Read Online The Bourne Betrayal by Robert Ludlum, Eric Van Lustbader - Free Book Online Page A

buyer.”
    “No I can’t. I already told you-”
    Hytner was approaching through inky shadow and glazed light. Why was Hytner here? Through the pounding in his head, Bourne could scarcely remember. He had it; it slipped away like a fish, then reappeared. “The cipher, Cevik. We’ve broken it.”
    Right on cue, Hytner came up and handed the paper to Bourne, who almost dropped it, such was his preoccupation with the ringing in his brain.
    “It was a bitch all right,” Hytner said a bit breathlessly. “But I finally got it licked. The fifteenth algorithm I used proved to be-”
    The last part of what he was going to say turned into a ragged shout of shock and pain as Cevik jammed the glowing end of his cigarette into Hytner’s left eye. At the same time he spun the agent around in front of him, locking his left forearm across his throat.
    “Take one step toward me,” he said low in his throat, “and I’ll break his neck.”
    “We’ll take you down, right enough.” Soraya, with a quick glance at Bourne, was advancing, her gun arm straight out, her other hand cupped beneath the gun butt, its barrel aimed, questing. Waiting for an opening. “You don’t want to die, Cevik. Think of your wife and three children.”
    Bourne stood as if poleaxed. Cevik, seeing this, showed his teeth.
    “Think of the five mil.”
    His golden eyes flicked toward her for an instant. But he was already backing away from her and from Bourne, his bleeding human shield held tight to his chest.
    “There’s nowhere to go,” Soraya said in a most reasonable tone. “Not with all the agents we have around. Not with him slowing you down.”
    “I’m thinking of the five mil.” He kept edging away from them, away from the glare of the sodium lights. He was heading toward 23rd Street, beyond which rose the National Academy of Sciences.
    More people there-tourists especially-to hamper the agents’ pursuit.
    “No more prisons for me. Not one more day.”
    Nothing to burn in the hole. Bourne wanted to scream. And then a sudden explosion of memory obliterated even those words: He was running across ancient cobblestones, a sharp mineral wind in his nostrils. The weight in his arms seemed suddenly too heavy to bear. He looked down to see Marie-no, it was the unknown woman’s bloody face! Blood everywhere, streaming from her though he frantically tried to stanch the flow . . .
    “Don’t be an idiot,” Soraya was saying to Cevik. “Cape Town? You’ll never be able to hide from us. There or anywhere else.”
    Cevik cocked his head. “But look what I’ve done to him.”
    “He’s maimed, not dead,” she said through gritted teeth. “Let him go.”
    “When you hand me your gun.” Cevik’s smile was ironic. “No? See? I’m already a dead man in your eyes, isn’t that true, Bourne?”
    Bourne seemed to be coming very slowly out of his nightmare. He saw Cevik step into 23rd Street now with Hytner skidding off the curb like a recalcitrant child.
    Just as Bourne lunged at him, Cevik pitched Hytner at them.
    Then everything happened at once. Hytner staggered pitifully. Brakes screeched from a black Hummer close by. Just behind it a trailer-truck filled with new Harley-Davidson motorcycles swerved to avoid a collision. Air horns blaring, it almost struck a red Lexus, whose driver spun in terror into two other cars. In the first fraction of a second it appeared as if Hytner had stumbled over the curb, but then a plume of blood spat out of his chest and he twisted with the impact of the bullet.
    “Oh, God!” Soraya moaned.
    The black Hummer, rocking on its shocks, had pulled up. Its front window was partly open, the ugly gleam of a silencer briefly glimpsed. Soraya squeezed off two shots before answering fire sent her and Bourne diving for cover. The Hummer’s rear door flew open and Cevik ducked inside. It sped off even before he’d pulled the door closed behind him.
    Putting up her gun, Soraya ran to her partner, cradling his head in her