Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt

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by The Aquitaine Progression [lit]


  a man hunted by killers if he will jump into human

  excrement to conceal himself."

  "I've asked him," said Converse. "I'm he,

  remember? What about Delavane?"

  "He's a madman, a maniac. Have you ever heard

  his voice? He speaks like a man with his testicles in

  a vise. They cut off his legs, you know, amputated

  only months ago for diabetes. The great general

  felled from an excess of sugar! He's tried to keep it

  a secret. He sees no one and no longer goes to his

  impressive office filled with photographs and flags

  and a thousand decorations. He operates out of his

  home, where the servants come only when he's

  hidden in a darkened bedroom. How he wished it

  could have been a mortar shell or a

  660 ROBERT LUDLUM

  bayonet charge, but no. Only sugar. He's become

  worse, a raving fool, but even fools can have flashes of

  brilliance. He had it once."

  "What about him?"

  "We have a man with him, an aide with the rank of

  colonel. When everything begins, when our commands

  are in place, the colonel will do as instructed. Marcus

  will be shot for the good of his own concept."

  It was Joel's turn to get out of his chair. Once

  again he walked to the cathedral window across the

  room and felt the cool mountain breezes on his face.

  "This examination is finished, General,' he said.

  "What?" roared Abrahms. "You want your life. /

  want guarantees!"

  "Finished, ' repeated Converse as the door opened

  and a captain m the Israeli Army walked inside, his

  gun levered at Chaim Abrahms.

  "There will be no discussion between us, Herr Con-

  verse," said Erich LeifLelm, standing by the door of the

  study. The doctor from Bonn had just left.the room.

  "You have your prisoner. Execute him. Over many

  years and in many ways

  I have been waiting for this moment. In truth, I'm weary

  of the morbidity."

  "Are you telling me you want to die?" asked Joel,

  standing by the table with the pistol on top.

  "No one wants to die, least of all a soldier in the

  quiet of a strange room. Drums and sharp commands

  to a firing squad are preferable there's a certain

  meaning in that. But I've seen too much death to go

  into hysterics. Pick up your pistol and get it over with.

  I would if I were you."

  Converse studied the German's face, whose strange

  eyes were noncommittal, expressing only contempt.

  "You mean it don't you?"

  "Shall I give orders myself? There was a newsreel

  years ago. A black man did that against a bloodstained

  wall in Castro's Cuba. I've always admired that soldier."

  Leifhelm suddenly shouted, "Achtung! Soldaten!

  P~sentiert das Gewehr!"

  "For Christ's sake, why not talk ?" roared Joel,

  riding over the fanatical voice.

  "Because I have nothing to say. My actions speak,

  my life has spoken! What is it, Herr Converse? You

  have no stomach for executions? You cannot give the

  order to yourself? A small,

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 661

  insignificant man's conscience will not permit him to

  kill? You are laughable!"

  "I remind you, General, I've killed several people

  these past few weeks. Killed with less feeling than I

  ever thought possible."

  ' The lowliest coward running for his life will kill

  in panic. There is no character in that, merely

  survival. No, Herr Converse, you are insignificant, an

  impediment even your own forces care nothing

  about. You abound in this world. There is an odd

  phrase you have in your country that so readily ap-

  plies to you, a phrase our associate uses frequently.

  You are a 'shit-kicker,' Herr Converse, nothing more

  and probably less."

  'What did you say? What did you call me?"

  "You heard me clearly. A shit-kicker. A little

  man who steps in waste. Shit-kicker, Herr Converse.

  Shit-kicker!"

  He was back a lifetime ago, on the bridge of a

  carrier, the face in front of him contorted, obscene, the

  twice shrill. Shit-kicker! Shit-kicker, shit-kicker,

  shit-kicker! Then other explosions followed, and he was

  blown into the dark clouds, the wind and the rain

  buffeting him, hammering him as he swung down

  toward the earth. Down to the ground and four years

  of madness and death and dying children weeping.

  Madness! Shit-kicker . . . shit-kicker . . . shit-kicker!

  Converse reached down for the pistol on the

  table. He picked it up and, with his index finger

  around the trigger, leveled it at Erich Leifhelm.

  And then a sudden shock went through him.

  What was he doing? He needed all three men of

  Aquitaine. Not one, not two, but three! It was the

  basis, the spine of what he had to do! But still there

  was something else. He had to kill, he had to destroy

  the deadly human virus staring at him, wanting

  death. Oh, Jesus! Had Aquitaine won, after ally Had

  he become one of them? If he had, he had lost.

  'Your kind of courage is cheap, Leifhelm," he

  said softly, lowering the gun. "Better a quick bullet

  than other alternatives."

  "I live by my code. I die by it gladly."

  "Cleanly, you mean. Swiftly. No Dachau, no

  Auschwitz."

  "You have the gun."

  "I thought you had so much to offer."

  "My successor has been chosen carefully. He will

  carry out details, every nuance of my agenda.

  662 ROBERT LUDLUM

  The opening was there, a strategy suddenly

  revealed. Joel pushed the /outton

  "Your successor?"

  'ha. "

  "You have no successor, Field Marshal."

  "What?"

  "Any more than you have an agenda. You don't

  have anything without me. It's why I brought you

  here. Just you."

  "What are you saying?"

  "Sit down, General. I've several things to tell

  you, and for your own sake you'd better be seated.

  Your own execution might be more preferable to

  you than what I've got to say "

  "Liar!" screamed Erich Leifhelm four minutes

  later, his hands gripping the arms of the brocaded

  chair. "Liar, liar liar!" he roared.

  "I didn't expect you to believe me," said Joel

  calmly standing in the middle of the spacious,

  book-lined study "Cali Bertholdier in Paris .md tell

  him you just heard some dlsturbing news and you'd

  like a clarification. Say it outright, you've learned

  that while you were in Essen, Bertholdier and

  Abrahms came to see me at your place in Bonn."

  "How would I know that?"

  "The truth. They paid a guard to open the

  door I don't know which one, I didn't see

  him but a guard did unlock the door and let them

  in."

  "Because they believed you were an informer,

  sent out by Delavane, himself?"

  "That's what they told me."

  "You were drugged! There were no such


  indications!"

  "They were suspicious. They didn't know the

  doctor and they didn't trust the Englishman. I don't

  have to tell you they don't trust you. They thought

  the whole thing might be a hoax. They wanted to

  cover themselves."

  "Incredible!"

  "Not when you think about it," said Converse,

  sitting down opposite the German. "How did I really

  get the information I had? How did I know the

  exact people to reach except through Delavane?

  That was their thinking."

  "That Delavane would do this could do it?"

  began the astonished Leifhelm.

  "I know what that means now," interrupted Joel

  quickly seizing on the new opening presented him.

  "Delavane's finished, they both admitted it when

  they understood he was the

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 663

  last person on earth I'd work for. Maybe they were

  throwing me a few crumbs before setting me up for

  my own execution."

  "That had to be done!" exclaimed the Third

  Reich's once youngest field marshal. 'Certainly you

  can understand. Who were you? Where did you come

  from? You yourself did not know. You spoke of

  inconsequential names and lists and a great deal of

  money but nothing that made sense. Who had

  penetrated us? Since we could not find out, you had

  to be turned into a pariah. Into something rotten. A

  thing of rot no one would touch."

  "You did it very well."

  "For that I must take credit," said LeifLelm,

  nodding. "It was essentially my organization.

  Everything was mine."

  "I didn't bring you here to discuss your

  achievements. I brought you here to save my life.

  You can do that for me the people who sent me

  out either can't or won't but you can. All I have to

  do is give you a reason."

  "By implying that Abrahms and Bertholdier

  conspire against me?"

  "I won't imply anything, I'll give it to you straight

  in their own words. Remember, neither one of them

  thought I'd leave your place except as a corpse

  conveniently shot in the vicinity of some particularly

  gruesome assassination." Suddenly Converse got out

  of the chair, shaking his head. "No!" he said em-

  phatically. "Call your trusted French and Israeli

  allies, your fellow Aquitainians. Say anything you

  like, just listen to their voices you'll be able to tell.

  It takes an accomplished liar to spot other liars, and

  you're the best."

  "I find that offensive."

  "Oddly enough, I meant it as a compliment. It's

  why I reached you. I think you're going to be the

  winner over here and after what I've been through I

  want to go with a winner.'

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Oh, come on, let's be honest. Abrahms is hated;

  he's insulted everyone in Europe, the U.K. and the

  U.S. who doesn't agree with his expansionist policies

  for Israel. Even his own countrymen can't shut him

  up. All they can do is censure him and he keeps on

  screaming. He'd never be tolerated in any kind of

  international federation."

  The Nazi quickly, repeatedly shook his head.

  "Never!" he shouted. "He is the most loathsome man

  to come out of the Middle East. And, of course, he's

  aJew. But how is Bertholdier to be equated in this

  manner?"

  664 ROBERT LUDLUM

  Joel paused before answering. "His manner," he

  replied thoughtfully. "He's imperious, arrogant. He

  sees himself not only as a great military figure and

  a history-making power broker, but also as some

  sort of god, above other men. There's no room on

  his Olympus for mortals. Also he's French. The

  English and the Americans wouldn't give him spit:

  one De Gaulle in a century is enough for them."

  "There's clarity in your thoughts. He's the sort of

  abominable egotist only the French can suffer. He

  is, of course, a reflection of the entire country."

  "Van Headmer doesn't count except where he

  can bring South Africa around for raw materials."

  "Agreed," said the German.

  "But you, on the other hand," Converse went on

  rapidly again sitting down, "worked with the

  Americans and the English in Berlin and Vienna.

  You helped implement occupation policies, and in

  good conscience you turned over evidence to both

  the U.S. and the U.K. prosecution teams in

  Nuremberg. Finally, you became Bonn's spokesman

  in NATO. Whatever you were in the past, they like

  you." Again Joel paused, and when he continued

  there was a degree of deference in his voice.

  "Therefore, General, you're the winner, and you can

  save my life. All you need is a reason."

  "Then give it to me."

  "Use the phone first."

  "Don't be an idiot and don't take me for one!

  You would not insist so unless you were sure of

  yourself, which means you are telling the truth. And

  if those Schweine conspire against me, I will not

  inform them that I'm aware of it! What did they

  "You're to be killed. They can't risk the

  accusation that an old-line member of the Nazi

  party has assumed vital controls in West Germany.

  Even under Aquitaine there'd be too many cries

  of'Foul!' too much fuel for the inevitable dissent-

  ers. A younger man or someone who thinks like

  they do, but with no party affiliations in his past,

  will take your place. But no one you recommend."

  Leifhelm was braced rigidly in the brocaded

  chair, his aged but still taut body immobile, his

  pallid face with the piercing light-blue eyes like an

  alabaster mask. "They have made this most holy

  decision?" he said icily through lips that barely

  moved. "The vulgar Jew and the depraved French

  prince of maggots dare to attempt such a move

  against me?"

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 665

  "Not that it matters, but Delavane agrees."

  "Delavane! A raging, infantile clump of fantasies!

  The man we knew two years ago has disintegrated to

  a point beyond senility! He doesn't know it, but we

  give him orders, couched naturally as suggestions

  and beneficial possibilities. He has no more powers

  of reason than Adolf Hitler had in his last years of

  madness."

  "I don t know about that," said Converse.

  'Abrahmsand Bertholdier didn't go into it other than

  to say he was finished. They talked about you."

  "Really? Well, let me talk about me! Who do you

  think it was that made Aquituine feasible throughout

  all Europe and the Mediterranean? Who fed the

  terrorists with weapons and millions of pounds of

  explosives from the Baader-Meinhof to the Brigate

  Rosse to the Palestinians priming them for their

  final, let's say their {nest, hours? Who? It was l! Why

  are our conferences always in Bonn? Why are all

  directives funneled, ultimately issued, through me?

  Let me ex
plain. I have the organisation! I have the

  manpower dedicated men ready to do my bidding

  with a single order. I have the money! I created an

  advanced, highly sophisticated communications

  canter out of rubble, no one else in Europe could

  have done that this I've known all along.

  Bertholdier has nothing to speak of in Paris other

  than influence and the aura that hovers about

  him in true battle, meaningless. The Jew and the

  South African are a continent away. When the chaos

  comes, it is I who will be the voice of Aquitaine in

  Europe. I never thought otherwise! My men will cut

  down Bertholdier and Abrahms at their toilets!"

  "Scharhorn's the communications center, isn't it?"

  asked Joel with no emphasis whatsoever.

  "They told you that?"

  "The name was dropped. The master list of

  Aquitaine's in a computer there, isn't it?"

  "That, also?"

  "It's not important. I don't care anymore. I was

  abandoned, remember? You must have figured out

  the computer, too no one else could. '

  "A considerable accomplishment," admitted

  Leifhelm, his humility shining brightly on his waxen

  face. "I even prepared for the catastrophe of death.

  There are sixteen letters we each carry different sets

  of four, the remaining twelve are with the legless

  maniac. He thinks no one can activate the

 

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