We both independently assumed that he didn’t...
We both
independently assumed that he didn’t want to alarm his wife, that he had something to tell us
individually that he didn’t want her to knowWe arrived at the same time, but I saw Panov first
and figured it was a bad sceneFrom any point of view, especially Bourne’s, we should have
reached each other and talked before going up there; instead, we had been told not toIt smelled, so
I did my best to get us out of there fastThe only way seemed to be a diversion
“You stampeded then,” said Casset, making a statement
“It was the only thing I could think of, and one of the few things this goddamned cane is good
for other than keeping me uprightI cracked every shin and kneecap I could see and lanced a few
stomachs and titsWe got out of the circle, but that poor woman was killed
“How did you figure it—do you figure it?” asked Valentino
“I just don’t know, ValIt was a trap, no question about that, but what kind of trap? If what I
thought then and what I think now are correct, how could a hired marksman miss at that distance?
The shot came from my chanel inspired handbags upper left—not that I necessarily heard it—but the position of the woman
and the blood all over her throat indicated that she had turned and caught the bullet in her body
swingIt couldn’t have come from the gallery; those guns are chained and the massive hemorrhage
in her neck was caused by a far larger caliber than any of the toys thereIf the killer wanted to take
out either Mo Panov or me, his telescopic cross hairs wouldn’t be that far off the markNot if my
thinking is rightConklin,” interjected the DCI, “meaning the assassin, Carlos the Jackal
“Carlos?” exclaimed DeSole“What in heaven’s name has the Jackal to do with a killing in
Baltimore?”
“Jason Bourne,” answered Casset
“Yes, I gather that, but this is all terribly confusing! Bourne was a scum hit man out of Asia who
moved to Europe to challenge Carlos and lostAs the director just said, he went back to the Far
East and was killed four or five years ago, yet Alex talks as if he’s still alive, that he and someone
named Panov got telegrams from himWhat in God’s name does a dead scumball tiffany and co. heart toggle necklace and the
world’s most elusive assassin have to do with last night?”
“You weren’t here a few minutes ago, Steve,” again Casset answered quietly“Apparently they
had a lot to do with last night
“I think you should start at the beginning, MrConklin,” said the director“Who is Jason
Bourne?”
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
19
“As the world knew him, a man who never existed,” replied the former intelligence officer
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
20
3
“The original Jason Bourne was garbage, a paranoid drifter from Tasmania who found his way into
the Vietnam war as part of an operation no one wants to acknowledge even todayIt was a
collection of killers, misfits, smugglers and thieves, mostly escaped criminals, many under death
sentences, but they knew every inch of Southeast Asia and operated behind enemy lines—funded
by us
“Medusa,” whispered Steven DeSoleThey were animals, killing wantonly
without reason or authorization and stealing millions
“Most, not all,” said Conklin“But the original Bourne fitted every rotten profile you chanel large cambon tote bag could
come up with, including the betrayal of his own menThe leader of a particularly hazardous
mission—hazardous, hell, it was suicidal—found Bourne radioing their position to the North
VietnameseHe executed him on the spot, shoving the body into a swamp to rot in the jungles of
Tam QuanJason Bourne disappeared from the face of the earth
“He obviously reappeared, MrConklin,” observed the director, leaning forward on the table
“In another body,” agreed Alex, noddingThe man who executed Bourne
in Tam Quan took his name and agreed to be trained for an operation that we called Treadstone
Seventy-one, after a building on New York’s Seventy-first Street, where he went through a brutal
indoctrination programIt was a brilliant strategy on paper, but ultimately failed because of
something no one could predict, even considerAfter nearly three years of living the role of the
world’s second most lethal assassin and moving into Europe—as Steve accurately described—to
challenge the Jackal in his own territory, our man was wounded and lost his memoryHe was fake white chanel watches found
half dead in the Mediterranean and brought by a fisherman to the island of Port NoirHe had no
idea who he was or what he was—only that he was a master of various martial arts, spoke a couple
of Oriental languages, and was obviously an extremely well-educated manWith the help of a
British doctor, an alcoholic banished to Port Noir, our man started to piece his life—his identity—
back together from fragments both mental and physicalIt was a hell of a journey and we who
had mounted the operation, who invented the myth, were no help to himNot knowing what had
happened, we thought he had turned, had actually become the mythical assassin we’d created to
trap CarlosI, myself, tried to kill him in Paris, and when he might have blown my head off, he
couldn’t do itHe finally made his way back to us only through the extraordinary talents of a
Canadian woman he met in Zurich and who is now his wifeThat lady had more guts and brains
than any woman I’ve ever metNow she and her husband and their two kids are back in the
nightmare, running for their d&g replica luggage lives