Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt
Page 56
and do what you like, but first you come with me!
You're going to read me every goddamned word!"
"Da ist er! Der Affentater!" shrieked the young
German, reaching out, clutching the trousers of a
man in the crowd who cursed and swung his arm
down on the offending hand.
Joel wrenched the student's neck to his left, and
shouted into his ear, his words stunning himself as
much as they did the young man. "You want it this
way, you can have it! I've got a gun in my pocket and
if I have to use it I will! Two decent men have been
killed already now three why should you be the
exception? Because you're young? That's no reason!
When you come right down to it, who the hell are we
dying for?"
Converse yanked the youth back and forth,
dragging him out of the crowd. Once on the clear
pavement he released his armlock, replacing it with a
strong grip on the back of Johann's neck. He
propelled the student forward, his eyes roving the
street, trying to find a secluded area where they could
talk where Johann could talk, after reading a string
of lies put out by the men of Aquitaine. The
newspaper slipped down beneath his jacket; he
reached in and grabbed it by the edge, pulling the
paper out intact. He could not just keep walking,
pushing his captive down the pavement; several peo-
ple had glanced at them, fuel for the curious. Oh,
Christ! The
357
358 ROBERT IUDIUM
photograph hisJace! Anyone might recognize him,
and he was calling attention to himself by keeping
the boy in tow.
Up ahead, on the right, there was a bakery or a
coffee shop or a combination of both with tables
under umbrellas on the sidewalk; several were
empty at the far end. He would have preferred a
deserted alley or a cobblestoned side street too
narrow for vehicles, but he could not keep doing
what he was doing walking so rapidly with a
prisoner in his grip.
'Over there! That table in the rear. You sit
facing out. And remember, I wasn't joking about the
gun, my hand will be in my pocket. '
"Please, let me go! You've done enough to me!
My friends know we left together last night; my
landlady knows I got you a room! The police will
question me!"
"Get in there," said Converse, shoving Johann
between the chairs to the table at the rear of the
pavement. Both sat down; the young German was
no longer trembling, but his eyes were darting in all
directions. "Don't even think about it," continued
Joel. "And when a waiter comes over, speak in
English. Only English!"
"There are no waiters. Customers go inside and
bring out their own sweet rolls and coffee."
"We'll do without you can get something later.
I owe you money and I pay my debts."
. . . I always pay my debts. At least during the last
four years I have. Words from a note left by a
risk-taker. An actor named Caleb Dowling.
"I want no money from you," saidJohann, his
English guttural with fear.
' You think it's tainted, makes you a true accessory,
is that
"You are the lawyer, I am merely a student."
"Let me set you straight. It's not tainted because
I didn't do whatever they said I did, and there's no
such thing as an accessory to innocence."
"You are the lawyer, sir."
Converse pushed the newspaper in front of the
young German and with his right hand reached into
his pocket where he had put ten thousand deutsche
marks in ascending denominations for his immediate
use. He counted out seven thousand and reached
over, placing it in front of Johann. "Put that away
before I shove it down your throat."
"I will not take your money!"
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 359
"You'll take it and tell them I gave it to you, if
you want to. They'll have to give it back."
'What do you mean?"
'The truth, counselor. You'll find out one day
that it's the best shield you've got. Now, read me
what the paper saysI"
"'The ambassador was killed sometime last
night,'" began the student haltingly as he awkwardly
put the deutsche marks in his pocket. ". . . The
approximate time of death is difficult to establish
until further examinations,'" he continued, translating
the words in the article in fits and starts, trying to
find the appropriate meanings. " '. . . The fatal
wound was . . . 'Scha'del' cranial, a head wound 'the
body in the water for many hours, washed up on the
riverbank in the Plittersdorf and found early this
morning.... The military charge d'affaires was quoted
as saying that the last person known to have been
with the ambassador was an American by the name
of Joel Converse. When that name appeared, there
were . . .' " The young German squinted, shaking his
head nervously. "How do you say it?"
"I don't know," said Joel coldly, his voice flat.
"What am I trying to say?"
"'. . . very excited' frantic 'communications
between the governments of Switzerland, France and
the Federal Republic, all in coordination with the
International Criminal Police, otherwise known as
Interpol, and the . . . pieces of the tragic . . . Ratsel
. . . puzzle fell into place,' became clear, it means.
'Unknown to Ambassador Peregrine, the American
Converse has been the object of an Interpol . . .
Suche. . . search as a result of killings in Geneva and
Paris as well as several attempted murders not yet
clarified.' " Johann looked up at Converse. There was
a throbbing in his throat.
"Go on," ordered Joel. "You don't know how
enlightening this is. Go on 1"
"'According to the ambassador's office, a
confidential meeting was arranged at the request of
this man Converse, who claimed to have information
injurious to American interests and which has
subsequently proven to be false. The two men were
to meet at the entrance of the Adenauer Bridge
between seven-thirty and eight o'clock last evening.
The charge d'affaires who accompanied Ambassador
Peregrine confirmed that the two men met at
seven-fifty-one P.M. and started across the bridge on
the pedestrian walkway. It was the last time anyone
from the embassy saw the ambassador
360 ROBERT LUDLUM
alive.' " Johann swallowed, his hands trembling. He
took several deep breaths and went on, his eyes
rushing forward across the print, beads of
perspiration breaking out on his hairline. Below are
more complete . . . eingehendere . . . details as they
are known, but a statement issued by Interpol
described the suspect, Joel as an apparently normal
man who is in reality a ... wandernde....'" The young
German lowered his voice
to a whisper. "'a walking
explosive with severe mental disturbances. He is
judged by several behavioral experts in the United
States to be psychopathically ill as a result of nearly
four years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam
conflict....'"
As Johann stammered on, frightened by his own
voice, the telling words and damning phrases came
with staccato regularity, backed up by hastily
contacted departmental "sources" and unnamed,
faceless `authorities." The portrait was that of a
mentally deranged man who had been thrown back
in time, his derangement triggered by some violent
event that left him with his intelligence intact but
without moral or physical control. In addition,
Interpolts search for him was spoken of in clouded
terms, implying a secret manhunt that had been in
progress for a number of days, if not weeks.
" '. . . His homicidal tendencies are channeled,'
" continued the now near-panicked student as the
article quoted another "authoritative" source. " . . .
He has a pathological hatred for present or former
high-ranking military personnel, especially those
who had gained prominent public stature. . . .
Ambassador Peregrine was a celebrated battalion
commander in World War Two's Bastogne
campaign, during which many American lives were
lost.... Authorities in Washington have speculated
that the disturbed man, who after several harrowing
attempts finally escaped from a maximum-security
camp in North Vietnam years ago, traveling over a
hundred miles through enemy. . . Dschungel . . .
jungle to reach his lines, is reliving his own
experiences.... His jusfffication for
survival according to a military psychiatrist is the
killing of superior officers, past or present, who
gave orders in combat, or, in the extreme, even
civilians who in his imaginings bore some
responsibility for the suffering he and others
endured. Yet he is outwardly a normal man, as so
many like him.... Guards have been placed in
Washington, London, Brussels, and here in Bonn....
As an international law
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 361
yer,whois presumed to have access to numerous
criminal elements who deal in illegal passports . . .'"
It was a brilliantly executed trap, the crucial lies
supported by truths, half-truths, distortions and
complete falsehoods. Even the precise timing of the
evening was considered. The charge d'affaires at the
embassy stated unequivocally that he had seen Joel
at the Adenauer Bridge "at 7:51 P.M.,"
approximately twenty-five minutes after he had
broken out of the stone jailhouse on Leifhelm's
estate, and less than ten minutes after he had
plunged into the Rhine. Every fragment of the hour
was accounted for. That he was 'officially" placed at
the bridge by 7:51" denied his story of capture and
escape any credibility.
The incident in Geneva the death of A. Preston
Halliday was introduced as a possible explanation
for the violent act that had hurled him back in time,
triggering Joel's maniacal behavior. '. . . It has been
learned that the attorney who was shot to death had
been a well-known leader in the American protest
movement in the sixties...." The veiled conclusion
was that Converse might have hired the killers. Even
the death of the man in Paris was given a very
different and far more important dimension oddly
enough, based in reality. ". . . Initially the victim's
true identity was withheld in hopes of aiding the
manhunt, as suspicions were aroused as a result of
an interview the Surete had with a French lawyer
who has known the suspect for a number of years.
The attorney who had lunched with the suspect that
day indicated that his American friend was in
'serious troubles and needed 'medical attention.' . .
." The dead man in Paris, of course, was an out-
standing colonel in the French Army, and an aide
successively to several "prominent generals."
Finally, as if to convince any remaining
unbelievers in this public trial by "authoritative"
journalism, references were made not only to his
conduct but to the remarks he made upon his
separation from service over a decade and a half
ago. These were released by the United States
Department of the Navy, Fifth Naval District, which
included its own recommendation at the time that
one Lieutenant Converse be placed under voluntary
psychiatric observation; it was refused. His conduct
had been insulting in the extreme to the panel of
officers who wished only to help him, and his
remarks were nothing short of violent threats against
numerous
362 ROBERT LUDIUM
high-ranking military personnel, whom, as a carrier
pilot, he could have known nothing about.
It all completed the portrait as painted by the
artists of Aquitaine. Johann finished the article, the
newspaper now clutched in his hands, his eyes wide
and frightened. "That s all there is . . . sir."
"I d hate to think there's any more," said Joel.
"Do you believe it?"
"I have no thoughts. I'm too frightened to think."
"That s an honest answer. Uppermost in your
mind is the fact that I might kill you, so you can't
face what you think. That's what you're really saying.
You're afraid that by a look or a wrong word I
could take offence and pull a trigger."
"Please, sir, I am not adequate!"
"Neither was 1."
"Let me go. "
''Johann. My hands are on the table. They've
been on the table since we sat down."
"What . . . ?" The young Cerman blinked and
looked at Converse's forearms, both of which were
in front of him, his hands clasped on the white
metal surface. "You have no gun?"
"Oh, yes, I have a gun. I took it from a man who
would have killed me if he'd had the chance." Joel
reached into his pocket as Johann stiffened.
"Cigarettes," said Converse, taking out a pack and a
book of matches. "It's a terrible habit. Don't start if
you don't smoke."
"It's very expensive."
"Among other things. " Joel struck a match,
lighting a cigarette, his eyes remaining on the
student. "We've talked off and on since last night.
Except for a few moments back there in the crowd
when you could have had me Iynched, do I look or
sound like the man described in that newspaper
story?"
"I am no more a doctor than a lawyer."
"Two points for the opposition. The burden of
sanity's on me. Besides, it said I appeared perfectly
normal."
"It said you suffered a great deal."
"Several hundred years ago, but no more than
thousands of others and far, far less than some
fifty-eight thousand
who never came back. I don't
think an insane man is capable of making a rational
remark like that under these circumstances do you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
'~I'm trying to tell you that everything you just read
to
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 363
me is an example of a man being tried by negative
journalism. Truths mixed with half-truths, distortions,
and implausible judgments were slanted to support
the lies that are meant to convict me. There's not a
court in any civilised country that would admit that
kind of testimony or permit a jury to hear t.
"Men have been killed," said Johann, again his
words whispered. "The ambassador was killed."
"Not by me. I wasn't anywhere near the
Adenauer Bridge at eight o'clock last night. I don't
even know where it is."
"Where were you?'
"Not where anyone saw me, if that's what you
mean. And those who know I couldn't have been at
the bridge would be the last people on earth to say
so."
"There has to be some evidence of where you
were." The young German nodded at the cigarette in
Converse's hand. "Perhaps one of those. Perhaps you
finished a cigarette."
"Or finger or foot prints? Pieces of clothing?
There's all of that, but they don't tell the time."
"There are methods," corrected Johann. "The
advances in the technology of. . . Forschung. . . the
investigation techniques have been rapid."
"Let me finish that for you. I'm not a criminal
lawyer but I know what you're saying. Theoretically,
for example, the ground depression of a footprint