THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

BY

ROBERT LUDLUM

 Bantam Books by Robert Ludlum
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THE
HOLCROFT
COVENANT
 FO-BERT, LUDLUM

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THE EPOLCIROFT COVENANT
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
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PRIN77NG HISTORY
Richard Marek edition published March 1978
       9 printings through August 1978
       Bantam edition / February 1979
  2ndprinting . . . . .      February1979 6th priming August 1980
 Ord printing   February 19797th printingDecember 1980
 4th printing      March 19798th printing February 1981
  Ith printing. . . . .      March 19751 9th printing April 1981
       10th printbig ... November 1981

AN rights reserved.
Copyright 1978 by Robert Ludlum.
Cover art copyrisr2t iD 1979 by Bantam Books, Inc.
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    PIDOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AICMCA

       19 18 17 16 15
 For Michael and LauraA lovely, talented, wonderful couple.
   THE
 HOLCROFT
 COVENANT

 I
           Prologue

 MARCH 1945

  The hull of the submarine was lashed to the huge pilings, a behemoth
  strapped in silhouette, the sweeping lines of its bow arcing into the light
  of the North Sea dawn.
  The base was on the island of Scharh5rn, in the Helgoland Bight, several
  miles from the German mainland and the mouth of the Elbe River. It was a
  refueling station never detected by Allied Intelligence and, in the cause
  of security, little known among the strategists of the German High Comniand
  itself. The undersea marauders came and went in darkness, emerging and
  submerging within several hundred feet of the moorings. They were Neptunes
  assassins, come home to rest or going forth to press their attacks.
  On this particular dawn, however, the submarine lashed to the dock was
  doing neither. For it, the war was over, its assignment intrinsic to the
  origins of another war.
  Two men stood in the well of the conning tower, one in the uniform of a
  commanding officer of the German Navy, the other a tall civilian in a long
  dark overcoat-the collar turned up to ward off the North Sea winds--yet
  hatless, as if to defy the North Sea winter. Both looked down at the long
  line of passengers who slowly made their way toward the gangplank
  amidships. As each passenger reached the plank, a name was checked off
  against a list, and then he or she was led--or carried -aboard a submarine.
  A few walked by themselves, but they were the exceptions. They were the
  oldest, some having reached their twelfth or thirteenth birthdays.
  The rest were children. Infants in the arms of sternfaced army nurses, who
  surrendered their charges to a
 2   THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 unit of navy doctors at the plank; preschoolers, and early graders clutching
 identical traveling kits and one another's hands, peering up at the strange
 black vessel that was to be their home for weeks to come.
  "Incredible," said theofficer. "Simply incredible."
  "It's the beginning," replied the man in the overcoat, his sharp,- angular
  features rigid. "Word comes from everywhere. From the ports and the
  mountain passes, from the remaining airfields all over the Reich. They go
  out by the thousands. To every part of the world. And people are waiting
  for them. Everywhere."
  "An extraordinary accomplishmenV' said the officer, shaking his head in
  awe.
  *This is only one part of the strategy. The entire operation is
  extraordinary."
  "It's an honor to have you here."
  "I wanted to be. This is the last shipment." The tall civilian kept his
  eyes on the dock below. "The Third Reich is dying. These am its rebirth.
  These are the Fourth Reich. Unencumbered by mediocrity and corruption.
  These are the Sonnenkinder. All over the world."
  "The children . . ."
  "Me Children of the Damned," said the tall man, interrupting. 'They are the
  Children of the Damned, as millions will be. But none will be like these.
  And these will be everywhere.90
 JANUARY 197-
 "A ttentionl Le train de sept heures a destination de Zurich partira du qual
 numiro douze."
  The tall American in the dark-blue raincoat glanced up at the -cavernous
  dome of the Geneva railway station, trying to Jocate the hidden speakers.
  Ile expression on his sharp, angular face was quizzical; the announcement
  was in French, a language he spoke but little and understood less.
  Nevertheless, he was able to distinguish the word Zurich, it was his
  signal. He brushed aside the fightbrown hair that fell with irritating
  regularity over his forehead and started for the north end of the station.
  The crowds were heavy. Bodies rushed past the American in all directions,
  hurrying to the gates to begin their journeys to scores of different
  destinations. None seemed to pay attention to the harsh announcements that
  echoed throughout the upper chambers in a continuous metallic monotone. The
  travelers in Geneva's Bahnhof knew where they were going. It was the end
  of the week; the new mountain snows had fallen and the air outside was
  crisp and chilling. There were places to go, schedules to keep, and people
  to see; time wasted was time stolen. Everyone hurried.
  The American hurried, too, for he also had a schedule to keep and a person
  to see. He had learned before the announcement that the train for Zurich
  would leave from track twelve. According to the plan, he was to walk down
  the ramp to the platform, count seven cars from the rear, and board at the
  first entrance. Inside, he was to count again, this time five compartments,
  and knock twice on the EM door. If everything was in order, he would be
  admitted by a director of La Grande Banque do Genbve,
                3
 4   THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 signifying the culmination of twelve weeks of preparations. Preparations
 that included purposely obscured cablegrams, transatlantic calls made and
 received on telephones the Swiss banker had determined were sterile, and a
 total commitment to secrecy.
  He did not know what the director of La Grande Banque de Gen6ve had to say
  to him, but he thought he knew why the precautions were deemed necessary.
  The American's name was Noel Holcroft, but Holcroft had not been his name
  at birth. He was born in Berlin in the summer of 1939, and the name on the
  hospital registry was "Clausen." His father was Heinrich Clausen, master
  strategist of the Third Reich, the financial magician who put together the
  coalition of disparate economic forces that insured the supremacy of Adolf
  Hitler.
  Heinrich Clausen won the country but lost a wffe. Althene Clausen was an
  American; more to the point, she was a headstrong woman with her own
  standards of ethics and morality. She had deduced that the National So-
  cialists possessed neither; they were a collection of paranoiacs, led by
  a maniac, and supported by financiers interested solely in profits.
  Althene Clausen gave her husband an ultimatum on a warm afternoon in
  August: Withdraw. Stand against the paranoiacs and the maniac before it was
  too late. In disbelief, the Nazi listened and laughed and dismissed his
  wife's ultimatum as the foolish ravings of a new mother. Or perhaps the
  warped judgment of a woman brought up in a weak, discredited system that
  would soon march to the step of the New Order. Or be crushed under its booL
  That night the new mother packed herself . and the new child and took one
  of the last planes to London, the first leg on her journey back to New
  York. A week later the Blitzkrieg was executed against Poland; the Thousand
  Year Reich had begun its own journey, one that would last some fifteen
  hundred days from the first sound of gunfire.
  Holcroft walked through the gate, down the ramp, and on to the long
  concrete platform. Four, five, six, seven.... The seventh car had a small
  blue circle stenciled beneath the window to the left of the open door. It
  was the symbol of accommodations superior to those in first class: enlarged
  compartments properly outfitted for confer-
           THE HoLCROFT coVENANT   5

 ences in transit or clandestine meetings of a more personal nature. Privacy
 was guaranteed; once the train was moving, the doors at either end of the
 car were manned by armed railway guards.
  Holcroft entered and turned left into the corridor. He walked past
  successive closed doors until he reached the fifth. He knocked twice.
  "Herr Holcroft?" The voice behind the wood panel was firm but quiet, and
  although the two words were meant as a question, the voice was not
  questioning. It made a statement
  "Herr Manfredir, said Noel in reply, suddenly aware that an eye was
  peering at him through the pinpoint viewer in the -center of the door. It
  was an eerie feeling, diminished by the comic effect. He smiled to himself
  and wondered if Herr Manfredi would look like the sinister Conrad Veidt in
  one of those 1930s English films.
  There were two clicks of a lock, followed by the sound of a sliding bolt.
  The door swung back and the image of Conrad Veidt vanished. Ernst Manfredi
  was a short, rotund man in his middle to late sixties. He was co.npletely
  bald, with a pleasant, gentle face; but the wide blue eyes, magnified
  beyond the metal-framed glasses, were cold. Very light blue and very cold.
  "Come in, Herr Holcroft," said Manfredi, smiling. Then his expression
  changed abruptly; the smile disappeared. "Do forgive me. I should say
  Mister Holcroft. The Herr may be offensive to you. My apologies."
  "None necessary," replied Noel, stepping into the well-appointed
  compartment. There was a table, two chairs, no bed in evidence. The walls
  were wood-paneled; dark-red velvet curtains covered the windows, muffling
  the sounds of the figures rushing by outside. On the table was a small
  lamp with a fringed shade.
  "We have about twenty-five minutes before departure," the banker said. "It
  should be adequate. And don't be concerned-well be given ample warning.
  The train won't start until you've disembarked. You'll not have to travel
  to Zurich."
  1'rve never been there."
  "I trust that will be changed," said the banker enigmatically, gesturing
  for Holcroft to sit opposite him at the table.
 6    71M HOLCROFT COVEtUM . '

  "I wouldn't count on it." Noel sat down, unbuttoning his raincoat but not
  removing it
  "I'm sorry, that was presumptuous of me." Manfredi took his seat and
  leaned back in the chair. "I Must apologize once again. I'll need your
  identification. Your passport, please.And your international driver's
  license. Als% whatever documents you have on your person that describe
  physical markings, vaccinations, that sort of thing."
  Holcroft felt a rush of anger. The inconvenience to his life aside, he
  disliked the bankees patronizing attitude. "Why should I? You know who I
  am. You wouldn't have opened that door if you didn't. You probably have
  more photographs, more information on me, than the State Department."
  "Indulge an old man, sir," said the banker, shrugging in self-deprecation,
  his charm on display. "It will be made clear to you."
  Reluctantly, Noel reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew the. leather
  case that contained his passport, health certificate, international
  license, and two A.I.A. letters that stated his qualifications as an
  architect. He handed the case to Manfredi. "Ifs all there. Help yourself."
  ~
  With seemingly greater reluctance, the banker opened the case. "I feel as
  though rm prying, but I think ... 99
  "You should," interrupted Holcroft. "I didn't ask for this meeting.
  Frankly, it comes at a very inconvenient time. I want to get back to New
  York as soon as possible."
  "Yes. Yes, I understand," said the Swiss quietly, perusing the documents.
  "Ten me, what was the first architectural commission you undertook outside
  the United States?"
  Noel suppressed his irritation. He had come this far; there was no point
  in refusing to answer. "Mexico," he replied. "For the Alvarez hotel chain,
  north of Puerto Vallarta."
  "Me second?"
  "Costa Rica. For the government. A postal complex in 1973."
  "What was the gross income of your firm in New York last year? Without
  adjustments."
  "None of your damned business."
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT   7

    assure you, we know."
  Holcroft shook his head in angry resignation. "A hundred and seventy-three
  thousand dollars and change."
  "Considering office rental, salaries, equipment and expenses, that's not
  an altogether impressive figure, is it?" asked Manfredi, his eyes still on
  the papers in his hands.
  . "It's my own company and the staff is small. I have no partners, no wife,
  no heavy debts. It could be worse."
  "It could be better," said the banker, looking up at Holcroft. 'Tspecially
  for one so talented."
   "It could be better."
  "Yes, I thought as much," continued the Swiss, putting the various papers
  back in the leather case and handing it to Noel. He leaned forward. "Do you
  know who your father was?"
  "I know who my father is. Legally, he's Richard Holcroft, of New York, my
  mother's husband. He's very much alive."
  "And retired," completed Manfredi. "A fellow banker, but hardly a banker
  in the Swiss tradition."
   "He was respected. Is respected."
  "For his family's money or for his professional acumen?"
  "Both, I'd say. I love him. If you have reservations, keep them to
  yourself."
  "You're very loyal; that's a quality I admire. Holcroft came along when
  your mother-an incredible woman, incidentally-was most despondent. But we
  split definitions. Holcroft is once removed. I referred to your natural fa-
  ther."
   "Obviously."
  'rhirty years ago, Heinrich Clausen made certain -arrangements. He traveled
  frequently between Berlin, Zurich, and Geneva, beyond official scrutiny,
  of course. A document was prepared that we as"-Manfredi paused and
  smiled--". . . is biased neutrals could not oppose. Attached to the
  document is a letter, written by Clausen in April of 1945. It is addressed
  to you. His son." The banker reached for a thick manila envelope on the
  table.
  "Just a minute," said Noel. "Did those certain arrangements concern money?"
  66yes."
  -rm not interested. Give it to charity. He owed it"
 8   THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  "You may not feel that way when you've heard the amount."
  "What is it?"
  "Seven hundred and eighty million dollars."
               2

 Holcroft stared at the banker In disbelief; the blood drained from his head.
 Outside, the sounds of the huge station were a cacophony of muted chords,
 barely penetrating the thick walls of the car.
  "Don't try to absorb it all at once," said Manfredi, placing the letter to
  one side. "There are conditions, none of them, incidentally, offensive. At
  least, none weW aware Of.99
  "Conditions?Hoicroft knew he could hardly be heard; he tried to find his
  voice. 'TAW conditionsr'
  "They're spelled out very clearly. These vast sums are to be channeled
  into a great good for people everywhere. And, of course, there are certain
  benefits to yourSON personally.99
  "What do you mean there's nothing offensive that you're . . . 'aware of r,
  The bankees magnified eyes blinked behind his glasses; he looked away
  briefly, his expression troubled. He reached into kis brown leather
  briefcase, which lay at the comer of the table, and pulled out a long,
  thin envelope witkcurious markings on the back side; they were a series of
  four circles and appeared to be four dark coins affixed to the border of
  the flap.
  Manfredi held the envelope across the table, under the light. The dark
  circles were not coins but waxed seals. Ali were intact.
  "Following the instructions given to us thirty years ago, this
  envelope--unlike your father's letter here-was not to be opened by
  directors in Geneva. It is separate from the document we prepared, and to
  the best of our knowledge, Clausen was never aware of it. His own words to
  you would tend to confirm thaL It was brought to us within hours after the
  courier delivered your
               9
 10  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 father's letter, which was to be our final communication from Berlin."
  -what is itr
  "We don't know. We were told it was written by several men aware of your
  father's activities. Who believed in his cause with great fervor; who
  considered him in many ways a true martyr of Germany. We were instructed
  to give it to you with the seals unbroken. You were to read it before you
  saw your fathees letter." Manfredi turned the envelope over. There was
  writing on the front side. The words were in German and written by hand.
  "You are to sign below, so to state that you received it in the proper
  condition."
  Noel took the envelope and read the words he could not understand.

   DIESER BRIEF IST MIT UNGEBROCHENEM SIEGEL
   EMPFANGEN WORDEN. NEUAUFBAU ODER TOD.

  "What does it say?"
  "That you've examined the seals and are satisfied."
  "How can I be sure?"
  "Young man, you're talking with a director of La Grande Banque de Gen~ve."
  The Swiss did not raise his voice but the rebuke was clear. "You have my
  word. And, in any event, what difference does it make?"
  None, reasoned Holcroft, yet the obvious question bothered him. "If I sign
  the envelope, what do you do with it?"
  Manfredi was silent for several moments, as if deciding whether or not to
  answer. He removed his glasses, took a silk handkerchief from his breast
  pocket, and cleaned them. Finally he replied. 'That is privileged in-
  formation... ."
  "SoYs my signature," interrupted Noel. "Privileged, that is."
  "Let me finish," protested the banker, putting back his glasses. "I was
  about to say it was privileged information that can't possibly be relevant
  any longer. Not after so many years. The envelope is to be sent to a
  post-office box in Sesimbra, Portugal. It is south of Lisbon, on the Cape
  of Espichel."
  "Why isn't It relevantr
  Manfredi held up the palms of his hands. '01be post-         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  11

 office box no longer exists. The envelope will find its way to a dead-letter
 office and eventually be returned to It
 US.,
  "You're sure?"
  "I believe it, yes."
  Noel reached into his pocket for his pen, turning the envelope over to look
  once again at the waxed seals. They bad not been tampered with; and,
  thought Holcroft, what difference did it make? He placed the envelope in
  front of him and signed his name.
  Manfredi held up his hand. "You understand, whatever is contained in that
  envelope can have no bearing on our participation in the document prepared
  by La Grande Banque de Gen6ve. We were not consulted; nor were we apprised
  of the contents."
  "You sound worried. I thought you said it didn't make any difference. It
  was too long ago."
  "Fanatics always worry me, Mr. Holcroft. Time and consequence cannot alter
  that judgment. It's a bankees caution."
  Noel began cracking the wax; it had hardened over the years and took
  considerable force before it fell away. He'tore the flap open, removed the
  single page, and unfolded it.
  The paper was brittle with age; the white had turned to a pale brownish
  yellow. The writing was in English, the letters printed in an odd block
  lettering that was Germanic in style. The ink was faded but legible.
  Holcroft looked at the bottom of the page for a signature. There was none.
  He started reading.
  The message was macabre, born in desperation thirty years ago. It was as
  though unbalanced men had sat in a darkened room, studying shadows on the
  wall for signs of the future, studying a man and a life not yet formed.

    FROM THIS MOMENT ON THE SON OF HEINRICH CLAUSEN IS TO BE TESTED. THERE
    ARE THOSE
  WHO MAY LEARN OF THE WORK IN GENEVA AND
  WHO WILL TRY TO STOP HIM, WHOSE ONLY
  PURPOSE IN LIFE WILL BE TO KILL HIM, THUS
  DESTROYING THE DREAM CONCEWED BY THE
  GIANT THAT WAS HIS FATHER.
    THIS MUST NOT HAPPENi FOR WE WERE BE- 12  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  TRAYED-ALL OF US-AND THE WORLD MUST
  KNOW WHAT WE REALLY WERE, NOT WHAT THE BETRAYERS SHOWED US TO BE, FOR THOSE
  WERE THE PORTRAITS OF TRAITORS. NOT U& AND PARTICULARLY NOT HEINRICH
  CLAUSEN.
    WE ARE THE SURVIVORS OF WOLFSSCHANZE. WE
  SEEK THE CLEANSING OF OUR NAMES, THE RESTORATION OF THE HONOR THAT WAS
  STOLEN FROM US.
    THERE FORE THE MEN OF WOLFSSCHANZE WILL
  PROTECT THE SON FOR AS LONG AS THE SON PURSUES THE FATHER'S DREAM AND
  RETURNS OUR HONOR TO US. BUT SHOULD THE SON ABANDON THE DREAM, BETRAY THE
  FATHER, AND WITHHOLD OUR HONOR, HE WELL HAVE NO LIFE. HE WILL WITNESS THE
  ANGUISH OF LOVED ONES, OF FAMILY, CHILDREN, FRIENDS. NO ONE WILL BE SPARED.
    NONE MUST INTERFERE. GIVE US OUR HON-
  OR. IT IS OUR RIGHT AND WE DEMAND IT.

  Noel shoved the chair back and stood up. "What the hell is this?"
  "I've no idea," replied Manfredi quietly, his voice calm but- his Jarge,
  cold blue eyes conveying his alarm. "I told you we were not apprised. . .
  ."
  "Well, get apprisedl" shouted Holcroft. "Read itt Who were these clowns?
  Certifiable lunatics?"
  The banker began reading. Without looking up, he answered softly. "First
  cousins to lunatics. Men who'd lost hope.,,
  "What's Wollsschanze? What does it meanr
  "It was the name of Hitler's staff headquarters in East Prussia, where the
  attempt to assassinate him took place. It was a conspiracy of the generals:
  Von Stauffenberg, Kluge, 118pner-they were all implicated. All shot Rommel
  took his own life."
  Holcroft stared at the paper in Manfredi's hands. "You mean it was written
  thirty years ago by people like thatr
  The banker nodded, his eyes narrowed in astonishment. "Yes, but it's not
  the language one might have expected of them. This is nothing short of a
  threat; it's un-
           THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  13

 reasonable. Those men were not unreasonable. On the other hand, the times
 were unreasonable. Decent men, brave men, were stretched beyond the
 parameters of sanity. They were living through a hell none of us can picture
 today."
  "Decent men?" asked Noel incredulously.
  "Have you any idea what it meant to be a part of the Wolfsschanze
  conspiracy? A bloodbath followed, thousands massacred everywhere, the vast
  majority never having heard of Woffsschanze. it was yet another final
  solution, an excuse to still all dissent throughout Germany. What began as
  an act to rid the world of a madman ended in a holocaust all its own. The
  survivors of Wolfsschanze saw that happen."
  "Those survivors," replied Holcroft, "followed that madman for a long
  time."
  "You must understand. And you will. These were desperate men. They were
  caught in a trap, and for them it was cataclysmic. A world they had helped
  create was revealed not to be the world they envisioned. Horrors they
  never dreamed of were uncovered, yet they couldn't avoid their
  responsibility for them. They were appalled at what they saw but couldn't
  deny the roles they played."
  'qbe well-intentioned Nazi," said Noel. "I've heard of that elusive
  breed."
  "One would have to go back in history, to the economic disasters, to the
  Versailles Treaty, the Pact of Locarno, the Bolshevik encroachments-to a
  dozen different forces-to understand."
  "I understand what I just read," Holcroft said. "Your poor misunderstood
  storm troopers didn't hesitate to threaten someone they couldn't knowl 'He
  will have no life . . . no one spared ... family, friends, childree That
  spells out murder. Don't talk to me about well-intentioned killers."
  "They're the words of old, sick, desperate men. They have no meaning now.
  It was their way of expressing their own anguish, of seeking atonement.
  They're gone. Leave them in peace. Read your father's letter. . ~"
  "He's not my fatherl" interrupted Noel.
  "Read Heinrich Clausen's letter. Things will be clearer. Read it. We have
  several items to discuss and there isn't much time."
 14   THE HOLCROPT COVENAW

  A man in a brown tweed overcoat and dark Tirolean bat stood by a pillar
  across from the seventh car. At first glance, there was nothing
  particularly distinguishing about him, except perhaps his eyebrows. They
  were thick, a mixture of black and light-gray hair that produced the effect
  of salt-and-pepper archways in the upper regions of a forgettable face.
  At first glance. Yet if one looked closer, one could see the blunted but
  not unrefined features of a very determined man. In spite of the pockets
  of wind that blew in gusts through the platform, he did not blink. His con-
  centration on the seventtk car was absolute.
  I The American would come out of that doorway, thought the man by the
  pillar, a much different person from the American who went in. During the
  past few minutes his fife had been changed in ways few men in this world
  would ever experience. Yet it was only the beginning; the journey he was
  about to embark on was beyond anything of which the present-day world could
  conceive. So it was important to observe his initial reaction. More than
  important. Vital.-
  "Attentiont Le train de sept heures. .
  The final announcement came over the speakers. Simultaneously, a train from
  Lausanne was arriving on the adjacent track. In moments the platform would
  be jammed with tourists Rocking into Geneva for the weekend, the way
  Midlanders scrambled into Charing Cross for a brief fling in London,
  thought the man by the pillar.
  The train from Lausanne came to a stop. The passenger cars disgorged; the
  platform was again packed with bodies.
  The figure of the tall American was suddenly in the vestibule of car seven.
  He was blocked at the doorway by a porter carrying someone's luggage. It
  was an irritating moment that might have provoked an argument under normal
  circumstances. But the circumstances were not normal for Holcroft. He
  expressed no annoyance; his face was set, unresponsive to the moment, his
  eyes aware of the physical confusion but not concerned with it. There was
  an air of detachment about him; he was in the grips of lingering
  astonishment. This was emphasized by the way ke clutched the thick manila
  envelope between his arm
         THE HoLcROFT COVENANT  15

 and his chest, his band curved around the edge, his fingers pressed into the
 paper with such force they formed a fist.
  It was the cause of his consternation, this document prepared a lifetime
  ago. it was the miracle they bad waited for, lived for-the man by the
  pillar and those who had gone before him. More than thirty years of an-
  ticipation. And now it had surfaced at lasti.
  The journey had begun
  Holcroft entered the flow of human traffic toward the ramp that led up to
  the gate. Although jostled by those around him, he was oblivious of the
  crowds, his eyes absently directed ahead. At nothing.
  Suddenly, the man by the pillar was alarmed. Years of training had taught
  him to look for the unexpected, the infinitesimal break in a normal
  pattern. He saw that break now. Two men, their faces unlike any around
  them, joyless, without curiosity or expectation, filled only with hostile
  intent.
  They were surging through the crowds, one man slightly ahead of the other.
  Their eyes were on the American; they were after himl The man in front had
  his right hand in his pocket. The man behind had his left hand concealed
  across his chest, beneath his unbuttoned overcoat. The hidden hands gripped
  weaponst The man by the pillar was convinced of that.
  He sprang away from the concrete column and crashed his way into the crowd.
  There were no seconds to be lost. The two men were gaining on Holcroft.
  They were after the envelopel It was the only possible explanation. And if
  that were the case, it meant that word of the miracle had leaked out of
  Geneval The document inside that envelope was priceless, beyond value.
  Beside it, the American's fife was of such inconsequence that no thought
  would be expended taking that life. The men closing in on Holcroft would
  kill him for the envelope ndndlessly, as if removing a disagreeable insect
  from a bar of gold. And that was mindless I What they did not know was that
  without the son of Heinrich Clausen the miracle would not happenl
  They were within yards of him nowl The man with the black-and-white
  eyebrows lunged forward through the mass of tourists like a possessed
  animal. He crashed into people and luggage, throwing aside everything and
  every-
   x6  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 one in his path. When he was within feet of the killer whose hand was
 concealed under his overcoat, he thrust his own hand into his pocket,
 clutching the gun inside, and screamed directly at the assailant:
  "Du suchst Clausens Sohnl Das Genfe Dokumentl"
  1he killer was partially up the ramp, separated from the American by only
  a few people. He heard the words roared at him by a stranger and spun
  around, his eyes wide in shock
  The crowd pressed rapidly up the ramp, skirting the two obvious-
  antagonists. Attacker and protector were mi
 their Own miniature arena, facing each other. The observer squeezed the
 trigger of the gun in his pocket, then squeezed it again. Ile spits could
 barely be heard as the fabric exploded. Two bullets entered the body of Hol-
 croft's would-be assailant, one in the lower stomach, the other far above,
 in the neck. 'Me first caused the man to convulse forward; the second
 snapped his head back, the throat torn open.
  Blood burst from the neck with such force that it splattered surrounding
  faces, and the clothes and suitcases belonging to those faces. It cascaded
  downward, forming small pools and rivulets on the ramp. Screams of horror
  filled the walkway.
  Ile observer-protector felt a hand gripping his shoulder, digging into his
  flesh. He spun; the second attacker was on him, but there was no gun in his
  hand. Instead, the blade of a hunting knife came toward him.
  The man was an amateur, thought the observer, as his reactions-4instincts
  born of years of training-came instantly into play. He stepped sideways
  quickly--a bullfighter avoiding the horns-and clamped his left hand above
  his assailant's wrist. He pulled his right hand from his pocket and gripped
  the fingers wrapped around the knife. He snapped the wrist downward, vising
  the fingers around the handle, tearing the cartilage of the attacker's
  hand, forcing the blade inward. He plunged it into the soft flesh of the
  stomach and ripped the sharp steel diagonally up into the rib cage,
  severing the arteries of the hearL The man's face contorted; a terrible
  scream was begun, cut off by death.
  The pandemonium had escalated into uncontrollable chaos; the screaming
  increased. Ile profusion of blood in the center of the rushing, colliding
  bodies fueled the
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  17

 hysterm The observer protector knew precisely what to do. He threw up his
 hands in frightened consternation, in sudden, total revulsion at the sight
 of the blood on his own clothes, and joined the hysterical crowd racing away
 like a herd of terrified cattle from the concrete killing ground.
  He rushed up the ramp past the American whose life he had just saved.

  Holcroft heard the screaming. it penetrated the numbing mists he felt
  engulfed in: clouds of vapor that swirled around him, obscuring his
  vision, inhibiting all thought.
  He tried to turn tDward the commotion, but the hysterical crowd prevented
  him from doing so. He was swept farther up the ramp and pummeled into the
  three-foothigh cement wall that served as a railing. He gripped the stone
  and looked back, unable to see clearly what had happened; he did see a man
  below arch backward, blood erupting from his throat. He saw a second man
  lunging forward, his mouth stretched in agony, and then Noel could see no
  more, the onslaught of bodies sweeping him once again up the concrete
  ramp.
  A man rushed by, crashing into his shoulder. Holcroft turned in time to
  see frightened eyes beneath a pair of thick black-and-white brows.
  An act of violence had taken place. An attempted robbery had turned into
  an assault, into a killing, perhaps. Peaceful Geneva was no more immune to
  violence than were the wild streets of New York at night, or the impov-
  erished alleyways of Marrakesh.
  But Noel could not dwell on such things; he could not be involved. He had
  other things to think about. The niists of numbness returned. Ibrough them
  he vaguely understood that his life would never again be the same.
  He gripped the envelope in his hand and joined the screaming mass racing
  up the ramp to the gate.
               3

 Ile huge aircraft passed ovw Cape Breton Island and dipped gently to the
 left, descending into its new altitude and heading The route was now
 southwest, toward Hahfax and Boston, then into New York.
  Holcroft had spent most of the time in the upstairs lounge, at a single
  chair in the right rear comer, his black attach6 case against the bulkhead.
  It was easier to concentrate there; no straying eyes of an adjacent
  passenger could fall on the papers he read and reread, again and gam.
  He had begun with the letter from Heinrich Clausen, that unknown but
  all-pervading presence. It was an incredible document in itself. The
  information contained in it was of such an alarming nature that Manfredi
  had expressed the collective wish of the Grande Banque's directors that it
  be destroyed. For it detailed in general terms the sources of the millions
  banked in Geneva three decades ago. Although the majority of these sources
  were untouchable in any contemporary legal sense-thieves and murderers
  stealing the national funds of a government headed by thieves and
  murderers--other sources were not so immune to modem scrutiny. Throughout
  the war Germany had plundered. It had raped internally and externally. Tke,
  dissenters within had been stripped; the conquered without, stolen from
  unmercifully Should the memories of these thefts be dredged up, the
  international courts in The Hague could tie up the funds for years in
  protracted litigations.
  "Destroy the letter," Manfredi had said in Geneva"It's necessary only that
  you understand why he did what he did. Not the methods; they are a
  complication without any conceivable resolution. But there are those who
  may try to stop you. Other thieves would move in; we're dealing in hundreds
  of millions."
                18
         THE HOLCROPT COVENAW   19

  Noel reread the letter for perhaps the twentieth time. Each time he did so,
  he tried to picture the man who wrote it. His natural father. He had no
  idea what Hemnch Clausen looked like; his mother had destroyed all photo-
  graphs, all communications, all references whatsoever to the man she
  loathed with all her being.

                 Berlin, 20 April 1945

  MY SON.
     I write this as the armies of the Reich collapse on all fronts. Berlin
     will soon fall, a city of raging fires and death everywhere. So be it.
     I shall waste no moments on what was, or what might have been. On
     concepts betrayed, and the triumph of evil over good through the
     treachery of morally bankrupt leaders. Recriminations born in hell are
     too suspect, the authorship too easily attributed to the devil.
     Instead, I shall permit my actions to speak for me. In them you may find
     some semblance of pride. That is my prayer.
     Amends must be mad& That is the credo I have come to recognize. As have
     my two dearest friends an& closest associates who are identified in the
     attached document. Amends for the destruction we have wrought, for
     betrayals so heinous the world will never forget. Or forgive. It is in
     the interest of partial forgiveness that we have done what we have done.
     Five years ago your mother made a decision I could not comprehend, so
     blind were my loyalties to the New Order. Two winters ago-in February
     of 1943--the words she spoke in rage, words I arrogantly dismissed as
     ties fed her by those who despised the Fatherland, were revealed to be
     the truth. We who labored in the rarefied circles of finance and policy
     had been deceived. For two years it was clear that Germany was going
     down to defeat. We pretended otherwise, but in our hearts we knew it was
     so. Others knew it, too. And they became careless. The horrors surfaced,
     the deceptions were clear.
     Twenty-five months ago I conceived of a plan and enlisted the support
     of my dear friends in the Finanzminlsterlum. Their support was willingly
     given. Our objective was to divert extraordinary
 20  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  sums of money into neutral Switzerland, furids that could be used one day
  to give aid and succor to those thousands upon thousands whose lives were
  shattered by unspeakable atrocities committed in Germany's name by animals
  who knew nothing of German honor.
     We know now about the camps. Ile names will haunt history. Belsen,
     Dachau, Auschwitz.
     We have been told of the mass executions, of the helpless men, women and
     children lined up in front of trenches dug by their own hands, then
     slaughtered.
     We have learned of the ovens---oh, God in heaven-ovens for human fieshl
     Of the showers that sprayed not cleansing water but lethal gas. Of
     intolerable, obscene experiments carried out on conscious human beings
     by insane practitioners of a medical science unknown to an. We bleed at
     the images, and our eyes burst but our tears can do nothing. Our minds,
     however, are not so helpless. We can plan.
    Amends must be made.
     We cannot restore life. We cannot bring back what was so brutally,
     viciously taken. But we can seek out all those who survived, and the
     children of those both surviving and slaughtered, and do what we can.
     They must be sought out all over the world and shown that we have not
     forgotten. We are ashamed and we wish to help. In any way that we can.
     It is to this end that we have done what we have done.
     I do, not for a moment believe that our actions can expiate our sins,
     those crimes we were unknowingly a part of. Yet we do what we can-I do
     what I can-haunted with every breath by your mothees perceptions. Why,
     oh eternal God, did I not listen to that great and good woman?
    To return to the plan.
     Using the American dollar as the equivalent currency of exchange, our
     goal was ten -million monthly, a figure that might appear excessive, but
     not when one considers the capital flow through the economic maze of the
     FInanzmin&terium at the height of the war. We exceeded our goal.
    Using the FinanzmInUterium we appropri-      THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  21

 ated funds from hundreds of sources within the Reich and to a great extent
 beyond, throughout Germany's ever-expanding borders. Taxes were diverted,
 enormous expenditures made from the Ministry of Armaments for nonexistent
 purchases, Wehrmacht payrolls rerouted, and monies sent to occupation
 territories constantly intercepted, lost Funds from expropriated estates,
 and from the great fortunes, factories, and individually held companies, did
 not find their way into the ReicWs economy but, instead, into our accounts.
 Sales of art objects from scores of museums throughout the conquered lands
 were converted to our cause. It was a master plan carried out masterfully.
 Whatever risks we took and terrors we faced--and they were daily
 occurrences-were inconsequential compared to the meaning of our credo:
 Amends must be made.
  Yet no plan can be termed a success unless the objective is secured
  permanently. A military strategy that captures a port only to lose it to
  an invasion from the sea a day later is no strategy at all. One must
  consider all possible assaults, all interferences that could negate the
  strategy. One must project, as thoroughly as projection allows, the changes
  mandated by time, and protect the objective thus far attained. In essence,
  one must use time to the strategy's advantage. We have endeavored to do
  this through the conditions put forth in the attached document. -
  Would to the Almighty that we could give aid to the victims and their
  survivors sooner than our projections allow, but to do so would rivet
  attention to the sums we have appropriated. Then aU could be lost. A
  generation must pass for the strategy to succeed. Even then there is risk,
  but time will have diminished it.
  The air-raid sirens keep up their incessant wailing. Speaking of time,
  there is very little left now. For myself and my two associates, we wait
  only for confirmation that this letter has reached Zurich through an
  underground courier. Upon receipt of the news, we have our own pacL Our
  pact with death, each by his own hand.
  Answer my prayer. Help us atone. Amends must be made.
 22  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT
     This is our covenant, my son. My only son,
  whom I have never known but to whom I have
  brought such sorrow. Abide by it, honor it, for
  it is an honorable thing I ask you to do.

                       Your father,
                   HEDmcH CLAUSEN

  Rolcroft put the letter facedown on the table and glanced out the window
  at the blue sky above the clouds. Far in the distance was the exhaust of
  another aircraft; he followed the streak of vapor until he could see the
  tiny silver gleam of the fuselage.
  He thought about the letter. Again. The writing was maudlin; the words were
  from another era, melodramatic. It did not weaken the letter; rather, it
  gave it a certain strength of conviction. Clausen's sincerity was unques-
  tioned; his emotions were genuine.
  What was only partially communicated, however, was the brilliance of the
  plan itself. Brilliant in its simplicity, ~xtraordinary in its use of time
  and the laws of finance to achieve both execution and protection. For the
  three men understood that sums of the magnitude they had stolen could not
  be sunk in a lake or buried in vaults. The hundreds of millions had to
  exist in the financial marketplace, not subject to discontinued currency
  or to brokers who would have to convert and sell elusive assets.
  Hard money had to be deposited, the responsibility for its security given
  to one of the world's most revered institutions, La Grande Banque de
  Gen6ve. Such an institution would not--could not-permit abuses where
  liquidity was concerned; it was an international economic rock. All the
  conditions of its contract with i4~ depositors would be observed.
  Everything was to be legal in the eyes of Swiss law. Covert-as was the
  custom of the tradebut ironbound with respect to existing legalities, and
  thus current with the times. The intent of the contract-the
  document---could not be corrupted; the objectives would be followed to the
  letter.
  To permit corruption or malfeasance was unthinkable. Thirty years ... fifty
  years ... in terms of the Imancial calendar was very little time, indeed.
  Noel reached down and opened his attach6 case. He slipped the pages of the
  letter into a compartment and
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  23

 pulled out the document from La Grande Banque do Genave. It was encased in
 a leather cover, folded in the manner of a last will and testament, which it
 was-and then some. He leaned back in the chair and unfastened the clasp that
 allowed the cover to unfold, revealing the first page of the document.
  His "covenant," Holcroft reflected.
  He skimmed over the words and the paragraphs, now so familiar to him,
  flipping the pages as he did so, concentrating on the salient points.
  The identities of Clausen's two associates in the massive theft were Erich
  Kessler and Wilhelm von Tiebolt. The rinnies were vital not so much for
  identifying the two men themselves as for seeking out and contacting the
  oldest child of each. It was the first condition of the document. Although
  the designated proprietor of the numbered account was one Noel C. Holcroft,
  American, funds were to be released only upon the signatures of all three
  oldest children. And then only if each child satisfied the directors of La
  Grande Banque that he or she accepted the conditions and objectives set
  forth by the original proprietors with respect to the allocation of the
  funds.
  However, if these offspring did not satisfy the Swiss directors or were
  judged to be incompetent, their brothers and sisters were to be studied and
  further judgments made. If all the children were considered incapable of
  the responsibility, the millions would wait for another generation, when
  furthir sealed instructions would be opened by executors and by issue yet
  unborn. The resolve was devastating:. another generation.

    THE LEGITIMATE SON OF HEINRICH CLAUSEN
  IS NOW KNOWN AS NOEL HOLCROFT, A CHILD,
  LIVING WITH ins MOTHER AND STEPFATHER IN
  AMERICA. AT THE SPECIFIC DATE CHOSEN BY THE
  DIRECTORS OF LA GRANDE BANQUE DE GENkVE
  -NOT TO BE LESS THAN THIRTY YEARS, NOR
  MORE THAN THIRTY-FIVE-SAID LEGITIMATE SON
  OF HEINRICH CLAUSEN IS TO BE CONTACTED AND
  IDS RESPONSIBILITIES MADE KNOWN TO HIM.
  HE IS TO REACH HIS COINHERrrORS AND ACTI
  VATE THE ACCOUNT UNDER THE CONDITIONS
  SET FORTIL BE SHALL BE THE CONDUIT THROUGH
 24  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

  WHICH THE FUNDS ARE TO BE DISPENSED TO
  THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST, THEM FAM-
  ILIES AND SURVIVING ISSUE....

  The three Germans gave their reasons for the seleotion of Clausen's son as
  the conduit. The child had entered into a family of wealth and consequence
  . . . an American family, above suspicion. All traces of his mothees first
  marriage and flight from Germany had been obscured by the devoted Richard
  -Holcroft. It was understood that in the pursuit of this obscurity a death
  certificate had been issued in London for an infant male named Clausen,
  dated February 17, 1942, and a subsequent birth certiflcate filed in New
  York City for the male child Holcroft. The additional years would further
  obscure events to the point of obliteration. The infant male Clausen would
  someday become the man Holcroft, with no visible relationship to his
  origins. Yet those origins could not be denied, and, therefore, he was the
  perfect choice, satisfying both the demands and the objectives of the
  document
  An international agency was to be established in Zurich, which would serve
  as headquarters for the dispersal of the funds, the source of the funds to
  be held confidential in perpetuity. Should a spokesman be required, it was
  to be the American, Holcroft, for the others could never be mentioned by
  name. Ever. They were the children of Nazis, and their exposure, would
  inevitably raise demands that the account be examined, that its various
  sources be revealed. And if the account was examined, its sources even
  hinted at, forgotten confiscations and appropriations would be remembered.
  The international courts would be swamped with litigations.
  But if the spokesman was a man without the Nazi stain, there would be no
  cause for alarm, no examinations, no demands for exhumation or litigation.
  He would act in concert with the others, each possessing one vote in all
  decisions, but he alone would be visible. The children of Erich Kessler and
  Wilhelm von Tiebolt were to remain anonymous.
  Noel wondered what the "children" of Kessler and Von Tiebolt were like. He
  would find out soon.
  The final conditions of the document were no less startling than anything
  that preceded them. All the monies were to be allocated within six months
  of the release
         THE HoLCROFT COVENANT  25

 of the account Such an imposition would demand a total commitment from each
 of the offspring, and that was precisely what the depositors demanded: total
 commitment to their cause. Lives would be interrupted, sacrifices required.
 The commitments had to be paid for. Therefore, at the end of the six-month
 period and the successful allocation of the funds to the victims of the
 Holocaust, the Zurich agency was to be disbanded and each descendant was to
 receive the sum of two million dollars.
   Six months. Two million dollars.
   Two million.
  Noel considered what that meant to him personally and professionally. It
  was freedom. Manfredi had said in Geneva that he was talented. He was
  talented, but frequently that talent was obscured in the final product.
  He'd had to accept assignments he would have preferred not to take-, had
  to compromise designs when the architect in him dictated otherwise; had to
  refuse jobs he wanted very much to do, because financial pressures
  prohibited time spent on lesser commissions. He was turning into a cynic.
  Nothing was permanent; planned obsolescence went hand in hand with
  depreciation and amortization. No one knew it better than an architect who
  once had a conscience. Perhaps he would find his conscience again. With
  freedom. With the two million.
  Holcroft was startled by the progression of his thoughts. He had made up
  his mind, something he had not intended to do until he'd thought things
  through. Everything. Yet he was reclaiming a misplaced conscience with
  money he had convinced himself he, was capable of rejecting.
  What were they Me, these oldest children of Erich Kessler and Wilhelm von
  Tlebolt? One was a woman; the other, a man a scholar. But beyond the
  differences of sex and profession, they had been a part of something he had
  never known. They'd been there; they'd seen it. Neither had been too young
  to remember. Each had lived in that strange, demonic world that was the
  Third Reich. The American would have so many questions to ask.
  Questions to ask? Questions?
  He had made his decision. He had told Manfredi he would need time-a few
  days at least-before he could decide.
 26  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

  '13o you really have a choicer' the Swiss -banker had asked.
  "Very much so," Noel hadreplied. -rm not for sale, regardless of
  conditions. And I'm not frightened by threats made by maniacs thirty
  years ago."
  "Nor should you be. Discuss it with your mother."
  "What?" Holcroft was stunned. "I thought you said. - ."
  "Complete secrecy? Yes, but your mother is the smigle exception."
  "Why? I'd think she'd be the last. .
  "She's the first. And only. Shell honor the confl-
   99
 dence.
  Manfredi had been right. If his answer was yes, he would by necessity
  suspend his firm's activities and begin his travels to make contact with
  the offspring of Kessler and Von Tiebolt. His mother's curiosity would be
  aroused; she was not a woman to let her curiosity lie dormant. She would
  make inquiries, and if, by any chance-liowever remote--she unearthed
  information about the millions in Geneva and Heinrich Clausen's role in
  the massive theft, her reaction would be violent. Her memories of the
  paranoiac gangsters of the Third Reich were indelibly printed on her mind.
  If she made damaging disclosures public, the funds would be tied up in the
  international courts for years.
  "Suppose she isn't persuaded?"
  "You must be convincing. The letter is convincing, and we'll step in, if
  need be. Regardless, it's better to know her position at the outset."
  What would that position be? Noel wondered. Althene was not your
  run-of-the-mill mother, as mothers were understood by this particular son.
  He knew very early in life that Althene was different. She did not fit
  into the mold of the wealthy Manhattan matron. The trappings were there-or
  had been. The horses, the boats, the weekends in Aspen and in the
  Hamptons, but not the frantic chase for ever-expanding acceptance and
  social control.
  She'd done it all before. SheM lived in the turbulence that was the
  European thirties, a young, carefree American whose family had something
  left after the crash and were more comfortable away from their
  less-fortunate peers. She had known the Court of St. James's as well as
         71M HOLCROFT COVENANT  27

 the expatriate salons in Paris ... and the dashing new inheritors of
 Germany. And out of those years had come a serenity shaped by love,
 exhaustion, loathing, and rage.
  Althene was a special person, as much a friend as a mother, that friendship
  deep and without the need for constant reaffaination. In point of fact,
  thought Holcraft, she was more friend than mother; she was never entirely
  comfortable in the latter role.
  'Tve made too many mistakes, my dear," she had said to him once, laughing,
  "to assume an authority based on biology."
  Now he would ask her to face the memory of a man she had spent a great deal
  of her life trying to forget. Would she be frightened? That wasn't likely.
  Would she doubt.the objectives set forth in the document given him by Ernst
  Manfredi? How could she, after reading the letter from Heinrich Clausen.
  Whatever her memories, his mother was a woman of intellect and perception.
  All men were subject to change, to remorse. She would have to accept that,
  no matter how distasteful it might be to her in this particular case.
  It was the weekend; tomorrow was Sunday. His mother and Atepfather spent
  the weekends at their house in the country, in Bedford Hills. In the
  morning he would drive up and have that talk.
  And on Monday he would take the first steps on a trip that would lead him
  back to Switzerland. To an as yet unknown agency in Zurich. On Monday the
  hunt would begin.
  Noel recalled his exchange with Manfredi. They were among the last words
  spoken before Holcroft left the train.
  "The Kesslers had two sons. The oldest Erichnamed for the father-is a
  professor of history at the University of Berlin. The younger brother,
  Hans, is a doctor in Munich. From what we know, both are highly regarded
  in their respective communities. They're very close. Once Erich is told of
  the situation, he may insist on his brother's inclusion."
   "Is that permittedr,
   "rbere's nothing in the document that prohibits ft. -However, the stipend
   remains the same and each family has but one vote in-all decisions."
   "What about the Von Tiebolts?"
 28  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

  "Another story, rm afraid. They may be a problem for you. After the war the
  records show that the mother and two children Bed to Rio de Janeiro. Five
  or six years ago they disappeared. Literally. The police have no infor-
  mation. No address, no business associations, no listings in the other
  major cities. And that's unusual; the mother became quite successful for
  a time. No one seems to know what happened, or if people do, they're not
  willing to say~"
  'Tou said two children. Who are they?"
  "Actually, there are three children. The youngest, a daughter, Helden, was
  born after the war, in Brazil, obviously conceived during the last days of
  the Reich. Ihe oldest is another daughter, Gretchen. The middle child is
  Johann, the son."
  "You say, they disappeared?"
  "Perhaps it's too dramatic a term. We're bankers, not investigators. Our
  inquiries were not that extensive, and Brazil is a very large country. Your
  inquiries must be exhaustive. Ike offspring of each man must be found and
  scrutinized. It!s the first condition of the document; without compliance,
  the account will not be released."
  Holcroft folded the document and put it back in his aftach6 case. As he did
  so, his fingers touched the edge of the single sheet of paper with the odd
  block lettering written by the survivors of Wolfsschanze thirty years ago.
  Manfredi was right: They were sick old men trYmg to play their last
  desperate roles-in a drama of the future they barely understood. If they
  had understood, they would have appealed to the "son of Heinrich Clausen."
  Pleaded with him, not threatened hun. The threat was the enlSma. Why was
  it made? For what purpose? A i
 perhaps, Manfredi was right. The strange paper had no meaning now. There
 were other things to thin about.
  Holcroft caught the eye of the stewardess chaffing with two men at a table
  across the way and gestured for another scotch. She smiled pleasantly,
  nodded, and indicated that the drink would be there in moments. He returned
  to his thoughts.
  The inevitable doubts surfaced. Was he prepared to commit what amounted to
  a year of his life to a project so immense that his own qualifications had
  to be examined before the children of Kessler and Von Mebolt
 examined-if, indeed, he could find the latter? Man-         THE ROLCROPT COVENANT  29

 fredi's words - came back to him. Do you really have a choice? The answer to
 that question was both yes and no. The two million, which signified his own
 freedom, was a temptation difficult to reject, but he could reject it. His
 dissatisfactions were real, but professionally, things were going well. His
 reputation was spreading, his skills acknowledged by a growing number of
 clients who in turn told potential clients. What would happen if he suddenly
 stopped? What would be the effect should he abruptly withdraw from a dozen
 commissions for which he was competing? These too were questions to be
 considered deeply; he was not ruled by money alone.
  Yet, as his mind wandered, Noel understood the uselessness of his thoughts.
  Compared to Ibis ... covenant ... the questions were inconsequential.
  Whatever his personal circumstances, the distribution of millions to the
  survivors of an inhumanity unknown in history was long overdue; it was an
  obligation impossible to dismiss. A voice had cried out to him through the
  years, the voice of a man in agony who was the father he had never known.
  For reasons he was incapable of explaining to himself, he could not be deaf
  to that voice; he could not walk away from that man in agony. He would
  drive to Bedford Hills in the morning and see his mother.
  Holcroft looked up, wondering where the stewardess was with his drink. She
  was at the dimly lit counter that served as the bar in the 747s lounge. The
  two men from the table had accompanied her; they were joined by a third.
  A fourth man sat quietly in a rear seat, reading a newspaper. The two men
  with the stewardess had been drinking heavily, while the third, in his
  search for camaraderie, pretended to be less sober than he was. The
  stewardess saw Noel looking at her and arched her eyebrows in mock
  desperation. She had poured his scotch, but one of the drunks had spilled
  it; she was wiping it up with a cloth. Ile drunke companion suddenly
  lurched back against a chair, his balance lost. The stewardess dashed
  around the counter to help the fallen passenger; his friend laughed,
  steadying himself on an adjacent chair. The third man reached for a drink
  on the bar. The fourth man looked up in disgust, crackling his paper, the
  sound conveying his disapproval. Noel returned to the window not caring to
  be a part of the minor confusion.
  Several minutes later the stewardess approached his
 30  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 table. "Im sorry, Mr. Holcroft. Boys will be boys, more so on the Atlantic
 run, I think. That was scotch on the rocks, wasn't it?"
  "Yes. Thanks." Noel took the glass from the attractive girl and saw the
  look in her eyes. It seemed to say, Thank you, nice person, for not coming
  on like those crashing bores. Under different circumstances he might have
  pursued a conversation, but now he had other things to think about His mind
  was listing the things he would do on Monday. Closing his office was not
  difficult in terms of personnel; he had a small staff : a secretary and two
  draftsmen he could easily place with friends-probably at higher salaries.
  But why in heaven's name would Holcroft, Incorporated, New York, close up
  shop just when its designs were being considered for projects that could
  triple its staff and quadruple its gross income? The explanation had to be
  both reasonable and above scrutiny.
  Suddenly, without warning, a passenger on the other side of the cabin
  sprang from his seat, a hoarse, wild cry of pain coming from his throat.
  He arched his back spastically, as if gasping for air, clutched first his
  stomach, then his chest. He crashed into the wooden divider that held
  magazines and airline schedules and twisted maniacally, his eyes wide, the
  veins in his neck purple and distended. He lurched forward and sprawled to
  the deck of the cabin.
  It was the third man, who had joined the two drunks at the bar with the
  stewardess.
  The next moments were chaotic. The stewardess rushed to the fallen man,
  observed him closely, and followed procedure. She instructed the three
  other passengers in the cabin to remain in their seats, placed a cushion
  beneath the man's head, and returned to the counter and the intercom on the
  wall. In seconds a male ffight attendant rushed up the circular staircase;
  the British Airways captain emerged from the flight deck. They conferred
  with the stewardess over the unconscious body. The male attendant walked
  rapidly to the staircase, descended, and returned within a few moments with
  a clipboard. It was obviously the plane's manifest
  The captain stood and addressed the others in the lounge. "Will you all
  please return to your seats below. Theres a doctor on board. He's being
  summoned. Thank you very much.99 .
         TIM HOLCROFT COVENANT  31

  As Holcroft sidestepped. his way down the staircase, a stewardess carrying
  a blanket climbed quickly past him. Then he heard the captain issue an
  order over the intercom. "Radio Kennedy for emergency equipment. Medical.
  Male passenger, name of Thornton. Heart seizure, I believe."

  The doctor knelt by the prone figure stretched out on the rear seat of the
  lounge and asked for a flashlight. The first officer hurried to the flight
  deck and returned with one. Ike doctor rolled back the eyelids of the man
  named Tbornton, then turned and motioned for the captain to join him; he
  had something to say. The captain bent over; the doctor spoke quietly.
  "Hes dead. It's difficult to say without equipment, without tissue and
  blood analysis, but I don7t think this man had a heart attack. I think
  hewas poisoned. Strychnine would be my guess."

  The customs inspectoes office was suddenly quiet. Behind the inspectoes
  desk sat a homicide detective from New York's Port Authority police, a
  British Airways clipboard in front of him. The inspector stood rigidly
  embarrassed to one side. In two chairs against the wall sat the captain of
  the 747 and the stewardess assigned to its first-class lounge. By the door
  was a uniformed police officer. The detective stared at the customs
  inspector in disbelief.
  "Are you telling me that two people got off that plane, walked through
  sealed-off corridors into the sealedoff, guarded customs area, and
  vanished?"
  "I can't- explain it," said the inspector, shaking his head despondently.
  "It's never happened before."
  The detective turned to the stewardess. "Yowre convinced they were drunk,
  missr'
  "Not now, perhaps," replied the girl. "I've got to have second thoughts.
  They drank a great deal; rm certain of it; they couldn7t have faked that.
  I served them. They appeared quit.- sloshed. Harmless, but sloshed."
  "Could they have poured their drinks out somewhere? Without drin!dng
  them., I mean."
  "Where?" asked the stewardess.
  "I don't know. Hollow ashtrays, the seat cushions. What's on the floor?"
 32  THE KOLCROFT COVENANT

  "Carpeting," answered the pilot.
  The detective addressed. the police officer by the door. "Get forensic on
  your radio. Have them check the carpet, the seat cushions, ashtrays. Left
  side of the ropedoff area facing front. Dampness is enough. Let me know."
  'Tes, sir." The officer left quickly, closing the door behind him.
  "Of course," ventured the captain, "alcoholic tolerances vary.91
  "Not in the amounts the young lady describecV' the detective said.
  "For God's sake, why is it important?" said the cap, tain. "Obviously
  they're the men you want. They've vanished, as you put it. That took some
  planning, I daresay."
  "Everything's important," explained the detective, 'Methods can be matched
  with previous crimes. We're looking for anything. Crazy people. Rich, crazy
  people who jet around the world looking for thrills. Signs of psychosis,
  getting kicks while on a high--alcohol or narcotics, it doesn't matter. As
  far as we can determine, the two men in question didn't even know this
  Thornton; your stewardess here said they introduced themselves. Why did
  they IM him? And, accepting the fact that they did, why so brutally? It was
  strychnine, Captain, and take my word for it, it's a rough way to go."
  The telephone rang. The customs inspector. answered it; listened briefly,
  and handed it to the Port Authority detective. "It's the State Department.
  For you."
  "State? This is Lieutenant Miles, NYPA police. Have you got the information
  I requested?"
  "We've got it, but you won't like it. . .
  "Wait a minute," Miles broke in. The door had opened and the uniformed
  officer had reappeared. "What have you got?" Miles asked the officer.
  "The seat cushions and the carpet on the left side of the lounge are
  soaked."
  lfben they were cold sober," said the detective, in a monotone. He nodded
  and returned to the telephone. Go ahead, State. What won't I like?"
  "Those passports in question were declared void more than four years ago.
  They belonged to two men from Flint, Michigan. Neighbors, actually; worked
  for the same company in Detroit. In June of 1973 they both went on a
  business trip to Europe and never came back."
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  33

  "%y were the passports voided?"
  "Mey disappeared from their hotel rooms. Three days later their bodies were
  found in the river. They'd been shot."
  "Jeswl What river? Where?"
  wMe Isar. They were mi Munich, Germany."

  One by one the irate passengers of Flight 591 passed through the door of
  the quarantined room. Their names, addresses, and telephone numbers were
  checked off against the 747's manifest by a representative of British
  Airways. Next to the representative was a member of the Port Authority
  police, making his own marks on a duplicate list. The quarantine had lasted
  nearly four hours.
  Outside the room the passengers were directed down a hallway into a large
  cargo area, where they retrieved their inspected luggage, and headed for
  the doors of the main terminal. One passenger, however, made no move to
  leave the cargo area. Instead, this man, who carried no luggage, but had
  a raincoat over his arm, walked directly to a door with thick, stenciled
  printing on the panel.

       U. S. CUSTOMS. CONTROL CENTER
        AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

  Showing identification, he stepped inside.
  A gray-haired man in the uniform of a high-ranking customs official stood
  by a steel-framed window, smoking a ciprefte. At the intrusion, he turned.
  "I've been waiting for you," he said. "There was nothing I could do while
  you were quarantined."
  "I had the M card ready in case you weren't here," replied the passenger,
  putting the identification back into his jacket pocket.
  "Keep it mdy..You may stiff need it; the police are all over the place.
  What do you want to doT'
  "Get out to that aircraft"
  "You think they're there?"
  "YeL Somewhere. It's the only explanation."
  The two men left the room and walked rapidly across the cargo area, past
  the numerous conveyor belts, to a steel doorway marked NO ADMITTANCE. Using
  a key, the customs official opened it and preceded the younger man With the
  raincoat through the door.'They were
 34  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 inside a long cinderblock tunnel that led to the field. Forty seconds later
 they reached another steel door, this one guarded by two men, one from U.S.
 Customs, the other from the Port Authority police. The gray-haired official
 was recognized by the former.
  "Hello, Captain. Hell. of a night, isn't itr'
  "It's only begun, I'm afraid," said the OfficiaL "We may be involved, after
  all." He looked at the policeman. "Ibis man's federal," he continued,
  angling his head at his companion. "Im taking him to the five-ninety-one
  aircraft. There may be a narcotics connection."'
  The police officer seemed confused. Apparently his orders were to allow no
  one through the door. The customs guard interceded.
  "Hey, come on. This man runs all of Kennedy Air-
 port.99
  The policeman shrugged and opened the door.
  Outside a steady rain fell from the black night sky as pockets of mist
  rolled in from Jamaica Bay. The
 with the customs official put on his raincoat. His movements were swift; in
 the hand beneath the coat held over his arm had'been a gun. It was now in
 his belt, the buttons at his waist unfastened.
  The 747 glistened under floodlights, rain streaking down its fuselage.
  Police and maintenance crews were everywhere, distinguished from one
  another by the contrasting black and orange of their slickers.
  "IT build your cover with the police inside," said the customs official,
  gesturing at the metal steps that swept up from the back of the truck to
  a door in the fuselage. -Good hunting.-
  The man in the raincoat nodded, not really listening. His eyes were
  scanning the area. The 747 was the focal point; thirty yards from it in all
  directions were Stanchions connected by ropes, policemen at midpoints be-
  tween them. The man in the raincoat was within this enclosure; he could
  move about freely. He turned right at the end of the parallel ropes and
  proceeded toward the rear of the aircraft. He nodded to the police officers
  at their posts, slapping his identification open casually to those whose
  looks were questioning. He kept peering through the rain into the faces of
  those entering and leaving the plane. lbree quarters around the plan% he
  board the angry shout of a maintenance crewman.
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  35

  'Vhat the fuck are you doing? Get that winch securel"
  The target of the outburst was another crewman, standing on the platform
  of a fuel truck. This crewman had no rain slicker on; his white coverall
  was drenched. In the driver's seat of the truck sat another crewman, also
  without rain apparel.
  That was it, thought the man in the raincoat. The killers had worn
  coveralls beneath their suits. But they had not taken into consideration
  the possibility of rain. Except for that mistake, the escape had been
  planned brilliantIY-
  The man walked over to the fuel truck, his hand on the gun concealed
  beneath his raincoat. Through the rain he stared at the figure beyond the
  truck window, in the driver's seat; the second man was above him, to his
  right on the platform, turned away. The face behind the window stared back
  in disbelief, and instantly lurched for the far side of the seat. But the
  man in the raincoat was too quick. He opened the door, pulled out his re-
  volver and fired, the gunshot muted by a silencer. The rnnn in the seat
  fell into the dashboard, blood streaming out of his forehead.
  At the sound of the commotion below, the second man spun around on the
  steel platform of the, truck and looked below.
  "Youl In the loungel With the newspaperl"
  "Get inside the truck," commanded the man in the raincoat, his words clear
  through the pounding rain, his gun concealed behind the door panel.
  The figure on the platform hesitated. The man with the gun looked around.
  The surrounding police were preoccupied with their discomfort in the
  downpour, half blinded by the floodlights. None was observing the deadly
  scene. The man in the raincoat reached up, grabbed the white cloth of the
  surviving killer's coverall, and yanked him into the frame of the open door
  of the fuel truck.
  "You failed. Heinrich Clausen's son still lives," he said calmly. Then he
  fired a second shot. The killer fell back into the seat.
  The man in the raincoat closed the door and put his gun back into his belt.
  He walked casually away, directly underneath the fuselage toward the
  roped-off alleyway that led to the tunnel. He could see the customs
  official
           I
 36  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

 emerging from the 747's door, walking rapidly down the steps. They met and
 together headed for the.door of the tunnel.
  'T&at happenedr' asked the official.
  "My hunting was good. Theirs wasn't. The question is, what do we do
  about Holcroft?"
  "That's not our concern. It's the Tinamou's. The Tinamou must be
  informed."
  The man in the raincoat smiled to himself, knowing his smile could not
  be seen in the downpour.
               4

 Holcroft got out of the taxi in front of his apartme nt on East
 Seventy-third Strea He was exhausted, the strain of the last three days
 heightened by the tragedy on board the fight. He was sorry for the poor
 bastard who'd had the heart attack, but furious at the Port Authority police
 who treated, the incident as if it were an international crisis. Good Lordl
 Quarantined for damned near four hoursl And all passengers in first class
 were to keep the police informed of their whereabouts for the next sixty
 days.
  The doorman greeted him. "A short trip this time, Mr. Holcroft. But you got
  a lot of mail. Oh, and a message-It
  "A messageT'
  "Yes, sir," said the doorman, handing him a business card. 'This gentleninn
  came in asking for you last night. He was very agitated, you know what I
  mean?"
  "Not exactly." Noel took the card and read the name: PETER BALDWIN, ESQ.;
  it meant nothing to him.
 WELLINGTON SECURM SYSTEMS, LTD. TIM STRAND, LONDON, wlA. There was a
 telephone number underneath. Holcroft had never heard of the British
 company. He turned the card over; on the back was scribbled ST. REGIS wTEL.
 Rm. 411.
  "He insisted that I ring your apartment in case you'd gotten back and I
  didn't see you come in. I told him that was crazy.99
  "He could have telephoned me himself," said Noel, walking toward the
  elevator. "I'm in the book."
  "He told me he tried, but your phone was out of order." ne elevator door
  closed on the man's last words. Holcroft read the name again as the
  elevator climbed to the fifth floor. Peter Baldwin, Esq. Who was he? And
  since when was his phone out of order?
               37
 38  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  He opened his apartment door and reached for the light switch on the wall.
  Two table lamps went on simultaneously; Noel dropped his suitcase and
  stared in disbelief at the room.
  Nothing was the same as it was three days agol NothIng. Every piece of
  furniture, every chair, every table, every vase and ashtray, was moved into
  another position. His couch had been in the center of the room; it was now
  in the far-right comer. Each sketch and painting on the walls had been
  shifted around~ none where it had been beforel The stereo was -to longer
  on the shelf; instead it was neatly arranged on a table. His bar, always
  at the rear of the living room, was now at the left of the door. His
  drafting board, usually by the window, was now by itself ten feet in front
  of him, the stool somewhere else-God knew where. It was the strangest
  sensation he had ever had. Everything familiar, yet not familiar at all.
  Reality distorted, out of focus.
  He stood in the open doorway. Images of the room as. it had been kept
  reappearing in front of his eyes, only to be replaced by what was in front
  of him now.
  "What happened2" He heard his own words, unsure they were his at first.
  He ran to the couch; the telephone was always by the couch, on a table at
  its right arm. But the couch had been moved, and the telephone had not been
  moved with it. He spun around toward the center of the rOonL Where was the
  table? It was not there; an armchair was where the table should be. The
  telephone was not there, eitherl Where was the telephone? Where was the
  table? Where the hell was the telephone?
  It was by the window. There was his kitchen table by the livingmroom
  window, and the telephone was on top of it. The large center window that
  looked out at the apartment building across the wide courtyard below. The
  telephone wires had been taken out from under the wallto-wall carpeting and
  moved to the window. It was crazyl Who would take the trouble to lift
  tacked-down carpeting and move telephone wires?
  He raced to the table, picked up the phone, and pressed the intercom button
  that connected him to the switchboard in the lobby. He stabbed the signal
  button repeatedly; there was no answer. He kept his finger on it; finally,
  the harried voice of Jack the doorman answered.
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  39

  "All right, all right This is the lobby. . .
  "Jack, it's Mr. Holcroft. Who came up to my apartment while I was away?"
  "Who came what, sir?"
  "Up to my apartmend"
  "Were you robbed, Mr. Holcroft?"
  "I don't )mow yet. I just know that everything's been moved around. Who
  was here?"
  "Nobody. I mean, nobody I know of. And the other guys didn't say anything.
  I'm relieved at four in the morning by Ed, and he's off at noon. Louie
  takes over then."
  "Can you call themr,
  "Hell, I can call the policel"
  The word was jarring. "Police" meant questions
 Where had he been? Whom had he seen?-and Noel was not sure he wanted to give
 any answers.
  "No, don't call the police. Not yet. Not until I see if anything's
  iniissing. It might be someone's idea of a joke. I'll call you back." -
  "I'll call the other guys."
  Holcroft hung up. He sat on the wide windowsill and appraised the room.
  Everything. Not a single piece of furniture was where it had been beforel
  He was holding something in his left hand: the business card. PETER
  BALDWIN, ESQ.
  ". . . he war very agitated, you know what I mean? ... he insisted I ring
  your apartment ... your phone was out of order .....
   ST. REGIS HOTEL. Rm. 411.
  Noel picked up the phone and dialed. He knew the number well; he lunched
  frequently at the King Cole Grill.
  "Yes? Baldwin here." The voice was British, the greeting abrupt.
  "This is Noel Holcroft, Mr. Baldwin. You tried to reach me."
  "Ibank heavensl Where are you?"
  "Home. In my apartment. I just got back."
  "Back? From where?"
  "I'm not sure that's any of your business."
  "For God's sake, I've traveled over three thousand miles to see. youl It's
  dreadfully important. Now where were you?"
  The En&hman's breathing was audible over the
 40  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

 phone; the man's intensity seemed somehow related to fear. -rm flattered you
 came all that distance to see me, but it still doesn't give you the right to
 ask personal questions. . . ."
  "I have every rightl" broke in Baldwin. "I spent twenty years with MI Six,
  and we have a great deal to talk aboutl You have no idea what yotfre doing.
  No one does but me."
  "You what? We what?"
  "Let. me put it this way. Cancel Geneva. Cancel it, Mr. Holcroft, until
  we've talkedl"
  "Geneva? . . ." Noel felt suddenly sick to his stomach. How would this
  Englishman know about Geneva? How could he know?
  A light flickered outside the window; someone in an apartment directly
  across the courtyard was lighting a cigarette. Despite his agitation,
  Holcroft's eyes were drawn to I
  IOMeres someone at the door," Baldwin said. "Stay on the phone. I'll get
  rid of whoever it is and be right back."
  Noel could hear Baldwin put the telephone down, then the sound of a door
  opening and indistinguishable voices. Across the courtyard, in the window,
  a match was struck again, illuminating the long blond hair of a wo
 behind a sheer curtain.
  ~ Holcroft realized there was silence on the line; he could hear no voices
  now. Moments went by; the Englishman did not'return.
  "Baldwin? Baldwin, where are you? Baldwinr
  For a third time a- match flared in the window across the way. Noel stared
  at it; it seemed unnecessary. He could see the glow of a cigarette in the
  blond woman's mouth. And then he saw what was in her other hand,
  silhouetted behind the sheer curtain: a telephone. She was holding a
  telephone to her ear and looking over at his window-looking, he was sure,
  at hmL
  "Baldwin? Where the hell are you?"
  There was a click; the line went dead.
  "Baldwinl"
  The woman in the window slowly lowered the telephone, paused for a moment,
  and walked away, out of sighL
         THE HoLcROFT CovENANT  41

  Holcroft stared at the window, then at the telephone in his hand. He waited
  until he got the active fine, theti redialed the St. Regis.
  "I'm sorry, sir, room four-eleven's telephone seems to be out of order.
  We'll send someone up right away. May I have your number and we!ll give it
  to Mr. Baldwin."
  ... your phone was out of order...
  Something was happening that Noel did not understand. He knew only that he
  would not leave his name or number with the operator at the SL Regis. He
  hung up and looked again at the window across the courtyard. Whatever light
  there had been was gone. The window was dark; be could see only the white
  of the curtain.
  He pushed himself away from the windowsill and wandered aimlessly about the
  room around familiar possessions in unfamiliar locations. He was not sure
  what to do; he supposed he should see if anything was missing. Nothing
  seemed to be, but it was difficult to tell.
  The telephone buzzed: the intercom from the lobby switchboard. He answered
  it.
   It's. Jack, Mr. Holcroft. I just spoke to Ed and Uuie. Neither af 'em know
   anything about anyone going up to your place. They're honest guys. They
   wouldn!t screw around. None ofus would."
  'Ibanks, Jack. I believe you."
  "You want me to call the policer
  "No." Noel tried to sound casual. "I have an idea someone at the office was
  playiag a joke. A couple of the fellows have keys." -
  "I didn't we anybody. Neither did Ed or----~'
  "It's okay, Jack," interrupted Holcroft. "Forget it. The night I left we
  had a party. One or two stayed over." It was all Noel could think of to
  say.
  Suddenly it occurred to him that he had not looked in his bedroom. He went
  there now, his hand reaching for the light switch on the wall.
  He expected it, but it was still a shock. Ile disorientation was now
  somehow complete.
  Again, each piece of furniture had been moved to a different position. Ile
  bed was the first thing that struck his eye; it was oddly frightening. No
  part of it touched the wall. Instead, it was in the center of the room.
  iso-
   42 THE IROLCROFT COVENANT

 lated. His bureau stood in front of a window; a small writing desk was
 dwarfed against the expanse of the right wall. As had happened minutes ago,
 when first he'd seen the living room, the images of what his bedroom looked
 like three days ago kept flashing before bm36 replaced by the strangeness of
 what he now observed.
  Then he saw it and gasped. Hanging down from the ceiling, strapped together
  with dull black tape, was his second telephone, the extension cord snaking
  up the wall and across the ceiling to the hook that held it.
  It was spinning slowly.
  The pain shifted from his stomach to his chest; his eyes were transfixed
  on the sight, on the suspended instrument revolving slowly in midair. He
  was afraid to look beyond, but he knew he had to; he had to understand.
  And when he did, his breath came back to him. The phone was in the direct
  path of his bathroom door and the door was open. He saw the curtains
  billowing in the window above the basin. The steady stream of cold wind was
  making the telephone spin.
  He walked quickly into the bathroom to shut the window. As he was about to
  pull the curtains, he saw a brief flash of illumination outside; a match
  bad been struck in another window across the courtyard, the flare startling
  in the darkness. He looked out.
  There was the woman againl The blond-haired woman, her upper body
  silhouetted beyond another set of sheer curtains. He stared at the figure,
  mesmerized by it.
  She turned as shi had turned before, and walked away as she had walked away
  minutes ago. Out of sight. And the dim light in the window went out.
  What was happening? What did it mean? Things were being orchestrated to
  frighten him. But by whom and for what purpose? And what had happened to
  Peter Baldwin, Esq., he of the intense voice and the command to cancel
  Geneva? Was Baldwin a part of the terror, or was he a victim of. it?
  Victim . . . victim? It was an odd word to use, he thought. Why should
  there be any victims? And what did Baldwin mean when he said he had "spent
  twenty years with MI Six"?
  MI Six? A branch of British intelligence. If he remembered correctly, MI
  Five was the section that dealt
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  43

 with domestic matters; Six concerned itself with problems outside the
 country. The English CIA, as it were.
  Good Godl Did the British know about the Geneva document? Was British
  intelligence aware of the massive theft of thirty years ago? On the
  surface, it would appear so. . . . Yet that was not what Peter Baldwin had
  implied.
  You have no idea what you're doing. No one does but me.
  And then there was silence, and the line went dead.
  Holcroft walked out of the bathroom and paused beneath the suspended
  telephone; it was barely moving now, but it had not stopped. It was an
  ugly sight, made macabre by the profusion of dull black tape that held the
  instrument together. As if the phone had been mummified, never to be used
  gafiL
  He continued toward the bedroom door, then instinctively stopped and
  turned. Something had caught his eye, something he had not noticed before.
  The center drawer of the small writing desk was open. He looked closer.
  Inside the drawer was a sheet of paper.
  His breathing stopped as he stared at the page below.
  It couldn!t be. It was insane. The single sheet of paper was brownish
  yellow. With age. It was identical to the page that had been kept in a
  vault in Geneva for thirty years. The letter filled with threats written
  by fanatics who revered a martyr named Heinrich Clausen. The writIng was
  the same; the odd Germanic printing of English words, the ink that was
  faded but stiff legible.
  And what was legible was astonishing. For it had been written more than
  thirty years ago.

NOEL CLAUSEN-HOLCROFT
NOTHING IS AS IT WAS FOR YOU. NOTMNG
CAN EVER BE TIM MME...

  Before he read further, Noel picked up an edge of the page. It crumbled
  under his touch.
  Oh, Godl It was written thirty years agol
  And that fact made the remainder of the message frightening.

    THE PAn WAS PREPARATION, TM FUTURE 13
  COMMITTED TO THE MMMORY OF A MAN AND HIS
  DREAM EMS WAS AN ACT OF DARING AND BRIOL- 44  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

  LL4,NCE IN A WORLD GONE MAD. NOTENG MUST
  STAND IN THE WAY OF THAT DREAM's FULFILL34ENT.
    WE ARE THE SURVIVORS OF WOLPSSCHANM
  TIMM OF US WHO LIVE WILL DEDICATE OUR LIM AND BODIES TO THE PROTECTION OF
  THAT MAN'S DREAM. IT WILL BE FULFILLED, FOR IT IS ALL THAT IS LEFT. AN ACT
  OF MERCY THAT WILL BMW TEE WORLD THAT WE WERE BETRAYED, THAT WE WERE NOT
  AS THE WORLD BELIEVED US TO BE. WE, THE MEN OF WOLFSSCHANZE, KNOW
  WHAT THE BEST OF US WERE. AS HEINRICH CLAUSEN ENEW.
    IT IS NOW UP TO YOU, NOEL CLAUSEN-
  HOLCROFT, TO COMPLETE WHAT YOUR FATHER BEGAN. YOU ARE THE WAY YOUR FATHER
  WISHED IT SO.
    MANY WILL TRY TO STOP YOU TO THROW
  OPEN THE FLOODGATES AND DESTROY THE DREAM. BUT THE MEN OF WOLFSSCIL4,NZE
  DO SURVIVE. YOU HAVE OUR WORD THAT ALL THOSE WHO INTERFERE WELL BE STOPPED
  THEMSELVES. ANY WHO STAND IN YOUR WAY, WHO TRY
  TO DISSUADE YOU, WHO TRY TO DECEIVE YOU WITH LIES, WILL BE ELIMINATED.
    AS YOU AND YOURS WILL BE SHOULD YOU
  HESITATE. OR FAIL.
    THIS IS OUR OATH TO YOU.

  Noel grabbed the paper out of the drawer; it fell apart in his hand. He let
  the fragments fall to the floor.
  "Goddamned mantacil" He slammed the drawer shut and ran out of the bedroom.
  Where was the telephone? Where the hell was the gGddamned telephone? By the
  window-that was it; it was on the kitchen table by the fucking windowl
  "Maniacs1" he screamed again at no one. But not really at no one: at a man
  in Geneva who had been on a train bound for Zurich. Maniacs might have
  written that page of garbage thirty years ago, but now, thirty years later,
  other maniacs had delivered itl They had broken into his home, invaded his
  privacy, touched his belongings. ... God knows what else, he thought,
  thinking of Peter Baldwin, Esq. A man who had traveled thousands of
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  45

 miles to we him, and talk with himsilence, a click, a
 dead telephone line.
  He looked at his watctL it was almost one o'clock in the morning. What was
  it in Zurich? Six? Seven? The banks in Switzerland opened at eight. La
  Grande Banque de (knave had a branch in Zurich; Manfredi would be them
  The window. He was standing in front of the window where he W stood only
  minutes ago, waiting for Baldwin to come back on the phone. The window.
  Across the courtyard in the opposite apartment. lie three brief flares of
  a match ... the blond-haired wornan in the windowl
  Holcroft put his hand in his pocket to make sure he had his keys. He did.
  He ran to, the door, let himself out, raced for the elevator, and pushed
  the button. The indicator showed that the car was on the tenth floor; the
  arrow did not move.
  God damn Itl
  He ran to the staircase and started down, taking the steps two at a time.
  He reached the ground floor and dashed out into the lobby.
   Jesus, Mr. Holcroft!" Jack stared at him "You scared the shit out of me
   I"
  "Do you know the doorman in the next bulldmgr' shouted Noel.
  "WhIch one?"
  "Christi That onel" Holcroft gestured to the right.
  -1bat's three-eighty. Yeah, sure."
  "Come on with mel"
  "Hey, wait a minute, Mr. Holcroft I Mot leave here-"
  "We'll only be a minute. There's twenty dollars in it for YM to
  "Only a minute...."
  The doorman at three-eighty greeted them, understanding quickly that he was
  to give accurate information to Jack's friend.
  "I'm sorry, sir, but there's no one In that apartment. Hasn't been for
  almost three weeks. But I'm afraid WS been rented; the new tenants will be
  coming in. . - ."
  'Mere is someone therel" said Noel, trying to con-, trol himself. "A
  blond-haired woman. I've got to find out who she is."
 46  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  ."A blond-haired woman? Kind of medium height, sort of good-looking, smokes
  a lot?"
  "Yes, that's the one I Who is sher'
  "You live in your place long, misterr'
  Ggiihatrq
  "I mean, have you been there a long time?"
   Whars that got to do with anydiingr
  "I think maybe you've been drinking...
   What the bell are you talking about?l Who LI that woman?"
  "Not is, mister Was The blond woman youre talking about was Mrs. Palatyne.
  She died a month ago."

  Noel sat in the chair in front of the window, staring across the courtyard.
  Someone was trying to drive him crazy. But why? it did not make sensel
  Fanatics, maniacs from thirty years ago, had sprung across three decades,
  commanding younger, unknown troops thirty Years laterApin, why?
  He had called the St. Regis. Room four-eleven's telephone was working, but
  it was continuously busy. And a woman he had seen clearly did not exisL But
  she did existi And she was a part of it; h6 knew it.
  He got out of the chair, walked to the strangely placed bar, and poured
  himself a drink He looked at his watch; it was one-fifty. He had ten
  minutes to wait before the overseas operator would call him back; the bank
  Could be reached at two A.M., New York time. He carried his glass back to
  the chair in front of the window. On the way, he passed his FM radio. It
  was not where it usually was of course; that was why he noticed it. Ab-
  sently, he tamed it on. He liked music; it soothed him
  But it was words, not music, that he, heard. IUe rat-tat-tatting beneath
  an announcees voice indicated one of those "all-news" stations. 1'he dial
  had been changed. He. should have known. Nothing is as it was for you....
  Something being said on the radio caught his attention. He tamed quickly
  in the chair, part of his drink spilling onto his trousers.
  1~.. police have cordoned off the hoters entrance& Our reporter, Richard
  Dunlop, is on the scene, calling in from our mobile umt. Come in, Richard.
  What have you learnedr
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  47

  There was a burst of static followed by the voice of an excited newscaster.
  "ne man!s name was Peter Baldwin, John. He was an Englishman. Arrived
  yesterday, or at least "a when he registered at the St. Regis; the police
  are contacting the airlines for further information. As far as can be
  determined,-he was over here on vacation. There was no listing of a company
  on the hotel registry card."
  "When did they discover the body?"
  "About a half hour ago. A maintenance man went up to the room to check the
  telephone and found Mr. Baldwin sprawled out on the bed. The rumors here
  are wild and you don7t kriow what to believe, but the thing thaiVs stressed
  is the method of killing. Apparently, it was vicious, brutal. Baldwin was
  garroted, they said. A wire pulled through his throat An hysterical maid
  from the fourth floor was heard screammg -to the police that the room was
  drenched with~l
  "Was robbery the motive?" interrupted the anchorman, in the interests of
  taste.
  "We haven't been able to establish that. The police aren't talking. I
  gather they're waiting for someone from the British consulate to arrive."
  "Iliank you, Richard Dunlop. Well stay in touch.
  That was Richard Dunlop at the St. Regis Hotel, on Fifty-fifffi Street in
  Manhattan. To repeat, a brutal murder took place at one of New York's most
  fashionable hotels this morning. An Englishman named Peter Baldwin..."
  Holcroft shot out of the chair, lurched at the radio, and turned it off.
  He stood above it, breathing rapidly. He did not want to admit to himself
  that he had heard what he had just heard. It was not anything he had really
  considered; it simply was not possible.
  But it was possible. It was real; it had happened. It was death. The
  maniacs from thirty years age were not caricatures, not figures from some
  melodranuL They were vicious killers. And they were deadly serious.
  Peter Baldwin, Esq., had told him to cancel Geneva. Baldwin had interfered
  with the dream, with the covenant. And now be was dead, brutally killed
  with a wire through his throat.
  With difficulty, Noel walked back to the chair and sat down. He raised his
  glass to his lips and drank several
 48  THE 11OLCROFT COVENAW

 long swallows of whiskey; the scotch did nothing for him. Ile pounding in
 his chest only accelerated.
  A flare of a matchl Across the courtyard, in the windowl There she wasl
  Silhouetted beyond the sheer curtains in a wash of dim light stood the
  blond-haired woman. She was daring across the way, staring at himl He got
  out of the chair, drawn hypnotically to the win. dow, his face inches from
  the panes of gIRSL The woman nodded her head; she was slowly nodding her
  head! She was telling him something. She was telling him that what he
  perceived was the truthl
  ... The blond woman you're talking about was Mrs. Palatyne. She died a
  month ago.
  A dead woman stood silhouetted in a window across the darkness and was
  sending him a terrible message. Oh, Christ, he was goins insanel
  Ile telephone rang; the bell terrified him. He held his breath and lunged
  at the phone; he could not let it ring again. It did awftd things to the
  silence.
  "Mr. Holcroft, this is the overseas operator. I have your call to Zurich.
  . .
  Noel listened in disbelief at the somber, accented voice from Switzerland.
  The man on the line was the manager of the Zurich branch of La Grande
  Banque de Genbve. A directeur~ he said twice, emphasizing his position.
  "We moum profoundly, Mr. Holcroft. We knew Herr Manfredi was not well, but
  we had no idea his illness had progressed so."
  "What are you talking about? What happened?"
  "A terminal disease affects individuals differently. Our colleague was a
  vital man- an energetic nisin- and when such men cannot function in their
  normal fashions, it often leads to despondency and great depression.-
  "What happened?'
  "It was suicide,- Mr. Holcroft. Herr Manfredi could not tolerate his
  incapacities.-
  "Suidder
  'Ibere's no point in speaking other than the truth. Fxnst threw himself
  out of his hotel window. It was mercifully quick. At ten o'clock, La
  Grande Banque will suspend all business for one minute of mourning and
  reflection."
  "Oh, my God..
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  49
  "However," concluded the voice in Zurich, "an of Herr Manfredi's accounts
  to which he gave his personal attention will be assumed by equally capable
  hands. We fully axpect---~"
  Noel hung up the phone, cutting off the man's words. Accounts ... will be
  assumed by equally capable hands. Business as usual; a man was killed, but
  the affairs of Swiss finance were not to be interrupted. And he was
  killed.
  Ernst Manfredi did not throw himself out of a hotel in Zurich. He was
  thrown out. Murdered by the men of Wolfsschanze.
  For God's sake, why? Then Holcroft remembered. Manfredi had dismissed the
  men of Wolfsschanze. He had told Noel the macabre threats were
  meaningless, the anguish of sick old men seeking atonement.
  That had been Manfredi's error. He had undoubtedly told his associates,
  the other directors of La Grande Banque, about the strange letter that had
  been delivered with the wax seals unbroken. Perhaps, in their presence, he
  had laughed at the men of Wolfuchanze.
  The matchl The flare of ligbtl Across the courtyard the woman in the
  window noddedl Again---as if reading his thoughts-she was confirming the
  truth. A dead woman was telling him he was rightl
  She turned and walked away; all light went out in the window.
  "Come backI Come backr Holcroft screamed, his hands on the panes of glass.
  "Who are you?"
  ne telephone beneath him buzzed. Noel stared at it, as if it were a
  terrible thing in an unfamiliar place; it was both. Trembling, he picked
  it up.
  "Mr. Holcroft, it's Jack. I think I may know what the hell happened up at
  your place. I mean, I didn!t think about it before, but it kinda bit me a
  few minutes ago."
  "What was itr
  "A couple of nights ago these two guys came In. Locksmiths. Mr.
  Silverstein, on your floor, was having his lock changed. Louie told me
  about it so I knew it was okay. Then I began to think. Why did they come
  at night? I mean, what with overtime and everything, why didn't they come
  in the daytime? So I just called Louie at home. He said they came
  yesterday. So who the hell were those other guys."
 50  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  "Do you remember anything about them?"
  "You're damned right I dol One of tkem in particular. You could pick him
  out in a crowd at the Gardent He had---.r
  There was a loud, sharp report over the line.
  A gunshot!
  It was followed by a crash. The telephone in the lobby had been droppedl
  Noel slammed down the receiver and ran to the door, yanking it open with
  such force that it crashed into a framed sketch on the wall, smasking the
  glass. There was no time to consider the elevator. He mced down the stairs,
  his mind a blank, afraid to think, concentrating only on speed and balance,
  hoping to God he would not trip on the steps. He reached the landing and
  bolted through the lobby door.
  He stared in shock. The worst had happened. lack the doorman was arched
  back over the chair, blood pouring out of his neck. He had been shot in the
  throat
  He had interfered. He had been about to identify one of the men of
  Wolfsschanze and he had been killed for it.
  Baldwin, Manfredi . . . an innocent doorman. Dead.
  ... all those who interfere will be stopped... Any who stand in your way,
  who try to dissuade you, who try to deceive you ... will be eliminated.
  ... As you and yours will be should you hesitatel Or fail. ~
  Manfredi had asked him if he really had a choice. He did not any longer.
  He was surrounded by death.
               5

 Althene Holcroft sat behind the desk in her study and glared at the words of
 the letter she held in her handL Her chiseled, angular features-the high
 cheekbones, the aquiline nose, the wide-set eyes beneath arched, defined
 brows-were as taut, as rigid, as her posture in the chair. Her thin,
 aristocratic lips were tight; her breathing was steady, but each breath was
 too controlled, too deep, for normalcy. She read Heinrich Clausen's letter
 as one studying a statistical report that contradicted information
 previously held to be incontrovertible.
  Across the room, Noel stood by a curving window that looked out on the
  rolling lawn and gardens behind the Bedford Hills house. A number of shrubs
  were covered with burlap; the air was cold, and the morning frost produced
  intermittent patches of light gray on the green grass.
  Holcroft turned from the scene outside and looked at his mother, trying
  desperately to conceal his fear, to control the occasional trembling that
  came upon him when he thought about last night. He could not allow the
  terror he felt to be seen by his mother. He wondered what thoughts were
  going through her head, what memories were triggered by the sight of the
  handwritten words in blue ink put down by a man she once had loved, then
  had grown to despise. Whatever she was thinking, it would remain private
  until she chose to speak. Althene communicated only that which she cared
  to convey deliberately.
  She seemed to sense his gaze and raised her eyes to his, but only briefly.
  She returned to the letter, allowing a briefer moment to brush away a stray
  lock that had fallen from the gray hair that framed her face. Noel wandered
  aimlessly toward the desk, glancing at the bookcases and photographs on the
  wall. The room reflected the owner, he mused. Graceful, even elegant; but,
  withal,
               51
 52  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 there. was a pervading sense of activity. The photographs showed men and
 women on horses at the hunt, in sailboats in rough weather, on skis in
 mountain snow. There was no denying it: There was an undercurrent of mascu-
 linity in tins very feminine room. It was his mother's study, her sanctuary
 where she repaired for private moments of consideration. But it could have
 belonged to a Msin-
  He sat down in the leather chair in front of the desk and lighted a
  cigarette with a gold ColibrL a parting gift from a young lady who had
  moved out of his apartment a month ago. His hand trembled again; he gripped
  the lighter as tightly as he could.
  'Tkaes a dreadful habit," said Althene, her eyes remaining on the letter.
  "I thought you were going to give it UP."
  "I have. A number of timee
   ,mark Twain said that. At least be original.-
  Holcroft shifted his position in the chair, feeling awkward. -YoWve read
  it several times now. What do YOU thinkro
  "I dont know what to tbink~" said Althene, placing the letter on the desk
  in front of her. "He wrote it; ifs his handwriting, his way of expressing
  himself. Arrogant even in remorse."
  "You agree it's remorse thenT'
  "It would appear so. On the surface, at any rateI'd want to know a great
  deal mom I have a number of questions about this extraordinary financiat
  undertaking M beyond anything conceivable."
   Questions lead to other questions, mother. The men In Geneva don't want
   that."
  "Does it matter what they want? As I understand you, although you!re being
  elliptical, they're asking YOU to give up a minimum of six months of Your
  life and PrObably a good deal more."
  Again, Noel felt awkward. He bad decided not to show ker the document from
  La Grande Banque. If she was adamant about seeing it, he could always
  produce it. if she was not it was better that way; the less she knew, the
  better. He had to keep her from the men of Wolfsschanze. He had not the
  slightest doubt Althene would interfere.
   rm not holding back any of the essentials," he said.
         TEE HOLCROFT COVENANT  53

  "I didn't say you were. I said you were ellipticaL You refer to a man in
  Geneva you won't identify; you speak of conditions you only half describe,
  the oldest children of two families you woift name. You!re leaving out a
  great deal."
  "For your own good."
  'Ibars condescending and, considering this letter, very insulting~"
  "I didn't mean to be either." Holcroft leaned foiward. "No one wants that
  bank account even remotely connected with you. You've read that letter; you
  know what's involved. Tkousands and thousands of people, hundreds of
  millions of dollm. Theres no way to tell who might hold you responsible.
  You were the wife who told him the truth; you left him because he refused
  to accept it. When he finally realized that what you said was true, he did
  what he did. There may be men still alive who would kill you for that. I
  won't let you be put in that positiom"
  "I see.* Althene drew out the phrase, then repeated it as she rose from her
  chair and walked slowly across the room to the bay window. "Are you sure
  that's the concern the men in Geneva expressedr,
  "They-he-implied it, yes."
  "I suspect it was not the only concern."
  "No."
  "Shan I speculate on another?"
  Noel stiffened. It was not that he underestimated his mother's
  perceptions-he rarely did that-but, as always, he was annoyed when she
  verbalized them before he had the chance to state them himself.
  "I think ies obvious," he said.
  "Do your' Althene turned from the window and looked at him.
  "Ifs In the letter. If the sources of that account were made public,
  there!d be legal problems. Claims would be made against it in the
  international courts."
  "Yes." Ifis mother looked away. "It!s obvious, then. rm amazed you were
  allowed to tell me anything."
  Noel leaned back in the chair apprehensively, disturbed at Althene's words.
  "Why? Would you really do something?"
  "It's a &mptation," she answered, still gazing out. side. "I don't &mk one
  ever loses the desire to strike
 54  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 back, to lash out at someone or Something thats caused great pain. Even if
 that hurt changed your life for the better. God knows mine-ours-was changed.
 From a hell to a level of happiness rd given up looking for."
   "Dadrasked Noel.
  Althene turned. "Yes. He risked more than you'll ever know protecting us.
  I'd been the fool of the world and he accepted the fool-and the fool's
  child. He gave us more than love; he gave us our fives again. He asked only
  love in return."
   "You've given him that"
  "I'll give it till I die. Richard Holcroft is the man I once thought
  Clausen was. I was so wrong, so terribly wrong. . . . The fact that
  Heinrich has been dead these many years doesn't seem to matter; the
  loathing won't go away. I do want to strike back."
  Noel kept his voice calm. He had to lead his mother away from her thoughts;
  the survivors of Wolfsschanze would not let her live. "You'd be striking
  back at the man you remember, not the man who wrote that letter. Maybe what
  you saw in him at first was really there. At the end, it came back to him."
   "That would be comforting, wouldn't it?"
  "I think it's true. The man who wrote that letter wasn't lying. He was in
  pain."
  "He deserved pain, he caused so much; he was the most ruthless man I ever
  met. But on the surface, so different, so ffiled with purpose. And-oh,
  God-what that purpose turned out to bel"
  "He changed, mother," interrupted Holcroft. "You were a part of that
  change. At the end of his life he wanted only to help undo what he'd done.
  He says it: 'Amends must be made.' Think what he did-what the three of them
  did-to bring that about."
  "I can't dismiss it; I know that. Any more than I can dismiss the words.
  I can almost hear him say them, but it's a very young man talking. A young
  man filled with purpose, a very young, wild girl at his side." Althene
  paused, then spoke again, clearly. "Why did you show me the letter? Why did
  you bring it all backr,
  "Because I've decided to go ahead. That means closing the office, traveling
  around a lot, eventually working .out of Switzerland for a number of
  months. As the man in
         T*1E HOLCROFT COVENANT   55

 Geneva said, you wouldn't have accepted all that without asking a lot of
 questions. He was afraid you'd learn something damaging and do something
 rash."
  "At your expense?" asked Althene.
  "I guess so. He thought it was a possibility. He said those memories of
  yours were strong. 'Indelibly printed' were his words."
  "Indelibly," agreed Althene.
  "His point was that there were no legal solutions; that it was better to
  use the money the way it was intended to be used. To make those amends."
   "It's possible he was right. If it can be done. God
 knows it's overdue. What - ever Heinrich touched, very lit
 tle of value and truth was the result." Althene paused,
 her face suddenly strained. "You were the one exception.
 Perhaps this is the other."
  Noel got out of the chair and went to his mother. He took her by the
  shoulders and drew her to him. "rhat man in Geneva said you were
  incredible. You are."
  Althene pulled back. "He said that? 'Incredible'?"
  "Yes."
  "Ernst Manfredi," she whispered.
  "You know him?" asked Holcroft.
  "It's a name that goes back many years. He's still alive then."
  Noel did not answer her question. "How did you know it was he?"
  "A summer afternoon in Berlin. He was there. He helped us get out. You and
  1. He got us on the plane, gave me money. Dear God. . . ." Althene
  disengaged herself from her son's arms and walked across the room, toward
  t - he desk. "He called me 'incredible' then, that afternoon. He said they
  would hunt me, find me. Find us. He said he would do what he could. He told
  me what to do, what to say. An unimpressive little Swiss banker was a giant
  that afternoon. My God, after all these years. . ."
  Noel watched his mother, his astonishment complete. "Why didn't he say
  anything? Why didn't he tell me?"
  Althene turned, facing her son but not looking at him. She was staring
  beyond him, seeing things he could not see. "I think he wanted me to find
  out for myself. This way. He was not a man to call in old debts indis-
  criminately." She sighed. "I won't pretend the questions
 56  THE ROLCROFT COVENANT

 are put to rest. I promise nothing. If I decide to take any action, IT give
 you ample warning. But for the time being I won't interfere."
  "Thafs kind of open ended, isn't itr
  "M the best you'll get. Those memories are, indeed, indelibly printed."
  "But for now you'll do nothing?"
  "You have my word. Ifs not lightly given, nor will it be lightly taken
  back."
  "What would change itT'
  "If you disappeared, for one thing."
  "IT stay in touch."

  Althene Holcroft watched her son walk out of the room. Her face- o tense,
  so rigid, only moments ago -was relaxed. Her thin lips formed a smile; her
  wide eyes were reflective, in them a look of quiet satisfaction and
  strength.
  She reached for the telephone on her desk, pressed the single button 0,
  and seconds later spoke.
  "Overseas operator, please. rd like to place a call to Geneva,
  Switzerland."

  He needed a professionally acceptable- reason to close up Holcroft,
  Incorporated. Questions of substance could not be asked. The survivors of
  Wolfsschanze were killers for whom questions were too easily construed as
  interference. He had to disappear legitimately.... But one did not
  disappear legitimately: One found plausible explanations that gave the
  appearance of legitimacy.
  The appearance of legitimacy.
  Sam Buonoventura.
  Not that Sam wasn't legitimate: He was. He was one of the best
  construction engineers in the business. But Sam had followed the sun so
  long he had blind spots. He was a fifty-year-old prufessional drifter, a
  City College graduate from Tremont Avenue, in the Bronx, who had found a
  life of instant gmtification in the warmer climes.
  A brief tour of duty in the Army Corps of Engineers had convinced
  Buonoventura that there was a sweeter, more generous world beyond the
  borders of the United States, preferably south of the Keys. AM one had to
  be was good-good in a job that was part of a larger job in
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  57

 which a great deal of money was invested. And during the fifties and
 sixties, the construction explosion in Latin America and the Caribbean was
 such that it might have been created for someone like Sam. He built a
 reputation among corporations and governments as the building tyrant who got
 things done in the field.
  Once having studied blueprints, labor pools, and budgets, if Sam told his
  employers that a hotel or an airport or a dam would be operational within
  a given period of time, he was rarely in error beyond four percent. He was
  also an architect's dream, which meant that he did not consider himself an
  architect.
  Noel had worked with Buonoventura on two jobs outside the country, the
  first in Costa Rica, where if it had not been for Sam, Holcroft would have
  lost his life. The engineer had insisted that the well-groomed, courteous
  architect from the classy side of Manhattan learn to use a handgun, not
  just a hunting rifle from Abercrombie & Fitch. They were building a postal
  complex in the back country, and it was a far cry from the cocktail lounges
  of the Plaza and the Waldorf, and from San Jos6. Ile architect had thought
  the weekend exercise ridiculous, but courtesy demanded compliance.
  Courtesy, and Buonoventura's booming voice.
  By the end of the following week, however, the architect was profoundly
  grateful. Thieves had come down from the hills to steal construction
  explosives. Two men had raced through the camp at night, they'd crashed
  into Noel's shack as he slept. When they realized the explosives were not
  there one man had run outside, shouting instructions to his accomplices.
  "IMatemos el gringol"
  But the gringo understood the language. He reached his gun-the handgun
  provided by Sam Buonoventuraand shot his would-be killer.
  Sam had only one comment: "Goddamn. In some cultures I'd have to take care
  of you for the rest of your life,99
  Noel reached Buonoventura through a shipping company in Miami. He was in
  the Dutch Antilles, in the town of Willemstad, on the island of Curagao.
  "How the hell are you, Noley?" Sam shouted, over the phone. "Christ, it
  must be four, five yearsl Hows your pistol a~m?"
 58  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  "HaveWt used it since the colinas, and never expect to use it again. How
  are things with you?"
  "These mothers got money to bum down here, so I'm lighting a few matches.
  You looking for work?"
  "No. A favor."
  "Name it."
  "I'm going to be out of the country for a number of months on private
  business. I want a r&son for not being in New York, for not being
  available. A reason that people won't question. I've got an idea, Sam, and
  wondered if you could help me make it work."
  "If were both thinking the same thing, sure I can."
  Tliey were thinking the same thing. It was not out of the ordinary for
  long-range projects in faraway places to employ consulting architects, men
  whose-names would not appear on schematics or blueprints but whose skills
  would be used. The practice was generally confined to those areas where"the
  hiring of native talent was a question of local pride. The inherent
  problem, of course, was that all too frequently the native talent lacked
  sufficient training and experience. Investors covered their risks by
  employing highly skilled outside professionals who corrected and amended
  the work of the locals, seeing the projects through to completion.
  "Have you got any suggestions?" Noel asked.
  "Hell, yes. Take your pick of half a dozen underdeveloped countries.
  Africa, South America, even some of the islands here in the Antilles and
  the Grenadines. The internationals are moving in like spiders, but the
  locals are still sensitive. The consulting jobs are kept separate and
  quiet; graft is soaring."
  "I don't want a job, Sam. I want a cover. Someplace I can narne, someone
  I can mention who'll back me up."
  "Why not me? I'll be buried in this motherlode for most of the year. Maybe
  more. rve got two marinas and a full-scale yacht club to go to when the
  hotel's finished. I'm your man, Noley."
  "Mat's what I was hoping."
  "That's what I figured. I'll give you the particulars and you let me know
  where I can reach you in case any of your high-society friends want to
  throw a tea dance for you."

  'Holcroft placed his two draftsmen and his secretary in new jobs by
  Wednesday. As he had suspected, it was
         TIRE HOLCROFT COVENANT   59

 not difficult; they were good people. He made fourteen telephone calls to
 project-development executives at companies where his designs were under
 consideration, astonished to learn that of the fourteen, he was the leading
 contender in eight. Eightl If all came through, the fees would have totaled
 more. than he had earned during the past five years.
  But ndt two million dollars; he kept that in the back of his mind. And if
  it was not in the back of his mind, the survivors of Wolfsschanze were.
  The telephone-answering service was given specific instructions. Holcroft,
  Incorporated, was unavailable at the time for architectural projects. The
  company was involved in an overseas commission of considerable magnitude.
  If the caller would leave his name and number ...
  For those who pressed for further information, a post-office box in
  Curaqw, Netherlands Antilles, under the name of Samuel Buonoventura,
  Limited, was listed. And, for the few who insisted on a telephone number,
  Sam's was to be given.
  Noel had agreed to phone Buonoventura once a week; he would do the same
  with the answering service.
  By Friday morning, he had an uneasy feeling about his decision. He was
  taking himself out of a garden he had cultivated to walk into an
  unfamiliar forest.
  Nothing is as it was for you. Nothing can ever be the same.
  Suppose he could not find the Von 1"iebolt children. Suppose they were
  dead, their remains no more than graves in a Brazilian cemetery? They had
  disappeared five years ago in Rio de Janeiro; what made him think he could
  make them reappear? And if he could not, would the survivors of
  Wolfsschanze strike? He was afraid. But fear itself did not cover
  everything, thought Holcroft as he walked to the comer of Seventy-third
  Street and Third Avenue. There were ways to handle fear. He could take the
  Geneva document to the authorities, to the State Department, and tell them
  what he knew of Peter Baldwin and Ernst Manfredi and a doorman named Jack.
  He could expose the massive theft of thirty years ago, and grateful
  thousands over the world would see to it that he was protected.
  That was the sanest thing to do, but somehow sanity and self-protection
  were not so important. Not now.
 6o  TIM HOLCROPT COVENANT

 Ilere was a man in agony thirty years ago. And that man was his rationale.
  He hailed a cab, struck by an odd thought, one he knew was in the deep
  recesses of his imagination. It was the "something else' that drove him
  into the unfamiliar forest.
  He was assuming a guilt that was not his. He was taking on the sins of
  Heinrich Clausen.
  Amends must be made.
  "Six-thirty Fifth Avenue, please," he said to the driver as he climbed into
  the cab. It was the address of the Brazilian Consulate.
  The hunt had begun.
               6

 -Let me understand you, Mr. Holcroft," said the aging attachd, leaning back
 in his chair. "You say you wish to locate a family that you won't identify.
 You tell me this family immigrated to Brazil sometime in the forties and,
 according to the most recent information, dropped from sight several years
 ago. Is this correct?"
  Noel saw the bemused expression on the attach6s face and understood. It was
  a foolish game perhaps, but Hotcroft did not know any other one to play.
  He was not going to name the Von Tlebolts before he reached Brazil; he was
  not going to give anyone the chance to complicate further a search that had
  enough disadvantages at the start. He smiled pleasantly.
  I "I didn!t quite say that. I asked how such a family might be found, given
  those circumstances. I didn't say I was the one looking."
  'qhen it's a hypothetical question? Are you a journalistr'
  Holcroft considered the medium-level diplomat's question. How simple it
  would be to say yes; what a convenient explanation for the questions he
  would ask later. On the other hand, hed be flying to Rio de Janeiro in a
  few days. There were immigration cards to be #lled out, and a visa,
  perhaps; he did not know. A false answer now might become a problem later.
  "No, an architect."
  The attach6s eyes betrayed his surprise. "Then you'll visit Brasilia, of
  course. It is a masterpiece."
  "rd like to very much."
  "You speak Portuguese?"
  "A bit of Spanish. I've worked in Mexico. And in Costa Rica."
  "But we're straying,"          said the attach6, leaning for
 ward in his chair. "I asked you if you were a journalist,
                61
 62  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 and you hesitated. You were tempted to say you were because it was
 expedient. Frankly, that tells me you are, indeed, the one looking for this
 family that has dropped from sight. Now, why not tell me the rest?"
  If he was going to consider lying in his search through this unfamiliar
  forest, thought Noel, he'd better learn to analyze his minor answers
  first. Lesson one: preparation.
  `Mere isn't that much to tell," he said awkwardly. "I'm taking a trip to
  your country and I promised a friend I'd look up these people he knew a
  long time ago." It was a variation on the truth and not a bad one, thought
  Holcroft. Perhaps that was why he was able to offer it convincingly.
  Lesson two: Base the lie in an aspect of truth.
  "Yet your . . . friend has tried to locate them and was unable to do so."
  "He tried from thousands of miles away. It's not the same.99
  "I daresay it isn't. So, because of this distance, and your friend's
  concern that there could be complications, shall we say, you'd prefer not
  to identify the family by name."
  "Mat's it."
  "No, it isn't. It would be far too simple a matter for an attorney to
  cable a confidential inquiry-of-record to a reciprocating law firm in Rio
  de Janeiro. It's done all the time. The family your friend wants to find
  is nowhere in evidence, so your friend wants you to trace them." The
  attach6 smiled and shrugged, as if he had delivered a basic lecture in
  arithmetic.
  Noel watched the Brazilian with growing irritation. Lesson three: Don't be
  led into a trap by pat conclusions casually stated. "You know something?"
  he said. "You're a very disagreeable fellow."
  "I'm sorry you think so," replied the attachS sincerely. "I want to be of
  help. That's my function here. I've spoken to you this way for a reason.
  You are not the first man, God knows, nor will you be the last, to look
  for people who came to my country 'sometime in the forties! I'm sure I
  don't have to amplify that statement. The vast majority of those people
  were Germans, many bringing to Brazil great sums of money transferred by
  compromised neutrsils. What I'm trying to say is simply put: Be careful.
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  63

 Such people as you speak of do not disappear without
   to
 cause.
  "What do you mean?"
  "They have to, Mr. Holcroft. Had to. The Nuremberg Tribunals and the
  Israeli hunters aside, many possessed funds-in some cases, fortunes-that
  were stolen from conquered peoples, from their institutions, often firom
  their governments. Those funds could be reclaimed."
  Noel tensed the muscles of his stomach. There was a connection-abstract,
  even misleading under the cir cumstances, but it was them The Von Tiebolts
  were part of a theft so massive and complex it was beyond accounting
  procedures. But it could not be the reason they had vanished. Lesson four:
  Be prepared for unexpected coincidences, no matter how strained; be ready
  to conceal reactions.
  "I don't think the family could be involved in anything like that," he
  said.
  "But, of course, you're not sure, since you know so little.99
  "LeVs say rm sure. Now, all I want to know is how I go about finding
  them-or finding out what happened to them."
  "I mentioned attorneys."
  "No attorneys. rm an architect, remember? Lawyers are natural enemies; they
  take up most of our time" Holcroft smiled. "Whatever a lawyer can do, I can
  do faster by myself. I do speak Spanish- I'll get by in Portuguese.*9
  "I see." The attach6 paused while he reached for a box of thin cigars on
  his desk. He opened it and held it out for Holcroft, who shook his head.
  "Are you sure? It's Havana.-
  "I'm sure. I'm also pressed for time."
  "Yes, I know." The attach6 reached for a silver table lighter on the desk,
  snapped it, and inhaled deeply; the tip of the cigar glowed. He raised his
  eyes abruptly to Noel. "I can't convince you to tell me the name of this
  familyr'
  "Oh, for Christ's sake          Holcroft got up. He'd
 had enough; he'd find other sources.
  "Mase," said the Brazilian, "sit down, please. Just a minute or. two
  longer. The times not wasted, I assure YOU.
 64  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

  Noel saw the urgency in the attach6's eyes. He sat down. "What is it?"
  "La comunidad alemana. I use the Spanish you speak so well."
  "rho German community? There's a German community in Rio-is that what you
  mean?"
  "Yes, but it's not solely geographical. Theres an outlying district-the
  German barrio, if you will-but that is not what I refer to. rm speaking of
  what we can la otra cara de los alemanes. Can you understand thatr'
   "The 'other face'             what's underneath, below the
 German surface."
  "Precisely. 'The underside,' you might say. What makes them what they are;
  what makes them do what they do. It's important that you understand."
  "I think I do. I think you explained it. Most were Nazis getting out of
  the Nuremberg net, bringing in money that wasnt theirs; hiding, concealing
  identities. Naturally, such people would tend to stick t6gether."
  "Naturally," the Brazilian said. "But youd think after so many years
  there'd be greater assimilation."
  "Why? You work here in New York. Go down to the Lower East Side, or
  Mulberry Street or up to the Bronx. Enclaves of Italians, Poles, Jews.
  They've been here for decades. You're talking about twenty-five, thirty
  years. Tbars, not much."
  "rhere are similarities, of course, but its not the same~ believe me. The
  people you speak of in New York associate openly; they wear their
  heritages on their sleeves. It is not Me that in Brazil. The German
  community pretends to be assimilated, but it is not. In commerce, yes, but
  in very little else. There is a pervading sense of fear and anger. Too
  many have been hunted for too long; a thousand identities are concealed
  daily from everyone but themselves. They have their own hierarchy. Three
  or four families control the community; their huge Germanic estates dot
  our countryside. Of course, they call them Swiss or-Bavarian." Once more
  the attach6 paused. "Do you begin to grasp what I'm saying? The consul
  general win not say it; my government will not permit it. But I am far
  down the ladder. It is left to me. Do you understandr,
  Noel was bewildered. "Frankly, no. Nothing you've add surprises me. At
  Nuremberg they called it 'crimes against humanity., That kind of thing
  leads to a lot of
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  65
 guilt, and guilt breeds fear. Of course such people in a country that isnt
 their own would stay close to each oth-
 
  "Guilt does breed fear. And fear in turn leads to suspicion. Finally,
  suspicion gives birth to violence. -Mat's what you must understand. A
  stranger coming to Rio looking for Germans who have disappeared is under-
  taking a Potentially dangerous search. La otra cara de los alemanes. They
  protect each other." The attach6 picked up his cigar. "Give us the name,
  Mr. Holcroft. Let us look for these people."
  Noel watched the Brazilian inhale the smoke from his precious Havana. He
  was not sure why, but he felt suddenly uneasy. Don't be led into a trap by
  pat conclu. sions casually stated. . . . -1 can't. I think you!re exag-
  gemting, and obviously you won't help me." He stood UP.
  "Very well," said the Bnaan. "I'll tell you what you would End out for
  yourself. When you get to Rio de Janeiro, go to the Ministry of
  Immigration. if you have names and approximate dates, perhaps they can
  help you.-
  w1banks very much," sad Noel, turning toward the door.

  The Brazilian walked rapidly out of the office into a large anteroom that
  served as a reception area. A young man sitting in an armchair quickly got
  to his feet at the sight of his superior.
  "You may have your office back now, Juan."
  "Tbank you, Excellency."
  IMe older man continued across the room, past a receptionist, to a pair of
  double doors. On the left panel was the great seal of the Repi6blica
  Federal de Brasil; on the right was a plaque with gold printing that read
 OFIC10 DO C6NSUL GENERAL.
  The consul general went inside to another, smaller anteroom that was his
  secretary's office. He spoke to the girl and walked directly to the door
  of his own office.
  "Get me the embassy. The ambassador, please. if hes not there, locate him.
  Inform him that it's a confidential matter; hell know whether he can talk
  or not."
  Brazil's highest-ranking diplomat in America's major city dosed the door,
  strode to his desk, and sat down. He picked up a sheaf of papers stapled
  together. The first sev-
   66  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

 eral pages were photocopies of newspaper stories, accounts of the killing on
 British Airways flight 591 from London to New York, and the subsequent
 discovery of the two murders on the ground. The lot two pages were copies of
 that aircrafts passenger manifest. The diplomat scanned the names: HoLcRovr,
 NOEL. DEP. OENEvA. BA *577. 0. LON. BA *591. x. NYC. He stared at the in-
 formation as if somehow relieved that it was still there.
  His telephone hummed; he picked it up. "Yes?"
  'M ambassador is on the line, sir."
  "fhank you." The consul general heard an echo, which meant the scrambler
  was in operation. "Mr. Ambassador'r'
  "Yes, GeraldG. What's so urgent and confidential?"
  "A few mmutes ago a man came up here asking how he might go about locating
  a family in Rio he had not been able to reach through the usual channels.
  His name is Holcroft. Noel Holcroft, an architect from New York city."
  "It means nothing to me," said the ambassador. "Should itr'
  "Only if you've recently read the list of passengers on the British Airways
  plane from London last Saturday."
  "Flight five-ninety-oner, The, ambassador spoke sharply.
  "Yes. He left that morning from Geneva on British Airways, and transferred
  at Heathrow to five-ninety-one."
  "And now he wants to locate people in Rio? Who are theyr'
  "He refused to say. I was the 'aftach6' he spoke with, naturally."
  "Naturally. Tell me everything. I'll cable London. Do you think irs
  possible-~ The ambassador paused.
  "Yes," the consul general said softly. "I think it's very possible he is
  looking for the Von Tiebolts."
  "Tell me everything," repeated the man in Washington. "Ihe British believe
  those killings were the work of the Imamou."

  Noel felt a sense of dila vu as he looked around the lounge of the Braniff
  747. The colors were more vivid, the uniforms of the aircraft's personnel
  more fashionably cut. Otherwise, the plane seemed identical to that of
  British Airways flight 591. The difference was~in
         TIM HOLCROPT COVENANT  67

 attitude. This was the Rio Run, that carefree holiday that was to begin in
 the sky and continue on the beaches of the Gold Coast.
  But this was to be no holiday, thought Holcroft, no holiday at all. The
  only climax awaiting him was one of discovery. The whereabouts or the
  nonwhereabouts of the family Von Mebolt.
  They'd been in the air for more than five hours. He had picked his way
  through a dismissable meal, slept through an even more dismissable film,
  and finally decided to go up to the lounge.
  He had put off going upstairs. The memory of seven days ago was still
  discomforting. The unbelievable had happened in front of his eyes; a man
  had been killed not four feet from where he'd been sitting. At one point
  he could have reached over and touched the writhing figure. Death had been
  inches away, unnatural death, chemical death, murder.
  Strychnine. A colorless crystalline alkaloid that caused paroxysms of
  unendurable pain. Why had it happened? Who was responsible and for what
  reason? The accounts were specific, the theories speculative.
  Two men had been physically close to the victim in the lounge of Flight 591
  from London. Either one could have admini te d the poison by way of the
  victim's drink; it was presumed one had. But again, why? According to the
  Port Authority police, there was no evidence that the two men had ever
  known Thornton. And the two men themselves-the suspected killers-had met
  their deaths by gunshot in a fuel truck on the ground. They had disappeared
  from the aircraft, from the sealedoff customs area, from the quarantined
  room, and themselves been murdered. Why? By whom?
  No one had any answers. Only questions. And then even the questions
  stopped. The story faded from the newspapers and the broadcasts as
  dramatically as it had appeared, as though a blackout had been called.
  Again, why? Again, who was responsible?
  "Irliat was scotch on the, rocks, wasn't it, Mr. HolCroft."
  The d6jil vu was complete. The words were the same but spoken by another.
  The stewardess above him, placing the glass on the round Formica table, was
  attractive--as the stewardess in Flight 591 had been attractive. The
 68  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 look in her eyes had that same quality of directness he remembered from the
 girl on British Airways. The words, even to the use of his name, were
 uttered in a similar tone, only the accent varied. It was all too much
 alike. Or was his mind-his eyes, his ears, his senses--preoccupied with the
 memory of seven days ago?
  He thanked the stewardess, almost afraid to look at her, thinking that any
  second he would hear a scream beside him and watch a man in uncontrollable
  agony lunge out of his seat, twisting in spastic convulsions over the
  divider.
  Then Noel realized something else, and it discomforted him further. He was
  sitting in the same seat he had occupied during those terrifying moments
  on Flight 591. In a lounge constructed identically with that lounge a week
  ago. It was not really unusual; he preferred the location and often sat
  there. But now it seemed macabre. His lines of sight were the same, the
  lighting no different now from the way it was then.
  That was scotch on the rocks, wasn't it, Mr. Holcroft?
  An outstretched hand, a pretty face, a glass.
  Images, sounds.
  Sounds. Raucous, drunken laughter. A man with too much alcohol in him,
  losing his balance, falling backward over the rim of the chair. His
  compamon reeling in delight at the sight of his unsteady friend. A third
  n --the man who would be dead in moments-trying too hard to be a part of
  the revelry. Anxious to please, wanting to join. An attractive stewardess
  pouring whisky, smiling, wiping the bar on which two drinks had been
  reduced to one because one had been spilled, rushing around the counter to
  help a drunken passenger. The third anxious man, embarrassed perhaps, still
  wanting to play with the big boys, reaching....
  I A glass. The glassl The single, remaining glass on the bar.
  The third man had reached for that glassl
  It was scotch on the rocks. 1he drink intended for the passenger sitting
  across the lounge at the small Formica table. Oh, my God! thought Holcroft,
  the images racing back and forth in sequence in his mind's eye. The drink
  on the bar-the drink a stranger named 71ornton had taken-had been meant for
  himl
  The strychnine had been meant for himl The twist-         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  69

 Ing, horrible convulsions of agony were to be hisl The terrible death
 assigned to himl
  He looked down at the glass in front of him on the table; his fingers were
  around it.
  That was scotch on the rocks, wasn't W..
  He pushed the drink aside. Suddenly he could no longer stay at that table,
  remain in that lounge. He had to get away; he had to force the images out
  of his mind. They were too clear, too real, too horrible.
  He rose from the chair and walked rapidly, unsteadily, toward the
  staircase. The sounds of drunken laughter weaved in and out between an
  unrelenting scream of torment that was the screech of sudden death. No one
  else could hear those sounds, but they pounded in his head.
  He lurched down the curving staircase to the deck below. The light was dim;
  several passengers were reading under the beams of tiny spotlights, but
  most were asleep.
  Noel was bewildered. The hammering in his ears would not stop, the images
  would not go away. He felt the need to vomit, to expunge the fear that had
  settled into his stomach. Where was the toilet? In the galley ... behind
  the galley? Beyond the curtain; that was it. Or was it? He parted the
  curtain.
  Suddenly, his eyes were drawn down to his right, to the front seat of the
  747's second section. A man had stirred in his sleep. A heavyset man whose
  face he had seen before. He did not recall where, but he was sure of itl
  A face creased in panic, racing by, close to his. What was it about the
  face? Something had made a brief but strong impression. What was it?
  The eyebrows, that was itl Thick eyebrows, the coiled, matted hair an odd
  mixture of black and white. Salt-and-pepper eyebrows; where was it? Why did
  the sight of those strangely arresting brows trigger obscure memories of
  another act of violence? Where was it? He could not remember, and because
  he could not, he felt the blood rushing to his head. The pounding grew
  louder; his temples throbbed.
  Suddenly, the man with the thick, coiled eyebrows woke up, somehow aware
  that he was being stared at. Their eyes locked; recognition was absolute.
  And there was violence in that recognition. But of what? When? Where?
   Holcroft nodded awkwardly, unable to think- The
 70  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 pain in his stomach was knifelike; the sounds in his head were now cracks of
 thunder. For a moment he forgot where he was; then he remembered and the
 images returned. The sights and sounds of a killing that but for an accident
 would have claimed his life.
  He had to get back to his seat. He had to control himself, to stop the pain
  and the thunder and the pounding in his chest. He turned and walked quickly
  beyond the curtain, past the galley, up the aisle to his seat.
  He sat down in the semidarkness, grateful there was no one beside him. He
  pressed his head into the rim of the chair and closed his eyes, trying with
  all his concentration to rid his mind of the terrible sight of a grotesque
  face, screaming away the last few seconds of life. But he could not.
  That face became his face.
  Then the features blurred, as if the flesh were melting, only to be formed
  again. Thi face that now came into focus was no one he recognized. A
  strange, angular face, parts of which seemed familiar, but not as a whole.
  involuntarily, he gasped. He had never seen that face but suddenly he knew
  it. Instinctively. It was the face of Heinrich Clausen. A man in agony
  thirty years ago. The unknown father with whom he had his covenant.
  Holcroft opened his eyes, which stung from the perspiration that had rolled
  down his face. There was another truth and he was not sure he wanted to
  recognize it. The two men who had tried to W him with strychnine had
  themselves been murdered. They had interfered.
  The men of Wolfsschanze had been aboard that plane.
               7

 The clerk behind the desk of the P6rto Alegre Hotel pulled Holcroft's
 reservation from the file. A small yellow message envelope was stapled to
 the back of the card. The clerk tore it off and handed it to Noel.
  "This came for you shortly past seven o'clock this evening, senhor."
  Holcroft knew no one in Rio de Janeiro, and had told no one in New York
  where he was going. He ripped open the flap and drew out the message. It
  was from Sam Buonoventura. He was to return the overseas call as soon as
  possible, regardless of the hour.
  Holcroft looked at his watch; it was nearly midnight. He signed the
  register and spoke-as casually as he could, his mind on Sam.
  "I have to telephone Curagao. Will there be any trouble at this hour?"
  The clerk seemed mildly offended. "Certainly not with our telefonistas,
  senhor. I cannot speak for Curagao."
  The origins of the difficulty notwithstanding, it was not until
  one-fifteen in the morning that he heard Buonoventura's rasping voice over
  the line.
  "I think you've got a problem, Noley."
  "I've got more than one. What is it?"
  "Your answering service gave my number to this cop in New York, a
  Lieutenant Miles; he's a detective. He was hot as hell. Said you were
  supposed to inform the police if you left town, to say nothing about
  leaving the country."
  Christ, he had forgotten! And now he understood just how vital those
  instructions were. The strychnine was meant for himl Had the police
  reached the same conclusion?
  "What did you tell him, Sam?"
  "Got hot myself. It's the only way to handle angry
               71
 72  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 cops. I told him you were off in the out4slands doing a survey for a
 possible installation Washington was interested in. A little bit north, were
 not too far from the Canal Zone; it could mean anything. Nobody talks."
  "Did he accept that?"
  "Hard to tell. He wants you to call him. I bought you time., though. I said
  you radioed in this afternoon and I didn't expect to hear from you for
  three or four days, and I couldn't make contact. Thats when he yelled like
  a cut bull."
  "But did he buy it?"
  "What else could he do? He thinks we're all fuckingA stupid down here, and
  I agreed with him. He gave me two numbers for you. Got a pencil?"
  64 Go ahead."
  Holcroft wrote down the numbers--a Port Authority police telephone and
  Miles's home-thanked Buonoventura, and said hed be in touch next week.
  Noel had unpacked during the interminable wait for the Curacao connection.
  He sat in a cane-backed chair in front of the window and looked out at the
  nightwhite beach and the dark waters beyond, reflecting the bright half
  moon. Below, on that isolated section of the street bordering the ocean
  walkway, were the curving, black-and-white parallel lines that signified
  the Copacabana, the golden coast of Guanabara. There was an emptiness about
  the scene that had nothing to do with its being deserted. It was too
  perfect, too pretty. He would never have designed it that way; there was
  an absence of character. He focused his eyes on the windowpanes. There was
  nothing to do now but think and rest and hope he could sleep. Sleep had
  been difficult for the past week; it would be more difficult now. Because
  he knew now what he had not known before: Someone had tried to kill him.
  The knowledge produced an odd sensation. He could not believe that there
  was someone who wanted him dead. Yet someone had to have made that
  decision, had to have issued the order. Why? What had he done? Was it
  Geneva? His covenant?
  We're dealing in millions. Those were not only the dead Manfredi's words;
  they were his warning. It was the only possible explanation. The
  information had got out, but there was no way to know how far it had
  spread,
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  73

 or who was affected by it, who infuriated. Or the identity of the unknown
 person-or persons-who wanted to stop the release of the Geneva account, to
 consign it to the litigations of the international courts.
  Manfredi was right: The only moral solution was found in carrying out the
  intent of the document drawn up by three extraordinary men in the midst of
  the devastation their own monster had created. Amends must be made. ft ww
  the credo Heinrich Clausen believed in; it was honorable; it was right. In
  their misguided way, the men of Wolfsschanze understood.
  Noel poured himself a drink, walked over to the bed, and sat down on the
  edge, staring at the telephone. Next to it were the two numbers written on
  a hotel message pad, given to him by Sam Buonoventura. They were his links
  to Lieutenant Miles, Port Authority police. But Holcroft could not bring
  himself to call. He had begun the hunt; he had taken the first step in his
  search for the family of Wilhelm von T"tebolt. Step, helll It was a giant
  leap of four thousand air miles; he would not turn back.
  Tkere was so much to do. Noel wondered whether he was capable of doing it,
  whether he was capable of making his way through the unfamiliar forest.
  He felt his eyelids grow heavy. Sleep was,coming and he was grateful for
  it. He put down the glass and kicked off his shoes, not bothering with the
  rest of his clothes. He fell back on the bed and for several seconds stared
  at the white ceiling. He felt so alone, yet knew he wasn't. There was a man
  in agony, from thirty years ago, crying out to him. He thought about that
  man until sleep came.

  Holcroft followed the translator into the dimly lit, windowless cubicle.
  Their conversation had been brief; Noel had sought specific information.
  The name was Von Tiebolt; the family, German nationals. A mother and two
  children-a daughter and a son-had immigrated to Brazil on or about June 15,
  1945. A third child, another daughter, had been born several months later,
  probably in Rio de Janeiro. The records had to contain some informatiori.
  Even if a false name was used, a simple crosscheck of the weeks
  involved-two or three either way -would certainly unearth a pregnant woman
  with two children coming into the country If them were more
 74  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

 than, one, it was his problem to trace them. At least a name, br names,
 would surface.
  No, it was not an official inquiry. There were no criminal charges; there
  was no seeking of revenge for crimes going back thirty years. On the
  contrary, it was "a benign search."
  Noel knew that an explanation would be asked of him, and he remembered one
  of the lessons learned at the consulate in New York: Base the lie in an
  aspect of truth. The family Von Tiebolt had relations in the United States,
  went the lie. People who had immigrated to America in the twenties and
  thirties. Very few were left, and there was a large sum of money involved.
  Surely, the officials at the Ministirio do Imigracdo would want to help
  find the inheritors. It was entirely possible that the Von Tiebolts would
  be grateful . . . and he, as the intermediary, would certainly make known
  their cooperation.
  Ledgers were brought out. Hundreds of photostats from another era were
  studied. Faded, soiled copies of documents, so many of which were obviously
  false papers purchased in Bern and Zurich and Lisbon. Passports. . But
  there were no documents relating to the Von Mebolts, no descriptions of a
  pregnant woman with two children entering Rio de Janeiro during the month
  of June or July in 1945. At least, none resembling the wife of Wilhelm von
  Tiebolt. Ilere were pregnant women, even pregnant women with children, but
  none with children that could have been Von Tiebolt's. According to Man-
  fredi, the daughter, Gretchen, was twelve or thirteen years old; the son,
  Johann, ten. Every one of the women entering Brazil during those weeks was
  accompanied either by a husband or a false husband, and where there were
  children, none--not one-was more than seven years of age.
  This struck Holcroft as being not only unusual but mathematically
  impossible. He stared at the pages of faded ink, at the often illegible
  entries made by harried immigration officials thirty-odd years ago-
  Something was wrong; his architect's eye was troubled. He had the feeling
  he was studying blueprints that had not been finished, that were filled
  with minute alterations-tiny lines erased and changed, but very delicately,
  so,as not to disturb the larger design.
         THE HOLCROFT COVPNANT  75

  Erased and changed. Chendcally erased, delicately changed. That was what
  bothered himl The birthdatesl Page after page of miniature figures, digits
  subtly alteredl A 3 became an 8, a I a 9, a 2 a 0, the curve retained, a
  line drawn down, a zero added. Page after page in the ledgers, for the
  weeks of June and July of 1945, the birthdates of all the children
  entering Brazil had been changed so that none was born. prior to 19381
  It was a painstakingly clever ruse, one that had to be thought out
  carefully, deliberately. Stop the hunt at the source. But do it in a way
  that appeared above suspicion. Small numbers faithfully-d hastily-recorded
  by unknown immigration personnel more than thirty years ago. Recorded from
  documents, the majority of which had been long since destroyed, for most
  were false. There was no way to substantiate, to confirm or deny the ac-
  curacy. Time and conspiracies had made that impossible. Of course there
  was no one resembling the Von Tieboltsl Good Lord, what a deceptionl
  Noel pulled out his lighter-, its flame would provide more fight on a page
  where his eye told him there were numerous minute alterations.
  "Senhorl That is forbiddenl" The harsh command was delivered in a loud
  voice by the translator. "Thow old pages catch fire easily We cannot take
  such risks."
  Holcroft understood. It explained the inadequate light, the windowless
  cubicle. "I'll bet you can't," he said- extinguishing kis fighter. "And I
  suppose these ledgers ~~t be removed from this room"
  "No, senhor."
  "And, of course, there are no extra lamps around, and you don't have a
  flashlight. Isn't that right?"
  "Senhor," interrupted the translator, his tone now courteous, even
  deferential. "We have spent nearly three hours with you. We have tried to
  cooperate fully, but as I'm sure you!re aware, we have other duties to
  perform. So, if you have finished. . ."
  "I think you made sure of that before I started," broke in Holcroft. "Yes,
  rm finished. Here."

  He walked in the bright afternoon sunlight, trying to make sense out of
  things, the soft ocean breezes carew ing his face, calming his anger and
  his frustration. He strolled on the white boardwalk overlooking the
  iminacu
 76  THE HOLCROPT COVENANT

 late sand of Guanabara Bay. Now and then he stopped and leaned against the
 railing, watching the grown-up children at their games. The beautiful
 people, sunning and stunning. Grace and arrogance coexisted with artifice.
 Money was everywhere, evidenced by the golden, oiled bodies, too often too
 perfectly formed, too pretty, all flaws concealed. But again, where was
 character? It was somehow absent on the Copacabana this afternoon.
  He passed that section of the beach that fronted his hotel and glanced up
  at the windows, trying to locate his room. For a moment he thought he had
  found it, then realized he was wrong. He could see two figures behind the
  glass, beyond the curtains.
  He returned to the railing and lit a cigarette. The lighter made him think
  about the thirty-year-old ledgers so painstakingly doctored. Had they been
  altered just for him? Or had there been others over the years looking for
  the Von Tiebolts? Regardless of the answer, he had to find another source.
  Or other sources.
  La'comunidad alemana. Holcroft recalled the words of the attach6 in New
  York. He remembered the man's saying there were three or four families who
  were the arbiters of the German community. It followed that such men had
  to know the most carefully guarded secrets. Identities are concealed every
  day. . . . A stranger coming to Rio looking for Germans who have
  disappeared is undertaking a potentially dangerous search . . . "la otra,
  cars de los alemanes." They protect each other.
  There was a way to eliminate the danger, Noel thought. It was found in the
  explanation he had given the translator at the Ministry of Immigration. He
  traveled a great deal, so it was plausible that someone somewhere had
  approached him, knowing he was flying to Brazil, and asked him to locate
  the Von Tiebolts. It had to be a person who dealt in legitimate
  confidentiality, a lawyer or a banker. Someone whose own reputation was
  above reproach. Without analyzing it deeply, Holcroft knew that whoever he
  decided upon would be the key to his explanation.
  An idea for a candidate struck him, the risks apparent, the irony not lost.
  Richard Holcroft, the only father he had ever known. Stockbroker, banker,
  naval officer . . . father. The man who had given a wild young
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  77

 mother and her child a chance to live again. Without fear, without the
 stain.
  Noel looked at his watch. It was ten minutes past five-past three in New
  York. Midafternoon on a Monday. He did not believe in omens, but he had
  just come upon one. Every Monday afternoon Richard Holcroft went to the New
  York Athletic Club, where old friends played gentle squash and sat around
  thick oak tables in the bar and reminisced. Noel could have him paged, talk
  to him alone--ask for help. Help that was to be rendered confidentially,
  for confidentiality was not only the essence of the cover but the basis of
  his protection. Someone, anyone, had contacted Richard Holcroft-man of
  statureand asked him to locate a family named Von Tiebolt in Brazil.
  Knowing his son was going to Rio, he quite logically asked his son to make
  inquiries. It was a confidential matter; it would not be discussed. No one
  could turn away the curious with greater authority than Dick HoIcroft.
  But Althene was not to be told: That was the hardest part of the request.
  Dick adored her; there were no secrets between them. But his father-damn
  it, stepfather -would not refuse him if the request was based in genuine
  need. He never had.
  He crossed the smooth marble floor of the hotel lobby toward the bank of
  elevators, oblivious of sights and sounds, his concentration on what he
  would say to his stepfather. As a result, he was startled when an obese
  American tourist tapped his shoulder.
  'vMey calling you, Mac?" The man pointed toward the front desk.
  Behind the counter the clerk was looking at Noel. In his hand was the
  familiar yellow message envelope; he gave it to a bellhop, who started
  across the lobby.
  The single name on the slip of paper was unknown to him: cARARRA. There was
  a telephone number below, but no message, Holcroft was bewildered. The lark
  of a message was unusual; it was not the Latin way of doing things. Senhor
  Cararra could phone again; he had to reach New York. He had to build
  another cover.
  Yet, in his room, Holcroft read the name again: cARmmA. His curiosity was
  aroused. Who was this Cararra that he expected to be called back on the
  basis, of a
 78  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 name alone, a name the man knew meant nothing to Holcroft? In South American
 terms it was discourteous to the point of being insulting. His stepfather
 could wait a few minutes while he found out. He dialed the number.
  Cararra was not a man but a woman, and from thesound of her low, strained
  voice she was a frightened woman. Her English was passable but not good;
  it did not matter. Her message was as clear as the fear she conveyed.
  "I cannot talk now, senhor. Do not call this number again. It is not
  necessary."
  "You left it with the operator. What did you expect me to do?"
  "It was a ... trro."
  "Yerro? Mistake?"
  "Yes. A mistake. I will call you. We will call."
  "What about? Who are you?"
  Was tardel" The voice descended to a harsh whisper and was abruptly gone
  with the click of the line.
  Mas tarde ... mas tarde. Later. The woman would call him again. Holcroft
  felt a sudden hollowness in his stomach, as sudden as the abrupt
  disappearance of the frightened whisper. He could not recall when he had
  heard a woman's voice so filled with fear.
  That she was somehow connected with the missing Von Tiebolts was the first
  thought that came to his mind. But in what way? And how in God's name would
  she know about him? The feeling of dread came over him again . . . and the
  image of the horrible face contorted in death, thirty thousand feet in the
  air. He was being observed; strangers were watching hinL
  The whine of the telephpne receiver interrupted his thoughts; he had
  forgotten to hang up. He depressed the button, released it, and made the
  call to New York. He needed his protection quickly; he knew that now.
  He stood by the window, staring out at the beachfront, waiting for the
  operator to call him back. There was a flash of light from the street
  below. The chrome of a car grille had caught the rays of the sun and re-
  flected them skyward. The car had passed that section of the boardwalk
  where he had been standing only minutes ago. Standing and absently,
  glancing up at the hotel windows, trying to spot his room.
  The windows. . . . The angle of sight. Noel moved
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  79

 closer to the petnes and studied the diagonal line from the spot below-where
 he had been standing--to where he stood now. His architect's eye was a
 practiced eye; angles did not deceive him. Too, the windows were not that
 close to one another, befitting the separation of rooms in an oceanfront
 hotel on the Copacabana. He looked up at this window, thinking it was not
 his room because he saw figures inside, behind the glass. But it was his
 room. And there had been people inside.
  He walked to his closet and stood looking at his clothes. He trusted his
  memory for detail as much as he trusted his eye for angular fines. He
  pictured the closet where he had changed clothes that morrung. He had
  fallen asleep in the suit he had wom from New York. His light-tan slacks
  had been on the far right, almost against the closet wall. It was habit:
  trousers on the right, jackets on the left. The slacks were still on the
  right, but not against the wall. Instead, they were several inches toward
  the center. His dark-blue blazer was in the center, not on the left side.
   His clothes had been searched.
  He crossed to the bed and his open attach6 case. It was his office when he
  traveled; he knew every millimeter of space, every compartment, the
  position of every item in every slot. He did not have to look long.
   His attach6 case had been searched as well.
  The telephone rang, the sound an intrusion. He picked it up and heard the
  voice of the Athletic CluWs operator, but he knew he could not now ask for
  Richard Holcroft; he could not involve him. Things were suddenly too
  complicated. He had to think them through.
  "New York Athletic Club. Hello? Hello? ... Hello, Rio operator? Theres no
  one on the line, Rio. Hello? New York Athletic Club. . . "
  Noel replaced the receiver. He had been about to do something crazy. His
  room had been searchedl In his need for a cover in Rio de Janeiro, he had
  been about to lead someone directly to the one person closest to his
  mother, once the wife of Heinrich Clausen. What had he been thinking of?
  And then he realized that nothing was wasted. Instead, another lesson had
  been learned. Carry out the lie logically.- then reexamine it, and use the
  most credible part. If he could invent a reason for such a man as
 80      HOLCROPT COVENANT

 Richard Holcroft to conceal the identity of those seeking the Von Tiebolts,
 he could invent the man himself.
  Noel was breathing hard. He had almost committed a terrible error, but he
  was beginning to know what to look for in the unfamiliar forest. The paths
  were lined with traps; he had to keep his guard up and move cautiously. He
  could not permit himself a mistake like the one he had nearly made. He had
  come very close to risking the life of the father that was, for one he had
  never ktiown.
  Very little of value or truth ever came from anything he touched. His
  mother's words, and like Manfredi's, meant as a warning. But his
  mother-unlike Manfredi-was wrong. Heinrich Clausen was as much a victim as
  he was a villain of his time. The anguished letter he had written while
  Berlin was falling confirmed it, and what he had done confirmed it.
  Somehow his son would prove it.
  La comunidad alemana. Tliree, four families in the German community, the
  arbiters who made irreversible decisions. One of them would be his source.
  And he knew exactly where to look.

  Ile old, heavy-set man with thick jowls and steel-gray hair, cut short in
  the fashion of a Junker, looked up from the huge dining-room table at the
  intruder. He ate alone, no places set for family or guests. It seemed
  strange, for as the door was opened by the intruder, the voices of other
  people could be heard; there were family and guests in the la~ge house, but
  they were not at the table.
  "We have additional information on Clausen's son, Herr Graff," said the
  intruder, approaching the old man's chair. "You know about the Curagao
  communication. Two other calls were made this afternoon. One to the woman,
  Cararra, and the second to a men's club in New York."
  "The Cararras will do their job well," said Graff, his fork suspended, the
  puffed flesh around his eyes creased. "VAiat is this club in New York?"
  "A place called the New York Athletic Club. It is---~"
  -"I know what it is. A wealthy membership. Whom was he calling?"
  'The call was placed to the location, not to a person. Our people in New
  York are hying to find out."
         TIRE HOLCROFT COVENANT   81

  The old man put down his fork. He spoke softly, insultingly. "Our people
  in New York are slow, and so are YOU. of
  "I beg your pardon?"
  "Undoubtedly among the members will be found the name of Holcroft. If so,
  ClauseWs son has broken his word; he's told Holcroft about Geneva. That is
  dangerous. Richard Holcroft is an old man, but he is not feeble. We always
  knew that if he lived long enough, he might be a stumbling block." Graff
  shifted his large head and looked at the intruder. 'qhe envelope 'arrived
  in Sesimbra; there is no excuse. The events of the other night had to be
  clear to the som Cable the Tinamou. I doift trust his associate here in
  Rio. Use the eagle code and ten him what I believe. Our people in New York
  will have another task. The elimination of a meddling old man. Richard
  Holcroft must be taken out. The Tinamou will demand it"
               8

 Noel know what he was looking for: a bookstore that was more than a place to
 buy books. In every resort city there was always one major shop that catered
 to the reading requirements of a specific nationality. In this case, its
 name was A Livraria, Alemlo: the Germ- Bookshop. According to the desk
 clerk, it carried all the latest German periodicals, and Luftkansa flew
 newspapers in daily. That was the information Holcroft sought. Such a store
 would have accounts; someone there would know the established German
 families in Rio. If he could get just one or two names. . . . R was a place
 to start.
  Tke store was less dm ten minutes from the hotel. wrm an American
  architect," he said to the clerk, who was halfway up a ladder, rean-anging
  books on the top shelf. "I'm down here checking out the Bavarian influence
  on large residential komes. Do you have any material on the subjectr'
  "I didet know it was a subject," replied the man in fluent English.
  "There's a certain amount of Alpine design, chalet-style building, but I
  wouldn't call it Bavarian."
  Lesson six, or was It seven? Even If the lie Is based In an aspect of
  truth, make sure the person you use it on knows less than you do.
  "Alpine, Swiss, Bavarian., They're pretty much the same thing.99
  - "Really? I thought there were considerable differences."
  Lesson eight or nine. Don't argue. Remember the objective.
  "Look, to tell you the trut~ a rich couple in New York are paying my way
  here to bring back sketcheL They were in Rio last summer. They rode around
  and
               82
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  83

 spotted some great homes. 17hey described them as Bavarian.09
  'Those would be in the northwest countryside. Ihere are several marvelous
  houses out there. The Eisenstat residence, for example; but then, I think
  they're Jewish. Tbere's an odd mixture of Moorish, if you can believe it.
  And, of course, there~s the Graff mansion. That's almost too much, but it's
  really spectacular. To be expected, I imagine. Graffs a millionaire many
  times over."
  "VAW's the name again? Graff?"
  "Maurice Graff. He's an importer; but then, aren!t they allr'
  -whort
  "Oh, come now, don't be naive, If he wasn't a general, or a muckedy-muck
  in the High Command, rll piss port wine."
  -You're English.-
  "I'm English."
  "But you work in a German bookstore."
  "Ich spreche gut Deutsch."
  "Couldn't they find a Germanr'
  "I suppose there are advantages hiring someone like myself," said the
  Britisher cryptically.
  Noel feigned surprise. "Really?"
  "Yes," replied the clerk, scaling another rung on the ladder. "No one asks
  me questions."

  The clerk watched the American leave and stepped quickly down from the
  ladder, sliding it across the shelf track with a shove of his hand. It was
  a gesture of accomplishment, of minor triumph. He walked rapidly down the
  book-fined aisle and turned so abruptly into an intersecting stack that he
  collided with a customer examining a volume of Goethe.
  "Verzeihung," said the clerk under his breath, not at all concerned.
  -Schwesterchen," said the man with the thick blackand-white eyebrows.
  At the reference to his lack of masculinity, the clerk turned. "Youl"
  'The friends of Tinamou. are never far away," replied the man.
  "You followed him?" asked the clerk.
  "He never knew. Make your call."
 84 TFIE HOLCROPT COVENANT

  ~ Ile Englishman continued on his way to the door of an office at the rear
  of the store. He went inside, picked up the telephone, and dialed. It was
  answered by the aide of the most powerful -n in Rio.
  "Senhor Graff's residence. Good afternoon."
  "Our man at the hotel deserves a large tip," said the clerL "He was right.
  I insist on talking to Herr Graff. I did precisely as we agreed, and I did
  it superbly. I've no doubt he'll be calling. Now, Herr Graff, please."
  "rll pass along your message, butterfly," said the aide.
  "You'll do no such thingl I have other news rU tell only to him's
  "%Ut does it concern? I don't have to tell you he's a busy man.,'
  "Shall we say a countryman of mine? Do I make myself clear?"
  "We know hes in Rio; he's already made contacL You'll have to do better
  than that."
  "Hes still here. In the store. He may be waiting to talk to me."
  The aide spoke to someone nearby. The words, however, were distinct. "It's
  the actor, mein Herr. He insists on speaking to you. Everything went as
  scheduled during the past hour, but there seems to be a complication. His
  countryman is in the bookshop."
  The phone passed hands. "What is it?" asked Maurice Graff.
  "I wanted you to know that everything went exactly as we anticipated. . .
  ."
  "Yes, yes, I understand that," interrupted Graff. "You do excellent work.
  Now, what's this about the Engldnder? He's there?"
  "He followed the American. He was no more than ten feet from him. Hes
  still here, and I expect he'll want me totell him what's happening. Should
  I?"
  "No," replied Graff. "We are perfectly capable of running things here
  without interference. Say to him that were concerned hell be recognized;
  that we suggest he remain out of sight. Tell him I do not approve of his
  methods..You may say you heard it from me personally."
  "Thank you, Herr Graff I It will be a pleasure."
  "Yes, I know it will."
         THE HOLCROPT COVENANT  85

  Graff handed the telephone back to his aide. "Ibe 71namou must not let this
  happen," he said. "It starts -again."
   "What, meinHerrr,
  "All over again," continued the old man. "The interference, the silent
  observations, one upon the other. Authority becomes divided, everyone~s
  suspect"
   "I don't understand."
  "Of course you don't. You weren't them" Graff leaned back in his chair.
  "Send a second cable to the Tinamou. Tell him that we request he order his
  wolf back to the Mediterranean. He's taking too many risks. We object, and
  cannot be responsible under the circumstances.09

  It took several phone calls and the passage of twenty-four hours, but word
  that Graff would see him finally came, shortly past two o'clock the next
  afternoon. Holcroft leased a car at the hotel and drove northwest out of
  the city. He stopped frequently, studying the tourist map provided by the
  rental agency. He finally found the address, and swung through the iron
  gates into the ascending drive that led to the house at the top of the
  hill. - The road leveled off into a large parking area of white concrete,
  bordered by green shrubbery that was broken up by flagstone paths leading
  through groves of fruit trees on either side.
  The clerk at the bookstore had been , right. The Graff estate was
  spectacular. The view was magnificent: plains nearby, mountains in the
  distance, and far to the cast the hazy blue of the Atlantic. The house
  itself was three stories high. A series of balconies rose on both sides of
  the central entrance: a set of massive double doors--oiled mahogany, hinged
  with large, pitted triangles of black iron. The effect was Alpine, as if
  a geometric design of many Swiss chalets were welded into one and set down
  on a tropical mountain.
  Neel parked the car to the right of the front steps and got out 'Mere were
  two other automobiles in the parking area-a white Mercedes limousine and
  a low-slung, red MaseratL The Graff family traveled well. -Holcroft gripped
  his attach6 case and camera and started up the marble steps.
 86   THE HOLCROFT COVENAM

  "Irm, flattered our minor architectural efforts are appreciated," said
  Graff. "It's natural, I suppose, for transplanted people to create a touch
  of their homeland in new surroundings. My family came from the Schwarzwald.
  The memories are never far away."
  "I appreciate your having me out here, sir." Noel put the five kastily
  drawn sketches back into his attach6 case and closed it "I speak for my
  client as well, of course."
  "You have everything you need?"
  "A roll of film and five elevation sketches are more than I had hoped for.
  Incidentally, the gentleman who showed me around will tell you the
  photographs were limited to the exterior structural detail."
  "I don7t understand you:'
  "I wouldn't want you to think I was taking pictures of your private
  grounds."
  Maurice Graff laughed softly. "My residence is very well protected, Mr.
  Holcroft. Besides, it never crossed my mind that you were examining the
  premises for purposes of theft. Sit down, please."
  '11ank you." Noel sat opposite the old man. 'These days some people might
  be suspicious."
  "Well, I won't mislead you. I did call the P8rto Alegre Hotel to see if you
  were registered. You were. You are a man named Holcroft from New York whose
  reservation was made by a reputable travel agency that obviously knows you,
  and you use credit cards cleared by computers. You entered Brazil with a
  valid passporL What.more did I need? The times are technically too
  complicated for a man to pretend to be someone hes not, wouldn7t you
  agreer,
  "Yes, I guess I would," replied Noel, thinking that it was the moment
  perhaps to shift to the real purpose of kis visit He was about to speak,
  but Graff continued, as if Sling an awkward silence.
  "How long wW you be in Rio?" he asked.
  "Only a few more days. I have the name of your architect, and naturally
  I'll consult with him when he's free to see me."
  "I'll have my secretary telephone; there'll be no de. lay. I have no idea
  how such financial arrangements are made--or, indeed, if there are any-but
  I'm quite sure bed let you have copies of the plans if they would be
  helpft# to you."
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  87

  Noel smiled, the professional in him aroused. "Ifs a question of selective
  adaptation, Mr. Graff. My calling him would be as much a matter of courtesy
  as anything else. I might ask where certain materials were pu'rchased, or
  how specific stress problems were solved, but that'd be it. I wouldn't ask
  for the plans, and I think he'd be reluctant to say yes if I did."
  "There would be no reluctance," said Graff, his bearing and intensity a
  reflection of a military past.
  . . . If he wasn't a general, or a muckedy-muck in the High Command, I'll
  piss port wine....
  "It's not important, sir. I've got what I came for."
  "I see." Graff shifted his heavy frame in the chair. It was the movement
  of a weary old man toward the end of a long afternoon. Yet the eyes were
  not weary; they were strangely alert "An hour's conference would be
  sufficient, then?"
  "Easily."
  "I'll arrange it."
  "You're very kind."
  'Men you can return to New York."
  "Yes." It was the moment to mention the Von Tiebolts. Now. "Actually,
  there's one other thing I should do while I'm here in Rio. It's not
  terribly important, but I said I'd try. I'm not sure where to begin. The
  police, I imagine."
  `rbat sounds ominous. A crime?"
  "Quite the contrary. I meant whichever department of the police it is that
  could help locate some people. They're not in the telephone directory. I
  even checked unlisted numbers; they don't have one."
  "Are you sure they're in Rio?"
  "They were when last heard from. And I gather the other cities in Brazil
  were checked out, again through the telephone companies."
  "You intrigue me, Mr. Holcroft. Is it so important these people be found?
  What did they do? But then you said there was no crime."
  "None. I know very little. A friend of mine in New York an attorney, knew
  I was coming here and asked me to do what I could to locate this family.
  Apparently it was left some money by relatives in the Midwest."
  "An inheritance?"
  "Yes."
 88  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

   'Men perhaps legal counsel here in Rio
  "My friend sent what he termed 'inquiries of record! to several law fums
  down here," said Noel, remembering the words of the attach6 in New York.
  "There weren7t any satisfactory responses."
  "How did he explain that?"
  "He didn't. He was just annoyed. I guess the money wasn't enough for three
  attorneys to got involved."
  "Three attorneys?"
  "Yes," replied Noel, astonished at himself. He was filling a gap
  instinctively, without thinking. "There's the lawyer in Chicago--or St.
  Louis-my friend's firm in New York, and the one down here in Rio. I don't
  imagine what's confidential to an outsider is confidential between
  attorneys. Perhaps splitting a fee three ways wasn't worth the trouble."
  "But your friend is a man of conscience." Graff arched his brows in
  appreciation. Or something else, Holcroft thought.
  "I'd like to think so."
  "Perhaps I can help. I have friends."
   H-olcroft shook his head. "I couldn't ask you. You've done enough for me
   this afternoon. And, as I &'Aid, it's not that important."
   "Naturally," said Graff, shrugging. "I wouldn!t care to intrude in
   confidential matters." The German looked over at the windows, squinting.
   The sun was settling above the western mountains; shafts of orange light
   streamed through the glass, adding a rich hue to the dark wood of the
   study.
   "The name of the family is Von Tiebolt," said Noel, watching the old man's
   face. But whatever he expected to find, nothing could have prepared him
   for what he saw.
   Old Graffs eyes snapped open, their glance shooting over at Holcroft,
   filled with loathing. "You are a pig," said the German, his voice so low
   it could barely be heard. 'This' was a trick, a devious ruse to come into
   my housel To come to mel"
   'You're wrong, Mr. Graff. You can Call my client in NewYork...."
   "Pigl . . ." the old man screamed. "The Von Tieboltsl Verrfiterl Below
   filthl Cowardsl Schweinhundel How dare youl"
  Noel watched, mesmerized and helpless. Graffs face
         THE BOLCROPT COVENANT  89

 was discolored with rage-, the veins in his neck were at the surface of his
 flesh, his eyes red and furious, his hands trembling, gripping the arms of
 the chair.
  "I don't understand," said Holcroft, getting to his feet.
  "You understand . . . you garbage! You are looking for the Von Tieboltsl
  You want to give them life againl"
  6`17hey're dead?"
  "Would to the Almighty they werel"
  "Graff, listen to me. If you know somethint---"
  "Get out of my housel" The old man struggled up from the chair and
  screamed at the closed door of the study. "Wernert Komm'herJ"
  GraWs aide burst through the door. "Mein Herr? Was ist---~'
  "Take this impostor awayl Get him out of my housel"
  The aide looked at Holcroft. 'This way. Quicklyl"
  Noel reached down for his attach6 case and walked swiftly toward the door.
  He stopped and turned to look once more at the enraged Graff. The old
  German stood Eke a bloated, grotesque manikin, yet he could not control
  his trembling.
  "Get outl You are contemptiblel"
  Ile final, searing accusation shattered Noel's selfcontrol. It was not he
  who was contemptible; it was the figure of arrogance in front of him, this
  swollen image of indulgence and brutality. This monster who betrayed, then
  destroyed, a man in agony thirty years ago ... and thousands like him.
  This Nazi.
  "You're in no position to call me names."
  "We'll see who , s in what position. Get outf'
  "I'll get out, General, or whatever the hell you are. I can't get out fast
  enough, because now I understand. You don't know me from the last corpse
  you bastards burned, but I mention one name and you can't stand it. You're
  torn apart because you know---and I know-that Von Tiebolt saw through you
  thirty years ago. When the bodies piled up. He saw what you really were."
  "We did not conceal what we werel The world knew. There was no deception
  on our partl"
  Holcroft stopped and swallowed involuntarily. In his burst of anger, he
  had to seek justice for the men who had cried out to him from the grave;
  he had to strike back at this symbol of the once-awesome might and do-
   go  THE HOLCROFT COVENANT

 cay that had stolen a father from him. He could not help himself.
  "Get this clear," said Noel. "I'm going to find the Von Tiebolts, and
  you're not going to stop me. Don't think you can. Don't think you've got
  me marked. You haven't. I've got you marked. For exactly what you are. You
  wear your Iron Cross a little too obviously."
  Graff had regained control. "Find the Von Tiebolts, by all means. Wc'U be
  therel"
  I "I'll find them. And when I do, if anything happens to them, I'll know
  who did it. I'll brand you for what you are. You sit up here in this
  castle' and bark your orders. You're stiff pretending. You were finished
  years agobefore the war was over-and men like Von Tiebolt knew it. They
  understood, but you never did. You never will."
  "Get oud"
  A guard raced into the room; hands grabbed Noel from behind. An arm
  plunged over his right shoulder and down across his chest. He wa& yanked
  briefly off his feet and pulled backward out of the room, He swung his at-
  tach6 case and felt the impact on the large, weaving body of the man
  dragging him through the door. He rammed his left elbow -into the stomach
  of that unseen body and kicked viciously, jabbing his heel into his at-
  tacker's shin bone. The response was immediate; the man yelped; the grip
  across Noel's chest was momentarily lessened. It was enough.
  Holcroft shot his left hand up, grabbing the cloth of the extended arm,
  and pulled forward with all his strength. He angled his body to the right;
  his right shoulder jammed into the chest that rose behind him. His
  assailant stumbled. Noel rammed a last shoulder block into the elevated
  chest, throwing his attacker into an antique chair against the wall. Man
  and delicate wood met in a crushing impact; the frame of the chair
  collapsed under the weight of the body. The guard was stunned, his wide
  eyes blinking, his focus temporarily lost.
  Holcroft looked down at the man. The guakd was large, but his bulk was the
  most threatening part of him. And the bulk was just that; like old Graff,
  a mountain of flesh packed under a tight-fitting jacket.
  Through the open door Holcroft could see Graff start
         TNE HOLCROPT COVENANT  91

 for the telephone on his desk. The aide he had called Werner took an awkward
 step toward Noel.
  "Don't," said Holcroft. He walked across the large hallway toward the
  front entrance. On the opposite side of the foyer several men and women
  stood in an open archway. None made a move toward him; none even raised
  his voice. The German mentality was consistent, thought Noel, not unhappy
  with the realization. These minions were awaiting orders.

  "Do as I've instructed," said Graff into the telephone, his voice calm,
  with no trace of the fury he had exhibited only minutes ago. He was now
  the general officer issuing commands to an attentive subordinate. "Wait
  until he's halfway down the hill, then throw the gate switch. It's vital
  that the American thinks he has escaped." The old German hung up and
  turned to his aide. "Is the guard hurt?-
  "Merely stunned, mein Herr. He's walking around, shaldn off the effects of
  the blow."
  "Holcroft is angry," mused Graff. "He's filled with himself, exhilarated,
  consumed with purpose. Tbafs good. Now he must be frightened, made to
  tremble at the unexpected, at the sheer brutality of the moment. Tell the
  guard to wait five minutes and then take up pursuit. He must do his job
  well."
  "He has his orders; he's an expert marksman."
  "Good." The former Wehrmachtsgeneral walked slowly to the window and
  squinted into the final rays of the sun. "Soft words, lover's words . . .
  and then sharp, hysterical rebukes. The embrace, and the knife One must
  follow the other in rapid succession until Holcroft has no judgment left
  Until he can no longer distinguish between ally and enemy, knowing only
  that he must press forward. When finally he breaks, we'll be there and
  hell be ours."
               9

 Noel slammed the huge door behind him and walked down the marble steps to
 the car. He swung the automobile into reverse, so that his hood faced the
 downhill drive out of the Graff estate, pressed the accelerator and headed
 for the exit.
  Several things occurred to him. The first was that the afternoon sun had
  descended behind the western mountains, creating pockets of shadows on the
  ground. Daylight was disappearing; he needed his headlights. Another
  concern was that GrafPs reaction to the mention of the Von Tiebolts, had
  to mean two things: The Von Tiebolts were alive, and they were a threat.
  But a threat to what? To whom? And where were they?
  A third was more of a feeling. than a specific thought. It was his reaction
  to the physical encounter he had just experienced. Throughout his life he
  had taken whatever size and strength he possessed as a matter of course.
  Because he was large and relatively well coordinated, he never felt the
  need to seek physical challenge except in competition against himself, in
  bettering a tennis game or besting a ski slope. As a result, he avoided
  fights; they struck him as unnecessary.
  It was this general attitude that had made him laugh when his stepfather
  had insisted he join him at the club for a series of lessons in
  self-defense. The city was turning into a jungle; Holcroft's son was going
  to learn how to protect himself.
  He took the course, and promptly forgot everything he had learned when it
  was over. If he had actually absorbed anything, he had done it
  subconsciously.
  He had absorbed something, reflected Noel, pleased with himself. He
  remembered the glazed look in the eyes of the guard.
  The last thought that crossed his mind as he turned
               92
         THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  93

 into the downhill drive was also vague. Something was wrong with the front
 seat of the car. The furious activity of the last minutes had blurred his
 usually acute eye for such things, but something about the checkered cloth
 of the seat cover bothered him. ...
  Terrible sounds interrupted his concentration: the barking of dogs.
  Suddenly, the menacing faces of enormous long-haired black shepherds
  lunged at the windows on both sides of the car. The dark eyes glistened
  with hatred and frustration; the fur-lined, saliva-soaked jaws slapped
  open and shut, emitting the shrill, vicious sounds of animals reaching a
  quarry but unable to sink their teeth into flesh. It was a pack of attack
  dogs-five, six, seven-at all-windows now, their paws scratching against
  the glass. An animal leaped up on the hood, its face and teeth against the
  windshield.
  Beyond the dog, at the base of the hill, Holcroft saw the huge gate
  beginrung to move, the movement magmBed in the beams of his headlights. It
  was starting the slow arc that would end with its closingl He pressed the
  accelerator against the floor, gripped the wheel until his arms were in
  pain, and drove at full speed, swerving to his left, through the stone
  pillars, missing the steel gate by inches. The dog on the hood flew off to
  the right in midair, yelping in shook.
  The pack on the hill had pulled up behind the gate in the darkening
  twilight. The explanation had to be that a high-frequency whistle---beyond
  human ears-had caused them to stop. Perspiring, Noel held the pedal
  against the floorboard and sped down the road.
  He came to a fork in the countryside. Did he take the right, or the left?
  He could not recall; absently he reached for his map on the seat.
  That was what had bothered himl The map was no longer them. He took the
  left fork, reaching below the seat to see if the map had fallen to the
  floor. It had not. It had been removed from the carl
  He arrived at an intersection. It was not familiar; or, if it was, the
  darkness obscured any familiarity. He turned right, out of instinct,
  knowing he had to keep going. He kept the car at high speed, looking for
  anything that he could relate to the drive out from Rio. But the darkness
  was full now; he saw nothing he remembered. The road made a wide, sweeping
  curve to the right and
 94    TM HOLCROFT COVENAM

 then there was a sharp, steep incline of a hill. He re. called no curve,
 remembered no hill. He was lost.
  The top of the hill flattened out for approximately a hundred yards. On his
  left was a lookout, bordered by a parking area enclosed by a chest-high
  wall fronting the cliff. Along the wall were rows of telescopes with round
  casings, the type activated by coins. Holcroft pulled over and stopped the
  car. There were no other automobiles, but maybe one would come. Perhaps if
  he looked around he could get his bearings. He got out of the car and
  walked to the wall.
  Far below in the distance were the lights of the city. Between the cliff
  and the lights, however, there was only darkness. . . . No, not total
  darkness; there was a winding thread of light. A road? Noel was next to one
  of the telescopes. He inserted a coin and peered through the sight,
  focusing on the weaving thread of light he presurnod was a road. It was.
  The lights were spaced far apart; they were street lamps6 welcome but out
  of place in a path cut out of the Brazilian forests. If he could reach the
  beginning of that road. . . . The telescope would move no farther to his
  right. Goddalmn itl Where did the road begin? It had to be....
  Behind him he beard the sound of an engine racing up the hill he had just
  -climbed. Thank Godl He would stop the car, if he had to stand in the
  middle of the wed to do it. He ran from the wall, across the concrete,
  toward the tarred pavement.
  He reached the edge and froze. Ile car lunging over the final, incline into
  the lookout area was a white Mercedes limousine. The same car that stood
  gleaming in the afternoon sun on top of another hill. Graffs car.
  It stopped abruptly, tires screeching. The door opened and a man got out.
  In the reflecting spill of the headLghts he was recognizable: Graffs guardl
  He reached into his belt. Holcroft stood paralyzed. The man raised a gun,
  aiming at him. It was unbelievablel It could not be happeningl
  The first gunshot was thunderous; it shook the silence like a sudden
  cracking of the earth. A second followed. The road several feet away from
  Noel exploded in a spray of rock and dust. Whatever instincts remained be-
  yond his paralysis, his disbeftef, commanded him to run,
         TIM HOLCROFT COVENANT  95

 to save himself. He was going to diel He was about to be killed in a
 deserted tourist lookout above the city of Rio de laneirof It was hisanel
  His legs were weak; he forced himself to race toward the rented car. His
  feet ached, it was the shwigest sensation he had ever felt. Two more
  gunshots filled the night, there were two more explosions of ity and
  concrete.
  He reached the car and fell below the door panel for protection. He reached
  up for the handle.
  Another gunshot, this one louder, the vibration deafening Accompanying the
  detonation was another kind of explosion, one that rang with the violent
  smashing of glass. The car's rear window had been blown out.
  There was nothing else to dol Holcroft pulled the door open and leaped
  inside. In panic he turned the ignition key. The engine roared; his foot
  pressed the accelerator against the floor. He Jammed the gearshift into
  drive; the car bolted forward in the darkness. He spun the wheel; the car
  swerved, narrowly missing impact with the wall, His instincts ordered him
  to switch on the headlight& In a blur he saw the downhill road, and in
  desperation he aimed for it.
  The descent was filled with curves. He took them at bigh speed, sliding,
  skidding, barely able to hold the car in control, his arms aching. His
  hands were wet with ,Sweat; they kept slipping. Any second he fully
  believed he would mush; any moment now he would die in a final exPlosion.
  He would never remember how long it took, or precisely how he found the
  winding road with the intermittent streetlights, but at last it was there.
  A flat surface heading left, heading eaY4 the road into the city.
  He was in dense countryside; tall trees and thick forests bordered the
  asphalt, loombig up like the sides of an immense canyon.
  Two can approached from the opposite direction; he wanted to cry with
  relief at the sight of them He was approaching the outskirts of the city.
  He was into the suburbs. The streeflights were close together now, and
  suddenly there were cars everywhere, turning, blocking, passing. He never
  knew he could be so grateful to see traffic.
  He came to a traffic light; it was red. He was again grateful-for its
  actually being there., and the brief rest it
 96     THE HO=OFT COVENAM

 brought him. He reached into his shirt pocket for his cigarefteL God, he
 wanted a cigarettel
  A car pulled alongside him on his left. He stared once more in disbelief.
  A man beside the driver-a an he had mver wen before in his life-had rolled
  down his window and was raising a pistol. Around the barrel was a
  perforated cylinder-a silencer. The unknown
 Was Amen the gun at himl
  Holcroft recoiled, ducking his head, spinning his neck, yanking the
  gearshift, plunging the accelerator to the floor-He heard the terrible spit
  and the crash of glass behind him. Ile rented car sprang forward into the
  irim tersection. Horns blew crazily; he swerved in front of an approaching
  automobile, turning at the last second to avoid a collision.
  The cigarette had fallen from his lips, burning a hole in the seat.
  He sped into the city.

  The telephone was moist and glistening with sweat in Noers hand. "Are you
  listening to iner' he shouted.
  "Mr. Holcroft, calm down, please." The voice of the attach6 at the American
  Embassy was disbelieving. "Well do everything we can. I have the salient
  facts and well pursue a diplomatic inquiry as rapidly as possible. However,
  it Is past seven o'clock; it'll be difficult reaching people at- this
  hour."
  "Difficult to reach people? Maybe you didn't hear me. I was damn near
  killedl Take a look at that carl The windows were blown outl"
  "Wre sending a man over to your hotel to take possession of the vehicle,"
  said the attach6 matter-offactly.
  "I've got the keys. Have him come up to my room and get thern."
  I "Yes, well do that. Stay where you are and well call YOU back."
  Ihe attacM hung up. Chrisd The man sounded as if he had just heard from an
  irritatmg relative and was anxious to get off the phone so he could go to
  dinnerl
  Noel was frightened beyond any fear he had ever known. It gripped him and
  panicked him and made breathing difficult. Yet in spite of that sickening,
  all-
           THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  97

 pervasive fear, something was happening to him that he did not understand.
 A minute part of him was angry, and he felt that anger growing. He did not
 want it to grow; he was afraid of it, but he could not stop it. Men had
 attacked him and he wanted to strike back.
  He had wanted to strike back at Graff, too. He had wanted to call him by
  his rightful name: monster, liar, corrupter. ..-Nazi.
  Ile telephone rang. He spun around as if it were an alarm, signifying
  another attack. He gripped his wrist to steady the trembling and walked
  quickly to the bedside table.
  "Senhor Holcroft?"
  It was not the man at the Embassy. The accent was Latin.
  "What is it?"
  "I must speak with you. It is very important that I speak with you right
  away."
  "Who is thisr'
  "My name is Cararra. I am in the lobby of your hotel.99
  "Cararra? A woman named Cararra called me yesterday."
  "My sister. We are together now. We must both speak with you now. May we
  come up to your room?"
  "Noi rm not seeing anyonel" Ile sounds of the gunshots, the explosions of
  concrete and glass-they were all still too sharp in his mind. He would not
  be an isolated target
  "Senhor, you MUSU"
  "I won'd Leave me alone or I'll call the police,"
  "They can't help you. We can. We wish to help you. You seek information
  about the Von Tiebolts. We have information."
  Noes breathing stopped. His eyes strayed to the mouthpiece of the
  telephone. It was a trap. The man on the phone was trying to trap him. Yet,
  if that were so, why did he announce the trap?
  "Who sent you here? Who told you to call me? Was it Graff?"
  "Maurice Graff does not talk to people like us. My sister and 1, we are
  beneath his contempt."
  You are contempdblel Graff hold most Of the world
 98    nM HOLCROFT COVENMT

 in contempt, thought Holcroft He breathed again and tried to speak calmly.
 "I asked you who sent you to meHow do you know I'm interested in the Von
 Twbolts?"
  "We have friends at Immigration Clerks, not unPortant People. But they
  listen; they observe. You will understand when we speak." The Brazilian!s
  words suddenly accelerated; the phrases tumbled awkwardly. Too awkwardly
  to be studied or rehearsed. "Please, senhor. See us. We have information
  and it is information you should have. We want to help. By helping you, we
  help ourseives.19
  Noers brain raced. Ile lobby of the P6rto Alegre was always- crowded, and
  there was a certain truth in the bromide that there was safety in numbers.
  If Cararra and his sister really knew something about the Von Tiebolts, he
  had to see them. But not in an isolated situation, not alone. He spoke
  slowly.
  "Stay by the reception desk, at least ten feet in front of it, with both
  hands out of your pockets. Have your sister on your left, her right hand
  on your arm. III be down in a little while, but not in the elevator. And
  you won!t see me first. I'll see you."
  He hung up, astonished at himself. Lessons were being learned. They were
  basic, no doubt, to those abnormal men who dealt in a clandestine world,
  but new to him. Cararra would not have his hand gripped around a gun in
  his pocket; his sister--or whoever she waswould not be able to reach into
  a purse without his noticing. They would have their attentions on the
  doorways, not the elevators, which of course he would use. And he would
  know who they were.
  He walked out of the elevator in a crowd of tourists. He stood briefly
  with them, as if one of the party, and looked at the man and woman by the
  front desk. As instructed, CararrWs hands were at his side, his sister's
  right hand linked to her brother's arm, as if she were afraid to be set
  adrift. And he was her brother; there was a distinct similarity in their
  features. Cararra, was in his early thirties, perhaps; his sister, several
  years younger. Both dark-skin, hair, eyes. Neither looked at all imposing;
  their clothes were neat but inexpensive. They were out of place among the
  furs and evening gowns of the hotel's guests, aware of their awkward
  status, their faces ernbarrassed, their eyes frightened. Harmless, thought
  Hol-
           THE HOLCROFT COVENANT  99

 croft. Then he realized he was making too fast a judgment.
  They sat in a back booth of the dimly lit cocktail lounge, the Cararras
  across the table from Noel. Before they'd gone inside, Holcroft had
  remembered that the embassy was supposed to call him back. He told the desk
  that if the call came, it was to be relayed to him in the lounge. But only
  the embassy-no one else.
 I "Tell me first how you learned I was looking for the Von Tiebolts," said
 Noel after their drinks arrived.
  "I told you. A clerk at Immigration. The word was passed discreetly, last
  Friday, among the sections, that an American would be coming in asking
  about a German family named Von Tiebolt. Whoever took the request was to
  call in another, a man from the policia do adminisftWdo. Tbes the secret
  police."
  "I know what it is. He called himself, a 'translator.' I want to know why
  you were told."
  "The Von Tiebolts were our friends. Very close friends."
  "Where are theyr'
  CArarra exchanged a brief look with his sister. The girl spoke.
  "Why do you look for themr, she asked.
  "I made that clear at Immigration. IVs nothing out of the ordinary. They
  were left some money by relatives in the United States."
  Brother and, sister again looked at each other, and again the sister spoke.
  "Is it a large amount of, money?"
  "I don't know," replied Holcroft. "It's a confidential matter. I'm merely
  a go-between."
  "A what?" Again the brother.
  "Un tercero," answered Noel, looking at the woman. "Why were you so
  frightened on the telephone yesterday? You left your number, and when I
  called you back, you told me I shouldn't have. Why?"
  "I made a . . . mistake. My brother said it was a bad mistake. My name, the
  telephone number-it was wrong to leave them." ,
  . "It would anger the Germans," explained Cararra. "If they were watching
  you, intercepting your messages, they would see that we called you. It
  would be danger. ous to us."
  "If they're watching me now, they.know you're here."
 100 THE HOLCROrr COVENANT

  "We talked it over," continued the woman. "Vft made our decision; we must
  take the risk."
   "What risk?"
  "The Germans despise us. Among other things, we are Portuguese Jews," said
  Cararra.
   "They think like that even now?"
  "Of course they do. I said we were close to the Von Tiebolts. Perhaps I
  could clarify. Johann was my dearest friend; he and my sister were to be
  married. The Germans would not permit it."
   "Who could stop themr'
  "Any number of men. With a bullet in the back of Johanifs head."
  "Good Christ, that's crazy1" But it was not crazy, and Holcroft knew it.
  He had been a target high in the hills; gunshots still rang in his ears.
  "For certain Germans such a marriage would be the final insult," said
  Cirarra. "There are those who say the Von 7"iebolts were traitors to
  Germany. These people still fight the war three decades later. Great
  injustices were done to the Von 1"iebolts here in Brazil . They deserve
  whatever can be done for them. Their lives were made most difficult for
  causes that should have died years ago-,,
  "And you figured I could do something for them? What made you think thatr'
  "Because powerful men wanted to stop you; the Germans have a great deal of
  influence. Therefore you, too, were a powerful man, someone the Graffs in
  Brazil wanted to keep from the Von Tiebolts. To us that meant you intended
  no harm to our friends, and if no harm, you meant well. A powerful American
  who could help them."
  "You say the 'Graffs in Brazil."17hat's Maurice Graff, isn't it? Who is he?
  What is he?"
  "The worst of the Nazis. He should have been hanged at NUmberg."
  "You Anow GraffT' asked the woman, her eyes on Hoicroft.
  .1 went out to see him. I used a client in New York as an excuse, said he
  wanted me to look over Graffs house. rm an architect. At one point, I
  mentioned the Von Tiebolts, and Graff went out of his mind. He began
  screaming and ordered me out. When I drove down the hill, a pack of attack
  dogs came after the car. Later,