purse still the same?”
“Of course. But I have ”
“I don’t want you going back to the Amstel.
You’ve got to get out of Amsterdam. There’s a
KLM night Hight to New York at eleven-forty-five.”
“But my things ”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 499
“They’re not worth it. Call the hotel when you get
back. Wire them money and say it was an
emergency. They’ll mail everything to you. ‘
“You’re serious, aren’t you?’,
“Never more so in my life. I think you should
know the truth about Rene. He wasn’t killed because
we met in Paris nothing had happened then. I called
him from Bonn four days ago and we talked. He
believed me. He was shot to death because he sent
me to Amsterdam, to reach a man who might have
gotten me on a plane to Washington. That’s out now
and it doesn’t matter. You do. You came here and
you found me, and the people who are looking for
me all over the city will know it soon if they don’t
know it already.”
“I never said I was going to Amsterdam,” Valerie
broke in. “I specifically left word at the Kempinski
that I was Hying directly home, that if I got any calls
to refer them to New York.”
“Did you have a reservation on the plane?”
“Naturally. I just never showed up.”
“Good, but not good enough. Delavane’s people
are efficient. Leifhelm has connections at every
airport and immigration point in Germany. They’ll
find out otherwise. We might have fooled them once
tonight, not twice. My guess is there’s a German
waiting for you at the Amstel now, probably in your
room. I want him to think you’re coming back, that
you’re still here.”
“If someone like that goes to my room into my
room he’s in for a shock.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone else is there. An old man with a long
memory, who’s been given instructions I’d rather not
repeat.”
“Your aunt’s doing?”
“She sees things in black and white, no grays.
There is the enemy and there is not the enemy. And
anyone who would harm her sister’s daughter is very
definitely the enemy. You don’t know these people,
Joel. They live in the past; they never forget. They’re
old now and not what they once were, but they
remember what they were and why they did the
things they did. It was so simple for them. Good and
evil. They live with those memories frankly, it’s a
little scary, they’re a little scary, to tell you the truth.
Nothing in their lives since has been so alive, so
important to them. I honestly think they’d all prefer
going back to those days, the horror and all.”
500 ROBERT LUDLUM
“What about your aunt, though? After everything
that’s been said about me in the newspapers and on
television, she went along with you? She didn’t ask
any questions? The fact that you were her sister’s
daughter was enough ?”
“Oh, no, she asked one very specific question
and I answered it. That was enough. I must tell you,
though. She’s odd very odd but she can do what
has to be done and that’s all that matters.”
“Okay…. You will go back tonight?”
“Yes,” said Val, nodding. “It’s reasonable and I
can do more from New York in the morning than
from here. From everything you’ve said, every hour’s
important.”
“Vital. Thanks…. Also you may have trouble
reaching Sam. I don’t have any idea where he is and
the services aren’t cooperative when it comes to a
woman trying to locate an oflicer especially one
with high rank. It’s too complicated an overseas
love affair, a child the man never knew about,
probably not his they’re very circumspect.”
“Then I won’t ask them to tell me where he is.
I’ll say I’m a relative he’s been trying to reach, that
I travel a great deal and if he wishes to call me, I’ll
be at the such-and-such hotel for the next
twenty-four hours. Certainly they have to relay that
kind of message to a general.”
“Certainly,” agreed Joel. “But if you leave your
name you’re risking too much. For you and Sam.”
“I’ll use a variation, one he’ll recognize.” Valerie
blinked, staring at the ground. “Like Parquet only,
I’ll feminine it Parquette. A floor,
wood something associated with a Charpentier, a
carpenter. Then I’ll add Virginia he’d remember
Ginny because of you. Virginia Parquette, he’ll fig-
ure it out.”
“He probably will. So might others. When you
don’t show up tonight, Leifhelm will have the
airports checked. They could pick you up at
Kennedy.”
“Then I’ll lose them at LaGuardia. I’ll go to a
motel where I stay when I take the plane to Boston.
I’ll check in and get out without their knowing it.”
“You’re very quick.”
“I told you, my roots go back; I’ve heard the
stories. . Now, what about you?”
“I’ll stay out of sight. I’m getting pretty good at
it and I can pay for anything I need.”
“Your words, Converse: ‘Not good enough.’ The
more
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 501
money you spread, the more of a trail you leave.
They’ll find you. You have to get out of Amsterdam
too.”
‘ Well, I could slip across a few borders and head
down to Paris for my old suite at the George Cinq.
Of course, it might be a little obvious, but then if I
tapped high enough they are French.”
“Don’t try to be funny.”
“I don’t feel remotely amusing. Also, I’d like a
private toilet and a shower even a secondhand
bath. The rooms I find you can’t find in the most
esoteric travel guides.”
“You haven’t had a shower in God knows how
long, that much I can tell you in the open air.”
“Oh, beware the wife who’s offended by her
husband’s hygiene. It’s a sign of something.”
“Cut it out, Joel, I’m not your wife…. I’ve got to
be able to reach you.”
“Let me think, I’m also getting very inventive. I’ll
figure out something. I could ”
“I’ve already figured it out,” interrupted Val
firmly. ~Before I flew over I talked with my aunt.”
From your house?”
From the midtown hotel in New York where I
registered under a different name.”
Lyon were thinking about your phone.”
4Not the way you were. I told her what I thought
had happened, what I was going to try to do. She
came to see me in Berlin last night. She talked up a
storm how she could do this do that but it all
boiled down to the fact that she’ll help. She ll hide
you. So will others.”
`In Germany?”
4Yes. She lives in the countryside, on the
outskirts of Osnabruck. It’s the safest place you
could go, the last place those people would think to
look for you.”
How do I get back into Germany? It was rough
enough getting out! Delavane’s people aside every
border’s on the alert, my photograph on every wall.
‘
“I talked to Hermione this afternoon, after you
called from a pay phone; she was staying with a
friend. She started making arrangements right away,
and when I flew in here a few hours ago, an old man
met me at the airport, the same man you’ll be
staying with tonight. You don’t know him but you’ve
seen him; he was riding the bicycle in the Museum-
plein. I was taken to a house on the Lindengracht
where I was
502 ROBERT LUDLUM
to call my aunt; the phone was what they term
‘unberuhrt,’ clean, untouched.”
“My God, they are back in the forties.,’
“Not much has changed, has it?”
“No, I guess not. What did she say?”
“Only your instructions. Late tomorrow
afternoon, when the terminal’s full, you’re to go to
the Central Station here in Amsterdam and walk
around by the information booth. A woman will
come up to you and say hello, saying she recognized
you as someone she met in Los Angeles. Respond
to her and during the conversation she’ll hand you
an envelope. Inside will be a passport, a letter, and
a train ticket.”
“A passport? Hawk”
“All they needed was a photograph. I knew that
much when I left your father in Cape Ann.”
“You knew?”
“I told you, I’ve heard the stories all my life.
How they got Jews and Gypsies and all the men
who parachuted down from planes out of Germany
and into neutral or occupied countries. The false
papers, the photographs, they became an art form.”
”And you brought a photograph?”
“It seemed logical. Roger thought so, too.
Remember, he was in that war.”
“Logical . . . a photograph.”
“Yes. I found one in an album. Do you
remember when we went to the Virgin Islands and
you scorched yourself that first day in the sun?”
“Sure. You made me wear a tie to dinner and
my neck was killing me.”
“I was trying to teach you a lesson. That