The Aquitaine Progression Read Online Free

off.”
    “Now you’re insane.” A second flash of light blinded Converse, this one remaining stationary longer than the first. He raised his left hand to block it from his eyes as he stared at the man he had once known as Avery Fowler. “Also, ethics notwithstanding because you haven’t a damn thing to win this morning, your timing smells. I don’t like getting offers—evencrazy offers—from attorneys I’m about to meet across a table.”
    “Two separate entities, and you’re right, I don’t have a damn thing to win or lose. You and Aaron did it all, and I’m so ethical, I’m billing the Swiss only for my time—minimum basis—because no expertise was called for. My recommendation this morning will be to accept the package as it stands, not even a comma changed. Where’s the conflict?”
    “Where’s the sanity?” asked Joel. “To say nothing of those arrangements Talbot, Brooks and Simon will find acceptable. You’re talking roughly about two and a half top years of salary
and
bonuses for nodding my head.”
    “Nod it,” said Halliday. “We need you.”
    “
We?
That’s a new wrinkle, isn’t it? I thought it was
they. They
being the people you spoke with. Spell it out,
Press
.”
    A. Preston Halliday locked his eyes with Joel’s. “I’m part of them, and something is happening that shouldn’t be happening. We want you to put a company out of business. It’s bad news and it’s dangerous. We’ll give you all the tools we can.”
    “What company?”
    “The name wouldn’t mean anything, it’s not registered. Let’s call it a government-in-exile.”
    “A
what?
”
    “A group of like-minded men who are in the process of building a portfolio of resources so extensive it’ll guarantee them influence where they shouldn’t have it—authority where they shouldn’t have it.”
    “Where is that?”
    “In places this poor inept world can’t afford. They can do it because no one expects them to.”
    “You’re pretty cryptic.”
    “I’m frightened. I know them.”
    “But you have the tools to go after them,” said Converse. “I presume that means they’re vulnerable.”
    Haliday nodded. “We think they are. We have some leads, but it’ll take digging, piecing things together. There’s every reason to believe they’ve broken laws, engaged in activities and transactions prohibited by their respective governments.”
    Joel was silent for a moment, studying the Californian. “Governments?” he asked. “Plural?”
    “Yes.” Halliday’s voice dropped. “They’re different nationalities.”
    “But one company?” said Converse. “One corporation?”
    “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
    “How about a simple yes?”
    “It’s not that simple.”
    “I’ll tell you what is,” interrupted Joel. “You’ve got leads, so you go after the big bad wolves. I’m currently and satisfactorily employed.”
    Halliday paused, then spoke. “No, you’re not,” he said softly.
    Again there was silence, each man appraising the other. “What did you say?” asked Converse, his eyes blue ice.
    “Your firm understands. You can have a leave of absence.”
    “You presumptuous son of a bitch! Who gave you the right even to
approach
—”
    “General George Marcus Delavane,” Halliday broke in. He delivered the name in a monotone.
    It was as if a bolt of lightning had streaked down through the blinding sunlight burning Joel’s eyes, turning the ice into fire. Cracks of thunder followed, exploding in his head.
    The pilots sat around the long rectangular table in the wardroom, sipping coffee and staring down into the brown liquid or up at the gray walls, no one caring to break the silence. An hour ago they had been sweeping over Pak Song, firing the earth, interdicting the advancing North Vietnamese battalions, giving vital time to the regrouping ARVN and American troops who soon would be under brutal siege. They had completed the strike and returned to the carrier—all but one. They had