What I have to tell you is in the nature of an...
What I
have to tell you is in the nature of an emergency
“You’re the judge,” broke in Alex
“Past tense, I’m afraid
“What is it?”
“I know how to reach the man you call the Jackal
“What?”
“Listen to me
Bernardine stared at the ringing telephone, briefly debating with himself whether or not to pick
it upThere was no question; he had to“Yes?”
“Jason? It’s you, isn’t it? Perhaps I have the wrong room
“Alex? This is you?”
“Fran?ois? What are you doing there? Where’s Jason?”
“Things have happened so fastI know he’s been trying to reach you
“It’s been a rough day
“I’ve got other newsA telephone number where the Jackal can be reached
“We’ve got it! And a locationOur man left an hour ago
“For Christ’s sake, how did you get it?”
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“A convoluted process I sincerely believe only your man could have negotiatedHe’s brilliantly
imaginative, a true caméléon
“Let’s compare,” said Conklin“What’s yours?”
Bernardine complied, reciting the number he had twiggy balenciaga written down on Bourne’s instructions
The silence on the phone was a silent scream“They’re different,” said Alex finally, his voice
choked“They’re different!”
“A trap,” said the Deuxième veteran“God in heaven, it’s a trap!”
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26
Twice Bourne had passed the dark, quiet row of old stone houses on the boulevard Lefebvre in the
concrete backwater of the fifteenth arrondissementHe then doubled back to the rue d’Alésia and
found a sidewalk caféThe outdoor tables, their candles flickering under glass, were peopled
mostly by gesturing, argumentative students from the nearby Sorbonne and MontparnasseIt was
nearing ten o’clock and the aproned waiters were growing irritable; the majority of customers were
not full of largess, either in their hearts or in their pocketsJason wanted only a strong espresso, but
the perpetual scowl on the face of the approaching gar?on convinced him he would get mud if he
ordered only the coffee, so he added the most prada black bags expensive brandy he could recall by name
As the waiter returned to the service bar, Jason pulled out his small notebook and ballpoint pen,
shutting his eyes for a moment, then opening them and sketching out everything he could envision
from the row of houses on his inner screenThere were three structures of two attached houses
each, separated by two narrow alleywaysEach double complex was three stories high, each front
entrance reached by climbing a steep flight of brick steps, and at either end of the row were vacant
lots covered with rubble, the remains of demolished adjacent buildingsThe address of the Jackal’s
buried telephone number—the address was available in the underground tunnels solely for repair
purposes—was the final structure on the right, and it took no imagination to know he occupied the
entire building, if not the entire row
Carlos was the consummate self-protector, so one had to assume that his Paris command post
would be a fortress, employing every human and electronic fendi spy bag replica security device that loyalty and high
technology could provideAnd the seemingly isolated, all but deserted, section of the outlying
fifteenth arrondissement served his purposes far better than any crowded section of the cityFor
that reason, Bourne had first paid a drunken tramp to walk with him during his initial foray past the
houses, he himself limping unsteadily in the shadows beside his companion; and for his second
appraisal, he had hired a middle-aged whore as his cover, with no limp or stagger in his gaitHe
knew the terrain now, for all the good it did him, but it was the beginning of the endHe swore
himself to that!
The waiter arrived with his espresso and the cognac, and only when Jason placed a hundredfranc
note on the table, accompanied by a wave of his hand, did the man’s hostile countenance
move to neutral ground
“Is there a pay phone nearby?” asked Bourne, removing an additional ten-franc note
“Down the street, fifty, sixty meters,” replied the waiter, his eyes on the new gold chanel earrings money
“Nothing closer?” Jason peeled off another note, twenty francs“I’m calling right here within a
few blocks
“Come with me,” said the aproned gar?on, gingerly picking up the franc notes and leading
Bourne through the open doors of the café to a cashier seated on high at the far end of the
restaurantThe gaunt, sallow-faced woman looked annoyed; obviously she assumed that Bourne
was a discontented customer
“Let him use your telephone,” said the waiter
“Why?” spat out the harridan“So he can call China?”
“He calls up the street
Jason proffered a ten-franc note, his innocent eyes looking blankly at the highly suspicious
woman“Augh, take it,” she said, removing a phone from under her cash-register stand and
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grasping the money“It has an extension so you can move to the wall, as they all doMen! Business
and the bed, it’s all you think about!”
He dialed the Pont-Royal and asked for his room, expecting Bernardine to pick up on the first or
second chanel earrings ri