Free Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Ascendancy by Eric Van Lustbader Page B

was inevitable: the moment when a vital piece of intel would fall into his hands. There were two paths to follow now, and he must step out onto one or the other.
    The market spun on around him, people going about their daily lives, shopping, chatting, laughing, even. He felt cut off from them, as if he were living in another dimension. He could see and hear them, but he stood firmly outside them, apart—he was Other, and the sheer loneliness was overwhelming.
    He had been fed this fantasy of nirvana from the moment of his recruitment, but was it how he really felt now that he had begun to betray his country? There was another way out, but it did not involve wild riches, sun-splashed beaches, and bikinied women flitting around him like butterflies. It was a darker road, filled with peril, and perhaps death.
    He held the SD card in his hand for a moment before he dropped it on the ground, and stepped hard on it, grinding it to pieces. Then, filled with dread for his own safety, he walked on. Pausing at a stall, he bought a half pound of fresh-roasted pistachios, popping them one by one into his mouth as he strolled deeper into the market’s maze.
    A moment later, he abruptly stopped, turned away from the flood of people, and vomited into a dust-coated corner.

9
    C amilla was sore all over . She ached in places she hadn’t thought about in years. She felt as if Starfall had stomped all over her. When she told Hunter this, her trainer said, “That’s what hot baths and liniment massages are for. Get used to it. This is only the beginning.”
    Camilla might be complaining to Hunter, but she was pleased with her progress. By the end of the day, with a deep blue dusk settling over the Virginia mountains, she had been urging Starfall into an easy gallop around the ring. Uncertainty had given way to an incredible sense of elation. As Hunter had predicted, the feel of the muscular beast between her legs provided her with a surge of power. She wanted to charge into battle, to sweep aside the enemy, to keep going until she reached the foothills of the darkening mountains.
    Of course, she did no such thing, and as if divining her thoughts and emotions, Hunter admonished her when she at last drew Starfall to a stop and dismounted beside her trainer.
    “Don’t allow your emotions to run away with you.” She took the reins, walking Starfall out of the ring, back to the paddock. “It’s easy, to do that, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Never lose the sense of who you are and what the horse is. Though he may seem like more, Starfall is only a vehicle, that’s all. If you lose your perspective you’ll botch the end of it, the most important part. Sure as we’re walking here you’ll get hurt, possibly very badly. You need to keep your wits about you, remember everything I’ll be teaching you. Then, when the moment comes, you’ll be all right. You’ll be perfectly safe, I promise.”
    Much to Camilla’s surprise, after the promised hot shower and massage, she was instructed to meet Hunter back at the stables, where she was taught how to brush down Starfall and feed him. Then it was time for dinner, which was served—again, a surprise—in the barn. She and Hunter ate with the horses all around them.
    Then it was time for sleep—or so Camilla thought. It wasn’t long, however, before Hunter’s purpose was made clear to her.
    Night riding.
    “There is a strict deadline,” Hunter said. “It’s crucial you spend as much time around horses as possible before you’re inserted into the field.” She led Camilla back to the stalls. “You’ll be among professionals—all experts. Forget this for even a moment and you’re finished. They will smell a plant six furlongs away. My job is to make you as genuine as a copper penny.”
    She grinned. “When you arrived this morning, you asked me whether we really had enough time to get you battle-ready.” Her grin widened as she opened the door to Starfall’s stall. “Darlin’,