Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt

by The Aquitaine Progression [lit]

  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

  Valerie. "You don't know him! If what you say

  happened, he was at-tacked first physically

  attacked and had no choice but to hit back!"

  "Not according to an impartial witness who didn't

  know either man."

  "Then he's not impartial, he's Iying! Listen to me.

  I lived with that man for four years and, except for

  a few trips, all of them in New York City. I've seen

  him accosted by drunks and street garbage punks

  he could have pushed through the pavements, and

  perhaps some of them he should have but I never

  saw him so much as take a step forward. He'd simply

  raise the palms of his hands and walk away. A few

  times some damn fools would call him names and

  he'd just stand there and look at them. And let me

  tell you, Larry, that look was enough to make you

  feel cold all over. But that's all he'd do, never

  anything more."

  "Val, I want to believe you. I want to believe it

  was self-defence, but he ran away, he's disappeared.

  The embassy can help him, protect him, but he won't

  come in."

  "Then he's frightened. That can happen, but it

  was always for only a few minutes, usually at night

  when he'd wake up. He'd bolt up, his eyes shut so

  tight his whole face was a mass of wrinkles. It never

  lasted long, and he said it was perfectly natural and

  not to worry about it he didn't, he said. And I

  don't think he really did; he wanted all that in the

  past, none of it was ever mentioned."

  328 ROBERT LUDIUM

  "Perhaps it should have been," said Talbot softly.

  Valerie replied with equal softness, "douche.

  Larry. Don't think I haven't thought about that

  these last couple of years. But whatever's happened

  he's acting this way only because he's afraid you

  know it's quite possible he's been hurt. Or, oh my

  CrJd "

  "All the hospitals and registered doctors have

  been checked," Talbot broke in.

  'Well, damn it, there's got to be a reason! This
>
  isn't like him and you know it!"

  "That's just it, Val. Nothing he's done is like the

  man I know. '

  The ex-Mrs. Converse stiffened. "To use one of

  Joel's favorite expressions," she said apprehensively,

  "clarification please?"

  ''Why not?" answered Talbot, the question was

  directed as much at himself as her. "Perhaps you can

  shed some light; nobody else can."

  "What about this man in Paris, the one who died?"

  "There's not much to tell; apparently he was a

  chauffeur for one of those limousine services.

  According to the witness a basement guard in the

  hotel, Joel approached him, yelled something at him

  and pushed him out the door. There were sounds of

  a scuffle and a few minutes later the man was found

  severely beaten in an alley."

  'It's ridiculous! What did Joel say?"

  "That he walked out the door, saw two men

  fighting and ran to tell the doorman on the way to

  his taxi."

  "That's what he'd have done," said Val firmly.

  "The doorman at the George Cinq says it didn't

  happen. The police say follicles of hair found on the

  beaten man matched those in Joel's shower."

  "Utterly unbelievable!''

  "Let's say there was provocation we don't know

  about," Talhot went on rapidly. "It doesn't explain

  what happened later, but before I tell.you, I want to

  ask you another question. You'll understand."

  "I don't understand a single thing! What is its"

  "During those periods of depression, his dark

  moods, did Joel ever fantasise? I mean, did he

  indulge in what psychiatrists call role-playing?"

  "You mean did he assume other personalities,

  other kinds of behavior?"

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 329

  Exactly."

  'Absolutely not."

  ' Oh."

  "Oh, what? Let's have it, Larry."

  "Talking about what's believable and what isn t,

  you're in for a jolt, my dear. According to those

  people who don't want me to say very much and

  you'll have to take my word they know Joel flew

  into Germany claiming he was involved in an

  undercover investigation of the embassy in Bonn."

  "Perhaps he wasl He was on a leave of absence

  from T. B. and S., wasn't he?"

  "On an unrelated matter in the private sector,

  that much we know. There is no

  investigation undercover or otherwise of the

  embassy in Bonn. Frankly, the people who reached

  me were from the State Department."

  "Oh, my God . . . " Valerie fell silent, but before

  the lawyer could speak, she whispered, "Geneva. That

  horrible business in Genevat"

  "If there's a connection and both Nathan and I

  considered it first it's so buried it can't be

  followed."

  "It's there. It's where it all started."

  "Assuming your husband's rational."

  "He's not my husband and he is rational!"

  "The scars, Val. There had to be scars. You

  agreed with me."

  'Not the kind you're talking about. Not killing,

  and Iying and running away That's not Joel! That

  isn't wasn't my husband!"

  "The mind is a highly complex and delicate

  instrument. The stresses of the past can leap forward

  from years ago "

  "Get off it, Larry!" shouted Valerie. "Save it for

  a jury, but don't pin that nonsense on Converse!"

  "You're upset."

  "You're damned right I am! Because you're

  looking for explanations that don't fit the man! They

  fit what you've been told. By those people you say

  you have to respect."

  "Only in the sense that they're

  knowledgeable they have access to information we

  don't have. Then there's the overriding fact that they

  hadn't the faintest idea who Joel Converse was until

  the American Bar Association gave them the address

  and telephone number of Talbot, Brooks and Simon.

  "And you believed them? With everything you know

  330 ROBERT LUDLUM

  about Washington you simply accepted their word?

  How many fumes did Joel come back from a trip to

  Washington and say the same thing to me? 'Larry

  says they're Iying. They don't know what to do, so

  they're Iying.' '

  'Valerie," said the attorney sternly. "This isn't a

  case of bureaucratic clearance, and after all these

  years I think I can tell the difference between

  someone playing games and a man who's genuinely

  angry angry and frightened, I should add. The man

  who reached me was an Undersecretary of State,

  Brewster Tolland I had a call-back

  confirmation and he wasn't putting on an act. He

  was appalled, furious, and, as I say, a very worried

  man."

  "What did you tell him?"

  "The truth, of course. Not only because it was

  the right thing to do, but it wouldn't help Joel to do

  anything else. If he's ill he needs help, not

  complicity."

  "And you deal with Washington every week."

  "Several times a week, and of course it was a

  consideration."

  "I'm sorry, Larry, that was unfair."

  "But realistic, and I meant what I said. It

  wouldn't help Joel to lie for him. You see, I really

  believe something's happened. He's not himself."

  "Wait a minute," cried Valerie, the obvious

  striking her. "Maybe it's not Joel!"

  "It's him," said Talbot simply.

  "Why? Just because people you don't know in

  Washington say it is?"

  "No, Val," replied the lawyer. "Because I spoke

  with Rene in Paris before Washington entered the

  picture."

  '`Maffilon?~,

  "Joel went to Paris to ask for Rene's help. He

  lied to him just as he lied to me, but it was more

  than the lies Mattilon and I agreed on that. It was

  something he saw in Joel's eyes something I heard

  in his voice. An unhinging, a form of desperation;

  Rene saw it and I heard it. He tried to conceal it

  from both of us but he couldn't. When I last spoke

  to him, he hung up before we'd finished talking, in

  the middle of the sentence, his voice echoing like a

  zombie's."

  Valerie stared at the harsh, dancing reflections

  of sunlight off the waters of Cape Ann. "Rene

  agreed with you?' she asked, barely above a whisper.

  "Everything I've just told you we said to each other."

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 331

  ' Larry, I'm frightened.'

  ChaimAbrahms walked into the room, his heavy

  boots pounding the floor. 'So he did it!' shouted the

  Israeli. 'The Mossad was right, he s a hellhound!"

  Erich Leifhelm sat behind his desk, the only

  other person in the book-lined study. "Patrols,

  alarms, dogs!' cried the German, slamming his frail

  hand on the red blotter. "How did he do it?"

  "I repeat a hellhound that's what our specialist

  called him. The longer he's restricted, the angrier he

  gets. It goes back a long time. So our provocateur

>   starts his odyssey before we planned. Have you been'

  in touch with the others?"

  "I've called London," said Leifhelm, breathing

  deeply. "He'll reach Paris, and Bertholdier will have

  the units flown up from Marseilles, one to Brussels,

  the other here to Bonn. We can't waste an hour."

  "You're looking for him now, of course.

  "Naturlich! Every inch of the shoreline for miles

  in both directions. Every back road and path that

  leads up from the river and into the city.'

  "He can elude you, he's proven it.

  "Where can he go, sabre? To his own embassy?

  There he's a dead man. To the Bonn police or the

  Staatspolizei? He ll be put in an armored van and

  brought back here. He goes nowhere."

  "I heard that when he left Paris, and I heard it

  again when he flew into Bonn. Errors were made in

  both places both costing a great many hours. I tell

  you I'm more concerned now than at any moment in

  three wars and a lifetime of skirmishes."

  "Be reasonable, Chaim, and try to be calm. He

  has no clothes but what he wears in the river and

  the mud, he possesses no identification, no passport,

  no money. He doesn't speak the language "

  "He has money!" yelled Abrahms, suddenly

  remembering. "When he was under the needle, he