In private. You owe me that much.'
Lippitt ignored him, spoke directly to the senators. 'The man with me, in case you don't know him, is Lieutenant General Lester Bean, U.S. Army, retired. I believe you will be interested in what he has to say, since he was Colonel Kendry's commanding officer in Viet Nam, and both men have had extensive dealings with Mr. Madison. General Bean will testify to the fact that Orville Madison was Colonel Kendry's C.I.A. controller-something which I believe Mr. Madison has denied. He also has a great many other things to tell you about Mr. Madison, and is prepared to present certain U.S. Army documents which will shed a great deal of light on an incident that occurred in and around a Hmong village in Laos many years ago, Colonel Kendry's surrender to the authorities for what we might call a breach of military discipline, and Mr. Madison's key involvement in the disposition of that case. It was soon after this disposition that this committee was informed of the cancellation of the so-called Archangel plan.'
Lippitt paused, and for almost half a minute there was not a sound in the chamber. Then, moving almost as one, the five senators, marshal, and two aides turned to stare at the man sitting at the far end of the broken table. Suddenly Orville Madison began to tremble, almost imperceptibly at first, then with tremors that moved in waves up and down his entire body.
'Lippitt,' Madison said in a hoarse voice as he leaned forward on his knuckles, 'stop this. You're making a big mistake. The president needs me.'
Lippitt continued to ignore him. 'General Bean came to me some weeks ago,' he said to the senators. 'It was the same evening that President Shannon announced the choices for his cabinet. General Bean told me that he feared for his life, and that he wished to share with me certain classified documents he had secretly photocopied and taken with him when he retired from the military. Frankly, I did not take the general's fears seriously, and I refused to look at documents which were, in effect, stolen. What I did do, out of courtesy, was invite the general to spend the night in my home. In the morning, we learned that his home had burned to the ground during the night, and that the police strongly suspected arson.'
'After making arrangements for General Bean to stay in one of our own safe houses, I began my own investigation into just what-and how big-the problem was. It quickly became apparent that the problem was a big one indeed. In order to keep Mr. Madison off my trail, and the general's, I deemed it necessary to cut off all communications with everyone-including my dear friends the Fredericksons, to whom I owe my life, even when I knew they desperately needed my help. All of us, gentlemen-Colonel Kendry, Mongo and Garth, General Bean and myself-have sacrificed a great deal to come to this juncture; we have risked our own lives, and the lives of beloved friends, and we have had friends die, all so that, finally, the elected representatives of this great nation would be given an opportunity to do what they are supposed to do, namely, show that we are a nation of laws. This, gentlemen, is the moment of truth, and none of us is leaving this room until the evidence is read into the record, and until you have decided how to deal with a president who appears to be as out of control as the man he wants for his secretary of state.'
'Tell Mom and Dad I love them,' Garth whispered in my ear as Lester Bean sat down at the witness table and pulled the microphone over in front of him. 'Try to explain, and ask them to forgive me.'
Intent on Lippitt and Bean, and the reactions of Madison and the senators, I wasn't certain I'd heard Garth right. I turned toward him, was startled by the glazed look in his eyes and the almost blank expression on his face.
'I'm dying, Mongo,' my brother whispered, 'so what I do doesn't matter. I'm still not sure these people are going to get it right.'
'Garth, what the hell are you talking about?'
Garth's answer was suddenly to grab the marshal's.45, click off the safety catch, raise it, and without hesitation fire two bullets into Orville Madison's head. Madison died instantly, collapsing over the table and rolling down into the well, leaving blood and brains smeared on the wall behind where he had been standing.
It happened so quickly and without warning that everything, including the roar of the gun, had some of the quality of a dream; there were no shouts, no scrambling, and even as the echo of the gunshots faded away everyone remained still-except Garth, who swept the Uzi off the table and then backed away a few steps. I watched in horror as the.45 in Garth's hand slowly turned, stopped when it was pointed at Veil.
'Garth, please put the gun away,' I said quietly, terrified by the expression-or lack of it-on my brother's face. In the dusty light Garth's flesh was a pasty, pale green, and suddenly the man with the gun in front of me became a stranger who had somehow been able to invade the body, and was lurking behind the glassy eyes, of my brother.
'My brother could have been killed because of you,' the stranger said in a stranger's voice to Veil.
I half expected Veil, with his incredible speed and reflexes, somehow to take command of the situation-duck away out of the line of fire, perhaps even get to Garth and disarm him.
Instead Veil, his arms at his sides, merely stepped slowly and deliberately back from the table, away from Lippitt, Bean, and me, presenting himself as a clear target. 'I'm sorry, Lieutenant,' Veil said evenly. 'You're absolutely right; I had no right to do what I did.'
'Sorry isn't good enough,' the stranger said.
I knew Garth was going to pull the trigger of the.45, just as I knew that Veil wasn't going to do anything to defend himself. I pushed my chair out of the way and lunged for Garth, trying to put myself between him and Veil- I failed at that, but did manage to spoil Garth's aim. The gun went off a few inches from my left ear, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Veil grab for his right shoulder as he was spun around by the impact of the slug.
Then Lippitt, the marshal, Bean, myself, and even a couple of the senators were on Garth, dragging him to the floor. I ended up on the bottom of the pile, both hands gripping the gun. I was expecting a fierce struggle, but there wasn't any. Garth was lying very still, his joints apparently locked, his muscles rigid and hard as stone.
'Get off!' I screamed, shoving and kicking at the bodies covering Garth and me. 'Get the hell off!'
The shouting and kicking weren't necessary. The others, reacting to Garth's sudden catatonic stiffness, had already begun to back off. I was left alone, kneeling beside Garth with tears flooding my eyes and rolling down my cheeks.
The signs had been there all along, I thought; I'd seen them, but had simply refused to do anything about it. McGarvey, the trooper, had seen them and pointedly warned me that Garth was ready to explode and shatter. I'd ignored the warning.
Now even the stranger was gone, and I was left with a stiff, empty-faced, and empty-eyed figure whose hoarse, labored breathing was the only indication that he was alive.
Orville Madison was finally dead, but it meant nothing to me; I had lost my brother with him. Garth was gone, hiding in some lonely, cold, hideous place in his mind where I feared I would never be able to find him.
23
Mr. Lippitt arranged for Garth to be taken to the C.I.A.'s psychiatric clinic on the agency's grounds at Langley, Virginia. It was, Lippitt had assured me, not only the most secret but the best facility in the country for psychiatric diagnosis and short-term care. Garth's ending up in a C.I.A. psychiatric clinic was a bitter irony I did not care to dwell on.
Indeed, I did not care to dwell on much of anything. As much as possible, I tried to keep my mind a blank as, hour after hour, I sat beside my brother's bed and stared at his unseeing eyes staring at the beige ceiling. Doctors came and went, Garth was wheeled out for tests and brought back, and still I sat, lost in my own dark world of despair, remorse, and self-recrimination. Finally I fell asleep in my chair, and when I awoke I found Veil and Lippitt in the room.
Lippitt, a physician himself, was studying the thick ream of charts and test reports secured to a clipboard tied to the railing at the foot of Garth's bed. Veil, his injured right arm in a sling, saw that I was awake, offered me a thermos filled with hot coffee. I nodded my thanks, poured myself a cup.
