"This man... the leader..."
"Fadi." Bourne supplied his name.
"He"s tortur... torturing Lindros."
Bourne"s stomach rolled up into a ball of ice. "Is Lindros holding out? Cowell! Cowell can you answer me?"
"He"s beyond all questions now." Father Mihret stepped into, put his hand on Cowell"s sweat-soaked forehead. "G.o.d has granted him blessed relief from his suffering."
They were moving him. Martin Lindros knew this because he could hear Abbud ibn Aziz barking out a mult.i.tude of orders, all in the service of getting them the h.e.l.l out of the cave. There came the clangor of booted feet, the clash of metal weapons, the grunting of men lifting heavy loads. Then he heard the rattling engine of the truck as it backed up to the cave mouth.
A moment later, Abbud ibn Aziz himself came to blindfold him.
He squatted down beside Lindros. "Don"t worry," he said.
"I"m beyond worry," Lindros said in a cracked voice he barely recognized as his own.
Abbud ibn Aziz fingered the hood he was about to place over Lindros"s head. It was sewn of black cloth and had no eyeholes. "Whatever you know about the mission to murder Hamid ibn Ashef, now would be the time."
"I"ve told you repeatedly, I don"t know anything. You still don"t believe me."
"No." Abbud ibn Aziz placed the hood over his head. "I don"t."
Then, quite unexpectedly, his hand briefly gripped Lindros"s shoulder.
What is this, Lindros wondered, a sign of empathy? It was amusing in a way that was currently beyond him to appreciate. He could observe it as he observed everything these days, from behind a sheet of bulletproof gla.s.s of his own manufacture. That the pane was figurative made it no less effective. Ever since he"d returned from his private vault, Lindros had found himself in a semi-dissociative state, as if he couldn"t fully inhabit his own body. Things his body did-eating, sleeping, eliminating, walking for exercise, even talking occasionally with Abbud ibn Aziz-seemed to be happening to someone else. Lindros could scarcely believe that he had been captured. That the dissociation was an inevitable consequence of being locked up for so long in his mental vault-that the state would slowly dissolve and, finally, vanish-seemed at the moment to be a pure pipe dream. It seemed to him that he would live out the rest of his life in this limbo-alive, but not truly living.
He was pulled roughly to his feet, feeling as if he were in a dream imagined over and over during his time out on the placid lake. Why was he being moved with this kind of haste? Had someone come after him? He doubted that it was CI; from snippets he"d overheard days ago, he knew that Dujja had destroyed the second helicopter of agents sent to find him. No. There was only one person who had the knowledge, tenacity, and sheer skill to get to the summit of Ras Dejen without being killed: Jason Bourne! Jason had come to find him and bring him home!
Matthew Lerner sat in the rear of Golden Duck. Though it was in Chinatown, the small restaurant was featured in many D.C. guidebooks, which meant it was frequented by tourists and shunned by locals, including members of Lerner"s peculiar covert fraternity of spies and government agents. This, of course, suited him just fine. He had a good half a dozen meeting places he"d ferreted out around the district, randomizing his rendezvous with conduits and certain other individuals whose services he found useful.
The place, dim and dingy, smelled of sesame oil, five-spice powder, and the bubbling contents of a deep fryer from which egg rolls and breaded chicken parts were periodically lifted.
He was nursing a Tsingtao, drinking it out of the bottle because he found the oily smudges on the water gla.s.ses disturbing. Truth to tell, he"d much rather have been swigging Johnnie Walker Black, but not now. Not with this particular rendezvous.
His cell phone buzzed and, opening it, he saw a text message: "OUT THE BACK ONTO 7 ST. FIVE MINUTES."
Deleting it at once, he pocketed the phone and returned to polishing off his Tsingtao. When he"d finished, he plunked some bills onto the table, got his coat, and walked to the men"s room. He was, of course, familiar with the restaurant"s layout, as he was with the sites of all his rendezvous. After urinating, he turned right out of the men"s room, went past a kitchen clouded with steam, alive with shouted Cantonese and the angry sizzle of huge iron woks over open flames.
Pulling the rear door open, he slipped through onto 7th Street. The late-model Ford was as anonymous as you could get in D.C., where all government agencies were mandated to buy American when it came to transportation. With a quick look in either direction, he opened the rear door and slid inside. The Ford began to roll.
Lerner settled back into the seat. "Frank."
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Lerner," the driver said. "How"s tricks?"
"Tricky," Lerner replied drily. "As usual."
"I hear you," Frank nodded. He was a beefy, bullnecked man, carrying the air of one who slavishly worked out in the gym.
"How"s the secretary this PM?"
"You know." Frank snapped his fingers. "What"s the word?"
"Angry? p.i.s.sed off? Homicidal?"
Frank gave him a glance in the rearview mirror. "Sounds about right."
They went over the George Mason Memorial Bridge, then swung southeast onto the Washington Memorial Parkway. Everything in the district, Lerner observed, seemed to have memorial attached to it. Pork-barrel politics at its worst. Just the kind of c.r.a.p to p.i.s.s off the secretary.
The stretch limousine was waiting for him on the outskirts of Washington National Airport"s cargo terminal, its colossal engine purring like an aircraft about to take off. As Frank slid the Ford to a stop, Lerner got out and made the transfer, as he"d done so many times in recent years.
The interior bore no resemblance to any vehicle Lerner had ever heard of, save Air Force One, the president"s airplane. Walls of polished burlwood covered the windows when need be-as now. A walnut desk, a state-of-the-art wi-fi communications center, a plush sofa that doubled as a bed, a pair of equally plush swivel chairs, and a half-size refrigerator completed the picture.
A distinguished man pushing seventy, with a halo of close-cut silver hair sat behind the desk, his fingers roving over the keyboard of a laptop. His large, slightly bulging eyes were as alert and intense as they had been in his youth. They belied his sunken cheeks, the paleness of his flesh, the loose wattle beneath his chin.
"Secretary," Lerner said, with a potent combination of respect and awe.
"Take a pew, Matthew." Secretary of Defense Halliday"s clipped Texas accent marked him as a man born and raised in the urban wilds of Dallas. "I"ll be with you momentarily."
As Lerner chose one of the chairs, the stretch started up. Bud Halliday grew anxious if he remained in one place for long. What Lerner responded to most about him was that he was a self-made man, having been raised far from the rural oil fields that had sp.a.w.ned many of the men Lerner had come across during his time in the district. The secretary had earned his millions the old-fashioned way, which made him his own man. He was beholden to no one, not even the president. The deals he parlayed on behalf of his const.i.tuents and himself were so shrewd and politically deft, they invariably added to his clout, while rarely putting him in any of his colleagues" debt.
Finishing his work, Secretary Halliday looked up, tried to smile, and didn"t quite make it. The only evidence of the minor stroke he"d suffered some ten years was the left corner of his mouth, which didn"t always work as he wished it to.
"So far, so good, Matthew. When you came to me with the news that the DCI had proposed your transfer, I couldn"t believe my good fortune. In one backdoor way or another, I"ve been trying to get control of CI for several years. The DCI is a dinosaur, the last remaining Old Boy still in service. But he"s old now, and getting older by the minute. I"ve heard the rumors that he"s beginning to lose his grip. I want to strike now, while he"s beset on all sides. I can"t touch him publicly; there are other dinosaurs who still have plenty of muscle inside the Beltway, even though they"re retired. That"s why I hired you and Mueller. I need to be at arm"s length. Plausible deniability when the s.h.i.t hits the fan.
"Still and all, bottom line, he"s got to go; his agency needs a thorough housecleaning. They"ve always taken the lead in the so-called human intelligence, which is just Beltway-speak for spying. The Pentagon, which I control, and NSA, which the Pentagon controls, have always taken a backseat. We were responsible for the recon satellites, the eavesdropping-preparing the battlefield, as Luther LaValle, my strong right arm in the Pentagon, likes to say.
"But these days we are at war, and it"s my firm belief that the Pentagon needs to take control of human intelligence as well. I want to control all of it, so that we become a more efficient machine in destroying every G.o.dd.a.m.n terrorist network and cell working both outside our borders and inside toward our destruction."
Lerner watched the secretary"s face, though such was the long and intimate nature of their relationship that he could sense what was coming. Anyone else would have been satisfied with his progress, but not Halliday. Lerner mentally braced himself, because whenever he got a compliment from the secretary, it was followed by a demand for the all but impossible. Not that Halliday gave a s.h.i.t. He was made in the leathery mold of Lyndon Johnson: one tough sonovab.i.t.c.h.
"Mind telling me what you mean by that?"
Halliday eyed him for a moment. "Now that you"ve confirmed my suspicion that CI has become newly infested with Arabs and Muslims, your first act after we take care of the DCI is to purge them."
"Which ones?" Lerner said. "D"you have a list?"
"List? I don"t need a f.u.c.king list," Halliday said sharply. "When I say purge, I mean purge. I want them all gone."
Lerner nearly winced. "That will take some time, Mr. Secretary. Like it or not, we"re living in religiously sensitive times."
"I don"t want to hear that bulls.h.i.t, Matthew. I"ve had a pain in my right b.u.t.tock for close to ten years. You know what"s causing that pain?"
"Yessir. Religious sensitivity."
"d.a.m.n right. We"re at war with the G.o.dd.a.m.n Muslims. I won"t tolerate any of "em undermining our security agencies from the inside, got me?"
"I do indeed, sir."
It was like a stand-up routine between them, though Lerner doubted the secretary would agree. If he had a sense of humor, it was buried as deep as a Neanderthal"s bones.
"While we"re on the subject of pains in the a.s.s, there"s the matter of Anne Held."
Lerner knew the real show was about to commence. All of this other stuff was part of the secretary"s preliminary dance. "What about her?"
Halliday plucked a manila folder off the desk, spun it into Lerner hands. Lerner opened it and leafed quickly through the sheets. Then he looked up.
Halliday nodded. "That"s right, my friend. Anne Held has started her own personal investigation into your background."
"That b.i.t.c.h. I thought I had her under control."
"She"s whip-smart, Matthew, and she"s intensely loyal to the DCI. Which means she will never tolerate your move up the CI ladder. Now she"s become a clear threat to us. QED."
"I can"t just terminate her. Even if I made it look like a break-in or an accident-"
"Forget it. The incident would be investigated so thoroughly, it would tie you up till kingdom come." Halliday tapped the cap of a fountain pen against his lips "That"s why I propose you find a way to sever her in a manner that will be most embarra.s.sing and painful to her and to him. Another embarra.s.sment in a string of others. Stripped of his loyal right hand, the DCI will be all the more vulnerable. Your star will rise even more quickly, hastening the dinosaur"s demise. I"ll see to it."
Ten.
ONCE THEY CROSSED the frozen river, heading west by southwest, the darkness of the steeply rising mountain overtook them. Bourne and Zaim were in the company of three of Kabur"s foot soldiers, who were more familiar with the terrain than Zaim.
Bourne was uneasy to be traveling in what was, for him, a large pack. His methodology depended on stealth and invisibility-both of which were made extremely difficult in the present circ.u.mstances. Still, as they moved briskly along, he had to admit that Kabur"s men were silent and concentrated on their mission, which was to get him and Zaim to Fadi"s camp alive.
After rising gradually from the western bank of the river, the terrain leveled off for a time, indicating that they had mounted a forested plateau. The mountain loomed up in an ever-more-forbidding formation: an almost sheer wall that, thirty meters up, abruptly jutted out in a ma.s.sive overhang.
The snow, which had begun to fall in earnest as they set out, had now abated to a gentle shower that did nothing to impede their progress. Thus they covered the first two and a half kilometers without incident. At this point, one of Kabur"s men signaled them to halt while he sent his comrade out on a scouting foray. They waited, hunkered down amid the sighing firs, as snow continued to drift down on them. A terrible silence had come down with the vanguard of the storm, which now overstretched the area as if the ma.s.sive overhanging shelf had sucked all sound out of the mountainside.
The Amhara returned, signaling that all was clear ahead, and they moved out, trudging through the snow, eyes and ears alert. As they drew nearer the overhang, the plateau steadily rose, the way becoming simultaneously rockier and more densely forested. It made perfect sense to Bourne that Fadi would pitch his camp on the high ground.
When they had gone another half a kilometer. Kabur"s commander called another halt and once again sent a comrade to scout ahead. He was gone for longer this time, and when he returned he huddled with his superior in a heated conference. Kabur"s man broke away and approached Bourne and Zaim.
"We have confirmation of the enemy up ahead. There are two of them to the east of us."
"We must be close to their camp now," Bourne said.
"These aren"t guards. They"re actively searching the forest, and they"re coming this way." The commander frowned. "I"m wondering if they somehow know we"re coming."
"There"s no way to know," Zaim said. "In any case, we need to kill them."
The commander"s frown deepened. "These are Fadi"s men. There will be consequences."
"Forget it," Bourne said brusquely. "Zaim and I will go on alone."
"Do you take me for a coward?" The commander shook his head. "Our mission is to get you to Fadi"s camp. This we will do."
He signaled to his men, who set out heading due east. "The three of us will keep to our original course. Let my brothers do their work."
They were climbing in earnest, the mountain reaching upward as if trying to touch the ma.s.sive overhang. It had stopped snowing for the moment, and now the sun broke out behind a rent in the streaming clouds.
All at once a flurry of gunshots echoed and reechoed. The three of them stopped, crouching down within the trees. A second flurry came on its heels, then all was silent again.
"We must hurry now," the commander said, and they rose, resuming their course west-southwest.
Within moments, they heard a bird trill. Soon thereafter, the commander"s two soldiers rejoined them. One was wounded, but not badly. They continued on grimly, a tight-knit unit, with the scout in the lead.
Almost immediately the rising ground began to level out, the trees becoming spa.r.s.er. When the scout went to his knees it seemed as if he"d stumbled over a rock or a tree root. Then blood spattered the snow as the second soldier was shot through the head. The rest of the group took cover. They"d been unprepared, Bourne thought, because the shots had come from the west. The two-man scouting party coming from the east was a feint, part of a hidden pincer movement from both east and west. Bourne now learned something else about Fadi. He had accepted the risk of losing two men in order to ambush the entire party.
More shots were being fired, a veritable fusillade, so that it was impossible to determine how many of Fadi"s men opposed them. Bourne broke away from Zaim and the commander, both of whom were firing back from behind whatever makeshift cover they could find. Heading off to his right, he scrambled up a steep slope, rough enough for him to find hand- and footholds through the snow. He knew it had been a mistake to allow Kabur"s men to come-he didn"t even want Zaim"s a.s.sistance-but the culture made it impossible to refuse these gifts.
Reaching a high point, he crawled to the far edge where the wave of rock fell sharply away. From the vantage point he saw four men, carrying rifles and handguns. Even at this distance it was impossible to mistake them for Amhara. They had to be part of Fadi"s terrorist cadre.
The problem now was one of logistics. Armed only with handguns, Bourne was at a distinct disadvantage opposing an enemy with rifles. The only way to negate that was to move into close quarters. This plan had its own dangers, but there was no help for it.
Circling, Bourne came at them from the rear. Very soon he realized that a simple rear a.s.sault was out of the question. The terrorists had posted a man to watch their backs. The guard sat on a rock he"d cleared of snow, holding a German-made sniper rifle-a Mauser SP66. It used 7.6251mm ammo and was equipped with a precision Zeiss Diavari telescopic sight. All of this detail was vital to Bourne"s next move. Though the Mauser was an excellent weapon for bringing down a long-range target, it was heavy-barreled and manually bolt-operated. It was a poor weapon if you needed to fire it in a hurry.
He crept within fifteen meters of the man, drew out the curved knife he"d taken off the Amhara soldier. Breaking cover, he stood in full view of the terrorist, who jumped up off the rock, providing Bourne with a maximum target. He was still trying to aim the Mauser when Bourne sent the knife whistling through the air. It struck the man just below the sternum, burying itself to the hilt. The curved blade sliced through tissue and organ alike. Even before the terrorist hit the snow, he was drowning in his own blood.
Bourne retrieved the knife as he stepped over the corpse, wiped the blade in the snow, slipped it into its sheath. Then he took up the Mauser and went in search of a place of concealment.
He heard shots being fired in short and long bursts, like Morse code spelling out the deaths of the combatants. He began to run toward the terrorists" position, but they had begun to move. He threw down the Mauser, drew out the Makarov.
Breaking out along the high ridge, he saw just below him the commander sprawled in the snow amid a cloud of blood. Then, as he inched forward, two terrorists came into view. He shot one in the heart from the back. The second turned and fired back. Bourne dove behind a rock.
More shots were being fired, ragged bursts, a peppering of sound taken up by the overhang, rocketed back into Bourne"s ears. Bourne rose to his knees and three shots spanged off a nearby rock, sending sparks into the air.
He made a show of moving to his right, drawing fire, then slithered on his belly to his left until one shoulder of the terrorist came into view. Bourne fired twice, heard a grunt of pain. He made a show of rising up, coming forward, and when the terrorist popped up, Makarov aimed directly at him, Bourne shot the man cleanly between the eyes.
Moving on, Bourne searched for the third terrorist. He found him writhing in the snow, one hand clutching his stomach. His eyes flashed as he saw Bourne and, curiously, the ghost of a smile crossed his face. Then, in a final spasm, blood erupted from his mouth and his eyes clouded over.
Bourne ran on, then. Not more than thirty meters along he found Zaim. The Amhara was on his knees. He"d been shot twice in the chest. His eyes were crossed in pain. Nevertheless, as Bourne came to him, he said, "No, leave me. I"m finished."
"Zaim-"
"Go on. Find your friend. Bring him home."
"I can"t leave you."
Zaim arranged his lips in a smile. "You still don"t understand. I have no regrets. Because of you my son will be buried. This is all I ask."
With a long, rattling sigh, he fell sideways and did not move again.