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Several people turned their heads to gape, but no one stopped. The pace of the crowd
hurrying by barely flickered before returning to full force.
Bourne left Black Trench there, eeled his way through the almost solid curtain of
people back to the Orange line. Four minutes later, he’d eaten through two more
chocolate bars. Another Orange 6 to Vie
his shoulder, he got on. His head didn’t feel any deeper in the mist, but he knew what he
needed most now was water, as much as he could get down his throat, to flush the
chemical out of his system as quickly as possible.
Two stops later, he exited at Foggy Bottom. He waited at the rear of the platform until
no more passengers got off. Then he followed them up, taking the stairs two at a time in
an attempt to further clear his head.
His first breath of cool evening air was a deep and exhilarating one. Except for a slight
nausea, perhaps caused by a continuing vertigo, he felt better. As he emerged from the
Metro exit a nearby engine coughed to life; the headlights of a dark blue Audi came on.
He walked briskly to the car, opened the passenger’s-side door, slid in.
“How did it go?” Professor Specter nosed the Audi out into the heavy traffic.
“I got more than I bargained for,” Bourne said, leaning his head against the seat rest.
“And there’s been a change of plan. People are sure to be looking for me at the airport.
I’m going with Moira, at least as far as Munich.”
A look of deep concern crossed the professor’s face. “Do you think that’s wise?”
Bourne turned his head, stared out the window at the passing city. “It doesn’t matter.”
His thoughts were of Martin, and of Moira. “I passed wise some time ago.”
Book Two
Fourteen
IT’S AMAZING,” Moira said.
Bourne looked up from the files he’d snatched from Veronica Hart. “What’s
amazing?”
“You sitting here opposite me in this opulent corporate jet.” Moira was wearing a sleek
black suit of nubbly wool, shoes with sensible heels. A thin gold chain was around her
neck. “Weren’t you supposed to be on your way to Moscow tonight?”
Bourne drank water from the bottle on his side tray table, closed the file. He needed
more time to ascertain whether Karim al-Jamil had doctored these conversations, but he
had his suspicions. He knew Martin was far too ca
classified-which covered just about everything that happened at CI.
“I couldn’t stay away from you.” He watched a small smile curl Moira’s wide lips.
Then he dropped the bomb. “Also, the NSA is after me.”
It was as if a light went out in her face. “Say again?”
“The NSA. Luther LaValle has decided to make me a target.” He waved a hand to
forestall her questions. “It’s political. If he can bag me when the CI hierarchy can’t, he’ll prove to the powers that be that his thesis that CI should come under his jurisdiction
makes sense, especially after the turmoil CI has been in since Martin’s death.”
Moira pursed her lips. “So Martin was right. He was the only one left who believed in
you.”
Bourne almost added Soraya’s name, then thought better of it. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“It matters to me,” she said fiercely.
“Because you loved him.”
“We both loved him.” Her head tilted to one side. “Wait a minute, are you saying
there’s something wrong in that?”
“We live on the outskirts of society, in a world of secrets.” He deliberately included
her. “For people like us there’s always a price to pay for loving someone.”
“Like what?”
“We’ve spoken about it,” Bourne said. “Love is a weakness your enemies can exploit.”
“And I’ve said that’s a horrid way to live one’s life.”
Bourne turned to stare out the Perspex window at the darkness rushing by. “It’s the
only one I know.”
“I don’t believe that.” Moira leaned forward until their knees touched. “Surely you see
you’re more than that, Jason. You loved your wife; you love your children.”
“What kind of a father can I be to them? I’m a memory. And I’m a danger to them.
Soon enough I’ll be a ghost.”
“You can do something about that. And what kind of friend were you to Martin? The
best kind. The only kind that matters.” She tried to get him to turn back to her.
“Sometimes I’m convinced you’re looking for answers to questions that have none.”
“What does that mean?”
“That no matter what you’ve done in the past, no matter what you’ll do in the future,
you’ll never lose your humanity.” She watched his eyes engage hers slowly,
enigmatically. “That’s the one thing that frightens you, isn’t it?”
What’s the matter with you?” Devra asked.
Arkadin, behind the wheel of a rental car they had picked up in Istanbul, grunted
irritably. “What’re you talking about?”
“How long is it going to take you to fuck me?”
There being no flights from Sevastopol to Turkey, they’d spent a long night in a
cramped cabin of the Heroes of Sevastopol, being transported southwest across the Black
Sea from Ukraine to Turkey.
“Why would I want to do that?” Arkadin said as he headed off a lumbering truck on
the highway.
“Every man I meet wants to fuck me. Why should you be any different?” Devra ran
her hands through her hair. Her raised arms lifted her small breasts invitingly. “Like I
said. What’s the matter with you?” A smirk played at the corners of her mouth. “Maybe
you’re not a real man. Is that it?”
Arkadin laughed. “You’re so transparent.” He glanced at her briefly. “What’s your
game? Why are you trying to provoke me?”
“I like to extract reactions in my men. How else will I get to know them?”
“I’m not your man,” he growled.
Now Devra laughed. She wrapped slender fingers around his arm, rubbing back and
forth. “If your shoulder’s bothering you I’ll drive.”
He saw the familiar symbol on the inside of her wrist, all the more fearsome for being
tattooed on the porcelain skin. “When did you get that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not really. What matters is why you got it.” Faced with open highway, he put on
speed. “How else will I get to know you?”
She scratched the tattoo as if it had moved beneath her skin. “Pyotr made me get it. He
said it was part of the initiation. He said he wouldn’t go to bed with me until I got it.”
“And you wanted to go to bed with him.”
“Not as much as I want to go to bed with you.”
She turned away then, stared out the side window, as if she was suddenly embarrassed
by her confession. Perhaps she actually was, Arkadin thought as he signaled, moving
right through two lanes as a sign for a rest stop appeared. He turned off the highway,
parked at the far end of the rest stop, away from the two vehicles that occupied parking
slots. He got out, walked to the edge, and, with his back to her, took a long satisfying pee.
The day was bright and warmer than it had been in Sevastopol. The breeze coming off
the water was laden with moisture that lay on his skin like sweat. On the way back to the
car he rolled up his sleeves. His coat was slung with hers across the car’s backseat.
“We’d better enjoy this warmth while we can,” Devra said. “Once we get onto the
Anatolian Plateau, the mountains will block this temperate weather. It’ll be colder than a
witch’s teat.”
It was as if she’d never made the intimate statement. But she’d caught his attention, all
right. It seemed to him now that he understood something important about her-or, more
accurately, about himself. It went through Gala, as well, now that he thought of it. He