current to pull it all away. Joel grabbed the handle
of the chauffeur’s gun, not to pull it out but to
secure it as he limped down the bank to look for the
quickest way into the water.
He heard nothing until the instant when a
massive roar came out of the shadows and the huge
body of an animal flew through the air over the
riverbank directly at him. The monstrous face of the
dog was contorted with fury, the eyes on fire, the
enormous jaw widest all teeth and a gaping, shining
black mouth. Converse fell to his knees as the
Doberman whipped past his right shoulder, ripping
his shirt with its upper eye teeth and flipping over on
its back in the mud. The
324 ROBERT LUDLUM
momentary defeat was more than the animal could
stand. It writhed furiously, rolling over, snarling,
then rising on its hind legs, lunged up from the mud
for Joel’s groin.
The gun was in his hand. Converse fired,
blowing off the top of the attack dog’s head; blood
and tissue sprayed the shadows, and the slack,
shining jaws fell into his crotch.
The rest of the pack was now racing toward the
bank, accompanied by ear-shattering crescendos of
animal cries. Joel threw himself into the water and
swam as rapidly as he could away from the
shoreline; the weapon was an impediment but he
knew he could not let it go.
Years ago centuries ago he had desperately
needed a weapon, knowing it could be the difference
between survival and death, and forgive days none
could be had. But on that fifth day he had found one
on the banks of the Huong Khe. He had }boated half
underwater past a squad on patrol, and found the
point ten minutes later downriver too far from the
scout’s unit to be logical a man perha ps thinking
angry thoughts that made him walk faster, or bored
with his job and wanting a few moments to be by
himself and out of it all. Whichever, it made no
difference to that soldier. Converse had killed him with
a rock from the river and had taken his gun. He had
fired that gun twice, twice saving his life before he
reached an advance unit south of Phu Loc.
As he pushed against the shoreline currents of
the Rhine, Joel suddenly remembered. This was the
fifth day of his imprisonment in Leifhelm’s
compound no jungle cell, to be sure, but no less a
prison camp. He had done it! And on the fifth day
a weapon was his! There were omens wherever one
wished to find them; he did not believe in omens,
but for the moment he accepted the possibility.
He was in the shadows of the river now, the
surrounding mountains blocking the dying sun. He
paddled in place and turned. Back on shore, at the
cavity in the bank that had been his plank to the
water, the dogs were circling in confused anger,
snarling, yelping, as several ventured down to sniff
their slain leader, each urinating as it did
so territory and status were being established. The
beams of powerful flashlights suddenly broke
through the trees. Converse swam farther out; he
had survived searchlights in the Mekong. He had no
fear of them now; he had been there here and he
knew when he had won.
He let the outer currents carry him east along the
river.
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 325
Somewhere there would be other lights, lights that
would lead him to shelter and a telephone. He had to
get everything in place and build his brief quickly, but
he could do it. Yet the attorney in him told him that
a man with a bandaged gunshot wound in soaked
clothing and speaking a foreign language in the
streets was no match for the disciples of George
Marcus Delavane; they would find him. So it would
have to be done another way with whatever artifices
he could muster. He had to get to a telephone. He
had to place an overseas call. He could do it; he
would do it! The Huong Khe faded; the Rhine was
now his lifeline.
Swimming breaststroke, the gun still gripped in
his hand, his arm smarting in the water, he saw the
lights of a village in the distance.
18
Valerie frowned as she listened on the phone in
her studio, the spiraling cord outstretched as she
reached over and placed a brush in the track of her
easel. Her eyes scanned the sunlit dunes outside the
glass doors, but her mind was on the words she was
hearing, words that implied things without saying
them. ‘Larry, what’s wrong with you?” she interrupted,
unable to hold herself in check any longer. “Joel’s not
just an employee or a junior partner, he’s your friend
! You sound like you’re trying to build a case against
him. What’s that term you all use? . . .
Circumstantial, that’s it. He was here, he was there;
someone said this and somebody else said that.”
“I’m trying to understand, Val,” protested Talbot,
who had called from his office in New York. “You’ve
got to try to understand too. There’s a great deal I
can’t tell you because I’ve been instructed by people
whose offices I have to respect to say very little or
preferably nothing at all. I’m bending those
instructions because Joel is my friend and I want to
help.”
“All right, let’s go back,” said Valerie. “What
exactly were you leading up to?”
326 ROBERT IUDLUM
‘I know it’s none of my damned business and I
wouldn’t ask it if I didn’t think I had to ‘
“111 accept that,” agreed Val. “Now, what is it?”
“Well, I know you and Joel had your problems,”
continued the senior partner of Talbot, Brooks and
Simon, as though he were referring to an
inconsequential spat between children. “But there
are problems and there are problems.”
“Larry,” interrupted Val again. “There were
problems. We’re divorced. That means the problems
were serious.’
“Was physical abuse one of them?” asked Talbot
quickly in a low voice, the words obviously
repugnant to him.
Valerie was stunned; it was a question she
would never have expected. “What?”
You know what I mean. In fits of anger did he
strike you? Cause you bodily harm?”
‘You’re not in a courtroom, and the answer is
no, of course not. I might have welcomed it at
least the anger.’
1 beg your pardon?”
“Nothing,’ said Valerie, recovering from her
astonishment. ‘ 1 don’t know what prompted you to
ask, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Joel
had far more effective ways to deflate my ego than
hitting me. Among them, dear Larry was his
dedication to the career of one Joel Converse in
Talbot, Brooks and Simon.”
“I’m aware of that, my dear, and I’m sorry.
Those complaints are perennial in the divorce
courts and I’m not sure there’s anything we can do
about them not in this day and age, perhaps not
ever. But that’s different. I’m talking about his black
moods we knew he had them.”
“Do you know any rational person who doesn’t?”
asked the former Mrs. Converse. “This isn’t really
the best of all possible worlds, is it?”
“No, it isn’t. But then Joel lived through a
period of time in a far worse world than most of us
will ever know or could imagine. I can’t believe he
emerged from it without a scar or two ”
Valerie paused, touched by the older man’s
unadorned directness; it had its basis in concern.
“You’re sweet Larry and I suspect you’re right in
fact, I know it. So I think you should tell me more
than you have. The term physical abuse is what you
lawyers call a leading something-or-other. It s not
fair because it could also be misleading. Come on,
Larry, be fair. He’s not my husband anymore, but
we didn t break apart
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 327
because he chased girls or bashed my head in. I may
not want to be married to him but I respect him.
He’s got his problems and l ve got mine, and now
you’re implying his are a lot bigger. What’s
happened?”
Talbot was silent for a moment, then blurted out
the words, again quickly, quietly; once more they
were obviously repugnant to him. ‘ They say he
assaulted a man in Paris without provocation. The
man died.”
“No, that’s impossible! He didn’t, he couldn’t!”
“That’s what he told me, but he lied. He told me
he was in Amsterdam, but he wasn’t. He said he was
going back to Paris to clear things up, but he didn’t
go. He was in Cermany he’s still somewhere in
Germany. He hasn’t left the country and Interpol
has a warrant for him; they’re searching everywhere.
Word reached him to turn himself in to the
American embassy but he refused. He’s
disappeared.”
“Oh, my God, you’re all so wrong!” exploded