you talked to him. And Rene was killed for seeing
you. Larry must be going out of his mind.”
“That’s not the reason Rene was killed. Let’s talk
about Larry. The first time I reached him I needed
information without asking him directly. He was
being used because of me, followed, and he didn’t
know it. If I’d told him, the jock in him would have
reacted, and he’d have been shot down in the street.
But the last time I spoke with him I walked into it.
I’d broken away from the people who d caught
me I was exhausted, still frightened, and I was open
with him. I told him everything.”
“He mentioned it to me,” interrupted Val. “He
said you were reliving your experiences in North
Vietnam. There was a psychiatric term for it ‘
Converse shook his head, a short, derisive laugh
emerging from his throat. “Isn t there always? I
suppose there were similarities and I m sure I
alluded to them, but that’s all they
492 ROBERT lUDtUN1
were, similarities…. didn’t hear what I was saying.
He was listening for words that confirmed what
others had said about me, what he believed was
true. He pretended to be the friend I knew but he
wasn’t. He was a lawyer trying to convince a client
that he was sick, that for everyone’s safety the client
should turn himself in. When I realized what he was
doing and that l d told him where I was, I knew
he’d spread the word, thinking he was doing the
right thing. I just wanted to get out of there, so I
halfway agreed with him, hung up, and ran…. I was
lucky. Twenty minutes later I saw a car drive up in
front of the hotel with two of my would-be
executioners.”
“You’re sure of that?”
Joel nodded. ‘Y’he next day one of them stated
for the record that he’d seen me at the Adenauer
Bridge with Walter Peregrine. I wasn’t anywhere
near that bridge at least I don’t think so, I don’t
know where it is.”
~ “I read that story in the Times. The man was
an Army officer, a major from the embassy named
Washburn.”
“That’s right.” Converse broke off a long blade
of grass, twisting it, tearing it in his fingers. ‘They’re
great at manipulating the media newspapers, radio,
television. Every word they put out is cleansed
through channels, branded authentic official. They
take out lives as if people were pieces in a chess
game, including their own. They don’t care; they
only want to win. And it’s the biggest game in
modern history. The terrifying thing is that they can
win it.”
“Joel, do you know what you’re saying? An
American ambassador, the supreme commander of
NATO, Rene, your father . . . you. Then killers in
the embassy, a manipulated press, lies out of
Washington, Paris, Bonn all given official status.
You’re describing some kind of Anschluss, some de-
monic, political takeover!”
Converse looked at her in the moonlight, the
breezes off the water bending the tall grass. “That’s
exactly what it is, conceived by one man and run by
a handful of others, all completely sincere in their
beliefs and as persuasive as any group of
professionals I’ve ester heard. But the bottom line
is that they’re fanatics, killers in a quest they
consider nothing less than holy. They’ve
recruited are recruiting like-minded men
everywhere, other frustrated professionals who think
there’s nowhere else to turn. They grab at the
theories and the promises, accepting accepting,
hell, extolling the
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 493
myths of efficiency and discipline and self-sacrifice,
because they know it leads to power. Power to
replace the inefficient, the undisciplined, the c
orrupters and the corrupted. They’re blind; they can’t
see beyond their own distorted image of
themselves…. If that sounds like a summation it
probably is. I haven’t slept much, but I do a lot of
thinking. ‘
‘The jury’s still in place, Joel, ‘ said Valerie, her
eyes alive, again levered at his. “I don’t want a
summation, I want it all. I think you should begin at
the beginning where it began for you.”
“Okay. It started in Geneva ‘
“I knew it,’ interrupted Val, whispering.
“What?”
“Nothing. Go on.”
“With a man I hadn’t seen in twenty-three years.
I knew him by one name then, but in Geneva he was
using another. He explained it and it didn’t matter.
Except that it was a little eerie. I didn’t know how
eerie it was, or how much he didn’t explain, or how
many lies he told me in order to manipulate me. The
hell of it is he did what he did for all the right
reasons. I was the man they needed. They. And I
don’t know who they are, only that they’re there,
somewhere…. As long as I live however long I’m
permitted I’ll never forget the words he used when
he reached the core of why he had come to Geneva.
‘They’re beck,’ he said. ‘The generals are back.'”
He told her everything, allowing his mind and his
thoughts to wander, to include every detail he could
recall. The countdown was in progress. In a matter of
days or at best a week or two there would be
eruptions of violence everywhere like what was
taking place in Northern Ireland right now.
‘Accumulations,’ they said. ‘Rapid acceleration!’
Only, no one knew who or what or where the targets
were. George Marcus Delavane was the madman
who conceived it all, and other powerful madmen
were listening to him, following his orders, moving
into positions from which they would leap for the
controls. Everywhere
Finally he was finished, a part of him in anguish,
knowing that if she was caught by the soldiers of
Aquitaine, the narcotics inserted in her body would
reveal the information that would result in her death.
He said as much when he had finished, wanting
desperate! v to breach the space between them and
hold her, telling her how much he hated himself for
doing what he knew he had to do. But he made no
move toward
494 ROBERT LUDLUM
her; her eyes told him not to; she was evaluating,
thinking things out for herself.
“Sometimes,” she said quietly, ‘when the dreams
would come, or you drank too much, you’d talk
about this Delavane. You d become so panicked
you’d tremble and close your eyes and every now
and then you’d scream. You hated that man so.
You were also frightened to death of him.”
“He caused’ a lot of death, unnecessary death.
Kids . . . children in grown-up uniforms who didn’t
know that Bung ho meant search and destroy and
get blown apart.”
“There’s no way you could be what do they call
it transferring your emotions?”
“If you believe that, I’ll drive you back to the
Amstel and you can fly home in the morning and go
back to your easels. I’m not crazy, Val. I’m here
and it’s happening.”
“All right, I had to ask. You didn’t live through
some of those nights, I did. You were either
crashing into the bed or so scratched by a bottle you
didn’t know where you were:”
“It didn’t happen often.”
“I’ll grant you that; but when it did you were
there. And hurting.”
“Which is exactly why I was reached in Gene-
va recruited in Geneva.”
“And this Fowler, or Halliday, knew the exact
words to use. Your own.”
“Fitzpatrick got it all for him. He thought he was
doing the right thing too.”
“Yes, I know, you told me. What do you think
happened to him? Fitzpatrick, I mean.”
“For days I’ve tried to come up with a reason for
them to keep him alive. I can’t. He’s more
dangerous to them than I am. He’s worked the
streets they’re undermining; he knows his way
around Pentagon procurements and export clear-
ances so well he could nail them with half the
evidence They’ve killed him.”
“You liked him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did, and just as important, I was almost
in awe of that mind of his. He was quick and
perceptive and had one hell of an imagination,
which he wasn’t afraid to use.”
“He sounds like someone I was married to,” said
Val gently.
Converse kept his e yes on her for a moment,
then looked away at the water. “If I get out of this
alive and I don’t really
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 495
think I will I’m going hunting. I’m going to find out
who did it, who pulled the trigger. There won’t be
any trial, no witnesses for the prosecution the
defence, no circumstances mitigating or otherwise.
Just me and a gun.”
“Sorry to hear that, Joel. I always admired your
principles. They were a constant, like your
attraction your reverence, I think for the law. It
wasn’t all conceit and ambition, I knew that. It gave
you the only real roots you ever had. You could look