Bourne 7 – The Bourne Deception

action and reaction, both of which they understood completely, and for which they planned. And when the reactions were not what their brain trust had anticipated- when their plans blew up in their faces-instead of admitting their error, in a tide of amnesia they redoubled their efforts. To him, it was madness that turned these people deaf and blind to real events as they unfolded.

Perhaps, he thought now, as he checked and rechecked the readiness of his men and their equipment, Noah was one of the last of his kind, a dinosaur unaware that his age was ending, that the glacier that had been forming on the horizon was about to plow him under.

Just like Dimitri Ilyinovich Maslov.

She has to go back, Dimitri Ilyinovich Maslov said, — she and the three girls. Otherwise there will be no peace with Lev Antonin.

— Since when does a shit-kicker like Antonin dictate to you, Arkadin said, — the head of the Kazanskaya grupperovka?

Arkadin had the sensation that Tarkanian, who stood by his side, had winced. The three men were surrounded by sound, amplified to an earsplitting level. In the Pasha Room of Propaganda, an elitny club in downtown Moscow, there were only two other men-both Maslov‘s muscle. All the other attendees- of which there were more than a dozen- were young, long-legged, blond, busty, gorgeous, and sexually desirable, which pretty much defined them: tyolkas all. They were clothed- or, more accurately, semi-clothed- in provocative outfits, whether miniskirts, bikinis, see-through tops, plunging necklines, or completely backless dresses. They wore high heels, even the ones in bathing suits, and plenty of makeup. Some reluctantly returned to their high school classes each day.

Maslov stared hard at Arkadin, assuming that like everyone else he confronted, he could intimidate him just by a look. Maslov was wrong, and he didn‘t like being wrong. Ever.

He took one step toward Arkadin, which was an aggressive step, though not a threatening one, and his nose wrinkled. -What‘s that fire smoke I smell on you, Arkadin, are you a fucking woodsman on top of everything else?

Five miles from the Orthodox cathedral, Arkadin had taken Joskar into the dense pine forest. She was cradling Yasha in her arms and he was holding an ax he‘d drawn out of the trunk of her car. Her three daughters, sobbing hysterically, trailed along behind the adults in single file.

When they‘d left the parked car, Tarkanian had yelled after them, — Half an hour, after that I‘m getting the fuck out of here!

— Will he really leave us here? she asked.

— Do you care?

— Not as long as you‘re with me.

At least, that‘s what he thought she‘d said. She‘d spoken so softly that the wind had taken her words almost as soon as they were out of her mouth. Wings fluttered by overhead as they tramped beneath the swaying pine branches. Once they crunched through the thin crust, the snow was soft as down. Overhead, the sky was as woolly as Joskar‘s coat.

In a small clearing she set her son down on a bed of snowy pine needles.

— He always loved the forest, she said. -He used to beg me to take him to play in the mountains.

As he set about finding felled trees, deadwood, and chopping it up into foot-long logs, Arkadin remembered his own all-too-infrequent trips to the mountains around Nizhny Tagil, the only place where he could take a deep breath without the oppressive weight of his parents and his birthplace withering his heart and sickening his spirit.

Within twenty minutes he had a bonfire going. The girls had stopped their sobbing, their tears freezing like tiny diamonds on their ruddy cheeks. As they stared, fascinated, into the building flames, the frozen tears melted, dripping from their rounded chins.

Joskar delivered Yasha into his arms while she said the prayers in her native language. She held her daughters close to her as she intoned the words, which gradually became a song, her strong voice lifted through the pine boughs, echoing into the thick clouds. Arkadin wondered if the fairies, elves, gods, and demi-gods she had invoked in her stories were somewhere close, watching the ceremony with sorrowful eyes.

At length, Joskar instructed Arkadin on what to say when she placed Yasha onto the funeral pyre. The girls were crying again as they watched their brother‘s little body being consumed by the flames. Joskar said a final prayer, and then they were done. Arkadin had no idea how much time had passed, but Tarkanian and the car were still waiting for them when they broke out of the tree line and returned to civilization.

I made a promise to her, Arkadin said.

— This fucking baby factory? Maslov scoffed. -You‘re stupider than you look.

— You‘re the one who risked two of your men-one of them totally incompetent-to bring me back here.

— Yes, you shithead, not you and four civilians who belong to someone else.

— You talk about them as if they‘re cattle.

— Hey, fuck you, bright boy! Lev Antonin wants them back, and that‘s where they‘re going.

— I‘m responsible for her son‘s death.

— Did you kill the little fucker? Maslov was fairly shouting now. The muscle had been drifting closer and the tyolkas were doing their best to look in another direction.

— No.

— Then you‘re not responsible for his death. End of fucking story!

— I made a promise that she wouldn‘t be sent back to her husband, she‘s dead scared of him. He‘ll beat her half to death.

— What the fuck does that mean to me? In his fury, Maslov‘s mineral eyes seemed to shoot sparks. -I have a