national landmark where there were taxis.
“Don’t puff that crap on mel I knew Press far better
and
188 ROBERT LUDIUM
far longer than you ever did. For Christ’s sake, he
was married to my sister! We were close friends for
fifteen years!”
“You sound like a kid playing one-upmanship. Get
lost.”
Fitzpatrick rushed forward, pivoting in front of
Joel blocking him. “It’s true! Please, I can help, I
want to help! I know the language: you don’t! I have
connections here; you don’t.”
“You also have your own idea about a deadline,
which I don’t. Get out of my way, sailor. ‘
“Come on,” pleaded the naval officer. I didn’t get
everything I wanted. Don’t crowd me out.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Fitzpatrick shifted his weight awkwardly. “You’ve
come on strong before yourself, haven’t you,
counselor?”
“Not if I didn’t know the circumstances.”
“Sometimes it’s a way of finding them out.”
“Not with me, it isn’t.”
“Then my error was in not knowing you; the
circumstances were beyond that scope. With
someone else it might have worked.”
“Now you’re talking tactics, but you meant it when you
said ‘two days.'”
“You’re damned right I did,” agreed Connal,
nodding. “Because I want whatever it is exposed, I
want whoever it is to pay! I’m mad, Converse, I’m
mad as hell. I don’t want this thing to linger and die
away. The longer nothing is done the less people
care; you know that as well as I do and probably
better. Have you ever tried to reopen an old case? I
have with a few courts-martial where I thought things
had been screwed up. Well, I learned something: the
system doesn’t like it! You know why?”
“Yes I do,” said Joel. “There are too many new
cases in the dockets, too many rewards in going after
the current ones.”
“Bingo, counselor. Press deserves better than that.
Meagen deserves better.”
“Yes, he does they do. But there’s a
complication that Press Halliday understood better
than either of us. Put simply and cruelly his life
wasn’t terribly important compared with what he was
going after.”
“That’s pretty damned cruel,” said the officer..
“It’s very damned accurate,” said Converse. “Your
brother-in-law would have wrestled you to the mat,
burns and all,
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 189
for walking into this and trying to call the shots.
Back off Commander. Go back to the funeral.”
“No. I want to come on board. I withdraw the
deadline.”
‘4How considerate of you.”
“You call the shots,” said Fitzpatrick, nodding
again, exhaling in defeat. “I’ll do what you tell me to
do.”
“Why?” asked Joel, their eyes locked.
The Navy lawyer did not flinch; he spoke simply.
“Because Press trusted you. He said you were the
best.”
“Except for him,” Converse added, permitting his
expression to relax slightly, with a hint of a smile.
“All right, I believe you, but there are ground rules.
You either accept them or, as you put it, on board
you’re not.”
“Let’s hear them. I ll wince inside so you can’t see
it.”
“Yes,” agreed Joel, “you’ll wince. To begin with,
I’ll tell you only what I think you have to know in a
given situation. Whatever you develop will be on
your own; that way it’s freewheeling, no way can you
tip the evidence we’ve compiled.”
“That’s rough.”
“That’s the way it is. I’ll give you a name now
and then when I think it will open a door, but it will
always be a name you heard second or third hand.
You’re inventive; figure out your own unidentifiable
sources so as to protect yourself.”
“I’ve done that on quite a few waterfronts ”
wohu heave? How good are you at playactin’g?”
“Never mind, I think you just answered that. You
didn’t go down to those waterfronts in your dress
whites as a lieutenant commander.”
“Hell, no.”
“You’ll do.”
“You’ve got to tell me something.”
“I’ll give you an overview, a lot of abstractions
and a few facts. As we progress ii we
progress you’ll learn more. If you think you’ve put
it together, tell me. That’s essential. We can’t risk
blowing everything while you operate under wrong
assumptions.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“I wish to hell I knew.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Yes, isn’t it.”
“Why don’t you tell me everything now?” asked
fitzpatrick.
190 ROBERT LUDLUM
“Because Meagen Halliday lost a husband. I
don’t want to see her lose a brother.”
“I’ll accept that.”
“By the way, how long have you got? I mean
you’re on active duty.”
“My initial leave is thirty days, with extensions as
warranted. Christ, an only sister with five kids and
her husband is killed. I could probably write my
own ticket.”
“We’ll stick to the thirty days, Commander. It’s
more than we’re allowed. We may not have even
two weeks.”
“Start talking, Converse.”
“Let’s walk,” said Joel, heading back to the Alter
Zoll wall and the view of the Rhine below.
The “overview” delivered by Converse described
a current situation in which like-minded individuals
in various countries were coming together and using
their considerable influence to get around the laws
and ship armaments and technology to hostile
governments and organisations.
“For what purpose?” asked Fitzpatrick.
‘I could say ‘profits,’ but you’d see through it.”
“As the only motive, yes,” said the Navy lawyer
pensively. “Influential people as I understand the
word ‘influential’ as related to existing laws would
operate singly or at best in small groups within their
own countries. That is, if profits were the primary
objective. They wouldn’t coordinate outside; it isn’t
necessary. It’s a sellers’ market; they’d only water
down the profits.”
“Bingo, counselor.”
“So?” Fitzpatrick looked at Joel, as they strolled
toward a break in the stone wall where a bronzed
cannon was in place.
“Destabilization,” said Converse. “Mass
destabilisation. A series of flash points in highly
volatile areas that will call into question the ability
of democratic governments to cope with the
violence.”
“I’ve got to ask you again, for what purpose?”
“You’re quick,” said Joel, “so I’ll let you answer
that. What happens when an existing political
structure is crippled by disorder, when it can no
longer function, when things are out of control?”
The two men stopped by the cannon, the naval
officer’s eyes following the line of the huge,
threatening barrel. “It’s
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 191
restructured or replaced,” he said, turning to look at
Converse.
“Bingo again,” said Converse softly. “That’s the
overview.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Fitzpatrick creased his
eyes in the sunlight, as well as in thought. “Let me
recap. Am I allowed?”
“You’re allowed.”
” ‘Influential individuals’ connotes people in
pretty good standing in very high places. Assuming
we’re not talking about an out-and-out criminal
element which the lack of a pure profit motive
would seem to eliminate we’re talking about
reasonably respectable citizens. Is there another
definition I’m not aware of?”
‘If there is, I’m not aware of it, either.”
“Then why would they want to destabilise the
political structures that guarantee them their
influence? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Ever hear of the phrase ‘Everything’s relative’?”
“To a fare-thee-well. So what?”
“So think.”
“About what?”
“Influence.” Joel took out his cigarettes, shook
one to his lips and lighted it. The younger man
stared at the Seven Mountains of the Westerwald in
the distance.
“They want more,” said Fitzgerald slowly, turning
back to Converse.
“They want it all,” said Joel. “And the only way
they can get it is to prove that their solutions are the
only solutions, all others having proved worthless
against the eruption of chaos suddenly everywhere.”
Connal’s expression was fixed, immobile, as he
absorbed Converse’s words. “Holy Mary. . . ” he
began, his voice a whisper, yet still a cry. “An
international plebiscite the peoples’ will for the
almighty state. Fascism. It’s multinationalfasasm. ”
“I’m sick of saying ‘Bingo,’ so I’ll say ‘Right on,’
counselor. You’ve just said it better than any of us.”
“Us? Which is ‘use,’ but you don’t know who you
arel” added Fitzpatrick, both bewildered and angry.
“Live with it,” said Joel. “As I have.”
“Why?”
“Avery Fowler. Remember him?”
192 ROBERT LUDLUM
“Oh, jesust”
“And an old man on the island of Mykonos.
That’s all we have. But what they said is true. It’s
real. I’ve seen it, and that’s all I need to know. In
Geneva, Avery said there was very little time left.
Beale refined it; he called it a countdown.
Whatever’s going to happen will happen before your
leave is up two weeks and four days is the earliest
report. That’s what I meant before.”
“Oh my God,” whispered Fitzpatrick. “What else
can you tell me will you tell me?”
“Very little.”
“The embassy,” Connal interrupted. “It’s been a
couple of years, but I was there. I worked with the
military attache. I don’t need any introductions. We
can get help there.”
“We can also get killed there.”
“What?”
“It’s not clean. Those three men you saw at the
airport the ones from the embassy “