condescension, and if Joel was not mistaken a
trace of fear. He walked through the door and stood
motionless; when he spoke his voice was a rippling
sheet of ice.
“I was on my way to a dinner engagement on the
fourth floor, Monsieur Simon. By chance, I
remembered you were in this very hotel. You did
give me the number of your suite. Do I intrude?”
“Of course not, General,” said Converse, on his feet.
“Did you expect met”
“Not this way.”
“But you did expect me?”
Joel paused. ‘Yes.”
“A signal sent and received?”
Again Joel paused. “Yes.”
You are either a provocatively subtle attorney or
a strangely obsessed man. Which is it, Monsieur
Simon?”
`If I provoked you into coming to see me and I
was subtle about it, I’ll accept that gladly. As to
being obsessed, the word implies an exaggerated or
unwarranted concern. Whatever
92 ROBERT LUDLUM
concerns I have, I know damned well they’re
neither exaggerated nor unwarranted. No
obsession, General. I’m too good a lawyer for
that.”
“A pilot cannot lie to himself. If he does so
blindly, he crashes to his death.”
“I’ve been shot down. I’ve never crashed
through pilot error.”
Bertholdier walked slowly to the brocaded
couch against the wall. “Bonn, Tel Aviv, and
Johannesburg,” he said quietly as he sat down and
crossed his legs. “The signal?”
“The signal.”
“My company has interests in those areas.”
“So does my client,” said Converse.
“And what do you have, Monsieur Simon?”
Joel stared at the soldier. ‘A commitment,
General.”
Bertholdier was silent, his body immobile, his
eyes searching “May I have a brandy?” he said
finally. “My escort will remain in the corridor
outside this door.”
4
Converse walked to the dry bar against the wall,
conscious of the soldier’s gaze, wondering which
tack the conversation would take. He was oddly
calm, as he frequently was before a merger
conference or a pretrial examination, knowing he
knew things his adversaries were not aware
of buried information that had surfaced through
long hours of hard work. In the present
circumstances there had been no work at all on his
part, but the results were the same. He knew a
great deal about the legend across the room named
Jacques-Louis Bertholdier. In a word, Joel was
prepared, and over the years he had learned to trust
his on-the-feet instincts as he had once trusted
those that had guided him through the skies years
ago.
Also, as it was part of his job, he was familiar
with the legal intricacies of import-export
manipulations. They were a maze of often
disconnected authorisations, easily made incompre-
hensible for the uninitiated, and during the next few
minutes
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 93
he intended to baffle this disciple of George Marcus
Delavane warlord of Saigon until the soldier s
trace of fear became something far more
pronounced.
Clearances for foreign shipments came in a wide
variety of shapes and colors, from the basic export
license with specific bills of lading to those with the
less specific generic limitations. Then there were the
more coveted licenses required for a wide variety of
products subject to governmental reviews; these were
usually shunted back and forth between vacillating
departments until deadlines forced bureaucratic
decisions often based on whose influence was the
strongest or who among the bureaucrats were the
weakest.
Finally, there was the most lethal authorisation
of all, a document too frequently conceived in
corruption and delivered in blood. It was called the
End-User’s Certificate, an innocuously named permit
that was a license to ship the most abusive
merchandise in the nation’s arsenals into air and sea
lanes beyond the controls of those who should have
them.
In theory, this deadly equipment was intended
solely for allied governments with shared objectives,
thus the ‘use” at the discretion of the parties at the
receiving “end” calculated death legitimised by a’
certificate” that obfuscated everyone’s intentions. But
once the equipment was en route, diversion was the
practice. Shipments destined for the Bay of Haifa or
Alexandria would find their way to the Gulf of Sidra
and a madman in Libya, or an assassin named
Carlos training killer teams anywhere from Beirut to
the Sahara. Fictional corporations with nonexistent
yet strangely influential officers operated through
obscure brokers and out of hastily constructed or
out-of-the-way warehouses in the U.S. and abroad.
Millions upon millions were to be made; death was
an unimportant consequence and there was a phrase
for it all. Boardroom terrorism. It fit, and it would
be Aquitaine’s method. There was no other.
These were the thoughts the methods of opera-
tion that flashed through Converse’s mind as he
poured the drinks. He was ready; he turned and
walked across the room.
“What are you seeking, Monsieur Simon?” asked
Bertholdier, taking the brandy from Converse.
“Information, General.”
“About what?”
“World markets expanding markets that my client
94 ROBERT LUDI.UM
might service. ” Joel crossed back to the chair by the
window and sat down.
“And what sort of service does he render?”
“He’s a broker.”
“Of what?”
“A wide range of products.” Converse brought
his glass to his lips; he drank, then added, “I think
I mentioned them in general terms at your club this
afternoon. Planes, vehicles oceangoing craft,
munitions material. The spectrum.”
“Yes, you did. I’m afraid I did not understand.”
“My client has access k production and
warehouse sources beyond anyone I’ve ever known
or ever heard of.”
“Very impressive. Who is he?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Perhaps I know him.”
“You might, but not in the way I’ve described
him. His profile is so low in this area, it’s
nonexistent.”
“And you won’t tell me who he is,” said Bertholdier
“It’s privileged information.”
“Yet, in your own words, you sought me out,
sent a signal to which I responded, and now say you
want information concerning expanding markets for
all manner of merchandise, including Bonn, Tel
Aviv, and Johannesburg. But you won’t divulge the
name of your client who will benefit if I have this
information which I probably do not. Surely, you
can’t be serious.”
“You have the information and, yes, I’m very
serious. But I’m afraid you’ve jumped to the wrong
conclusion.”
“I have no fear of it at all. My English is fluent
and I heard what you said. You came out of
nowhere, I know nothing about you, you speak
elusively of this unnamed influential man ”
“You asked me, General,” interrupted Joel firmly
without raising his voice. “What I was seeking.”
“And you said information.”
“Yes, I did, but I didn’t say I was seeking it from
you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Under the circumstances for the reasons you
just mentioned you wouldn’t give it to me anyway,
and I’m well aware of that.”
“Then what is the point of this shall I say, in-
duced~onversation? I do not like my time trifled
with, monsieur. ”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 95
“That’s the last thing on earth we’d do I’d do.”
“Please be specific.”
“My client wants your trust. I want it. But we
know it can’t be given until you feel it’s justified. In
a few days a week at the outside I hope to prove
that it is.”
“By trips to Bonn, Tel Aviv Johannesburg?’
“Frankly, yes.”
“Why?”
“You said it a few minutes ago. The signal.”
Bertholdier was suddenly wary. He shrugged too
casually; he was pulling back. “I said it because my
company has considerable investments in those areas.
I thought it was enhrely plausible you had a
proposition, or propositions, to make relative to
those interests.”
“I intend to have. ‘
“Please be specific,” said the soldier, controlling
his irritation.
“You know I can’t,” replied Joel. “Not yet.”
“When?”
“When it’s clear to you all of you that my client,
and by extension myself, have as strong motives for
being a part of you as the most dedicated among
you.”
“A part of my company? Juneau et Compagrue?”
“Forgive me, General, I won’t bother to answer that.”
Bertholdier glanced at the brandy in his hand,
then back at Converse. “You say you flew from San
Francisco.”
“I’m not based there,” Joel broke in.
“But you came from San Francisco. To Paris.
Why uJere you there?”
“I’ll answer that if for no other reason than to
show you how thorough we are and how much
more thorough others are. We traced I
traced overseas shipments back to export licenses
originating in the northern California area. The li-
censees were companies with no histories and
warehouses with no records chains of four walls
erected for brief, temporary periods of convenience.
It was a mass of confusion leading nowhere and
everywhere. Names on documents where no such
people existed, documents themselves that came out
of bureaucratic labyrinths virtually
un-traceable rubber stamps, of iicial seals, and
signatures of authorisation where no authority was
granted. Unknowing middle-level personnel told to
expedite departmental clearances That’s what I
96 ROBERT [UDDER
found in San Francisco. A morass of complex, highly