The Bourne Sanction Part 43

"What?" The pilot shook his head. "Too dangerous."

"Then I'll take a look myself." Unstrapping himself, Bourne crept toward the door.

"Okay, okay!" the pilot shouted. "Just get back in your seat!"

They were almost at the bow of the tanker now. It was unbelievably big, a city lumbering through the Pacific swells.

"Hang on!" the pilot shouted as he took them down far more quickly than normal. They could see members of the crew racing across the deck, and someone-no doubt the captain-emerged from the wheelhouse near the stern. Someone was shouting to pull up; the tops of the containers were coming at them with frightening speed. Just before they skimmed the top of the nearest container, the copter rocked slightly.

"The anomaly's gone," the pilot said.

"Stay here," Bourne shouted to Moira. "Whatever happens stay on board." Then he gripped the weapon lying astride his knees, opened the door and, as she screamed his name, jumped out of the copter.

He landed after Arkadin, who had already leapt down onto the deck and was scuttling between containers. Crew members rushed toward them both; Bourne had no idea whether one of them was Sever's software engineer, but he raised a hunting crossbow and they stopped in their tracks. Knowing that firing a gun would be tantamount to suicide on a tanker full of liquid natural gas, he'd had Moira ask NextGen to have two crossbows in the copter. How they procured them so quickly was anyone's guess, but a corporation of NextGen's size could get just about anything at a moment's notice.

Behind him, the chopper set down on the part of the foredeck that had been cleared, and cut the engines. Doubled over to avoid the rotors, he opened the copter door and looked up at Moira. "Arkadin is here somewhere. Please stay out of the way."

"I need to report to the captain. I can take care of myself." She, too, was cradling a crossbow. "What does Arkadin want?"

"Me. I killed his friend. It doesn't matter to him that it was in self-defense."

"I can help, Jason. If we work together, two are better than one."

He shook his head. "Not in this case. Besides, you see how slowly the tanker is moving; its screws are in reverse. It's within the five-mile limit. For every foot we travel forward, the danger to thousands of lives and the port of Long Beach itself grows exponentially."

She nodded stiffly, stepped down, and hurried along the deck to where the captain stood, awaiting her orders.

Bourne turned, moving cautiously among the containers, in the direction he'd glimpsed Arkadin heading. Moving along the aisles was like walking down the canyons of Manhattan. Wind howled as it cut across corners, magnified, racing down the aisles as if they were tunnels.

Just before he reached the end of the first set of containers, he heard Arkadin's voice, speaking to him in Russian.

"There isn't much time."

Bourne stood still, trying to determine where the voice was coming from. "What d'you know about it, Arkadin?"

"Why d'you think I'm here?"

"I killed Mischa Tarkanian, now you kill me. Isn't that how you defined it back in Egon Kirsch's apartment?"

"Listen to me, Bourne, if that's what I wanted I could have killed you anytime while you and the woman slept aboard the NextGen 747."

Bourne's blood ran cold. "Why didn't you?"

"Listen to me, Bourne, Semion Icoupov, who saved me, whom I trusted, shot my woman to death."

"Yes, that's why you killed him."

"Do you begrudge me my revenge?"

Bourne said nothing, thinking of what he would do to Arkadin if he hurt Moira.

"You don't have to say anything, Bourne, I already know the answer."

Bourne turned. The voice appeared to have shifted. Where the h.e.l.l was he hiding?

"But as I said we have little time to find Icoupov's man on board."

"It's Sever's man, actually," Bourne said.

Arkadin laughed. "Do you think that matters? They were in bed together. All the time they posed as bitter enemies they were plotting this disaster. I want to stop it-I have have to stop it, or my revenge on Icoupov will be incomplete." to stop it, or my revenge on Icoupov will be incomplete."

"I don't believe you."

"Listen, Bourne, you know we haven't much time. I've avenged myself on the father, but this plan is his child. He and Sever gave birth to it, fed it, nurtured it through its infancy, through its adolescent growing pains. Now each moment brings this floating supernova closer to the moment of destruction those two madmen envisioned."

The voice moved again. "Is that what you want, Bourne? Of course not. Then let's join together to find Sever's man."

Bourne hesitated. He didn't trust Arkadin, and yet he had to trust him. He examined the situation from all sides and concluded that the only way to play it was to move forward. "He's a software engineer," he said.

Arkadin appeared, climbing down from the top of one of the containers. For a moment, the two men stood facing each other, and once again Bourne felt the dislocating sensation of looking in a mirror. When he stared into Arkadin's eyes, he didn't see the madness the professor spoke of; he saw himself, a heart of darkness and pain beyond understanding.

"Sever told me there was only one man, but he also said we wouldn't find him, and even if we did it wouldn't matter."

Arkadin frowned, giving him the canny, feral appearance of a wolf. "What did he mean?"

"I'm not sure." He turned, walking down the deck toward the crew members who had cleared the s.p.a.ce for the copter to land. "What we're looking for," he said as Arkadin fell into step beside him, "is a tattoo specific to the Black Legion."

"The wheel of horses with the death's head center." Arkadin nodded. "I've seen it."

"It's on the inside of the elbow."

"We could kill them all." Arkadin laughed. "But I guess that would offend something inside you."

One by one, the two men examined the arms of the eight crewmen on deck, but found no tattoo. By the time they reached the wheelhouse, the tanker was within two miles of the terminal. It was barely moving. Four tugboats had hove to and were waiting at the one-mile limit to tow the tanker the rest of the way in.

The captain was a swarthy individual with a face that looked like it had been deeply etched by acid rather than the wind and the sun. "As I was telling Ms. Trevor, there are seven more crewmen, mostly involved in engine room duties. Then there's my first mate here, the communications officer, and the ship's doctor, he's in sick bay, tending to a crewman who fell ill two days out of Algeria. Oh, yes, and the cook."

Bourne and Arkadin glanced at each other. The radioman seemed the logical choice, but when the captain summoned him he, too, was without the Black Legion tattoo. So were the captain and his first mate.

"The engine room," Bourne said.

At his captain's orders, the first mate led them out onto the deck, then down the starboard companionway into the bowels of the ship, reaching the enormous engine room at last. Five men were hard at work, their faces and arms filthy with a coating of grease and grime. As the first mate instructed them, they held out their arms, but as Bourne reached the third in line, the fourth man looked at them beneath half-closed lids before he bolted.

Bourne went after him while Arkadin circled, snaking through the oily city of grinding machinery. He eluded Bourne once but then, rounding a corner, Bourne spotted him near the line of gigantic Hyundai diesel engines, specifically designed to power the world's fleet of LNG tankers. He was trying to furtively shove a small box between the structural struts of the engine, but Arkadin, coming up behind him, grabbed for his wrist. The crewman jerked away, brought the box back toward him, and was about to thumb a b.u.t.ton on it when Bourne kicked it out of his hand. The box went flying, and Arkadin dived after it.

"Careful," the crewman said as Bourne grabbed hold of him. He ignored Bourne, was staring at the box Arkadin brought back to them. "You hold the whole world in your hand."

Meanwhile Bourne pushed up his shirtsleeve. The man's arm was smeared with grease, deliberately so, it seemed, because when Bourne took a rag and wiped it off, the Black Legion tattoo appeared on the inside of his left elbow.

The man seemed totally unconcerned. His entire being was focused on the box that Arkadin was holding. "That will blow up everything," he said, and made a lunge toward it. Bourne jerked him back with a stranglehold.

"Let's get him back up to the captain," Bourne said to the first mate. That's when he saw the box up close. He took it out of Arkadin's hand.

"Careful!" the crewman cried. "One slight jar and you'll set it off."

But Bourne wasn't so sure. The crewman was being too vocal with his warnings. Wouldn't he want the ship to blow now that it had been boarded by Sever's enemies? When he turned the box over, he saw that the seam between the bottom and the side was ragged.

"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" The crewman was so agitated that Arkadin slapped him on the side of the head in order to silence him.

Inserting his fingernail into the seam, Bourne pried the box apart. There was nothing inside. It was a dummy.

Moira found it impossible to stay in one place. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. The tanker was on the verge of meeting up with the tugboats; they were only a mile from sh.o.r.e. If the tanks went, the devastation to both human life and the country's economy would be catastrophic. She felt useless, a third wheel hanging around while the two men did their hunting.

Exiting the wheelhouse, she went belowdecks, looking for the engine room. Smelling food, she poked her head into the galley. A large Algerian was sitting at the stainless-steel mess table, reading a two-week-old Arabic newspaper.

He looked up, gesturing at the paper. "It gets old the fifteenth time through, but when you're at sea what can you do?"

His burly arms were bare to the shoulders. They bore tattoos of a star, a crescent, and a cross, but not the Black Legion's insignia. Following the directions he gave her, she found the infirmary three decks below. Inside, a slim Muslim was sitting at a small desk built into one of the bulkheads. In the opposite bulkhead were two berths, one of them filled with the patient who had fallen ill. The doctor murmured a traditional Muslim greeting as he turned away from his laptop computer to face her. He frowned deeply when he saw the crossbow in her hands.

"Is that really necessary," he said, "or even wise?"

"I'd like to speak with your patient," Moira said, ignoring him.

"I'm afraid that's impossible." The doctor smiled that smile only doctors can. "He's been sedated."

"What's wrong with him?"

The doctor gestured at the laptop. "I'm still trying to find out. He's been subject to seizures, but so far I can't find the pathology."

"We're near Long Beach, you'll get help then," she said. "I just need to see the insides of his elbows."

The doctor's eyebrows rose. "I beg your pardon?"

"I need to see whether he's got a tattoo."

"They all have tattoos, these sailors." The doctor shrugged. "But go ahead. You won't disturb him."

Moira approached the lower berth, bending over to pull the thin blanket back from the patient's arm. As she did so, the doctor stepped forward and struck her a blow on the back of her head. She fell forward and cracked her jaw on the metal frame of the bunk. The pain pulled her rudely back from a precipice of blackness, and, groaning, she managed to roll over. The copper-sweet taste of blood was in her mouth and she fought against wave after wave of dizziness. Dimly she saw the doctor bent over his laptop, his fingers racing over the keys, and she felt a ball of ice form in her belly.

He's going to kill us all. With this thought reverberating in her head, she grabbed the crossbow off the floor where she'd dropped it. She barely had time to aim, but she was close enough not to have to be accurate. She breathed a prayer as she let fly. With this thought reverberating in her head, she grabbed the crossbow off the floor where she'd dropped it. She barely had time to aim, but she was close enough not to have to be accurate. She breathed a prayer as she let fly.

The doctor arched up as the bolt pierced his spine. He staggered backward, toward where Moira sat, braced against the berth frame. His arms extended, his fingers clawing for the keyboard, and Moira rose, swung the crossbow into the back of his head. His blood spattered like rain over her face and hands, the desk, and the laptop's keyboard.

Bourne found her on the floor of the infirmary, cradling the computer in her lap. When he came in, she looked up at him and said, "I don't know what he did. I'm afraid to shut it off."

"Are you all right?"

She nodded. "The ship's doctor was Sever's man."

"So I see," he said as he stepped over the corpse. "I didn't believe him when he told me he had only one man on board. It would be like him to have a backup."

He knelt down, examined the back of her head. "It's superficial. Did you black out?"

"I don't think so, no."

He took a large gauze pad from the supply cabinet, doused it with alcohol. "Ready?" He placed it against the back of her head, where her hair was plastered down with blood. She moaned a little through gritted teeth.

"Can you hold it in place for a minute?"

She nodded, and gently Bourne lifted the laptop into his arms. There was a software program running, that much was clear. Two radio b.u.t.tons on the screen were blinking, one yellow, the other red. On the other side of the screen was a green radio b.u.t.ton, which wasn't blinking.

Bourne breathed a sigh of relief. "He brought up the program, but you got to him before he could activate it."

"Thank G.o.d," she said. "Where Arkadin?"

"I don't know. When the captain told me you'd gone below I took off after you."

"Jason, you don't think . . ."

Putting the computer aside, he helped her to her feet. "Let's get you back up to the captain so you can give him the good news."

There was a fearful look on his face. "And you?"

He handed her the laptop. "Go to the wheelhouse and stay there. And Moira, this time I really mean it."

With the crossbow in one hand, he stepped into the pa.s.sageway, looked right and left. "All right. Go. Go!"

Arkadin had returned to Nizhny Tagil. Down in the engine room, surrounded by steel and iron, he realized that no matter what had happened to him, no matter where he'd gone, he'd never been able to escape the prison of his youth. Part of him was still in the brothel he and Stas Kuzin had owned, part of him still stalked the nighttime streets, abducting young girls, their pale, fearful faces turned toward him as deer turn toward headlights. But what they'd needed from him he couldn't-or wouldn't-give them. Instead, he'd sent them to their deaths in the quicklime pit Kuzin's regime had dug amid the firs and the weeping hemlocks. Many snows had pa.s.sed since he'd dragged Yelena from the rats and the quicklime, but the pit remained in his memory, vivid as a blaze of fire. If only he could have his memory wiped clean.

He started at the sound of Stas Kuzin screaming at him. What about all What about all your your victims? victims?

But it was Bourne, descending the steel companionway to the engine room. "It's over, Arkadin. The disaster has been averted."

Arkadin nodded, but inside he knew better: The disaster had already occurred, and it was too late to stop its consequences. As he walked toward Bourne he tried to fix him in his mind, but he seemed to morph, like an image seen through a prism.

When he was within arm's length of him, he said, "Is it true what Sever told Icoupov, that you have no memory beyond a certain point in time?"

Bourne nodded. "It's true. I can't remember most of my life."

Arkadin felt a terrible pain, as if the very fabric of his soul was being torn apart. With an inchoate cry, he flicked open his switchblade, lunged forward, aiming for Bourne's belly.

Turning sideways, Bourne grabbed his wrist, began to turn it in an attempt to get Arkadin to drop the weapon. Arkadin struck out with his other hand, but Bourne blocked it with his forearm. In doing so, the crossbow clattered to the deck. Arkadin kicked it into the shadows.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Bourne said. "There's no reason for us to be enemies."

"There's every reason." Arkadin broke away, tried another attack, which Bourne countered. "Don't you see it? We're the same, you and me. The two of us can't exist in the same world. One of us will kill the other."

Bourne stared into Arkadin's eyes, and even though his words were those of a madmen Bourne saw no madness in them. Only a despair beyond description, and an unyielding will for revenge. In a way, Arkadin was right. Revenge was all he had now, all he lived for. With Tarkanian and Devra gone, the only meaning life had for him lay in avenging their deaths. There was nothing Bourne could say to sway him; that was a rational response to an irrational impulse. It was true, the two of them couldn't exist in the same world.