How to get in touch with Soraya? Opening her cell, she called CI headquarters. The director, she was told, was out of the country. When she told the operative that her call was urgent, he told her to wait. A little over sixty seconds later, he was back on the phone.
―Give me the number where Director Moore can reach you,‖ he said.
Moira recited her cell phone number and cut the connection, fully expecting that her request would be promptly lost in the maze of paperwork and requests that must constantly flood Soraya‘s electronic in box. She was therefore stunned when her cell phone rang ten minutes later, showing an OUT
OF AREA logo on her tiny screen.
She put the cell to her ear. ―Hello?‖
―Moira? It‘s Soraya Moore. Where are you? Are you in trouble?‖
Moira laughed in relief to hear the other woman‘s voice. ―I‘m in DC and yes, I‘ve been in trouble, and out. Listen, I have some news for you.‖
Quickly and methodically, she started at the beginning, outlining what she knew about Jay Weston‘s murder—and what she was now certain was Steve Stevenson‘s murder—as well as what she knew of Ronnie Hart‘s death. ―It all boils down to this software program Noah Perlis commissioned.‖ She went on to describe what Bardem did, how she had obtained a copy of it, and what it had revealed about Black River‘s plans to confiscate the Iranian oil fields.
―What I can‘t figure is how such a complex plan could have been hatched after the terrorist attack on the airplane outside Cairo.‖
―It wasn‘t,‖ Soraya said. ―I‘m currently in Khartoum and here‘s why.‖ And she told Moira what she and Amun Chalthoum had discovered regarding the Iranian Kowsar 3 missile and the four-man American cadre that had smuggled it over the Sudanese border into Egypt. ―So you see it‘s bigger even than Black River and elements inside the government. Even Noah couldn‘t have gotten to Nikolai Yevsen without the help of the Russians.‖
Now Moira understood why no one was concerned about the illegality of the oil field land-grab. If the Russians were in on Pinprick they would deflect world opinion in the right direction.
―Moira,‖ Soraya said now, ―we found the four men outside Khartoum. They were shot once in the head, execution-style, and their bodies dumped in with quicklime. But we managed to salvage something odd from each of them. They look like dog tags, only the writing on them is enciphered.‖
Moira felt her heart thumping hard in her chest. ―They sound like the tags Black River gives to its field personnel.‖
―Then we could prove it was Black River personnel who fired that missile.
We could avert this ill-advised and self-serving war.‖
―I‘d have to see them to make sure,‖ Moira said.
―I‘ll overnight them to you,‖ Soraya said. ―My pal here tells me he can expedite the shipment so you‘ll get the tags tomorrow morning.‖
―That would be fantastic. If they are what they seem to be, I can get them processed in hours. I‘ll just have to make sure they‘re delivered into the right hands.‖
―That wouldn‘t be CI,‖ Soraya said. ―There‘s a new director, M. Errol Danziger. Though his appointment hasn‘t yet been officially announced, he‘s already taken over—and he‘s Secretary Halliday‘s man.‖ She took a breath.
―Listen, do you need protection? I can have some of my people to wherever you are within twenty minutes.‖
―Thanks very much, but the way things are going the fewer people who know where I am, the better.‖
―Understood.‖ There was another, longer pause. ―I‘ve been thinking a lot about Jason recently.‖
―Me, too.‖ Moira was thinking how happy she was that Jason wasn‘t a part of all this. He needed his time to heal, both physically and mentally. Being a hairbreadth from dying wasn‘t something you got over in a few weeks or even months.
―There‘s a lot about him to remember.‖ Half a world away, Soraya was thinking she‘d call Jason and update him just as soon she concluded this conversation.
―You and I share that, don‘t we?‖
―Don‘t forget about him, Moira,‖ Soraya said just before she rang off.
33
ARKADIN, alighting from the Air Afrika jet, despised Noah Perlis on sight.
For that reason, he was at his most cordial when he, at the head of his twenty-man cadre, met with the Black River operative. At the same time, he was trying his best to ignore the eerie similarities between this section of Iran and Nizhny Tagil, with its sulfurous stench, the particulate-filled air, the ring of oil wells that seemed so much like the guard towers on the high-security prisons surrounding his home city.
The rest of Arkadin‘s contingent was still in the plane, where they were looking after the pilot and navigator, as they had the entire flight, to make sure they didn‘t warn anyone about the larger-than-normal cargo. At a prearranged signal, the men would come pouring out of the belly of the plane, not unlike the Greek warriors who had been taken inside the impregnable walls of Troy in the wooden horse.
―It‘s good to meet you at last, Leonid Danilovich,‖ Perlis said in passable Russian as he gripped Arkadin‘s hand. ―Your reputation precedes you.‖
Arkadin smiled his most welcoming smile and said, ―I think you ought to know Jason Bourne is here—‖
―What?‖ Perlis looked as if the world had dropped away from him. ―What did you say?‖
―—or if he isn‘t here yet, he soon will be.‖ Arkadin kept the smile on his face even as Perlis tried to yank his hand away from the death grip Arkadin had on it. ―It was Bourne who infiltrated the Air Afrika building in Khartoum. I know you must have been wondering who it was.‖
Perlis appeared to be struggling to understand what Arkadin was up to.
―That‘s nonsense. Bourne is dead.‖
―On the contrary.‖ Arkadin jerked back hard on Perlis‘s trapped hand.
―And I ought to know. I shot Bourne in Bali. I, too, thought he‘d died, but, like me, he‘s a survivor, a man with nine lives.‖
―Even if all this is true, how would you know Bourne was in Khartoum, let alone at the Air Afrika building?‖
―It‘s my business to know these things, Perlis.‖ He laughed. ―Now I‘m being coy. Actually, I sent Bourne on a course expressly designed to lead him to Khartoum, to the Air Afrika building, to—and this is most important of all—Nikolai Yevsen.‖
―Yevsen is at the heart of our plan, why would you do such an idiotic—‖
―I wanted Bourne to kill Yevsen. And that‘s precisely what he did.‖
Arkadin‘s smile spread all the way up to his eyes. This arrogant American looks good with all the blood drained from his face,he thought. ―I have all of Yevsen‘s computer files—all his contacts, clients, and suppliers. Not that that‘s a wide circle of people, as you can imagine, but by now they‘ve all been informed of Nikolai Yevsen‘s death. They‘ve also been told they‘ll be dealing with me from now on.‖