spoke. “I must assume,” he began calmly, “that the person who contacted you on the telephone was none other than General MacKenzie Hawkins, am I correct?”
“You know damn well you’re correct, and that sewer rat can’t
do
this to me!”
“What precisely has he done?”
“He
talked
to me.”
“There’s a law prohibiting communication?”
“Between the two of us, there certainly is. He swore on the Manual of Army Regulations never to speak to me again for the rest of his miserable, misbegotten life!”
“Yet he saw fit to violate this solemn oath, which means he felt he had something of great import to tell you. What was it?”
“Who
listened
?” yelled Devereaux, again straining against the constricting white strips pinning him to the chair. “All I heard him say was that he was flying into Boston to see me and everything went crazy.”
“You went crazy, Sam.… When is he to make this journey?”
“How do
I
know?”
“That’s right. You turned off your ears and turned on your precordial anxiety.… However, based on the assumption that he had something vital to tell you, or he would not have broken his agreement never to contact you, we can assume that his flight to Boston is imminent.”
“So’s my departure for Tasmania,” said Devereaux emphatically.
“That is the one thing you must not do,” interjected Pinkus with equal firmness. “You cannot run away nor can you avoid him—”
“One
reason
!” broke in Sam, shouting. “Give me
one
reason short of murdering the son of a bitch why I
shouldn’t
avoid him? He’s a walking distress signal from the Titanic!”
“Because he will continue to hold over your head—and, by extension, mine, as your only employer since law school—your participation in this crime of the ages.”
“
You
didn’t walk out of the data banks with over two thousand top-secret intelligence files,
I
did.”
“That seemingly ominous act sinks to the level of complete insignificance compared to the evidence you’ve been trying to tear off your walls.… But since you mention it, was there any point to the theft of those files?”
“Forty million points,” answered Devereaux. “How do you think that diabolical general from the River Styx raised his capital?”
“Blackmail …?”
“From the Cosa Nostra to some Brits who weren’t exactly in line for the Victoria Cross; from former Nazis whose respectability was up to their thighs in chickenshit, to Arab sheiks who made money by protecting their Israeli investments. He refined the whole sticky ball of wax and made me go after them.”
“Good God, your mother said those were all your delusions! Killers on a golf course, Germans in chicken farms … Arabs in the desert. They were
real
.”
“Sometimes, not often, I have a martini I shouldn’t have.”
“She also mentioned that.… And Hawkins unearthed these scoundrels from the intelligence files and forced them to capitulate to his demands?”
“How low can you get—”
“How
ingenious
can a man
be
?”
“Where’s your moral armor, Aaron?”
“Certainly not for the benefit of scoundrels, Sam.”
“Then in support of the evidence you’ve seen on my walls?”
“
Definitely
not!”
“So where do you stand?”
“One has nothing to do with the
other
. There’s no linkage.”
“Not if you were me, Counselor.”
Aaron Pinkus took several deep breaths in silence whileplacing his ten fingers across his forehead, his head bowed. “For every impossible problem there must be an eventual solution, either in this life or in the hereafter.”
“I prefer the former, if you don’t mind, Aaron.”
“I tend to agree,” said the elderly attorney. “Therefore, we will, as you expressed in your own singular vernacular, get off our asses and charge ahead.”
“To what?”
“To our mutual confrontation with General MacKenzie Hawkins.”
“You’d
do
that?”
“I have a vested interest, Sammy. You might even say a
“You know damn well you’re correct, and that sewer rat can’t
do
this to me!”
“What precisely has he done?”
“He
talked
to me.”
“There’s a law prohibiting communication?”
“Between the two of us, there certainly is. He swore on the Manual of Army Regulations never to speak to me again for the rest of his miserable, misbegotten life!”
“Yet he saw fit to violate this solemn oath, which means he felt he had something of great import to tell you. What was it?”
“Who
listened
?” yelled Devereaux, again straining against the constricting white strips pinning him to the chair. “All I heard him say was that he was flying into Boston to see me and everything went crazy.”
“You went crazy, Sam.… When is he to make this journey?”
“How do
I
know?”
“That’s right. You turned off your ears and turned on your precordial anxiety.… However, based on the assumption that he had something vital to tell you, or he would not have broken his agreement never to contact you, we can assume that his flight to Boston is imminent.”
“So’s my departure for Tasmania,” said Devereaux emphatically.
“That is the one thing you must not do,” interjected Pinkus with equal firmness. “You cannot run away nor can you avoid him—”
“One
reason
!” broke in Sam, shouting. “Give me
one
reason short of murdering the son of a bitch why I
shouldn’t
avoid him? He’s a walking distress signal from the Titanic!”
“Because he will continue to hold over your head—and, by extension, mine, as your only employer since law school—your participation in this crime of the ages.”
“
You
didn’t walk out of the data banks with over two thousand top-secret intelligence files,
I
did.”
“That seemingly ominous act sinks to the level of complete insignificance compared to the evidence you’ve been trying to tear off your walls.… But since you mention it, was there any point to the theft of those files?”
“Forty million points,” answered Devereaux. “How do you think that diabolical general from the River Styx raised his capital?”
“Blackmail …?”
“From the Cosa Nostra to some Brits who weren’t exactly in line for the Victoria Cross; from former Nazis whose respectability was up to their thighs in chickenshit, to Arab sheiks who made money by protecting their Israeli investments. He refined the whole sticky ball of wax and made me go after them.”
“Good God, your mother said those were all your delusions! Killers on a golf course, Germans in chicken farms … Arabs in the desert. They were
real
.”
“Sometimes, not often, I have a martini I shouldn’t have.”
“She also mentioned that.… And Hawkins unearthed these scoundrels from the intelligence files and forced them to capitulate to his demands?”
“How low can you get—”
“How
ingenious
can a man
be
?”
“Where’s your moral armor, Aaron?”
“Certainly not for the benefit of scoundrels, Sam.”
“Then in support of the evidence you’ve seen on my walls?”
“
Definitely
not!”
“So where do you stand?”
“One has nothing to do with the
other
. There’s no linkage.”
“Not if you were me, Counselor.”
Aaron Pinkus took several deep breaths in silence whileplacing his ten fingers across his forehead, his head bowed. “For every impossible problem there must be an eventual solution, either in this life or in the hereafter.”
“I prefer the former, if you don’t mind, Aaron.”
“I tend to agree,” said the elderly attorney. “Therefore, we will, as you expressed in your own singular vernacular, get off our asses and charge ahead.”
“To what?”
“To our mutual confrontation with General MacKenzie Hawkins.”
“You’d
do
that?”
“I have a vested interest, Sammy. You might even say a
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