Robert Armstrong
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- For the British member of the House of Lords, see Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster
Robert Armstrong is a character in James Clavell's novel Noble House. He reappears in the novel Whirlwind.
In Noble House, Armstrong serves as a police inspector in Hong Kong. He is streetwise but motivated by a somewhat idealized view of police work, taking a simple pleasure in hunting down and arresting the bad guys. Because of his skill and intelligence, he was promoted to Special Intelligence, a branch concerned with counter-espionage. However, he resigned after a few years, finding this work to have too many grey areas, preferring the clear cut legality of ordinary police work.
Though troubled with debt, he never accepts bribes. He is, however, realistic about other officers doing so, even those under his command.
His wife Mary is unable to have children, something Armstrong regrets deeply. His lack of children seems to elevate the importance of his work in his life, his work being a sort of substitute legacy.
Armstrong is fiercely pro-British. He is as suspicious of the wealthy tai-pans as he is of common criminals.
Armstrong is ordered back on Special Intelligence duty in 1963, when it is discovered that the KGB has penetrated Hong Kong intelligence, at a very high level.
By 1970, in the book Whirlwind, Armstrong is employed as an advisor to the Iranian secret police. As the Soviets try to turn the Iranian Revolution to their purposes, Armstrong again tangles with the same Soviet master spy he failed to catch in Hong Kong.