Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,103
tied in a tight knot, and a diamond tiara sat on her head like a crown. She wore a jeweled see-through lace top that left her torso essentially nude, and below, she wore a leopard print miniskirt that matched Gabriel’s tuxedo. Her smile showed only pale peach lips, and her icy blue eyes missed nothing. She didn’t move or wave or acknowledge any of the people below her.
Jason couldn’t take his eyes off the woman. Abbey glanced his way and saw his fixation.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I know her.”
“What?”
“I know her,” he repeated.
The woman with Gabriel Fox was unforgettable, and he’d seen her before. Just once. She’d been there on one of the worst days of his life. When he ran for the Lucky Nickel hotel after the shooting, he’d found the parking lot crowded with people screaming as they bolted from the exits. It was chaos; the people were in panic. But not all of them. There had been one woman who walked calmly away, utterly unfazed by the violence around her. One woman, tall, cold, confident. Their eyes had met for a brief moment. She’d seen him and given him the strangest smile, both erotic and chilling. He’d wondered who she was, but a moment later, he’d spotted Nash Rollins, and the thin, blue-eyed Amazon had disappeared from his mind.
Until now.
Bourne knew. Seeing her here, he knew the truth.
“She killed Nova,” he said.
He didn’t have time to say anything more or to answer the questions on Abbey’s face, because at that moment, Gabriel Fox spoke into a microphone that broadcast his voice around the estate. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me here today. The party will last all night, and I want you to enjoy all the amenities of my home. What I have is yours. If you’re wondering what to do next, well, just check your Prescix account for advice. Because Prescix will know before you do.”
A wave of nervous laughter rippled through the crowd.
“Before we kick off the celebration, let me introduce you to the woman who is now my partner in sex, love, and life … especially sex. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to call her by any other name than this … the incredible Miss Shirley.”
The woman next to Gabriel on the tower held up her hand to wave like a queen, still with the same frozen smile. She might as well have been a statue, perfectly carved. Simultaneously, fireworks shot from the roof of the estate, making multicolored flowers in the night sky and causing rippling waves of thunder under their feet. Around them, the entire crowd burst into applause.
“Miss Shirley,” Abbey murmured, eyeing the woman on the platform. “Holy shit. That’s her. She’s Medusa.”
“I’m betting she runs the whole Las Vegas operation,” Bourne said.
“You can’t let her see you,” Abbey told him. “She’ll know who you are. We’ll never get out of here alive.”
“I know.”
“What did you mean when you said she killed Nova?”
“She was at the Lucky Nickel. I saw her. I don’t know if Hackman pulled the trigger or if she did, but she was there.”
“Do you think Gabriel knows who she is? What she is?”
“We need to find out.”
Jason watched the elevated platform slowly descend to the level of the fountains. When it did, stepping-stones emerged out of the water that allowed Gabriel Fox to lead Miss Shirley back to the patio. He saw them mingling with the guests one by one, but he noticed that Miss Shirley never looked at the person she was talking to. Instead, like a predatory reptile, her eyes moved constantly, as if looking for prey. He took Abbey’s hand and backed away into the shadows, where they couldn’t be seen.
“I have to get Gabriel alone,” he said.
“How do you plan to do that?”
Bourne studied the sprawling grounds of the estate. There seemed to be people everywhere, wandering in the darkness. He saw lights in every room, and all the walls were made of glass, allowing others to look inside. Then he glanced at the multilevel roof, which was unlit. No one was up there, not even security.
“Find one of the servers,” Jason told Abbey. “Tell them to deliver a message to Gabriel Fox. For him only, no one else. Say that Miles Priest has an urgent private message for him, and he sent someone who’s waiting on the roof.”