Eric van Lustbader - The Bourne Objective

The sky had lightened further. Birds called from the treetops, and a slight wind brought the smell of damp earth, of living things.

“One night, very late, I wandered into a spare room, or that’s what I thought. And there was Holly on top of Gustavo Moreno, grinding away. I watched for a moment, as if they were two strangers acting in a porno. Then I thought, Fuck, that’s Holly. You could say that I woke up.” She shook her head. “But I don’t think Holly ever did.”

Bourne didn’t think so, either. Sad, but true. Holly had been many things to many people, none of them the same. Those multiple identities had allowed her to burrow deeper into herself, to hide from everyone, when it was her uncle he was certain she feared most.

At that moment Scarlett poked her head out and said, “Hey, you two, we have visitors.”

Inside, both Ottavio Moreno and Peter Marks stood in the living room, eyeing each other warily.

“What the hell is this?” Bourne said.

“Here is Ottavio Moreno, the man who knifed Diego Hererra,” Marks said to Bourne. “And you’re protecting him?”

“It’s a long story, Peter,” Bourne said. “I’ll explain it in the car on the way to-”

Marks turned to Moreno. “You’re the brother of Gustavo Moreno, the Colombian drug lord.”

“I am,” Ottavio Moreno said.

“And the godson of Don Fernando Hererra, the father of the man you knifed to death.”

When Moreno said nothing, Marks continued. “I’ve just come from Don Fernando. He’s heartsick, as you can imagine. Or maybe you can’t. In any event, he doesn’t think you murdered his son. The police, on the other hand, are certain you did.” Without waiting for a reply, he whirled on Bourne. “How the hell could you let this happen?”

Then Ottavio Moreno made a tactical mistake. “I think you’d better calm down,” he said. He should have kept his mouth shut, but possibly he’d been stung by Marks’s words as well as his tone.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Marks said heatedly.

Bourne had half a mind to let the two men come to blows, if only to relieve the built-up tension of the last couple of hours, but there was Chrissie and her family to think of, so he stepped in between the two. Gripping Marks at the elbow, he steered him out the front door, where they could talk without being overheard. Before he could say a word, though, Moreno came storming out.

He headed straight for Marks, but before he was halfway there a shot from the trees stopped him in his tracks. Even as he staggered backward, even as the second shot took part of his skull off, Bourne had flung himself behind Moreno’s Opel. As Marks followed him, another shot cracked through the stillness of early morning.

Marks stumbled and fell.

Boris Karpov accompanied Viktor Cherkesov into the construction site on ulitsa Varvarka. They passed through a gap in the chain-link fence and descended via a ramp into the dead zone. Cherkesov kept them going until they were deep in the heart of the morass of rusting steel girders and cracked concrete blocks; evil-looking weeds sprouted everywhere like tufts of hair on a giant’s back.

Cherkesov stopped them as they approached the bashed-in side of a derelict truck, which had been stripped of tires, electronics, and engine. It was canted over to one side like a ship on its way to the bottom of the sea. The truck was green, but someone had artistically covered it with obscene graffiti in silver spray paint.

Cherkesov’s mouth twitched in an imitation of a smile as he turned away from contemplating the graffiti.

“Now, Boris Illyich, please be kind enough to tell me the gist of your impromptu meeting with President Imov.”

Karpov, seeing no other recourse, obliged him. Cherkesov did not interrupt him once, but listened thoughtfully as Karpov outlined what he had learned about Bukin and those moles under his command. When he was finished, Cherkesov nodded. He produced a Tokarev TT pistol but didn’t aim it at Karpov, at least not exactly.

“Now, Boris Illyich, the question for me is what to do next. First, what shall I do with you? Shall I shoot you and leave you to rot here?” He seemed to spend some time contemplating this option. “Well, to be honest, that would do me no good. By going directly to Imov you have made yourself invulnerable. If you are killed or disappear Imov will initiate a full-scale investigation, which will sooner rather than later wind up at my doorstep. As you can imagine, this would inconvenience me greatly.”

“I think it would do more than inconvenience you, Viktor Delyagovich,” Karpov said without inflection. “It would be the beginning of your end and the triumph of Nikolai Patrushev, your bitterest enemy.”

“These days, I have bigger fish to fry than Nikolai Patrushev.” Cherkesov said this softly, contemplatively, as if he had forgotten that Karpov was there at all. Then, all at once, he snapped out of it, his eyes refocusing on the colonel. “So killing you is out, which is fortunate, Boris Illyich, because I like you. More to the point, I admire your tenacity as well as your intelligence. Which is why I won’t even bother to bribe you.” He grunted, a sort of laugh gone bad. “You might be the last honest man in Russian intelligence.” He waved the Tokarev. “So where does that leave us?”

“Stalemate,” Karpov offered.

“No, no, no. Stalemate is good for no one, especially you and me, especially at this moment in time. You gave Imov the evidence against Bukin, Imov gave you an assignment. We both have no choice but for you to carry it out.”

“That would be suicide for you,” Karpov pointed out.

“Only if I stay on as head of FSB-2,” Cherkesov said.

Karpov shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Cherkesov had a miniature two-way radio to his ear. “Come down now,” he said to whoever was on the other end of the line.

There was a smirk on his face that Karpov had never seen before. He took a step toward the colonel and, in a moment, gestured. “Look who’s coming, Boris Illyich.”

Karpov turned and saw Melor Bukin picking his way through the rubble.

“Now,” Cherkesov said, slapping the Tokarev into Karpov’s hand, “do your duty.”

Karpov held the Tokarev behind his back as Melor Bukin approached them. He wondered what Cherkesov had told him, because Bukin was totally relaxed and unsuspecting. His eyes opened wide when Karpov brought out the Tokarev and aimed it at him.

“Viktor Delyagovich, what is the meaning of this?” he said.

Karpov shot him in the right knee, and he went down like a smokestack being demolished.

“What are you doing?” he cried as he clutched his ruined knee. “Are you mad?”

Karpov advanced on him. “I know about your treachery and so does President Imov. Who are the other moles inside FSB-2?”

Bukin stared up at him wide-eyed. “What, what? Moles? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Karpov calmly and deliberately blew his left kneecap to smithereens. Bukin screamed and writhed on the ground like a worm.

“Answer me!” Karpov commanded.

Bukin’s eyes were bloodshot. He was pale and trembling in shock and agony. “Boris Illyich, doesn’t our history mean anything? I’m your mentor, I was instrumental in bringing you into FSB-2.”

Karpov loomed over him. “All the more reason that I be the one to clean your dirty house.”

“But, but, but,” Bukin sputtered, “I was just following orders.” He pointed at Cherkesov. “ His orders.”

“How easily he lies,” Cherkesov said.

“No, Boris Illyich, it’s the truth, I swear.”

Karpov squatted by Bukin’s side. “I know how we can solve this problem.”

“I need a fucking hospital,” Bukin moaned. “I’m bleeding to death.”