Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Initiative (Jason Bourne series)(80)

They both sat at the same time, facing each other, and began to eat with the same quick motions, as if they were identical twins.

After he had finished precisely half his breakfast, he looked up at her. “Tell me.”

So she did. She told him everything that Morgana had related regarding the messages from Unit 309 to Larry London, or, as they knew him, Nikolay Ivanovich Rozin. “Now she knows Niki is a Russian spy. Now she knows she’s been working for the Russians, and she’s terrified. I had to talk her down from fleeing the country immediately.” She tried unsuccessfully to interpret Gora’s flat gaze. “How could spetsnaz be so careless?”

“Spetsnaz,” her brother said, “and specifically Unit 309, have no knowledge of this girl you’ve brought to us.”

“Morgana’s a fucking cyber genius,” Fran?oise spit out. “She’s going to save you—”

“Maybe she is,” he said, chewing on a bit of bacon. “Maybe she isn’t.” Grease lacquered his full lips. There was a spot of it on his chin. He picked up his last strip of bacon. “The point is, we are now saddled with a liability.”

Fran?oise reacted instantly. “Oh, no. You’re not going to harm a hair on her head.”

“Alyoshka, did I say anything about doing her harm?”

“You said she’s a liability.”

Gora shook his head. “No, Alyoshka. I said we are saddled with a liability. My exact words.” He looked over at her plate. “Finished?”

She made a contemptuous gesture. “Go ahead.”

Picking up her plate, he set it down on top of his own. Then he drove the tines of his fork into the last remaining egg. The yolk ran every which way across the plate; he mopped it up with two of her bacon strips, cramming them in his mouth. He chewed reflectively for what seemed a long while. Times like these, he disgusted her. She wondered how it could be that they shared any amount of DNA. But she waited for him to continue; there was no use prodding him.

“What about you?” he said at length.

She shook her head, not following. “What about me?”

“She knows Niki is a Russian spy. You introduced her to Niki. You and Niki are friends. Does she suspect—?”

“Absolutely not.”

“How can you be sure?”

“If she suspected me, Gora, she would have booked the first flight out of here. Instead, she came to me. She thinks Niki gulled me as well as her. We’re friends; she trusts me.”

“You’d better be right.” He pushed aside both plates and gave her the cool, appraising look she hated. “Did it ever occur to you that she’s been working you?”

“What? No. Not for a minute. I know her too well.”

“None of us know anyone else. Isn’t that the first lesson we learn in the field?”

She said nothing, folded her arms across her chest.

“Wait a minute.” Gora struck his forehead with the heel of his hand. “How was I so stupid? How did I not see it?”

“See what?”

“You and this woman, this Morgana Roy.” He rose from the table and stepped toward her, torso inclined aggressively. “You really are friends. You care about her.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” A ball of ice had formed in the pit of her stomach.

Her brother’s eyes were gleaming darkly. “I know your secret now, Alyoshka. The one you would never tell me. You’ve made the mistake all novice field agents are trained to avoid.”

“You’re babbling, Gora.” But she felt a kind of panic rising up inside her.

“You’ve become involved with your mark.”

She shook her head, a weak response, to be sure.

“You’ve come to see her as a person, you care about her well-being.” He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “How you’ve weakened yourself. Sis.” He raised a forefinger. “We shall have to do something about that. Otherwise…”

The cotton ball of panic had reached the back of her throat, and she almost gagged. “Otherwise what?” she managed to get out.

“Otherwise, you’ll be of no use to me.”

She felt the silence between them like a straitjacket. She found herself in a place she did not like, with no exit.

Gora tapped his lips with a finger, a quick pattern, like a silent song’s beat. “Here’s what we’ll do.” The glimmer of his smile turned her bones cold. “You’ll get your friend to do it herself.”

“Do what herself?”

“Don’t be dense, Alyoshka. You’ll get her to dispose of our liability.”

“Who? Niki?” She was aghast. “He’s the head of spetsnaz now, for God’s sake. You’re crazy.”

Gora grinned. “Crazy like a Russian bear. Konstantin appointing him was simply a power play aimed at his brother. I know that. You know that. Every-fucking-body knows that. Just as they know that it’s far too dangerous for the head of spetsnaz to be in the field.” He shrugged. “Konstantin violated the rules of the game. When his chess piece gets taken off the board he only has himself to blame. We weaken Konstantin, we’re free of blame, and we clear the field for you to slip into Niki’s old position, make his contacts yours.” He chuckled. “That is, ours.”