Suddenly, one of the officers snapped his lighter and looked at his watch. Bourne studied the face above the flame. He knew it, and seeing it confirmed his judgement. It was the face of the man who had tried to trap Echo by posing as a prisoner on the truck that terrible night, the officer Sheng treated with a degree of deference. A thinking killer with a soft voice.
‘Xian zai,’ said the man, stating that the moment had come. He picked up a hand-held radio and spoke. ‘Da li shi, da li shir he barked, raising his party by the code name marble. ‘They are alone, there is no one else. We will proceed as instructed. Prepare for the signal.’
The six officers rose together, adjusted their weapons and extinguished their cigarettes by grinding them under their boots. They started rapidly for the back country road.
Bourne scrambled round on his hands and knees, got to his feet and raced through the woods. He had to reach McAllister before Sheng’s contingent closed in on him and saw through the sporadic moonlight that he was alone. Should the guards become alarmed they might send a different ‘signal’ – conference aborted. He reached the turn in the road and ran faster, jumping over fallen branches other men would not see, slithering through vines and linked foliage others would not anticipate. In less than two minutes he sprang silently out of the woods at McAllister’s side.
‘Good God!’ gasped the undersecretary of state.
‘Be quiet!’
‘You’re a maniac!’
Tell me about it.’
‘It would take hours.’ With trembling hands, McAllister handed Jason his attach^ case. ‘At least this didn’t explode.’
‘I should have told you not to drop it or jar it too much.’
‘Oh, Jesus I… Isn’t it time to get off the road? Wong said-‘
‘Forget it. We’re staying in plain view until we reach the field on the second hill, then you’ll be more in view than me. Hurry up. Some kind of signal’s going to be given, which means you were right again. A pilot’s going to get clearance to land – no radio communication, just a light.’
‘We’re to meet Wong somewhere. At the base of the first hill, I think he said.’
‘We’ll give him a couple of minutes but I think we can forget him, too. He’ll see what I saw and if it were me I’d head back to Macao and twenty thousand American, and say I lost my way.’
‘What did you see?’
‘Six men armed with enough firepower to defoliate one of the hills here.’
‘Oh, my God, we’ll never get out I’
‘Don’t give up yet. That’s one of the things fve been thinking about.’ Bourne turned to McAllister, quickening their pace. ‘On the other hand,’ he added, his voice deadly serious. ‘The risk was always there – doing things your way.’
‘Yes, I know. I won’t panic. I will not panic.’ The woods were suddenly gone; the dirt road now cut a path through fields of tall grass. ‘What do you think those men are here for?’ asked the analyst.
‘Back-ups in case of a trap, which any low-life in this business would think it was. I told you that and you didn’t want to believe me. But if something you said is accurate, and
I think it is, they’ll stay far out of sight – to make sure you won’t panic and run. If that’s the case, it’ll be our way out.’
‘How?’
‘Head to the right, through the field,’ replied Jason without answering the question. ‘I’ll give Wong five minutes, unless we spot a signal somewhere or hear a plane, but no more. And that long only because I really want the pair of eyes I paid for.’
‘Could he get around those men without being sent?’ He can if he’s not on his way back to Macao.’ They reached the end of the field of high grass and the base of the first hill where trees rose out of the ascending ground. Bourne looked at his watch, then at McAllister. ‘Let’s get up there, out of sight,’ he said, gesturing at the trees above them. ‘I’ll stay here; you go up farther but don’t walk out on that field, don’t expose yourself, stay at the edge. If you see any lights or hear a plane, whistle. You can whistle, can’t you?’ ‘Actually, not very well. When the children were younger and we had a dog, a golden retriever-‘
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake! Throw rocks down through the trees, I’ll hear them. Go on\’ ‘Yes, I understand. Move.’
Delta – for he was Delta now – began his vigil. The moonlight was constantly intercepted by the drifting, low-flying clouds and he kept straining his eyes, scanning the field of tall grass, looking for a break in the monotonous pattern, for bent reeds moving towards the base of the hill, towards him. Three minutes passed, and he had nearly decided it was a waste of time when a man suddenly lurched out of the grass on his right and plunged up into the foliage. Bourne lowered his attache case and pulled the long knife from his belt. ‘Kam Pek!’ whispered the man. ‘Wong?’
‘Yes, sir,’ said the conduit, walking around the trunks of trees, approaching Jason. ‘I am greeted with a knife?’
There are a few other people back there and, frankly, I didn’t think you’d show up. I told you, you could get out if the risks looked too great. I didn’t think it’d happen so early on but I would have accepted it. Those are impressive weapons they’re carrying.’
‘I might have taken advantage of the situation but, added to the money, you afforded me an act of immense gratification. For many others as well. More people than you can imagine will give thanks.’
‘Soo the Pig?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Bourne, alarmed. ‘Why are you so sure they’ll think one of those men did it?’
‘What men?’
That patrol of machine guns back there! They’re not from Guangdong, not from the garrison. They’re from Beijing?
The act took place in Zhuhai Shi. At the gate.’
‘Goddamn you! You’ve blown everything*. They were waiting for Soo!’
‘If they were, sir, he never would have arrived.’
‘What?
‘He was getting drunk with the prefect of the gate. He went to relieve himself which was where I confronted him. He is now next door, lying in a soiled female commode, his throat slit, his genitals removed.’
‘Good God … Then he didn’t follow us?’
‘Nor did he show any indication of doing so.’
‘I see – no, I don’t see. He was cut out of tonight. It’s strictly a Beijing operation. Yet he was the primary contact down here-‘
T would know nothing of such matters,’ broke in Wong defensively.
‘Oh, sorry. No you wouldn’t.’
‘Here are the eyes you hired, sir. Where do you wish me to look and what do you want me to do?’
‘Did you have any trouble getting by that patrol in the road?’
‘None. I saw them, they did not see me. They are now sitting in the woods at the edge of the field. If it would be of help to you, the man with the radio instructed the one he reached to leave once the “signal” was given. I don’t know what that means but I presume it concerns a helicopter.’
‘You presume?’
The Frenchman and I followed the English major here one night. It’s how I knew where to take you before. A helicopter landed and men came out to meet the Englishman.’
‘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.