inspector from the Surete, who knows you didn’t kill
Rene and you couldn’t have killed the one they
called a chauffeur at the George Cinq.”
Startled, Joel leaned forward over his coffee.
“But I did kill that man. God knows I didn’t mean
to I thought he was reaching for a gun, not a
radio but I fought him, I smashed his head into
the wall; he died from a cranial something-or-other.”
“No, he didn’t. He was killed in the hospital. He
was suffocated; his lungs were collapsed by
suffocation. It was unrelated to his injuries, that’s
what Prudhomme said. As he put it, if you didn’t
kill the driver and you didn’t kill Rene, how many
others didn’t you kill? He thinks you’ve been set up,
he doesn’t know why any more than he can
understand why evidence has been suppressed, or
suddenly found when it should have been found
earlier if it existed in this case your finger
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 587
prints in Mattilon’s office. He wants to help; he gave
me a telephone number where we can reach him.”
“Can we trust him?” asked Joel, writing a note on
the stationery.
“I think so. He did something remarkable this
morning, but I’ll get to that.”
‘ The man at the George Cinq,” said Converse
softly. “Bertholdier’s aide. It’s where the running
began. It’s as though the moment was suddenly
seized upon, someone recognizing a possible strategy,
not wanting to let the opportunity slip away. ‘Brand
him a killer now, maybe we can use it, build on it.
All it costs is a life.’lesus!”Joel struck a match and lit
a cigarette. “Go on, ‘ he continued. “Go back. What
about Sam?”
She told him everything, starting with the
madness at the St. Regis in New York the
frightening telephone call that led to an intense
young man racing up the steps and an Army officer
running after her down the street.
“The odd thing here,” interrupted Converse, “is
that those men, that call, might have been
legitimate.”
“What? How? The first one looked like a Hitler
youth, and the other was in uniform!”
‘Most people in uniform would be the first ones
to want the generals of Aquitaine cut loose in a
typhoon. Remember, Fitzpatrick said those four
dossiers came from way down deep in official vaults,
and judging from much of the material, Connal
thought there was heavy military input. Maybe my
silent partners in Washington are beginning to crawl
out of their sewers. Sorry. Go on.”
She told him of meeting Sam at the diner in Las
Vegas the married Sam, Sam the father of two
young girls. Wincing, Joel listened, all his antennae
revolving, catching every turn of phrase, every
meaning that might have more than one meaning,
trying desperately to find a clue, a wayffomething,
anything they might use or act upon. And then he
held up his hand, signaling Val to stop.
“The three of you were going to Washington?”
“Yes.”
“You and Sam and this third person he was going
to see, going to talk to the one he said would know
what to do.”
“Yes. The man who had Sam killed. He was the
only one Sam talked to.”
588 ROBERT LUDLUM
“But Abbott said he trusted him. With ‘his life,’
I think you said.”
“Sam said,” corrected Valerie. “He was wrong.”
“Not necessarily. Sam was easygoing but not
easily conned. He chose his friends carefully; he
didn’t have too many because he knew his rank was
vulnerable.”
“But he didn’t talk with anyone else_”
“I’m sure he didn’t, but this other man had to. I
know something about crisis conferences in
Washington and that’s exactly what Sam meant
when he said you were going there. Those meetings
don’t just happen; some strong words are used to
cut a path through the bureaucratic mess. Certainly
Sam’s name would be put forward first he had the
status and the rank and just possibly my name, or
yours, or even Delavane’s, any of which would have
been enough.” Converse picked up the pen. “What
was his name?”
“Oh, Lord,” said Val, closing her eyes, her
fingers massaging her forehead. “Let me think….
Alan, the first name was Alan…. Alan Metzger?
Metland… ?”
“Was there a rank, a title of some kind?”
“No. Metcalf! Alan Metcalf, that was it.”
Joel wrote down the name. “Okay, let’s get to
Paris, the man from the Surete.”
She began with the odd behavior of the
immigration officials, which led to the strange
meeting with the weary, rumpled Prudhomme. She
reached the end of the Frenchman’s startling
revelations, repeating herself but filling in all the de-
tails she had omitted previously. When she finished,
Converse held up his palm for the second time, his
mouth open in astonishment, his eyes wide and
alive.
“The Taffana family?” he asked incredulously.
“Are you certain?”
“Completely. I asked him again this morning.”
“This morning? Yes, you said he did something
remarkable this morning. What happened?”
“He stayed up all night outside the hotel in his
car, and when I left in a taxi shortly after the sun
was up he crashed and I mean crashed into the
car behind us. I was being followed. He told me to
hurry up and get out of there. That’s when I asked
him to repeat the name. It was Tatiana.”
“That was the name Rene told me to use with
Cort Thorbecke in Amsterdam. ‘Say you’re a
member of the Tatiana family. Those were his
instructions. ‘
THE AQUITAINE
PROGRESSION 589
“What does it meant”
“Rene didn’t go into it too deeply, but I got the
drift. Ap~arently it means some kind of trust, a
litmus test that clears omeone for a level of
information that would be withheld rom ninety-nine
percent of the people wanting it. ‘
“Why?”
“It sounds crazy, but Mattilon said it was because
who~ver was part of Tatiana was trusted by the
most suspicious eople on earth men who couldn’t
afford to make a mis:ake.”
“My God, who?”
“Russians. Commissars in the Kremlin who float
money ut to brokers in the West who invest it.”
“You’re right,” said Val. “It’s crazy.”
“But it works, don’t you see? Decent men who for
one reason or another found themselves in a world
they probably rated, never knowing whom they could
trust, figured out a rode among themselves. To be a
member of the Tahanas is some kind of clearance.
It’s not only a signal of emergency it’s more than
that. It means that whoever sends that signal is all
right in spite of what he may have to do. I’ll bet it’s
one hell of a small circle. Rene, this Prudhomme,
they’d fit into it. And for us it’s a key, we can trust
it.”
“You’re in court, aren’t you?” said the now and
former Mrs. Converse, reaching across the table for
his free hand.
“I don’t know any other way to do it. Facts,
names, tactics; somewhere there’s a crack, a road we
can take we have to take. Quickly.”
“I’d start with Prudhomme,” said Val.
“We’ll call in his hand but maybe not first. Let’s
take things in sequence. Are there two phones in
here? A certain ex-wife had me too preoccupied to
notice last night.”
“She’s probably pregnant.”
“Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
“Down, boy. Yes, there’s another phone. It’s in
the bathroom.”
“I want you to call this Metcalf, Alan Metcalf, in
Las Vegas. We’ll get the number from information.
I’ll listen.”
“What do I say?”
“What name did you and Sam use?”
“The one I told you. Parquette.”
“Say that’s who’s calling, nothing else. Let him make
the
590 ROBERT LUDLUM
first move. If it’s wrong, I’ll know we’ll both
know and I’ll hang up. You’ll hear me and you
hang up, too.”
“Suppose he’s not there? Suppose I get a wife or
a girl friend or a child?”
“Leave your name quickly and say you’ll call
back m an hour.”
Peter Stone sat on the sofa, his feet up on the
coffee table. Across, in two armchairs, were the
Army captain out of uniform and the young Navy
lieutenant, also in street clothes.
“We agree, then,” said Stone. “We try this
Metcalf and hope for the best. If we’re wrong if
I’m wrong we could be traced, and don’t fool
yourselves, you’ve been seen here, you could be
identified. But as I told you before, there comes a
time when you have to take a risk you’d rather not
take. You’re out of safe territory and you hope to
Christ you get through it fast. I can’t promise that
you will. This phone is tapped into another number,
a hotel across town, so any trace would be delayed,
but only delayed while everyone registered is
checked, every room checked. Once that’s over with,
any experienced telephone repairman could go
down in the cellars and find the intercept.”
“How much time would that give us?” asked the