The Bourne Supremacy

'Dead?'

'Shot by his own people, at least fifty bullets in his body. '

'And you?

'They accepted my story. I was an innocent hostage picked up in the streets and used as a shield as well as a decoy. They treated me well and, in fact, kept me from the press at my insistence. Of course, they're trying to minimize everything but they won't have much success. The newspaper and television people were all over the place, so you'll read about it in the morning papers. '

'My God, where did it happen?

'An estate on Victoria Peak. It's part of the consulate and damned secret. That's why I have to reach your leader-one. I learned things that he should know about. '

Tell me.

The 'assassin' laughed derisively. 'I sell this kind of information. I don't give it away – especially not to pigs. '

'You'll be well taken care of,' insisted Soo.

Too well in my book. '

'What do you mean by "leader-one'? asked Colonel Soo Jiang, dismissing the remark.

'Your head man, the chief, the big rooster – whatever you want to call him. He was the man in that forest preserve who did all the talking, wasn't he? The one who used his sword with such efficiency, the wild-eyed corkscrew with the short hair, the one I tried to warn about the Frenchman's delaying tactics-'

'You dare...? You did that?'

'Ask him. I told him something was wrong, that the Frenchman was stalling him. Christ, I paid for his not listening to me! He should have hacked that French bastard when I told him to! Now you tell him I want to talk to him!'

'Even I do not talk to him,' said the colonel. 'I reach only subordinates by their code names. I don't know their real ones-'

'You mean the men who fly down to the hills in Guangdong to meet me and deliver the assignments?' interrupted Bourne.

'Yes. '

'I won't talk to any of them!' exploded Jason, now posing as his own impostor. 'I want to talk to the man. And he'd better want to talk to me. '

'You will speak with others first, but still, even for them, there must be very strong reasons. They do the summoning, others do not. You should know that by now. '

'All right, you can be the courier. I was with the Americans for almost three hours, mounting the best cover I ever mounted in my life. They questioned me at length and I answered them openly – I don't have to tell you that I have back-ups all over the territory, men and women who'll swear I'm a business associate, or that I was with them at a specific time, no matter who calls-'

'You don't have to tell me that,' Soo broke in. 'Please, just give me the message I'm to convey. You talked with the Americans. Then what?

'I listened, too. The colonials have a stupid habit of talking too freely among themselves in the presence of strangers. '

'I hear a British voice now. The voice of superiority. We've all heard it before. '

'You're damned right. The wogs don't do that, and God knows you slants don't either. '

'Please, sir, continue. '

'The one who took me prisoner, the man who was killed by the Americans, was an American himself. '

'So?

'I leave a signature with my kills. The name has a long history. It's Jason Bourne. '

'We know that. And?

'He was the original! He was an American and they've been hunting him for nearly two years. '

'And?

They think Beijing found him and hired him. Someone in Beijing who needed the most important kill of his life, who needed to kill a man in that house. Bourne's for sale to anybody, an equal-opportunity employee, as the Americans might say. '

'Your language is elusive. Please be clearer!'

There were several others in that room with the Americans. Chinese from Taiwan who said outright that they oppose most of the leaders of the secret societies in the Kuomintang. They were angry. Frightened too, I think. ' Bourne stopped. Silence.

'Yes? pressed the colonel apprehensively.

They said a number of other things. They also kept mentioning the name of someone called Sheng. '

'Aiya?

That's the message you'll convey and I'll expect a response at the casino within three hours. I'll send someone to pick it up and don't try anything foolish. I have people there who can start a riot as easily as they can roll a seven. Any interference and your men are dead. '

'We remember the Tsim Sha Tsui a few weeks ago,' said

Soo Jiang. 'Five of our enemies killed in a back room while a cabaret erupts in violence. There'll be no interference; we're not fools where you are concerned. We often wondered if the original Jason Bourne was as proficient as his successor. '

'He wasn't. ' Bring up the possibility of a riot at the casino in case Sheng's people try to trap you. Say their men will be killed. You don't have to elaborate. They'll understand... The analyst knew whereof he spoke. 'A question,' said Jason, genuinely interested. 'When did you and the others decide I wasn't the original?

'At first sight,' replied the colonel. The years leave their marks, don't they? The body may remain agile, even improve with care, but the face reflects time; it is inescapable. Your face could not possibly be the face of the man from Medusa, that was over fifteen years ago and you are, at best, a man in your early thirties. The Medusa did not recruit children. You were the Frenchman's reincarnation. '

The code word is "crisis" and you have three hours, said Bourne, hanging up the phone.

'This is crazy!' Jason stepped out of the open glass booth in the all-night telephone complex and looked angrily at McAllister.

'You did it very well,' said the analyst, writing on a small notepad. 'I'll pay the bill. ' The undersecretary started towards the raised platform where the operators accepted payments for international calls.

'You're missing the point,' continued Bourne at McAllister's side, his voice low, harsh. 'It can't work. It's too unorthodox, too obvious for anyone to buy it. '

'If you were demanding a meeting I'd agree with you, but you're not. You're only asking for a telephone conversation. '

'I'm asking him to acknowledge the core of his whole goddamned scam! That he is the core!'

To quote you again,' said the analyst, picking up the bill on the counter and holding out money, 'he can't afford not to respond. He has to. '

'With preconditions that'll throw you out of the box. '

'I'll want your input in such matters, of course. ' McAllister took his change, nodding thanks to the weary female operator, and started for the door, Jason beside him.

'I may not have any input to give. '

'Under the circumstances, you mean,' said the analyst, as they stepped out onto the crowded pavement.

'What?

'It's not the strategy that upsets you, Mr Bourne, because it's basically your strategy. What makes you furious is that I'm the one implementing it, not you. Like Havilland you don't think I'm capable. '

'I don't think this is the time or the occasion for you to prove you're Machine Gun Kelly! If you fail, your life's the last thing that concerns me. Somehow the Far East comes first, the world comes first. '

'There's no way I can fail. I told you, even if I fail, I don't. Sheng loses no matter whether he lives or not. In seventy-two hours the consulate in Hong Kong will make sure of it. '

'Premeditated self-sacrifice isn't something I approve of,' said Jason, as they started up the street . 'Self-deluding heroics always get in the way and screw things up. Besides, your so-called strategy reeks of a trap. They'll smell it!'

'They would if you negotiated with Sheng and not me. You tell me it's unorthodox, too obvious, the movements of an amateur. That's fine. When Sheng hears me on the phone, everything will fall into place for him. I am the embittered amateur, the man who's never been in the field, the first-rate bureaucrat who's been passed over by the system he's served so well. I know what I'm doing, Mr Bourne. You just get me a weapon. '

The request was not difficult to fulfil. Over in Macao's Porto Interior, on the Rua das Lorchas, was d'Anjou's flat which was a minor arsenal of weapons, the tools of the Frenchman's trade. It was simply a matter of getting inside and selecting those arms most easily dismantled so as to cross the relatively lax border at Guangdong with diplomatic passports. But it took something over two hours, the process of selection being the most time-consuming as Jason put gun after gun in McAllister's hand, with each watching the analyst's grip and the expression on his face. The weapon finally chosen was the smallest, lowest calibrated pistol in d'Anjou's arsenal, a Charter Arms.22 with a silencer.