or innocence now. If Bourne is found alive, it blows back on us, which we can’t afford in the current circumstances. I think you know that.”
“I told him the same thing.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Priest replied. “Bourne is a distraction we don’t need. The sooner he’s out of the way, the better. The bigger issue is that we only have two days until the cabal meets on the island. We need a strategy to keep Gabriel Fox from giving up Prescix to Medusa.”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that, Miles. I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“I think we should invite Gabriel to join us on the island,” Scott said. “Let him meet with the cabal face-to-face. Perhaps as a group, we can finally persuade him that he’s better off with us, not against us.”
Miles sipped his whisky as he reflected on this idea. “Interesting plan. And what if he still says no?”
Scott shrugged. “Then we have no choice. We kill him.”
THIRTY-THREE
JASON winced as Abbey wrapped an elastic bandage around his ankle, which he’d twisted in his jump from the hotel window. When she was done, he got to his feet, limping through the brush. They were back in the red hills, looking down from the heights of the mesa at the Three Mountains casino. The Land Rover was parked on an unpaved trail behind them. They were invisible in the darkness.
He focused the binoculars on the private casino and saw what he expected to see. Panic. Guards roamed the parking lot, shining lights into cars. High rollers were being escorted out the door and whisked away. He wondered what excuse they were using to hide what had really happened. Gas leak. Bomb threat. Computer failure. Even so, someone must have heard the gunshots in the tower; rumors had to be flying.
General Kahnke, whose hotel suite Bourne had crashed, left almost immediately, his face hidden by sunglasses and a hoodie. The general climbed into the back seat of a town car, accompanied by a redheaded mistress who’d probably been with him in the bedroom. Jason didn’t think the general was likely to survive the night. In the morning, he’d be found dead in a respectable Strip hotel. Heart attack probably. The general had seen too much.
He’d seen Bourne.
“You’re waiting for something to happen,” Abbey murmured as he continued the surveillance. “What?”
“This was an assault on one of the Medusa nerve centers. They’re going to have to assess the damage up close.”
“Meaning?”
“They’ll send someone.”
Another hour passed as he surveilled the property. It was the middle of the night. Finally, Jason spotted headlights approaching, and he knew this wasn’t one of the limos that had been coming and going since he escaped. When he focused on the vehicle through his binoculars, he saw a black SUV with smoked windows, and he recognized the profile of a Volvo XC90. He suspected it was the heavy, armored version, nearly ten thousand pounds in weight, built to withstand bullets and explosives.
Medusa had arrived.
“Now it gets interesting,” Bourne said.
The SUV pulled to a stop outside the casino doors like an ominous black spider. To Jason’s surprise, no one got out, and the engine didn’t shut down. Instead, two people emerged from inside the casino and headed toward the vehicle. The first was Peter Restak, the color drained from his face, his wounded shoulder bandaged and in a sling. The second was Andrew Yee, still in his royal-blue suit, his expression fearful. As Bourne watched, the rear door of the SUV swung open. The two men got inside, and the Volvo pulled away. The entire process took less than thirty seconds.
“Come on,” Jason said, pushing himself to his feet. He stumbled on his bad ankle, and Abbey held him up.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“The question is, where are they going? You’ll need to drive this time. Keep the lights off for now.”
He tossed her the keys, and Abbey got behind the wheel of the Land Rover. She drove down the dusty road, the truck bouncing on barren terrain. The land sloped sharply through scattered cacti and mesquite, and she squinted to avoid driving them off a cliff’s edge. When they reached the flatland, they were nowhere near the gate they’d used originally, and the paved road was on the other side of an aluminum fence.
“Drive over it,” Jason told her.
Abbey gave him one sideways look of concern, then gunned the engine. The Land Rover jolted over the uneven ground with a burst of acceleration, took