The Bourne Identity (33 page)

"I would have told you myself," said Bourne, smiling back, countering the pout in Lavier's voice. "But I don't think you asked."

" 'Spoors in the forest,' monsieur. Here, I bring you a feast!" She separated the dresses, placing them carefully over several chairs. "I truly believe these are among the finest creations Rene has brought us."

"Brought you? He doesn't work here then?"

"A figure of speech; his studio's at the end of the corridor, but it is a holy sacristy. Even I tremble when I enter."

"They're magnificent," continued Bourne, going from one to another. 'But I don't want to overwhelm her, just pacify her," he added, pointing out three garments. "I'll take these."

"A fine selection, Monsieur Briggs!"

"Box them with the others, if you will."

"Of course. She is, indeed, a fortunate lady."

"A good companion, but a child. A spoiled child, I'm afraid. However, Ire been away a lot and haven't paid much attention to her, so I guess I should make peace. It's one reason I sent her to Cap-Ferrat."

He smiled, taking out his Louis Vuitton billfold.
"La facture, si'il vous plait?"

"I'll have one of the girls expedite everything." Madame Lavier pressed a button on the intercom next to the telephone. Jason watched closely, prepared to comment on the call Bergeron had answered in the event the woman's eyes settled on a slightly out-of-place phone.
"Faites venir Janine--avec les robes.
La facture aussi."
She stood up. "Another brandy, Monsieur Briggs?"

"Merci bien."
Bourne extended his glass; she took it and walked to the bar. Jason knew the time had not yet arrived for what he had in mind; it would come soon--as soon as he parted with money--but not now. He could, however, continue building a foundation with the managing partner of Les Classiques.

"That fellow Bergeron," he said. "You say he's under exclusive contract to you?"

Madame Lavier turned, the glass in her hand. "Oh, yes. We are a closely knit family here."

Bourne accepted the brandy, nodded his thanks, and sat down in an armchair in front of the desk.

"That's a constructive arrangement," he said pointlessly.

The tall, gaunt clerk he had first spoken with came into the office, a salesbook in her hand. Instructions were given rapidly, figures entered, the garments gathered and separated as the salesbook exchanged hands. Lavier held it out for Jason's perusal.
"Voici la facture, monsieur,"
she said. Bourne shook his head, dismissing inspection.
"Com-bien?"
he asked.

"Vingt-mille, soixante francs, monsieur,"
answered the Les Classiques partner, watching his reaction with the expression of a very large, wary bird.

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There was none. Jason merely removed five five-thousand-franc notes and handed them to her. She nodded and gave them in turn to the slender salesclerk, who walked cadaverously out of the office with the dresses.

"Everything will be packaged and brought up here with your change." Lavier went to her desk and sat down. "You're on your way to Ferrat, then. It should be lovely."

He had paid; the time had come. "A last night in Paris before I go back to kindergarten," said Jason, raising his glass in a toast of self-mockery.

"Yes, you mentioned that your friend is quite young."

"A child is what I said, and that's what she is. She's a good companion, but I think I prefer the company of more mature women."

"You must be very fond of her," contested Lavier, touching her perfectly coiffed hair, the flattery accepted. "You buy her such lovely--and, frankly--very expensive things."

"A minor price considering what she might try to opt for."

"Really."

"She's my wife, my third to be exact, and there are appearances to be kept up in the Bahamas. But all that's neither here nor there; my life's quite in order."

"I'm sure it is, monsieur."

"Speaking of the Bahamas, a thought occurred to me a few minutes ago. It's why I asked you about Bergeron."

"What is that?"

"You may think I'm impetuous; I assure you I'm not. But when something strikes me, I like to explore it. Since Bergeron's yours exclusively, have you ever given any thought to opening a branch in the islands?"

"The Bahamas?"

"And points south. Into the Caribbean, perhaps."

"Monsieur, Saint-Honore by itself is often more than we can handle. Untended farmland generally goes fallow, as they say."

"It wouldn't have to be tended; not in the way that you think. A concession here, one there, the designs exclusive, local ownership on a percentage-franchise basis. Just a boutique or two, spreading, of course, cautiously."

"That takes considerable capital, Monsieur Briggs."

"Key prices, initially. What you might call entrance fees. They're high but not prohibitive, in the finer hotels and clubs it usually depends on how well you know the managements."

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"And you know them?"

"Extremely well. As I say, I'm just exploring, but I think the idea has merit. Your labels would have a certain distinction--Les Classiques, Paris, Grand Bahama ... Caneel Bay, Perhaps." Bourne swallowed the rest of his brandy. "But you probably think I'm crazy. Consider it just talk. ... Although I've made a dollar or two on risks that simply struck me on the spur of the moment."

"Risks?" Jacqueline Lavier touched her hair again.

"I don't give ideas away, madame. I generally back them."

"Yes, I understand. As you say, the idea does have merit."

"I think so. Of course, I'd like to see what kind of agreement you have with Bergeron."

"It could be produced, monsieur."

"Tell you what," said Jason. "If you're free, let's talk about it over drinks and dinner. It's my only night in Paris."

"And you prefer the company of more mature women," concluded Jacqueline Lavier, the mask cracked into a smile again, the white ice breaking beneath eyes now more in concert.

"C'est vrai, madame."

"It can be arranged," she said, reaching for the phone.

The phone. Carlos.

He would break her, thought Bourne. Kill her if he had to. He would learn the truth.

Marie walked through the crowd toward the booth in the telephone complex on rue Vaugirard. She had taken a room at the Meurice, left the attache case at the front desk, and had sat alone in the room for exactly twenty-two minutes. Until she could not stand it any longer. She had sat in a chair facing a blank wall, thinking about Jason, about the madness of the last eight days that had propelled her into an insanity beyond her understanding. Jason. Considerate, frightening, bewildered Jason Bourne. A man with so much violence in him, and yet oddly, so much compassion. And too terribly capable in dealing with a world ordinary men knew nothing about. Where had he sprung from, this love of hers? Who had taught him to find his way through the dark back streets of Paris, Marseilles, and Zurich ... as far away as the Orient, perhaps? What was the Far East to him? How did he know the languages? What
were
the languages? Or language?

Tao.

Che-sah.

Tam Quan.

Another world, and she knew nothing of it. But she knew Jason Bourne, or the man called Jason
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Bourne, and she held on to the decency she knew was there. Oh, God, how she loved him so!

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. Carlos. What was he to Jason Bourne?

Stop it! she had screamed at herself while in that room alone. And then she had done what she had seen Jason do so many times: she had lunged up from the chair, as if the physical movement would clear the mists away--or allow her to break through them.

Canada. She had to reach Ottawa and find out why Peter's death--his murder--was being handled so secretly, so obscenely. It did not make sense; she objected with all her heart. For Peter, too, was a decent man, and he had been killed by indecent men. She would be told why or she would expose that death--that murder--herself. She would scream out loud to the world that she knew, and say, "Do something!"

And so she had left the Meurice, taken a cab to the rue Vaugirard, and placed the call to Ottawa. She waited now outside the booth, her anger mounting, an unlit cigarette creased between her fingers. When the bell rang, she could not take the time to crush it out.

It rang. She opened the glass door of the booth and went inside.

"Is this you, Alan?"

"Yes," was the curt reply.

"Alan, what the hell is going on? Peter was
murdered
, and there hasn't been a single word in any newspaper or on any broadcast! I don't think the embassy even knows! It's as though no one cared!

What are you people
doing?"

"What we're told to do. And so will you."

"What? That was
Peter!
He was your friend! Listen to me, Alan ..."

"No!" The interruption was harsh. "
You
listen. Get out of Paris. Now! Take the next direct flight back here. If you have any problems, the embassy will clear them--but you're to talk only to the ambassador, is that understood?"

"No!" screamed Marie St. Jacques. "I don't understand! Peter was killed and nobody cares! All you're saying is bureaucratic bullshit! Don't get involved; for God's sake, don't
ever
get involved!"

"Stay out of it, Marie!"

"Stay out of
what?
That's what you're not telling me, isn't it? Well, you'd better ..."

"I can't!" Alan lowered his voice. "I don't know. I'm only telling you what I was told to tell you."

"By whom?"

"You can't ask me that."

"I
am
asking!"

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"Listen to me, Marie. I haven't been home for the past twenty-four hours. I've been waiting here for the last twelve for you to call. Try to understand me--I'm not suggesting you come back. Those are orders from your government."

"
Orders?
Without explanations?"

"That's the way it is. I'll say this much. They want you out of there; they want him isolated. ... That's the way it is."

"Sorry, Alan--that's
not
the way it is. Goodbye." She slammed the receiver down, then instantly gripped her hands to stop the trembling.
Oh, my God, she loved him so ... and they were trying to kill
him. Jason, my Jason. They all want you killed. Why?

The conservatively dressed man at the switchboard snapped the red toggle that blocked the lines, reducing all incoming calls to a busy signal. He did so once or twice an hour, if only to clear his mind and expunge the empty insanities he had been required to mouth during the past minutes. The necessity to cut off all conversation usually occurred to him after a particularly tedious one; he had just had it. The wife of a Deputy trying to conceal the outrageous price of a single purchase by breaking it up into several, thus not to be so apparent to her husband. Enough! He needed a few minutes to breathe. The irony struck him. It was not that many years ago when others sat in front of switchboards for
him
. At his companies in Saigon and in the communications room of his vast plantation in the Mekong Delta. And here he was now in front of someone else's switchboard in the perfumed surroundings of Saint-Honore. The English poet said it best: There were more preposterous vicissitudes in life than a single philosophy could conjure.

He heard laughter on the staircase and looked up. Jacqueline was leaving early, no doubt with one of her celebrated and fully bankrolled acquaintances. There was no question about it, Jacqueline had a talent for removing gold from a well-guarded mine, even diamonds from De Beers. He could not see the man with her; he was on the other side of Jacqueline, his head oddly turned away. Then for an instant he did see him; their eyes made contact; it was brief and explosive. The gray-haired switchboard operator suddenly could not breathe; he was suspended in a moment of disbelief, staring at a face, a head, he had not seen in years. And then almost always in darkness, for they had worked at night ... died at night.

Oh, my God--it was
him!
From the living--dying--nightmares thousands of miles away. It
was him!

The gray-haired man rose from the switchboard as if in a trance. He pulled the mouthpiece-earphone off and let it drop to the floor. It clattered as the board lit up with incoming calls that made no connections, answered only with discordant hums. He stepped off the platform and sidestepped his way quickly toward the aisle to get a better look at Jacqueline Lavier and the ghost that was her escort. The ghost who was a killer--above all men he had ever known, a
killer
. They said it might happen but he had never believed them; he believed them now. It
was
the
man
. He saw them both clearly. Saw
him
. They were walking down the center aisle toward the entrance. He had to stop them. Stop
her!
But to rush out and yell would mean death. A bullet in the head, instantaneous.

They reached the doors;
he
pulled them open, ushering her out to the pavement. The gray-haired man raced out from his hiding place, across the intersecting aisle and down to the front window. Out in the
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street
he
had flagged a taxi. He was opening the door, motioning for Jacqueline to get inside. Oh, God!

She was going!

The middle-aged man turned and ran as fast as he could toward the staircase. He collided with two startled customers and a salesclerk, pushing all three violently out of his way. He raced up the steps, across the balcony and down the corridor, to the open studio door.