They’re the only people on earth I
really care... They’re the only people on earth I
really care about
“But you are Jason Bourne, the killer Chameleon! The deepest recesses of the criminal world
tremble at your name!”
“Oh, come on, that’s a bit much, even from you
“Not for an instant! You are Bourne, second only to the Jackal—”
“No!” shouted the suddenly forgotten David Webb“He’s no match for me! I’ll take him! I’ll
kill him!”
“Very well, very well, mon ami,” said Bernardine calmly, reassuringly, staring at the man he
could not understand“What do you want me to do?”
Jason Bourne turned and breathed heavily against the glass window for several moments—and
then through the mists of indecision the Chameleon’s strategy became clearHe swung around and
looked across the dark street at the stone building on the right“The police are gone,” he said
quietly
“Of course, I realize that
“Did you also realize that no one from the other two buildings came outside? Yet there are lights
on in a number of the windows
“I was preoccupied, what can
bay bag chloe I say? I did not notice Bernardine raised his eyebrows in sudden
recollection“But there were faces at the windows, several faces, I saw them
“Yet no one came outside
“Very understandablemen with weapons racing aroundBest to barricade oneself,
no?”
“Even after the police and the weapons and the patrol cars have left? They all just go back to
their television sets as if nothing had happened? No one comes out to check with the neighbors?
That’s not natural, Fran?ois; it’s not even unnaturally naturalIt’s been orchestrated
“What do you mean? How?”
“One man walks out on the porch and shouts into a searchlightAttention is drawn to him and
precious seconds of a minute’s warning evaporateThen a nun emerges on the other side draping
herself in holy indignation—more seconds lost, more hours for CarlosThe assault’s mounted and
the Deuxième comes up with zeroAnd when it’s all over, everything’s back to normal—an
abnormal normalcyA job was done according to a predesigned plan, so there’s no
tiffany co jewelry call for really
normal curiosity—no gathering in the street, no excitement, not even a collective postcrisis
indignationSimply people inside undoubtedly checking with one anotherDoesn’t it all tell you
something?”
Bernardine nodded“A prearranged strategy carried out by professionals,” said the veteran field
officer
“That’s what I think, too
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
270
“It’s what you saw and I did not,” countered Bernardine“Stop being kind, JasonI’ve been too
long away from the coldToo soft, too old, too unimaginative
“So have I,” said Bourne“It’s just that the stakes are so high for me that I have to force myself
into thinking like a man I wanted to forget
“This is Monsieur Webb speaking?”
“I guess it is
“So where does that leave us?”
“With an irate baker and an angry nun, and if they prove to be ciphers, several faces in various
windowsAt this juncture the pickings are ours but that won’t last long, I doubt through the
morning
“I beg your pardon?”
“Carlos will
chanel watch women close up shop here and he’ll do it quicklyHe hasn’t got a choice nowSomeone in
his Praetorian guard gave someone else the location of his Paris headquarters, and you can bet your
pension—if you’ve still got one—that he’s climbing the walls trying to figure out who betrayed
him—”
“Get back!” cried Bernardine, interrupting and grabbing Jason by the cloth of his black jacket,
yanking him into the farthest recess of the dark storefront“Get out of sight! Flat on the pavement!”
Both men threw themselves down, lying prone on the broken concrete, Bourne’s face against the
short wall below the glass, his head angled to see the streetA second dark van appeared from the
right, but it was not police equipmentInstead, it was shinier and smaller, somehow thicker, lower
to the ground and more powerfulThe one glaring, blinding similarity it had to the police van was
the searchlightNo, not one, but two searchlights, one on either side of the windshield, both
beams swinging back and forth scanning the
louis vuitton diaper bags vehicle’s flanksJason reached for the weapon in his
belt—the gun he had borrowed from Bernardine—knowing that his companion already had his
backup automatic out of his pocketThe beam of the left searchlight shot over their bodies as
Bourne whispered, “Good work, but how did you spot it?”
“The moving reflections of the lamps on the side windows,” replied old Fran?ois“I thought for
a moment it was my former colleague returning to finish the job he had contemplatedNamely, my
stomach in the streetMy God, look!”
The van swept past the first two buildings, then suddenly swerved into the curb and stopped in
front of the last structure, nearly two hundred feet from the storefront, the building farthest from the
Jackal’s telephoneThe instant the vehicle came to a halt the rear door opened and four men
jumped out, automatic weapons in their hands, two running to the street side, one racing down the
pavement to the front, the last guard standing menacingly by the open doors, his MAC-10 ready
chanel purse white to
fire