“Got you, you sonuvabitch.”
—
For Morgana that was the end of her second successful brief for Soraya Moore. But for Bourne, there was one more thing left to do. Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t carry Mala’s body out of the citadel, even amid such chaos, so he did the next best thing.
In Keyre’s laboratory, he stared at the table with its old bloodstains, now almost black as pitch. How much pain and suffering had this table seen—not only Mala’s, but all the young girls who had come before her.
Searching through the magus’s supplies he came upon a can of flammable liquid. What he had done with it, how he had applied it judiciously to his “girls” Bourne could not—and would not—imagine.
Standing in the doorway, even with her phone against her cheek, briefing Soraya, bringing her up to date in hushed tones, assuring her she had made a copy of the code and then destroyed the fail-safe-locked original, Morgana sensed his great sorrow. She did not pretend to understand his relationship with the Angelmaker, nor why he could feel anything for her at all. But it wasn’t her place to understand, and she did not judge him.
She watched silently as he doused the table with the liquid, then ran a thin line of it across the lab’s floor to where the Angelmaker’s body lay. There were a number of devices that created a flame in the lab, but Bourne deliberately chose the most primitive of them—long wooden matches.
Scraping the head of one along the side of the box, he watched the flame flare up. He wished he were the kind of person who believed in God; he wished he knew a prayer.
He composed his own. “Good-bye, Anjelica,” he whispered. “You will be remembered.”
Then he threw the match onto the center of the glistening table.
About the Author
ROBERT LUDLUM was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 225 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series—The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum—among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001. To learn more, you can visit Robert-Ludlum.com.
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER is the author of numerous bestselling novels including First Daughter, Beloved Enemy, The Ninja, and the international bestsellers featuring Jason Bourne: The Bourne Legacy, The Bourne Betrayal, The Bourne Sanction, The Bourne Deception, The Bourne Objective, The Bourne Dominion, The Bourne Imperative, The Bourne Retribution, and The Bourne Ascendancy. For more information, you can visit EricVanLustbader.com. You can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
THE JASON BOURNE NOVELS
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Legacy (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Betrayal (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Sanction (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Deception (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Objective (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Dominion (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Imperative (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Retribution (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Ascendancy (by Eric Van Lustbader)
The Bourne Enigma (by Eric Van Lustbader)
THE COVERT-ONE NOVELS
The Hades Factor (by Gayle Lynds)
The Cassandra Compact (by Philip Shelby)
The Paris Option (by Gayle Lynds)
The Altman Code (by Gayle Lynds)
The Lazarus Vendetta (by Patrick Larkin)
The Moscow Vector (by Patrick Larkin)
The Arctic Event (by James Cobb)
The Ares Decision (by Kyle Mills)
The Janus Reprisal (by Jamie Freveletti)
The Utopia Experiment (by Kyle Mills)
The Geneva Strategy (by Jamie Freveletti)
The Patriot Attack (by Kyle Mills)
THE PAUL JANSON NOVELS
The Janson Directive
The Janson Command (by Paul Garrison)
The Janson Option (by Paul Garrison)
The Janson Equation (by Douglas Corleone)
ALSO BY ROBERT LUDLUM
The Scarlatti Inheritance
The Matlock Paper
Trevayne
The Cry of the Halidon
The Rhinemann Exchange
The Road to Gandolfo
The Gemini Contenders
The Chancellor Manuscript
The Holcroft Covenant
The Matarese Circle
The Parsifal Mosaic
The Aquitaine Progression
The Icarus Agenda
The Osterman Weekend
The Road to Omaha
The Scorpio Illusion
The Apocalypse Watch
The Matarese Countdown
The Prometheus Deception
The Sigma Protocol
The Tristan Betrayal
The Ambler Warning
The Bancroft Strategy
ALSO BY ERIC VAN LUSTBADER
NICHOLAS LINNEAR NOVELS
Second Skin
Floating City
The Kaisho
White Ninja
The Miko
The Ninja
CHINA MAROC NOVELS
Shan
Jian
JACK MCCLURE / ALLI CARSON NOVELS
Beloved Enemy
Father Night
Blood Trust
Last Snow
First Daughter
OTHER NOVELS
Any Minute Now
The Testament
Art Kills
Pale Saint
Dark Homecoming
Black Blade
Angel Eyes
French Kiss
Zero
Black Heart
Sirens
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters
The Bourne Initiative Page 37