SyndicationJul302010
He reached the end of the path, his chest...
He reached the end of the path, his chest heaving, the veins in his neck
seemingly prepared to burst as the sweat ran down his skin, drenching his face, his collar and his
shirtGasping, he steadied the AK-47, his back pressed against the wall of the building, then spun
around the corner into the parking area, stunned by what he sawHis pounding feet, coupled with
the anxiety that caused his hair-soaked temples to throb, had blocked out all sound up aheadWhat
he observed now, what sickened him now, he knew had to be the result of multiple gunshots muted
by a weapon equipped with a silencerDispassionately, Medusa?s Delta understood; he had been
there many times many years beforeThere were circumstances under which kills had to be made
quietly?utter silence was the unreachable goal, but at least minimal noise was crucial
The young KGB driver from the assault squad was sprawled on the ground by the trunk of the
dark green sedan, the wounds in his head certifying deathThe car had swerved into the side of a
government bus, the sort used to haul workers to and from their places of employmentHow or
why the accident had happened, Bourne could not knowNeither could he know whether Alex or
Krupkin had survived; the car?s windows had been pierced repeatedly and there was no sign of
movement inside, both facts suggesting the worst but nothing conclusiveAbove all, at this
moment, the Chameleon also understood that he could not be affected by what he saw?emotions
were out! If the worst had happened, mourning hermes kelly handbag the dead would come later, vengeance and taking
the killer came now
Think! How? Quickly!
Krupkin had said there were ?several dozen men and women? working at the armoryIf so,
where the hell were they? The Jackal wasnot acting in a vacuum; it was impossible! Yet a
collision had occurred, its violent crash heard over a hundred yards away?well over the distance
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
402
of a football field?and a man had been shot dead at the site of that crash, his lifeless body bleeding
in the dirt, yet no one?no one?had appeared, either accidentally or intentionallyWith the
exception of Carlos and five unknown people, was the entire armory operating in a vacuum?
Nothing made sense!
And then he heard the muffled but emphatic strains of music from deep inside the building
Martial music, drums and trumpets predominating, swelling to crescendos that Bourne could only
imagine were deafening within the echoing confines of the huge structureThe image of the young
woman emerging from the front entrance returned; she had playfully clapped her hands over her
ears and grimaced, and Jason had not understoodShe had come from the armory?s
inner staging area, where the decibel level of the music was overpoweringAn event was taking
place at the Kubinka, a decently attended affair, which accounted for the profusion of automobiles,
small vans and buses in the vast parking area?profusion at any rate in the Soviet Union, where
such vehicles were not in oversupplyAltogether there were perhaps louis vuitton kabelky twenty conveyances in the dirt
lot, parked in a semicircleThe activity inside was both the Jackal?s diversion and his protection; he
knew how to orchestrate both to his advantage
Why didn?t Carlos come out? Why hadn?t he come out? What was he waiting for? The
circumstances were optimal; they couldn?t be betterHad his wounds slowed him to the point that
he had lost the advantages he had created? It was possible, but not likelyThe assassin had gotten
this far, and if escape was in the offing, it was in him to go further, much furtherThen why?
Irreversible logic, a killer?s survival logic demanded that after taking out the backup the Jackal had
to race away as fast as humanly possibleIt was his only chance! Then why was he still inside?
Why hadn?t his escape car fled from the area, speeding him to freedom?
His back once again pressed against the wall, Jason sidestepped to his left, closely observing
everything he could seeLike most armories the world over, Kubinka had no windows on the first
floor, at least not for the first fifteen feet from the ground; he presumed it was because the
occasional wildly galloping horses and glass did not go togetherHe could see a window frame on
what appeared to be the second floor but close enough to the slain driver to afford maximum
accuracy for a silenced high-powered weapon: Another frame on ground level had a knob
protruding; it was the rear exit no one had bothered to mentionThe little things, the insignificant
things! Goddamn!
The muted music inside chanel bags collection swelled again, but now the swelling was different, the drums louder, the
trumpets more sustained, more piercingIt was the unmistakable ending of a symphonic march,
martial music at its most intenseThat was it! The end of the event inside was at hand and the
Jackal would use the emerging crowds to cover his escapeHe would mingle, and when panic
spread through the parking area with the sight of the dead man and the shot-up sedan, he would
disappear?with whom and with what vehicle would take hours to determine
Bourne had to get inside; he had to stop him, take him! Krupkin had worried about the lives of
?several dozen men and women??he had no idea that in reality there were several hundred! Carlos
would use whatever firepower he had stolen, including grenades, to create mass hysteria so that he
could escapeLives meant nothing; if further killing was required to save his own, nothing
Abandoning caution, Delta raced to the door, gripping his AK-47 laterally in his arm, the safety
unlatched, his index finger on the triggerHe grabbed the knob and twisted it?it would not turn
He fired his weapon into the plated metal around the lock, then a second fusillade into the opposing
frame, and as he reached for the smoking knob, his personal world went mad!
Out of the line of vehicles a heavy truck suddenly shot forward, coming straight toward him,
wildly accelerating as it approachedSimultaneously, successive bursts of automatic gunfire
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
403
erupted, the bullets thumping into old omega watches the wood to his rightHe lunged to his left, rolling on the ground,
the dust and dirt filling his eyes as he kept rolling, his body a tube spinning away
And then it happened! The massive explosion tore apart the door, blowing away a large section
of the wall above, and through the black smoke and settling debris, he could see a figure lurching
awkwardly toward the semicircle of vehiclesHis killer was getting away after all, But he was
alive! And the reason for it was obvious?the Jackal had made a mistakeNot in the trap, that was
extraordinary; Carlos knew his enemy was with Krupkin and the KGB and so he had gone outside
and waited for himInstead, his error was in the placement of the explosivesHe had wired the
bomb or bombs to the top of the truck?s engine, not underneathExplosive compounds seek release
through the least resistant barriers; the relatively thin hood of a vehicle is far less solid than the iron
beneath itThe bomb actually blew up, it did not blow out on ground level, sending death-inducing
metal fragments along the surface
No time! Bourne struggled to his feet and staggered to the Komitet sedan, a horrible fear coming
into focusHe looked through the shattered windows, his eyes suddenly drawn to the front seat as a
heavily fleshed hand was raisedHe yanked the door open and saw Krupkin, his large body
squeezed below the seat under the dashboard, his right shoulder half torn away, bleeding flesh
apparent through the fabric of his jacket
?We are hurt,? said the KGB officer weakly but black gucci bag ca
seemingly prepared to burst as the sweat ran down his skin, drenching his face, his collar and his
shirtGasping, he steadied the AK-47, his back pressed against the wall of the building, then spun
around the corner into the parking area, stunned by what he sawHis pounding feet, coupled with
the anxiety that caused his hair-soaked temples to throb, had blocked out all sound up aheadWhat
he observed now, what sickened him now, he knew had to be the result of multiple gunshots muted
by a weapon equipped with a silencerDispassionately, Medusa?s Delta understood; he had been
there many times many years beforeThere were circumstances under which kills had to be made
quietly?utter silence was the unreachable goal, but at least minimal noise was crucial
The young KGB driver from the assault squad was sprawled on the ground by the trunk of the
dark green sedan, the wounds in his head certifying deathThe car had swerved into the side of a
government bus, the sort used to haul workers to and from their places of employmentHow or
why the accident had happened, Bourne could not knowNeither could he know whether Alex or
Krupkin had survived; the car?s windows had been pierced repeatedly and there was no sign of
movement inside, both facts suggesting the worst but nothing conclusiveAbove all, at this
moment, the Chameleon also understood that he could not be affected by what he saw?emotions
were out! If the worst had happened, mourning hermes kelly handbag the dead would come later, vengeance and taking
the killer came now
Think! How? Quickly!
Krupkin had said there were ?several dozen men and women? working at the armoryIf so,
where the hell were they? The Jackal wasnot acting in a vacuum; it was impossible! Yet a
collision had occurred, its violent crash heard over a hundred yards away?well over the distance
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
402
of a football field?and a man had been shot dead at the site of that crash, his lifeless body bleeding
in the dirt, yet no one?no one?had appeared, either accidentally or intentionallyWith the
exception of Carlos and five unknown people, was the entire armory operating in a vacuum?
Nothing made sense!
And then he heard the muffled but emphatic strains of music from deep inside the building
Martial music, drums and trumpets predominating, swelling to crescendos that Bourne could only
imagine were deafening within the echoing confines of the huge structureThe image of the young
woman emerging from the front entrance returned; she had playfully clapped her hands over her
ears and grimaced, and Jason had not understoodShe had come from the armory?s
inner staging area, where the decibel level of the music was overpoweringAn event was taking
place at the Kubinka, a decently attended affair, which accounted for the profusion of automobiles,
small vans and buses in the vast parking area?profusion at any rate in the Soviet Union, where
such vehicles were not in oversupplyAltogether there were perhaps louis vuitton kabelky twenty conveyances in the dirt
lot, parked in a semicircleThe activity inside was both the Jackal?s diversion and his protection; he
knew how to orchestrate both to his advantage
Why didn?t Carlos come out? Why hadn?t he come out? What was he waiting for? The
circumstances were optimal; they couldn?t be betterHad his wounds slowed him to the point that
he had lost the advantages he had created? It was possible, but not likelyThe assassin had gotten
this far, and if escape was in the offing, it was in him to go further, much furtherThen why?
Irreversible logic, a killer?s survival logic demanded that after taking out the backup the Jackal had
to race away as fast as humanly possibleIt was his only chance! Then why was he still inside?
Why hadn?t his escape car fled from the area, speeding him to freedom?
His back once again pressed against the wall, Jason sidestepped to his left, closely observing
everything he could seeLike most armories the world over, Kubinka had no windows on the first
floor, at least not for the first fifteen feet from the ground; he presumed it was because the
occasional wildly galloping horses and glass did not go togetherHe could see a window frame on
what appeared to be the second floor but close enough to the slain driver to afford maximum
accuracy for a silenced high-powered weapon: Another frame on ground level had a knob
protruding; it was the rear exit no one had bothered to mentionThe little things, the insignificant
things! Goddamn!
The muted music inside chanel bags collection swelled again, but now the swelling was different, the drums louder, the
trumpets more sustained, more piercingIt was the unmistakable ending of a symphonic march,
martial music at its most intenseThat was it! The end of the event inside was at hand and the
Jackal would use the emerging crowds to cover his escapeHe would mingle, and when panic
spread through the parking area with the sight of the dead man and the shot-up sedan, he would
disappear?with whom and with what vehicle would take hours to determine
Bourne had to get inside; he had to stop him, take him! Krupkin had worried about the lives of
?several dozen men and women??he had no idea that in reality there were several hundred! Carlos
would use whatever firepower he had stolen, including grenades, to create mass hysteria so that he
could escapeLives meant nothing; if further killing was required to save his own, nothing
Abandoning caution, Delta raced to the door, gripping his AK-47 laterally in his arm, the safety
unlatched, his index finger on the triggerHe grabbed the knob and twisted it?it would not turn
He fired his weapon into the plated metal around the lock, then a second fusillade into the opposing
frame, and as he reached for the smoking knob, his personal world went mad!
Out of the line of vehicles a heavy truck suddenly shot forward, coming straight toward him,
wildly accelerating as it approachedSimultaneously, successive bursts of automatic gunfire
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
403
erupted, the bullets thumping into old omega watches the wood to his rightHe lunged to his left, rolling on the ground,
the dust and dirt filling his eyes as he kept rolling, his body a tube spinning away
And then it happened! The massive explosion tore apart the door, blowing away a large section
of the wall above, and through the black smoke and settling debris, he could see a figure lurching
awkwardly toward the semicircle of vehiclesHis killer was getting away after all, But he was
alive! And the reason for it was obvious?the Jackal had made a mistakeNot in the trap, that was
extraordinary; Carlos knew his enemy was with Krupkin and the KGB and so he had gone outside
and waited for himInstead, his error was in the placement of the explosivesHe had wired the
bomb or bombs to the top of the truck?s engine, not underneathExplosive compounds seek release
through the least resistant barriers; the relatively thin hood of a vehicle is far less solid than the iron
beneath itThe bomb actually blew up, it did not blow out on ground level, sending death-inducing
metal fragments along the surface
No time! Bourne struggled to his feet and staggered to the Komitet sedan, a horrible fear coming
into focusHe looked through the shattered windows, his eyes suddenly drawn to the front seat as a
heavily fleshed hand was raisedHe yanked the door open and saw Krupkin, his large body
squeezed below the seat under the dashboard, his right shoulder half torn away, bleeding flesh
apparent through the fabric of his jacket
?We are hurt,? said the KGB officer weakly but black gucci bag ca