The Bourne Supremacy (90 page)

'That's what he told me.'

'Told you, sir?

'Never mind. Stay here. If that patrol across the field starts coming over I want to know about it. I'll be up in the field before the second hill, on the right. The same field where you and Echo saw the helicopter.'

'Echo?

'The Frenchman.' Delta paused, thinking quickly. 'You can't light a match, you can't draw attention to yourself-'

Suddenly, there were the sharp but muted sounds of objects striking other objects. Treesl Rocks\ McAllister was signalling!

'Grab stones, pieces of wood or rocks, and keep throwing them into the woods on the right. I'll hear them.'

'I will fill my pockets with some now.'

'I have no right to ask you this,' said Delta, picking up the attache case, 'but do you have a weapon?

'A three-fifty-seven-calibre magnum with a belt full of ammunition, courtesy of my cousin on my mother's side, may she rest with the holy Jesus.'

'I hope I don't see you, and if I don't, good-bye, Wong. Another part of me may not approve of you, but you're a hell of a man. And believe me, you really did beat me last time.'

'No, sir, you bested me. But I would like to try again.'

'Forget it!' cried the man from Medusa, racing up the hill.

Like a giant, monstrous bird, its lower body pulsating with blinding light, the helicopter descended onto the field. As arranged, McAllister stood in full view and, as expected, the chopper's searchlight zeroed in on him. Also as arranged, Jason Bourne was forty-odd yards away, in the shadows of the woods - visible, bujt not clearly. The rotors wound down to a grinding, abrasive halt. The silence was emphatic. The door opened, the stairs sprang out, and the slender, grey- haired Sheng Chou Yang walked down the steps, carrying a briefcase.

'So good to see you after all these years, Edward,' called out a taipan's first son. 'Would you care to inspect the aircraft? As you requested, there is no one but myself and my most trusted pilot.'

'No, Sheng, you can do it for me!' yelled McAllister, several hundred feet away, pulling a canister from inside his jacket and throwing it towards the helicopter. 'Tell the pilot to step outside for a few minutes and spray the cabin. If there's anyone inside he - or they - will come out quickly.'

'This is so unlike you, Edward. Men like us know when to trust one another. We're not fools.'

'Do it, Sheng!'

'Of course I will' under orders, the pilot stepped out of the aircraft. Sheng Chou Yang picked up the canister and sprayed the immobilizing fog into the helicopter. Several minutes elapsed; no one came out. 'Are you satisfied, or should I blow the damn thing up, which would serve neither of us. Come, my friend, we're beyond these games. We always were.'

'But you became what you are. I remained what I was.'

'We can correct that, Edward! I can demand your presence at all our conferences. I can elevate you to a position of prominence You'll be a star in the foreign service firmament.'

'It's true then, isn't it? Everything in the file. You're back. The Kuomintang is back in China-'

'Let's talk quietly together, Edward.' Sheng glanced at Bourne in the shadows, then gestured to his right. 'This is a private matter.'

Jason moved quickly; he raced to the aircraft while the two negotiators were standing with their backs to him. As the pilot climbed into the chopper and reached his seat, the man from Medusa was behind him.

'An jing!' whispered Jason, ordering the man to keep silent, his machine pistol reinforcing the command. Before the stunned pilot could react, Bourne whipped a strip of heavy cloth over the man's head, bridling it across the shocked, open mouth and yanked it taut. Then, pulling a long thin nylon cord from his pocket, he lashed the man to the seat, pinning his arms. There would be no sudden lift-off.

Returning his weapon to the belt under his jacket, Bourne crawled out of the helicopter. The huge machine blocked his view of McAllister and Sheng Chou Yang, which meant that it blocked theirs of him. He walked rapidly back to his previous position, constantly turning his head, prepared to change direction if the two men emerged on either side of the aircraft; the chopper was his visual shield. He stopped; he was near enough; it was time to appear casual. He took out a cigarette and struck a match, lighting it. He then strolled aimlessly to his left, to where he could just barely see the two figures on the other side of the helicopter. He wondered what was being said between the enemies. He wondered what McAllister was waiting for.

Do it, analyst. Do it now! It's your maximum opportunity. Every moment you delay you give away time, and time holds complications! Goddamn it, do it!

Bourne froze. He heard the sound of a stone hitting a tree close to where he had walked out on the field. Then another much nearer and another quickly following. It was Wong's warning! Sheng's patrol was crossing the field below!

Analyst, you'll get us killed! If I run over and shoot, the sound will bring six men rushing us with more firepower than we can handle! For Christ's sake, do it!

The man from Medusa stared at Sheng and McAllister, his self-hatred rising, close to exploding. He never should have let it happen this way. Death by the hands of an amateur, an embittered bureaucrat who wanted his moment in the sun.

'Kam Pek\' It was Wong! He had crossed through the woods on the second level and was behind him, concealed in the trees.

'Yes? I heard the stones.'

'You will not like what you hear now, sir.'

'What is it?

'The patrol crawls up the hill.'

'It's a protective action,' said Jason, his eyes riveted on the two figures in the field. 'We may still be all right. They can't see a hell of a lot.'

'I am not sure that matters, sir. They prepare themselves. I heard them - they've locked their weapons into firing positions.'

Bourne swallowed, a sense of futility spreading over him. For reasons he could not fathom, it was a reverse trap. 'You'd better get out of here, Wong.'

'May I ask? Are these the people who killed the Frenchman?*

'Yes.'

'And for whom the Pig, Soo Jiang, has worked so obscenely these past four years?

'Yes.'

'I believe I will stay, sir.'

Without saying a word, the man from Medusa walked back to his attache case. He picked it up and threw it into the woods. 'Open it,' he said. 'If we get out of this, you can spend your days at the casino without picking up messages.'

'I do not gamble.'

'You're gambling now, Wong.'

'Did you really think that we, the great warlords of the most ancient and cultured empire the world has ever known, would leave it to unwashed peasants and their ill-born offspring, schooled in the discredited theories of egalitarianism?' Sheng stood in front of McAllister; he held his briefcase across his chest with both hands. 'They should be our slaves, not our rulers.'

'It was that kind of thinking that lost you the country - you, the leaders, not the people. They weren't consulted. If they were, there might have been accommodations, compromises, and you would have it still.'

'One does not compromise with Marxist animals - or with liars. As I will not compromise with you, Edward.'

'What was that?'

With his left hand Sheng snapped his briefcase open and pulled out the file stolen from Victoria Peak. 'Do you recognize it?' he asked calmly.

'I don't believe it!'

'Believe, my old adversary. A little ingenuity can produce anything.'

'It's impossible?

'It's here. In my hand and the opening page clearly states that there is only one copy, to be sent by military escort under Ultra Maximum Security wherever it goes. Quite correctly, in my judgement, for your appraisal was accurate when we spoke over the telephone. The contents would inflame the Far East - make war unavoidable. The right-wingers in Beijing would march on Hong Kong - right-wingers there, you'd call them left on your side of the world. Foolish, isn't it?

'I had a copy made and sent to Washington,' broke in the undersecretary, quickly, quietly, firmly.

'I don't believe that,' said Sheng. 'All diplomatic transmissions, by telephone-computer or by pouch, must be cleared by the highest superior officer. The notorious Ambassador Havilland wouldn't permit it, and the consulate wouldn't touch it without his authorization.'

'I sent a copy to the Chinese consulate!' shouted McAllister. 'You're finished, Sheng!'

'Really? Who do you think receives all communications from all outside sources at our consulate in Hong Kong? Don't bother to answer, I'll do it for you. One of our people.' Sheng paused, his messianic eyes suddenly on fire. 'We are everywhere, Edward! We will not be denied! We will have our nation back, our empire!'

'You're insane. It can't work. You'll start a war!' Then it will be a just war! Governments across the world will have to choose. Individual rule or state rule. Freedom or tyranny!'

'Too few of you gave freedom and too many of you were tyrants.'

'We will prevail - one way or the other.' 'My God, that's what you want! You want to push the world to the brink, force it to choose between annihilation and survival! That's how you think you'll get what you want, that the choice of survival will win out! This economic commission, your whole Hong Kong strategy, is just a beginning. You want to spread your poison to the whole Far East! You're a zealot, you're blind! Can't you see the tragic consequences-'

'Our nation was stolen from us and we will have it back! We cannot be stopped! We march!'

'You can be stopped,' said McAllister, quietly, his right hand edging to the fold in his jacket. 'I'll stop you.'

Suddenly, Sheng dropped his briefcase, revealing a gun. He fired as McAllister instinctively recoiled in terror, grabbing his shoulder.

'Dive!' roared Bourne, racing in front of the aircraft, in the wash of its lights, releasing a burst of gunfire from his machine pistol. 'Roll, roll] If you can move, roll away]'

'You]' Sheng screamed, firing-two rapid shots down into the fallen undersecretary of state, then raising his weapon and repeatedly pulling the trigger, aiming at the zigzagging man from Medusa running towards him.

'For Echo!' shouted Bourne at the top of his lungs. 'For the people you hacked to death! For the teacher on a rope you butchered! For the woman that you couldn't stop - oh, Christ] For those two brothers, but mainly for Echo, you bastard]' A short burst exploded from the machine pistol -then no more, and no amount of pressure on the trigger could activate it! It was jammed! Jammed! Sheng knew it; he levelled his weapon carefully as Jason threw the gun down, pounding towards the killer. Sheng fired as Delta instinctively pivoted to his right, spinning in mid-air as he pulled his knife from his belt, then planted his foot on the ground, reversing direction and abruptly lunged towards Sheng. The knife found its mark and the man from Medusa ripped open the fanatic's chest. The actual killer of hundreds and would-be killer of millions was dead.

His hearing had been suspended; it wasn't now. The patrol had raced out of the woods, bursts from machine guns filling the night and the field ... Other bursts came from beyond the helicopter - Wong had opened the attach�ase and found what he needed. Two soldiers of the patrol fell; the remaining four dropped to the ground; one crawled back into the woods; he was shouting. The radio! He was reaching other men, other back-ups! How far away were they? How near"?

Priorities! Bourne raced behind the aircraft and over to Wong, who was crouched by a tree at the edge of the woods.

There's another one of those in there!' he whispered. 'Give it to me!' 'Conserve your ammunition,' said Wong. 'There's not much more.'

'I know that. Stay here and pin them down as best you can but keep your fire low to the ground.' 'Where are you going, sir? 'Circling back through the trees.'

That's what the Frenchman would have ordered me to do.' 'He was right. He was always right.' Jason dashed deeper into the woods with the bloody knife in his belt; his lungs were bursting, his legs straining, his eyes peering into the forest darkness. He threaded his way through the dense foliage as fast as he could, making as little noise as he could.

Two snaps] Thick twigs on the ground broken by having been stepped on! He saw the shrouded silhouette of a figure coming towards him and spun around the trunk of a tree. He knew who it was - the officer with the radio, the thoughtful, soft-spoken killer from the Beijing sanctuary, an experienced combat soldier: Take to the flanks and outflank. What he lacked was guerrilla training, and that lack would cost him his life. One did not step on thick objects in the forest.

The officer walked by, crouching. Jason sprang, his left arm circling the man's neck, the gun in his hand slammed against the soldier's head, the knife once again doing its work. Bourne knelt down over the corpse, put his weapon in his belt and took the officer's powerful machine gun. He found, two additional clips of ammunition; the odds were better now. It was even possible they would get out alive. Was McAllister alive? Or had a frustrated bureaucrat's moment in the sun ended in perpetual darkness. Priorities!

He circled the field's curving border to the point where he had entered it. Wong's sporadic gunfire was keeping the three remaining men of Sheng's elite patrol where they were, afraid to move. Suddenly, something made him turn around - a hum in the distance, a bright fleck in his eye. It was both! The sound was that of a racing engine, the fleck a moving searchlight scanning the dark sky. Above the descending trees he could make out a vehicle - a truck - with a searchlight operated by an experienced hand. The truck sped off the road, obscured now by the high grass; only the bright searchlight was visible, moving faster and faster towards the base of the hill barely 200 yards below. Priorities. Move!

'Hold fire!' Bourne roared, lurching away from his position. The three officers spun around in place on the ground, their machine guns erupting, bullets spraying the space from which the voice had come.

The man from Medusa stepped out. It was over in seconds as the powerful weapon blew up the earth and those killers who would have killed him.