"Ludlum, Robert - Matlock Paper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ludlum Robert)

disturbing, even violent, Inoonsistencies.
He was the surviving son of two elderly, Immensely wealthy parents who
lived in handsome retirement in Scarsdale, New York. His education had been
properly Eastern Establishment: Andover and Amherst, with the proper
expectations of a Manhattan-based profession--banking, brokerage,
advertising. There was nothing in his precollege or undergraduate record to
indicate a deviation from this pattern. Indeed, marriage to a socially
prominent girl from Greenwich seemed to confirm it
And then things happened to James Barbour Matlock, and Loring wished he
understood. First came the army.
It was the early sixties, and by the simple expedient of agreeing to a
six-month extension of service, Matlock could have sat comfortably behind
a desk as a supply of8cer somewhere-most likely, with his famiys
connections, in Washington or New York. Instead, his saMce Me read like a
hoodlunds: a series of in-
 TEE MAIIX= PAPM 11

fractions and Insubordinations that guaranteed him the least desirable of
assignments-Vietnam and its escalating hostilities. While in the Mekong
Delta, his military behavior also guaranteed him two summary courts-martial.
Yet there appeared to be no Ideological motivation behind his actions,
merely poor, if any, adjustment
His return to civilian life was marked by continuing difficulties, first
with his parents and then with his wife. Inexplicably, James Barbour
Matlock, whose academic record had been gentlemanly but hardly superior,
took a small apartment in Morningside Heights and attended Columbia
University's graduate school.
The wife lasted three and a half months, opting for a quiet divorce and a
rapid exit from Matlock's life.
The following several years were monotonous Intelligence material. Matlock,
the incorrigible, was in the process of becoming Matlock, the scholar. He
worked around the calendar, receiving his mastees degree in fourteen
months, his doctorate two years later. There was a reconciliation of sorts
with his parents, and a position with the English department at Carlyle
University in Connecticut. Since then Matlock had published a number of
books and articles and acquired an enviable reputation in the academic
community. He was obviously popular-"mobile in the extreme" (silly goddamn
expression); he was moderately well off and apparently possessed none of
the antagonistic traits he'd displayed during the hostile years. Of course,
there was damn little reason for him to be discontented, thought Loring.
James Barbour Matlock If had his life nicely routined; he was covered on
all flanks, thank you, including a girl. He was currently, with discretion,
involved with a graduate student named Patricia Ballantyne. They kept
separate resi-
 = Robert Ludium
dences, but according to the data, were lovers. As near as could be
determined, however, there was no marriage in sight The girl was completing
her dootDral studies in archeology, and a dozen foundation grants awaited
her. Grants that led to distant lands and unfamiliar facts. Patricia
Ballantyne was not for marriage; not according to the data banks.