Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Initiative (Jason Bourne series)(97)

“Okay. I understand,” Morgana said, “but the reason I got suspicious was I saw Alyosha board a boat docked at the marina here. It’s Gora Maslov’s boat.”

Silence on the line. Finally: “What are you saying, Morgana?” in a measured, cautious tone.

“I want to go after Gora Maslov.”

“Wait a minute! You can’t just—”

“Look, Alyosha was working for Maslov, that much seems true. I want to know what they were up to.”

“But—”

“Don’t you?”

“Perhaps. But, with your brief completed, my primary objective now is to get you home safe and sound. I’ve already subjected you to enough danger.”

Soraya Moore was a pro, seasoned at that. She possessed the control’s hard, pragmatic line of thought. But she also had something else, Morgana thought, something that drew her to Soraya, that made her want to work for her. It struck her at their first interview, when Soraya put out the first recruitment feelers. She had a heart, and a heart was something very dear to Morgana. She thought she loved Soraya, even though she knew perfectly well you should never love your boss—or, in this case, your control. But then why not? she wondered. Wasn’t loyalty at a premium in the world of spies? Something to be held close, something precious.

“I’m the one in the field, Soraya,” she said now. “I think I’m better—”

“Stop right there. Morgana, listen to me. I threw you to the lions, it’s true. But this was a special circumstance. I had no one else.”

“Thanks very much!”

“You misunderstand. I had full confidence in you and what you’re capable of. But the truth is you lack training. I can’t allow you to remain in the field.”

“As you know I’m an ace at all firearms. What you don’t know is that my father—”

“A former SEAL. I’ve read his jacket. He was quite a fine one, brilliant, really.”

Now Morgana loved Soraya even more. “Yes. He trained me himself.” Another bit of silence. She could almost hear Soraya thinking, recalculating, recalibrating the conversation. “Plus, really, when you think about it, my job at Meme LLC was to solve puzzles—the most difficult puzzles, I might add, puzzles that stumped others in my area of expertise. I find that the field is no different; it’s a matter of solving puzzles.”

“No, it’s very different, Morgana. In the field you’re constantly in harm’s way.”

“I find I like that.” This time the silence was tense and brittle. She was about to say, I’m staying, no matter what you say, but she felt the wrongness of it. Her mouth could lead her down a bad path with a bad ending. Instead, she said: “But I’ll come home.” Hearing her father’s voice in one ear, she waited a beat before adding, “If that’s what you think is best.”

Silence. Then: “You’re a very clever girl.”

“Thank you.”

“I took a lot of chances with your brief. What if your friend Fran?oise didn’t come through with her promise? I would have pulled you out of custody. You were never in any real danger as long as you were here in D.C.”

“But once I came here, to Kalmar, I was in the real lions’ den.” Now was the time, she thought, to push it. “What you must understand is that I’ve become one of them now—a lion. Like my father.”

“I appreciate the confidence you’ve gained, but I fear you’re overreaching. You’ll be going up against Gora Maslov, a hardened grupperovka boss. He’ll eat you for breakfast.”

“I don’t think so,” Morgana said, a thrill down her spine: she had won. “I have a way in.”

“And what might that be?”

“The point is both Fran—Alyosha and Rozin were deeply interested in the Bourne Initiative, the code for which, I should add, I’ve not been able to crack. And now I don’t think I or anyone outside the Russian team that General Karpov hand-picked to design it will.”

“That’s of no importance now,” Soraya said. “The Bourne Initiative is nothing more than noise, Russian disinformation.”

“What? It most certainly is not. The Initiative is real. I’ve been working on fragments of it and—”

“Getting nowhere, right?”

“Yes, but—”

“All meant for us to chase our tails like idiots. I got this directly from Marshall Fulmer, the new national security advisor, and he ought to know.”

“I don’t know where he’s getting his intel from, Soraya, but I’m telling you it’s bogus.”

“An intercept of the Russian Unit 309. I’ve seen the pages, Morgana. They’re authentic.”

“They’re authentic, all right. Authentic disinformation,” Morgana said forcefully. “I know those code fragments are real beyond any shadow of a doubt. Do you know how? I found a legitimate zero-day trigger embedded in every one of the fragments I pulled out of the dark net. That’s the only thing I was able to decode, but it’s vital.”

Another silence on the line, longer this time, the tension ratcheted up a couple of notches. “I’m listening. Continue.”

“I’m damn good at my job. Don’t you think I’d be able to spot fake code, no matter how well put together? No, the Bourne Initiative is real, and it’s a ticking time bomb with an unknown target.”