| 3:11a |
@@@@@Bourne scrambled, his elbows and knees
@@@@@Bourne scrambled, his elbows and knees silently pounding the hard pavement, until
he reached that point nearest the van where he could observe the scene on the staircase with
minimum risk of being spottedHe was relieved to see that the two guards in the street
continuously winced and blinked under the beam of the searchlightHis status was as clean as it
could be under the tenuous circumstancesEverything now was timing, precision, and all the
expertise he could summon from times too often unremembered or too vague or too long agoHe
had to remember now; instinct had to propel him through his personal mistsThe end of the
nightmare was at hand
It was happening! Suddenly there was furious activity at the door as a third figure came rushing
out, joining the other twoThe man was shorter than his male colleague, wearing a beret and
carrying a briefcaseHe obviously issued orders that included the rear guard, who ran up to the
pavement as the new arrival hurled his briefcase down over the brick stepsThe guard instantly
clutched his weapon under his left arm and effortlessly caught the leather missile in midairNous partons! Vite!” shouted the second man, gesturing for the other two on the
brick steps to precede him down to the vanThey did so, the man in the raincoat joining the guard
at’ the rear doors, the woman accompanying the one who gave the ordersThe Jackal? Was it
Carlos? Was it?
Bourne desperately wanted to believe that it was—therefore, it was! The sound of the vehicle’s
curbside door slamming shut was followed rapidly by the gunning of the vehicle’s powerful engine;
both were a signalThe three other guards raced from their posts to the rear doors of the vanOne
by one they climbed up inside after the man in the black raincoat, their legs stretched, arms bracing
shoulders, curved hands gripping the two metal frames that with instant muscular strain propelled
them inside as their weapons were thrown in front of themThen a pair of hands reached out for the
interior door handles—
Now! Bourne pulled the pin of the grenade and lurched to his feet, running as he had never run
in his life toward the swinging rear doors of the vanHe dived, twisting his body in flight, landing
on his back as he gripped the left panel and threw the grenade inside, the bomb’s release in his
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
272
handSix seconds and it would detonateJason got to his knees, arms extended, and crashed the
doors shutA fusillade of gunfire eruptedBut it was an unintended miracle—as the Jackal’s van
was bulletproof, it was also impervious to bullets shot from within! There were no penetrations of
the steel, only thuds and the screaming whistles of ricochets and the screams of the wounded
inside
The glistening vehicle shot forward on the boulevard Lefebvre as Bourne sprang to a crouch and
raced toward the deserted storefronts on the east side of the streetHe was nearly across the wide
avenue when the impossible happenedThe impossible!
The Jackal’s van blew up, the explosion firing the dark Paris sky, and the moment it happened a
brown limousine screeched around the nearest corner, the windows open, men in the black spaces,
weapons in their grips, spraying the entire area with thunderous, indiscriminate |