Robert Ludlum: Bourne 7 – The Bourne Deception

The newborn morning lay drowsing, barely awake, and utterly silent. The trees, well manicured and leafy, dappled the sidewalks in inky shade. The air was soft and cool, as yet innocent of the harsh sun that would turn the sky white in a few hours‘ time. The early hour had been deliberately chosen. As expected, there was no traffic to speak of, just a young boy at the far end of the block teaching himself to ride a bicycle. A sanitation truck lumbered around the corner at the opposite end of the block, its huge brushes beginning to spin whatever dirt there might be on the nearly immaculate street into the truck‘s belly. Again, the sight was utterly normal; the residents of this neighborhood all had pull with the municipal government, and they were proud of the fact that their streets were always the first to be cleaned each day.

As the car gathered speed, making its way down the street, the huge truck turned so that it was sideways to the oncoming vehicle, blocking the road. Without an instant‘s hesitation the car‘s driver threw the vehicle into reverse and stepped on the gas. With a screech of tires the car shot backward, away from the truck. At the sound, the boy looked up. He was standing, straddling the bike, appearing to get his wind back. But at the last moment, as the oncoming car neared him, he reached into the bike‘s wicker basket and drew out an odd-looking weapon with an unnaturally long barrel. The rocket-launched grenade shattered the car‘s rear window and the car burst apart in an oily orange-and-black fireball. By this time the boy, hunched over the handlebars of his bike, was pedaling expertly away, a satisfied smile on his face.

Just past noon that same day, Leonid Arkadin was sitting in a Munich beer hall surrounded by oompah music and drunken Germans when his cell phone buzzed. Recognizing the caller‘s phone number, he walked out into the street, where it was slightly less noisy, and grunted a wordless greeting.

— Like the others, your latest attempt to destroy the Eastern Brotherhood has failed. Abdulla Khoury‘s ugly voice buzzed in his ear like an angry wasp. -You killed my finance minister this morning, that‘s all. I‘ve already appointed another.

— You misunderstand me, I don‘t mean to destroy the Eastern Brotherhood,

Arkadin said. -I mean to take it over.

The response was a harsh laugh devoid of all humor, or even human emotion. -No matter how many of my associates you kill, Arkadin, this I assure you: I will always survive.

Moira Trevor was sitting behind her sparkling new chrome-and-glass desk, in the sparkling new offices of Heartland Risk Management, LLC, her brand-new company, occupying two floors of a post-modern building in the heart of Northwest Washington, DC. She was on the phone with Steve Stevenson, one of her contacts in the Department of Defense, being briefed on a lucrative job her new company had been hired to do, one of half a dozen that had rolled in over the past five weeks, and simultaneously running through sets of daily intelligence reports on her computer terminal. Beside it was a snapshot of her and Jason Bourne, the Bali sun on their faces. In the background was Mount Agung, the island‘s sacred volcano, up whose spine they had trekked early one morning before sunlight kissed the eastern horizon. Her face was completely relaxed; she looked ten years younger. As for Bourne, he was smiling in that enigmatic way she loved. She used to trace the line of his lips when he smiled like that, as if she were a blind woman able to glean a hidden meaning with her fingertip.

When her intercom sounded, she started, realizing she‘d been gazing at the photo, her thoughts wandering back, as they often did these days, to those golden days on Bali before Bourne was gunned down in the dirt of Tenganan. Glancing at the electronic clock on her desk, she gathered herself, finished up her call, and said — Send him in into the intercom speaker.

A moment later Noah Perlis entered. He was her former handler at Black River, a private mercenary army used by the United States in Middle East hot spots. Moira‘s firm was now in direct competition with Black River. Noah‘s narrow face was more sallow than ever, his hair flecked with more gray. His long nose swept out like a sword-stroke above a mouth that had forgotten how to laugh or even smile. He prided himself on his keen insight into other people, which was ironic considering he was so heavily defended he was cut off even from himself.

She gestured at one of the contemporary chrome and black-strap chairs facing her desk. -Take a seat.

He remained standing, as if he already had one foot out the door. -I‘ve come to tell you to stop raiding our personnel.

— You mean you‘ve been sent like a common messenger. Moira looked up, smiled with a warmth she didn‘t feel. Her uptilted brown eyes, wide apart and inquiring, betrayed none of her feelings. Her face was uncommonly strong or intimidating, depending on your point of view. Nevertheless, she possessed a serenity that served her well in stressful situations such as this one.

Bourne had warned her even before she set up Heartland almost three months ago that this moment was going to come. Something inside her had been looking forward to it. Noah had come to personify Black River, and she‘d been under his boot heel for too long.

Taking several steps toward her, he plucked the framed photograph off her desk, then turned it to gaze down at the image.

— Too bad about your boyfriend, he said. -Got gunned down in a stinking village in the middle of nowhere. You must have been broken up.

Moira had no intention of allowing him to upset her. -It‘s nice to see you, Noah.

He sneered as he replaced the photo. — Nice is a word people use when they politely lie.

Her face held its innocent expression, a form of armor against his slings and arrows. -Why shouldn‘t we continue to be polite to each other?

Noah returned to stand with his fingers curled hard into his palms. His knuckles were white with the force he used to make his fists, and Moira couldn‘t help but wonder whether he wished he had his hands around her neck rather than hanging at his sides.

— I‘m very fucking serious, Moira. His eyes engaged hers. Noah could be a scary individual when he put his mind to it. -There‘s no turning back for you, but as for going forward in the way you have… He shook his head in warning.

Moira shrugged. -No problem. The fact is, you have no people left who meet my ethical requirements.

Her words had the effect of relaxing him enough to say in an entirely different tone, — Why are you doing this?

— Why are you asking me a question to which you already know the answer?

He stared at her, keeping silent, until she continued, — There needs to be a legitimate alternative to Black River, one whose members don‘t skate at the edge of legality, then regularly cross over.

— This is a dirty business. You of all people know that.

— Of course I know it. That‘s why I started this company. She rose, leaned across her desk. -Iran is now on everyone‘s radar. I‘m not going to sit back and let the same thing happen there that‘s happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Noah turned on his heel and crossed to the door. With his hand on the knob he looked back at her with a cold intensity, an old trick of his. -You know you can‘t hold back the flood of filthy water. Don‘t be a hypocrite, Moira. You want to wade in the muck like the rest of us because it‘s all about the money. His eyes glittered darkly. -Billions of dollars to be made off a war in a new theater of operations.

LYING IN THE DIRT of Tenganan, Bourne whispers into Moira‘s ear. — Tell them …

She is bent low over him in the dust and the running blood. She is listening to him with one ear while pressing her cell phone to the other.