Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,42
say yes, the killer was our agent, but actually he was a Medusa mole and we had no idea about that when we hired him? How stupid does that make us look?”
Wall looked straight at Scott DeRay as he said this.
“You’re right, I take full responsibility for the recruitment of Jason Bourne,” Scott replied. “Obviously, he was more susceptible to manipulation by Medusa’s psychological methods than I realized. The man is one of my oldest friends, but I misjudged him.”
“A lot of good that does now,” Wall went on. “If our involvement in hiring him comes to light, this is disastrous! Catastrophic!”
“It won’t come out,” Priest interjected sharply.
“That seems optimistic, Mr. Priest,” Hon Xiu-Le announced to sympathetic rumblings from the others at the table. The Chinese entrepreneur adjusted tiny round glasses on his face and folded his small hands together. “If this man is captured, it seems inevitable that the investigation will lead back to Mr. DeRay—and from him to all of us.”
“Bourne will never be captured,” Scott informed them.
“Unless Medusa wants him to be captured,” Wall suggested. “Maybe that’s the plan. Bring him up to Capitol Hill in cuffs and leg irons to point the finger at the cabal, and watch them pass legislation to cripple us by voice vote!”
Priest waited until the unrest settled and the members were quiet. “We are dealing with Bourne.”
“How?” Wall asked, thumping a meaty fist on the table.
“I reached out to Treadstone,” Priest replied with a sideways glance at Scott. “I suggested that we have a shared interest in getting rid of Bourne, particularly given Treadstone’s recent resurrection. Bourne is a threat to them as much as to us. Director Shaw is in complete agreement. They were nearly successful in eliminating him in Canada.”
Hon Xiu-Le scowled. “Nearly?”
“It appears Bourne escaped the net,” Scott announced. “He’s gone underground again.”
More discontent rippled through the cabal.
“He escaped for now,” Priest continued, “but there’s nowhere he can go where we won’t be looking for him. Nelly is coordinating the tech resources among our various members to watch for any footprint he may leave online. He will be found. As soon as we locate him, Treadstone will take action to remove him. Now, I share your disappointment with our failure in New York, but I suggest we all return our focus to the more urgent issue. Namely, Medusa. Ever since the data hack, we’ve been expecting them to move against us in a major way. Any congressional action that arises because of the Ortiz assassination will weaken us, but this is only the first step. We still don’t know their endgame. I would suggest that we remain vigilant for unusual activity within our companies. Fluctuations in stock price or unusual buying or selling activity. Key personnel departures. Theft of intellectual property. Until we know what Medusa is planning, we’re all at risk.”
“Speaking of risk,” Wall interrupted again, “what is being done about Prescix? You promised us a deal, Miles.”
“We’ve faced a setback on that front,” Priest told them, “but we’re not done yet.”
He nodded at Nelly Lessard to give her report. Nelly was sixty years old, with neat gray hair and a grandmotherly voice that masked a tough-as-nails personality. She wasn’t even five feet tall, and she stood up so that the others at the table could see her. Her bones were thin and birdlike. “We extended an invitation to the founder of Prescix, Gabriel Fox, to join the cabal and meet with us here on the island,” she told the group. “He declined. In fact, he declined by hiring a blimp to fly over the Carillon headquarters flashing the word No. Along with a curse directed at Miles. As we all know, Gabriel is a genius but with the erratic personality quirks that geniuses sometimes have.”
“Gabriel is nuts!” Wall said flatly. “But who cares? Prescix software is more powerful than anything we’ve seen in social media in more than a decade. It’s been quadrupling its user base worldwide every month for the past year. We can’t have that much influence out there unchecked and uncoordinated. Prescix needs to be in this room.”
“Agreed,” Priest replied crisply. “As Nelly says, we’d hoped to recruit Gabriel directly, but he refused. In my mind, that’s an unacceptable response. In the absence of Gabriel’s cooperation, we’ve been working to give the company alternative leadership.”
Hon Xiu-Le leaned forward, his eyes suspicious. “How do you plan to do that?”
Scott stood up. Like Priest, he always wore a suit to these meetings. “I’ve been working