“I’m afraid you don’t,” the guard told him. “I know every face who belongs in there. Yours isn’t one of them. Now please step back, sir, or I’ll have you escorted from the building.”
“You’re right, I’m not on your list,” Bourne acknowledged. “I didn’t know I’d be here tonight. Mine’s more of a standing invitation. Why don’t you check with your boss and see what he says?”
The guard hesitated, his eyes narrowing. He didn’t want to make the mistake of offending a whale, even one who showed up without an appointment.
“What’s your name, sir?”
“Cain.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Call it in, buddy. I’m getting impatient. Trust me when I say you don’t want that.”
The guard stepped back into the dark recess of the hallway that led to the other casino. His voice was a murmur, and Jason couldn’t hear what he was saying. When the guard returned, his entire demeanor had changed. He was submissive now. “I’m very sorry for the delay, sir. You’re welcome to go on through.”
“Thank you.”
Jason tipped the man a hundred dollars. He headed down the hallway to the glass door, unable to see through to the other side. When he pushed it open, he found himself in a completely different world. The drab décor of the rest of the building disappeared, and he found himself in a glittering venue, populated by people who were rich and beautiful. The atrium ceiling soared two stories over his head. The artwork on the walls, and the sculptures set among tranquil fountains, had to be valued in the millions. The gaming tables were leather-bound and hand-carved. Waitresses in cocktail dresses, all of them attractive enough to be L.A. actresses, passed silver trays of appetizers and champagne.
As he had in the other room, Bourne quickly assessed the casino security, looking for the armed guards and exits. If he needed to leave quickly, he wanted to know where to go, but his options were limited. Medusa left nothing to chance. He also noted the extensive lineup of cameras and knew that he was already being scrutinized by people in the private hotel tower over his head.
He wasn’t alone for long.
A slim Asian woman in a low-cut burgundy dress zeroed in on him from across the casino floor. She had flowing raven hair and diamonds dripping from her earlobes. She walked on sky-high red heels, and her dark eyes gave him a direct, knowing stare. Her smile was equal parts friendly and suspicious.
“Welcome,” she said. “My name is Nomi. It’s our pleasure to serve you, Mr. . . . Cain.”
“Thank you.”
“Please forgive our man outside. You took him by surprise. A man of your stature typically doesn’t arrive here without advance warning. I hope you weren’t offended.”
“Not at all,” Bourne replied. “I should have called, but I had an unexpected opening in my calendar.”
“How lucky for us. Would you like to play some blackjack? I have a table waiting for you.”
“I confess I came woefully unprepared with cash,” Bourne said.
“No matter. I’m sure credit can be extended.”
She put an arm through his elbow and guided him across the casino to a luxury chair at an empty blackjack table. The dealer was another Asian woman, this one with long chestnut hair and a body that spilled out of a formfitting pink dress. She wore an emerald bracelet and a matching necklace on a gold chain.
“This is Shay,” Nomi told him. “She’ll take good care of you. Would one hundred thousand dollars suffice to start?”
“Fine.”
Shay pushed a stack of chips across the table. She hadn’t spoken yet, but she had smart eyes.
“Would you like me to bring you a drink?” Nomi asked.
“No, thank you.”
“Well, then I’ll leave you in Shay’s good hands.”
The dealer nodded at the hostess as she left, and Shay welcomed Bourne with a smile as she stared down at the table. Their eyes didn’t meet. “We have a little tradition here, sir. The first bet is on the house. Shall I play five thousand dollars for you?”
“Go ahead,” Jason told her.
She withdrew a single chip from her tray and put it on the lush felt in front of him. From the shoe, she dealt Bourne a ten, then drew a three for herself on the up card. Bourne took another card, which was a king, and he stood. Three cards later, the dealer busted. Shay smiled as she paid him his winnings, but she still never looked at him.
“I trust your luck will continue in the same vein,” she said.
“I hope so, too,” Jason replied.
“Fortune favors the risk-taker.”
“Sometimes.”
“Shall we play?”
“Let’s.”
Bourne found himself playing five thousand dollars a hand, and his luck did continue. Within a few minutes, he was thirty thousand dollars ahead. As they played, he tried to read the dealer’s face, and he could see that Shay knew exactly who he was. He’d been put at this table, with this dealer, for a reason.
“People seem surprised to see me here,” he said finally. “Why would that be, Shay?”
She dealt him another winning hand. “I couldn’t say, sir.”
“Something tells me you could say.”
She manipulated the cards and chips and showed nothing on her pretty face. “Perhaps because some of us wondered if you were still alive. It isn’t often we’re visited by a ghost, Jason Bourne.”
“I’m very much alive,” he told her.
“We’re all pleased to know that. Your work in New York was . . . impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“However, it isn’t a wise thing to show up here where you could be seen. Some of our players have government connections. It’s possible someone might know who you are.”
“Your security seems up to the task,” Bourne said.
“Even so.”
The two of them went silent. Bourne began a losing streak across several hands. He dropped nearly back to even before pulling ahead again.
“You must have a reason for coming here,” Shay said. “Would you like to tell me what it is?”
“Maybe I’m just looking for a good time.”
“In which case, you’re very welcome. Stay. Gamble. Drink. If you want companionship, you have many options.”
“Including you?” Bourne asked.
This time, Shay’s eyes grazed across his. “If you wish.”
“Actually, I’m here for another reason. I have urgent information to pass along to Medusa. It can’t wait.”
Shay’s hand froze over the cards. “Some words are not to be spoken here.”
“I understand, but I told you. This is urgent.”
“If you have information, it should be passed on to your contact. There is protocol. Why come here to deliver your message?”
“Maybe my Prescix account told me I was going to pay you a visit.”
Shay’s lips turned downward. “You’re not funny, Mr. Bourne. Again, I would encourage you to bring your concerns to your contact.”
Bourne remembered Carson Gattor talking about his Medusa contact. A woman. “What I have to say is above her pay grade.”
He saw surprise on Shay’s face. And a little suspicion. “Very little is above her pay grade. Certainly no one at the Three Mountains.”
“Who’s in charge here?” Bourne asked.
“That would be Mr. Yee. He is upstairs.”
“I’d like to see him.”
Shay hesitated. He watched her face and realized she wore a small earpiece, in which she was obviously receiving instructions. “If you wish to speak to Mr. Yee, he would be honored to make your acquaintance.”
“Thank you.”
Shay looked over his shoulder and sent a message with a single blink. Like phantoms, two security guards in suits arrived, one on
either side of Bourne. “These men will take you to him,” she said. “Shall I cash out your winnings? It’s fifteen thousand dollars.”
“Keep it for yourself, Shay.”
“That’s very generous of you.” She scooped up the chips and gestured to the two guards, who waited with stoic faces as Bourne got out of the chair. “One word of warning, Jason Bourne.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re very good at what you do, but so are these men. Please don’t give them a reason to kill you.”
THIRTY-ONE
AS soon as the guards led Bourne off the casino floor, they searched him and took his gun. Holding his arms tightly on both sides, they guided him to a keycard elevator and stayed with him on the ride to the top of the tower. The elevator opened onto a lushly decorated hallway that ended at double doors covered with red silk, on which had been painted an elaborate Chinese landscape. Bourne suspected that behind the expensive cloth, the doors were made of bulletproof steel.
He noticed a camera observing their arrival. He also assumed he was being scanned for electronic listening devices and other weapons and his identity confirmed through facial recognition. A few seconds later, a click sounded, and the doors both swung inward automatically. The guards let go of his elbows, and Bourne walked alone into a large office that hummed with white noise. Behind him, the doors swung shut and the locks clicked back into place.
High-definition video screens took up one wall of the office, and he could see views of the high-roller casino alternating every few seconds among the screens. The rest of the office was decorated with gold leaf and jade. Behind the cherrywood desk, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the Mesquite Mountains.
A short, thin Asian man got up from behind the desk and approached him. “Cain,” the man said. “Or do you prefer I use the name Jason Bourne? Regardless, you honor us with your presence.”
“My apologies for arriving unannounced. It couldn’t be helped.”
“So I’m led to understand. Well, you are always welcome. I am Andrew Yee. I run the casino here.”
Among other things, Jason thought.
Yee didn’t look more than thirty years old. He wore a royal-blue suit with a narrow striped tie, and his leather shoes were polished to a bright shine. His black hair was shaved very short on the sides and left long on top, with a gold earring in one ear. He had thick, angled eyebrows above round spectacles, a long face, and a dimpled chin. His expression was respectful but nervous. Yee wasn’t accustomed to freelance killers showing up in his office.
“May I offer you something?” Yee asked. “Spirits? Food?”
“No.”
Yee waved at the leather chair in front of his desk. “Please, sit.”
Jason did, and Yee returned to the other side of the desk and sat down, too. His desk had little on it except a phone and a twenty-seven-inch iMac Pro. He was a neat, organized man. Yee sat straight up in his chair and adjusted his tiny glasses uncomfortably as he studied Bourne.
“Friends like you are always welcome, but it is a surprise to see you here. I do have some concerns.”
“Such as?”
“Well, to be candid with you, Cain is a wanted man. If your presence here were to become known to the authorities, it might provoke scrutiny we would rather avoid. As I’m sure you’re aware, we are . . . fanatical . . . about protecting the privacy of everyone associated with this operation. It would have been better had you called first, and we could have arranged a discreet entrance.”
“In this case, it couldn’t be helped,” Jason replied.
“Yes, I heard what you told Shay. You say you have urgent information, and I’m anxious to explore this with you. However, you also said a very strange thing.”
“Oh?”
“You said your information was above her pay grade. If that’s true, it’s certainly above mine, too.”
Bourne smiled. “Obviously, that was a test. I wasn’t sure who I was dealing with.”
“I understand. But then why not reach out to Miss Shirley directly? She does not appreciate interference in her affairs by those of us who are not in the inner circle.”
Miss Shirley.
A name. A contact. Someone in the upper echelon of Medusa.
“It may be time to bring you into that circle, Mr. Yee,” Jason said.
“You flatter me, but I don’t have the skills that she does. Or you, for that matter. Cain is a legend. I’m no more than a casino executive. A businessman. My role is limited, and I have never complained about that.”
“Regardless, we have a problem, and I need your help,” Bourne told him, inventing a new story on the fly. “I’d rather not involve Miss Shirley unless we can’t resolve it here.”
Yee frowned. “What is it?”
“I was nearly killed in New York. My security has been compromised.”
“That’s very distressing to hear.”
“Someone talked. A Treadstone agent knew how to find me.” Bourne gave the man a cold stare. “The leak came from here at the casino.”
Yee leaned forward in his chair. “Impossible!”
“It’s true. I’ve gone off the grid in response to the threat. No electronic contact whatsoever. I can’t afford to put Miss Shirley at risk. It’s one thing for me to be in danger, but obviously, we can’t take a chance on exposing her. That’s why I had to approach you directly. I don’t suspect you, Mr. Yee. Your loyalty is beyond question. But others can be influenced all too easily. A dealer, a waitress, a guard hears a conversation and passes it along.”
The casino manager shook his head fiercely. “That cannot happen. I make every hire personally. They are all monitored. All under constant surveillance. Personal behavior, finances, family. I know every aspect of their lives.”
“Regardless, you missed something. I interrogated the Treadstone agent before I executed him. He knew about the Three Mountains. The feds are watching this place, Mr. Yee. They must have someone on the inside.”
“No! I refuse to believe that. No one gets into the private casino who hasn’t been vetted. They would never breathe a word.”
“It may not necessarily be one of your people. It could be an outsider, deliberately trying to get inside the organization. The way Nova did. You remember what a catastrophe that was.”
“I had nothing to do with that!” Yee protested. “You know my role! Medusa identifies the recruits. Prescix identifies them. I’m given names and background and told how to proceed. The strategy comes from above. We follow Miss Shirley’s instructions to the letter.”
“Even so, a mistake was made,” Bourne said. He let violence creep into his voice. “You understand the consequences of that, don’t you?”
Yee’s eyes widened with fear. “Is that why you’re here? To kill me?”
“I don’t want to, but I need to know how much of our strategy may have been exposed.”
“We can’t expose what we don’t know,” Yee replied. “No one in this building is privy to Medusa’s operations. Not even me. The leak had to come from elsewhere.”
“Are you telling me the suites in the tower aren’t bugged?”
“Well, of course they are, but the recordings go directly to her. No one else.”
“You’ve never listened? A little insurance policy, maybe?”
“Never!”
Bourne debated how far to push the man. “I’d hoped to avoid taking this step, but Miss Shirley needs to be in the loop. You and I need to talk to her.”
Yee picked up the phone. “Of course. I’ll call her now. You’ll see, wherever the mistake was made, it wasn’t at the casino.”
Bourne grabbed the phone out of Yee’s hand and put it back in the cradle. “Not by phone. In person. We need to visit her together.”
“In person? That violates every protocol. She’ll kill both of us. Even you, Mr. B
ourne.”
“I told you, we need to stay off the grid. Treadstone is monitoring everything. So is the tech cabal. Did you think they wouldn’t fight back? You need to take me to her, and I’ll deal with the repercussions.”
Yee shook his head. “What you’re asking is out of the question.”
Bourne came around the desk and towered over the casino manager. “I killed a United States congresswoman, Mr. Yee. Do you think I’d hesitate even for a moment about killing you? My life, your life, is inconsequential. What matters is Medusa.”
Yee’s head bobbed with fear. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
“We need to go. Now.”
“All right, whatever you want. We can take my limo to Las Vegas.”
Yee pushed a button under his desk and the double doors to the hallway opened inward. The two guards who had brought Jason to the top floor were still there, their faces like stone. Bourne stayed close to Yee as they returned to the plush corridor, but he was concerned that the man’s nervous demeanor might attract attention. If that happened, if anyone grew worried, calls would be made. The truth about Bourne would be exposed. He’d be dead before they got out the casino doors.
When they reached the elevator, Jason held out his hand to the guard who’d taken his gun. The man eyed the casino boss, and Yee nodded with an uncomfortable frown. The guard hesitated, obviously concerned by the change in Yee’s behavior, but he reached inside his coat anyway and returned Bourne’s pistol.
They waited for the elevator.
It finally came, and when the doors slid open, the elevator car wasn’t empty.
Peter Restak was inside. The New York hacker with the scraggly beard and man bun had a phone in his hand and his attention was glued to the screen, but when he looked up, his eyes widened with recognition.
“Bourne!”
Then he shouted to the guards: “Kill him, you fools!”
Next to Jason, Yee’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. Bourne grabbed the casino manager by the shoulder and launched him off his feet toward the guards. One dodged away, but Yee landed hard against the other. The first guard reached under his coat for a gun, and as the pistol came free from its holster, Bourne lashed out with his foot, driving his heel hard into the man’s groin and eliciting a howl of agony. He grabbed the man’s gun hand and slammed it against the wall until the pistol fell to the carpet. With his right fist, he delivered an uppercut to the man’s jaw, groaning as bone landed hard against bone.
The Bourne Evolution Page 24