willing even to sacrifice their own fellow conspirators
to achieve it, and to deceive others who were se-
duced into believing it was the way of the future, the
answer to the serious ills of the world. It is not, nor
can it ever be.
“As the days and weeks go by as this terrible
thing is put behind us the facts will be placed
before you. For this has been our warning, the toll
taken in blood and in the shaken confidence of our
institutions. I remind you, however, that our
institutions have prevailed. They will prevail.
‘in an hour from now a series of meetings will start
taking
696 ROBERT LUDLUM
place involving the White House, the departments
of State and Defense, the majority and minority
leaders of the House and the Senate, and the
National Security Council. Beginning tomorrow, in
concert with other governments, reports will be
issued on a daily basis until all the facts are before
you.
“The nightmare is over. Let the sunlight of truth
guide us and clear away the darkness.”
On the following morning Deputy Director Peter
Stone of the Central Intelligence Agency,
accompanied by Captain Howard Packard and
Lieutenant William Landis, were brought to the
Oval Office for a private ceremony. The specific
honors awarded them were never made public, as
there was no reason to do so. Each man, with deep
respect and grahtude but with no
regrets declined to accept, each stating that
whatever honors were involved belonged to a man
not currently residing in the United States.
A week later, in Los Angeles, California, an
actor named Caleb Dowling stunned the producers
of a television show called Santa Fe by giving them
his notice effective before the start of the new
season. He refused all inducements, claiming simply
that there was not enough time to spend with his
wife. They were going to travel. Alone. And if the
residuals ever ran out, hell, she could always type
and he could always teach. Together. Ciao, friends.
EPILOGUE
Geneva. City of bright reflections and inconstancy.
Joel and Valerie Converse sat at the table where
it had all begun, by the glistening brass railing in the
Chat Botte. The traffic on the lakeside Quai du
Mont Blanc was disciplined, unhurried purpose
mixed with civility. As the pedestrians passed by,
both were aware of the glances directed at Joel.
There he is, the eyes were saying. There is . . . the
man. It was rumored he was living in Geneva, at
least for a while.
By agreement, the second report issued across the
free
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 697
world made a direct but on Converses
insistence brief reference to his role in the tragedy
that was Aquitaine. He was exonerated of all
charges. The labels were removed and refuted, the
debt to him acknowledged without specifics on the
basis of NATO security. He refused all interviews,
and was not pleased when the media dredged up his
experiences in Southeast Asia and speculated on
correlations with the drama of the generals. But he
was consoled by the knowledge that just.as the
interest in him had dwindled years ago, it would do
so again faster in Geneva, city of purpose.
They had leased a house on the lake, an artist’s
house with a studio built on the slope leading to the
water, the skylight catching the sun from early
morning to dusk. The beach house in Cape Ann was
closed, the lease paid in full and returned to the real
estate agent in Boston. Vals friend and neighbor had
packed her clothes and all her paints, brushes and
favorite easel, and sent everything air freight to
Geneva. Valerie worked for several hours each
morning, happier than she had ever been in her life,
permitting her husband to evaluate her progress daily
He judged it to be eminently acceptable, wondering
out loud whether there was a market for “lakescapes”
as opposed to seascapes. It took him two days to
remove the last dabs of paint from his hair.
Nor was Joel without employment; he was Talbot
Brooks and Simons European branch all by himself.
The income itself, however, was not a vital factor, as
Converse never remotely considered himself in the
mold of those attorneys in films and on television
who rarely if ever collected fees. Since his legal
talents had been called upon for crucial evidence, he
billed the major governments a reasonable
$40O,OOO apiece the minor ones, $250,000. No one
argued. The total came to something over $2.5
million, safely deposited in an interestbearing Swiss
account.
“What are you thinking about?” asked Valerie,
reaching for his hand.
‘About Chaim Abrahms and Derek Belamy They
haven’t been found they’re still out there, and I
wonder if they will ever be found. I hope so, because
until they are, it really islet over.
“Its over, Joel, you’ve got to believe it. But thats
not what I meant. I meant you. How do you feel?”
“I’m not sure. I only knew I had to come here
and find out.” He looked into her eyes, and at the
cascading dark hair
698 ROBERT LUDLUM
that fell to her shoulders, framing the face he loved
so much. “Empty, I think. Except for you.”
“No anger? No resentment?”
“Not against Avery, or Stone or any of the
others. That s past. They did what they had to do;
there wasn’t any other way.”
“You re far more generous than I am, my darling.
‘
“I’m more realistic, that’s all. The evidence had
to be gotten by penetrating the outside by an
outsider wandng to get inside. The core was too
tight, too lethal.”
“I think they were bastards. And cowards.”
“I don’t. I think they should all be canonized,
immortalized, bronzed and with poems written
about them for the ages.”
“That’s absolute rubbish! How can you possibly
say such a thing?”
Joel again looked into his wife’s eyes. “Because
you’re here. I’m here. And you’re painting
lakescapes, not seascapes. And I’m not in New
York and you’re not in Cape Ann. And I don’t have
to worry about you, hoping that you’re worrying
about me.”
“If only there’d been another woman or another
man. It would have been so much easier, so much
more logical, darling. ‘
“There was always you. Only you.”
“Try to get away from me again, Converse.”
“No way, Converse.”
Their hands gripped, unashamed tears were in
their eyes. The nightmare was over.
LUDLUM ON LUDLUM
Few writers have skyrocketed to popularity with the
speed of Row ERT LUDLUM, with each
succeeding thriller becoming a bigger bestseHer.
The key to his success may lie in John Leonard s
comment in The New York Times, “Mr. Ludlum
stuffs more surprises into his nov els than any other
six-pack of thriller writers combined.’
– Some people claim Ludlum has secret sources for
information found in his stories. In one, an early
book, a key theme was CIA involvement in domestic
surveillance. At that hme the subject shocked many
people. Later, of course, this fact proved to be
correct. Other people suspect Ludlum was an agent
himself during the years prior to his career as a
novelist. Not true. For close to twenty years he was
in show business as an actor, producer, and as the
‘ voice’ of dozens of television commercials for
products ranging from TipariHos to Tuna Helper.
During his `voice period, Ludlum’s wife crowned
him King of the Toilet Bowls. As he tells it, “there
was this product caned Plunge. All I had to do was
read three words: Plunge works fast. In spite of my
off-hand delivery, they used my three words in over
one hundred different commercials. The money
from this put one of my children through two years
of college.
Although none of Ludlum’s novels draws on his
show business background for subject matter, they
all reflect techniques he learned in the “heater.
Ludlum says, ‘the theater man knows that he must
involve the audience. He understands structure
more than anyone else the logical evolving of one
event into another event without losing the audience
s attention. Because if you lose their interest, you’re
closing Saturday night.'” ,
Ludlum admits, 1 write primarily as an
entertainer. But I find that whether you re writing
comically or dramatically,you write from a point of
view of something that disturbs or outrages you.
And that’s what l do. I admit to being
outraged mostly by the abuse of power by the
fanatics. The extremes bother me, right or left. ‘ Yet
he adds, “I disapprove of violence, that’s why I show
pain for what it is. When my characters get hit, they
hurt. They don’t jump back into action like John
Wayne.”
All of this and more can be found in the
published work of Robert Ludlum. Since his first
novel, The Scarlatti Inheritance, he has amassed an
enviable record of success: The Osterman Weekend,
The Matlock Papers, The Rhinemann Exchange, The
Cemini Contenders, more recently, The Chancellor