"As you no doubt know," she said, "Bourne wants to see the files on the conversations between Lindros and Moira Trevor." She paused in order to judge Soraya's reaction to the woman Bourne was now linked with. "I agreed." There wasn't even a tremor in Soraya's face. "I'm meeting him this evening at five," she said slowly, as if still chewing the idea over. Then, all at once, she nodded decisively. "Join me. We'll hear his take on your intel then."
Chapter Eleven
SPLENDIDLY DONE," Specter said to Bourne. "I can't tell you how impressed I am with how you handled the situations at the zoo and at the hospital."
"Mikhail Tarkanian is dead," Bourne said. "I never meant that to happen."
"Nevertheless it did." Specter's black eye wasn't quite as swollen, but it was beginning to turn lurid colors. "Once again I'm deeply in your debt, my dear Jason. Tarkanian was quite clearly the traitor. If not for you, he would have been the instigator of my torture and eventual death. You'll pardon me if I don't grieve for him."
The professor clapped Bourne on the back as the two men walked down to the weeping willow on Specter's property. Out of the corner of his eye, Bourne could see several young men, armed with assault rifles, flanking them. Following the events of today, Bourne didn't begrudge the professor his armed guards. In fact, they made him feel better about leaving Specter's side.
Under the nebula of delicate yellow branches the two men gazed out at the pond, its surface as perfectly flat as if it were a sheet of steel. A brace of skittish grackles lifted up from the willow, cawing angrily. Their feathers gleamed in brief rainbow hues as they banked away from the swiftly lowering sun.
"How well do you know Moscow?" Specter asked. Bourne had told him what Tarkanian had said, and they'd agreed that Bourne should start there in his search for Pyotr's killer.
"Well enough. I've been there several times."
"Still and all, I'll have a friend, Lev Baronov, meet you at Sheremetyevo. Whatever you require, he'll provide. Including weapons."
"I work alone," Bourne said. "I don't want or need a partner."
Specter nodded understandingly. "Lev will be there for support only, I promise he won't be a hindrance."
The professor paused a moment. "What worries me, Jason, is your relationship with Ms. Trevor." Turning so that he faced away from the house, he spoke more softly. "I have no intention of prying into your personal life, but if you're going overseas-"
"We both are. She's off to Munich this evening," Bourne said. "I appreciate your concern, but she's as tough a woman as I've come across. She can take care of herself."
Specter nodded, clearly relieved. "All right, then. There's just the matter of the information on Icoupov." He drew out a packet. "In here are your plane tickets to Moscow, along with the documentation you'll need. There's money waiting for you. Lev has the details as to which bank, the account number attached to the safe-deposit box, and a false identity. The account has been established in that name, not in yours."
"This took some planning."
"I had it done last night, in the hope that you'd agree to go," Specter said. "All that remains is for us to take a picture of you for the passport."
"And if I'd said no?"
"Someone else had already volunteered." Specter smiled. "But I had faith, Jason. And my faith was rewarded."
They turned back and were heading for the house when the professor paused.
"One more thing," he said. "The situation in Moscow vis-邪-vis the grupperovka-the criminal families-is at one of its periodic boiling points. The Kazanskaya and the Azeri are vying for sole control of the drug trade. The stakes are extraordinarily high-in the billions of dollars. So don't get in their way. If there is any contact with you, I beg you not to engage them. Instead, turn the other cheek. It's the only way to survive there."
"I'll remember that," Bourne said, just as one of Specter's men came hurrying out of the back of the house.
"A woman, Moira Trevor, is here to see Mr. Bourne," he said in German-inflected Turkish.
Specter turned to Bourne, his eyebrows raised in either surprise or concern, if not both.
"I had no other choice," Bourne said. "I need to see her before she leaves, and after what happened today I wasn't about to leave you until the last moment."
Specter's face cleared. "I appreciate that, Jason. Indeed, I do." His hand