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

by Brian Freeman

  Abbey disappeared into the crowd. He waited until she was gone, and then he made his way to the nearest glass doors leading into the estate itself. He passed through bizarrely decorated open spaces as he hunted for stairs that led to the next level. On the second floor, he did the same. And then again. When he got to the top floor, he found exterior stairs that took him to the roof.

  From up here, he had an unobstructed view of the people, the grounds, the Sensara neighborhood, and the rest of Las Vegas. Near the estate wall and the outer gates, where limousines continued to deliver more guests, he could make out the silhouettes of towering saguaros, chollas, and prickly pears in the cactus garden. Pinpoint snow-white lights shimmered in the breeze. He couldn’t see if Abbey had made it there yet. He wondered for a moment if she would leave without him and he would never see her again. Maybe that would be better for both of them.

  Jason checked his watch and waited.

  Half an hour passed, and he was still alone. He found himself pacing, letting the mountain breeze wash across his face. When an hour had passed, he began to think that Gabriel Fox had chosen to ignore his message.

  Then he heard footsteps approaching on the roof stairs. He reached for the holster in the small of his back, but he heard only one set of footsteps, rather than the boots of Medusa’s army. A few seconds later, the CEO of Prescix joined him. Gabriel took off his pillbox hat and draped his leopard print tuxedo coat over his arm. He approached warily, but he also had a curious expression.

  “Jason Bourne. I don’t recall seeing your name on the invitation list. Then again, what’s a wedding without a party crasher?”

  “You don’t sound surprised to see me.”

  “I’m not. Remember, my business is tech. Do you think anything happens on my estate that isn’t observed and recorded? I knew you were here from the second you stepped foot out of that limousine.”

  “And yet you let me in,” Bourne said. “You could have had security turn me away.”

  Gabriel assessed Bourne like an exhibit of bones in a museum. “Frankly, I was curious about why you’re here. Are you going to kill me? Is that the plan?”

  “No.”

  “Well, good,” the man replied with a chuckle. “I don’t mind missing the party, but I’d sure hate to miss the wedding night.”

  Bourne frowned. The easy confidence in Gabriel’s attitude bothered him. The CEO knew Jason was at the party, and yet he’d come to the roof alone to confront an assassin, seemingly without concern or fear. Something was wrong.

  “Anyway, you dragged me up here,” Gabriel went on in the same casual drawl. He twirled his pillbox hat in his fingers. “I assume Miles Priest didn’t really send you. So what do you want?”

  “I came to warn you.”

  “About what?”

  “Your wife,” Jason said.

  Gabriel’s mouth broke into a wide smile. “Ah, you know Miss Shirley, do you? People who meet her rarely forget the experience.”

  “I know she’s Medusa.”

  The tech billionaire wandered toward the edge of the roof and stared down at the party. “You and Miles. All these fairy tales about Medusa. We’ve become a society addicted to conspiracy theories.”

  “Medusa is real, and your new wife is in the middle of it. If she married you, it’s because you’ve got something they want, and we both know what that is. Prescix.”

  Gabriel shook his head impatiently. He spoke without turning around. “I’m surprised at you, Bourne. Do you really think I would get involved with a woman—even a woman as talented as Miss Shirley—without knowing everything about her? Believe me, I know exactly who she is and what she’s done.”

  “Do you know she’s a killer?”

  Gabriel chuckled as he walked back to Bourne. “And a very good one, too.”

  “You don’t care?”

  “Care? It was one of the things I found most attractive about her. Did it never occur to any of you that a killer is what I need? You and Miles seem to think that Miss Shirley is using me, that Medusa is using me. I’m one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, Bourne. I know what I’m doing. The fact is, I’m using them.”

  “To accomplish what?”

  “To take over the tech cabal, of course. To turn the game around. Tomorrow, Miss Shirley and I will head to Nassau, where Miles and his friends will try to persuade me to join forces with them. I intend to do just that. Say what you want about Miles, but strategically, he’s always right. The tech companies need to stand as one. But when all is said and done, I plan to be the person in charge, not him. Prescix will call the shots and start acquiring the other companies. And once that’s done, Miss Shirley and I will launch the next part of our plan.”

  “Namely?”

  “We’ll take over Medusa, too. Me and her together.”

  Bourne could see the depth of the man’s ego. He wasn’t just a rich, harmless eccentric. He was brilliant but also a megalomaniac. Everything that Prescix could do, all the damage it could cause, had been in this man’s head all along. He’d intended from the beginning to write software that would let him control people.

  But that was the kind of power that others wanted, too. Once Pandora’s box was open, it couldn’t be closed.

  “You’re making a mistake, Gabriel.”

  “Am I?”

  “Medusa is stronger than you are. Right now, they’re giving you what you want. They’re letting you think you’re in control. But once they have what they need, you’re expendable.”

  “Actually, you’re the one who’s expendable, Cain. You’re a chess piece who’s stayed on the board much longer than necessary. Pawns don’t win the game. They get sacrificed. Which is what happens next.”

  “Or I could kill you right now,” Jason said, reaching behind his back for his pistol.

  Gabriel shrugged and began to place the pillbox hat back on his head. “You do what you have to do, Bourne.”

  Jason stared at the CEO in confusion. And then he realized. The hat was a signal. Gabriel hadn’t shown any concern about meeting him, because all along, he’d had Bourne in the gunsights of another assassin. When I put the hat back on, take him out. Jason lunged forward just as the bullet from a rifle hidden in the hills cracked past the back of his head, missing him by a millimeter. He launched himself into Gabriel, knowing the tangle of bodies bought him a couple of seconds to grab his own pistol. Then, as he broke free and charged for the roof stairs, he laid down a continuous rain of fire toward the assassin’s lair in the dark hills. Shot after shot went wild, but the cover was enough. He threw himself down the steps just as a cloud of stucco blew off the wall where the shooter barely missed him again.

  He thundered level by level through the estate, pushing through the crowd of panicked guests on his way to the garden. He only had seconds to get there.

  If they knew Bourne was here, then they knew Abbey was here, too.

  *

  ABBEY felt a little bit of a chill. High up on the mountain, the air was cooler than on the valley floor. She followed a figure eight sidewalk through the cacti sprouting from the rocks, retracing her footsteps the way she’d been doing for more than an hour. One part of her mind told her to leave right now. To go through the gate and go home to Canada. To forget about Jason Bourne and whether he lived or died.

  But another part of her mind made her stay. That was the part that realized she was falling in love with him.

  Fool!

  She told herself that, but it didn’t matter. She felt something for Jason, and she couldn’t turn it off or walk away. It didn’t matter who he was or what he’d done.

  When she heard footsteps approaching on the garden path, her heart sped up with relief, and the only thing she wanted to do was run to him. She’d been terrified that he wasn’t coming back. That she’d lost him forever.

  But when she turned around, it wasn’t Jason standing there.

  It was Miss Shirley.

  “Abbey Laurent,” the woman said fr
om behind her arctic blue eyes. “What a treat. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now.”

  Instinctively, Abbey took a step backward. Miss Shirley kept coming closer atop her high heels. The woman had a hand hidden behind her back. Her white dress glowed under the garden lights, but her face was in shadow.

  “You did such a good job for us, Abbey,” Miss Shirley went on, taunting her. “The articles you wrote. About Hackman, about Ortiz. What a good little stooge for Medusa you were. I chose you myself, you know. I told Carson to find you. I told him what to say. You did everything we hoped for, except for one little thing. You forgot the fact that you were supposed to die a while ago. We tried in New York. We tried in Quebec. And yet here you are. I’m really rather upset that you’re still alive.”

  “Go to hell, you crazy bitch.”

  “Oh, Abbey. So foolish. So brave. I wouldn’t have thought it. Is that Jason’s influence? You’ve spent a lot of time with him lately. I really have to know, are you sleeping with him? Did he fall for that girl-next-door look of yours? Did you seduce a cold-blooded assassin?”

  “You don’t know who he really is.”

  “Oh, I know exactly who he is. You’re the naive one.”

  “Go to hell,” she said again.

  Miss Shirley smiled with just her lips. Her hand emerged from behind her back, with a knife clutched in her fingers. The knife had a two-foot blade that was curved like a crescent moon. “You’re very attractive, Abbey. If we had more time, I’d show you what a real woman is like in bed. All it would take is one night, and trust me, you’d never want to be with a man again. Even Bourne.”

  “Robots don’t turn me on,” Abbey snapped.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “Are you jealous? Is that it? You want Jason for yourself, and you know you’ll never have him?”

  “There are very few things I want that I can’t have,” Miss Shirley replied. “Right now, I want you. Bleeding. Begging me for mercy.”

  Abbey spun away to run, but when she did, she found herself trapped by a huge security guard in a black suit who gathered her up in his arms. She hadn’t even heard him sneak up behind her. He turned her around so that she had no choice but to face Miss Shirley. Abbey squirmed furiously but couldn’t get away. Miss Shirley came up directly in front of her. Her breath was on Abbey’s face, and she was close enough to scrape the point of the knife gently over the skin of her shoulder, leaving a red trail.

  “Such a lovely dress,” she said. “Did Jason buy it for you?”

  She flicked the knife and cut away one of the straps, making the dress slide down Abbey’s chest, exposing one of her breasts.

  “Beautiful. Pert and perfect.”

  “Stop playing games,” Abbey said. “If you’re going to kill me, kill me.”

  “Oh, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I could just slice open your throat, of course, and you’d be gone in a couple of minutes, but where’s the fun in that? I told you, I want to hear you beg. Now, where should I make the first cut? Your fingers? Your delicate little ears? I could take each of your breasts first, how about that? This is a very, very sharp blade. Two little swishes, and they’d be gone. Imagine how terrible it would be for Jason to find you that way. Seeing that naked body he enjoyed desecrated in so many ways.”

  Abbey spit in her face, and Miss Shirley simply wiped it away and laughed. She cocked the knife, and Abbey squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the agony.

  Then a voice hissed from the darkness. “Get away from her right now.”

  Bourne emerged from the tall cacti. His gun was inches from the back of Miss Shirley’s head. Abbey couldn’t help herself. Tears of relief streamed down her cheeks.

  “Ah, Jason, I was wondering if you’d be able to join us,” Miss Shirley said. “The hero returns in the nick of time. I’d hoped that our shooter would take care of you once and for all, but apparently not. What a shame. Abbey and I were just getting to know each other.”

  “Drop the knife.”

  “Of course. If that’s what you want.”

  Miss Shirley opened her fingers, and the knife clattered to the paver stones at her feet. Jason pressed the barrel hard into her neck. “Tell your man to let her go.”

  “It’s all right, Terence,” Miss Shirley instructed the guard in the black suit.

  The guard removed his arms from around Abbey, and she stumbled across the trail to Jason, her heels tripping on the stones.

  “Stay behind me,” he told her. “We’re heading for the gate.”

  “You’ll never get there,” Miss Shirley told them. “At least ten more guards are on their way. You’re trapped.”

  “If I don’t make it, neither do you,” Bourne replied.

  “I’ll tell you what, Jason. Let’s do a deal. Leave me the girl to play with, and you can go.”

  Abbey had to swallow down an urge to tell Jason simply to pull the trigger, so they could watch this woman die. She sensed from the tautness of his muscles that Jason was struggling with the same desire. As Abbey held on to his belt, Jason wrapped an arm tightly around Miss Shirley’s throat and dragged the woman backward, using her body as a shield. He pointed the gun into her temple as more guards closed in on them from three sides. Abbey acted as his eyes, pulling him backward step by step until they reached the wrought-iron gates of the estate.

  There were other guests there, staring wide-eyed at what was happening.

  “Open the door on the nearest car, Abbey,” Jason instructed her. “Get inside and make sure the driver’s ready to go. Tell him I’ll shoot him if he hesitates for even a second.”

  She was sure that Bourne would do just that.

  Abbey opened the first limo door and scrambled inside, and she left the door open. Jason dragged Miss Shirley all the way up to the car.

  “I should kill you right now,” he said.

  “You could, but then my men will fire. Everybody loses.”

  “Jason, let’s go,” Abbey shouted. “Hurry.”

  She watched him put one hand on Miss Shirley’s back. He shoved hard, pushing her toward the Medusa men. In the same instant, Jason threw himself inside the limo and covered her as he dragged the door shut behind him. The guns were already firing. Bullets shattered the glass all around them and hammered the steel on the doors, and the limo sped away.

  THIRTY-SIX

  “THEY’RE calling it a failed assassination attempt,” Abbey said, scrolling through the news feed on her phone. “‘The man believed to be responsible for the shooting of Congresswoman Sofia Ortiz was thwarted by armed security last night in the attempted murder of Gabriel Fox, CEO of Prescix Corporation.’”

  “Who do they think I’m working for?” Bourne asked.

  “The feds blame ‘rogue elements inside Big Tech.’”

  Jason shook his head. “Medusa is using this to advance their plan. Do they mention you?”

  “I’m an anonymous kidnap victim you used in making your escape,” Abbey replied. “I’m not identified by name.”

  “They’re sending you a message by keeping you out of it. You’re safe now, but next time, they’ll claim you’re part of the conspiracy. That’s the choice you have to make.”

  Abbey said nothing. He knew she was wrestling with what to do.

  The sky had begun to lighten over the hills with the pink glow of dawn. They sat in the Land Rover in a Henderson parking lot, where they had a vantage on the access road leading in and out of the Sensara community. For hours, a steady stream of vehicles had come and gone. Limousines. Police. FBI. There was no sign yet of Gabriel Fox, but sooner or later, Bourne knew that the man would emerge from seclusion. Along with Miss Shirley.

  “Thank you, by the way,” Abbey said.

  “For what?”

  “You saved my life again. It’s becoming a habit with you.”

  “I’m the one who nearly got you killed,” Jason said.

  “Yes, but I didn’t want you to think I don’t care. If you hadn’t been ther
e, I’d be dead now. That woman—Miss Shirley—do you really think she would have done the things she said? I mean, not just kill me, but …”

  “Yes, I do. She’s a sadist and a psychopath.”

  “My God. Who are these people? What’s their plan?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping Gabriel Fox and Miss Shirley will lead us to the answers.”

  “Us,” Abbey murmured.

  He heard the change in her voice, and he turned and stared at her. “I mean me. This is my fight, not yours.”

  She took a long time to say anything more. “I know I insisted on being part of this, Jason, but now I—I think I need to go.”

  “Of course you do. I want you to go. I want you to be safe.”

  “It’s not for the reason you think,” Abbey went on. “I’m scared, but I’m not running away. I realized something last night. I’m putting you in danger by being here. I think you know I feel something for you. It’s not just attraction, not just sexual. I’m drawn to you, and whatever the feeling is, it’s strong. I tried to push it away. I tried to be cold, because some of the things you have to do—they horrify me. But I can’t pretend. And the thing is, I think you feel something for me, too.”

  There was nothing Jason could say to that.

  “I know you can’t admit it,” Abbey went on when she saw that he wouldn’t answer her. “That’s okay. But I also know that if I’m in danger, that’s going to change what you do. Just like it did last night. You’re going to put me first, and the result of that is you’re more likely to get killed. I can’t live with that. I don’t want you sacrificing yourself for me.”

  Jason knew she was right. That was lesson number one they’d drilled into his head.

  Emotion is your enemy. Emotion kills. You have to switch off that part of yourself.

  Treadstone.

  The next part of the journey belonged to him alone. He’d already decided that. He would have left Abbey behind in the night if he had to, to make sure she didn’t put herself in any more jeopardy. That was how it had to be.