Текст книги "The Bourne Imperative (Крах Борна)"

Автор книги: Eric Van Lustbader

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Текущая страница: 25 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

“I thought Ben David had been burned to death.”

“One of his agents saved him, and I liberated him from his agent,” Bourne said. “I wanted his death to have meaning.”

Maceo Encarnación’s gaze returned to Colonel Ben David’s face, which stared up at him from its position on the floor. There was no seawater to wash away the blood and gore, to make the death clean and neat, to dream the dream of a perfect death.

“I thought he was you,” Maceo Encarnación said.

“Of course you did.”

Maceo Encarnación shuddered. “Let me go. I have the secret to SILEX. Imagine the wealth you and I will share.”

Bourne stared into his eyes.

“You killed Nicodemo in Paris.” It was only a semi-question.

“He knifed Rebeka,” Bourne said by way of answer. “She died a slow, painful death.”

“For that I’m sorry.”

“I looked into her eyes. I saw the pain. I saw the end coming, and there was nothing I could do.”

“For a man like you, that must be terrible indeed.”

Bourne drove a fist deep into Encarnación’s stomach. He doubled over, and Bourne pulled him erect by his hair.

The Mexican’s red-rimmed eyes opened wide. “You killed my son.”

 “He killed himself.”

Maceo Encarnación spat into his face. “How dare you!”

“I tried to subdue him underwater, but you trained him too well. He would have killed me and Don Fernando if I hadn’t killed him.” “ ¡Asesino!” Encarnación slipped a push-dagger from a sheath hidden beneath his clothes. His fist shot out, the blade aimed at Bourne’s heart.

Bourne grasped the wrist, and turned it, snapping it in two. Maceo Encarnación grimaced, slammed Bourne’s throat with the heel of his other hand. Bourne, a low animal growl erupting from deep inside him, spun him around, grasped his head in both hands, and cracked the neck completely in two. As he let Maceo Encarnación go, the Mexican’s head lolled at an unnatural angle, as if begging to be separated from the rest of him.

Epilogue

Tel Aviv, Israel

THE DIRECTOR WOULD like to talk with you,” Dani Amit, head of Mossad Collections, said.

“Talk with me,” Bourne said. “Not kill me.”

Amit laughed, but his pale blue eyes remained steady and grave. The two men were sitting at a small table at Entr’acte, a seaside restaurant along Tel Aviv’s sweeping scimitar beach.

“The termination order was a mistake. Obviously.”

“In our business,” Bourne said, matching Amit’s tone, “almost everything is a mistake in hindsight.”

Amit’s eyes drifted to the water, the lines of empty chairs set up on the beach. “That which doesn’t kill us turns us gray.”

“Or insane.”

Amit’s gaze snapped back.

“It was insane to send someone after Rebeka,” Bourne said.

“She went off the grid. She broke protocol.”

“Because she couldn’t trust anyone.”

Amit sighed and folded his hands together, as if in prayer. “Concerning Dahr El Ahmar, we owe you a great debt of gratitude.”

“Rebeka suspected Ben David was rotten.” Bourne would not let the subject go. “She was right.”

Amit licked his lips. “Concerning Rebeka, we have received her body from the authorities in Mexico City.”

“I know. You will bury her with honors. I want to be there.”

“Outsiders are not permitted—” Amit bit off the automatic response, and nodded. “Of course.”

A soft breeze ruffled Bourne’s hair. His body ached. He could feel every place the flames had touched him, every place Maceo Encarnación had struck him.

“Did she have family?”

“Her parents are dead,” Amit said. “You’ll meet her brother at the funeral.”

“He’s Mossad also.”

“Finish your espresso,” Amit said, “then we must go.”

Aboard the Director’s boat, Bourne was provided with a panoramic view of the city. The sun beat down from a sky studded with small clouds, scudding before a following wind. He seemed far removed from the snowy highlands of Lebanon.

“You’re a fine sailor,” the Director said. “What other talents have you hidden from us?”

“I don’t forgive.”

The Director looked at him. “That’s a very Mossad trait.” His Brillo hair seemed impervious to the wind. “That said, we’re all human, Bourne.”

“No,” Bourne said. “You’re Mossad.”

The Director pursed his livery lips. “Well, there’s truth to that, no doubt, but as you’ve already discovered, we’re not infallible.”

Bourne looked back at the glaringly white city and was suddenly aware of the ages of history buried there. He took out the thin gold chain with the star of David.

The Director saw it and came and sat beside his guest. “That was Rebeka’s.”

Bourne nodded.

The Director took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I go sailing whenever one of my people has been killed.”

Bourne was silent. The star of David dangled between them, spinning slowly, now and then catching sunlight and redirecting it. After a long time, he said, “Does it help?”

“Out here in the clean air and the calm of the water, without the burden of the city on my back, I can finally feel how lost I am.” The Director looked down at his strong, capable hands. “Is that a help?” He shrugged, as if to himself. “I don’t know. Do you?”

Bourne, thinking how helpless he was when Rebeka’s life slipped away, felt, like a little earthquake, echoes of identical sorrows, and understood with a terrible finality that he was as lost as the man who sat beside him.

About the Authors

ROBERT LUDLUMwas the author of twenty-one novels, each one a New York Timesbestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series– The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum—among others.

Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001. www.Robert-Ludlum.com

ERIC VAN LUSTBADERis most widely known as the New York Timesbestselling author of twenty international bestselling thrillers including The Ninjaand Black Heart. He is also the author of two successful and highly regarded series of fantasy novels, The Sunset Warrior Cycleand The Pearl Saga. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages. www.ericvanlustbader.com

Other Works

The Jason Bourne Novels

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Legacy (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Betrayal (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Sanction (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Deception (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Objective (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Dominion (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Bourne Imperative (by Eric Van Lustbader)

The Covert-One Novels

The Hades Factor (by Gayle Lynds)

The Cassandra Compact (by Philip Shelby)

The Paris Option (by Gayle Lynds)

The Altman Code (by Gayle Lynds)

The Lazarus Vendetta (byPatrickLarkin)

The Moscow Vector (by Patrick Larkin)

The Arctic Event (by James Cobb)

The Ares Decision (by Kyle Mills)

The Paul Janson Novels

The Janson Directive

The Janson Command (by Paul Garrison)

Also by Robert Ludlum

The Scarlatti Inheritance 

The Matlock Paper 

Trevayne

The Cry of the Halidon 

The Rhinemann Exchange 

The Road to Gandolfo 

The Gemini Contenders 

The Chancellor Manuscript 

The Holcroft Covenant 

The Matarese Circle 

The Parsifal Mosaic 

The Aquitaine Progression 

The Icarus Agenda 

The Osterman Weekend 

The Road to Omaha 

The Scorpio Illusion 

The Apocalypse Watch 

The Matarese Countdown 

The Prometheus Deception 

The Sigma Protocol 

The Tristan Betrayal 

The Ambler Warning 

The Bancroft Strategy

Also by Eric Van Lustbader

Nicholas Linnear Novels

Second Skin

Floating City

The Kaisho

White Ninja

The Miko

The Ninja