SyndicationAug052010
?Le Coeur du Soldat,? said a flat male voice,...
?Le Coeur du Soldat,? said a flat male voice, martial music in the background
?I must reach a blackbird,? said Fontaine in French?My identity is Paris Five
?If such a request is possible, where can such a bird reach you??
?In the Caribbean Fontaine gave the area code, the telephone number and the extension to
Villa ElevenHe hung up the phone and sat despondent on the edge of the bedIn his soul he knew
that this might be his and his woman?s last few hours on earthIf so, he and his woman could face
their God and speak the truthHe had killed, no question about that, but he had never harmed or
taken the life of a person who had not committed greater crimes against others?with a few minor
exceptions that might be called innocent bystanders caught in the heat of fire or in an explosionAll
life was pain, did not the Scriptures tell us that? On the other hand, what kind of God allowed
such brutalities? Merde! Do not think about such things! They are beyond your understanding
The telephone rang and Fontaine grabbed it, pulling it to his ear?This is Paris Five,? he said
?Child of God, what can be so extreme that you would use a number you have called only once
before in our relationship??
?Your generosity has been absolute, monseigneur, but I feel we must redefine our contract
?In what way??
?My life is yours to do with as you will, as mercifully as you will, discount hermes but it does not include my
woman
?What??
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
88
?A man is here, a learned man from the city of Boston who studies me with curious eyes, eyes
that tell me he has other purposes in mind
?That arrogant fool flew down to Montserrat himself? He knows nothing!?
?Obviously he does, and I beg you, I shall do as you order me to do, but let us go back to Paris
I will ask no more of you
?You ask of me? I?ve given you my word!?
?Then why is this learned man from America here following me with a blank face and
inquisitive eyes, monseigneur??
The deep, hollow roll of a throated cough filled the silence, and then the Jackal spoke?The
great professor of law has transgressed, inserted himself where he should not be
Edith Gates, wife of the celebrated attorney and professor of law, silently opened the door of the
private study in their elegant town house on Louisburg SquareHer husband sat motion less in his
heavy leather armchair staring at the crackling fire, a fire he insisted upon despite the warm Boston
night outside and the central air conditioning inside
As she watched him, MrsGates was once again struck by the painful realization that there were
about her husband she would never understandGaps in his life she could never fill,
leaps in his thinking she could not comprehendShe only knew that there were times when he felt le dix balenciaga a
terrible pain and would not share it, when by sharing it he would lessen the burden on himself
Thirty-three years ago a passably attractive young woman of average wealth had married an
extremely tall, gangling, brilliant but impoverished law school graduate whose anxiety and
eagerness to please had turned off the major firms in those days of the cool, restrained late fifties
The veneer of sophistication and the pursuit of security were valued over a smoldering, wandering
first-rate mind of unsure direction, especially a mind inside a head of unkempt hair and a body
dressed in clothes that were cheap imitations of JPress and Brooks Brothers, which appeared even
worse because his bank account precluded any additional expenses for alterations and few discount
stores carried his sizeGates, however, had several ideas that would improve the prospects of their life
togetherAmong them was to lay aside an immediate law career?better none than with an inferior
firm, or, God forbid, a private practice with the sort of clients he was bound to attract, namely,
those who could not afford established attorneysBetter to use his natural endowments, which were
his impressive height and a quick, sponge-like intelligence that, combined with his drive, disposed
of heavy academic workloads with easeUsing her modest trust fund, Edith shaped the externals of
her man, buying the rolex submariner 50th anniversary correct clothes and hiring a theatrical voice coach who instructed his student in
the ways of dramatic delivery and effective stage presenceThe gangling graduate soon took on a
Lincolnesque quality with subtle flashes of John BrownToo, he was on his way to becoming a
legal expert, remaining in the milieu of the university, piling one degree upon another while
teaching at the graduate level until the sheer depth of his expertise in specific areas was
incontestableAnd he found himself sought after by the prominent firms that had rejected him
earlier
The strategy took nearly ten years before concrete results appeared, and while the early returns
were not earthshaking, still they represented progressLaw reviews, first minor and then major,
began publishing his semi-controversial articles as much for their style as for their content, for the
young associate professor had a seductive way with the written word, at once riveting and arcane,
by turns flowery and incisiveBut it was his opinions, latently emerging, that made segments of the
financial community take noticeThe mood of the nation was changing, the crust of the benevolent
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
89
Great Society beginning to crack, the lesions initiated with code words coined by the Nixon boys,
such as the Silent Majority and Bums-on-Welfare and the pejorative themA meanness was chanel cambon fake rising
out of the ground and spreading, and it was more than the perceptive, decent Ford could stop,
weakened as he was by the wounds of Watergate; and too much as well for the brilliant Carter, too
consumed by minutiae to exercise compassionate leadershipwhat you can do for
your country? was out of fashion, replaced by ?what I can do for meRandolph Gates found a relentless wave on which to ride, a mellifluous voice with which to
speak, and a growing acerbic vocabulary to match the dawning new eraIn his now refined
scholarly opinion?legally, economically and socially?bigger was better, and more far preferable
to lessThe laws that supported competition in the marketplace he attacked as stifling to the larger
agenda of industrial growth from which would flow all manner of benefits for everyone?well,
practically everyoneIt was, after all, a Darwinian world and, like it or not, the fittest would always
surviveThe drums went bang and the cymbals clanged and the financial manipulators found a
champion, a legal scholar who lent respectability to their righteous dreams of merger and
consolidation; buy out, take over and sell off, all for the good of the many, of course
Randolph Gates was summoned, and he ran into their arms with alacrity, stunning one
courtroom after another with his elocutionary gymnasticsHe had made it, but Edith Gates was not
sure what it all black and white chanel mean
?Le Coeur du Soldat,? said a flat male voice, martial music in the background
?I must reach a blackbird,? said Fontaine in French?My identity is Paris Five
?If such a request is possible, where can such a bird reach you??
?In the Caribbean Fontaine gave the area code, the telephone number and the extension to
Villa ElevenHe hung up the phone and sat despondent on the edge of the bedIn his soul he knew
that this might be his and his woman?s last few hours on earthIf so, he and his woman could face
their God and speak the truthHe had killed, no question about that, but he had never harmed or
taken the life of a person who had not committed greater crimes against others?with a few minor
exceptions that might be called innocent bystanders caught in the heat of fire or in an explosionAll
life was pain, did not the Scriptures tell us that? On the other hand, what kind of God allowed
such brutalities? Merde! Do not think about such things! They are beyond your understanding
The telephone rang and Fontaine grabbed it, pulling it to his ear?This is Paris Five,? he said
?Child of God, what can be so extreme that you would use a number you have called only once
before in our relationship??
?Your generosity has been absolute, monseigneur, but I feel we must redefine our contract
?In what way??
?My life is yours to do with as you will, as mercifully as you will, discount hermes but it does not include my
woman
?What??
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
88
?A man is here, a learned man from the city of Boston who studies me with curious eyes, eyes
that tell me he has other purposes in mind
?That arrogant fool flew down to Montserrat himself? He knows nothing!?
?Obviously he does, and I beg you, I shall do as you order me to do, but let us go back to Paris
I will ask no more of you
?You ask of me? I?ve given you my word!?
?Then why is this learned man from America here following me with a blank face and
inquisitive eyes, monseigneur??
The deep, hollow roll of a throated cough filled the silence, and then the Jackal spoke?The
great professor of law has transgressed, inserted himself where he should not be
Edith Gates, wife of the celebrated attorney and professor of law, silently opened the door of the
private study in their elegant town house on Louisburg SquareHer husband sat motion less in his
heavy leather armchair staring at the crackling fire, a fire he insisted upon despite the warm Boston
night outside and the central air conditioning inside
As she watched him, MrsGates was once again struck by the painful realization that there were
about her husband she would never understandGaps in his life she could never fill,
leaps in his thinking she could not comprehendShe only knew that there were times when he felt le dix balenciaga a
terrible pain and would not share it, when by sharing it he would lessen the burden on himself
Thirty-three years ago a passably attractive young woman of average wealth had married an
extremely tall, gangling, brilliant but impoverished law school graduate whose anxiety and
eagerness to please had turned off the major firms in those days of the cool, restrained late fifties
The veneer of sophistication and the pursuit of security were valued over a smoldering, wandering
first-rate mind of unsure direction, especially a mind inside a head of unkempt hair and a body
dressed in clothes that were cheap imitations of JPress and Brooks Brothers, which appeared even
worse because his bank account precluded any additional expenses for alterations and few discount
stores carried his sizeGates, however, had several ideas that would improve the prospects of their life
togetherAmong them was to lay aside an immediate law career?better none than with an inferior
firm, or, God forbid, a private practice with the sort of clients he was bound to attract, namely,
those who could not afford established attorneysBetter to use his natural endowments, which were
his impressive height and a quick, sponge-like intelligence that, combined with his drive, disposed
of heavy academic workloads with easeUsing her modest trust fund, Edith shaped the externals of
her man, buying the rolex submariner 50th anniversary correct clothes and hiring a theatrical voice coach who instructed his student in
the ways of dramatic delivery and effective stage presenceThe gangling graduate soon took on a
Lincolnesque quality with subtle flashes of John BrownToo, he was on his way to becoming a
legal expert, remaining in the milieu of the university, piling one degree upon another while
teaching at the graduate level until the sheer depth of his expertise in specific areas was
incontestableAnd he found himself sought after by the prominent firms that had rejected him
earlier
The strategy took nearly ten years before concrete results appeared, and while the early returns
were not earthshaking, still they represented progressLaw reviews, first minor and then major,
began publishing his semi-controversial articles as much for their style as for their content, for the
young associate professor had a seductive way with the written word, at once riveting and arcane,
by turns flowery and incisiveBut it was his opinions, latently emerging, that made segments of the
financial community take noticeThe mood of the nation was changing, the crust of the benevolent
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
89
Great Society beginning to crack, the lesions initiated with code words coined by the Nixon boys,
such as the Silent Majority and Bums-on-Welfare and the pejorative themA meanness was chanel cambon fake rising
out of the ground and spreading, and it was more than the perceptive, decent Ford could stop,
weakened as he was by the wounds of Watergate; and too much as well for the brilliant Carter, too
consumed by minutiae to exercise compassionate leadershipwhat you can do for
your country? was out of fashion, replaced by ?what I can do for meRandolph Gates found a relentless wave on which to ride, a mellifluous voice with which to
speak, and a growing acerbic vocabulary to match the dawning new eraIn his now refined
scholarly opinion?legally, economically and socially?bigger was better, and more far preferable
to lessThe laws that supported competition in the marketplace he attacked as stifling to the larger
agenda of industrial growth from which would flow all manner of benefits for everyone?well,
practically everyoneIt was, after all, a Darwinian world and, like it or not, the fittest would always
surviveThe drums went bang and the cymbals clanged and the financial manipulators found a
champion, a legal scholar who lent respectability to their righteous dreams of merger and
consolidation; buy out, take over and sell off, all for the good of the many, of course
Randolph Gates was summoned, and he ran into their arms with alacrity, stunning one
courtroom after another with his elocutionary gymnasticsHe had made it, but Edith Gates was not
sure what it all black and white chanel mean