— for personal reasons. Try as he might, Marks could find no mention anywhere of what those personal reasons might be.
That‘s when Willard, with a Cheshire Cat grin, told him there weren‘t any.
— I trust you‘re ready to start work, Willard said, — because Treadstone is back in business.
35
ON A MAGNIFICENT SUNNY DAY in Bali when May had just begun to bud, Suparwita arrived at the sacred temple of Pura Lempuyang. Not a cloud was in the sky as he climbed the dragon staircase and passed through the carved stone portal to the second temple high on the mountainside. Mount Agung, clear, completely free of clouds, and blue as the Strait of Lombok, rose up in all its splendor. Then, as Suparwita made his way toward a group of kneeling penitents, a shadow fell across the stones and he saw that Noah Perlis was waiting for him.
— You don‘t look surprised. Perlis wore his Balinese sarong and T-shirt as uncomfortably as a drug addict wears a suit.
— Why would I be surprised, Suparwita said, — when I knew you would return?
— I had nowhere else to go. Back in the States I‘m a wanted man. I‘m a fugitive now, that‘s what you wanted, isn‘t it?
— I meant for you to be an outcast, Suparwita said. -The two are not the same.
Perlis sneered. -You think you can punish me?
— I have no need of punishing you.
— I should have killed you when I had the chance, years ago.
Suparwita regarded him with his large liquid eyes. -It wasn‘t enough that you killed Holly?
Perlis appeared startled. -You have no proof of that.
— I don‘t need what you call proof. I know what happened.
Perlis took a step toward him. -Which is what, exactly?
— You followed Holly Marie Moreau back here from Europe. What you were doing with her there I can‘t presume to know.
— Why not? The sneer hadn‘t left Perlis‘s face. -You claim to know everything else.
— Why did you follow Holly back here, Mr. Perlis?
Perlis kept his mouth shut, then he shrugged as if feeling that it no longer mattered. -She had come into possession of something of mine.
— And how did that happen?
— She stole it, goddammit! I came back here to retrieve what was mine. I had every right-
— To kill her?
— I was going to say that I had every right to take back what she had stolen. Her death was an accident.
— You killed her without purpose, Suparwita said.
— I got it back from her. I got what I wanted.
— But of what use was it? Did you ever crack its secret?
Perlis remained silent. If he knew how to mourn, he would have done so already.
— This is why you‘ve come back here, Suparwita said, — not just to Bali, but to the very spot where you murdered Holly.
Perlis suddenly experienced a flicker of anger. -Are you a policeman now as well as a holy man or whatever it is you call yourself?
Suparwita produced the ghost of a smile that held nothing for Perlis to cling to. -I think it‘s fair to say that what Holly took from you, you yourself stole.
Perlis went white. -How could you possibly… how could you possibly know that? he whispered.
— Holly told me. How else?
— Holly didn‘t know that, only I knew it. He tossed his head contemptuously. -Anyway, I didn‘t come here to be interrogated.
— Do you know now why you came? Suparwita‘s eyes burned so brightly their fire was scarcely dimmed by the sun.
— No.
— But you do. Suparwita raised an arm, pointing to the bulk of Mount Agung rising in the stone archway.
Perlis turned to look, shading his eyes from the glare, but when he turned back Suparwita had vanished. The people were still at their endless praying, the priest was absorbed in God alone knew what, and the man beside him was counting his money in a mesmerizingly slow, even rhythm.
Then, as if without his own volition, Perlis found himself walking toward Mount Agung, the carved stone gate,
