stared at him in a cafe in the Kastrup Airport. It was
all so throughthe-looking-glass.
He had flown to Denmark for one reason, but
another purpose had been served. They had found
him, but in the finding they had revealed their own
panic. An agitated reception committee, the use of
a radio at night to reach an unseen vehicle only a
few hundred feet away, a racing limousine: these
were the ingredients of anxiety. The enemy was
off-balance and the lawyer in Converse was satisfied.
At this moment that enemy was a quarter of a mile
down the road speeding into Bonn, unaware that a
taxi behind them, skillfully maneuvered by a driver
slipping around the intermittent traffic, was keeping
them in sight.
Joel crushed out his cigarette as the driver
slowed down to let a pickup truck pass. He could see
the large dark-red car ahead on the long curve. The
German was no amateur, he knew the moves to
make, and Converse understood. Whoever was in
that limousine might well be an influential owner,
and even two hundred deutsche marks were not
worth the probable enmity of a powerful man.
Probabilities . . . everything was probabilities. He
had built his legal reputation on the study of
probabilities, and it was a simpler process than most
of his colleagues believed. The approach, that is, was
simple, not the work; that was never easy. It
demanded the dual discipline of concentrating on the
minute and prodding the imagination to expand until
the minutiae were arranged and rearranged into
dozens of different equations. This exhaustive what-if
process was the keystone of legal thinking; it was as
simple as that. It was also
148 ROBERT LUDIUM
a verbal trap, Joel reflected, as he thought back
several years, smiling an uncomfortable smile alone
in the darkness. In one of her moments of pique,
Val had told him that if he would spend one iota of
the time on the two of them that he spent on his
“goddamned probabilities,” he would “probably”
come to realize that the ‘probability” of their
surviving together was ‘very probably nil.”
She had never lacked for being succinct nor
sacrificed her humor in the pursuit of candor. Her
striking looks aside, Valerie Charpentier Converse
was a very funny lady. Unable not to, he had smiled
at her explosion that night years ago, then they both
had laughed quietly until she turned away and left
the room, too much sadness in the truth she had
spoken.
Large picturesque buildings gradually replaced
the quiet countryside, reminding Converse of huge
Victorian houses with filigreed borders and
overhanging eaves and grilled balconies beneath
large rectangular windows stark geometric shapes.
These in turn gave way to a contradictory stretch of
attractive but perfectly ordinary residential homes,
the sort that could be found in any traditional
wealthy suburb on the outskirts of a major
American city. Scarsdale, Chevy Chase Grosse
Pointe or Evanston. Then came the center of Bonn
where narrow, gaslit streets ran into wider avenues
with modern lighting, quaint squares only blocks
away from banks of contemporary stores and
boutiques. It was an architectural
anachronism Old World ambience coexisting with
up-tothe-minute structures, but with no sense of a
city, no sense of electricity or grandeur. Instead it
appeared to be a large town, growing rapidly larger,
the town fathers uncertain of its direction. The
birthplace of Beethoven and the gateway to the
Rhine Valley was the most unlikely capital
imaginable of a major government. It was anything
but the seat of a hard-nosed Bundestag and a series
of astute, sophisticated prime ministers who faced
the Russian bear across the borders.
“Mein Herrl” cried the driver. “They take the
road to Bad Godesberg. Das Diplomatenviertel.”
“What does that mean?”
“Embassies. They have Polizeistreifen! Patrols.
We could be, how do you say, known ?”
“Spotted,” explained Joel. “Never mind. Do what
you’ve been doing, you’re great. Stop, if you have
to; park, if you have
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 149
to. Then keep going. You now have three hundred
deutsche marks over the fare. I want to know where
they stop.”
It came six minutes later, and Converse was
stunned. Whatever he had thought, wherever his
imagination had led him, he was not prepared for
the driver’s words.
‘That is the American embassy, mein Herr. ”
Joel tried to focus his thoughts. “Take me to the
Hotel Konigshof,” he said, remembering, not
knowing what else to say.
“Yes, I believe Herr Dowling left a note to that
effect,” said the desk clerk, reaching below the
counter.
“He did?” Converse was astonished. He had used
the actor’s name in the outside hope of some
possible preferential treatment. He expected nothing
else, if indeed that.
“Here it is.” The clerk extracted two small
telephone memos from the thin stack in his hand.
“You are John Converse, an American attomey.”
“Close enough. That’s me.”
“Herr Dowling said you might have difficulty
finding am propriate accommodations here in Bonn.
Should you come to the Konigshof tonight, he
requested that we be as helpful as possible. It is
possible, Herr Converse. Herr Dowling is a very
popular man.”
“He deserves to be,” said Joel.
“I see he also left a message for you.”
The clerk turned and retrieved a sealed envelope
from one of the mailboxes behind him. He handed
it to Converse, who opened it.
Hi, pardner.
If you don’t pick this up, I’ll get it back in the
morning. Forgive me, but you sounded like too
many
of my less fortunate colleagues who say no when
they
want to say yes. Now collectively in their case, it’s
some kind of warped pride because they think I’m
suggesting a handout it’s either that or they don’t
want to meet someone who may be where I’m
going.
By the looks of you, I’d have to rule out the
former
and stick with the latter. There’s someone you
don’t
want to meet here in Bonn, and you don’t have to.
The room’s taken care of and in my name change
that if you like but don’t argue about the bill. I
owe
150 ROBERT LUDLUM
you a fee, counselor, and I always pay my debts. At
least during the last four years I have.
Incidentally, you’d make a lousy actor. Your
pauses aren’t at all convincing.
Pa Ratchet
Joel put the note back in the envelope, resisting
the temptation to go to a house phone and call
Dowling. The man would have little enough sleep
before going to work; thanks could wait until
morning. Or evening.
“Mr. Dowling’s arrangements are generous and
completely satisfactory,” he said to the clerk behind
the counter. “He’s right. If my clients knew I’d come
to Bonn a day early I’d have no chance to enjoy
your beautiful city.”
“Your privacy will be respected, sir. Herr
Dowling is a most thoughtful man, as well as
generous, of course. Your luggage is outside with a
taxi, perhaps?”
“No, that’s why I’m so late. It was put on the
wrong plane out of Hamburg and will be here in the
morning. At least that’s what I was told at the
airport.”
“Ach, so inconvenient, but all too familiar. Is
there anything you might require?”
“No, thanks,” replied Converse, raising his
attache case slightly. “The bare necessities travel
with me…. Well, there is one thing. Would it be
possible to order a drink?”
“Of course.”
Joel sat up in bed, the dossier at his side, the
drink in his hand. He needed a few minutes to think
before going back into the world of Field Marshal
Erich Leifhelm. With the help of the switchboard,
he had called the all-night number for Lufthansa
and had been assured that his suitcase would be
held for him at the airport. He gave no explanation
other than the fact that he had been traveling for
two days and nights and simply did not care to wait
for his luggage. The attendant could read into his
words whatever she liked; he did not care. His mind
was on other things.
The American embassy! What appalled him was
the stark reality of old Beale’s words…. Behind it all
are those who do the convincing, and they’re growing
in numbers everywhere…. We’re in the countdown …
three to five Uzbeks that’s all you’ve got…. It’s real and
it’s coming. Joel was not prepared for the reality. He
could accept Delavane and
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 151
Bertholdier, certainly I,eifhelm, but the shock of
knowing that ordinary embassy personnel American
personnel were on the receiving end of orders
from Delavane’s network was paralysing. How far
had Aquitaine progressed? How widespread were its
followers, its influence? Was tonight the frightening
answer to both questions? He would think about it
all in the morning. First, he had to be prepared for
the man he had come to find in Bonn. As he
reached for the dossier he remembered the sudden
deep panic in Avery Fowler’s eyes Preston
Halliday’s eyes. How long had he known? How