Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,119

upward until he spotted a man in camouflage six feet away, a rifle cradled in his arms. He wasn’t an island guard. He was Medusa. The man was muscular and tall and wore a headset connected to a radio unit on his shoulder. With a word or a scream, he could give Bourne away, and anonymity was Bourne’s only asset right now.

Bourne silently drew a hunting knife from a scabbard on his calf. He moved another inch. Then another. If the man looked closely into the jungle at his feet, he would see him. Bourne brought one knee up, poised to spring off the ground. He waited until the man’s head swiveled, and then he uncoiled his body and struck like a snake. His left hand closed over the guard’s microphone as he locked his forearm around the man’s throat, and his right hand simultaneously plunged the blade into the side of the man’s neck and severed the carotid artery with a quick, backward slice. A fountain of blood sprayed Bourne’s face, and the only sound was a grotesque gurgling. He held on tightly as the man twitched as blood poured out, before the body slumped into deadweight and he lowered him to the ground.

He grabbed the headset and radio and took the man’s rifle. He made a quick circle with the gun, anticipating an assault from a different direction, but the man had been left behind while the others went forward.

A sentry.

Guarding what?

He was in the middle of dense jungle on the wrong side of the estate wall. And yet there was no sign of the other Medusa assassins.

Bourne heard a voice through the headset and recognized the icy woman’s voice. Miss Shirley.

“We’re in.”

They were already inside the estate. How? Then the next communication used a word that explained everything.

“Jersey, all clear at the tunnel?”

A tunnel.

Somewhere close by was a tunnel leading under the wall and into the heart of the estate. He realized there had to be a way to get people out without relying on the main gate, but a tunnel leading out could also be used as a way in if someone knew where it was and how to get it open.

Which told him something else.

Medusa had a mole inside the estate.

Bourne heard Miss Shirley’s impatient voice through the headset again. “Jersey? Report!”

The Medusa leader expected a reply from the dead man at his feet.

“Clear,” he told her in a muffled voice.

“Prepare for detonation.”

Bourne didn’t have time to prepare for anything. Almost immediately, an earthquake rumbled under his feet, nearly throwing him over. The boom of an explosion rippled across the island. Not even five seconds later, a twin explosion from the same direction rocked the island again, near the gates of the estate. A burnt smell filled the air, and black smoke rose above the crowns of the trees.

He knew what it was. The Jeeps.

They’d wired and blown up the Jeeps. It was a diversion. Focus the guards on the gate, and while they steeled themselves for a frontal assault that was never going to come, Miss Shirley had already led her assassins inside the heart of the estate.

The tunnel!

He had to find the tunnel.

Bourne surveyed the thick jungle, knowing that he could be practically standing at the tunnel entrance without seeing it. And yet the guard should have been waiting right at the portal. He pawed through the bushes that grew together in a tight net and found nothing. Overhead, the parrots laughed at him. Somewhere beyond the wall, he heard a rattle of gunfire and knew he was running out of time. The firefight inside the estate had already begun.

There!

At his feet, he spotted a concrete bunker, carefully disguised so that it blended into the forest floor. The only reason he spotted it was because the bunker’s armored door, secured with an electronic lock, was open.

Medusa definitely had a spy clearing the way for their assault.

Below the open door, a stairwell led ten feet down to a tunnel that headed in the direction of the estate. When he climbed down, he saw lights near the ceiling, but the lights were off. There was no power, not even from a backup generator. He assumed that meant the internal and external surveillance cameras were down, too.

The men defending the estate were blind.

Bourne switched on his flashlight and ran through the tunnel. At the far end, he found another fire door, which led him to a utility room underneath the estate, surrounded by steel machinery. The