Shadow of a Broken Man

'Every nation that knew of his existence had only two choices,' I said. 'Force Rafferty into its camp-or kill him.'

Lippitt gave a curt affirmative nod, and Elizabeth Foster's head snapped back against the cushions of the sofa as though Lippitt had struck her a physical blow. Mike Foster swore softly under his breath.

'There were orders,' Lippitt continued quietly. 'They were the same type of orders that I'm sure went out to the intelligence divisions of the other countries.'

'Victor didn't die in an accident,' Elizabeth Foster whispered. 'When he refused to cooperate with you, you killed him. Or you tried to kill him.'

Lippitt made an end run around the implied question. 'We almost had him again,' he said. 'We were … so close.'

'The restaurant and the hospital?' I asked.

'Yes.' Lippitt fixed his eyes on me. 'I believe Rafferty discovered one more facet to his powers in that diner.'

My mind flashed back to the old waiter, Barney, and his insistence that Rafferty had made food 'bounce.' 'Telekinesis,' I said, the breath catching in my throat. 'He learned he could actually move objects by willing it.'

'Correct,' Lippitt responded evenly. 'Again, an accident that enhanced Rafferty's knowledge of his own powers. He was tired and on the run. He'd lost his suitcase in the struggle with my men, and his bankbook was in that suitcase. He had no place to hide and no funds, except what he had with him. He had only the clothes on his back. When the waiter tripped and Rafferty saw that food flying at him, he instinctively reached out and pushed it away with his mind. It was a reflex action, and it must have hurt him terribly; he passed out from the pain. The waiter got a cop, who called an ambulance. Finally the cop recognized Rafferty from the description we'd sent out. I was eventually contacted in Washington … but you know the rest. By the time I got there, it was too late.'

'Why hadn't the police been briefed?' Tal asked.

'Because all pertinent information concerning Victor Rafferty was-and is-Top Secret.'

'That's almost funny,' Tal said sardonically. 'Apparently everyone knew about Rafferty except the people who could have helped you.'

Lippitt ignored him. 'No one was aware at the time that Rafferty could actually move objects. Also, it must be said that he learned very quickly how to control his powers. He put the guard to sleep, then used telekinesis to open the bolt. That's how he escaped from the hospital.'

Lippitt, with his flat narrative, made it sound too easy. I remembered O'Connell's description of the fingernail scratches on the doorjamb, the blood on the floor: Rafferty had been in agony.

'Poor Victor,' Elizabeth Foster murmured. 'Poor, poor Victor.'

'How did you know Rafferty was at the metallurgy lab?' I asked. 'Or is that all a story too?'

Lippitt looked at me oddly for a moment. 'Rafferty called on the phone and told me he'd be there,' he said simply. He took a deep breath, as if preparing to swim a long distance underwater. 'It was a Sunday morning. He said that he wanted to meet me in his metallurgical lab. I had a plane bring me from Washington, and I went to the building at the appointed time.'

'Alone?' I asked.

'Yes, alone. He insisted on that, and I didn't want to risk losing him again.'

'Didn't you think that was rather dangerous?'

'Despite what had happened, I did not consider Rafferty a dangerous man,' Lippitt said quietly. 'I believed that the killing of the guard was an accident; there was nothing in Rafferty's past to indicate that he could suddenly become a killer. Now I can see that I was right: He never intended to kill me.'

'He was backed into a corner,' Tal said softly.

'True, but I still don't think he ever intended to kill me. He had a plan, but killing me wasn't a part of it.'

'But you were prepared to kill him,' I said.

'Yes,' he said. 'If I had to. Those were my orders, and I agreed with them. There would have been no need to kill him if he could have been persuaded to come with us. We'd have given him an entirely new identity. He would have undergone plastic surgery, voice training; even his mannerisms could have been altered. When we were finished, no one'-he nodded in Mrs. Foster's direction-'including his wife, would have recognized him. Then we would have made arrangements for his wife to join him.'

'After undergoing the same… 'adjustments'?'

'Yes. Naturally.'

'Christ, Lippitt,' I said, feeling a chill, 'you live in an ugly world.'

The agent's eyes glinted for a brief moment. 'Don't you dare patronize me, Frederickson. I know of too many brave men who have lost their lives; our 'ugly' world exists so that you may continue to live in your rather comfortable, relatively free world.' He paused, raised his eyebrows inquiringly. When I didn't say anything, the fire in his eyes cooled and he went on. 'In any case, I went to the building and found the door open. Rafferty was waiting for me with a gun, and he got the drop on me as I was going in. He told me he'd finally made up his mind what he was going to do: He was defecting to the Russians.'

Elizabeth Foster made a strangled noise. Her husband started to rise, but Lippitt ignored him. Foster clenched and unclenched his fists, then abruptly sat down again. Foster knew-we both knew-that what Lippitt was saying had a ring of truth to it, and fists were no defense against it. He'd found out what he wanted to know, and now he and his wife were going to have to live with the knowledge.

'Actually,' Lippitt continued, 'Rafferty's reasoning was quite sound, and I respected him for it; it was a practical, rather than an ideological, decision. No state could better guarantee his safety and his wife's than one which was authoritarian. Since he could not be free anyway, he would ally himself with the system that could afford him the best protection.'

'Victor never said anything about defecting!' Mrs. Foster cried. 'He just wanted to be left alonel'

Lippitt smiled thinly and continued. 'He indicated to me that his decision was irreversible. He then forced me to go with him up on a catwalk above the foundry floor. He said that he intended to shoot me, then drop my body into one of the furnaces.'

'No!' Elizabeth Foster cried, springing to her feet. 'Victor would never say anything like that! You're lying!'

Mike Foster gently but firmly gripped his wife's arm and pulled her back down onto the sofa beside him. She broke, burying her face in her husband's shoulder and sobbing. 'Let him tell his story,' Foster said to his wife. 'That doesn't mean we have to believe him.'

'I knew that I'd have to kill him,' Lippitt resumed in a low monotone. 'I tried to reason with him right up to the last moment. Then, I simply… beat him. We both fired at the same time; I was lucky. He was hit and… he fell over the railing into the furnace.'

The agent suddenly paused and licked his lips. Lippitt now seemed unusually agitated, and I didn't think it was for the obvious reason that he was admitting to Mrs. Foster that he'd killed her first husband. Something else was bothering him.

'I thought that was the end of the… problem,' Lippitt continued with a catch in his voice. 'I then took certain steps; I reported Rafferty's death through the same channels Dr. Llewellyn had used. I knew the report would be monitored, and I assumed the pressure would ease off. Mrs. Foster, at least, would be safe. It worked.' He quickly glanced in my direction. 'Then you began asking questions, Dr. Frederickson, and it started all over again.' He walked back to the window, as if trying to cleanse the dark business of the past in the wash of bright sunlight. 'I shot him,' he continued in a clipped voice. 'I saw him clutch at his stomach and fall over the railing into the furnace. . But now I understand that it didn't happen. It was an illusion. One more trick. My God, he made me see what he wanted me to see.'

'C'mon, Lippitt,' Mike Foster said, scorn and incredulity in his voice. 'You're trying to tell us that you saw Victor fall into the furnace, but he didn't actually fall?'

'That's exactly what I'm saying. It's the only explanation. And it means that his powers are far greater than even I knew.' He paused, turned, and looked at each of us. He must have seen more