Halliday grinned. "We got pissed and bothadmitted it don't you remember? Incidentally, weswore each other to secrecy while throwing up in thecan."
"Just testing you, counselor.I remember. So youleft the gray-flannel crowd for orange shirts andgold medallionsP"
"All the way. Berkeley, then across the street toStanford."
"Good school.... How come the international field?"
"I liked traveling and figured it was the best wayof paying for it. That's how it started, really. Howabout you? I'd think you would have had all thetraveling you ever wanted."
"I had delusions about the foreign service,diplomatic corps, legal section. That's how itstarted."
"After all that traveling you did?"
Converse levered his pale blue eyes at Halliday,conscious of the coldness in his look. It wasunavoidable, if misplaced as it usually was. "Yes,after all that traveling. There were too many liesand no one told us about them until it was too late.We were conned and it shouldn't have happened."
Halliday leaned forward, his elbows on the table,hands clasped, his gaze returning Joel's. "I couldn'tfigure it," he began softly. "When I read your namein the papers, then saw you paraded on television,I felt awful. I didn't really know you that well, butI liked you."
"It was a natural reaction. I'd have felt the sameway if it had been you."
"I'm not sure you would. You see, I was one ofthe honchos of the protest movement."
"You burned your draft card while flaunting the Yippie label," said Converse gently, the ice gonefrom his eyes. "I wasn't that brave."
"Neither was I. It was an out-of-state library card."
"I'm disappointed."
"So was I in myself. But I was visible." Hallidayleaned back in his chair and reached for his coffee."How did you get so visible, Joel? I didn't think youwere the type."
"I wasn't. I was squeezed."
"I thought you said "conned.'"
"That came later." Converse raised his cup andsipped his black coffee, uncomfortable with thedirection the conversation had taken. He did notlike discussing those years, and all too frequently hewas called upon to do so. They had made him outto be someone he was not. "I was a sophomore atAmherst and not much of a student.... Not much,hell, I was borderline-negative, and whateverdeferment I had was
about to go down the tube. But I'd been Hying sinceI was fourteen."
"I didn't know that," interrupted Halliday.
"My father wasn't beautiful and he didn't havethe benefit of concubines, but he was an airlinepilot, later an executive for Pan Am. It was standardin the Converse household to By before you got yourdriver's license."
"Brothers and sisters?'
"A younger sister. She soloed before I did andshe's never let me forget it."
"I remember. She was interviewed on television."
"Only twice," Joel broke in, smiling. "She was onyour turf and didn't give a damn who knew it. TheWhite House bunker put the word out to stay awayfrom her. "Don't tarnish the cause, and check hermail while you're at it.'"
"That's why I remember her," said Halliday. "Soa lousy student left college and the Navy gained ahot pilot."
"Not very hot, none of us was. There wasn't thatmuch to be hot against. Mostly we burned."
"Still, you must have hated people like me backin the States. Not your sister, of course."
"Her, too," corrected Converse. "Hated, loathed,despised furious. But only when someone waskilled, or went crazy in the camps. Not for what youwere saying we all knew Saigon but because yousaid it without any real fear. You were safe, and youmade us feel like assholes. Dumb, frightenedassholes."
"I can understand that."
"So nice of you."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
"How did it sound, counselor?"
Halliday frowned. "Condescending, I guess."
"No guess," said Joel. "Right on."
"You're still angry."
"Not at you, only the dredging. I hate the subjectand it keeps coming back up."
"Blame the Pentagon PR. For a while you werea bona fide hero on the nightly news. What was it,three escapes? On the first two you got caught andput on the racks, but on the last one you made it allby yourself, didn't you? You crawled through acouple of hundred miles of enemy jungle before youreached the lines."
"It was barely a hundred and I was goddamnedlucky.
With the first two tries I was responsible for killingeight men. I'm not very proud of that. Can we get tothe Comm Tech-Bern business?"
"Give me a few minutes," said Halliday, shovingthe croissant aside. "Please. I'm not trying to dredge.There's a point in the back of my mind, if you'llgrant I've got a mind."
"Preston Halliday has one, his rep confirms it.You're a shark, if my colleagues are accurate. ButI knew someone named Avery, not Press."
"Then it's Fowler talking, you re morecomfortable with him."