The Bourne ultimatum (37 page)

“David, you’re
hurt
!”

“That’s nice.” Jason Bourne got to his feet and raced to the door; slamming it back, he rushed into the villa’s living room, only to face a frowning Canadian physician.

“I heard some noise in there,” said the doctor. “Is everything all right?”

“I have to leave. Get to the
floor
.”

“Now, see here! There’s blood on your bandage, the sutures—”

“Get your ass on the
floor
!”

“You’re not twenty-one, Mr. Webb—”

“Get out of my
life
!” shouted Bourne, running to the entrance, letting himself outside, and rushing up the lighted path toward the main complex, suddenly aware of the deafening steel band, its sound amplified throughout the grounds by a score of speakers nailed to the trees.

The undulating cacophony was overwhelming, and that was not to his disadvantage, thought Jason. Angus McLeod had been true to his word. The huge glass-enclosed circular dining room held the few remaining guests and the fewer staff, and that meant the Chameleon had to change colors. He knew the mind of the Jackal as well as he knew his own, and that meant that the assassin would do exactly what he himself would do under the circumstances. The hungry, salivating wolf went into the cave of its confused, rabid quarry and pulled out the prized piece of meat. So would he, shedding the skin of the mythical chameleon, revealing a much larger beast of prey—say, a Bengal tiger—which could rip a jackal apart in his jaws. ... Why were the images important?
Why
? He knew why, and it filled him with a feeling of emptiness, a longing for something that had passed—he was no longer Delta, the feared guerrilla of Medusa; nor was he the Jason Bourne of Paris and the Far East. The older, much older, David Webb kept intruding, invading, trying to find reason within insanity and violence.

No
! Get
away
from me! You are nothing and I am everything! ... Go away, David, for Christ’s sake, go
away
.

Bourne spun off the path and ran across the harsh, sharp tropical grass toward the side entrance of the inn. Instantly, breathlessly, he cut his pace to a walk at the sight of a figure coming through the door; then upon recognizing the man, he resumed running. It was one of the few members of Tranquility’s staff he remembered and one of the few he wished he could forget. The insufferable snob of an assistant manager named Pritchard, a loquacious bore, albeit hardworking, who never let anyone forget his family’s importance in Montserrat—especially an uncle who was deputy director of immigration, a not so incidental plus for Tranquility Inn, David Webb suspected.

“Pritchard!” shouted Bourne, approaching the man. “Have you got the bandages?”

“Why,
sir
!” cried the assistant manager, genuinely flustered. “You’re
here
. We were told you left this afternoon—”

“Oh, shit!”

“Sir? ... Such condolences of sorrow so pain my lips—”

“Just keep them shut, Pritchard. Do you understand me?”

“Of course, I was not here this morning to greet you or this afternoon to bid you farewell and express my deepest feelings, for Mr. Saint Jay asked me to work this evening, through the night, actually—”

“Pritchard, I’m in a hurry. Give me the bandages and don’t tell anyone—
anyone
—that you saw me. I want that very clear.”

“Oh, it is clear, sir,” said Pritchard, handing over the three different rolls of elasticized tape. “Such privileged information is safe with me, as safe as the knowledge that your wife and children were staying here—oh, God
forgive
me!
Forgive
me, sir!”

“I will and He will if you keep your mouth shut.”

“Sealed. It is sealed. I am so privileged!”

“You’ll be shot if you abuse the privilege. Is
that
clear?”

“
Sir
?”

“Don’t faint, Pritchard. Go down to the villa and tell Mr. Saint Jay that I’ll be in touch with him and he’s to stay there. Have you got that? He’s to
stay
there. ... You, too, for that matter.”

“Perhaps I could—”

“Forget it. Get
out
of here!”

The talkative assistant manager ran across the lawn toward the path to the east villas as Bourne raced to the door and went inside. Jason climbed the steps two at a time—only years before, it would have been three at a time—and again, out of breath, reached St. Jacques’s office. He entered, closed the door, and quickly went to the closet where he knew his brother-in-law kept several changes of clothing. Both men were approximately the same size—outsized, as Marie claimed—and Johnny had frequently borrowed jackets and shirts from David Webb when visiting. Jason selected the most subdued combination in the closet. Lightweight gray slacks and an all-cotton dark blue blazer; the only shirt in evidence, again tropical cotton, was thankfully short-sleeved and brown. Nothing would pick up or reflect light.

He started to undress when he felt a sharp, hot jolt on the left side of his neck. He looked in the closet mirror, alarmed, then furious at what he saw. The constricting bandage around his throat was deep red with spreading blood. He tore open the box of the widest tape; it was too late to change the dressing, he could only reinforce it and hope to stem the bleeding. He unraveled the elasticized tape around his neck, tearing it after several revolutions, and applied the tiny clamps to hold it in place. It was more inhibiting than ever; it was also an impediment he would put out of his mind.

He changed clothes, pulling the collar of the brown shirt high over his throat and putting the automatic in his belt, the reel of fishing line in the blazer’s pocket. ...
Footsteps
! The door opened as he pressed his back against the wall, his hand on the weapon. Old Fontaine walked in; he stood for a moment, looking at Bourne, then closed the door.

“I’ve been trying to find you, frankly not knowing if you were still alive,” said the Frenchman.

“We’re not using the radios unless we have to.” Jason walked away from the wall. “I thought you got the message.”

“I did and it was right. Carlos may have his own radio by now. He’s not alone, you know. It’s why I’ve been wandering around looking for you. Then it occurred to me that you and your brother-in-law might be up here in his office, a headquarters, as it were.”

“It’s not very smart for you to be walking around out in the open.”

“I’m not an idiot, monsieur. I would have perished long before now if I were. Wherever I walked I did so with great caution. ... In truth, it’s why I made up my mind to find you, assuming you were not dead.”

“I’m not and you found me. What is it? You and the judge are supposed to be in an empty villa somewhere, not wandering around.”

“We are; we were. You see, I have a plan, a
stratagème
, I believe would interest you. I discussed it with Brendan—”

“Brendan?”

“His name, monsieur. He thinks my plan has merit and he’s a brilliant man, very
sagace
—”

“Shrewd? Yes, I’m sure he is, but he’s not in our business.”

“He’s a survivor. In that sense we are all in the same business. He thinks there is a degree of risk, but what plan under these circumstances is without risk?”

“What’s your plan?”

“It is a means to trap the Jackal with minimum danger to the other people here.”

“That really worries you, doesn’t it?”

“I told you why, so there’s no reason to repeat it. There are men and women together out there—”

“Go on,” broke in Bourne, irritated. “What’s this strategy of yours, and you’d better understand that I intend to take out the Jackal if I have to hold this whole goddamned island hostage. I’m not in a giving mood. I’ve given too much.”

“So you and Carlos stalk each other in the night? Two crazed middle-aged hunters obsessed with killing each other, not caring who else is killed or wounded or maimed for life in the bargain?”

“You want compassion, go to a church and appeal to that God of yours who pisses on this planet! He’s either got one hell of a warped sense of humor or he’s a sadist. Now either talk sense or I’m getting out of here.”

“I’ve thought this out—”

“
Talk
!”

“I know the monseigneur, know the way he thinks. He planned the death of my woman and me but not to coincide with yours, not in a way that would detract from the high drama of his immediate victory over you. It would come later. The revelation that I, the so-called hero of France, was in reality the Jackal’s instrument, his creation, would be the final proof of his triumph. Don’t you see?”

Briefly silent, Jason studied the old man. “Yes, I do,” he replied quietly. “Not that I ever figured on someone like you, but that approach is the basis of everything I believe. He’s a megalomaniac. In his head he’s the king of hell and wants the world to recognize him and his throne. By his lights, his genius has been overlooked, relegated to the level of punk killers and Mafia hit men. He wants trumpets and drums, when all he hears are tired sirens and weary questions in police lineups.”

“
C’est vrai
. He once complained to me that almost no one in America knew who he was.”

“They don’t. They think he’s a character out of novels or films, if they think about him at all. He tried to make up for that thirteen years ago, when he flew over from Paris to New York to kill me.”

“Correction, monsieur. You forced him to go after you.”

“It’s history. What’s all this got to do with now, tonight ... your plan?”

“It provides us with a way to force the Jackal to come out after
me
, to meet with
me
. Now. Tonight.”

“How?”

“By my wandering around the grounds very much in the open where he or one of his scouts will see me and hear me.”

“Why would that force him to come out after you?”

“Because I will not be with the nurse he had assigned to me. I will be with someone else, unknown to him, someone who would have no reason at all to kill me.”

Again Bourne looked at the old Frenchman in silence. “Bait,” he said finally.

“A lure so provocative it will drive him into a frenzy until he has it in his possession—has me in his grip so he can question me. ... You see, I’m vital to him—more specifically, my death is vital—and everything is timing to him. Precision is his ... his
diction
, how is it said?”

“His byword, his method of operation, I suppose.”

“It is how he has survived, how he has made the most of each kill, each over the years adding to his reputation as the
assassin supr
ê
me
. Until a man named Jason Bourne came out of the Far East ... he has never been the same since. But you know all that—”

“I don’t care about all that,” interrupted Jason. “The ‘timing.’ Go on.”

“After I’m gone he can reveal who Jean Pierre Fontaine, the hero of France, really was. An impostor,
his
impostor,
his
creation, the instrument of death who was the snare for Jason Bourne. What a triumph for him! ... But he cannot do that until I’m dead. Quite simply, it would be too inconvenient. I know too much, too many of my colleagues in the gutters of Paris. No, I must be dead before he has his triumph.”

“Then he’ll kill you when he sees you.”

“Not until he has his answers, monsieur. Where is his killer nurse? What has happened to her? Did Le Caméléon find her, turn her, do away with her? Have the British authorities got her? Is she on her way to London and MI-Six with all their chemicals, to be turned over at last to Interpol? So many questions. ... No, he will not kill me until he learns what he must learn. It may take only minutes to satisfy him, but long before then I trust that you will be at my side insuring my survival, if not his.”

“The nurse? Whoever it is, she’ll be shot.”

“No, not at all. I’ll order her away in anger, out of my sight at the first sign of contact. As I walk with her I shall lament the absence of my new dear friend, the angel of mercy who takes such good care of my wife, wondering out loud, What has happened to her? Where has she gone? Why haven’t I seen her all
day
? Naturally, I will conceal on my person the radio, activated, of course. Wherever I am taken—for surely one of Carlos’s men will make contact first—I will ask an enfeebled old man’s questions. Why am I going here? Why are we there? ... You will follow—in full force, I sincerely hope. If you do so, you’ll have the Jackal.”

Holding his head straight, his neck rigid, Bourne walked to St. Jacques’s desk and sat on the edge. “Your friend, Judge Brendan what’s-his-name, is right—”

“
Pre
fontaine. Although Fontaine is not my true name, we’ve decided it’s all the same family. When the earliest members left Alsace-Lorraine for America in the eighteenth century with Lafayette, they added the
Pre
to distinguish them from the Fontaines who spread out all over France.”

“He told you that?”

“He’s a brilliant man, once an honored judge.”

“Lafayette came from Alsace-Lorraine?”

“I don’t know, monsieur. I’ve never been there.”

“He’s a brilliant man. ... More to the point; he’s right. Your plan has a lot of merit, but there’s also considerable risk. And I’ll be honest with you, Fontaine, I don’t give a damn about the risk you’re taking or about the nurse, whoever it is. I want the Jackal, and if it costs your life or the life of a woman I don’t know, it doesn’t matter to me. I want you to understand that.”

The old Frenchman stared at Jason with amused rheumy eyes and laughed softly. “You are such a transparent contradiction. Jason Bourne would never have said what you just did. He would have remained silent, accepting my proposition without comment but knowing the advantage. Mrs. Webb’s husband, however, must have a voice.
He
objects and must be heard.” Fontaine suddenly spoke sharply. “Get
rid
of him, Monsieur Bourne.
He
is not my protection, not the death of the Jackal. Send him away.”

“He’s gone. I promise you, he’s
gone
.” The Chameleon sprang up from the desk, his neck frozen in pain. “Let’s get started.”