“You might have included a note! I’ve been poring... “You might have included a note! I’ve been poring over these things since eight o’clock
“I didn’t find it—them—until after nine and I didn’t want to call you from Virginia
“That’s another story, isn’t it?” said Bourne, sitting down on the couch, once again leaning
forward anxiously
“Yes, it is, and it’s God-awful
“Medusa?”
“It’s worse than I thought, and worse than that, I didn’t think it could be
“It’s a bowelful,” countered the retired intelligence officerPentagon
procurements? The Federal Trade Commission? Our ambassador in London, or would you like the
supreme commander of NATO?”
“My God !”
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
54
“Oh, I can go one betterFor size, try on the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
“Christ, what is it? Some
omega deville watch kind of cabal?”
“That’s so academic, DrNow try collusion, down deep and elusive and after all these
years still breathing, still aliveThey’re in contact with each other in high placesWhy?”
“What’s the purpose? The objective?”
“I just said that, asked that, really
“There has to be a reason!”
“Try motiveI just said that, too, and it may be as simple as hiding past sinsIsn’t that what we
were looking for? A collection of former Medusans who’d run to the hills at the thought of the past
coming to light?”
“Then that’s it
“No, it’s not, and this is Saint Alex’s instincts searching for wordsTheir reactions were too
immediate, too visceral, too loaded with today, not twenty years agoSomething’s different from what we expected, and I’m goddamned
fake chanel bag sick of
making mistakesBut this isn’t a mistakeYou said this morning that it could be a net work, and
I thought you were way the hell off baseI thought that maybe we’d find a few high profiles who
didn’t want to be publicly drawn and quartered for things they did twenty years ago, or who
legitimately didn’t want to embarrass the government, and we could use them, force them in their
collective fear to do things and say things we told them to doBut this is differentIt’s today, and I
can’t figure it outIt’s more than fear, it’s panic; they’re frightened out of their mindsWe’ve
bumbled and stumbled onto something, MrBourne, and in your rich friend Cactus’s old-time
minstrel-show language, ‘In the focus, it could be bigger than bo’fus
“In my
chanel bags to buy considered opinion there’s, nothing bigger than the Jackal! Not for meThe rest can go
to hell
“I’m on your side and I’ll go to the wall shouting itI just wanted you to know my thoughts
Except for a brief and pretty rotten interlude, we never kept anything from each other, David
“I prefer Jason these days
“Yes, I know,” interrupted Conklin“I hate it but I understand
“Do you?”
“Yes,” said Alex softly, nodding as he closed his eyes“I’d do anything to change it but I can’tIn that serpentine mind of yours—Cactus’s description, incidentally—
conjure up the worst scenario you can think of and shove those bastards against another wall, one
they can’t get away from unscathed unless they follow your instructions down to the letterThose
orders will
dolce & gabbana bag be to stay quiet and wait for you to call and tell them who to reach and what to say
Conklin looked over at his damaged friend with guilt and concern“There may be a scenario in
place that I can’t match,” said Alex quietly“I won’t make another mistake, not in that areaI need
more than what I’ve got
Bourne clasped his hands, flesh angrily grinding flesh in frustrationHe stared at the scattered
printouts in front of him, frowning, wincing, his jaw pulsatingIn seconds a sudden passivity came
over him; he sat back on the couch and spoke as quietly as Conklin“All right, you’ll get itI’ll need names, residences, schedules and methods of security, favorite
restaurants and bad habits, if any are knownTell your boys to go to workAll night,
dolce and gabbana handbag if
necessary