The Bourne Betrayal (21 page)

Breaking out along the high ridge, he saw just below him the commander sprawled in the snow amid a cloud of blood. Then, as he inched forward, two terrorists came into view. He shot one in the heart from the back. The second turned and fired back. Bourne dove behind a rock.

More shots were being fired, ragged bursts, a peppering of sound taken up by the overhang, rocketed back into Bourne’s ears. Bourne rose to his knees and three shots spanged off a nearby rock, sending sparks into the air.

He made a show of moving to his right, drawing fire, then slithered on his belly to his left until one shoulder of the terrorist came into view. Bourne fired twice, heard a grunt of pain. He made a show of rising up, coming forward, and when the terrorist popped up, Makarov aimed directly at him, Bourne shot the man cleanly between the eyes.

Moving on, Bourne searched for the third terrorist. He found him writhing in the snow, one hand clutching his stomach. His eyes flashed as he saw Bourne and, curiously, the ghost of a smile crossed his face. Then, in a final spasm, blood erupted from his mouth and his eyes clouded over.

Bourne ran on, then. Not more than thirty meters along he found Zaim. The Amhara was on his knees. He’d been shot twice in the chest. His eyes were crossed in pain. Nevertheless, as Bourne came to him, he said, “No, leave me. I’m finished.”

“Zaim-”

“Go on. Find your friend. Bring him home.”

“I can’t leave you.”

Zaim arranged his lips in a smile. “You still don’t understand. I have no regrets. Because of you my son will be buried. This is all I ask.”

With a long, rattling sigh, he fell sideways and did not move again.

Bourne approached him at last and, kneeling down, closed his companion’s eyes. Then he went on toward Fadi’s camp. Fifteen minutes later, after wending his way through thickening stands of firs, he saw it: a military array of tents pitched on a patch of flat ground that had been cleared some time ago, judging by the healed-over tree stumps.

Hunkered down beside the bole of a tree, he studied the camp: nine tents, three cook fires, a latrine. The trouble was that he could see no one. The camp appeared deserted.

He rose, then, and began to make his surveillance circuit around the camp’s periphery. The moment he left the sanctuary of the fir’s low-hanging branches, bullets kicked up snow all around him. He glimpsed at least half a dozen men.

Bourne began to run.

Up here! This way! Quickly!”

Bourne, looking up, saw Alem lying prone on a shelf of snow-laden rock. He found a foothold, vaulted up onto the ledge. Alem slithered back from the edge beside Bourne, who was on his belly, watching Fadi’s men fan out to search for him.

Following Alem’s lead, Bourne pushed himself farther back onto the ledge. When they were far enough to gain their feet, Alem said: “They’ve moved your friend. There are caves beneath the overhang. This is where they’ve taken him.”

“What are you doing here?” Bourne said as they began to climb upward.

“Where is my father? Why isn’t he with you?”

“I’m sorry, Alem. He was shot to death.”

Bourne reached out to the boy, but Alem flinched away. The boy hung off the rock, his gaze turned inward.

“He gave as good as he got, if that makes a difference.” Bourne crouched next to Alem. “He was at peace at the end. I promised to bury your brother.”

“You can do that?”

Bourne nodded. “I think so. Yes.”

Alem’s dark eyes roved over Bourne’s face. Then he nodded and, silently, they resumed their ascent. It had begun to snow again-a heavy white curtain coming down, putting them at a remove from the rest of the world. It also muffled all sound, which was both good for them and bad. While it would hide the sounds of their movement, it would do the same for their pursuers.

Nevertheless, Alem led them on fearlessly. He was using a channel that ran diagonally across the bulge of the overhang. He was sure-footed, didn’t miss a step. Within fifteen minutes, they had gained the top.

Alem and Bourne crept the irregular surface. “There are chimneys that go all the way down to the caves,” he said. “Many times I played hide-and-seek here with my brother. I know which chimney to use to get to your friend.”

Even through the snow, Bourne could see that the overhang was pocked with the holes that marked vertical chimneys, indications of glacial ice powerful enough to excavate through the mountain’s granitic material.

Bent over one of these, Bourne wiped away the accumulated snow and peered down. Light didn’t quite make it all the way down to the bottom, but the shaft looked to be several hundred meters in height.

Beside him, Alem said, “Your enemies were watching.”

“Your father told me this.”

Alem nodded. Clearly he was not surprised. “Your friend was then moved out of the camp so you would not find him.”

Bourne sat back, contemplating the boy. “Why are you telling me this now? Assuming it is the truth.”

“They killed my father. I think now that was always what they intended. What do they care for us, how many of us are killed or maimed, so long as they gain what they want. But they assured me that he would be safe, that he’d be protected, and I was stupid enough to believe them. So now I say fuck them. I want to help you rescue your friend.”

Bourne said nothing, made no move.

“I know I must prove myself to you, so I’ll go first down the chimney. If it is a trap, if your suspicion is right, if they think you’ll use the chimney, then they will shoot me dead. You will be safe.”

“No matter what you’ve done, Alem, I don’t want to see you hurt.”

Confusion flitted across the boy’s face. Clearly, it was the first time a stranger had expressed interest in his welfare.

“I’ve told you the truth,” Alem said. “The terrorists have no knowledge of these chimneys.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Bourne said, “You can prove your loyalty to me and to your father, but not this way.” He dug in his pocket, taking out a small octagonal object made of a dark gray rubbery plastic compound in the center of which were two buttons, one black and one red.

As he put it into Alem’s hand, he said, “I need you to go back down the overhang, heading south. You’ll no doubt come across some of Fadi’s men. As soon as you see them, press the black button. When you’re within a hundred meters of them, press the red button, then throw this at them as hard as you can. Do you have all that?”

The boy looked down at the octagon. “Is this an explosive?”

“You know it is.”

“You can count on me,” Alem said solemnly.

“Good. I’m not going to make a move until I hear the explosion. Then I’ll go down the chimney.”

“The explosion will draw them.” Alem rose to leave. “Two-thirds of the way down, the chimney branches. Take the right branch. When you reach the end, turn right. You’ll be fifty meters from where they’re holding your friend.”

Bourne watched as the boy scrambled across the top of the overhang, vanishing into the swirling snow as he went over the south side. At once, he called Davis on the Thuraya satellite phone.

“Your position is compromised,” he said. “Has there been any activity? Anything at all?”

“Quiet as a tomb,” the pilot said. “You have an ETA? There’s a helluva front forming to the northwest.”

“So I’ve heard. Listen, I need you to get out of there. I passed through an alpine meadow thirteen or fourteen klicks northwest of your current position. Head for that. But first, I want you to bury the body in the cave. You won’t be able to get anywhere with the ground, so use rocks. Make a cairn. Say a prayer over it. Oh, and one other thing-wear the radiation suit I saw in the cockpit.”

Bourne turned back to the job at hand. He had to trust that Alem was now telling him the truth. And yet he needed to take precautions in the event he was wrong. Instead of waiting for the detonation, as he’d told Alem he would, he lowered himself at once into the chimney, slithering his way down. At this moment, the boy might be handing the grenade over to one of Fadi’s men. At least Bourne wouldn’t be where Alem thought he’d be.

Knees, ankles, and elbows were the means of locomotion as Bourne descended the rock chimney. The pressure he put on them was the only thing stopping him from plummeting the full length of the channel to the rock floor below.

Just as Alem had said, the chimney diverged approximately two-thirds of the way down. Bourne hung for a moment above the crux, pondering the imponderable. Either he believed Alem or he didn’t, it was as simple as that. But of course it wasn’t simple at all. When it came to human motivations and impulses, nothing was simple.

Bourne took the right fork. Within a short distance, the way narrowed slightly, so that at points he had to force himself through. Once, he had to turn forty-five degrees in order to get his shoulders through. Eventually, though, he emerged onto the cave floor. Makarov in hand, he looked both ways. No terrorist lurked in ambush. But a meter-and-a-half stalagmite rose from the cavern floor, a calcite deposit caused by mineral-rich water washed down the chimney.

Bourne kicked out, snapping the stalagmite a foot above its base. Taking it up in his free hand, he headed right along the cavern. It wasn’t long before the passageway curved to the left. Bourne slowed his pace, then dropped down to knee level.

What he saw when he first took a look around the corner was one of Fadi’s men standing with a Ruger semiautomatic rifle on his hip. Bourne waited, breathing slowly and deeply. The terrorist moved, and Bourne could see Martin Lindros. Bound and gagged, he was propped up against a canvas pack of some kind. Bourne’s heart beat hard in his chest. Martin was alive!

He had no time to fully assess his friend’s condition because at that moment the echo of an explosion ricocheted in the cave. Alem had proved himself; he’d lobbed Deron’s grenade, just as he’d promised.

The terrorist moved once again, cutting off Bourne’s view of Lindros. Now he could see two more terrorists as they huddled with the first, who was speaking in rapid Arabic on a satellite phone, deciding their course of action. So Fadi had left three men to guard his prisoner. Bourne now had a crucial bit of information.

The three terrorists, having come to a decision, arrayed themselves in a triangular defensive formation: one man on point, near the cave mouth, two spread out behind Lindros, near where Bourne crouched.

Bourne put away the Makarov. He couldn’t afford to use a firearm. The noise would surely bring the rest of Fadi’s men to the cave at a run. He rose, planting his feet. Holding the stalagmite in one hand, he drew out the curved blade knife. He threw that first, strong and true, so that it buried itself to the hilt in the back of the left-facing rear guard. As the other one turned, Bourne hurled the stalagmite like a spear. It struck the terrorist in the throat, piercing clean through. The man clawed briefly at it as he toppled over. Then he slumped over his comrade.

The terrorist on point had spun around and was aiming his Ruger at Bourne, who immediately raised his hands and came walking toward the other.

The terrorist said, “Halt!” in Arabic.

But Bourne had already broken into a sprint. He reached the terrorist while the man’s eyes were still wide in shock. Shoving the muzzle of the Ruger to the side, Bourne slammed the heel of his hand into the terrorist’s nose. Blood and bits of cartilage sprayed outward. Bourne chopped down on the man’s clavicle, breaking it. The terrorist was on his knees now, swaying groggily. Jason ripped the Ruger out of his hands and mashed the butt into his temple. The man pitched over, unmoving.

Bourne was already striding away. He slit the ropes that bound Lindros hand and ankle. As he pulled his friend to his feet, he stripped off the gag.

“Easy,” he said. “Are you okay?”

Lindros nodded.

“Okay. Let’s get you the hell out of here.”

As he hustled Lindros back the way he had come, Bourne untied his friend’s wrists. Martin’s face was puffy and discolored, the most easily visible effects of his torture. What agonies of mind and body had Fadi put him through? Bourne had been a victim of articulated torture more than once. He knew that some people stood up to it better than others.

Skirting the stub of the stalagmite Bourne had broken off, they arrived at the chimney.

“We have to go up,” Bourne said. “It’s the only way out.”

“I’ll do what I have to do.”

“Don’t worry,” Bourne said. “I’ll help you.”

As he was about to hoist himself up into the chimney, Lindros put a hand on his arm.

“Jason, I never lost hope. I knew you’d find me,” he said. “I owe you a debt I can never adequately repay.”

Bourne squeezed his arm briefly. “Now come on. Follow me up.”

The ascent took longer than the descent. For one thing, the climb up was far more difficult and tiring. For another, there was Lindros. Several times, Bourne was obliged to stop and move back a meter or two to help his friend get through a particularly rough spot in the chimney. And he had to haul Lindros bodily through one of the narrow places.

At last, after a harrowing thirty minutes, they emerged onto the top of the overhang. While Martin regained his breath, Bourne took a reading of the weather. The wind had swung around. It was now coming out of the south. The light pattering of snow was all that was coming down-and clearly all that would come down: The front had shifted away. The ancient demons of Ras Dejen had been merciful this time.

Bourne pulled Lindros to his feet, and they began the trek to the waiting helicopter.

ANNE
HELD
lived in a two-story Federal redbrick house a stone’s throw from Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown. It had black shutters, a slate roof, and a neat privet hedge out front. The house had belonged to her late sister, Joyce. She and her husband, Peter, had died three years ago when their small plane had gone down in fog as they headed toward Martha’s Vineyard. Anne had inherited the house, which she never could have afforded on her own.

Most nights, returning home from CI, Anne didn’t miss her Lover. For one thing, the
DCI
invariably kept her late. He’d always been a tireless worker, but after his wife had walked out on him two years ago, he had absolutely no reason to leave the office. For another, once she was home she kept herself busy up until the moment she took an Ambien, slipped beneath the covers, and snapped off the bedside lamp.