David Webb, Oriental scholar
and for three years... David Webb, Oriental scholar
and for three years Jason Bourne, assassin, had two additional aliases with passports, driver’s
licenses and voter registration cards to confirm the identitiesAnd since no cabs would travel out to
Cactus’s “turf,” an unemployed neighbor wearing several heavy gold chains around his neck and
wrists drove Cactus’s client into the heart of Washington in his new Cadillac Allanté
Jason found a pay phone in Garfinkel’s department store and called Alex in Virginia, giving him
both aliases and selecting one for the Mayflower hotelConklin would officially secure a room
through the management in the event that summer reservations were tightFurther, Langley would
activate a Four Zero imperative and do its best to furnish Bourne with the material he
dolce and gabbana handbag needed,
delivering it to his room as soon as possibleThe estimate was a minimum of an additional three
hours, no guarantees as to the time or authenticityRegardless, thought Jason, as Alex reconfirmed
the information on a second direct line to the CIA, he needed at least two of those three hours
before going to the hotelHe had a small wardrobe to put together; the Chameleon was reverting to
type
“Steve DeSole tells me he’ll start spinning the disks, crosschecking ours with the army data
banks and naval intelligence,” said Conklin, returning to the line“Peter Holland can make it
happen; he’s the president’s crony
“Crony? That’s an odd word coming from you
“Like in crony appointmentHow about you? Any progress?”
Conklin paused, and when he answered his quiet voice conveyed his fear; it was
black gucci bag controlled but
the fear was there“Let’s put it this wayI’m not equipped for what I’ve learnedI’ve been away
too longI’m afraid, Jason—sorry
“You’re right the first timeHave you discussed—”
“Nothing by name,” broke in the retired intelligence officer quickly, firmly
“You couldn’t,” contradicted Alex With these cryptic words
Conklin abruptly hung up
Slowly Bourne did the same, frowning in concernAlex was the one now sounding
melodramatic, and it was not like him to think that way or act that wayControl was his byword,
understatement his personaWhatever he had learned profoundly disturbed him so much so as to
make it seem to Bourne that he no longer trusted the procedures he himself had set up, or even the
people he was working withOtherwise he would have been clearer, more forthcoming;
chanel wallet instead, for
reasons Jason could not fathom, Alexander Conklin did not want to talk about Medusa or whatever
he had learned in peeling away twenty years of deceitWas it possible?
No time! No use, not now, considered Bourne, looking around the huge department storeAlex
was not only as good as his word, he lived by it, as long as one was not an enemyRuefully,
suppressing a short throated laugh, Jason remembered Paris thirteen years agoHe knew that side
of Alex, tooBut for the cover of gravestones in a cemetery on the outskirts of Rambouillet, his
closest friend would have killed himThat was then, not nowConklin said he’d “be in touch He
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
46
wouldUntil then the Chameleon had to build several coversFrom the inside to the outside, from
underwear to
chloe white outerwear and everything in betweenNo chance of a laundry or a cleaning mark
coming to light, no microscopic chemical evidence of a regionally distributed detergent or fluid—
nothingHe had given too muchIf he had to kill for David’s family oh, my God! For my family!
he refused to live with the consequences of that killing or those killingsWhere he was going
there were no rules; the innocent might well die in the cross fireDavid Webb would
violently object, but Jason Bourne didn’t give a goddamnHe’d been there before; he knew the
statistics, Webb knew nothing
Marie, I’ll stop him! I promise you I’ll rip him out of your livesI’ll take the Jackal and leave a
dead manHe’ll never be able to touch you again—you’ll be free
Oh, Christ, who am I? Mo, help me! No, Mo, don’t! I am what I have
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