Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,124

his face and knew what he was thinking. “I see. You don’t trust me, either. Well, I can’t blame you for that.”

“It’s better if no one knows where I’m going.”

“No, you’re right. Tell me nothing. If you’re correct that we have a spy, it could be anyone. I’ll get everything ready and make sure you get off this island safely. Then it’s up to you, Jason.”

Nelly left him alone. The light of the candles played across his skin, and when he moved, he felt shocks of pain all over his body. He was already deep inside his head, planning what came next. These were the moments when his loss of memory became a kind of advantage. Having no past made it easier to leave himself behind and imagine the world through the eyes of his enemies.

He needed to get inside the head of someone he didn’t know. Medusa was more than Miss Shirley. It had a leader. A strategist dictating every move, like a chess grand master. Whoever that leader was, he or she would already know that their plan had gone wrong. Medusa had aimed a body blow against the tech cabal, and they’d failed. But they wouldn’t go away and lick their wounds. They’d strike again, hard and fast.

If you fail to kill your enemy with a body shot, then you cut off his head.

Treadstone.

Bourne already knew what Medusa would do next. They’d go after Miles Priest.

*

THE open door of the helicopter let a cold, driving wind into the passenger cabin. It was dark all around them, with no land in sight and nothing but miles of Atlantic water below. Miss Shirley sat on the cabin floor, dangling her bare feet out the open door. The fierce wind swirled her black hair and assaulted her skin, but she liked the bite of the cold. It kept her awake and alert. It kept her angry.

The Medusa operative named Dallas sat up front, monitoring the pilot. Only Gabriel Fox sat in back with Miss Shirley, and he was belted into the nearest leather seat, with his arms wrapped tightly around himself and his entire body shivering.

“Do we need to keep the door open?” Gabriel complained like a whining ten-year-old. “I’m shriveling up to nothing here.”

“I like the chill,” Miss Shirley replied calmly.

At high speed over the water, the helicopter jostled and bucked. Her body stayed in perfect balance, moving gracefully with the bumps of air. Gabriel, by contrast, clung to the straps of the seat belt as the turbulence threw him back and forth. His face was pale, and he had his mouth clamped tightly shut. She watched the bulge of his throat swell as he swallowed down bile.

“I hate choppers,” he said. “They scare the shit out of me.”

“You have to be one with the vibration,” she told him.

“I don’t know what the hell that means.”

Miss Shirley got to her feet. She leaned as far as she could outside the helicopter, holding herself steady with nothing but the lightest touch on the door frame. She extended one bare leg straight out the door, level with her hip, then did the same with her left arm. Balanced on one foot, she finally let go of the door frame altogether and rode the waves of turbulence like an aerial surfer.

“Jesus Christ,” Gabriel shouted. “Stop that! You’re freaking me out!”

“You need to relax, my love. Here, let me help.”

Slowly, Miss Shirley drew her body back inside the helicopter. She gave Gabriel a wicked smile. She spread her legs and mounted him with her knees on either side of his thighs. Underneath the thin silk of his robe, she felt him begin to grow hard against the fabric of her bikini bottom. She took his face roughly in her hands and kissed him, shoving her tongue inside his mouth.

“There’s nothing to fear,” she said.

“But we lost. We were supposed to take out the tech cabal. First them, then Medusa. You and I were supposed to take over everything. Now what happens?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Are you kidding? I was seen. People know it was me. They’re going to arrest me for murder.”

“That will never happen.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I need protection! I need to talk to the head of Medusa. You know who he is, right? You know how to get hold of him?”

“Of course.”

“Well, we need to set up a meeting. I’ve got what he wants. Prescix. All of my code. Medusa has wanted that from the beginning. But it’s