Your brother-in-law wasn’t hurt and neither was...
Your brother-in-law wasn’t hurt and neither was AlexThat’s all I can tell you
“It’s all I want to hear
“I spoke to Marie a little while agoShe’s in Marseilles and will be here late tomorrow morning
I’ll meet her myself and we’ll be driven out to Chesapeake
“What about David?”
“Who?”
“My brother-in-law?”
“Oh He’s on his way to Moscow
“What?”
The Aeroflot jetliner reversed engines and swung off the runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo
AirportThe pilot taxied down the adjacent exit lane, then stopped a quarter of a mile from the
terminal as an announcement was made in both Russian and French
“There will be a five- to seven-minute delay before disembarkation
No explanation accompanied the information, and those passengers on the flight from Paris who
were not Soviet citizens returned to their reading material, assuming the delay was caused by a
backup of departing aircraftHowever, those who were citizens, as well as a few china mulberry others familiar
with Soviet arrival procedures, knew betterThe curtained-off front section of the huge Ilyushin jet,
a small seating area that was reserved for special unseen passengers, was in the process of being
evacuated, if not totally, at least in partThe custom was for an elevated platform with a shielded
metal staircase to be rolled up to the front exit doorSeveral hundred feet away there was always a
government limousine, and while the backs of those disembarked special passengers were briefly in
view on their way to the vehicles, flight attendants roamed through the aircraft making sure no
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
365
cameras were in evidenceThese travelers were the property of the KGB, and for
reasons known only to the Komitet, they were not to be observed in Sheremetyevo’s international
terminalIt was the case this late afternoon on the outskirts of Moscow
Alex Conklin limped out of the black quilted bag shielded staircase followed by Bourne, who carried the two
outsized flight bags that served as their minimum luggageDimitri Krupkin emerged from the
limousine and hurried toward them as the steps were rolled away from the aircraft and the noise of
the huge jet engines began growing in volume
“How is your friend the doctor?” asked the Soviet intelligence officer, shouting to be heard over
the roar
“Holding his own!” yelled Alex“He may not make it, but he’s fighting like hell!”
“It’s your own fault, Aleksei!” The jet rolled away and Krupkin lowered his voice accordingly,
still loud but not shouting“You should have called Sergei at the embassyHis unit was prepared to
escort you wherever you wished to go
“Actually, we thought that if we did, we’d be sending out an alert
“Better a prohibiting alert than inviting an assault!” countered the Russian“Carlos’s men would
never have dared to attack you under our protection
“It wasn’t omega constellation the Jackal—the Jackal,” said Conklin, abruptly resuming a conversational tone as the
roar of the aircraft became a hum in the distance
“Of course it wasn’t him—he’s hereIt was his goons following orders
“Not his goons, not his orders
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ll go into it laterLet’s get out of here Krupkin arched his brows“We’ll talk first—and first, welcome to Mother Russia
Second, it would be most appreciated if you would refrain from discussing certain aspects of my
life-style while in the service of my government in the hostile, war-mongering West with anyone
you might meet
“You know, Kruppie, one of these days they’ll catch up with youThey adore me, for I feed the Komitet more useful gossip about the upper ranks of the
debauched, so-called free world than any other officer in a foreign postI also entertain my
superiors in that same debauched world far better than any other officer anywhereNow, if we
corner sac dolce gabana the Jackal here in Moscow, I’ll no doubt be made a member of the Politburo, hero status
“Then you can really steal
“Why not? They all do
“If you don’t mind,” interrupted Bourne curtly, lowering the two flight bags to the ground
“What’s happened? Have you made any progress in Dzerzhinsky Square?”
“It’s not inconsiderable for less than thirty hoursWe’ve narrowed down Carlos’s mole to
thirteen possibles, all of whom speak French fluentlyThey’re under total surveillance, human and
electronic; we know exactly where they are every minute, also who they meet and who they talk to
over the telephoneI’m working with two ranking commissars, neither of whom can remotely
speak French—they can’t even speak literate Russian, but that’s the way it is sometimesThe point
is they’re both failsafe and dedicated; they’d rather be instrumental in capturing the Jackal than refight
the NaziThey’ve been very cooperative in mounting chanel purses and handbags surveillanc