Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Imperative Read Online Free PDF Page A

traffic along Staligatan was fierce, but the clinic’s thick windows muffled all noise. Clouds were gathering as if for a battle. Once again, it looked like snow. They sat on low Swedish-modern furniture, stylish as well as practical: a sofa in a sturdy print, its colors suitably muted, that was the focal point of one of several conversation areas.
    “He reminds me of me,” Bourne said.
    Christien nodded. “I had the same thought, though this man’s amnesia appears virtually complete.”
    “If he’s telling us the truth.”
    “Jason, he was quite clearly in serious distress. Is there any reason to doubt him?”
    “The bullet that grazed the side of his head,” Bourne said. “He isn’t a tourist. Also, he quite clearly, as you would say, understood all five languages you spoke to him in.”
    “So he’s a linguist. So what?”
    “So am I.”
    “You’re also a professor of comparative linguistics.”
    “Used to be.”
    “He could be one, too.”
    “What’s he doing out here with a bullet crease in the side of his head?”
    “Noted.”
    “I want to find out whether he’s in our business.”
    Christien gave him a skeptical look. “Just because he’s a linguist?”
    Bourne gestured. “Look, if he’s not a spy we have nothing to worry about. But given what you’ve told me...”
    Christien spread his hands. “All right, what do you suggest?”
    “We have some time before we can take him back to Sadelöga.”
    “What does it matter? We won’t get anything out of him in his current state.”
    “Untrue. We can subject him to a series of tests.”
    Christien shook his head. “Tests? What do you mean?”
    Bourne sat forward, perched on the edge of the sofa. “You discovered that this man speaks at least five languages when he himself didn’t know that. Let’s find out what else he doesn’t know he knows.”

    Soraya and Peter left the briefing with Hendricks filled with mixed feelings.
    “This so-called Nicodemo sounds like a ghost,” Soraya said. “I don’t like chasing ghosts.”
    “For some reason, Hendricks is obsessed with finding and eliminating Nicodemo,” Peter said. “He gave it his highest priority. And yet, he had no specific intel, no chatter as to a clear and present attack that Nicodemo might be planning against American personnel or citizens abroad or here at home. I smell a political hot potato.”
    “I never thought of that.”
    Peter laughed. “That’s because you still have one foot in Paris.”
    She turned to him. “Is that what you think?”
    He shrugged. “Can you blame me?”
    The hallway was quiet, save for the hum of the HVAC vents high up in the walls. Far away at one end, she thought she saw Dick Richards coming toward them, and she groaned inwardly. The guy was like a leech.
    She gestured with her head toward Richards. “If we can’t trust each other, we’re fucked.”
    “My thought exactly.”
    “About your leaving...”
    “Let’s not talk about that now, Peter.” She sighed. It was definitely Richards coming toward them. “So how important to us is finding Nicodemo?”
    “If, as you surmise, the issue is political, not very. I didn’t take this job to carry Hendricks’s water.”
    “I think I know just what to tell Mary’s little lamb.”
    She smiled broadly as they met Dick Richards halfway along the hall.
    Richards handed a dossier to Peter. “I have some intel briefs I thought you’d want to see,” he said helpfully.
    “Thanks.” Peter, opening the file, glanced through the pages with no real interest.
    Soraya shoved the fuzzy intel on Nicodemo that Hendricks had given them in the briefing at Richards.
    “Peter and I would like you to run this person of interest down,” she said, “see if there’s anything substantive to him, see what level of danger he represents to US interests abroad.”
    Peter looked up as Richards nodded. He gave her a sharp glance to which she responded with her sweetest smile.
    “We’d appreciate your