“What about them?”
“They’re on the other side.”
“I don’t believe your”
“Why do you think they were at the airport?”
“To meet you, talk to you. There could be a
dozen different reasons. Whether you know it or
not, you’re considered a hotshot lawyer on the
international scene. Foreign service personnel
frequently want to touch base with guys like you.”
“I’ve had this conversation before,” said
Converse, irritated.
“What does that mean?”
“If they wanted to see me, why didn’t they go to
the gate?”
“Because they thought you’d come into the
terminal like everybody else.”
“And when I didn’t according to you they
were upset, angry. That’s what you said.”
“They were.”
“All the more reason to meet me at the gate.”
Fitzpatrick frowned. “Still, that’s kind of flimsy ”
“The woman. Do you remember the woman?”
“Of course.”
“She spotted me in Copenhagen. She followed
me. Also there’s something else. Later, on the
platform, all four were picked up by a car belonging
to a man we know we know is part of everything
I’ve described to you. They drove to
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 193
the embassy, and you’ll have to take my word for
that. I saw them.”
Connal fixed his gaze on Joel, accepting what he
had heard. ‘ Oh, Jesus, ” he said. ‘Okay, no embassy.
What about Brussels, SHAPE? There’s a Navy
intelligence unit; I ve dealt with those people
before.”
Not yet. Maybe not at all.”
41 thought you wanted to use the uniform, my
connections.”
`Maybe I will. It’s nice to know they’re there.”
~Well, what do you want me to do? I’ve got to
do something. ”
Are you really fluent in German?”
“Hochdeutsch, Schwa’bisch, Bayerisch, and several
dialects in between. I told you, I can handle five
languages ”
You’ve made it obnoxiously clear,” interrupted
Converse. ‘4There’s a woman named Fishbein here
in Bonn. That’s the first name I’m going to give you.
She’s involved we’re not sure how, but she’s
suspected of being a conduit a relayer of
information. I want you to meet her, talk with her
establish a relationship. We’ll have to think of
something that’ll be convincing in order for you to
do it. She’s in her forties, and she’s the youngest
daughter of Hermann Goring. She married a
survivor of the holocaust for obvious reasons; he’s
long gone. Any ideas?”
‘~Sure,” said Fitzpatrick without hesitating.
‘`Inheritance. There are a couple of thousand last
wills and testaments every year that the deceased
want processed through the military. They’re from
crazies who leave everything they’ve got to the other
survivors. The true Aryan Germanic stock and all
that horseshit. We bounce them back to the civil
courts, which don’t know what to do with them, so
they end up in limbo and eventually in the Treasury
Department’s coffers.”
“No kidding?”
“girls, owed drei. Believe me, those people mean it.”
“Can you use the device?”
“How about a million-plus legacy from a small
Midwest brewer of lager beer?”
“You’ll do,” said Joel. “You’re on board.”
Converse did not mention Aquitaine or George
Marcus Delavane or Jacques-Louis Bertholdier or
Erich Leifhelm, or twenty-odd names at the State
Department and the Pentagon. Nor did he describe
the network as it appeared in the dossiers, or as
described by Dr. Edward Beale on Mykonos.
.=OBERTLUDLUM
He gave Connal Fitzpatrick the barest bones of the body
of information. Joel’s reasoning was far less benign than
he had stated: if the Navy lawyer was taken and
interrogated no matter how brutally there was little
of substance he could reveal.
“You’re not really telling me a hell of a lot,” said
Fitzpatrick.
“I’ve told you enough to get your head blown off,
and that’s not a phrase normally in my lexicon.”
“Nor mine.”
“Then consider me a nice fellow,” said Converse, as
the two men headed for the entrance gate of the Alter
Zoll.
“On the other hand,” continued Halliday’s broth-
er-in-law, “you’ve been through a lot more than I ever
have I read that stuff about you in the security
files files, not file they were cross-correlated with the
files of a lot of other prisoners. You were something
else. According to most of the men in those camps, you
held them together until they put you into solitary.”
“They were wrong, sailor. I was shaking and scared
to death and would have fucked a Peking duck to save
my skin.”
“That’s not what the files say. They say ”
“I’m really not interested, Commander,” said Joel as
they passed through the ornate gate, “but I’ve got an
immediate problem you can help solve.”
“What is it?”
“I gave my word I’d call Dowling on some mobile
phone line. I wouldn’t know how to ask for it.”
“There’s a booth over there,” said Connal, pointing
to a white plastic bubble that protruded from a concrete
pylon on the pavement abutting the drive. “Do you have
the number?”
“It’s here somewhere,” replied Converse, rummaging
through various pockets. “Here it is,” he said as he
separated the scrap of paper from several credit-card
charges.
”Vermittlung, bitts.” The naval officer sounded
authentic as he spoke crisply into the telephone. “Sieben,
drei, pier zwei, zwei. Bitte, Fraulein. ” Fitzpatrick then
inserted a series of coins into the metal box and turned
to Joel. “Here you are. They’re ringing.”
Stay there. Ask for him say it’s his lawyer calling the
“Guten Tag, Fraulein. Ist Herr Oh, no, I speak
English. Do you spealc English? No, I’m not calling
from California, but it’s an emergency…. Dowling, I
have to reach ”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 195
“Caleb, ” said Joel quickly.
‘Caleb Dowling.” The Navy man covered the
mouthpiece. “What kind of name is that?”
“Something to do with Gucci shoes.”
“What? . . . la yes, thanks.” Fitzpatrick handed
the phone to Converse. “They’re getting him.”
“foe?”
“Yes, Cal. I said I’d call you after I met with
Fowler. Everything’s okay.”
‘No, it’s not, Mr. Lawyer,” said the actor quietly.
“You and I had better have a very serious talk, and
I don’t mind telling you a hunk of beef named
Rosenberg will be just a few feet away.”
“I don’t understand.”
“A man died in Paris. Does that clear things up for
you?”
“Oh, God ” Converse felt the blood draining from
his head and a hollowness in his throat. For a
moment he thought he was going to be sick. “They
came to you?” he whispered.
“A man from the German police a little over an
hour ago, and this time I didn’t have any doubts
about my visitor. He was the real item.”
“I don’t know what to say,” stammered Joel.
“Did you do it?”
“1. . . I guess I did.” Converse stared at the
telephone dial, seeing the bloodied face of the man
in the alleyway, feeling the blood on his own fingers
“You guess? That’s not something you guess about.”
“Then yes…. The answer is yes. I did it.”
“Did you have a reason?”
“I thought I did.”
“I want to hear it, but not now. I’ll tell you where
to meet me.”
“Nor” exclaimed Joel, confused but emphatic. “I
can’t involve you. You can’t be involved!”
“This fellow gave me a card and wants me to call
him if you got in touch with me. He was very specific
about withholding information, how it’s considered
aiding a fugitive.”
“He was right, absolutely rightl For God’s sake,
tell him everything, Call The truth. You got me a
room for the night because you thought I might not
have a reservation and we had a pleasant few hours
on the plane. You put it in your name because you
didn’t want me to pay. Don’t hide anything! Not even
this call.”
“Why didn’t I tell him before?”
196 ROBERT LUDLUM
“That’s all right, you’re telling him now. It was
a shock and I’m a fellow American and you’re in a
foreign country. You wanted time to think, to
reflect. My phone call shook you into behaving
rationally. Tell him you confronted me with the
accusation and I didn’t deny it. Be honest with him,
Cal.”
“How honest? Should I include my session with
Fowler?”
“That’s all right, too, but it’s not necessary. Let
me back up and clarify. Fowler’s a false name and
he’s not relevant to Paris, I give you my word.
Bringing him in is only volunteering an unnecessary
complication.”
“Should I tell him you’re at the Alter Zoll?”
“It’s where I’m calling you from. I just admitted it.”
“You won’t be able to go back to the Konigshof.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Joel, speaking rapidly,
wanting to get off the phone and start thinking. “My
luggage is at the airport and I can’t go back there
either.”
“You had a briefcase.”
“I’ve taken care of that. It’s where I can get it.”
The actor paused, then spoke slowly. “So your
advice to me is to level with the police, to tell them