Jericho's Fall (40 page)

Authors: Stephen L. Carter

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BOOK: Jericho's Fall

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“Then why are we running away?”

“I told you before.” Firm grip on Beck’s biceps, leading her toward the car. “There are lots of ways for librarians to get in trouble these days.”

Doors slammed. The engine started. The car headed down the long driveway and was gone.

And there was only the brisk morning, and the angry fire, and the vast, brooding silence of the mountain.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Its only purpose is entertainment. The characters, story, and setting proceed entirely from my imagination. And although I have spent a good deal of time over the years enjoying the beauty of the Colorado Rockies, the town of Bethel is an invention, not based on any actual community.

Having said that, I should add that the novel of course has factual predicates. The story Phil Agadakos relates about the death of William Colby is essentially true, although some of the public tellings embellish the tale with unlikely emendations. The problem of mental illness among intelligence professionals is often said to be endemic. Certainly the national-security community has been haunted for decades by the nervous breakdown, while on the job, of Frank Wisner, often referred to as the father of American covert operations, and the likely suicide of Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, who tumbled from his sixteenth-floor window at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was being treated for depression. The longest shadow, however, is cast by James Jesus Angleton, whose counterintelligence work at the Agency from the sixties through the mid-seventies was clouded by a growing paranoia that tore the intelligence community apart.

The Central Intelligence Agency pays its employees according to a pay scale different from the usual federal civil-service rate, and provides a generous pension, but the differences in scale are smaller than many believe, and have not prevented the occasional case of cheating. True, no financial scandal in the Agency has ever reached the very top, but imagining such events is what makes fiction possible.

As to the theft of assets at Scondell * Bloom * Notting, I have somewhat simplified what would have to be a more complex scheme. According to my friends on Wall Street, such a conspiracy would need not only insiders willing to fake the records and regulators willing to look the other way, but auditors willing to be fooled. No doubt Jack Notting’s conspirators must have included them, too.

Many Princeton University students do indeed celebrate the Newman’s Day tradition of downing twenty-four beers in twenty-four hours on the twenty-fourth of April, although the University itself has condemned it, on health grounds, and the late Paul Newman, for whom the tradition is named, did his best to discourage it. As of this writing, there is no Red Roof Inn in Colorado, but I suspect the chain will have no objection to my pretense. Readers of my novel
The Emperor of Ocean Park
might have formed the impression that Professor Tish Kirschbaum is older than she appears in the instant tale. I once thought so, too, but I was mistaken.

The CIA’s Directorate of Operations, so beloved of thriller writers, no longer exists. In a post 9/11 reform, the mission of the Directorate was sightly restructured, and the institution was renamed the National Clandestine Service, which sounds like something out of a bad movie. But the name has changed before. For twenty-odd years it was known as the Directorate of Plans. Before that—best euphemism of all!—covert action was undertaken by the Office of Policy Coordination.

The Episcopal Church, although the fact is not widely known, does indeed have nuns. To my knowledge, none formerly conducted interrogations of terror suspects. I should add that Audrey Ainsley’s theory about the best way to perform interrogations is widely shared among professionals, provided always that one possesses sufficient time. When the press of events creates the perception of emergency, everyone—my characters included—has trouble making right choices. This is evidence not of wickedness but of humanity.

Jericho’s use of the word
chamade
is slightly over-precise. His story about paroled prisoners in the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War is true.

I have benefited, as always, from the thoughtful advice of my editor, Phyllis Grann; my literary agent, Lynn Nesbit; and the small circle of intimates who read my work in its early stages. And, as always, I have learned much from the loving support, and generous readings, of my children, Leah and Andrew, and my wondrous and brilliant wife, Enola Aird. For their presence in my life I continue to thank God.

Cheshire, Connecticut
March 2009

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University. His debut novel,
The Emperor of Ocean Park
, spent eleven weeks on the
New York Times
best-seller list, and was followed by the nationwide best sellers
New England White
and
Palace Council. Jericho’s Fallis
his fourth novel. His acclaimed nonfiction books include
God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion and Politics
and
Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy
. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carter, Stephen L., [date]
Jericho’s fall / by Stephen L. Carter.—1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-27299-7
I. Title.
ps3603.a78j47 2009
813′.6—dc22 2009003814

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
v3.0

Table of Contents

Other Books By This Author

Dedication

Prologue: The Return

Sunday Night