'I believe I will stay, sir.'
Without saying a word, the man from Medusa walked back to his attache case. He picked it up and threw it into the woods. 'Open it,' he said. 'If we get out of this, you can spend your days at the casino without picking up messages.'
'I do not gamble.'
'You're gambling now, Wong.'
'Did you really think that we, the great warlords of the most ancient and cultured empire the world has ever known, would leave it to unwashed peasants and their ill-born offspring, schooled in the discredited theories of egalitarianism?' Sheng stood in front of McAllister; he held his briefcase across his chest with both hands. 'They should be our slaves, not our rulers.'
'It was that kind of thinking that lost you the country - you, the leaders, not the people. They weren't consulted. If they were, there might have been accommodations, compromises, and you would have it still.'
'One does not compromise with Marxist animals - or with liars. As I will not compromise with you, Edward.'
'What was that?'
With his left hand Sheng snapped his briefcase open and pulled out the file stolen from Victoria Peak. 'Do you recognize it?' he asked calmly.
'I don't believe it!'
'Believe, my old adversary. A little ingenuity can produce anything.'
'It's impossible?
'It's here. In my hand and the opening page clearly states that there is only one copy, to be sent by military escort under Ultra Maximum Security wherever it goes. Quite correctly, in my judgement, for your appraisal was accurate when we spoke over the telephone. The contents would inflame the Far East - make war unavoidable. The right-wingers in Beijing would march on Hong Kong - right-wingers there, you'd call them left on your side of the world. Foolish, isn't it?
'I had a copy made and sent to Washington,' broke in the undersecretary, quickly, quietly, firmly.
'I don't believe that,' said Sheng. 'All diplomatic transmissions, by telephone-computer or by pouch, must be cleared by the highest superior officer. The notorious Ambassador Havilland wouldn't permit it, and the consulate wouldn't touch it without his authorization.'
'I sent a copy to the Chinese consulate!' shouted McAllister. 'You're finished, Sheng!'
'Really? Who do you think receives all communications from all outside sources at our consulate in Hong Kong? Don't bother to answer, I'll do it for you. One of our people.' Sheng paused, his messianic eyes suddenly on fire. 'We are everywhere, Edward! We will not be denied! We will have our nation back, our empire!'
'You're insane. It can't work. You'll start a war!' Then it will be a just war! Governments across the world will have to choose. Individual rule or state rule. Freedom or tyranny!'
'Too few of you gave freedom and too many of you were tyrants.'
'We will prevail - one way or the other.' 'My God, that's what you want! You want to push the world to the brink, force it to choose between annihilation and survival! That's how you think you'll get what you want, that the choice of survival will win out! This economic commission, your whole Hong Kong strategy, is just a beginning. You want to spread your poison to the whole Far East! You're a zealot, you're blind! Can't you see the tragic consequences-'
'Our nation was stolen from us and we will have it back! We cannot be stopped! We march!'
'You can be stopped,' said McAllister, quietly, his right hand edging to the fold in his jacket. 'I'll stop you.'
Suddenly, Sheng dropped his briefcase, revealing a gun. He fired as McAllister instinctively recoiled in terror, grabbing his shoulder.
'Dive!' roared Bourne, racing in front of the aircraft, in the wash of its lights, releasing a burst of gunfire from his machine pistol. 'Roll, roll] If you can move, roll away]'
'You]' Sheng screamed, firing-two rapid shots down into the fallen undersecretary of state, then raising his weapon and repeatedly pulling the trigger, aiming at the zigzagging man from Medusa running towards him.
'For Echo!' shouted Bourne at the top of his lungs. 'For the people you hacked to death! For the teacher on a rope you butchered! For the woman that you couldn't stop - oh, Christ] For those two brothers, but mainly for Echo, you bastard]' A short burst exploded from the machine pistol -then no more, and no amount of pressure on the trigger could activate it! It was jammed! Jammed! Sheng knew it; he levelled his weapon carefully as Jason threw the gun down, pounding towards the killer. Sheng fired as Delta instinctively pivoted to his right, spinning in mid-air as he pulled his knife from his belt, then planted his foot on the ground, reversing direction and abruptly lunged towards Sheng. The knife found its mark and the man from Medusa ripped open the fanatic's chest. The actual killer of hundreds and would-be killer of millions was dead.
His hearing had been suspended; it wasn't now. The patrol had raced out of the woods, bursts from machine guns filling the night and the field... Other bursts came from beyond the helicopter - Wong had opened the attach‚ case and found what he needed. Two soldiers of the patrol fell; the remaining four dropped to the ground; one crawled back into the woods; he was shouting. The radio! He was reaching other men, other back-ups! How far away were they? How near"?
Priorities! Bourne raced behind the aircraft and over to Wong, who was crouched by a tree at the edge of the woods.
There's another one of those in there!' he whispered. 'Give it to me!' 'Conserve your ammunition,' said Wong. 'There's not much more.'
'I know that. Stay here and pin them down as best you can but keep your fire low to the ground.' 'Where are you going, sir? 'Circling back through the trees.'
That's what the Frenchman would have ordered me to do.' 'He was right. He was always right.' Jason dashed deeper into the woods with the bloody knife in his belt; his lungs were bursting, his legs straining, his eyes peering into the forest darkness. He threaded his way through the dense foliage as fast as he could, making as little noise as he could.
Two snaps] Thick twigs on the ground broken by having been stepped on! He saw the shrouded silhouette of a figure coming towards him and spun around the trunk of a tree. He knew who it was - the officer with the radio, the thoughtful, soft-spoken killer from the Beijing sanctuary, an experienced combat soldier: Take to the flanks and outflank. What he lacked was guerrilla training, and that lack would cost him his life. One did not step on thick objects in the forest.
The officer walked by, crouching. Jason sprang, his left arm circling the man's neck, the gun in his hand slammed against the soldier's head, the knife once again doing its work. Bourne knelt down over the corpse, put his weapon in his belt and took the officer's powerful machine gun. He found, two additional clips of ammunition; the odds were better now. It was even possible they would get out alive. Was McAllister alive? Or had a frustrated bureaucrat's moment in the sun ended in perpetual darkness. Priorities!
He circled the field's curving border to the point where he had entered it. Wong's sporadic gunfire was keeping the three remaining men of Sheng's elite patrol where they were, afraid to move. Suddenly, something made him turn around - a hum in the distance, a bright fleck in his eye. It was both! The sound was that of a racing engine, the fleck a moving searchlight scanning the dark sky. Above the descending trees he could make out a vehicle - a truck - with a searchlight operated by an experienced hand. The truck sped off the road, obscured now by the high grass; only the bright searchlight was visible, moving faster and faster towards the base of the hill barely 200 yards below. Priorities. Move!
'Hold fire!' Bourne roared, lurching away from his position. The three officers spun around in place on the ground, their machine guns erupting, bullets spraying the space from which the voice had come.
The man from Medusa stepped out. It was over in seconds as the powerful weapon blew up the earth and those killers who would have killed him.
' Wong!' he shouted, running into the field. 'Come on! With me' Seconds later he reached the bodies of McAllister and Sheng - one still alive, one a corpse. Jason bent over the analyst, who was moving both arms, his right
hand stretched out, trying desperately to reach something. 'Mac, can you hear me?'
'The file!' whispered the undersecretary of state. 'Get the file!'
'What- Bourne looked over at the body of Sheng Chou Yang, and, in the dim wash of the moonlight, saw the last thing in the world he expected: Sheng's black-bordered dossier, one of the most secret, most explosive documents on earth. 'Jesus Christ? said Jason softly, reaching for it. 'Listen to me, analyst!' Bourne raised his voice as Wong joined them. 'We have to move you, and it may hurt, but we haven't a choice!' He glanced up at Wong and continued. There's another patrol on its way here and it's closing in. An emergency back-up, and by my estimate they'll be here in less than two minutes. Grit your teeth, Mr Undersecretary. We move!'
Together Jason and Wong carried McAllister towards the helicopter. Suddenly, Bourne cried out. 'Christ, wait a minute!... No, go on - you carry him,' he shouted to the conduit. 'I have to go back!'
'Why?' whispered the undersecretary, in agony.
'What are you doing, sir?' cried Wong.
'Food for revisionist thought,' shouted Jason enigmatically, as he raced back to the body of Sheng Chou Yang. When he reached it, he bent down and shoved a flat object under the dead man's tunic. He rose and ran back to the aircraft as Wong was carefully, gently, placing McAllister across two of the back seats. Bourne leaped in the front, took out his knife and slashed the nylon cord that bound the pilot, then cut the cloth that gagged him. The pilot had a spasm of coughing and gasping; even before it subsided Jason gave his orders.
Kaifeiji ba!' he shouted.
'You may speak English,' the pilot gasped. 'I am fluent. It was a requirement.'
'Airborne, you son of a bitch! Now!'
The pilot snapped the switches and started the rotors as a swarm of soldiers, clearly visible in the helicopter's lights, broke into the field. The new patrol instantly saw the five dead men of Sheng's elite guard. The entire squad began firing at the slowly ascending aircraft.
'Get the hell out of here!' roared Jason.
The armour on this equipment is Sheng's armour,' said the pilot calmly. 'Even the glass will withstand heavy fire. Where do we go?'
'Hong Kong!' shouted Bourne, astonished to see that the pilot, now ascending rapidly, powerfully, turned to him smiling.
'Surely, the generous Americans or the benevolent British will grant me asylum, sir? It is a dream from the spirits!'
'I'll be goddamned,' said the man from Medusa as they reached the first layer of low-flying clouds.
'This was a most efficient idea, sir,' said Wong from the shadows at the rear of the helicopter. 'How did it occur to you?'
'It worked once before,' said Jason, lighting a cigarette. 'History - even recent history - usually repeats itself.'
'Mr Webb?' whispered McAllister.
'What is it, analyst? How are you feeling?*
'Never mind that. Why did you go back - back to Sheng?'
'To give him a farewell present. A bank book. A confidential account in the Cayman Islands.'
'What?
'It won't do anybody any good. The names and the account numbers have been scissored out. But it'll be interesting to see how Peking reacts to its existence, won't it?
Epilogue
Edward Newington McAllister, on crutches, limped into the once-impressive study of the old house on Victoria Peak, its huge bay windows now covered by heavy plastic, the carnage all too apparent. Ambassador Raymond Havilland watched as the undersecretary of state threw the Sheng file on his desk.
'I believe this is something you lost,' said the analyst, angling his crutches and settling down in the chair with difficulty.
The doctors tell me that your wounds aren't critical,' said the diplomat. 'I'm pleased.'
'You're pleased! Who the hell are you to be so royally pleased?
'It's a manner of speaking - sounds arrogant, if you like -but I mean it. What you did was extraordinary, beyond anything I would have imagined.'
'I'm sure of that.' The undersecretary shifted his position, easing his wounded shoulder into the back of the chair. 'Actually, I didn't do it. He did.'
'You made it possible, Edward.'
'I was out of my element - my territory, as it were. These people do things the rest of us only dream about, or fantasize, or watch on a screen, disbelieving every moment because it's so outrageously implausible.'
'We wouldn't have such dreams, or fantasize, or stay mesmerized by invention, if the fundamentals weren't in the human experience. They do what they do best just as we do what we do best. To each his own territory, Mr Undersecretary.'
McAllister stared at Havilland, his look uncompromising. 'How did it happen? How did they get the file?'
'Another kind of territory. A professional. Three young men were killed, quite horribly. An impenetrable safe was penetrated.'
'Inexcusable!'
'Agreed,' said Havilland, leaning forward, suddenly raising his voice. 'Just as your actions were inexcusable! Who in God's name do you think you are to have done what you did? What right had you to take matters in your own hands -inexperienced hands? You've violated every oath you've ever taken in the service of your government! Dismissal is inadequate] Thirty years in prison would more suitably fit your crimes! Have you any idea what might have happened! A war that could plunge the Far East - the world - into helir
'I did what I did because I could do it. That's a lesson I learned from Jason Bourne, our Jason Bourne. Regardless, you have my resignation Mr Ambassador. Effective immediately - unless you're pressing charges.'
'And let you loose? Havilland collapsed back in his chair. 'Don't be ridiculous. I've talked with the President and he agrees. You're going to be chairman of the National Security Council.'
'Chairman-? I can't handle it!'
'With your own limousine and all kinds of other crap.'
'I won't know what to say!'
'You know how to think, and I'll be at your side.'
'Oh, my God!'
'Relax. Just evaluate. And tell those of us who speak what to say. That's where the real power is, you know. Not those who speak, but those who think.'
'It's all so sudden, so-'
'So deserved, Mr Undersecretary,' interrupted the diplomat. 'The mind is a marvellous thing. Let's never underestimate it. Incidentally, the doctor tells me Lin Wenzu will pull through. He's lost the use of his left arm, but he'll live. I'm sure you'll have a recommendation to forward to MI6 in London. They'll respect it.' 'Mr and Mrs Webb? Where are they? 'In Hawaii by now. With Dr Panov and Mr Conklin of course. They don't think much of me, I'm afraid.' 'Mr Ambassador, you didn't give them much reason to.' 'Perhaps not, but then that's not my job.' 'I think I understand. Now.'
'I hope your God has compassion for men like you and me, Edward. I should not care to meet Him if He doesn't.' 'There's always forgiveness.'
'Really? Then I should not care to know Him. He'd turn out to be a fraud.'
'Why?
'Because He unleashed upon the world a race of unthinking, bloodthirsty wolves who care not one whit about the tribe's survival, only their own. That's hardly a perfect
God, is it?
'He is perfect. We're the imperfect ones.'
'Then it's only a game for Him. He puts His creations in place, and for His own amusement watches them blow themselves up. He watches us blow ourselves up.'
'They're our explosives, Mr Ambassador. We have free will' 'According to the Scriptures, however, it's all His will, isn't that so? Let His will be done.' 'It's a grey area.' 'Perfect! One day you might really be Secretary of State.'
'I don't think so.'
'Nor do I,' agreed Havilland. 'But in the meantime we do our jobs - keep ,the pieces in place, stop the world from destroying itself. Thank the spirits, as they say here in the East, for people like you and me, and Jason Bourne and David Webb. We push the hour of Armageddon always a day away. What happens when we're not here?
Her long auburn hair fell over his
face, her body pressed against his, her lips next to his lips. David opened his eyes and smiled. It was as though there had been no nightmare that had jarringly interrupted their lives, no outrage inflicted upon them that had brought them to the edge of an abyss that held horror and death. They were together, and the splendid comfort of that reality filled him with profound gratitude. It was, and that was enough - more than he ever thought possible.
He began to reconstruct the events of the past twenty-four hours and his smile widened, a brief, curtailed laugh escaping from his throat. Things were never as they should be, never as one expected. He and Mo Panov had had far too much to drink on the flight from Hong Kong to Hawaii, while Alex Conklin had stayed with iced tea or club soda or whatever newly reformed drunks want others to know they're staying with - no lectures, just quiet martyrdom. Marie had held the eminent Dr Panov's head while the noted psychiatrist threw up in the British military aircraft's suffocatingly small toilet, covering Mo with a blanket when he fell into a dead sleep. She had then gently but firmly rejected her husband's amorous advances, but had made up for those rejections when she and a sobered mate reached the hotel in Kahala. A splendid, delirious night of making love that adolescents dream of, washing away the terrors of the nightmare.
Robert Ludlum - Bourne 2 - Bourne Supremecy Page 76
