@@@@@“You can’t believe I’d forward erroneous
@@@@@“You can’t believe I’d forward erroneous informationI’d have to be insane!”
“We know you can be obstinateWe made a simple request—”
“I complied, I swear I did! Good Christ, I paid fifteen thousand dollars to make certain
everything was silent, absolutely untraceable—not that the money matters, of course—”
“You paid ?” interrupted the quiet voice
“I can show you the bank withdrawals!”
“For what?”
“The information, naturallyI hired a former judge who has contacts—”
“For information about Craft?”
“What?”
“Croft
“Who?”
“Our major, Counselor
“If that’s her code name, then yes, yes I did!”
“A code name?”
“The womanThey flew to the island of MontserratI swear that’s what I was
told!”
There was a sudden click and the line went dead
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
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His hand still on the telephone, Conklin broke out in a sweatHe released the phone and got up
from his chair, limping away from the computer, looking back at it, down at it, as if it were some
monstrous thing that had taken him into a forbidden land where nothing was as it appeared to be or
should beWhat had happened? How did Randolph Gates know anything about Montserrat, about
Marie and the children? Why?
Alex lowered himself into the armchair, his pulse racing, his thoughts clashing, no judgments
emerging, only chaosHe gripped his right wrist with his left hand, his nails digging into his flesh
He had to get hold of himself, he had to think—he had to act! For David’s wife and childrenWhat were the conceivable associations? It was difficult enough to consider Gates
as even unwittingly a part of Medusa, but impossible to think he was also connected to Carlos the
JackalYet both appeared to be; the connections existedWas Carlos himself part of
Swayne’s Medusa? Everything they knew about the Jackal would deny it emphaticallyThe
assassin’s strength was in his total disassociation with any structured entity, Jason Bourne had
proved that thirteen years ago in ParisNo group of people could ever reach him; they could only
send out a message and he would reach themThe single organization the international killer for
hire permitted was his army of old men, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, lost misfits,
criminals whose impoverished last days were made better by the assassin’s largess, fealty unto
death demanded and receivedWhere did—could—a man like Randolph Gates fit in?
He didn’t, concluded Alex as the outer limits of his imagination explored an old territory—Be
skeptical of the apparentThe celebrated attorney was no more part of Carlos than he was of
MedusaHe was the aberration, the flaw in the lens, an otherwise honorable man with a single
weakness that had been uncovered by two disparate parties both with extraordinary resourcesIt
was common knowledge that the Jackal could reach into the S?reté and Interpol, and it took no
clairvoyance to assume that Medusa could penetrate the army’s G