'Why, Cactus?
'He's troubled, sir. I saw that through the lens a couple of years ago. There's somethin' missin' in him, but for all of that he's a good man. I can talk to him. I like him, sir. '
'Come whenever you like, Cactus, and please cancel that "sir" stuff. Reserve the privilege for me... sir. '
'My, how times change. I call one of my grandchildren a good nigger, he wants to stomp on my head. '
'He should... sir. '
Webb got out of the taxi, asking the driver to wait, but he refused. David left a minimum tip and walked up the overgrown flagstone path to the old house. In some ways it reminded him of the house in Maine, too large, too fragile and too much in need of repair. He and Marie had decided to buy on the beach as soon as a year was up; it was unseemly for a newly appointed associate professor to move into the most expensive district upon arrival. He rang the bell.
The door opened, and Cactus, squinting under a green eyeshade, greeted him as casually as if they had seen each other several days ago.
'You got hubcaps on your car, David?
'No car and no taxi; it wouldn't stay. '
'Must'a' heard all those unfounded rumours circulated by the Fascist press. Me. I got three machine guns in the windows. Come on in, I've missed you. Why didn't you call this old boy?'
'Your number's not listed, Cactus. '
'Must'a' been an oversight. '
They chatted for several minutes in Cactus's kitchen, long enough for the photographer specialist to realize Webb was in a hurry. The old man led David into his studio, placed Webb's three passports under an angled lamp for close inspection and instructed his client to sit in front of an open-lensed camera.
'We'll make the hair light ash, but not as blond as you were after Paris. That ash tone varies with the lighting and we can use the same picture on each of these li'l dears with considerable differences - still retaining the face. Leave the eyebrows alone, I'll mess with them here. '
'What about the eyes?' asked David.
'No time for those fancy contacts they got you before, but we can handle it. They're regular glasses with just the right tinted prisms in the right places. You got blue eyes or brown eyes or Spanish armada black, if you want 'em. '
'Get all three,' said Webb.
They're expensive, David, and cash only. '
'I've got it on me. '
'Don't let it get around. '
'Now, the hair. Who?
'Down the street. An associate of mine who had her own beauty shop until the gendarmes checked the upstairs rooms. She does fine work. Come on, I'll take you over. '
An hour later Webb ducked out from under a hair dryer in the small well-lighted cubicle and surveyed the results in the large mirror. The beautician-owner of the odd salon, a short black lady with neat grey hair and an appraiser's eye, stood alongside him.
'It's you, but it ain't you,' she said, first nodding her head, then shaking it. 'A fine job, I've got to say it. '
It was, thought David, looking at himself. His dark hair not only was far, far lighter, but matched the skin tones of his face. Also, the hair itself seemed lighter in texture, a groomed but much more casual look - windblown the advertisements phrased it The man he was staring at was both himself and someone else who bore a striking resemblance but was not him.
'I agree,' said Webb. 'It's very good. How much?
'Three hundred dollars,' replied the woman simply. 'Of course, that includes five packets of custom-made rinse powder with instructions and the tightest lips in Washington. The first will hold you for a couple of months, the second for the rest of your life. '
'You're all heart.' David reached into his pocket for his leather money clip, counted out the bills and gave them to her. 'Cactus said you'd call him when we were finished. '
'No need to; he's got his timing down. He's in the parlour. '
The parlour?
'Oh, I guess it's a hallway with a settee and a floor lamp, but I do so like to call it a parlour. Sounds nice, don't it?
The photo session went swiftly, interrupted by Cactus's reshaping his eyebrows with a toothbrush and a spray for the three separate shots and changing shirts and jackets - Cactus had a wardrobe worthy of a costume supply house - and wearing in turn two pairs of glasses - tortoiseshell and steel-rimmed - which altered his hazel eyes respectively to blue and brown. The specialist then proceeded to insert the photos in place and under a large, powerful magnifying glass skillfully stamped out the original State Department perforations with a tool of his own design. When he had finished, he handed the three passports to David for his approval.
'Ain't no customs jockey gonna' pick on them,' said Cactus confidently.
They look more authentic than they did before. '
'I cleaned 'em up, which is to say I gave 'em a few creases and some ageing. '
'It's terrific work, old friend - older than I can remember, I know that. What do I owe you?
'Oh, hell, I don't know. It was such a little job and it's been such a big year what with all the hasslin' goin' on-'
'How much, Cactus?
'What's comfortable? I don't figure you're on Uncle's payroll. '
'I'm doing very nicely, thanks. '
'Five hundred's fine. '
'Call me a cab, will you?
Takes too long, and that's if you can get one out here. My grandson's waiting for you; he'll drive you wherever you want to go. He's like me, he don't ask questions. And you're in a hurry, David, I can sense that. Come on, I'll see you to the door. '
Thanks. I'll leave the cash here on the counter. '
'Fine. '
Removing the money from his pocket, his back to Cactus, Webb counted out six $500 bills and left them in the darkest area of the studio counter. At $1, 000 apiece the passports were a gift, but to leave more might offend his old friend.
He returned to the hotel, getting out of the car several blocks away in the middle of a busy intersection so that Cactus's grandson could not be compromised where an address was concerned. The young man, as it happened, was a senior at American University, and although he obviously adored his grandfather, he was just as obviously apprehensive about being any part of the old man's endeavors.
'I'll get out here,' said David in the stalled traffic.
Thanks,' responded the young Black, his voice pleasantly calm, his intelligent eyes showing relief. 'I appreciate it. '
Webb looked at him. 'Why did you do it? I mean, for someone who's going to be a lawyer, I'd think your antenna would work overtime around Cactus. '
'It does, constantly. But he's a great old guy who's done a lot for me. Also, he said something to me. He said it would be a privilege for me to meet you, that maybe years from now he'd tell me who the stranger was in my car. '
'I hope I can come back a lot sooner and tell you myself. I'm no privilege, but there's a story to tell that could end up in the law books. Good-bye. '
Back in his hotel room, David faced a final list that needed no items written out; he knew them. He had to select the few clothes he would take in the large flight bag and get rid of the rest of his possessions, including the two weapons that in his outrage he had brought down from Maine. It was one thing to dismantle and wrap in foil the parts of a gun to be placed in a suitcase, and quite another to carry weapons through a security gate. They would be picked up; he would be picked up. He had to wipe them clean, destroy the firing pins and trigger housings and drop them into a sewer. He would buy a weapon in Hong Kong; it was not a difficult purchase.
There was a last thing he had to do, and it was difficult and painful. He had to force himself to sit down and rethink everything that had been said by Edward McAllister that early evening in Maine - everything they all had said, in particular Marie's words. Something was buried somewhere in that highly charged hour of revelation and confrontation, and David knew he had missed it - was missing it.
He looked at his watch. It was 3: 37; the day was passing quickly, nervously
. He had to hold on Oh, God, Marie! Where are you?
Conklin put down his glass of flat ginger ale on the scratched, soiled bar of the seedy establishment on 9th Street. He was a regular patron for the simple reason that no one in his professional circles - and what was left of his social one -would ever walk through the filthy glass doors. There was a certain freedom in that knowledge, and the other patrons accepted him, the 'gimp' who always took off his tie the moment he entered, limping his way to a stool by the pinball machine at the end of the bar. And whenever he did, the rocks-glass filled with bourbon was waiting for him. Also, the owner-bartender had no objections to Alex receiving calls at the still-standing antiquated booth against the wall. It was his 'sterile phone', and it was ringing now.
Conklin trudged across the floor, entered the old booth and closed the door. He picked up the phone. 'Yes? he said.
'Is this Treadstone?' asked an odd-sounding male voice.
'I was there. Were you?
'No, I wasn't, but I'm cleared for the file, for the whole mess. '
The voice! thought Alex. How had Webb described it? Anglicized? Mid-Atlantic, refined, certainly not ordinary. It was the same man. The gnomes had been working; they had made progress. Someone was afraid.
'Then I'm sure your memory corresponds with everything I've written down because I was there and I have written it down - written it all down. Facts, names, events, substantiations, back-ups... everything, including the story Webb told me last night. '
'Then I can assume that if anything ugly happened, your voluminous reportage will find its way to a Senate subcommittee or a pack of congressional watchdogs. Am I right?'
'I'm glad we understand each other. '
'It wouldn't do any good,' said the man condescendingly.
'If anything ugly happened, I wouldn't care, would IT
'You're about to retire. You drink a great deal. '
'I didn't always. There's usually a reason for both of those things for a man of my age and competence. Could they be admittedly tied into a certain file?'
'Forget it. Let's talk. '
'Not before you say something a little closer. Treadstone was bandied about here and there; it's not that substantive. '
'All right. Medusa. '
'Stronger,' said Alex. 'But not strong enough. '
'Very well. The creation of Jason Bourne. The Monk. '
'Warmer. '
'Missing funds - unaccounted for and never recovered -estimated to be around five million dollars. Zurich, Paris, and points west. '
'There were rumours. I need a capstone. '
'I'll give it to you. The execution of Jason Bourne. The date was May twenty-third in Tarn Quan... and the same day in New York four years later. On Seventy-first Street. Treadstone 71. '
Conklin closed his eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the hollowness in his throat. 'All right,' he said quietly. 'You're in the circle. '
'I can't give you my name. '
'What are you going to give me?
Two words: Back off. '
'You think I'll accept that?
'You have to,' said the voice, his words precise. 'Bourne is needed where he's going. '
'Bourne?' Alex stared at the phone.
'Yes, Jason Bourne. He can't be recruited in any normal way. We both know that. '
'So you steal his wife from him? Goddamned animals!'
'She won't be harmed. '
'You can't guarantee that! You don't have the controls. You've got to be using second and third parties right now, and if I know my business - and I do - they're probably paid blinds so you can't be traced; you don't even know who they are... My God, you wouldn't have called me if you did If you could reach them and get the verifications you want, you wouldn't be talking to me!'
The cultured voice paused. 'Then we both lied, didn't we, Mr Conklin? There was no escape on the woman's part, no call to Webb. Nothing. You went fishing, and so did I, and we both came up with nothing. '
'You're a barracuda, Mr No-name. '
'You've been where I am, Mr Conklin. Right down to David Webb... Now; what can you tell me?'
Alex again felt the hollowness in his throat, now joined with a sharp pain in his chest. 'You've lost them, haven't you?' he whispered. 'You've lost her. ''
'Forty-eight hours isn't permanent,' said the voice guardedly.
'But you've been trying like hell to make contact!' accused Conklin. 'You've called in your conduits, the people who hired the blinds, and suddenly they're not there - you can't find them. Jesus, you have lost control! It did go off the wire! Someone walked in on your strategy and you have no idea who it is. He played your scenario and took it away from you!'
'Our safeguards are spread out,' objected the man without the conviction he had displayed during the past moments. 'The best men in the field are working every district. '
'Including McAllister? In Kowloon? Hong Kong?
'You know that?'
'I know. '
'McAllister's a damn fool, but he's good at what he does. And yes, he's there. We're not panicked. We'll recover. '
'Recover what? asked Alex, filled with anger. 'The merchandise? Your strategy's aborted! Someone else is in charge. Why would he give you back the merchandise? You've killed Webb's wife, Mr No-name! What the hell did you think you Were doing?
'We just wanted to get him over there,' replied the voice defensively. 'Explain things, show him. We need him.' Then the man resumed his calm delivery. 'And for all we know, everything's still on the wire. Communications are notoriously bad in that part of the world. '
'The ex-culpa for everything in this business. '
'In most businesses, Mr Conklin... How do you read it? Now I'm the one who's asking - very sincerely. You have a certain reputation. '
'Had, No-name. '
'Reputations can't be taken away or contradicted, only added to, positively or negatively, of course. '
'You're a font of unwarranted information, you know that. '
'I'm also right. It's said you were one of the best. How do you read it?
Alex shook his head in the booth; the air was close, the
noise outside his 'sterile' phone growing louder in the seedy bar on 9th Street. 'What I said before. Someone found out what you people were planning - mounting for Webb - and decided to take over. '
'For God's sake, why?
'Because whoever it is wants Jason Bourne more than you do,' Alex said and hung up.
It was 6: 28 when Conklin walked into the lounge at Dulles Airport. He had waited in a taxi down the street from Webb's hotel and had followed David, giving the driver precise instructions. He had been right, but there was no point in burdening Webb with the knowledge. Two grey Plymouths had picked up David's cab and alternately exchanged positions during the surveillance. So be it. One Alexander Conklin might be hanged, and then again, he might not. People at State were behaving stupidly, he had thought as he wrote down the licence numbers. He spotted Webb in a darkened back booth.
'It is you, isn't it? said Alex, dragging his dead foot into the banquette. 'Do blonds really have more fun?1
'It worked in Paris. What did you find?'
'I found slugs under rocks who can't find their way up out of the ground. But then they wouldn't know what to do with the sunlight, would they?
'Sunlight's illuminating; you're not. Cut the crap, Alex. I have to get to the gate in a few minutes.' '
'In short words, they worked out a strategy to get you over to Kowloon. It was based on a previous experience-'
'You can skip that,' said David. 'Why?'
'The man said they needed you. Not you, Webb; they needed Bourne. '
'Because they say Bourne's already there. I told you what McAllister said. Did he go into it?'
Robert Ludlum - Bourne 2 - Bourne Supremecy Page 13
