The Bourne Objective Page 0,172

thought. In Oxford they stopped at a florist. At the cemetery, she turned in and parked the SUV. They got out and she led him through the ranks of headstones, some very old indeed, toward a spreading oak tree. A brisk wind was blowing from the east, ruffling her hair. She stood slightly back while Bourne approached Tracy's grave.

He stood for a moment, then lay the bouquet of white roses at the foot of the stone. He wanted to remember her as she had been the night before her death. He wanted to remember only their intimate moments. But for better or for worse, her death had been the most intimate of moments between them. He didn't think he'd ever forget the sensation of her blood on his hands and arms, a crimson silk scarf being drawn across them. Her eyes looking up at him. He had so wanted to hold on to the life that was draining out of her. He heard her voice whispering in his ear and his vision clouded. His eyes burned with tears that welled but would not spill over. How he wished he could feel her breathing beside him.

Then he felt Chrissie's arm around him.

* * *

Scarlett, breaking away from a gaggle of her schoolmates, ran into his arms. He picked her up and whirled her around.

"I went to Aunt Tracy's funeral," Scarlett said with a child's terrible gravity. "I wish I had known her better."

Bourne hugged her tight. Then they all got into the Range Rover and, at his request, drove over to Chrissie's office at All Souls College, a large, square room with windows that overlooked the ancient college grounds. It smelled of old books and incense.

While Bourne and Scarlett settled themselves on the sofa Chrissie used to grade papers, she made tea.

"What do you have in the briefcase?" Scarlett asked.

"You'll see," Bourne told her.

Chrissie came over with the tea service on an antique black japanned tray. Bourne waited patiently while she poured the tea, but Scarlett squirmed until her mother offered her a sweet biscuit.

"Now," Chrissie said as she pulled up a chair, "what's all this about?"

Bourne placed the attache case on his lap. "I have a birthday present for you."

Chrissie frowned. "My birthday is almost five months away."

"Consider this an early gift." He unlocked the case, opened the snaps, and removed a laptop computer, which he placed on the table beside the tea service. "Come sit beside me," he said.

Chrissie rose and moved onto the sofa while Bourne opened the laptop and started it up. He had made sure to fully charge the battery on the flight over. Scarlett sat on the edge of the cushion to be closer to the screen.

The screen swelled with images as the computer finished booting up.

"Scarlett," Bourne said, "do you have the ring I gave you?"

"I keep it with me." Scarlett dug it out. "Do I have to give it back?"

Bourne laughed. "I gave it to you and I meant it." He held out his hand. "Just for a moment."

He took the ring and inserted it in the slot that had been built for it. This was the laptop he had stolen from Jalal Essai, Holly's uncle, at Alex Conklin's behest. He hadn't delivered it because he had discovered what it contained and determined that it was too important a find to be given over to Treadstone, or anyone in the clandestine services. Instead he had asked Deron to make a fake laptop. Accompanying Holly on one of her trips to Sonora to stock a narcorrancho, he had been introduced to Gustavo Moreno. Bourne had allowed the fake laptop to fall into the drug lord's hands because having it eventually come to light in Moreno's possession would keep any suspicion on Conklin's part from falling on him.

Similarly, he had switched the Solomon ring with the one Marks had taken off his London assailant. The fact that Scarlett had found Marks's ring when Marks had been shot gave him a perfect cover for the switch. He had been correct to assume the Solomon ring would be far safer in her hands than in his own.

The two pieces fit together perfectly. The mysterious inscription engraved on the inside of the ring unlocked the ghost file on the laptop's hard drive, a PDF file, a perfect replica of an ancient Hebrew text.

Chrissie hunched forward. "What is this? It looks like... directions?"

"You recall the discussion we had with Professor Giles."

She glanced at him. "Funny you should mention him. A squad of MI6 came and took him away yesterday."

"I'm afraid I had something to do with that," Bourne said. "The good professor was part of the group that made so much trouble for us."

"Do you mean - ?" Her gaze returned to the ancient text. "Good Lord, Jason, you don't mean to tell me - !"

"According to this file," Bourne said, "King Solomon's gold is buried in Syria."

Chrissie's excitement grew. "At Ugarit, somewhere on or around Mount Casius, where the god Baal was said to live." She frowned as she came to the end of the text. "But where, exactly? The text is incomplete."

"True," Bourne said, thinking of the SD card Arkadin had found in the shattered statue of Baal. "The last bit is lost. I'm sorry about that."

"No, don't be." She turned and hugged him tightly. "My God, what a fantastic gift."

"If it's the truth, if you find King Solomon's gold."

"No, in and of itself this text is invaluable. It provides a trove of research material that will help shed light on what's fact and fiction about King Solomon's court. I... I don't know how to thank you."

Bourne smiled. "Give it as a gift to the university in your sister's name."

"Why, I... Of course! What a wonderful idea! Now she'll be closer to me, and a part of Oxford, too."

He felt the memory of Tracy settling around him with a contented sigh. He could think of her now in all her incarnations and not be swamped in sorrow.

He put his arm around Scarlett. "You know, your aunt had a hand in this gift."

The girl looked up at him, her eyes wide. "She did?"

Bourne nodded. "Let me tell you about it - and about how very courageous she was."