The laughter grew again and then rapidly began
to subside. Joel took the cue. "Sometimes I speak
too frankly, General," he said. 'I should learn better,
but, believe me, no insult was intended. I have
nothing but admiration for your stated positions,
your policies."
"And that's precisely what we shall discuss," said
Erich Leifhelm, drawing everyone's attention.
"Positions, policies, overall philosophy, if you will.
We will stay as far away from specifics as we can,
although a few will undoubtedly intrude. However,
it is our approach to the larger abstractions that
count. Come, Mr. Converse, have a chair. Let us
begin our conference, the first of many, I trust."
Rear Admiral Hickman slowly put down the
transcript on his desk, and looked aimlessly past his
propped-up feet out the window at the ocean under
a grey sky. He crossed his. arms, lowered his head
and frowned. He was as bewildered now as he had
been when he first read the transcript, as convinced
now as he was then that Remington's con-
clusions conclusion, really was off the mark. But
then the legal officer was too young to have any real
knowledge of the events as they had actually
happened; no one who had not been there could
really understand. Too many others did; it was the
reason for the flag, but it made no sense to apply
that reasoning to this Converse eighteen years later.
It was exhuming a corpse that had died from a fever,
whether the shell of a man lived on or not. It had to
be something else.
Hickman looked at his watch, unfolded his arms
and removed his feet from the edge of the table. It
was three-ten in Norfolk; he reached for the
telephone.
"Hello, Brian," said Rear Admiral Scanlon of the
Fifth Naval District. "I want you to know how much
we appreciate SAND PAC's help in this thing."
"SAND PAC's?" asked Hickman, bemused that
no credit was given to the State Department.
"All right, Admiral, your help. I owe you one, old
Hicky."
"Start paying by dropping that name."
"Hey, come on, don't you remember the hockey
games?
282 ROBERT LUDEUM
You'd come racing up the ice and the whole cadet
corps would shout: 'Here comes Hicky! Here comes
Hicky!' "
"May I unblock my ears now?"
"I'm just trying to thank you, pal."
"That s just it, I m not sure for what? Have you
read the transcript?"
"Naturally."
'What the hell s there?"
Well," answered Scanlon tentatively. PI read it
pretty quickly. It's been an awful day and, frankly,
I just passed it on. What do you think is there?
Between you and me, I'd like to know, because I
barely had time to skim through it."
What do I think is there? Absolutely nothing.
Oh, sure, we kept Hags on stuff like that back then
because the White House passed the order to put a
lid on officially recorded criticism and we all went
along. Also we were pretty sick and tired of it
ourselves. But there's nothing in that transcript that
hasn't been heard before, or that has any value for
anyone but military historians a hundred years from
now as a very small footnote."
Swell," said Scanlon, even more tentatively, ' this
Converse had some pretty harsh things to say about
Command-Saigon."
About Mad Marcus? Christ, I said worse during
the Force-Tonkin conferences and my CO did me
ten times better. We ferried in those kids up and
down the coast when all they were ready for was a
day at the beach with hot dogs and Ferris wheels....
I don't get it. You and my legal zero in on the same
thing, and I think it's old hat and discredited. Mad
Marcus is a relic."
Your who?"
My legal exec. I told you about him, Remington."
Oh, yes. The stickler prick."
.He picked up on the Saigon thing too. 'That's
it,' he said. It's in those remarks. It's Delavane.' He
wasn't around to know Delavane was fair game for
every antiwar group in the country. Hell, we gave
him the name Mad Marcus. No, it's not Delavane,
it's something else. Perhaps it's in those escapes,
specifically Converse's last escape. Maybe there's
some MIA input we don't know about."
`Well," repeated the admiral in Norfolk for the
third time, but now far less tentatively. You may
have something there, but it doesn't concern us.
Look, I'll be honest with you.
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 283
I didn't want to say anything because I didn t want
you to think you went to a lot of trouble for nothing,
but the word I get is that the whole thing is a
bust-negative."
"Oh?" said Hickman, suddenly listening very
carefully. "How so?"
'lt's the wrong man. Apparently an
overenthusiastic JG was doing some digging in the
same time period, the same general circumstances.
He saw the flag and drew six wrong conclusions. I
hope he enjoys taking five A.M. muster."
"And that's it?" asked SAND PAC's admiral,
controlling his astonishment.
"That's the feedback we get here. Whatever your
CLO had in mind hasn't anything to do with our
people."
Hickman could not believe what he was hearing.
Of course Scanlon had not mentioned the State
Department's efforts. He knew nothing about them!
He was quickly putting as much distance between
himself and the Converse flag as he could, Iying
because he had not been told. State was working
quietly probably through Cons Op and Scanlon
had no reason to think "old Hicky" knew a damn
thing about Bonn or Converse or Connal
Fitzpatrick's whereabouts. Or about a man named
Preston Halliday who had been murdered in Geneva.
What was happening? He would not find out from
Scanlon. Nor did he care to.
"To hell with it, then. My CLO will be back in
three or four days and maybe I'll learn something."
"Whatever it is, it's back in your sandbox,
Aclmiral. My people had the wrong man."
"Your people couldn't navigate a row boat in the
D.C. Reflecting Pool."
"Can't blame you for that, Hicky."
Hickman hung up the phone and resumed his
standard position when in thought, gazing beyond his
propped-up shoes at the ocean. The sun was trying to
break through the overcast without much success.
He had never liked Scanlon for reasons too petty
to examine. Except one; he knew Scanlon was a liar.
What he had not known was that he was such a
stupid liar.
Lieutenant David Remington was flattered by the
call. The well-known four-striper had invited him to
lunch not only invited him but had apologized for
the lateness of the invitation and told him that it was
perfectly understandable
284 ROBERT LUDIUM
if it was inconvenient. Further, the captain wanted
him to know that the call was of a personal nature,
having nothing to do with naval business. The
high-ranking officer, a resident of La Jolla, was in
port for only a few days and needed legal advice.
He had been told that Lieutenant Remington was
just about the best lawyer in the United States
Navy. Would the lieutenant accept?
Of course Remington had made it perfectly
clear that whatever advice he might offer would be
offered on the basis of amicus-amicae; no
remuneration could possibly be considered, as that
would be a violation of Statute . . .
'May I buy you lunch, Lieutenant, or do we have
to split the check?" the four-striper had
asked somewhat impatiently, thought Remington.
The restaurant was high in the hills above La
Jolla, an out-of-the-way roadside inn that apparently
catered to diners of the area and those from San
Diego and University City who did not care to be
seen together in the usual places. Remington had
not been too pleased; he would have preferred
being seen at the Coronado with the captain than
traveling ten miles north so as no! to be seen in the
hills of La Jolla. Nevertheless, the four-striper had
been politely adamant) it was where he wanted to
meet. David had checked him out. The much
decorated captain not only was in line for
promotion but was considered a potential candidate
for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Remington would have
ridden a bicycle on the exposed Alaskan pipeline to
keep the appointment.
Which was exactly what he thought he was
doing, as he spun the steering wheel right, then left,
then right and right again as he made his way up
the steep narrow roads. It was important to keep in
mind, he thought, as he whipped the car to the left,
that personal advice was nevertheless professional
advice, and without payment of any sort whatsoever,
it constituted a debt that would one day be
acknowledged. And if a man was elevated to the
Joint Chiefs . . . Remington could not help it: in a
glow of self-importance he had let drop to a fellow
legal officer the one who had coined the name
"stickler prick" that he was lunching with a highly
regarded four-striper in La Jolla and might be late
returning to the office. Then to drive his point
home, he had asked his associate for directions.
Oh, my Godl What was it? Oh, my God ~
At the apex of the hairpin curve was an enormous
black
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 285
rig, thirty feet in length, and out of control. It
weaved right and left on the narrow incline, its speed
gathering with every foot, measured in racing yards,
a black behemoth swerving, crashing down on
everything in front of it, a wild beast gone mad!
Remington whipped his head to his right as he
spun the wheel to avoid impact. There were only thin
trunks of young trees and saplings in late-summer
bloom; below was a floral abyss. These were the last
images he saw as the car careened on its side and
began the plunge.
Far above on another hill a man kneeled,
binoculars raised to his face as the explosion below
confirmed the kill. His expression was one of neither
joy nor sadness, merely acceptance. A mission had
been accomplished. After all, it was war.
And Lieutenant David Remington, whose life was
so ordered and orderly, who knew exactly where he
was going and how in this world, who knew above all
that he would never be trapped by the forces that
had killed his father in the name of corporate policy,
was put to death by the policy of a company he had
never heard of. An enterprise called Aquitaine. He
had seen the name Delavane.
Their view is that it's the pro per evolution of
current history, all other ideologies having failed.... The
words spoken by Preston Halliday in Geneva kept
repeating themselves in Converse's inner ear as he
listened to the four voices of Aquitaine. The
frightening thing was that they believed what they
said without equivocation, morally and intellectually,
their convictions rooted in observations going back
decades, their arguments persuasive as they
illuminated past global mistakes of judgment that
resulted in horrible suffering and unnecessary loss of
life.
The simple objective of their coming
together allies and former enemies alike was to
bring benevolent order to a world in chaos, to permit
the industrial states to flourish for the good of all
people, spreading the strengths and benefits of
multinational trade to the impoverished,
uncommitted Third World and, by so doing, secure
its commitment. Only in this way, in this coming
together, could Communism be stopped stopped
and reversed until it collapsed under the sheer force
of superior armed might and financial resources.
To bring all this about required a shift in values and
prior
286 ROBERT WDLUM
ities.Industrial decisions everywhere must be
coordinated to bring about the total strength of the
free states. Government treasuries, multinational
corporations and giant conglomerates must look to
a stratum of interlocking committees, agree to be
directed by these committees, to accept their deci-
sions which would in effect be their respective
governments' decisions each keeping the others
apprised of its current agenda. What was this
ultimate stratum of negotiators? Who would be the
members of these committees that would in effect
speak for the free nations and set their policiesP
Throughout history only one class of people
remained constant in its excellence, who when
called upon in Ames of crisis performed far beyond
human expectations even in defeat. The reasons for
this segment's unique contributions in war and
even in peace, though to a lesser degree were his-
torically clear: these men were selfless.. They
belonged to a class trained to serve without thought
of reward except for the recognition of excellence.
Wealth was irrelevant because their needs were
furnished and perquisites granted only through the
outstanding performance of duty.
In the new order this class of people would not
be subject to the corruptions of the marketplace. In
reality it was unusually well equipped to deal with
such corruptions, for it could not be touched by
them. The mere presence of any illegally gained
wealth within its ranks would instantly be recognised
and condemned, resulting in courts-martial. This
class of society, this novel branch of the human
race, was not only incorrupUble at the high
est
levels, it would be the ultimate savior of mankind as
we know it today.
It was the military. The world over, even
encompassing one's enemies. Together even as
enemies they best understood the catastrophic
results of weakness.
To be sure, certain minor liberties would
perforce have to be withheld from the body politic,
but these were small sacrifices for survival. Who
could argue?
None of the four spokesmen for Aquitaine
raised his voice. They were the quiet prophets of
reason, each with his own history, his own identity
allies and enemies together in a world gone mad.
Converse responded in the affirmative to
everything that was said this was not difficult to
do and asked abstract quesbons of philosophy, as
he was expected to do. Even the court
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 287
jester, Chaim Abrahms, became deeply serious and
answered Converses questions quietly
At one point Abrahms said, "You think we Jews
are the only ones in the Diaspora, my friend? You
are wrong. The whole human race is dispersed
everywhere, all of us locking rams' horns and not
knowing where to go. Certain rabbis claim we Jews
shall not see salvation until the Messianic era, the
time of divine redemption when a god will appear to
show us the way to our own promised land. He was
far too late arriving we could not wait for Him any
longer. We created Israel. Do you see the lesson?
We we here are now the divine intervention on
earth. And I even I, a man of accomplishment and
ego will give up my life in silence so we may
Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt Page 44