Thank you, I guess. ‘
‘What you wanted was accomplished tonight, so you’ll
soon know if your resurrected hunter retains his old skills. During the coming days we can monitor events, but that’s all we can do. They’re out of our hands. This Bourne begins his dangerous journey. ‘
‘He has the names, then?’
The authentic names, Edward. Among the most vicious members of the Hong Kong-Macao underworld – upper-level soldiers who carry out orders, captains who initiate deals and arrange contracts, violent ones. If there are any in the territory who have knowledge of this impostor-killer, they’ll be found on that list.’ •
‘We start phase two. Good.’ McAllister unclasped his hands and looked at his watch. ‘Good heavens, I had no idea of the time. It’s been a long day for you. You certainly didn’t have to return the watch and the cufflinks tonight. ‘
‘I certainly knew that. ‘
Then why?’
‘I don’t wish to burden you further, but we may have an unforeseen problem. At least one we hadn’t considered, perhaps foolishly. ‘
‘What is it?’
The woman may be ill. Her husband sensed it when he talked with her. ‘
‘You mean seriously?’
‘We can’t rule it out – the doctor can’t rule it out. ‘
The doctor?’
There was no point in alarming you. I called in one of our medical staff several days ago – he’s completely reliable. She wasn’t eating and complained of nausea. The doctor thought it might be anxiety or depression, or even a virus, so he gave her antibiotics and mild tranquillizers. She has not improved. In fact, her condition has rapidly deteriorated. She’s become listless; she has trembling seizures and her mind appears to wander. None of this is like that woman, I can assure you. ‘
‘It certainly isn’t!’ said the undersecretary of state, as he blinked his eyes rapidly, his lips pursed. ‘What can we do?’
The doctor thinks she should be admitted to hospital immediately for tests. ‘
‘She can’t be! Good Christ, it’s out of the question!’
The Chinese intelligence officer rose from the chair and approached the desk slowly. ‘Edward,’ he began calmly. ‘I don’t know the ramifications of this operation, but I can obviously piece together several basic objectives, especially one. I’m afraid I must ask you: What happens to David Webb if his wife is seriously ill? What happens to your Jason Bourne if she dies?’
12
‘I need her medical history, and I want it just as fast as you can provide it, Major. That’s an order, sir, from a former lieutenant in Her Majesty’s Medical Corps. ‘
He’s the English doctor who examined me. He’s very civil, but cold, and, I suspect, a terribly good physician. He’s bewildered. That’s fine.
‘We’ll get it for you; there are ways. You say she couldn’t tell you the name of her doctor back in the United States?’
That’s the huge Chinese who’s always polite – unctuous, actually, but rather sincere. He’s been nice to me, as his men have been nice to me. He’s following orders – they’re all following orders – but they don’t know why.
‘Even in her lucid moments she draws a blank, which is not encouraging. It could be a defence mechanism indicating that she was aware of a progressive illness she wants to block out. ‘
‘She’s not that sort, Doctor. She’s a strong woman. ‘
‘Psychological strength is relative, Major. Often the strongest among us are loath to accept mortality. The ego refuses it. Get me her history. I must have it. ‘
‘A man will call Washington, and people there will make other calls. They know where she lives, her circumstances, and within minutes they’ll know her neighbours. Someone will tell us. We’ll find her doctor. ‘
‘I want everything on a satellite computer print-out. We have the equipment. ‘
‘Any transmission of information must be received at our offices. ‘
Then I’ll go with you. Give me a few minutes. ‘
‘You’re frightened, aren’t you, Doctor?’
‘If it’s a neurological disorder, that’s always frightening, Major. If your people can work quickly, perhaps I can talk to her doctor myself. That would be optimum. ‘
‘You found nothing in your examination?’
‘Only possibilities, nothing concrete. There is pain here, and there isn’t pain there. I’ve ordered a CAT scan in the morning. ‘
‘You are frightened. ‘
‘Shitless, Major. ‘
Oh, you’re all doing exactly what I wanted you to do. Good God, I’m hungry! I’ll eat for five straight hours when I get out of here – and I will get out! David, did you understand? Did you understand what I was telling you? The dark trees are maple trees; they’re so common, darling, so identifiable. The single leaf is Canada. The embassy! Here in Hong Kong it’s the consulate! That’s what we did in Paris, my darling! It was terrible then, but it won’t be terrible here. I’ll know someone. Back in Ottawa I instructed so many who were being posted all over the world. Your memory is clouded, my love, but mine isn’t… And you must understand, David, that the people I dealt with then are not so different from the people who are holding me now. In some ways, of course, they’re robots, but they’re also individuals who think and question and wonder why they are asked to do certain things. But they follow a regimen, darling, because if they don’t, they get poor service reports, which is tantamount to a fate worse than dismissal – which rarely happens – because it means no advancement, limbo. They’ve actually been kind to me -gentle really – as if they’re embarrassed by what they’ve been ordered to do but must carry out their assignments. They think I’m ill and they’re concerned for me, genuinely concerned. They’re not criminals or killers, my sweet David. They’re bureaucrats in search of direction! They’re bureaucrats, David! This whole incredible thing has GOVERNMENT written all over it. I know! These are the sort of people
I worked with for years. I was one of them!
Marie opened her eyes. The door was closed, the room empty, but she knew a guard was outside – she had heard the Chinese major giving instructions. No one was permitted in her room but the English doctor and two specific nurses the guard had met and who would be on duty until morning. She knew the rules, and with that knowledge she could break them.
She sat up – Jesus, I’m hungry! – and was darkly amused at the thought of their neighbours in Maine being questioned about her doctor. She barely knew her neighbours and there was no doctor. They had been in the university town less than three months, starting with the late summer session for David’s preparations, and with all the problems of renting a house and learning what the new wife of a new associate-professor should do, or be, and finding the stores and the laundry and the bedding and the linen – the thousand and ten things a woman does to make a home – there simply had been no time to think about a doctor. Good Lord, they had lived with doctors for eight months, and except for Mo Panov she would have been content never to see another one.
Above all, there was David, fighting his way out of his personal tunnels, as he called them, trying so hard not to show the pain, so grateful when there was light and memory. God, how he attacked the books, overjoyed when whole stretches of history came back to him, balanced by the anguish of realizing it was only segments of his own life that eluded him. And so often at night she would feel the mattress ripple and know he was getting out of bed to be by himself with his half thoughts and haunting images. She would wait a few minutes, and then go out into the hallway and sit on the steps, listening. And once in a great while it happened: the quiet sobbing of a strong, proud man in agony. She would go to him and he would turn away; the embarrassment and the hurt were too much. She would say, ‘You’re not fighting this yourself, darling. We’re fighting it together. Just as we fought before.’ He would talk then, reluctantly at first, then expanding, the words coming faster and faster until the floodgates burst and he would find things, discover things.
Trees, David! My favourite tree, the maple tree. The maple leaf, David! The consulate, my darling! She had work to do. She reached for the cord and pressed the button for the nurse.
Two minutes later the door opened and a Chinese woman in her mid-forties entered, her nurse’s uniform starched and immaculate. ‘What can I do for you, my dear?’ she said pleasantly, in pleasantly accented English.
‘I’m dreadfully tired but I’m having a terrible time getting to sleep. May I have a pill that might help me?’