out there - because in his judgement he had a better chance to survive.'
'You believe that?' screamed David Webb's wife, tears filling her eyes.
'Perhaps,' said Panov, nodding and speaking softly. 'Conklin pointed out that here in Hong Kong David could be shot or stabbed in a crowded street - crowds, he said, were both an enemy and a friend. Don't ask me where these people find their metaphors, I don't know.'
'What the hell are you trying to tell me?'
'What Alex told me. He said they made him go back, made him be someone he wanted to forget. Then he said there never was anyone like "Delta". "Delta" was the best there ever was ... David Webb was "Delta", Marie. No matter what he wanted to put out of his mind, he was "Delta". Jason Bourne was an afterthought, an extension of the pain he had to inflict on himself, but his skills were honed as "Delta" ... In some respects I know your husband as well as you do.'
'In those respects, far better, I'm sure,' said Marie, resting her head against the comforting chest of Morris Panov. 'There were so many things he wouldn't talk about. He was too frightened, or too ashamed ... Oh, God, Mo! Will he come back to me?"
'Alex thinks "Delta" will come back.'
Marie leaned away from the psychiatrist and looked into his eyes; through the tears her stare was rigid. 'What about David?' she asked in a plaintive whisper. 'Will he come back?'
'I can't answer that. I wish I could, but I can't.'
'I see.' She released Panov and walked to a window, looking down at the crowds below in the congested, garishly lighted streets. 'You asked Alex if he'd been drinking. Why did you do that, Mo?'
The moment the words came out I regretted them.'
'Because you offended him?' asked Marie, turning back to the psychiatrist.
'No. Because I knew you'd heard them and you'd want an explanation. I couldn't refuse you that.'
'Well'
'It was the last thing he said to me - two things, actually. He said you were wrong about Staples- '
'Wrong? I was there. I saw. I heard her lies!'
'She was trying to protect you without sending you into panic.'
'More lies! What was the other?'
Panov held his place and spoke simply, his eyes locked with Marie's. 'Alex said that crazy as things seemed, they weren't really so crazy after all.'
'My God, they've turned him!'
'Not all the way. He won't tell them where you are - where we are. He told me we should be ready to move within minutes after his next call. He can't take the chance of coming back here. He's afraid he'll be followed.'
'So we're running again - with nowhere to go but back into hiding. And all of a sudden there's a rotten growth in our armour. Our crippled St George who slays dragons now wants to lie with them.'
That's not fair, Marie. That's not what he said, not what I said.'
'Bullshit, Doctor! That's my husband out there, or up there! They're using him, killing him, without telling us why! Oh, he may - just may - survive because he's so terribly good at what he does - did - which was everything he despised, but what's going to be left of the man and his mind! You're the expert, Doctor! What's going to be left when all the memories come back? And they damn well better come back, or he won't survive!'
'I told you, I can't answer that.'
'Oh, you're terrific, Mo! All you've got is carefully qualified positions and no answers, not even well couched projections. You're hiding! You should have been an economist! You missed your calling!'
'I miss a lot of things. Almost including the plane to Hong Kong.'
Marie stood motionless, as if struck. She burst into a new wave of tears as she ran to Panov, embracing him. 'Oh, God, I'm sorry, Mo! Forgive me, forgive me!'
'I'm the one who should apologize,' said the psychiatrist. 'It was a cheap shot.' He tilted her head back, gently stroking the grey hair streaked with white. 'Lord, I can't stand that wig.' 'It's not a wig, Doctor.'
'My degrees, by way of Sears Roebuck, never included cosmetology.'
'Only taking care of feet.'
'They're easier than heads, take my word for it.'
The telephone rang. Marie gasped and Panov stopped breathing. He slowly turned his head towards the hateful ringing.
'You try that again or anything like it and you're dead!' roared Bourne, gripping the back of his hand where the flesh was darkening from the force