quiet of a strange room. Drums and sharp commands
to a firing squad are preferable there’s a certain
meaning in that. But I’ve seen too much death to go
into hysterics. Pick up your pistol and get it over with.
I would if I were you.”
Converse studied the German’s face, whose strange
eyes were noncommittal, expressing only contempt.
“You mean it don’t you?”
“Shall I give orders myself? There was a newsreel
years ago. A black man did that against a bloodstained
wall in Castro’s Cuba. I’ve always admired that soldier.”
Leifhelm suddenly shouted, “Achtung! Soldaten!
P~sentiert das Gewehr!”
“For Christ’s sake, why not talk ?” roared Joel,
riding over the fanatical voice.
“Because I have nothing to say. My actions speak,
my life has spoken! What is it, Herr Converse? You
have no stomach for executions? You cannot give the
order to yourself? A small,
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 661
insignificant man’s conscience will not permit him to
kill? You are laughable!”
“I remind you, General, I’ve killed several people
these past few weeks. Killed with less feeling than I
ever thought possible.”
‘ The lowliest coward running for his life will kill
in panic. There is no character in that, merely
survival. No, Herr Converse, you are insignificant, an
impediment even your own forces care nothing
about. You abound in this world. There is an odd
phrase you have in your country that so readily ap-
plies to you, a phrase our associate uses frequently.
You are a ‘shit-kicker,’ Herr Converse, nothing more
and probably less.”
‘What did you say? What did you call me?”
“You heard me clearly. A shit-kicker. A little
man who steps in waste. Shit-kicker, Herr Converse.
Shit-kicker!”
He was back a lifetime ago, on the bridge of a
carrier, the face in front of him contorted, obscene, the
twice shrill. Shit-kicker! Shit-kicker, shit-kicker,
shit-kicker! Then other explosions followed, and he was
blown into the dark clouds, the wind and the rain
buffeting him, hammering him as he swung down
toward the earth. Down to the ground and four years
of madness and death and dying children weeping.
Madness! Shit-kicker . . . shit-kicker . . . shit-kicker!
Converse reached down for the pistol on the
table. He picked it up and, with his index finger
around the trigger, leveled it at Erich Leifhelm.
And then a sudden shock went through him.
What was he doing? He needed all three men of
Aquitaine. Not one, not two, but three! It was the
basis, the spine of what he had to do! But still there
was something else. He had to kill, he had to destroy
the deadly human virus staring at him, wanting
death. Oh, Jesus! Had Aquitaine won, after ally Had
he become one of them? If he had, he had lost.
‘Your kind of courage is cheap, Leifhelm,” he
said softly, lowering the gun. “Better a quick bullet
than other alternatives.”
“I live by my code. I die by it gladly.”
“Cleanly, you mean. Swiftly. No Dachau, no
Auschwitz.”
“You have the gun.”
“I thought you had so much to offer.”
“My successor has been chosen carefully. He will
carry out details, every nuance of my agenda.
662 ROBERT LUDLUM
The opening was there, a strategy suddenly
revealed. Joel pushed the /outton
“Your successor?”
‘ha. ”
“You have no successor, Field Marshal.”
“What?”
“Any more than you have an agenda. You don’t
have anything without me. It’s why I brought you
here. Just you.”
“What are you saying?”
“Sit down, General. I’ve several things to tell
you, and for your own sake you’d better be seated.
Your own execution might be more preferable to
you than what I’ve got to say ”
“Liar!” screamed Erich Leifhelm four minutes
later, his hands gripping the arms of the brocaded
chair. “Liar, liar liar!” he roared.
“I didn’t expect you to believe me,” said Joel
calmly standing in the middle of the spacious,
book-lined study “Cali Bertholdier in Paris .md tell
him you just heard some dlsturbing news and you’d
like a clarification. Say it outright, you’ve learned
that while you were in Essen, Bertholdier and
Abrahms came to see me at your place in Bonn.”
“How would I know that?”
“The truth. They paid a guard to open the
door I don’t know which one, I didn’t see
him but a guard did unlock the door and let them
in.”
“Because they believed you were an informer,
sent out by Delavane, himself?”
“That’s what they told me.”
“You were drugged! There were no such
indications!”
“They were suspicious. They didn’t know the
doctor and they didn’t trust the Englishman. I don’t
have to tell you they don’t trust you. They thought
the whole thing might be a hoax. They wanted to
cover themselves.”
“Incredible!”
“Not when you think about it,” said Converse,
sitting down opposite the German. “How did I really
get the information I had? How did I know the
exact people to reach except through Delavane?
That was their thinking.”
“That Delavane would do this could do it?”
began the astonished Leifhelm.
“I know what that means now,” interrupted Joel
quickly seizing on the new opening presented him.
“Delavane’s finished, they both admitted it when
they understood he was the
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 663
last person on earth I’d work for. Maybe they were
throwing me a few crumbs before setting me up for
my own execution.”
“That had to be done!” exclaimed the Third
Reich’s once youngest field marshal. ‘Certainly you
can understand. Who were you? Where did you come
from? You yourself did not know. You spoke of
inconsequential names and lists and a great deal of
money but nothing that made sense. Who had
penetrated us? Since we could not find out, you had
to be turned into a pariah. Into something rotten. A
thing of rot no one would touch.”
“You did it very well.”
“For that I must take credit,” said LeifLelm,
nodding. “It was essentially my organization.
Everything was mine.”
“I didn’t bring you here to discuss your
achievements. I brought you here to save my life.
You can do that for me the people who sent me
out either can’t or won’t but you can. All I have to
do is give you a reason.”
“By implying that Abrahms and Bertholdier
conspire against me?”
“I won’t imply anything, I’ll give it to you straight
in their own words. Remember, neither one of them
thought I’d leave your place except as a corpse
conveniently shot in the vicinity of some particularly
gruesome assassination.” Suddenly Converse got out
of the chair, shaking his head. “No!” he said em-
phatically. “Call your trusted French and Israeli
allies, your fellow Aquitainians. Say anything you
like, just listen to their voices you’ll be able to tell.
It takes an accomplished liar to spot other liars, and
you’re the best.”
“I find that offensive.”
“Oddly enough, I meant it as a compliment. It’s
why I reached you. I think you’re going to be the
winner over here and after what I’ve been through I
want to go with a winner.’
“Why do you say that?”
“Oh, come on, let’s be honest. Abrahms is hated;
he’s insulted everyone in Europe, the U.K. and the
U.S. who doesn’t agree with his expansionist policies
for Israel. Even his own countrymen can’t shut him
up. All they can do is censure him and he keeps on
screaming. He’d never be tolerated in any kind of
international federation.”
The Nazi quickly, repeatedly shook his head.
“Never!” he shouted. “He is the most loathsome man
to come out of the Middle East. And, of course, he’s
aJew. But how is Bertholdier to be equated in this
manner?”
664 ROBERT LUDLUM
Joel paused before answering. “His manner,” he
replied thoughtfully. “He’s imperious, arrogant. He
sees himself not only as a great military figure and
a history-making power broker, but also as some
sort of god, above other men. There’s no room on
his Olympus for mortals. Also he’s French. The
English and the Americans wouldn’t give him spit:
one De Gaulle in a century is enough for them.”
“There’s clarity in your thoughts. He’s the sort of
abominable egotist only the French can suffer. He
is, of course, a reflection of the entire country.”
“Van Headmer doesn’t count except where he
can bring South Africa around for raw materials.”
“Agreed,” said the German.
“But you, on the other hand,” Converse went on
rapidly again sitting down, “worked with the
Americans and the English in Berlin and Vienna.
You helped implement occupation policies, and in
good conscience you turned over evidence to both
the U.S. and the U.K. prosecution teams in
Nuremberg. Finally, you became Bonn’s spokesman
in NATO. Whatever you were in the past, they like
you.” Again Joel paused, and when he continued
there was a degree of deference in his voice.
“Therefore, General, you’re the winner, and you can
save my life. All you need is a reason.”