Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt

by The Aquitaine Progression [lit]

  amused peering out from behind the creases. "I

  thought as much. I said to that bastard if I

  remembered anything else, I'd phone Walter

  what's-his-name except I called him Walt and let

  him know."

  "I don't understand."

  "He's the ambassador here in Bonn. Can you

  imagine with all the troubles they've got over here,

  that diplomatic yo-yo had a luncheon for me, a

  lousy television actor? WeD the suggestion that I

  might call the ambassador made our preppie more

  upset than anything else; he didn't expect it. He

  said three times, as I recall that the ambassador

  wasn't to be bothered with this problem. It wasn't

  that important and he had enough on his mind, and

  actually he wasn't even aware of it. And catch this,

  Mr. Lawyer. He said you were an in-house, State

  Department 'query,' as if a simpleminded actor

  couldn't possibly understand bureaucratic jingoism.

  I think that's when I said 'BuDshit.'"

  ' Thank you," said Converse, not knowing what

  else to say, but knowing what he wanted to find out.

  "That's also when I figured my instincts weren't

  so bad." Dowling looked at his watch, then hard at

  Converse, his eyes now penetrating. "I was a gyrene,

  but I'm no fiag-waver, good buddy. However, I like

  the flag. I wouldn't live under any other."

  "Neither would 1."

  "Then you make it plain. Are you working for it?"

  "Yes, the only way I know how, and that's ad I can

  ted

  you."

  "Are you looking into something here in Bonn?

  Is that why you didn't want to be seen with me?

  Why you stayed away from me in Hamburg and

  even getting off the plane here?

  "Yes."

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 157

  "And that son of a bitch didn't want me to call

  the ambassador."

  ' No, he didn't. He doesn't. He can't afford it.

  And, please, I ask you not to."

  "Are you Oh, Christ! Are you one of those

  undercover people I read about? I walk into a guy

  on a plane who can't be seen when he gets to an

  airport."

  "It's not that melodramatic. I m a lawyer and

  simply following up on some alleged irregularities.

  Please accept that And I appreciate what you did for

  me. I'm kind of new at this

  "You're cool, good buddy. Man, are you cool."

  Dowling turned and walked to the door. He stopped

  and looked back at Converse. "Maybe I'm crazy," he

  said. "At my age it's allowed, but there's a streak in

  you, young fella. Part go-ahead part

  stay-where-you-are. I saw it when I talked about my

  wife. Are you married?"

  "I was."

  "Who isn't? Was married, that is. Sorry."

  "I'm not. We're not."

  "Who is? Sorry, again. My instincts were right.

  You're okay." Dowling reached for the knob.

  "Cal?"

  "Yes?"

  "I have to know. It's terribly important. Who was

  the man from the embassy? He must have identified

  himself."

  "He did, ' said the actor. "He pushed an ID in

  front of my face when I opened the door, but I

  didn't have my glasses on. But when he was leaving

  I made it clear I wanted to know who the hell he

  was."

  "Who was he?"

  "He said his name was Fowler. Avery Fowler."

  "Wait!"

  "What?"

  "What did you say?" Converse reeled under the

  impact

  158 ROBERT LUDI.UM

  of the name. He physically had to steady himself,

  grabbing the nearest solid object, a bedpost, to keep

  from buckling.

  "What's the matter, Joe? What's wrong with you?"

  "That name! Is this some kind of joke a bad

  joke a bad line! Were you put on that plane? Did

  I walk into you? Are you part of it, Mr. .4ctor?

  You're damned good at what you do!

  "You're either juiced or sick. What are you

  talking about?"

  ' This room, your note! Everything! That name!

  Is this whole goddamned night a setup?'

  "It's morning, young man, and if you don't like

  this room you can stay wherever you like as far as

  I'm concerned."

  "Wherever . . . 4" Joel tried to evade the

  blinding flashes of light from the Quai du Mont

  Blanc and clear the searing blockage in his throat.

  "No . . . I came here," he said hoarsely. "There's no

  way you could have known I'd do that. In Copen-

  hagen, on the plane . . . I got the last ticket in first

  class, the seat next to me had been sold, an aisle

  seat."

  "That's where I always sit. On the aisle."

  "Oh, Jesus!"

  "Now you're rambling.'' Dowling glanced at the

  empty glass on the bedside table, then over at the

  bureau top where there was a silver tray and a

  bottle of Scotch whisky provided by an

  accommodating desk clerk. "How much sauce have

  you had?"

  Converse shook his head. "I'm not drunk.... I'm

  sorry. Christ, I'm sorry) You had nothing to do with

  it. They're using you trying to use you to find me!

  You saved my . . . my job . . . and I went after you.

  Forgive me."

  "And you don't look like someone who's that

  worried about a job,' said the actor, his scowl more

  one of concern than anger.

  "It's not the employment, it's . . . pulling it off.

  Joel silently took a deep breath to control himself,

  postponing the moment when he would have to

  confront the awesome implicabons of what he had

  just heard. Avery Fowler! "I want to succeed in what

  I'm doing; I want to win," he added limply, hoping

  to conceal the slip he saw Dowling had spotted. "All

  lawyers want to win."

  'Sure. '

  "I am sorry, Cal."

  "Forget it," said the actor, his voice casual, his look

  not

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 159

  casual at all. "Where I'm at these days screeching's

  an hourly occurrence only, they don't say anything.

  I think you just did."

  "No, I overreacted, that's all. I told you I was

  new at this. Not the law, just this . . . not talking

  directly, I guess says it."

  "Does it?"

  "Yes. Please believe that."

  "All right, if you want me to." Dowling again

  looked at his watch. "I've got to go, but there's

  something else that might be helpful in saving

  that" the actor paused convincingly "job of yours.

  '

  "What is it?" asked Converse tightly, trying not to

  leap at the question.

  "As this Fowler was leaving I had a couple of

  thoughts. One was that I'd been pretty hard on a

  fellow who was simply doing his job, and the other

  was just plain selfish. I hadn't cooperated, and that

  could come back and snap me in the ass. Of course

  if you never showed up here, I'd get my note back

  and it wouldn't matter. But if you did, and you wore

  a black hat, my tail could be in a bucket
of boiling

  lead."

  "That should have been your first concern," said

  Joel truthfully.

  "Maybe it was, I don't know. At any rate, I told

  him that in the course of our conversation I asked

  you for drinks, to come out on location if you

  wanted to. He seemed puzzled at the last part, but

  he understood the first. I asked whether I should call

  him at the embassy if you took me up on either

  invitation, and he said no, I shouldn't do that."

  "What9"

  "In short words, he made it very plain that my

  calling him would only louse up this 'in-house query.'

  He told me to wait for his call. He'd phone me

  around noon."

  "But you're filming. You're on location."

  "That's the beauty part, but the hell with it.

  There are mobile telephone hookups; the studios

  insist on them these days. It's another kind of

  screeching called budgetary controls. We get our

  calls."

  "You're losing me."

  "Then find me. When he calls me, I'll call you.

  Should I tell him you reached me?"

  Surprised, Converse stared at the aging actor, the

  risk-taker. "You're way ahead of me, aren't you?"

  "You're pretty obvious. So was he, when I put it

  togeth

  160 ROBERT LUDLUM

  er which I just did. This Fowler wants to reach

  you, but he wants to do it solo, away from those

  people you don't want to meet. You see, when he

  was at the door and we had our last words, I was

  bothered by something. He couldn't sustain the

  role any more than you did on the plane but I

  couldn't be certain. He kind of fell apart on his exit,

  and that you never do even if you've got to hold in

  a sudden attack of diarrhea. . . . What do I tell him,

  Joe?"

  "set his telephone number, I guess.',

  "Done. You get some sleep. You look like a

  coked-up starlet who's just been told she's going to

  play Medea."

  "I'll try."

  Dowling reached into his pocket and took out a

  scrap of paper. "Here," he said approaching

  Converse and handing it to him. "I wasn't sure I was

  going to give this to you, but I damn well want you

  to have it now. It's the mobile number where you

  can reach me. Call me after you've talked to this

  Fowler. I'm going to be a nervous wreck until I hear

  from

  you."

  "I give you my word.... Cal, what did you mean

  when you mentioned 'the beauty part' and

  forgetting about it?"

  The actor's head shifted back in perfect

  precision, at just the right angle for anyone in the

  audience. "The son of a bitch asked me what I did

  for a living.... As they say in the Polo Lounge, Ciao,

  baby."

  Converse sat on the edge of the bed, his head

  pounding, his body tense. Avery Fowler! Jesus!

  Avery Preston Fowler Halliday! Press Fowler . . .

  Press Halliday! The names bombarded him, piercing

  his temples and bouncing off the walls of his mind,

  screaming echoes everywhere. He could not control

  the assault; he began to sway back and forth, his

  arms supporting him, a strange rhythm emerging,

  the beat accompanying the name names of the

  man who had died in his arms in Geneva. A man he

  had known as a boy, the adult a stranger who had

  manipulated him into the world of George Marcus

  Delavane and a spreading disease called Aquitaine.

  This Fowler wants to reach you, but he wants to

  do it solo, awayfrom those people you don 't want to

  meet.... The judgment of a risk-taker.

  Converse stopped rocking, his eyes on the

  Leifhelm dossier on the floor. He had assumed the

  worst because it was beyond his comprehension, but

  there was an alternative, an out

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 161

  side possibility, perhaps under the circumstances

  even a probability. The geometries were there; he

  could not trace them but they were there! The name

  Avery Fowler meant nothing to anyone but him at

  least not in Bonn, not as it pertained to a murder in

  Geneva. Was Dowling right? Joel had asked the

  actor to get the man's telephone number, but with-

  out conviction. The image of a dark-red limousine

  driving through the embassy's gates would not leave

  him. That was the connection that had enveloped the

  shock of Avery Fowler's name. The man using it was

  from the embassy, and at least part of the embassy

  was part of Aquitaine, therefore the impostor was

  part of the trap. That was the logic; it was simple

  arithmetic . . . but it was not geometry. Suppose

  there was a break in the line, an insertion from

  another plane that voided the arithmetic

  progression? If there was, it was in the form of an

  explanation he could not possibly perceive unless it

  was given to him.

  The shock was receding; he was finding his

  equilibrium again. As he had done so many times in

  courtrooms and boardrooms, he began to accept the

  totally unexpected, knowing he could do trothing

  about it until something else happened, something

  over which he had no control. The most difficult

  part of the process was forcing himself to function

  until it did happen, whatever it was. Conjecture was

  futile; all the probabilibes were beyond his

  understanding.

  He reached down for the LeifLelm dossier.

  Erich Leifhelm's years with the Bundesgren-

  zschutz were unique and require a word about the

  organizahon itself. In the aftermath of all wars, a

  subjugated national police force is required in an

  occupied country for reasons ranging from the

  simple language problem to the occupying power's

  need to understand local customs and traditions.

  There must be a buffer between the occupation

  troops and a vanquished people so as to maintain

  order. There is also a side issue rarely elaborated

  upon or analyzed in the history books, but no less

  important for that lack. Defeated armies can skill

  possess talent, and unless that talent is utilized the

  humiliation of defeat can ferment, at minimum

  distilling itself into hostilities that are

  counterproduchve to a stabilised political climate, or,

  at maximum, turning into internal subver

  162 ROBERT LUDLUM

  sionthat can lead to violence and bloodshed at

  the expense of the victors and whatever new

  government that is being formed. To put it

  bluntly, the Allied General Staff recognized that

  it had on its hands another brilliant and

  popular military man who would not suffer the

  anonymity of early retirement or a corporate

  boardroom. The Bundesgrenzschutz literally,

  federal border police like all police

  organisations, was and is a paramilitary force,

  and as such the logical repository for men like

  Erich Leifhelm They were the leaders; better to

  use th
em than be abused by them. And as

  always among leaders, there are those few who

  surge forward, leading the pack. During these

  years foremost among those few was Erich

  Leifhelm.

  His early work with the Grenzschutz was

  that of a military consultant during the massive

  German demobilisation, then afterward the

  chief liaison between the police garrisons and

  the Allied occupation forces. Following

  demobilisation, his duties were mainly

  concentrated in the trouble spots of Vienna and

  Berlin where he was in constant touch with the

  commanders of the American, British and

  French sectors. His zealous anti-Soviet feelings

  were rapidly made known by Leifhelm

  throughout the command centers and duly

  noted by the senior officers.. More and more he

  was taken into their confidence until as it had

  happened before with the Prussians he was

  literally considered one of them.

  It was in Berlin where Leifhelm first came

  in contact with General Jacques-Louis

  Bertholdier. A strong friendship developed, but

  it was not an association either one cared to

  parade because of the age-old animosities

  between the German and French militaries. We

  were able to trace only three former officers

  from Bertholdier's command post who

  remembered or would speak of seeing the

  two men frequently at dinner together in

  out-of-the-way restaurants and cafes, deep in

  conversation, obviously comfortable with each