the mass of stone. His David was the truth about his parents, the information that would free his father.
So what was the true story, where was the subtle art under the block of marble?
He opened his eyes. Carrie sat, staring ahead of her, hunched as though caught in a chill wind.
Suddenly his heart filled with… what? He didn’t know. Pity, maybe, sadness, in that neither of them had asked to be born into this disaster. But she had chosen to stay in it. First for her parents, then for Bedford. And now for him.
The weight of what he owed her, as opposed to the confusion and pain from her earlier lies, settled onto his heart. ‘What are you thinking of?’ he asked.
‘Your father,’ she said. ‘You look like him. In your smile. In those photos, your father had a very innocent smile. I was wondering if he is scared. For himself, for you.’
‘Jargo’s told him a thousand lies, I’m sure.’
‘He only has to tell one really good one.’
‘One wasn’t good enough to fool you,’ Evan said.
‘I wonder if our parents were ever afraid we would find out the truth and turn away from them.’
‘I’m sure they must have been. Even when they knew we loved them.’
‘But my father recruited me, he pulled me into this world, the same way Jargo did to Dezz. I still don’t understand why he did it.’ But she sounded tired, not angry.
‘We don’t know he had a choice, Carrie. Or maybe he hoped if you were involved in the business, you wouldn’t reject him.’
‘I would have loved him, no matter what. I thought he knew that.’
‘I’m sure he did.’
She shook her head. ‘I just feel now, he had this whole life I never knew. A whole set of thoughts and worries and fears that he had to keep secret. It’s as if I didn’t know him at all. Probably that’s how you feel about your dad.’ Or me, he waited for her to say, but she didn’t.
He cleared his throat. ‘I only know I love the dad that I know, and I have to believe that’s the truest part of my father, no matter what else he has done.’
‘I know. I feel the same. You would have liked my father, Evan.’
‘You must miss him.’
‘My God, seeing him in those pictures, so young… it’s still getting to me.’ She wiped at her eyes. He moved into the seat next to hers. Put his arm around her. Brushed the tears from her cheek.
‘They didn’t trust us with the truth,’ she said after a moment.
‘They were trying to protect us.’
‘That was all I wanted to do with you. Protect you. I’m sorry I failed.’
Читать дальшеИнтервал:
Закладка:
Похожие книги на «Panic»
Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «Panic» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.
Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «Panic» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.