Libra - Don Delillo [112]
“I’m not disappointed, Lee. This is solid work, the main essay in particular. I think it is definitely a prospect that you move here to Dallas with a new job, something more suited. You’ll come to my house. You’ll be nearby, for easy visits. I’ll tell you the most interesting thing about the house where I live. It is less than two miles from the house of General Walker.”
George stuck out his index finger and raised his thumb.
The door opened and a tall man with cropped gray hair walked in. He was very tan and wore a tan suit with a blue shirt and he had to be Marion Collings. George introduced them. Collings had the spare build, the leanness and fitness of an older man who wants you to know he is determined to outlive you.
George left.
“This essay you’ve written,” Collings said. “Very impressive, very thorough. I appreciate the fact you’ve allowed us to see it. You picked up things only a trained observer ordinarily spots. Many interesting facts about the radio plant and the workers. Well organized, a nice grasp of social interplay. I would say a good beginning. We have something solid to start us out.”
“I told George just about everything I remember that I didn’t put in ‘The Kollective.’ ”
“Yes, George and I have had our sit-down. I would say the major omission is glaring enough.”
“Which is?”
“Lee, if I may, it is not even remotely conceivable that you spent over two and a half years as a defector in the Soviet Union and remained free of contact with the KGB.”
“I had an interview with Internal Affairs, MVD, as final clearance for my departure.”
“Who cleared your entry? You applied for a visa in Helsinki and had it in two days. Normally a week is what it takes. We happen to know the Soviet consul in Helsinki at that time was a KGB officer.
“You may know it but I didn’t. They’re all over the place. That doesn’t mean I was doing any business. I went there to seek a better life.”
“Lee, if I may, once we saw that you wanted out of there, we helped smooth the way. You’re an interesting fellow. You’ve lived in the heart of the USSR for a long period. We want to have a relationship. We’re very pragmatic people. We don’t care what sort of affair you carried on with the Second Chief Directorate. You had a romance, you broke up. Fine. Happens all the time. Supply some details is all we’re looking for. We’re not the FBI. We don’t pursue with a vengeance, or apprehend and prosecute. We want a relationship. A give-and-take, okay?”
“Is the FBI watching me?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Collings said. “How would I know a thing like that?”
It was as if he’d been asked the melting point of titanium.
“Look, it’s simple. We want to know how you were handled. Who you saw, where you saw them, what they said. We don’t have to get into it right this minute. We purposely waited some weeks to debrief you. We want to be careful not to crowd you. We understand defection, disillusionment, mental pressures. This piece of writing you’ve done shows that you know exactly what kind of material is worth recording. Understand, we’re not asking for confessions or apologies. That’s not our agenda.”
He sat on the edge of George’s desk.
“A fact is innocent until someone wants it. Then it becomes intelligence. We’re sitting in a forty-story building that has an exterior of lightweight embossed aluminum. So what? Well, these dullish facts can mean a lot to certain individuals at certain times. An old man eating a peach is intelligence if it’s August and the place is the Ukraine and you’re a tourist with a camera. I can get you a Minox incidentally, any time. There’s still a place for human intelligence. George, for example. George gives us material that we promptly analyze and disseminate to other agencies.”
Lee said nothing.
“May I call you Lee?”
“All right.”
“Lee, you have no high-school diploma, only a so-called equivalency. You have no college degree. You have an undesirable discharge. You have almost three years in the USSR, which is either a gap in your employment record or it is three years in the USSR. Take your pick. Now, all I have