“Whose instructions?” barked the diplomat.
“My superior officers, sir.”
“Am I to infer that Fowler is not your correct
name?”
“With respect, Mr. Ambassador. My name is
Fowler, my rank is lieutenant commander, my
branch of the service is the United States Navy.”
“Where the hell do you think you are? Behind the
lines,
246 ROBERT LUDLUM
captured by the enemy? ‘Name, rank, and serial
number that’s all I’m required to say under the
rules of the Geneva Convention’!”
“It’s all I’m permitted to say, sir.”
“We’ll damn well find out about that,
Commander if you are a commander. Also about
this Converse, who appears to be a very odd
liar one minute the soul of propriety, the next a
very strange man on the run.”
“Please try to understand, Mr. Ambassador, our
assignment is classified. In no way does it involve
diplomacy, nor will it impair your efforts as the chief
American representative of our government. But it
is classified. I will report this conversation to my
superiors and you will undoubtedly hear from them.
Now, if you gentlemen will forgive me, I’ll be on my
way.”
“I don’t think so, Commander or whoever you
are. But if you are who you say, nothing’s
compromised. I’m not a damn fool. Nothing will be
said to anyone on the embassy staff. Mr. Dowling
insisted on that and I accepted the condition. You
and I will be locked in a communications room with
a phone on a scrambler and you’re going to place a
call to Washington. I didn’t take this job at a loss of
three-quarters of a million a year to find shoe clerks
running an investigation of my own company without
my knowing about it. If I want an outside audit, I’ll
damn well order it myself.”
“I wish I could comply, sir; it sounds like a
reasonable request. But I’m afraid I can’t.”
“I’m afraid you will!”
“Sorry.”
“Do as he says, Commander,” interjected
Dowling. “As he told you, nothing’s been said to
anyone, and nothing will be. But Converse needs
protection; he’s a wanted man in a foreign country
and he doesn’t even speak the language. Take
Ambassador Peregrine’s offer. He’ll keep his word.”
“With respect, sirs, the answer is negative.”
Connal turned away and started up the wide path.
“Major!” shouted the ambassador, his voice
furious. “Stop him! Stop that man!”
Fitzpatrick looked behind him; for reasons he
could not explain to himself he saw what he never
expected to see, and the instant he did, he knew he
should have expected it. From out of the distant
shadows of the immense, majestic building a man
rushed forward, a man who was obviously a military
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 247
aide to the ambassador a member of the embassy
staff! Connal froze, Joel’s words coming back to him.
Those men you saw at the airport, the ones from the
embassy . . . they’re on the other side.
Under almost any other circumstances,
Fitzpatrick would have remained where he was and
weathered it out. He hadn’t actually done anything
wrong; there was nothing illegal, no laws broken of
which he was cognizant, and no one could force him
to discuss personal matters where no law had been
violated. Then he realized how wrong he was! The
generals of George Marcus Delavane would force
him, could force him! He spun around and ran.
Suddenly gunfire erupted. Two earsplitting shots
above him! He dove to the ground and rolled into
the shadows of the bushes as a man’s voice roared
over the stillness of the night and the sleeping
gardens.
“You goddamned son of a bitch! What do you
think you’re doing!”
There were further shouts, a further barrage of
obscenities, and the sounds of struggle filled the
quiet enclave of the university.
“You don’t kid a man! Besides, you bastard, there
could be other people! Don’t say a word, Mr.
Ambassador!”
Connal scrambled across the graveled path and
spread apart the bordering foliage. In the clear
moonlight of the distant bench, the actor Caleb
Dowling the former marine from Kwajalein stood
over the body of the major who had run out of the
shadow, his boot on the supine man’s throat, his
hand grasping the man’s extended arm to wrench the
weapon free.
“You are one dumb son of a bitch, Major! Or,
goddamn you, maybe you’re something else!”
Fitzpatrick got to his knees, then to his feet, and,
crouching, raced into the receding darkness of the
wide path toward the exit.
13
“I didn’t have any choice!” said Connal. He had
dropped the attache case on the couch and was
sitting in an adjacent chair, leaning forward, still
shaking.
“Calm down; try to relax.” Converse walked to
the elegant antique hunt table against the wall
where there was a large silver tray with whisky, ice
and glasses. Joel had learned to make use of room
service in English. ‘ You need a drink,” he said,
pouring Fitzpatrick’s bourbon.
Do I ever! I’ve never been shot at. You have.
Christ, is that what it’s like?”
“That’s what it’s like. You can’t believe it. It’s
unreal, just mind-blowing sounds that can’t really
have anything to do with you, until until. you see
the evidence for yourself. It’s real, it’s meant for
you, and you’re sick. There’s no swelling music, no
brass horns, just vomit.” Converse brought the naval
officer his drink.
“You’re omitting something,” said Connal, taking
the glass and looking up at Joel.
“No, I’m not. Let’s think about tonight. If you
heard Dowling right, the ambassador won’t say
anything around the embassy ”
“I remember,” interrupted Fitzpatrick, taking
several swallows of the bourbon, his eyes still on
Converse. “It was in one of the other flags. During
your second escape a man got killed; it was
sundown. You reached him when it happened, and
the flag said you went crazy for a couple of minutes.
Somehow, according to this guy a sergeant, I
think you circled around in the jungle, caught the
North Vietnamese, killed him with his own knife
and got his repeating rifle. Then you blew away
three other Viets in the area.”
Joel held his place in front of the Navy lawyer.
He answered the younger man, his voice quiet, his
look angry. “I hate descriptions like that,” he said
flatly. ‘ It raises all the im
248
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 249
ages I loathe…. Let me tell you the way it was like
it was, counselor. A kid, no more than nineteen, had
to relieve himself, and although we stuck together he
had the dignity to go ten or fifteen feet away to take
care of his private functions, using leaves because
squeezable toilet paper wasn’t available. The
maniac I won’t use the word ‘soldier’ who killed
him waited for the precise moment, then fired off a
burst that cut that kid’s face apart. When I reached
him, half of that face in my hands, I heard the
cackle, the obscene laughter of an obscene man who
personified for me everything I found de-
spicable whether North Vietnamese or American.
If you want to know the truth, whatever I did I did
against both because both were guilty, all of us
turned into animals, myself included. Those other
three men, those enemies, those uniformed robots,
probably with wives and children back in villages
somewhere up north, had no idea I got behind them.
I shot them in the back, counselor. What would
Johnny Ringo say about that? Or John Wayne?”
Connal was silent as Joel walked over to the hunt
table to pour himself a whisky. The Navy lawyer
drank, then spoke. “A few hours ago you said you
knew where I was coming from because you’d been
there. Well, I haven’t been where you were, but I’m
beginning to see where you’re coming from. You
really hate everything that Aquitaine stands for, don’t
you? Especially those running it.”
Converse turned. “With everything that’s in me,”
he said. “That’s why we’ve got to talk about tonight.”
“I told you, I had no choice. You said the
embassy people I saw at the airport were with
Delavane. I couldn’t take the chance.”
“I know. Now we’re both running, hunted by our
own people and protected by the men we want to
trap. We’ve got to think, Commander.”
The telephone rang twice abrasively. Fitzpatrick
leaped from the chair, his initial reaction one of
shock. Joel watched him, calming him with his look.
“Sorry,” said Connal. “I’m still edgy. I’ll get it; I’ll be
all right.” The Navy lawyer crossed to the phone and
picked it up. ‘:7a?” He listened for several seconds,
covered the mouthpiece and looked at Converse. “It’s
the overseas operator. San Francisco. It’s Meagen.”
“Which means Remington,” saidJoel, his throat
suddenly dry, his pulse accelerating.
“Meagen? Yes, I’m here. What is it?” Fitzpatrick
stared
250 ROBERT LUDLUM
straight ahead as his sister talked; he nodded
frequently, the muscles of his jaw working as he