The Aquitaine Progression Read Online Free PDF Page B

still pushing that safe Yippee label.”
    “Calling someone a ‘freak’ is subjectively prejudicial in the extreme, counselor, and would be stricken from the record.”
    “Still, the point’s been made with the jury, lawyer-man,” said Converse quietly but with anger. “And I’m making it now.”
    “Don’t prejudge the safety,” continued Halliday in avoice that was equally quiet. “I’m not safe, and outside of a proclivity for cowardice, there’s a wife and five children back in San Francisco I care deeply about.”
    “So you come to me because I have no such—what was it?—priority entanglements?”
    “I came to you because you’re invisible, you’re not involved, and because you’re the best, and I can’t do it! I
legally
can’t do it, and it’s got to be done legally.”
    “Why don’t you say what you mean?” demanded Converse. “Because if you don’t I’m getting up and we’ll see each other later across a table.”
    “I represented Delavane,” said Halliday quickly. “God help me I didn’t know what I was doing, and very few people approved, but I made a point we used to make all the time. Unpopular causes and people also deserve representation.”
    “I can’t argue with that.”
    “You don’t know the cause. I do. I found out.”
    “What cause?”
    Halliday leaned forward. “The generals,” he said, his voice barely audible. “They’re coming back.”
    Joel looked closely at the Californian. “From where? I didn’t know they’d been away.”
    “From the past,” said Halliday. “From years ago.”
    Converse sat back in the chair, now amused. “Good Lord, I thought your kind were extinct. Are you talking about the Pentagon menace,
Press
—it is ‘Press,’ isn’t it? The San Francisco short-form, or was it from Haight-Ashbury, or the Beverly Hills something or other? You’re a little behind the times; you already stormed the Presidio.”
    “Please, don’t make jokes. I’m not joking.”
    “Of course not. It’s
Seven Days in May
, or is it
Five Days in August?
It’s August now, so let’s call it
The Old-Time Guns of August
. Nice ring, I think.”
    “Stop it! There’s nothing remotely funny, and if there were, I’d find it before you did.”
    “That’s a comment, I suppose,” said Joel.
    “You’re goddamned right it is, because I
didn’t
go through what you went through. I stayed out of it, I wasn’t conned, and that means I can laugh at fanatics because they never hurt me, and I still think it’s the best ammunition against them. But not now. There’s nothing to laugh at now!”
    “Permit me a small chuckle,” said Converse without smiling. “Even in my most paranoid moments I never subscribedto the conspiracy theory that has the military running Washington. It couldn’t happen.”
    “It might be less apparent than in other countries, but that’s all I’ll grant you.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It would undoubtedly be much more obvious in Israel, certainly in Johannesburg, quite possibly in France and Bonn, even the UK—none of them takes its pretenses that seriously. But I suppose you’ve got a point. Washington will drape the constitutional robes around itself until they become thread-bare and fall away—revealing a uniform, incidentally.”
    Joel stared at the face in front of him. “You’re
not
joking, are you? And you’re too bright to try to snow me.”
    “Or con you,” added Halliday. “Not after that label I wore while watching you in pajamas halfway across the world. I couldn’t do it.”
    “I think I believe you.… You mentioned several countries, specific countries. Some aren’t speaking, others barely; a few have bad blood and worse memories. On purpose?”
    “Yes,” nodded the Californian. “It doesn’t make any difference because the group I’m talking about thinks it has a cause that will ultimately unite them all. And run them all—their way.”
    “The generals?”
    “And admirals, and brigadiers,