“This will work,” he said almost to himself.
“It will work,” Skara said as she came up beside him.
“What color?”
“Black. A Citroën.” She breathed against his shoulder. Her scent was curious, cinnamon and something slightly bitter, burnt almond, perhaps. “Three minutes from now no one will remember it.”
El-Arian nodded again, almost absently. The familiar frisson coming off her still made him slightly uncomfortable. He thought fleetingly of his wife and children safe, protected by many layers, but so far away.
“Who will I be tomorrow?”
He turned to see her slender hand extended. Reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, he produced a thick packet.
Opening it, Skara found a passport, her new legend, a first-class air ticket with an open return, credit cards, and three thousand American dollars. “Margaret Penrod,” she read off the open passport.
“Maggie,” El-Arian said. “You call yourself Maggie.” He tilted his head slightly as his gaze returned to the street below them. “It’s all in the legend.”
Skara nodded, as if satisfied. “I’ll memorize it tonight on the plane.”
“There’s Laurent,” El-Arian said, indicating a figure in a dark suit exiting their building. He could not keep a certain excitement out of his voice.
Skara drew out a disposable cell phone and punched in Laurent’s number. At once, a pre-programmed code was transmitted. El-Arian had already commenced his mental countdown. Laurent gave a little shiver and, drawing out his cell, checked its screen.
“What’s he doing?” El-Arian said.
“Nothing,” Skara assured him. “He must have felt the pulse, that’s all.”
El-Arian frowned. “He shouldn’t have felt anything.”
Skara shrugged.
“Can he do anything about it?”
“Not a thing.”
At zero minus fifteen, a blur appeared in his peripheral vision, and he shifted his gaze to the oncoming black Citroën.
El-Arian craned his neck. “Is he calling someone?”
Skara’s shapely shoulders lifted and fell. “There’s no need to worry.”
The next instant El-Arian understood her certainty. The Citroën struck Laurent so hard he flew perhaps ten feet in the air. He hit the ground, lay there for several seconds, then, astonishingly, began to move, trying to crawl back to the curb. The car swerved to allow its right-hand tires to crush his head, then it sped off so fast that by the time bystanders started to rush out into the street it had vanished.
More Jason Bourne Adventures!
Robert Ludlum’s
The Bourne Betrayal
By Eric Van Lustbader
He has lost his memory, his identity, and his past. Now Jason Bourne loses his only friend in the world when a CIA deputy director is kidnapped. Vowing to rescue his last tie to humanity, Bourne heads to Africa—and discovers a global network of Islamic supremacists determined to acquire nuclear weapons. But there’s more: These madmen have anticipated Jason Bourne’s every move—and plan to use him to destroy America.
More Covert-One Action!
Robert Ludlum’s™
The Arctic Event
A new novel by James H. Cobb
On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a mysterious World War II-era aircraft, a discovery that forces the Russian Federation into a shocking admission. The unmarked plane is a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than fifty years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax.
Desperate to prevent a political and diplomatic firestorm, the U.S. president dispatches a Covert-One team led by Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith to the crash site. But others have reached the frigid, windswept island first, including an international arms dealer and his crew of vicious mercenaries. As for the Russians, they are lying: a second, even deadlier secret rests within the hulk of the lost bomber, a secret for which the Russians are willing to kill to protect. Trapped in a polar wilderness, Smith and his team find themselves fighting a savage war on two fronts—against an enemy they can see and another hiding within their own ranks.
Contents
Front Cover Image
Welcome
Dedication
A Preview of The Bourne Dominion
Prologue
High Security Prison Colony 13, Nizhny Tagil, Russia/Campione d’Italia, Switzerland
Book One
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Book Two
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Book Three
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
More Jason Bourne Adventures!
More Covert-One Action!
About the Authors
By Robert Ludlum
Acclaim for Robert Ludlum’s™ The Bourne Betrayal
Copyright
About the Authors
ROBERT LUDLUM was the author of twenty-six international bestselling novels, published in thirty-two languages and forty countries. He is perhaps best known as the creator and author of three novels featuring Jason Bourne, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER is the author of numerous bestselling novels including The Testament, The Ninja, and the international bestsellers featuring Jason Bourne, The Bourne Legacy and The Bourne Betrayal.
ACCLAIM FOR ROBERT LUDLUM’S™
THE BOURNE BETRAYAL
“Suspenseful.”
—Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
“Lustbader is an excellent storyteller and is not afraid to keep the twists and turns coming in this sequel… This is an explosive addition to a series with an unrivaled heritage and storied pedigree.”
—Bookreporter.com
“A cleverly plotted, incisive thriller with a hero I’m glad is on the good guys’ side. In an amazing work of fiction, Lustbader takes us into the minds of terrorists.”
—NightsandWeekends.com
“I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a delicious thriller. There are plenty of surprises in this one, making it excellent summer reading.
—TheRomanceReadersConnection.com
“The underlying thread of the story is a simple one: What will a man do to save a friend, even in the face of total evil, great danger, and apparently insurmountable barriers? How Lustbader handles this should keep you entertained for… hours.”
—NewMysteryReader.com
“There is the normal excitement and explosive energy, suspense, and terror that only a Jason Bourne novel can have. The book also presents a fascinating intellectual challenge especially given the realism of the scenarios and the current state of the world.”
—colpop.net
AND PRAISE FOR THE
OTHER BOURNE THRILLERS
“Cinematic hairsbreadth escapes, crosses, double crosses, explosions, furious fisticuffs, and careening plot twists. It’s a hearty serving of meat-and-potatoes action adventure, just t
he sort of fare that Ludlum’s and Lustbader’s fans relish.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Bourne Legacy
“The novel begins explosively and retains the breathless pace throughout… fans will find in author Eric Van Lustbader a very worthy and more than capable writer to continue this splendid saga.”
—Curledup.com on The Bourne Legacy
“High-voltage entertainment and, quite honestly, impossible to put down.”
—Washington Times on The Bourne Supremacy
“A killer of a thriller!… Constant intrigue, action aplenty, bloody good fun.”
—USA Today on The Bourne Supremacy
“Very fast, very violent, and very fascinating.”
—Chicago Tribune on The Bourne Identity
“A superb cloak-and-dagger melodrama… enough excitement to exhaust the hardiest reader.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch on The Bourne Identity
By Robert Ludlum
The Bancroft Strategy
The Ambler Warning
The Tristan Betrayal
The Janson Directive
The Sigma Protocol
The Prometheus Deception
The Matarese Countdown
The Cry of the Halidon
The Apocalypse Watch
The Scorpio Illusion
The Road to Omaha
The Bourne Ultimatum
Trevayne
The Icarus Agenda
The Bourne Supremacy
The Aquitaine Progression
The Road to Gandolfo
The Parsifal Mosaic
The Bourne Identity
The Matarese Circle
The Holcroft Covenant
The Chancellor Manuscript
The Gemini Contenders
The Rhinemann Exchange
The Matlock Paper
The Osterman Weekend
The Scarlatti Inheritance
Written by Eric Van Lustbader
Robert Ludlum’s™ The Bourne Legacy
Robert Ludlum’s™ The Bourne Betrayal
Also by Eric Van Lustbader
NICHOLAS LINNEAR NOVELS
Second Skin
Floating City
The Kaisho
White Ninja
The Miko
The Ninja
CHINA MAROC NOVELS
Shan
Jian
OTHER NOVELS
First Daughter
The Testament
Art Kills
Pale Saint
Dark Homecoming
Black Blade
Angel Eyes
French Kiss
Zero
Black Heart
Sirens
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Myn Pyn, LLC
Excerpt from The Bourne Dominion copyright © 2010 by Myn Pyn, LLC
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the US Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
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Second eBook Edition: April 2011
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The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-446-53992-0
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