The Janson Directive - By Robert Ludlum Page 0,118

consequences."

"How do you know?"

"I spoke to his wife. That wasn't part of my mission instructions."

"That's so random, man. And how did you know she spoke the truth?"

"I just did," he responded, shrugging. It was not a question that a highly experienced field agent would have to ask. "Tutored intuition, call it. It's not a hundred percent reliable - but accurate enough."

"How come this wasn't part of your report?"

"Because it wasn't news to those who designed the mission," he said coldly. "The planners had another game in mind. Two objectives, both fulfilled. One, to send a message to any other member of the diplomatic forces that entanglement with the enemy could carry a steep price. I was just ringing up the sale."

"Two objectives, you said. The other?"

"The young Swede had already given dossiers to the KGB. By killing him, we conveyed the message that the information leak was taken seriously - that valuable information had been transferred. In fact, it was planted. Carefully designed disinformation. But it became validated by the man's blood, and KGB analysts bought it."

"So that was a win, too."

"Yes, within narrowly defined parameters. Kuzmin actually got a promotion out of the whole thing. Pull the camera back, though, and you ask another question: Did it matter? The KGB was misled in this particular, but with what ultimate consequences, if any? And was it worth the man's life? He had a wife. Had he lived, they would have had children, probably grandchildren. Decades of Christmases and glogg and skiing vacations and - " Janson broke off. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to make heavy weather of this. None of it will make much sense to you, not at your age. But there are instances when your instructions amount to a web of lies. And in some cases, the person giving you the instructions is perfectly unaware of that fact. I expect that's the case here."

"Jesus," she said softly. "No, I do understand. I do. You're telling me they had you take this guy out - without ever letting you in on the real reasons for the job."

"They had me kill Kuzmin's contact as part of a manipulation. And one of the people being manipulated was me. What a directive specifies and what a directive signifies are two different things."

"Jesus, this is making my head swim worse than any goddamn sucker punch."

"I don't mean to confuse you. Just to make you think."

"Comes to the same thing," she said. "But why? Why would they target you?"

"You think I haven't been asking myself that?"

"You were a legend in Consular Operations, especially among the younger people. You've got no idea, Janson. No idea how demoralizing it was when they told us you'd turned traitor. They'd never do that on a whim."

"On a whim? No, that's not how it works. Most people lie to save themselves, or better themselves, anyway. Maybe they claim credit for an idea that wasn't really theirs. Or they shift blame from themselves to another. Or they luck out, somehow, and let on that the outcome was the result of skill. That's not the kind of lie that worries me. The kind of lie that worries me is the 'noble lie.' The lie spread for higher purposes. The sacrifice of small men for larger ends." He spoke bitterly. "The liars who lie in the interest of the greater good, or what they decree to be that greater good."

"Whoa," she said. She made a whizzing noise, passed a hand over her head like a discus. "You're losing me. If somebody's scapegoating you, they've got to have a good reason."

"What they believe to be a good reason. A good reason that might strike others of us as an administrative convenience."

"Lookit," she said. "Earlier, you said something about your profile. That happens to be something I know a lot about. Well, you're right, now that you say it. Something about the story doesn't make sense. Either you weren't as good as you were supposed to have been or you're not as bad as they're saying you are." She took a step closer to him.

"Let me ask you something. Does Lambda have operational authorization from Whitehall?"

"Wasn't time to cross the diplomatic t's. It's all extraterritorial."

"I see," Janson said. "Then you've got a decision to make."

"But our directive ... "

"It's my life, of course. I have an interest. But it's yours, too. A lesson I learned the hard way."

She looked confused. "OK, take a peek through the range finder again. Marksman C you'll