Read Online Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Imperative by Eric Van Lustbader - Free Book Online

said.
    “Not even Dani Amit?”
    The Babylonian looked at him steadily; he’d already answered this.
    Ben David took the straight razor from his skin and nodded as he washed it free of cream and stubble. “All right then. We can talk.”
    He carefully dried the razor before he closed it and put it away. Then he took up a towel and wiped his face clean. Only then did he turn to face the Babylonian.
    “Killing becomes you.”
    A slow smile spread across the Babylonian’s face. “It’s good to see you, too.”
    The two men embraced briefly but intensely, then they stepped back and it was as if the intimacy had never happened. They were all business, and their business was deadly serious.
    “They’ve sent me after Rebeka.”
    Something dark flitted across Ben David’s eyes and was immediately gone.
    “I know what that means to you,” the Babylonian said.
    “Then you’re the only one.”
    “It’s why I’m here.” The Babylonian regarded Ben David with no little curiosity. “What do you want me to do?”
    “I want you to follow through on your commission.”
    The Babylonian cocked his head. “Really?”
    “Yes,” Ben David said. “Really.”
    “I know how you feel about the girl.”
    “Do you know how I feel about this project?”
    “I do,” the Babylonian said. “Of course I do.”
    “Then you know my priorities.”
    The Babylonian eyed him for a moment. “She must have pissed you off royally.”
    Ben David turned away, busying himself with aligning his shaving equipment in regimental order.
    After a moment of observing him, the Babylonian said, “You only go OCD when you’re extremely agitated.”
    The Colonel froze, pulling his fingers away from the implements.
    “Don’t deny it,” the Babylonian said. “I know you too well.”
    “And I know you,” Ben David said, turning back to face him. “You’ve never failed at a commission.”
    “That’s not, strictly speaking, true.”
    “But only you and I know that.”
    The Babylonian nodded. “True enough.”
    Ben David took a step toward the other. “The thing is, Rebeka has become tangled up with Jason Bourne.”
    “Ah,” the Babylonian said. “Dani Amit didn’t inform me of that complication.”
    “He doesn’t know.”
    The Babylonian eyed Ben David for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell him?”
    “Bourne is none of his fucking business.”
    “In other words,” the Babylonian said, “Bourne is your business.”
    Ben David took another step toward the assassin. “And now he’s yours, as well.”
    “Which is why you brought me here.”
    “As soon as I learned about the commission.”
    “Yes,” the Babylonian said. “How exactly did you find out about it? So far as I know, only Dani Amit and the Director know.”
    A slow smile spread across Colonel Ben David’s face. “It’s better this way,” he said, “for all of us.”
    The Babylonian seemed to accept this. “So it’s Bourne you want.”
    “Yes.”
    “And Rebeka?”
    “What about her?” Colonel Ben David said sharply.
    “I know how you feel—”
    “Keep your eye on what’s important. You cannot give Dani Amit the slightest reason to suspect you. You must fulfill your commission.”
    The Babylonian looked on with some sympathy. “This can’t be easy for you.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” Ben David snapped. “I’m perfectly fine.”
    “And we’re on schedule.”
    “To the dot.”
    The Babylonian nodded. “I’ll be off then.”
    “That would be wise.”
    After the assassin was gone, Colonel Ben David stood staring at himself in the mirror. Then he strode over, picked up his straight razor, and threw it. The mirror shattered and, with it, Ben David’s reflection.

4
    THE MAN, BIG, BURLY,and round-shouldered, resembled a bear. Clad in a bespoke sharkskin suit that cost more than the yearly salaries of many of his minions, he stood in the sun-splashed Place de la Concorde. The ceaseless clamor of tourists sounded to him like the hammering of a flock