as mine and theirs. Is that good enough?”
‘If the consultation doesn’t take place in outer
space, it’s more than enough, and you know it. You
saved Johnny Reb’s ass three times, only y’awl got
the sequence backwards. In the Dardanelles and
Lisbon you got me out before the guns came in.
Over in Bahrain you rewrote a report about a little
matter of missing contingency funds that probably
kept me from five years in a Leavenworth
stockade.”
“You were too valuable to lose over a minor
indiscretion. Besides, you weren’t the only one, you
merely got caught or nearly did.”
“Regardless, Johrmy Reb owes. What is it?”
Stone reached for his glass and took a drink. He
spoke, choosing his words carefully. “One of our
commanders is missing. It’s a Navy problem, SAND
PAC-based, and the people I’m with want to keep
it contained. No Washington input at this stage.”
“Which is part of what you can’t tell me,” said
the Southerner. “Okay. SAND l’AC that’s San
Diego and points west and wet until the date line,
right?”
“Yes, but it’s not relevant. He’s the chief legal
out there maybe was, by now. If he’s not past
tense, if he’s alive he’s nearer you than me. Also if
I get on a plane, my passport ignites the computers
and things can’t go that way.”
“Which is also part of what you can’t tell me.”
“Check.”
“What can you tell me?”
“You know the embassy in Bonn?”
“I know it’s in trouble. Just like the security unite in
Brus
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 413
sets. psycho’s cutting one hell of a path. What about
Bonn?”
“It’s all related. Our commander was last seen there.”
“He’s got something to do with this Converse?”
Steve paused. “You can probably fill in more
spaces than is good for any of us, but the bones of
the scenario are as follows. Our commander was a
very upset man. His brother-in-law who,
incidentally, was his closest friend was killed in
Geneva ”
“Down the road from here,” interrupted the
expatriate in Bonn. “The American lawyer whose
demise was engineered by Converse, at least that’s
what I’ve read.”
‘That’s what our commander believed. How or
from whom he got the information no one knows,
but apparently he found out that Converse was
heading for Bonn. He went on leave to go after him.”
‘ Commendable but dumb,” said the Southerner.
“A one-man Iynching mobs”
“Actually, no. By simple equations we can assume
he went to the embassy at least he met
someonefrom the embassy to explain why he was
there, perhaps to warn them, who knows? But the
rest speaks for itself. This Converse struck and our
commander disappeared. We’d like to find out
whether he’s alive or dead.”
It was the Southerner’s turn to pause, but his
breathing was clearly heard on the line. Finally: “Brer
Rabbit, you’ve simply got to put a little flesh on
those bones.”
“I’m about to, General Lee.”
“Much obliged, Yankee.”
“It’s also related. If you were a lieutenant
commander in the United States Navy and wanted to
reach someone at the embassy in Bonn, someone
who would accord you the attention your rank
deserved, who would you call?”
“The military charge d’affaires, who else?”
“That’s the man, Uncle Remus. Among other
things, he’s a liar, but I can’t go into that. It’s our
thinking that the commander spoke with him and the
charge dismissed him as a fringe case, probably
didn’t even give him an appointment with
Ambassador Peregrine. And when it happened, to
save his ass and his career well, people do strange
things.”
“What you’re suggesting is awful damned strange.”
“I won’t back away from it,” said the civilian.
“Okay, what’s his name?”
414 ROBERT IUDLUM
‘Washburn. He’s a ”
“Norman Washburn? Major Norman Anthony
Washburn, the Third, Fifth, or Sixth?”
“That’s the one. ‘
“Don’t back away. You left the field too early.
Washburn was in Beirut, then Athens and, after
that, Madrid. He gave every Company flack in the
territories the business! He d nail his Park Avenue
mama to a velvet wall for a good evaluation report.
He figures by forty-five he’ll be heading the Joint
Chiefs and he intends to.”
‘By forty-five?”
“I’ve been out of touch for a couple of years, but
he can’t be any more than thirty-six, thirty-seven.
The last I heard they were going to jump the
light-colonel status and make him a full bird, then a
brigadier soon after that. He is loved, Yan
‘He’s a liar,” said the civilian in the dimly lit
apartment on Nebraska Avenue.
“Sure ’nuff,” agreed the man in Bern, “but I
never figured anything this radical. I mean, he’s got
to be scratchin’ mule shit for oil to do something so
far out.”
“I still won’t back away,” repeated the civilian,
drinking his bourbon.
“Which means you know.”
“Check.”
“And you can’t talk about that, either.” A statement.
“Check again.”
“Are you firm?” i f No room for error. He knows
where the command
“Holy Jesus! What are you Northern boys into?”
“Will you track? Starting yesterday?”
“With pleasure, Yankee. How do you want it?”
“In the twilight zone. Only words that come with
needles that’s important He has to wake up
thinking he ate a bad piece of meat.”
“Women?”
“I don’t know. You probably have a better fix on
that than I do. Would he risk his; image?”
“With two or three Frauleins I’ve got in Bonn,
Jesuits would risk the papacy, sub. The name of the
commander,
“Fitzpatrick. Lieutenant Commander Connal
Fitzpat
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 415
rick. And, Uncle Remus, whatever you hear under
the needles, give only to me. No one else. No one.”
‘Which is the last part of what you can’t tell me,
right?”
“Check. ‘
“My blinders are in place. One objective with only
one target. No side trips and no curiosity, just a tape
recorder in my head or my hand.”
Again Stone paused, filling the silence with a
tentative whisper. “Tape . . . ?” Then he continued.
“The latter’s not a bad idea. Mini-micro, of course.”
“Naturally. Those little mothers are so small you
can hide them in the most embarrassing places.
Where do I reach you? My quill is poised.”
“All right, the area code’s eight-zero-four.” The
former CIA man gave the expatriate in Bern a
telephone number in Charlotte, North Carolina. “A
woman.will answer. Tell her you’re from the Tatiana
family and leave a number.”
Their brief good-byes concluded, Peter hung up
the phone, got out of the chair and carried his drink
to the window. It was a hot, still night in Washington,
the air outside barely moving, the hint of a summer
storm. If the rains came they would wash the streets
and cleanse at least part of the pollution.
The former deep-cover agent wished there were
some balm on earth or from the skies that could
wash his hands and cleanse that part of his soul he
had not put on the auction block or for a disastrous
period of time into a bottle of bourbon. Maybe all he
had done was hammer another nail in Converse’s
coffin, one more scrap of credibility that labeled the
lawyer something he was not. Stone realized that
instead of casting reasonable doubts based on his
own certain knowledge, he had compounded the
fiction that Converse was the psychopathic killer the
international media described. Worse, he had
attributed that credibility to a responsible missing
man, a naval officer who was most likely dead. There
were two justifications for the lie, and only one was
remotely feasible; the other, however, was probably
the most productive move they could make. The first
assumed that Fitzpatrick might be alive, a weak
premise. But if he was dead, the missing commander
provided the reason to call in an old debt and go
after a charge d’affaires named Washburn and do so
without any connection to George Marcus Delavane.
Even if “Johnny Reb” was caught and every man in
a grey to black
416 ROBERT LUDLUM
operation had to assume the possibility no
mention could be made of an international
conspiracy of generals…. Major Norman Washburn,
IV, might or might not know the fate of Connal
Fitzpatrick but everything else he might say under
the needles especially about the
commander would be of value.
What surprised the civilian was Converse
himself in the matter of the Iying military attache.
If Converse was running and not under lock Ed key,
he certainly had to have learned about the lie that
had condemned him. If so why hadn’t the attorney
done something about it? The major’s lie was the
chain’s weakest link; it could be snapped with a
minimum of effort the man’s a liar. I was here or
there, or anywhere except where he placed me when
he placed me. Stone drank sparingly from the glass;
he knew the futility of speculating because he knew
the answer. It was why he did not feel that yet