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Robert Ludlum - Aquatain Progression.txt

Page 96

by The Aquitaine Progression [lit]


  the meat the desert chicken and the lamb, caught

  in the outlying marshes and fed the units of the

  Irgun and the Haganah, never questioning death

  then. Fighting for a hope, a simple hope that was the

  beginning of a dream. The land was theirs, rightfully,

  Biblically, logically theirs! They had fought and they

  had won! Two thousand years of being out-

  casts despised, reviled, and spat upon by the

  almighty Gentiles until the tribes were burned and

  gassed and told to eliminate themselves from the

  face of the earth and yet they had survived. Now

  the tribes were strong. They were the conquerors, not

  the conquered.

  "It's what we fought for! What we prayed for!

  Why do you insult me with your eyes!" Chaim

  Abrahms roared as he pressed his forehead against

  the dead flesh of his wife's face.

  Hitabdut was among the most heinous crimes

  committed against the laws of the Talmud. It was

  ebudeatzmo, the taking of one's own life against the

  wishes of Almighty God, in whose image man was

  created. A Jew who consigned his or her earthly

  being to hitabdut was denied burial in the Hebrew

  cemetery. It would be so for Chaim Abrahm's wife,

  the most devout human being he had ever known.

  616 ROBERT LUDLUM

  ' I have to do it!" he screamed, raising his eyes

  in supplication. ' It is for the best, can t you

  understand ?"

  Prudhomme poured himself a cup of coffee and

  returned to his chair. Valerie sat opposite him as

  Converse stood by the window looking over at the

  man from the Surete, listening.

  "I cannot think of any other questions," said the

  Frenchman, his intensely troubled eyes darting

  about, his lined face looking wearier than before.

  "Although it's possible I'm still too deep in shock to

  think at all. To say it's incredible serves no purpose;

  also it would not be true. It's all too credible. The

  world is so frightened it cries out for stability, for a

  place to hide, for protection from the skies, from

  the streets, from each other. I believe the time has

  come when it will settle for sheer, absolute strength,

  no matter the cost."

  "The operative word is 'absolute,' " said Joel, "as

  in controls and power. A confederation of military

  governments fueling one another, interlocking

  policies and altering the laws all in the name of

  stability and anyone who disagrees with them is

  declared unstable and silenced. And if too many

  disagree, the chaos erupts again stability wins,

  Aquitaine wins. All they need is that initial wave of

  terror, a tidal wave of killing and confusion. 'Key

  figures' were the words they used. 'Accumulation' .

  . . 'rapid accelerahon' chaos. Powerful men cut

  down as riots break out in half a dozen capitals and

  the generals march in with their commanders.

  That's the scenario, right from their own words."

  "That also is the problem, monsieur. They are

  only words, but they are words you can pass along

  to very few people, for they could be the wrong

  people. You could move up this countdown, as you

  call it, trigger this holocaust yourself."

  "The countdown's running out, make no

  mistake," Converse broke in. "But there is a way.

  'accumulation' end 'rapid acceleration'can be used

  in another manner, and you're right it's only with

  words accumulated words, accelerated words. I

  can't come out, not yet. I can't show myself. There's

  no protection any court or government agency or

  the police could provide that would stop them from

  killing me, and then, once I'm dead, calling

  whatever I said the ravings of a psychopath. Don't

  misunderstand me, I have no death wish, but my

  death in itself isn't important. What is important is

  that the truth goes down with me, because I'm the

  only one who's talked

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 617

  directly to Delavane's four caesars over here, and

  probably the fifth, the Englishman."

  "And these declaration~these affidavits you speak

  of can change that?"

  "They can turn things around, maybe just enough."

  "Why?"

  "Because that's a real world out there, a practical,

  complicated world that has to be penetrated as fast

  as possible people have to be reached who can be

  trusted, who can do something. Quickly. It's what I

  wanted to do a couple of weeks ago, but I was going

  about it the wrong way. I wanted to get everything I

  knew to someone I knew. Nathan Simon, the best

  attorney I've ever met. I wrote it all out twice not

  realizing that I was only tying his hands, probably

  killing him." Joel stepped away from the window, a

  lawyer in summation. 'Whom could he go to without

  me, without the presence of an obviously sane man

  and not simply the words of a 'psychopathic killer'?

  And if I did come out, as he would have rightfully

  insisted, we're both dead. Then Val told me about

  the man in New York who reached her on the phone

  and the other who chased her down the street and I

  guessed right. Those aren't the methods of people

  who want to kill you; they don't announce

  themselves. They were the men in Washington who

  had sent me out and were now trying to make

  contact with me. Then she described her meeting

  with Sam Abbott and his mentioning this Metcalf, a

  man he trusted and who had to be some kind of very

  important person for him to tell the story to. Finally,

  there was you in Paris what you said, what you did,

  and how you offered to help, using the same code as

  Rene Mattilon the Tatiana family. Tatiana, a name

  or a word I think means trust, even among sharks."

  "You are right, monsieur."

  "That's when it all came together for me. If I

  could somehow establish lines of communication and

  reach all of you, there was a way. You people knew

  the truth some of you knew all of it; others, like

  yourself, knew only fragments, but regardless, you

  understood the immensity, the reality of the generals

  and their Aquitaine and what they could do, what

  they're doing. Even you, Prudhomme. What did you

  say? Interpol is compromised, the police

  manipulated, the Surete corrupted official reports

  all lies. Added to these, Anstett in New York,

  Peregrine, the commander of NATO, Mattilon,

  Beale, Sam Abbott . . . Connal Fitzpatrick the only

  question

  618 ROBERT LUDLUM

  mark and God knows how many others. All dead.

  The generals are marching forget theories, they're

  killing! . . . If I could convince all of you to write out

  affidavits have depositions taken and get them to

  Nathan Simon, he'd have the ammunition he needs.

  I fed legal mumbo jumbo to Stone in New York;

  some of it applies, most of it doesn't, but he'll do

  his part and f
orce the others to join him he has no

  choice. The main point, the only point, is to get this

  material to Simon. Once he has written testimony,

  a series of events and observations all sworn to be

  true by diverse men of experience, he has a case.

  Believe me, he'll treat them like the plans of a

  neutron bomb. He'll have it all tomorrow, and he'll

  reach the right people if he has to walk into the

  Oval Office which he could do, but may not

  choose to. " Joel paused and looked hard at the

  man from the Surete; he nodded at the pages of his

  own affidavit on the table beside the Frenchman.

  "I've made arrangements for that to be flown to

  New York tomorrow. I'd like one from you."

  "Certainly you may have it. But can you trust the

  couri

  "The world could blow apart and she'd still be

  sitting in her house in the mountains and not know

  it. Or care. How's your English?"

  "Adequate, I believe. We've talked for several

  hours."

  "I mean written English. It'd save time if you

  wrote it out tonight."

  "My spelling is probably no better than yours is

  in French."

  "Make that English," said Valerie. "I'll straighten

  it out and if you're not sure of something, write it in

  French."

  "That would help. I must write it tonight?"

  "The secretary will be here first thing in the

  morning," explained Converse. 'She'll type it up.

  She's the one taking the Hight from Geneva to New

  York tomorrow afternoon."

  "She agreed to do this?"

  "She agreed to accept a large donation to a

  nature organizahon that apparently runs her life."

  "Very convenient."

  "There's something else," said Joel, sitting on an

  arm of Valerie's chair and leaning forward. "You

  know the truth now, and beyond the material that

  has to reach Simon, there's one last thing I have to

  do. I've got a lot of money and a banker in

  Mykonos who'll confirm I have access to a great

  deal

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 619

  more but you've read all that. With hme to find the

  personnel and the equipment I might be able to pull

  it off myself, but we don't have the time. I need your

  help, I need the resources you have."

  "For what, monsieur?"

  "The final depositions. The last part of the

  testimony. I want to kidnap three men."

  37

  1, Peter Charles Stone, ageffty-eight, a residentof

  Washington, D.C, was employed by the Central

  Intelligence Agency for twenty-nine years, during which

  time l attained the rank of station chief in various

  European posts and ultimately Second Director of

  Clandestine Operations, Langley, Virginia. My record is

  on file at the Central Intelligence Agency and may be

  obtained pursuant to the regulations governingsuch

  procedures. Sinceseparation from the CIA, I have

  worked asa consultantand anaIystfor numerous

  intelligence departments, the specif as therein withheld

  from this statement pending government clearances

  should they be deemed pertinent to this document.

  On or about last March 15, I was contacted by

  Captain Andrew Packard, United StatesArmy, who

  asked if he might come to my apartment to discuss a

  conk dential matter. When he arrived, he stated at the

  outset that he was speaking for a small group of men

  from both the military services and the State

  Department, the number and identities of which he

  would not divulge. He statedfurther that they sought

  professional consultation from an experienced

  intelligence officer no longer associated (permanently)

  with any branch of the intelligence community. Ile said

  he had certain funds available he believed would be

  adequate and would I be interested. It should be noted

  here that Captain Packard and his associates had made

  a thorough if not exhaustive search of my

  background warts and alcohol and all, as is said....

  * * *

  620 ROBERT LUDLUM

  I, Captain Howard NMI Packard, US. Army,

  507538, age thirty-one, currently residing in Oxon Hill,

  Maryland, am assigned to Section 27, Department of

  Technological Controls, the Pentagon, Arlington,

  Virginia. In December of last year, Mr. A. Preston

  Halliday, an attorney from San Francisco with whom

  I had struck u p a friendship as a result of his

  numerous petitions to oursectionon behalf of clients

  (all successful and above reproach), asked me to have

  dinner with him at a small restaurant in Clinton,

  approximately ten miles from my house. He a

  pologized for not asking my wife, explaining that what

  he had to say would only disturb her, as, indeed, it

  would disturb me, but in this case it was my

  responsibility to be disturbed. He added that there was

  no conceivable conJqiCt in our meeting, as he had no

  business pending, only business that should be

  investigated and stopped . . .

  1, Lieutenant U G.) William Michael Landis, Us.

  Navy, a bachelor, age twenty-eight; current address,

  Somerset Garden Apartments, Vienna, Virginia, am a

  computer programmer for the Department of the Navy,

  Sea-Armament's Procurements Division, stationed at

  the Pentagon, Arlington Virginia. Actually, in all but

  rank (due within sixty days), I'm in command of most

  programming for Pentagon-Navy, having received a

  doctorate in advanced computer technology from the

  University of Michigan, College of Engineering. . . .

  I'm probably not saying this right, sir.

  Go ahead, young man.

  I state this because with the highly sophisticated

  equipment at my disposal as well as the classified

  micro-conversion codes available to me, I'm able to

  tap into a great many restricted computers with a

  tracing capacity that can circumvent or penetrate, if

  you like closures placed on extremely sensitive

  information.

  Last February, Captain Howard Packard, United

  States Army, and three other men two from the

  Department of State, Office of Munitions Controls,

  and the third a Marine Corps officer I knew from the

  Am phibious Section, Navy Procurements came out

  to see me on a Sunday morning. They said they

  werealarmed opera series of weapons and high-tech

  transfers that appeared to violate D.O.D. and State

  Department sanctions. They gave me the data they had

  concerning nine such incidents, impressing upon me

  the confidentiality of the inquiry.

  THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 621

  The next afternoon I went to the maximum-security

  computers and with the conversion codes inserted the

  data for the nine transfers. The initial entries were

  confirmed those numbers never change so as to

  eliminate the possibilities of duplication but in each

  case, after confirmation, the remaining information was

  erased, wiped off the compu
ter tapes. Six of those nine

  transfers were traced through the initial entries to a firm

  Palo Alto International, owned by a retired Army

  general named Delavane. This was myfirst involvement,

  sir.

  Who were the three other men, Lieutenant?

  It wouldn't do any good to give their names, sir. It

  could only hurt their families.

  I'm not sure I understand can possibly understand.

  They're dead. They went back and asked questions

  and they're dead, sir. Two supposedly in automobile

  accidents involving trucks on back roads they never

  took home and the third indiscriminately shot by a

  deranged sniper while jagging in Rock Creek Park. All

  those joggers and he was the one who got it....

  [Captain Packard]

  As an Army captain with full security clearance

  andirequently dealing in top-secret procedures, I was

  able to set up a sterile telephone (i.e., one that is

  constantly scannedfor taps or intercepts) so Mr.

  Halliday could reach me at any time of day or night

  withoutiear of being overheard. Also in concert with Mr.

  Stone and LieutenantLandis, we pooled oursources and

  obtained in-depth intelligence dossiers on the

  well-known names Halliday found among General

  Delavane's notes. Specifically, Generals Bertholdier,

  Leifhelm, Abrahms, and Van Headmer. Using funds

  provided by Dr. Edward Beale, we secured the services

  of private firms in Paris, Bonn, Tel Aviv, and

  Johannesburg to up-date the dossiers with all available

  current information about the subjects.

  By now we had uncovered ninety-seven additional

  computer erasures directly related to export licensing

  and military transfers involving an estimated $45

  million. A great many were initiated by Palo Alto

  International, but without further data there was

 

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