The Bourne Deception - By Robert Ludlum & Eric van Lustbader Page 0,119
he said. ?I?ve got to get to my office and find a way to reassure Noah that everything?s okay with me.?
Moira?s mind was already spinning out possible scenarios. ?Don?t worry about that. You concentrate on the nuts and bolts of the two-way transfer. I?ll take care of Noah.?
After reading everything he could about the rapidly escalating Iran situation in the International Herald Tribune he?d picked up in the lounge in Madrid, Bourne sat brooding all during the flight to Khartoum. Once or twice, he became aware that Tracy was trying to engage him in conversation, but he didn?t care to answer. He was wondering why the possibility of Arkadin surviving his trial at sea hadn?t occurred to him; after all, the precise same thing had happened to him off Marseilles, when he?d been pulled half dead out of the water by the crew of a fishing boat. He?d been nursed back to health by a local doctor, as inveterate a drunk as Dr. Firth, only to discover that the trauma he?d suffered had caused amnesia. His memories of his life had been wiped out. Once in a while something familiar would trigger a shard of memory, but when it did surface, it most often arrived in incomplete fits and starts. Since then he?d struggled to find out who he was, and though many years had passed he seemed no closer to the truth?the identities of Jason Bourne and, to a limited extent, David Webb were all he could remember. It had seemed to him that the path that would lead him to himself lay through his memories on Bali.
But first, there was the matter of Leonid Arkadin to consider. That Arkadin wanted him dead was beyond doubt, but he also intuited that more was going on here than a simple case of revenge. Though he?d learned that nothing with Arkadin was simple, there was an overarching plan to this particular web in which he found himself that transcended even Arkadin, who seemed to be one strand among many that was leading Bourne to Khartoum.
Whether or not Don Fernando Hererra was in league with Arkadin?and it seemed a sure bet that Arkadin had sent him the photos and audio ?incriminating? Boris?was for the moment beside the point. Now that he knew Arkadin was behind the attempt on his life, he had to assume that a trap was being laid for him at 779 El Gamhuria Avenue. Whether that trap was Arkadin?s alone, or whether it included Nikolai Yevsen, the arms dealer, and Noah Perlis, he didn?t yet know. But it was interesting to speculate on what business Noah had with Yevsen. Was it personal or on behalf of Black River? Either way, the two constituted a sinister team, one that he needed to know more about.
And what was Tracy?s role in all this? She had taken possession of the fantastic Goya only after she had electronically transferred the required sum to Don Hererra?s bank account and he had ordered his banker to deposit the funds into a second account, the number of which was unknown to her. That way, Hererra had said with a sly smile, he was assured that the money had actually been delivered and would remain his. His years in the oil fields had turned the Colombian into a sly old fox who considered every angle and planned for every contingency. Bourne thought it ironic that he held a peculiar affection for Hererra even though clearly the Colombian and Arkadin were in some sense allies. He hoped he?d run into Hererra again one day, but in the meantime he needed to deal with Arkadin and Noah Perlis.
The dying sun, red as a fireball, was moving ponderously downward to the earth when Soraya and Amun Chalthoum reached Chysis Military Airdrome. Chalthoum showed his credentials and was directed to a small parking lot. After passing through another security check, they were striding across the tarmac toward the plane Chalthoum had ordered to be fueled and ready to take off when Soraya saw two people walking on a tangent course toward a waiting Air Afrika jet. The woman was thin, blond, and quite striking. She was closer to Soraya so, for a moment, her male companion was blocked from her view. Then the vectors changed as they neared one another. Soraya caught a glimpse of the man?s face and, stricken, felt her knees grow momentarily weak.
Chalthoum, at once noticing her faltering stride, turned back to her.