(But) we need Crft on his staffThe key is to use the
information in our G-2 file about Gates in Paris seven years ago, said file removed and in our
possession
If that was not the exact translation of Swayne?s insertion, it was certainly close enough in
substance to act upon, mused Conklin, turning his wrist and glancing at his watchIt was twenty
past three in the morning, a time when even the most disciplined person would be shaken by the
shrill bell of a telephoneWhy not? David?Jason?was rightEvery hour counted nowAlex
picked up the phone and touched the numbers for Boston, Massachusetts
The telephone kept ringing and the bitch would not pick it up in her room! Then Gates looked at
the lighted square and the blood drained from his headIt was his unlisted number, a number that
was restricted to a very fewHe thrashed wildly in the bed, his eyes wide; the strange call from
Paris unnerved him the more he thought about itIt concerned Montserrat, he knew it! The
information he had relayed was wrongPrefontaine had lied to him and now Paris wanted an
accounting! My God, they?d spy bag fendi come after him, expose him! No, there was a way, a perfectly
acceptable explanation, the truthHe would deliver the liars to Paris, to Paris?s man here in Boston
He would trap the drunken Prefontaine and the sleazeball detective and force them to tell their lies
to the one person who could absolve himThe phone! He had to answer itHe could not appear
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
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as if he had anything to hide! He reached out and grabbed the incessantly ringing instrument,
pulling it to his ear?Yes??
?Seven years ago, Counselor,? began the quiet voice on the line?Do I have to remind you that
we?ve got the entire fileThe Deuxi?me Bureau was extremely cooperative, far more than you have
been
?For God?s sake, I was lied to!? cried Gates, swinging his legs onto the floor in panic, his voice
hoarse?You can?t believe I?d forward erroneous informationI?d have to be insane!?
?We know you can be obstinateWe made a simple request??
?I complied, I swear I did! Good Christ, I paid fifteen thousand dollars to make certain
everything was silent, absolutely untraceable?not louis vuitton mahina that the money matters, of course??
?You paid ?? interrupted the quiet voice
?I can show you the bank withdrawals!?
?For what??
?The information, naturallyI hired a former judge who has contacts??
?For information about Craft??
?What??
?Croft
?Who??
?Our major, Counselor
?If that?s her code name, then yes, yes I did!?
?A code name??
?The womanThey flew to the island of MontserratI swear that?s what I was
told!?
There was a sudden click and the line went dead
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
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13
His hand still on the telephone, Conklin broke out in a sweatHe released the phone and got up
from his chair, limping away from the computer, looking back at it, down at it, as if it were some
monstrous thing that had taken him into a forbidden land where nothing was as it appeared to be or
should beWhat had happened? How did Randolph Gates know anything about Montserrat, about
Marie and the children? Why?
Alex lowered himself into the armchair, his pulse racing, his thoughts clashing, no judgments
emerging, only chaosHe gripped his right wrist with his left chanel jewelry necklace hand, his nails digging into his flesh
He had to get hold of himself, he had to think?he had to act! For David?s wife and childrenWhat were the conceivable associations? It was difficult enough to consider Gates
as even unwittingly a part of Medusa, but impossible to think he was also connected to Carlos the
JackalYet both appeared to be; the connections existedWas Carlos himself part of
Swayne?s Medusa? Everything they knew about the Jackal would deny it emphaticallyThe
assassin?s strength was in his total disassociation with any structured entity, Jason Bourne had
proved that thirteen years ago in ParisNo group of people could ever reach him; they could only
send out a message and he would reach themThe single organization the international killer for
hire permitted was his army of old men, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, lost misfits,
criminals whose impoverished last days were made better by the assassin?s largess, fealty unto
death demanded and receivedWhere did?could?a man like Randolph Gates fit in?
He didn?t, concluded Alex as the outer limits of his imagination chanel diamond watches explored an old territory?Be
skeptical of the apparentThe celebrated attorney was no more part of Carlos than he was of
MedusaHe was the aberration, the flaw in the lens, an otherwise honorable man with a single
weakness that had been uncovered by two disparate parties both with extraordinary resourcesIt
was common knowledge that the Jackal could reach into the S?ret? and Interpol, and it took no
clairvoyance to assume that Medusa could penetrate the army?s G-2It was the only possible
explanation, for Gates had been too controversial, too powerful for too long to function as
spectacularly as he did in the courts if his vulnerability was easily uncoveredNo, it would take
predators like the Jackal and the men of Medusa to bore deep enough to dredge up a secret so
devastating as to turn Randolph Gates into a valuable pawnClearly, Carlos had gotten to him first
Conklin reflected on a truth that was forever reconfirmed: the world of global corrupters was in
reality a small multilayered neighborhood, geometric in design, the irregular avenues of corruption
leading into one prada china anoth

Then, as if the Paseo itself were a living, throbbing immense wall of fire,
the flames rolled forward, swinging to the left out of the ?city? into the road that was the approach
to the border gate?Look!? shouted Bourne, reaching down out of the jeep, his hand scraping the
graveled surface beneath; he brought his fingers to his face, his nostrils?The
whole goddamned road?s soaked with gasoline!? A burst of fire imploded thirty yards in front of
the jeep, sending stones and dirt smashing into the metal grille, and propelling the flames forward
with increasing speed?Plastics!? said Jason to himself, then yelled at Benjamin, who was running
to the jeep, ?Go back there! Get everyone out of here! The son of a bitch has the place ringed with
plastics! Head for the river!?
?I?m going with you!? shouted the young Soviet, grabbing the edge of the door
?Sorry, Junior,? cried Bourne, gunning the engine and swerving the army vehicle back into the
open gate, sending Benjamin sprawling onto the gravel?This is for grown-ups
?What are you doing?? screamed Benjamin, his voice fading as the jeep sped across the border
?The fuel truck, that lousy fuel truck!? whispered Jason as he raced into ?Strasbourg, France
It happened in ?Paris??where else but Paris! The huge duplicate of the Eiffel Tower blew up
with such force that the earth shookRockets? Missiles? The Jackal had stolen missiles from the
Kubinka Armory! Seconds later, starting far behind him, the explosions began as the streets burst
into flamesAll ?France? was being destroyed in a way that the madman Adolf Hitler
could only have envisaged in his most twisted dreamsPanicked men and women ran through the
alleyways and the streets, screaming, falling, omega aqua terra watch praying to gods their leaders had forsworn
?England!? He had to get into ?England? and then ultimately into ?America,? where all his
instincts told him the end would come?one way or anotherHe had to find the truck that was
being driven by the Jackal and destroy bothHe could do it?he could do it! Carlos thought he was
dead and that was the key, for the Jackal would do what he had to do, what he, Jason Bourne,
would do if he were CarlosWhen the holocaust he had ignited was at its zenith, the Jackal would
abandon the truck and put into play his means of escape?his escape to Paris, the real Paris, where
his army of old men would spread the word of their monseigneur?s triumph over the ubiquitous,
disbelieving SovietsIt would be somewhere near the tunnel; that was a given
The race through ?London,? ?Coventry? and ?Portsmouth? could only be likened to the
newsreel footage from World War II depicting the carnage hurled down on Great Britain by the
Luftwaffe, compounded by first the screaming and then the silent terror of the V-2 and V-5 rockets
But the residents of Novgorod were not British?forbearance gave way to mass hysteria, concern
for all became survival for self aloneAs the impressive reproductions of Big Ben and the Houses
of Parliament crashed down in flames and the aircraft factories of ?Coventry? were reduced to
raging fires, the streets swelled with screaming, horrified crowds racing through the roads that led
to the Volkhov River and the shipyards of ?Portsmouth There, from the scaled-down piers and
slips, scores threw themselves into rushing waters only to be caught in the magnesium grids where
sharp, jagged bolts of electricity blazingly zigzagged through the air, leaving limp bodies chanel earrings floating
toward the next metal traps above and below the angry surfaceIn paralyzed fragments, the crowds
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
428
watched and turned in panic, fighting their way back into the miniaturized city of ?Portsea?; the
guards had abandoned their posts and chaos ruled the night
Snapping on the jeep?s searchlight, Bourne drove in sudden spurts down alleyways and the less
crowded narrow streets?south, always southHe grabbed a flare from the army vehicle?s floor,
pulled the release string, and proceeded to thrust the spitting, hissing, blinding burst of fire into the
hands and faces of the hysterical racing stragglers who tried to climb on boardThe sight of the
constantly pulsating flame so close to their eyes was enough; each screamed and recoiled in terror,
no doubt thinking yet another explosive had detonated in his or her immediate vicinity
A graveled road! The gates to the American compound were less than a hundred yards away
The graveled road? Soaked with fuel! The plastic charges had not gone off?but they would in a
matter of moments, creating a wall of fire, enveloping the jeep and its driver! With the accelerator
pressed to the floor, Jason raced to the gateIt was deserted?and the iron barrier was down! He
slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop, hoping beyond reasonable hope that no sparks would fly
out and ignite the gravelPlacing the spewing flare on the metal floor, he swiftly removed two
grenades from his pockets?grenades he was loath to part with?pulled the pins, and hurled both
toward the gateThe massive explosions blew the barricade away and instantly set the graveled
road on fire, the leaping flames immediate?enveloping him! He had no choice; he threw the rolex watches ladies hot
flare away and sped through the tunnel of fire into Novgorod?s final largest compoundAs he did
so the concrete guardhouse at the ?English? border exploded; glass, stone and shards of metal shot
out and up everywhere
He had been so filled with anxiety on their way to the crossing into ?Spain? that he barely
recalled the diminutive replicas of the ?American? cities and towns, much less the fastest routes
that led to the tunnelHe had merely followed young Benjamin?s harsh shouted commands, but he
did remember that the California-bred trainer kept referring to the ?coast road?like Route One,
man, up to Carmel!? It was, of course, those streets closest to the Volkhov, which in turn became,
in no order of geographical sequence, a shoreline in ?Maine,? the Potomac River of ?Washington,?
and the northern waters of Long Island Sound that housed the naval base at ?New London
The madness had reached ?America Police cars, their sirens wailing, sped through the streets,
men shouting into radios as people in various stages of dress and undress ran out of buildings and
stores, screaming about the terrible earthquake that had hit this leg of the Volkhov, one even more
severe than the catastrophe in ArmeniaEven with the surest knowledge of devastating infiltration,
the leaders of Novgorod could not reveal the truthIt was as if the seismic geologists of the world
were forgotten, their discoveries unfoundedThe giant forces beneath the earth did not collide and
erupt in terrible swift immediacy; instead, they worked in relays, sending a series of crippling body
blows from north to southWho questions authority in the panic of survival? Everyone in
?America? was being prepared, primed for what they knew not
They omega automatic seamaster watch found out roughly ten minutes after the destruction of a large part of the diminutive ?Great
Britain Bourne reached the compressed, miniaturized outlines of ?Washington, D when the
conflagration beganThe first to plunge into flames, the sound of its detonation delayed only by
milliseconds, was the wooden duplicate of the Capitol dome; it blew into the yellowed sky like the
thin, hollow replica it wasMoments later?only moments?the Washington Monument, centered
in its patch of grassy park, crumpled with a distant boom as if its false base had been shoveled
away by a thunderous ground-moving machineIn seconds the artificial set piece that was the
White House collapsed in flames, the explosions dulled both audibly and visibly, for ?Pennsylvania
Avenue? was awash in fire
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
429
Bourne knew where he was nowThe tunnel was between ?Washington? and ?New London,
Connecticut?! It was no more than five minutes away! He drove the jeep down to the street
paralleling the river, and again there were frightened, hysterical crowdsThe police were shouting
through loudspeakers, first in English and then in Russian, explaining the terrible consequences if
anyone tried to swim across the water, the searchlights swinging back and forth, picking up the
floating bodies of those who had tried in the northern compounds
?The tunnel, the tunnel! Open the tunnel!?
The screams from the excited crowds became a chant that could not physically be denied; the
underground pipeline was about to be assaultedJason leaped out of the surrounded jeep, pocketing
the remaining three flares, and propelled his way, arms and shoulders working furiously, often
fruitlessly, through the crushing, crashing chloe black chloe black bod

?I called you last night
from there!?
?That was last night, not today
?Any news about Mo??
?Nothing yet, but they may have made a mistakeWe may have a line on the army doctor
?Break him!?
?With pleasureI?ll take off my foot and smash his face with it until he begs to cooperate?if the
line on him is rumb
?That?s not why you?ve been calling me all night, though, is it??
?NoI was with Peter Holland for five hours yesterdayI went over to see him after we talked,
and his reaction was exactly what I thought it would be, with a few generous broadsides in the
bargainHe insists you fly back immediately; you?re the only one with direct knowledge
?Bullshit! He can?t insist I do anything, much less give me an order!?
?He can cut you off, and I can?t do anything about itIf see by chloe bag you need something in a hurry, he won?t
deliver
?Bernardine?s offered to help?Whatever you need,? those were his words
?Bernardine?s limitedLike me, he can call in debts, but without access to the machine he?s too
restricted
?Did you tell Holland I?m writing down everything I know, every statement that was made to
me, every answer to every question I asked??
?Are you??
?I willHe wants to question you; he says he can?t question pages of paper
?I?m too close to the Jackal! I won?t do itHe?s an unreasonable son of a bitch!?
?I think he wanted to be reasonable,? said Conklin?He knows what you?re going through, what
you?ve been through, but after seven o?clock last night he closed the doors
?Why??
?Armbruster was shot to death outside his houseThey?re calling it a women's rolex watch Georgetown robbery,
which, of course, it isn?t and wasn?t
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
196
?Oh, Jesus!?
?There are a couple of other things you ought to knowTo begin with, we?re releasing Swayne?s
?suicide ?
?For God?s sake, why??
?To let whoever killed him think he?s off the hook, and, more important, to see who shows up
during the next week or so
?At the funeral??
?No, that?s a ?closed family affair,? no guests, no formal ceremony
?Then who?s going to show up where?
?At the estate, in one form or anotherWe checked with Swayne?s attorney, very officially, of
course, and he confirmed what Swayne?s wife told you about his leaving the whole place to a
foundation
?Which one?? asked Bourne
?One you?ve never heard of, funded privately a few years ago by gucci boston bag wealthy close friends of the
august ?wealthy? generalIt?s as touching as can beIt goes under the title of the Soldiers, Sailors
and Marines Retreat; the board of directors is already in place
?Or their surrogates
?Alex, what about the names I gave you, the six or seven names Flannagan gave me? And that
slew of license plate numbers from their meetings??
?Cute, real cute,? said Conklin enigmatically
?What?s cute??
?Take the names?they?re the dregs of the wing-ding social set, no relation to the Georgetown
upper crustThey?re out of the National Enquirer, not The Washington Post
?But the licenses, the meetings! That?s got to be the ball of wax
?Even cuter,? observed AlexEvery one of those licenses is registered to
a limousine company, read that companiesI don?t have to new chanel bags tell you how authentic the names would
be even if we had the dates to trace them
?There?s a cemetery out there!?
?Where is it? How big, how small? There are twenty-eight acres??
?Start looking!?
?And advertise what we know??
?You?re right; you?re playing it rightAlex, tell Holland you couldn?t reach meI?ve got the concierge, I can coverGive Holland the hotel and the name and tell
him to call himself, or send over whoever he likes from the embassy to verifyThe concierge will
swear I checked in yesterday and he hasn?t seen me sinceEven the switchboard will confirm it
Buy me a few days, please
?Holland could still pull all the plugs and probably will
?He won?t if he thinks I?ll come back when you find meI just want him to keep looking for Mo
and keep my name out of big chanel Par

I tensed the muscles in my legs, felt their ready strength and speedI wanted to run, to have an
open field that I could race across just to see how fast I could goI wanted to do this barefoot,
so I could feel the earth beneath my feetI wanted to feel the wind fly through my hairI wanted
it to rain, so that I could smell it in the air as I ran
My feet flexed and pointed slowly, to the rhythm of my breathing
I traced my face with my fingertipsThey were warm on my skin, skin that was smooth and
prettyI was glad I was giving Melanie her face back the way it had beenI closed my eyes and
stroked my eyelids
I'd lived in so many bodies, but never one chanel cc necklace I loved like thisNever one that I craved in this way
Of course, this would be the one I'd have to give up
The irony made me laugh, and I concentrated on the feel of the air that popped in little bubbles
from my chest and up through my throatLaughter was like a fresh breeze?it cleaned its way
through the body, making everything feel goodDid other species have such a simple healer? I
couldn't remember one
I touched my lips and remembered how it felt to kiss Jared, and how it felt to kiss IanNot
everyone got to kiss so many other beautiful bodiesI'd had more than some, even in this short
time
It was just so short! Maybe a year now, I wasn't sac dolce gabana completely sureJust one quick revolution of a
blue green planet around an unexceptional yellow starThe shortest life of any I'd ever lived
The shortest, the most important, the most heartbreaking of livesThe life that would forever
define meThe life that had finally tied me to one star, to one planet, to one small family of
strangers
A little more time? would that be so wrong?
No,Mel whisperedust take a little more time
You never know how much time you'll have,I whispered backI knew exactly how much time I hadI couldn't take any more timeI had to do the right thing, be my true self, with what time I had left
With a sigh that seemed to come all the gucci bangle watch way from the soles of my feet and the palms of my
hands, I got up
Aaron and Brandt wouldn't wait foreverAnd now I had a few more questions that I needed
answeredThis time, the questions were for Doc
The caves were full of sad, cast-down eyesIt was easy enough to slip unobtrusively past them
allNo one cared what I was doing right now, except maybe Jeb, Brandt, and Aaron, and they
weren't here
I didn't have an open, rainy field, but at least I had the long south tunnelIt was too dark to run
flat out the way I wanted, but I kept up a steady jogIt felt good as my muscles warmed
I expected I would find Doc already there, but I'd wait if I had chanel vintage jewelry toPoor
Doc, that was usually the case now
Doc had been sleeping alone in his hospital since the night we'd saved Jamie's lifeSharon had
taken her things from their room and moved them to her mother's, and Doc wouldn't sleep in
the empty roomSharon would rather kill her own happiness, and Doc's, too, than forgive
him for helping me heal Jamie
Sharon and Maggie were barely a presence in the caves anymoreThey looked past everyone
now, the way they used to look past only meI wondered if that would change when I was
gone, or if they were both so rigid in their grudge that it would be too late for them to change
What an extraordinarily stupid way to waste chanel white purse ti

They were unpleasant when they brushed the skin wrongAnd my fingers
were so long and thin?the added length of fingernails made them look strange
She cleared her throat after a minute?I'm guessing my intuition was right I said her name slowly?Why did you keep your human name? Did it make
you feel? more at one? With your host, I mean?? I would have liked to know about Curt's
choice as well, but it was such a personal questionIt would have been wrong to ask anyone
besides Curt for the answer, even his partnerI worried that I'd already been too impolite, but
she laughed
?Heavens, no, WandererHaven't I told you this? HmmMaybe not, since it's not my job to
talk, but to listenMost of the souls I chanel black wallet speak with don't need as much encouragement as you do
Did you know I came to Earth in one of the very first placements, before the humans had any
idea we were here? I had human neighbors on both sidesCurt and I had to pretend to be our
hosts for several yearsEven after we'd settled the immediate area, you never knew when a
human might be nearSoKathy just became who I wasBesides, the translation of my former
name was fourteen words long and did not shorten prettilyThe sunlight slanting
through the window caught her eyes and sent their silver green reflection dancing on the wall
For a moment, the emerald irises glowed iridescent
I'd had no idea that this soft, cozy woman had been a part of the chanel purses bags front lineIt took me a minute
to process thatI stared at her, surprised and suddenly more respectfulI'd never taken
Comforters very seriously?never had a need before nowThey were for those who struggled, for
the weak, and it shamed me to be hereKnowing Kathy's history made me feel slightly less
awkward with herShe understood strength
?Did it bother you?? I asked?Pretending to be one of them??
?No, not reallyYou see, this host was a lot to get used to?there was so much that was newFollowing the set pattern was quite as much as I could handle at first
?And Curt? You chose to stay with your host's spouse? After it was over??
This question was more pointed, and Kathy grasped that at onceShe dolce and gabbana knock off shifted in her seat, pulling
her legs up and folding them under herShe gazed thoughtfully at a spot just over my head as
she answered
?Yes, I chose Curt?and he chose meAt first, of course, it was random chance, an assignment
We bonded, naturally, from spending so much time together, sharing the danger of our mission
As the university's president, Curt had many contacts, you seeOur house was an insertion
facilityWe would entertain oftenHumans would come through our door and our kind would
leaveIt all had to be very quick and quiet?you know the violence these hosts are prone toWe
lived every day with the knowledge that we could meet a final end at any momentThere was
constant excitement and silver handbags frequent fear
?All very good reasons why Curt and I might have formed an attachment and decided to stay
together when secrecy was no longer necessaryAnd I could lie to you, assuage your fears, by
telling you that these were the reasonsBut?? She shook her head and then seemed to settle
deeper into her chair, her eyes boring into me?In so many millennia, the humans never did
figurelove outHow much is physical, how much in the mind? How much accident and how
much fate? Why did perfect matches crumble and impossible couples thrive? I don't know the
answers any better than they didLove simply is where it isMy host loved Curt's host, and that
love did not die when the ownership of the minds hermes wallet changed