@@@@@Again he crouched, inching his face toward
@@@@@Again he crouched, inching his face toward the corner of the archway
when the murderous insanity in the hallway erupted into the fever pitch of close combatLike an
enraged caged animal, the wounded Carlos kept spinning around in place, continuous bursts from
his weapon exploding as if he were firing through unseen walls that were closing in on himTwo
piercing, hysterical screams came from the far end of the hallway, one male, one female; a couple
had been wounded or killed in the panicked fusillade of stray bullets
“Get down!” Conklin’s scream from across the corridor was an instant command for what Jason
could not know“Take cover! Grab the fucking walls!” Bourne did as he was told, under standing
only that the order meant he was to shove himself into as small a place as possible, protecting his
head as much as possibleHe lunged as the first explosion rocked the walls—
somewhere—and then a second, this much nearer, far more thunderous, in the hallway itself
Grenades!
Smoke mingled with falling plaster and shattered glassNine, one after another—a
Graz Burya automatic Alex! Jason spun up and away from the corner of the recess and lurched
for the openingConklin stood outside the door of their suite in front of the upturned room-service
table; he snapped out his empty clip and furiously searched his trousers pockets“I haven’t got
one!” he shouted angrily, referring to the extra clips of ammunition supplied by Krupkin“He ran
around the corner into the other corridor, and I don’t have any goddamned shells!”
“I do and I’m a lot faster than you,” said Jason, removing his spent magazine and inserting a
fresh clip from his pocket“Get back in there and call the lobbyTell them to clear it
“Krupkin said—”
“I don’t give a damn what he said! Tell them to shut down the elevators, barricade all staircase
exits, and stay the hell away from this floor!”
“I see what you mean—”
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
390
“Do it!” Bourne raced down the hallway, wincing as he approached the couple who lay on the
carpet; each moved, groaningTheir clothes were spotted with blood, but they moved! He turned
and yelled to Alex, who was limping around the room-service table“Get help up here!” he
ordered, pointing at an exit door directly down the corridor“They’re alive! Use that exit and only
that one!”
The hunt began, compounded and impeded by the fact that the word had been spread throughout
these adjacent wings of the Metropole’s tenth floorIt took no imagination to realize that behind the
closed doors, along both sides of the hallways, panicked calls were being made to the front desk as
the sound of nearby gunfire echoed throughout the corridorsKrupkin’s strategy for a KGB assault
team in civilian clothes had been nullified by the first burst from the Jackal’s weapon
Where was he? There was another exit door at the far end of the long hallway Jason had entered,
but there were perhaps fifteen to eighteen guest-room doors lining that hallwayCarlos was no fool,
and a wounded Carlos would call upon every tactic he could summon from a long life of violence
and survival to survive, if only long enough to achieve the kill he wanted more than life itself
Bourne suddenly realized how accurate his analysis was, for he was describing himselfWhat had
old Fontaine said on Tranquility Isle, in that faraway storeroom from which they had stared down
at the procession of priests knowing that one had been bought by the Jackal? “Two aging lions
stalking each other, not caring who’s killed in the cross fire”—those had been Fontaine’s words, a
man who had sacrificed his life for another he barely knew because his own life was over, for the
woman he loved was