Robert Ludlum's™ The Bourne Evolution (Jason Bourne Book 12)

by Brian Freeman

  “Naturally.”

  “Mind if we stop for a minute and let me stretch my legs, Iniya? I like to have boots on the ground when I judge a place.”

  “Yes, of course, Charlie.”

  The realtor parked the red Mercedes on one of the streets that curved around the hillside terraces. Bourne and Abbey both got out, and Jason put his hands on his hips and sighed loudly, as if admiring the views. He strolled up the street and surveyed each of the estates looming above him, one by one. They were all lavish, multistory mansions clinging to the sides of the mountain. Any of them could have been home to Medusa. Or perhaps all of them were. Then he spotted one particular estate higher than the others, with a commanding location above the valley and all of the wealthy neighbors situated below him. It was much larger than the rest, built in modules of rich stone and marble, with a series of flat roofs. On one of the roofs, he could see a helicopter, so the owner didn’t have to deal with the Las Vegas traffic. From where he was, he could also see a lineup of catering trucks parked on the road that led to the estate.

  “Looks like somebody’s having a party tonight,” Jason said.

  Iniya followed his gaze. “Oh, yes. A wedding reception actually.”

  “Who’s getting married?”

  The realtor hesitated. “I’m afraid I can’t give out any names, Charlie. As I mentioned, privacy is paramount here. Should you choose to build, of course, you’ll find the residents here very welcoming.”

  “Sure, sure.” Jason continued to study the house at the top of the mountain. “Definitely the primo spot up there.”

  “Yes, it was the first house built in the community.”

  “Are those bighorn sheep I see? Wandering on the grounds?”

  Iniya flushed with embarrassment. “Yes, the owner created something of a preserve for the animals.”

  “Guess we all have our quirks,” Jason said.

  Abbey arrived at Jason’s side, and she leaned close enough to whisper in his ear. “Check out the eye.”

  Bourne took another look at the sprawling estate above them, and he saw it now. An elaborate series of fountains sprayed like geysers from one of the swimming pools, and the water in the centermost fountain formed a kind of screen on which was projected a huge, ultra-high-definition video image of a single human eye. As he watched, the eye actually winked at him.

  He’d seen that eye before, on the phone he’d taken from the thug in the New York subway. It showed up on the welcome screen for the Prescix software.

  Jason and Abbey exchanged a glance. Then he smiled at the realtor.

  “So this reception tonight,” he said. “Are you going, Iniya?”

  “I am, actually. My husband and I are both going. I’ve been the principal sales agent on the entire project, so I know everyone here. A limo will be picking us up and whisking us to the party. It’s all very lovely. You’ll discover that people in Sensara know how to do things right.”

  “Must be a hot ticket.”

  “Oh, it is. Several hundred people, I believe. Guests are flying in from all over the world.”

  “Wish I could go and meet some of my future neighbors,” Bourne said. “Any chance you could snag an invite for me and Abigail?”

  “Truly, I wish I could, Mr. Briggs, but it’s simply not possible.”

  “I understand completely,” Jason replied. “No worries at all. I’m sure you and your husband will have a nice time. Where did you say you two live again?”

  *

  “GABRIEL Fox,” Jason announced as he checked the fit of the black tuxedo jacket in the mirror. “The founder, designer, and principal shareholder of Prescix. He’s the one who lives in the castle on the hill in Sensara. I found a reference to his house in a tech magazine.”

  Abbey replied from behind the curtain in the private dressing room. They were in an upscale boutique in the Forum Shops at Caesars. “It fits, doesn’t it? Medusa uses Prescix, so it makes sense that the founder would also be involved with Medusa. Maybe that was the whole point of building the software.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “I think if Medusa already owned Prescix, the tech cabal would know about it. Prescix is part of Medusa’s plan, but they don’t have what they want yet.”

  “Then why did the SUV pick up the casino manager and take him to Gabriel Fox’s estate to be murdered?”

  Bourne frowned. “I don’t know. Hopefully, we’ll find out at the party tonight.”

  “Assuming they let us in,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about that.”

  “I’m coming out,” Abbey called from the dressing room. “Are you ready to be dazzled?”

  Jason smiled. “Ready.”

  He waited as Abbey pulled back the curtain and emerged wearing a purple cocktail dress with flowers and swirls beaded over the fabric. The fringed hem fell only to the middle of her thighs and showed off her legs, and the deep V revealed the swell of her breasts. She did a little spin in her matching high heels, making the fringe fly, and then she smirked and balanced one hand on her hip.

  “Well?”

  “Wow,” Jason said.

  “Does that mean you approve?”

  “It means I’m concerned no one will be able to take their eyes off you. You may look too beautiful.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Abbey said as she came and stood next to him in front of the mirror. “You know this thing costs like six months of my rent.”

  “You’re worth it. We need to look the part.”

  “I need to get my hair done, too. Men can get away with the scruffy look, but not women.”

  “Our next stop is the salon,” Jason said. “We’ll have them package up the clothes and be on our way.”

  “Are you going to tell me how you plan to get us into that party?” Abbey asked.

  “You probably don’t want to know.”

  “Tell me anyway. I mean, we don’t have an invitation.”

  “But Iniya does.”

  Abbey looked confused as she thought about what he meant. Then she inhaled with a sharp gasp as she understood. “Jesus. You’re not going to kill her, are you, Jason?”

  “No.”

  “It’s one thing to kill people from Medusa. They’re trying to kill us. But this woman isn’t Medusa.”

  “You’re right. At least I don’t think she is. My plan isn’t to kill her, Abbey. If I had to do something like that, I’d go there alone. Not with you.”

  Abbey was quiet for a while. “Because sometimes you do have to do things like that. Right?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “You kill innocent people.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Abbey.”

  “Would you have killed me if I got in your way?”

  Jason said nothing.

  She stared into the mirror and admired how she looked in the dress, but the sparkle had gone out of her eyes. “I don’t know how you can live in your world. I really don’t.”

  “There are days when I don’t know either,” he said.

  She didn’t look at him as she walked back behind the curtain. “Well, I signed on for this. I came with you.”

  He heard her changing, and he switched out of the tux into his other clothes as she did. A few minutes later, she came out from the dressing room, and she was Abbey Laurent again, not a fashion model. The cocktail dress hung on a hanger, and she gave it to him to pay for without a word. Her face was unhappy. He’d seen that face on women in the past. Women who’d discovered the man he really was.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Fine.”

  “I can do this myself. You don’t have to go.”

  “No. It’s a party. You’re less obvious if you’re not alone, right? Isn’t that what it says in your Life According to Treadstone book?”

  “Yes.”

  “So let’s go.”

  Abbey headed for the display area of the store. He knew, right then, at that moment, that she hated
him. He was bothered enough by her reaction that he forgot about the camera he’d spotted in the ceiling of the boutique. He didn’t remind her to keep her head down and her face out of sight.

  *

  NASH Rollins didn’t see a caller ID when his cell phone rang. Normally, the Treadstone phones could unmask the number of anyone who was calling, but not this time. He took the call and barked, “Who is this?”

  “Hello, Nash,” Miles Priest said in his gravelly voice.

  “Ah. Miles. Of course. Do you have information for me?”

  “I do. You wanted us to focus on the woman. That was a good call. She’s in Las Vegas. We caught her on facial recognition in the Forum Shops.”

  “Are she and Bourne still together?”

  “So it appears.”

  “Do you know what they’re doing there?” Nash asked.

  “No.”

  “Las Vegas,” he said. “I’m not surprised that Cain would go back there, since we think it’s a Medusa stronghold. All right, I’ll take care of it.”

  “See that you do,” Miles replied.

  The phone went silent as Miles hung up. Nash immediately dialed another number. “Get the jet ready,” he told the woman who answered. “Tell the director I have to go to Nevada tonight.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  “I’M sorry about this,” Jason told Iniya as he secured the realtor and her husband to the headboard of their bed. He made sure the duct tape was secure, and he checked the gags on their mouths. “It should only be a few hours. When I’m done, I’ll call the police and let them know you’re here. They’ll release you.”

  The Indian woman’s green eyes were wild with fear.

  “Your husband will be fine,” Jason added. “He should wake up in a few minutes.”

  The realtor’s husband had fought back despite a gun aimed at his chest, and Bourne had been forced to incapacitate him with a blow to the head that left the man bloody. He was still unconscious on the bed next to his wife.

  “I’m sorry,” Jason said again.

  He went back downstairs, where Abbey waited for him, looking perfect in her purple cocktail dress. She held the hand-lettered invitations to the Gabriel Fox party in her hand. Their keys to the Prescix kingdom, which Iniya had given them at gunpoint. When Abbey looked at him now, there was something different in her eyes, as if she needed distance from Jason to keep herself safe. She came up to him with a serious expression and said, “There’s blood on your face.”

  Abbey wet her finger and wiped it off.

  “The limo’s outside,” she told him.

  “We should go.”

  They didn’t talk as the car drove them to Sensara. A long line of cars waited at the guard gate, stretching for almost a quarter mile. This time, the guards simply confirmed that the occupants of the vehicles had their invitations and waved them into the neighborhood. There were no searches, no metal detectors. That was what he’d expected, so he’d taken the risk of keeping his gun in the holster on his back, rather than leaving it behind. The limo dropped Jason and Abbey at the gates outside Gabriel Fox’s giant property, where servers welcomed them with champagne. Abbey held Jason’s hand as they wandered onto the estate grounds past an elaborate cactus garden. Her grip was limp.

  Dozens of people in upscale finery surrounded them as they neared the house. The lights were low, creating romantic shadows. Night had fallen, and a vast map of lights came on throughout the Las Vegas valley far below them. The air had turned cooler, and a stiff breeze swirled across the mountaintop. When they got to the estate, they found their way to one of the balconies behind the swimming pools, and Jason did a survey of the guests around them. He saw faces he knew from the business world, from government, from the media, and a few celebrities, too. Some of them might have recognized Bourne if they’d looked closely, but the dim light provided cover, and when anyone looked at the two of them, they saw Abbey, not him. She was a beautiful vision in her dress, and she knew how to play the part.

  Even so, he hated the coolness he felt from her. That told him something that he didn’t want to face. His feelings for her were real.

  “It looks like our hosts have arrived,” Abbey murmured.

  Jason followed her gaze.

  Gabriel Fox and his bride joined the party in spectacular fashion. A gleaming cylindrical steel tower rose slowly from the middle of the swimming pool fountains, rotating slowly as it ascended, until it stopped high above the crowd of guests, thirty feet in the air. White spotlights shined on two people standing on the small platform at the top, behind a gold railing.

  One was Gabriel Fox. The squat, pudgy CEO of Prescix wore a black-and-white leopard print tuxedo with black silk lapels, with a matching leopard print pillbox hat on top of his head. Fox carried a flaming metal torch that looked as if it had come from the Olympics, and he raised it high as the tower slowly made another circle over the crowd. The heat of the fire made his round face glow. He grinned below his thick brown mustache.

  Bourne was more focused on the woman with him. His bride.

  She was incredibly tall and sleek, so thin as to look gaunt. Her coal-black hair was pulled behind her and tied in a tight knot, and a diamond tiara sat on her head like a crown. She wore a jeweled see-through lace top that left her torso essentially nude, and below, she wore a leopard print miniskirt that matched Gabriel’s tuxedo. Her smile showed only pale peach lips, and her icy blue eyes missed nothing. She didn’t move or wave or acknowledge any of the people below her.

  “I think that’s the scariest bitch I’ve ever seen,” Abbey said.

  Jason couldn’t take his eyes off the woman. Abbey glanced his way and saw his fixation.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I know her.”

  “What?”

  “I know her,” he repeated.

  The woman with Gabriel Fox was unforgettable, and he’d seen her before. Just once. She’d been there on one of the worst days of his life. When he ran for the Lucky Nickel hotel after the shooting, he’d found the parking lot crowded with people screaming as they bolted from the exits. It was chaos; the people were in panic. But not all of them. There had been one woman who walked calmly away, utterly unfazed by the violence around her. One woman, tall, cold, confident. Their eyes had met for a brief moment. She’d seen him and given him the strangest smile, both erotic and chilling. He’d wondered who she was, but a moment later, he’d spotted Nash Rollins, and the thin, blue-eyed Amazon had disappeared from his mind.

  Until now.

  Bourne knew. Seeing her here, he knew the truth.

  “She killed Nova,” he said.

  He didn’t have time to say anything more or to answer the questions on Abbey’s face, because at that moment, Gabriel Fox spoke into a microphone that broadcast his voice around the estate. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me here today. The party will last all night, and I want you to enjoy all the amenities of my home. What I have is yours. If you’re wondering what to do next, well, just check your Prescix account for advice. Because Prescix will know before you do.”

  A wave of nervous laughter rippled through the crowd.

  “Before we kick off the celebration, let me introduce you to the woman who is now my partner in sex, love, and life … especially sex. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to call her by any other name than this … the incredible Miss Shirley.”

  The woman next to Gabriel on the tower held up her hand to wave like a queen, still with the same frozen smile. She might as well have been a statue, perfectly carved. Simultaneously, fireworks shot from the roof of the estate, making multicolored flowers in the night sky and causing rippling waves of thunder under their feet. Around them, the entire crowd burst into applause.

  “Miss Shirley,” Abbey murmured, eyeing the woman on the platform. “Holy shit. That’s her. She’s Medusa.”

  “I’m betting she runs the whole Las Vegas operation,” Bourne said.

  “You can’t let her see y
ou,” Abbey told him. “She’ll know who you are. We’ll never get out of here alive.”

  “I know.”

  “What did you mean when you said she killed Nova?”

  “She was at the Lucky Nickel. I saw her. I don’t know if Hackman pulled the trigger or if she did, but she was there.”

  “Do you think Gabriel knows who she is? What she is?”

  “We need to find out.”

  Jason watched the elevated platform slowly descend to the level of the fountains. When it did, stepping-stones emerged out of the water that allowed Gabriel Fox to lead Miss Shirley back to the patio. He saw them mingling with the guests one by one, but he noticed that Miss Shirley never looked at the person she was talking to. Instead, like a predatory reptile, her eyes moved constantly, as if looking for prey. He took Abbey’s hand and backed away into the shadows, where they couldn’t be seen.

  “I have to get Gabriel alone,” he said.

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  Bourne studied the sprawling grounds of the estate. There seemed to be people everywhere, wandering in the darkness. He saw lights in every room, and all the walls were made of glass, allowing others to look inside. Then he glanced at the multilevel roof, which was unlit. No one was up there, not even security.

  “Find one of the servers,” Jason told Abbey. “Tell them to deliver a message to Gabriel Fox. For him only, no one else. Say that Miles Priest has an urgent private message for him, and he sent someone who’s waiting on the roof.”

  “Do you think he’ll come?”

  “If he’s not Medusa, he’ll come. If he is, well, he’ll tell Miss Shirley, and she’ll send others.”

  Abbey’s lips pushed into a thin line. “Okay.”

  “Can you do this?”

  “Of course.”

  “After you’ve delivered the message, wait for me near the gates. There’s a cactus garden down there that we passed as we were coming in. Stay out of sight. I’ll be there as soon as I can. We may need to leave quickly.”

  He expected her to argue as she had in the past. He half wanted her to say that she wouldn’t let him go alone, that she wanted to be with him. But she didn’t. Not this time. Instead, she brushed back her hair and told him in a calm voice, “Don’t get yourself killed, Jason.”