The Bourne Deception - By Robert Ludlum & Eric van Lustbader Page 0,35
police backed off, Dark Suit Number One slipped his hand into Moiras pocket with the deftness of a professional pickpocket. Ill take that, Ms. Trevor, he said, holding Jays cell between the tips of his blunt fingers.
Moira lunged for it, but Dark Suit One snatched it out of her reach.
Hey, thats the property of my company.
Sorry, Dark Suit One said, this has been impounded as a matter of national security.
Before Moira could say a word he took her arm. Now if youll be kind enough to come with us.
What? Moira said. You have no right to do this.
Im afraid we do, Dark Suit One said as his partner positioned himself on her other side. He held aloft Jays cell. You were tampering with a crime scene.
As she was taken away, Dave took a step toward her.
Out of the way! Dark Suit Number Two barked.
His sharp tone seemed to take the paramedic aback and he stumbled against her, mumbled an apology, then backed away.
Now Moiras view of the scene changed so that she was able to see the man standing behind the NSA agent. It was Noah, staring at her with a feral grin. He took Jays cell and put it in his inside jacket pocket.
As he walked away, he said, You cant say you werent warned.
Astride the motorbike Dr. Firth had rented, Bourne drove up into the East Bali mountainsalmost straight up at several pointsuntil he arrived at the foot of Pura Lempuyang, the Dragon Temple complex. He parked under the watchful eye of a diminutive attendant in a canvas chair protected from the fierce sun by the dappled shade of a tree. Buying a bottle of water at one of the line of stands that served both pilgrims and curious tourists, he set off up the stiff incline, wrapped in his traditional sarong and sash.
The priest at the Bat Cave had not seen Suparwita, though he knew of him, but when Bourne had used him as a sounding board to describe his recurring dream, the priest had instantly identified the dragon staircases as those belonging to Pura Lempuyang. Bourne had left him after getting detailed directions to the temple complex high up on Mount Lempuyang.
It did not take him long to reach the first temple, a simple enough affair that seemed more like an anteroom to the steep steps that led up to the second temple. By the time he reached the intricately carved gateway, the ache in his chest had turned into a pain that obliged him to pause. Looking through the arched gate, he saw the three staircases, even steeper than the two hed just ascended. They were guarded by six enormous stone dragons whose sinuous and scaly bodies undulated up the stairway serving as banisters.
The priest hadnt steered him wrong. This was the place of his dream, this was where hed been when hed seen the figure framed in the archway turn toward him. Turning around, he peered through the archway at the breathtaking view of sacred Mount Agung, rising blue and misty, now wreathed in clouds, its iconic cone shape visible in all its monumental power.
Drawn to the dragon staircases, Bourne continued his ascent. Stopping midway, he turned to look back at the gateway. There was the volcano framed between the soaring teeth that formed the entrance. His heart skipped a beat as a figure was silhouetted against Mount Agung. Involuntarily, he took a step down, then saw the figure was that of a little girl in a red-and-yellow sarong. She turned, moving in that liquid, sinuous way of all Balinese children, and abruptly vanished, leaving only dusty sunlight in her wake.
Resuming his climb, Bourne soon reached the upper plaza of the temple. There were a few people scattered here and there. A man knelt, praying. Bourne wandered aimlessly among the heavily carved structures, feeling somehow that he was floating, as if he had entered his dream, his past, but as a stranger returning to a place of forgotten familiarity.
He wished this place struck a chord, but it didnt, which bothered him. His experience with his form of amnesia was that a name, a sight, a smell often triggered a return of his lost memory about a place or a person. Why had he been in Bali? Being here in this place he had been dreaming about for months should have released the memories from the well of his mind. But those memories were like a fluke on a sandy sea bottomthat strange creature with