It was an amateur’s attempt to use intelligence...
It was an amateur’s
attempt to use intelligence gibberish by misusing it“Unlock” meant “key”—Jesus, Swayne was an
idiot! Using his notepad, Alex wrote out the notation as he knew it to be:
“Randolph Gates will not consider the appointment for a Major Craft or Croft or even
Christopher, for the f could be an s(But) we need Crft on his staffThe key is to use the
information in our G-2 file about Gates in Paris seven years ago, said file removed and in our
possession
If that was not the exact translation of Swayne’s insertion, it was certainly close enough in
substance to act upon, mused Conklin, turning his wrist and glancing at his watchIt was twenty
past three in the morning, a time when even the most disciplined person would be shaken by the
shrill bell of a telephoneWhy not? David—Jason—was rightEvery hour counted nowAlex
picked up the phone and touched the numbers for Boston, Massachusetts
The telephone kept ringing and the bitch would not pick it up in her room! Then Gates looked at
the lighted square and the blood drained from his headIt was his unlisted number, a number knock off chanel handbag china that
was restricted to a very fewHe thrashed wildly in the bed, his eyes wide; the strange call from
Paris unnerved him the more he thought about itIt concerned Montserrat, he knew it! The
information he had relayed was wrongPrefontaine had lied to him and now Paris wanted an
accounting! My God, they’d come after him, expose him! No, there was a way, a perfectly
acceptable explanation, the truthHe would deliver the liars to Paris, to Paris’s man here in Boston
He would trap the drunken Prefontaine and the sleazeball detective and force them to tell their lies
to the one person who could absolve himThe phone! He had to answer itHe could not appear
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as if he had anything to hide! He reached out and grabbed the incessantly ringing instrument,
pulling it to his ear“Yes?”
“Seven years ago, Counselor,” began the quiet voice on the line“Do I have to remind you that
we’ve got the entire fileThe Deuxième Bureau was extremely cooperative, far more than you have
been
“For God’s sake, I was lied to!” cried Gates, swinging his legs onto the floor in rolex oyster perpetual date panic, his voice
hoarse“You can’t believe I’d forward erroneous informationI’d have to be insane!”
“We know you can be obstinateWe made a simple request—”
“I complied, I swear I did! Good Christ, I paid fifteen thousand dollars to make certain
everything was silent, absolutely untraceable—not that the money matters, of course—”
“You paid ?” interrupted the quiet voice
“I can show you the bank withdrawals!”
“For what?”
“The information, naturallyI hired a former judge who has contacts—”
“For information about Craft?”
“What?”
“Croft
“Who?”
“Our major, Counselor
“If that’s her code name, then yes, yes I did!”
“A code name?”
“The womanThey flew to the island of MontserratI swear that’s what I was
told!”
There was a sudden click and the line went dead
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His hand still on the telephone, Conklin broke out in a sweatHe released the phone and got up
from his chair, limping away from the computer, looking back at it, down at it, as if it were some
monstrous thing that had taken him into a forbidden land where nothing was as it appeared to be rolex oyster perpetual watch or
should beWhat had happened? How did Randolph Gates know anything about Montserrat, about
Marie and the children? Why?
Alex lowered himself into the armchair, his pulse racing, his thoughts clashing, no judgments
emerging, only chaosHe gripped his right wrist with his left hand, his nails digging into his flesh
He had to get hold of himself, he had to think—he had to act! For David’s wife and childrenWhat were the conceivable associations? It was difficult enough to consider Gates
as even unwittingly a part of Medusa, but impossible to think he was also connected to Carlos the
JackalYet both appeared to be; the connections existedWas Carlos himself part of
Swayne’s Medusa? Everything they knew about the Jackal would deny it emphaticallyThe
assassin’s strength was in his total disassociation with any structured entity, Jason Bourne had
proved that thirteen years ago in ParisNo group of people could ever reach him; they could only
send out a message and he would reach themThe single organization the international killer for
hire permitted was his army of old men, from the chanel luxury wallet Mediterranean to the Baltic, lost misfits,
criminals whose impoverished last days were made better by the assassin’s largess, fealty unto
death demanded and receivedWhere did—could—a man like Randolph Gates fit in?
He didn’t, concluded Alex as the outer limits of his imagination explored an old territory—Be
skeptical of the apparentThe celebrated attorney was no more part of Carlos than he was of
MedusaHe was the aberration, the flaw in the lens, an otherwise honorable man with a single
weakness that had been uncovered by two disparate parties both with extraordinary resourcesIt
was common knowledge that the Jackal could reach into the S?reté and Interpol, and it took no
clairvoyance to assume that Medusa could penetrate the army’s G-2It was the only possible
explanation, for Gates had been too controversial, too powerful for too long to function as
spectacularly as he did in the courts if his vulnerability was easily uncoveredNo, it would take
predators like the Jackal and the men of Medusa to bore deep enough to dredge up a secret so
devastating as to turn Randolph Gates into a valuable replica ladies rolex watches p