The Jason Directive
Page 67
Like all extremists, of course, they had an inability to anticipate the consequences of their actions beyond the immediate realization of their goals. The Serbs’ murderous act would indeed be repaid, ten thousandfold, in the blood of his ethnic kin. Yet those massacres would inevitably inspire the Serbian government to intervene forcibly: Dubrovnik and other Croatian cities would again be shelled by Serbian forces, compelling Croatia itself to declare war upon its Serbian antagonists. A conflagration would, once more, burst upon this most unstable corner of Europe—dividing neighboring countries into allies and adversaries, and with what ultimate results, nobody could say. A global conflict had once been sparked by a Balkan assassination; it could happen again.
As a gentle breeze filtered through the medieval buildings of the city’s old town neighborhood, an unexceptional-looking man with short, gray hair—nobody who would ever get a second look—continued to pace down the street Bozardar Filipovic. “Four degrees off the median,” he said softly. “The apartment block on the middle of the street. Top floor. Got a visual?”
The woman repositioned slightly, and adjusted her Swarovski 12 × 50: the gunman lying in wait filled the scope. The scarred visage was familiar from her face book: Milic Pavlovic. Not one of the Serb fanatics of Dubrovnik, but a seasoned and highly skilled assassin who had earned their trust.
The terrorists had sent the best.
But then so had the Vatican, which sought to eliminate the assassin without the world knowing what it had done.
The executive security business was only formally a new pursuit for Janson and Kincaid. For that matter, it was only formally a business: as Jessica had pointed out, the millions that remained in Janson’s Cayman Islands account were his to keep—if he hadn’t earned it, who had? Still, as Janson had said, they were too young to put themselves out to pasture. He had tried that—tried to run from who he was. That was not the answer for him, for either of them; he knew that now. It was the hypocrisy—the hubris of the planners—against which he rebelled. But for better or worse, neither of them had been made for a peaceable existence. “I’ve done the small-island-in-the-Caribbean thing,” Janson had explained. “It gets old fast.” The bountiful cash reserves simply meant that the partnership could be selective in choosing its clients and that there would be no need to stint on operating expenses.
Now Kincaid spoke in a low voice, knowing that the filament mike carried her words straight to Janson’s earpiece. “Goddamn Kevlar body armor,” she said, stretching her long, loose-jointed body beneath the layers of bulletproof mesh. She always found it uncomfortably hot, protested his insistence that she wear it. “Tell me the truth—do you think it makes me look fat?”
“You think I’m gonna answer that while you’ve got a bullet in the chamber?”
She found her spot-weld—stock to cheek—as the craggy-faced assassin assembled his bipod, and inserted the magazine into his long rifle.
The pope would be making his appearance in minutes.
Janson’s voice in her ear again: “Everything OK?”
“Like clockwork, snookums,” she said.
“Just be careful, all right? Remember, the backup shooter’s in the warehouse at location B. If they get wind of you, you’re in his range.”
“I’m on top of it,” she said, suffused with the deep, glowing calm of a perfectly positioned marksman.
“I know,” he said. “I’m just saying, be careful.”
“Don’t worry, my love,” she said. “It’ll be a walk in the park.”
It is easy for him to bestow gifts. Were he to live
forever he could never squander all he owns, for he
holds the Nibelungs’ hoard in his power.
—Nibelungenlied,
circa 1200 A.D.
ALSO BY ROBERT LUDLUM
The Ambler Warning
The Tristan Betrayal
The Sigma Protocol
The Prometheus Deception
The Matarese Countdown
The Apocalypse Watch
The Road to Omaha
The Scorpio Illusion
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Icarus Agenda
The Bourne Supremacy
The Aquitaine Progression
The Parsifal Mosaic
The Bourne Identity
The Matarese Circle
The Gemini Contenders
The Holcroft Covenant
The Chancellor Manuscript
The Road to Gandolfo
The Rhinemann Exchange
The Cry of Halidon
Trevayne
The Matlock Paper
The Osterman Weekend
The Scarlatti Inheritance
Critical Praise for Robert Ludlum
“Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined.”
—The New York Times
“Ludlum pulls out all the stops, and dazzles his readers.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Packed with all the classic Ludlum elements … the intricately engineered plot thunders forward at breakneck pace. Bottom Line: Perfectly executed.”
—People
“Robert Ludlum continues to jolt his readers with fresh juice … a page-turner of non-stop action that should leave his fans begging for more.”
—New York Post
“Welcome to Robert Ludlum’s world … fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Dazzling … a clean launch of the ’80s spy novel into a thrilling action/adventure web of intrigue meant for the twenty-first century.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Reading a Ludlum novel is like watching a James Bond film … slickly paced … all-consuming.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Ludlum is light-years beyond his literary competition in piling plot twist upon plot twist, until the mesmerized reader is held captive … He dominates the field in strong, tightly plotted, action-drenched thrillers.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Readers will remain in the dark right up until the explosive climax.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Gripping … Robust writing and a breakneck pace.”
—Boston Herald
“Don’t ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
Explosive Praise for Robert Ludlum’s
THE SIGMA PROTOCOL
“Perfectly executed … Packed with all the classic Ludlum elements … thunders forward at breakneck pace.”
—People
“[A] triumph … Harkens back to the roller coaster ride/thrill-a-minute Bourne Identity.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Ludlum at his best.”
—Sullivan County Democrat
“Vintage Ludlum.”
—Houston Chronicle
“It’s amazing that ten pages before the end of the book, you still can’t figure out how he’s going to resolve the complex plot he’s presented. Yet he does, and … satisfactorily.”
—Colorado Springs Gazette
“[Ludlum] shows that … his storytelling skill [is] still at an all-time high … provides no less suspense than his diehard fans would expect.”
—Bookreporter.com
“An accomplished novel … classic Ludlum … moves at breakneck speed … with well-developed players and a fascinating stage, Ludlum has risen to some of his finest work in this clever and enjoyable novel.”
—Chattanooga Times Free Press
“Better than anything [Ludlum’s] done in nearly twenty years … here is vintage Ludlum … the plot is rich with new insight.”
—Gannett Newspaper
“Ludlum keeps things moving with plenty of gunplay and running about … quite good.”
—Booklist
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed i
n this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE JANSON DIRECTIVE
Copyright © 2002 by Myn Pyn LLC.
All rights reserved. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN 9781429906678
First eBook Edition : April 2011
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2002005136
ISBN: 0-312-94515-9
EAN: 978-0-312-94515-2
St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / October 2002
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / October 2003