The sleepy technician at Capital Headquarters...
The sleepy technician at Capital Headquarters blinked his eyes and stared at the green letters on
the screen in front of himWhat he read did not really make sense, but the clearances went
unchallengedFor the fifth time the “commandant” of the “Spanish” compound had crossed and
recrossed the north borders up into “Germany” and was now heading back into “France Twice
before, when the codes were transmitted and in accord with the maximum alert that was in force,
the technician had phoned the gates of “Israel” and “Italy” and was told that only a fuel truck had
passed throughThat was the information he had given to a code-cleared trainer named Benjamin,
but now he wonderedWhy would such a high-ranking official be driving a fuel truck? On the
other hand, why not? Novgorod was rife with corruption, everyone suspected that, so perhaps the
“commandant” was either seeking out the corrupters or collecting his fees at nightRegardless,
since there was no report of a lost or stolen card, and the computers raised no objections, it was
better to leave well enough aloneOne never tiffany jewelry imitation knew who his next superior might be
?? ?? ??
“Voici ma carte,” said Bourne to the guard at the border crossing as he handed the man his
computerized card“Vite, s’il vous pla?t!”
“Da oui,” replied the guard, walking rapidly to the clearance machine as an enormous fuel
truck, heading the other way, passed through into “England
“Don’t press the French too much,” said Benjamin, in the front seat beside Jason“These cats do
their best, but they’re not linguistshere I come,” sang Bourne softly“You sure you and your father don’t want to
join your mother in LA?”
“Shut up!”
The guard returned, saluted, and the iron barrier was raisedJason accelerated, and saw in a
matter of moments, bathed in floodlights, a three-story replica of the Eiffel TowerIn the distance,
to the right, was a miniature Champs-Elysées with a wooden reproduction of the Arc de Triomphe,
high enough to be unmistakableAbsently, Bourne’s mind wandered back to those fitful, terrible
hours when he and Marie had raced all over Paris trying desperately to find each otherMarie, oh
God, Marie! I want to come back I buy replica louis vuitton want to be David againHe and I—we’re so much older now
He doesn’t frighten me any longer and I don’t anger himWho? Which of us? Oh, Christ!
“Hold it,” said Benjamin, touching Jason’s arm
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
426
“What is it?”
“Stop, “cried the young trainer“Pull over and shut off the engine
“What’s the matter with you?”
“I’m not sure Benjamin’s neck was arched back, his eyes on the clear night sky and the
shimmering lights of the stars“No clouds,” he said cryptically
“It’s not raining, eitherSo what? I want to get up to the Spanish compound!”
“There it goes again—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” And then Bourne heard it far away, the sound of
distant thunder, yet the night was clearIt happened again—and again and again, one deep rumble
after another
“There!” shouted the young Soviet from Los Angeles, standing up in the jeep and pointing to the
north“What is it?”
“That’s fire, young man,” answered Jason softly, hesitantly, as he also stood up and stared at the
pulsating yellow glow that lit up the distant sky“And my guess is that it’s the chanel sheep bag Spanish compound
He was initially trained there and that’s what he came back to do—to blow the place up! It’s his
revenge! Get down, we’ve got to get up there!”
“No, you’re wrong,” broke in Benjamin, quickly lowering himself into the seat as Bourne started
the engine and yanked the jeep into gear“ ‘Spain’s’ no more than five or six miles from here
Those fires are a lot farther away
“Just show me the fastest route,” said Jason, pressing the accelerator to the floor
Under the trainer’s swiftly roving eyes accompanied by sudden shouts of “Turn here!” and “Go
right!” and “Straight down this road!” they raced through “Paris,” and north into successive sectors
labeled “Marseilles,” “Montbéliard,” “Le Havre,” “Strasbourg” and so many others, circling town
squares and passing quaint streets and miniaturized city blocks, until finally they were in sight of
the “Spanish” borderThe closer they came, the louder were the booms in the distance, the brighter
the yellow night skyThe guards at the gate were furiously manning their telephones and hand-held
radios; the two-note blasts of new louis vuitton bags sirens joined the shouting and the screaming as police cars and fire
engines appeared seemingly out of nowhere, racing into the streets of “Madrid” on their way to the
next northern border crossing
“What’s happening?” yelled Benjamin, leaping from the jeep and dropping all pretense of
Novgorod training by speaking Russian“I’m senior staff!” he added, slipping the card into the
release equipment, snapping the barrier up“Tell me!”
“Insanity, comrade!” shouted an officer from the gatehouse windowIt’s as if
the earth went crazy! First ‘Germany,’ all over there are explosions and fires in the streets and
buildings going up in flamesThe ground trembles, and we are told it’s some kind of massive
earthquakeThen it happens in ‘Italy’—‘Rome’ is torched, and in the ‘Greek’ sector ‘Athens’ and
the port of ‘Piraeus’ are filled with fires everywhere and still the explosions continue, the streets in
flames!”
“What does Capital Headquarters say?”
“They don’t know what to say! The earthquake nonsense was just that—nonsenseEveryone’s
in panic, issuing orders and then countermanding louis vuitton, imitation t