offered hesitantly.
“You did,” confirmed the general. ‘He was
reached several months ago, but our contact never
returned. You expla~ned that also.”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 653
‘You thought he might be one of you, didn’t you?’
“We thought he threw away a brilliant military
career out of disgust. Apparently it was a different
disgust, the very weakness we abhorred. But these
are not the things I want to hear. You made
reference to some aspect of expendability That is
what I want to hear. Now.”
‘You want it straight? Without the frills?’
“No frills, monsieur.”
“LeifLelm said you’ll be out in a matter of
months, if not sooner. You give too many orders; the
others are sick of them and you want too much for
France.”
“Leifhelm? The hypocritical weasel who sold his
very soul to deny everything he espoused? Who
betrayed his leaders in the dock at Nuremberg,
furnishing the court with all manner of evidence so
as to worm his way into the Allies’ bowels!
Everywhere, whatever our commitments, we cringed!
He brought dishonoron the most honorable
profession in this world. Let me tell you, monsieur,
it is not I who will be out, it is he!”
“Abrahms said you were a sexual
embarrassment,” con .inued Converse, as though
Bertholdier’s response was irrelevant. “That was the
phrase he used, ‘a sexual embarrassment. He
mentioned the fact that there was a record one he
obtained, in fact that spelled out a string of rapes,
female and male, that were covered up by the
French Army because you were damned good at
what you did. But then he asked the question. Could
a bisexual opportunist, one who ravaged women at
will and who sodomised young men and boys, who
corrupted the word ‘interrogations’ as well as whole
sections of the officer corps, be truly considered the
French leader of code-name Aquitaine. He also said
you wanted too many controls cantered in your own
government. But by the time there were such
controls, you’d be gone.”
“Gone?” cried the Frenchman, his eyes once more
on fire as they had been weeks ago in Paris, his
whole body trembling with rage. “Convicted by a
barbarian, a smelly, uneducated Jew?”
“Van Headmer didn’t go that far. He said you
were simply too vulnerable ”
“Forget Van Headmer!” roared Bertholdier. “He’s
a fossil! He was courted solely on the basis that he
might deliver raw materials. He’s of no
consequence.”
“I didn’t think he was,” agreed Joel truthfully.
654 ROBERT LUDLUM
‘But the strutting, foul-mouthed Israeli thinks
he can move against me? Let me tell you, I have
been threatened before by a great man and
nothing ever came of those threats because, as you
put it, I was ‘damned good’ at what I did. I still am!
And there is another record, one of outstanding and
brilliant service, that dwarfs any compilation of
filthy rumors and barracks gossip. My record is
unmatched by any in code-name Aquitaine, and that
includes the legless egomaniac in San Francisco. He
believes it was all his idea! Preposterous! I refined it!
He merely gave it a name based on a far-fetched
reading of history.”
“He also got the ball started by exporting one
hell of a lot of hardware,” interrupted Converse.
‘ Because it was there! And there were profits to
be made!” The general paused, leaning forward in
the chair. “I will be frank with you. As with any elite
corps of leadership, one man rises above the others
by the sheer strength of his character and his mind.
Beside me the others all others pale into
mediocrity. Delavane is a deformed, hysterical
caricature. Leifhelm is a Nazi, and Abrahms is a
bombastic polarizer; alone he could set off waves of
anti-Semitism, the worst sort of symbol of
leadership. When the tribunals rise out of the
confusion and the panic, they will look to me. I
shall be the true leader of code-name Aquitaine.”
Joel got out of the chair and walked back to the
window, staring out at the mountain fields, feeling
the soft breezes on his face. “This examination is
finished, General,” he said.
As if on cue the door opened, and a former
sergeant major in the French Army based in Algiers
stood there waiting to escort the bewildered legend
of France out of the room.
Chaim Abrahms sprang out of the brocaded
chair, his barrel chest straining the seams of his
black safari jacket. “He said those things about me?
About himself?”
“I told you before we got into any of this to use
the phone,” said Converse, sitting across from the
Israeli, a pistol on a table beside his chair. “Don’t
take my word for it. I’ve heard it said you’ve got
good gut instincts. Call Bertholdier. You don t have
to say where you are as a matter of fact, I’d put a
bullet in your head if you tried. Just tell him one of
Leifhelm’s guards, a man you bought to keep his
eyes open for you because of a certain innate
mistrust you have of Germans, told you that he,
Bertholdier, came to see me alone on two
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 655
separate occasions. Since I haven’t been found, you
want to know why. It’ll work. You’ll hear enough to
know whether I’m telling you the truth or not.”
Abrahms stared down at Joel. ‘But why do you
tell me this truth? If it is the truth. Why do you
abduct me to tell me these things. Why?”
“I thought I made that clear. My money’s running
out, and although I’m not wild about lox or kreplach,
I’d be better off living in Israel under a protective
cover than being hunted and ultimately killed
running around Europe. You can do that for me, but
I know I’ve got to deliver something to you first. I’m
delivering it now. Bertholdier intends to take over
what he calls code-name Aquitaine. He said you’re
a foul-mouthed Jew, a destructive symbol, you’ll
have to go. He said the same about Leifhelm; the
specter of a Nazi couldn’t be tolerated and Van
Headmer was a ‘fossil’ that was the word, ‘fossil.”
“I can hear him,” said Abrahms softly, his hands
clasped behind his back, pacing toward the window.
“Are you sure our military boulevardier with the
cock of steel did not say ‘smelly Jew’? I’ve heard our
French hero use such words always, of course,
apologising to me, saying I was exempt.”
“He used them.”
“But why? Why would he say such things to you?
I don’t deny his logic, for Christ’s sake. Leifhelm will
be shot once controls are established. A l~lazi
running the goddamned German government?
Absurd! Even Delavane understands this, he will be
eliminated. And poor old Van Headmer is a relic we
all know that. Still, there is gold in South Africa. He
could deliver it. But why you? Why would
Bertholdier come to you?”
“Ask him yourself. There’s the phone. Use it.”
The Israeli stood motionless, his narrow eyes
encased in swells of flesh riveted on Converse. ‘ 1
will,” he said quietly emphatically. “You are far too
clever, Mr. Lawyer. The fire inside you remains in
your head it has not reached your stomach. You
think too much. You say you were manipulated? I
say you manipulate.” Abrahms turned and strode like
a bulky Coriolanus to the phone. He stood for a
moment squinting, remembering, then picked up the
phone and dialed the series of numbers long ago
committed to memory.
Joel remained in the chair, every muscle in his
body taut, his throat suddenly dry. Slowly he inched
his hand over the
656 ROBERT LUDLUM
arm of the chair nearer the pistol. In seconds he
might have to use it, his strategy his only
strategy blown apart by a phone call he had never
thought would be made. What was wrong with him?
Where were his vaunted examining tactics taking him?
Had he forgotten whom he was dealing with?
“Code Isaiah, ‘ said Abrahms into the phone, his
angry eyes again staring across the room at
Converse. “Patch me through to Verdun-sur-Meuse.
(prickly!” The Israeli’s massive chest heaved with
every breath, but it was the only part of his stocky
frame that moved. He spoke again, furiously. “Yes,
code Isaiah! I have no time to waste! Reach Ver-
dun-sur-Meuse! Now!” Abrahms eyes grew wide as
he listened. He looked briefly away from Converse,
then snapped his head back toward him, his eyes
filled with loathing. “Repeat that!” he shouted. And
then he slammed the telephone down with such
force the desk shook. “Liar!” he screamed.
“You mean me?” asked Joel, his hand inches
from the gun.
“They say he disappeared! They cannot find him!”
“And?” Converse’s throat was now a vacuum. He
had lost.
“He lies! The cock of steel is no more than a
whining coward! He’s hiding he avoids me! He will
not face me!”
Joel swallowed repeatedly as he moved his hand
away from the weapon. “Force the issue,” he said,