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So much for Kubinka?s security; no sudden assault...

6:59 PM, Thursday, February 11, 2010 .. Link

So much for Kubinka?s security; no sudden assault was anticipated nor had one taken place, at least none that had set off alarms reaching the front patrols, usually the first to be alertedIt was eerie, unnatural, beyond the unexpectedThe Jackal was inside this military installation, yet there was no sign that he had penetrated it, no indication that somewhere within the complex he was controlling a minimum of five personnel?a man impersonating him, three other men and a woman The parking area itself? He had not understood the exchanges between Alex, Krupkin and the voice over the radio, but now it was clear to him that when they had spoken of people coming outside and running to the stolen car, they were not referring to the front entrance! There had to be an exit on the parking area! Christ, he had only seconds before the driver of the Komitet car started up the engine and roared into the huge dirt lot, circling it and racing out, both actions announcing the government vehicle?s arrival and swift, calamitous departureIf Carlos was going to make his break, it would be then! After waiting for the standard radio backup, every moment of distance he put between himself and the armory would make it more difficult to pick up his trailAnd he, the efficient killing machine from Medusa, was in the wrong place! Further, the sight of a civilian running across a lawn or down a road carrying an automatic weapon within a military compound was to invite disasterIt was a small, stupid omission! Three or four additional words translated and a less arrogant, more probing listener would have avoided the errorIt was always the little things, the gucci leather wallets seemingly insignificant that crippled gray to black operationsGoddamn it! Five hundred feet away the KGB sedan suddenly thundered as it swerved into the dirt parking area raising clouds of dry dust while crushing and spitting out pieces of rock from its spinning tires Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM 401 There was no time to think, time only to actBourne held the AK-47 against his right leg, concealing it as much as possible as he rose to his feet, his left hand skimming the top of the low hedgerow?a gardener, perhaps, surveying an anticipated assignment, or an indolent stroller aimlessly touching the roadside shrubbery, nothing remotely threatening, just a sign of the commonplace; to the casual observer, he might have been walking down that road for several minutes without being noticed He glanced over at the armory?s entranceThe two soldiers were laughing quietly, the one without a cigarette again looking at his watchThen the object of their minor conspiracy came out of the left front door, an attractive dark-haired girl, barely in her twentiesShe humorously clapped both her hands over her ears, made a grotesque face and walked rapidly to the time-conscious man in uniform, kissing him on the lipsThe threesome linked arms, the woman in the center, and started to their right, away from the entrance A crash! Metal colliding with metal, glass shattering glass, the loud harsh sound coming from the distant parking areaSomething had happened to the Komitet car with Alex and Krupkin; the young driver from the assault squad had either smashed or skidded into another vehicle in the dry dirt of the lotUsing the sound as an excuse, chanel quilted bag knock off Jason started down the road, the image of Conklin coming instantly to his mind, producing a limp in his own rapid strides the better to keep his weapon in minimum viewHe turned his head, expecting to see the two soldiers and the woman running down the armory path toward the accident, only to realize that the three of them were running the other way, removing themselves from any involvementObviously, precious breaks in a military schedule were jealously protected Bourne abandoned the limp, crashed through the hedgerow and raced to the concrete path that stretched to the corner of the huge building, gathering speed and breathing heavily with increasing frequencyJason?s weapon was now in plain sight, slashing the air as he gripped it in the hand of his swinging right armHe reached the end of the path, his chest heaving, the veins in his neck seemingly prepared to burst as the sweat ran down his skin, drenching his face, his collar and his shirtGasping, he steadied the AK-47, his back pressed against the wall of the building, then spun around the corner into the parking area, stunned by what he sawHis pounding feet, coupled with the anxiety that caused his hair-soaked temples to throb, had blocked out all sound up aheadWhat he observed now, what sickened him now, he knew had to be the result of multiple gunshots muted by a weapon equipped with a silencerDispassionately, Medusa?s Delta understood; he had been there many times many years beforeThere were circumstances under which kills had to be made quietly?utter silence was the unreachable goal, but at least minimal noise was crucial The young KGB driver from the assault squad was prada gauffre bag sprawled on the ground by the trunk of the dark green sedan, the wounds in his head certifying deathThe car had swerved into the side of a government bus, the sort used to haul workers to and from their places of employmentHow or why the accident had happened, Bourne could not knowNeither could he know whether Alex or Krupkin had survived; the car?s windows had been pierced repeatedly and there was no sign of movement inside, both facts suggesting the worst but nothing conclusiveAbove all, at this moment, the Chameleon also understood that he could not be affected by what he saw?emotions were out! If the worst had happened, mourning the dead would come later, vengeance and taking the killer came now Think! How? Quickly! Krupkin had said there were ?several dozen men and women? working at the armoryIf so, where the hell were they? The Jackal wasnot acting in a vacuum; it was impossible! Yet a collision had occurred, its violent crash heard over a hundred yards away?well over the distance Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM 402 of a football field?and a man had been shot dead at the site of that crash, his lifeless body bleeding in the dirt, yet no one?no one?had appeared, either accidentally or intentionallyWith the exception of Carlos and five unknown people, was the entire armory operating in a vacuum? Nothing made sense! And then he heard the muffled but emphatic strains of music from deep inside the building Martial music, drums and trumpets predominating, swelling to crescendos that Bourne could only imagine were deafening within the echoing confines of the huge structureThe image of the young woman emerging from the front chanel leather bag entrance returned; she had playfully clapped her hands over her ears and grimaced, and Jason had not understoodShe had come from the armory?s inner staging area, where the decibel level of the music was overpoweringAn event was taking place at the Kubinka, a decently attended affair, which accounted for the profusion of automobiles, small vans and buses in the vast parking area?profusion at any rate in the Soviet Union, where such vehicles were not in oversupplyAltogether there were perhaps twenty conveyances in the dirt lot, parked in a semicircleThe activity inside was both the Jackal?s diversion and his protection; he knew how to orchestrate both to his advantage Why didn?t Carlos come out? Why hadn?t he come out? What was he waiting for? The circumstances were optimal; they couldn?t be betterHad his wounds slowed him to the point that he had lost the advantages he had created? It was possible, but not likelyThe assassin had gotten this far, and if escape was in the offing, it was in him to go further, much furtherThen why? Irreversible logic, a killer?s survival logic demanded that after taking out the backup the Jackal had to race away as fast as humanly possibleIt was his only chance! Then why was he still inside? Why hadn?t his escape car fled from the area, speeding him to freedom? His back once again pressed against the wall, Jason sidestepped to his left, closely observing everything he could seeLike most armories the world over, Kubinka had no windows on the first floor, at least not for the first fifteen feet from the ground; he presumed it was because the occasional wildly galloping horses and glass did not go louis vuitton metallic bags toget

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So much for Kubinka?s security; no sudden assault...

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