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Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

    Time Event
    1:13a
    They passed the doorway to the baths and then the...
    They passed the doorway to the baths and then the entrance to the dining roomsBoth were empty and silentThey turned a corner toward the stairway that led down and out of the women's wing, and there Dianora saw that one person at least had remained, and was waiting for them
    "Let me look at you," Vencel said, the usual words"I must approve you before you go down
    The saishan head was sprawled as always among the many-colored pillows of his rolling platformDianora almost smiled to see his vast bulk, and to hear the familiar words spoken
    "Of course," she said, and slowly turned full circle before his scrutiny
    "Acceptable," he said at lengthThe customary judgment, though his high distinctive voice sounded more subdued than she had ever heard itperhaps you would like to wear that vairstone from Khardhun about your women rolex watches throat? For luck? I brought it with me for you, from the saishan treasures
    Almost diffidently Vencel extended a large soft hand and she saw that he was holding the red jewel she had worn the day Isolla of Ygrath had tried to kill the King
    She was about to demur when she remembered that Scelto had brought this back for her as something special for that day, just before she had dressed to go downRemembering that, and moved by Vence's gesture, she said, "Thank youI would be pleased to wear it"Would you put it on for me?"
    He smiled, almost shylyShe knelt before him and with his deft and delicate fingers the enormous saishan head clasped the jewel on its chain about her neckKneeling so near she was overwhelmed by the scent of tainflowers that he always wore
    Vencel withdrew his hands and leaned back to look at herIn chanel purse spray his dark face his eyes were unwontedly soft"In Khardhun we used to say to someone going on a journey Fortune find you there and guide you homeSuch is my wish today He hid his hands in the billowing folds of his white robe and looked away, down the empty corridor
    "Thank you," she said again, afraid to say moreShe rose and glanced over at Scelto; there were tears in his eyesHe wiped them hastily away and moved to lead her down the stairsHalfway down she looked back at Vencel, an almost inhumanly vast figure, draped in billowing whiteHe was gazing expressionlessly down after them, from among the brilliantly colored panoply of his pillows, an exotic creature from another world entirely, somehow carried ashore and stranded here in the saishan of Chiara
    At the bottom of the stairs she saw that the two doors had been left tiffany jewelry imitation unbarredScelto would not have to knockHe pushed the doors open and drew back to let her pass
    In the long hallway outside the priests of Morian and the priestesses of Adaon were waiting for herShe saw the scarcely veiled triumph in their eyes, a collective glittering of expectation
    There was a sound, a drawing of breath, as she came through the doors in the green robes of a rite that had not been performed in two and a half hundred years, her hair drawn back and bound in a net green as the sea
    Trained to control, being what they were, the clergy quickly fell silentAnd in silence they made way for her, to follow behind in orderly rows of crimson and smoke-grey
    She knew they would make Scelto trail behind themHe could not be part of this procession of the ritesShe knew she had not properly said farewell to himHers chanel latest handbag was not a life meant to be made whole
    They went west down the corridor to the Grand StaircaseAt the top of the wide marble stairs Dianora paused and looked down, and she finally understood why the saishan had been so silentAll the women and the castrates were gathered belowThey had been allowed out, permitted to come this far to see her pass byHolding her head very high and looking neither left nor right she set her foot on the first stair and started downShe was no longer herself, she thoughtNo longer Dianora, or not only DianoraShe was merging further into legend with every step she took
    And then, at the bottom of the staircase, as she stepped onto the mosaic-inlaid tiles of the floor, she realized who was waiting by the palace doors to escort her out and her heart almost stopped
    There was a cluster of men tiffany and co. jewelry there
    2:23a
    “That weapon in your pocket makes you pretty...
    “That weapon in your pocket makes you pretty fuckin’ brave, doesn’t it?”
    “Move, Sergeant!”
    Rachel Swayne swung her head to her left, throwing back her long, dark streaked hair over her
    shoulder as she stiffened her posture in the chair“That’s offensive in the extreme,” she
    pronounced with wide accusatory eyes, staring at Bourne
    “It certainly is,” agreed Jason, nodding“It also happens to be trueThere are five cigarette butts
    in this ashtray and each has lipstick on it Bourne sat down across from her, putting the ashtray on
    the small table next to the chair“You were there when he did it, when he put his gun into his
    mouth and pulled the triggerPerhaps you didn’t think he’d go through with it; maybe you thought
    it was just another one of his hysterical threats—whatever, you didn’t raise a word to stop him
    Why should you have? For you and Eddie it was a logical and reasonable solution
    “Preposterous!”
    “You know, d&g knockoffs MrsSwayne, to put it bluntly, that’s not a word you should useYou can’t carry it
    off, any more than you’re convincing when you say something’s ‘offensive in the extreme
    Neither expression is you, RachelYou’re imitating other people—probably rich, vacuous
    customers a young hairdresser heard repeating such phrases years ago in Honolulu?”
    “Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous, RachelDon’t even try the ‘How dare you’ bit, it doesn’t work
    at allAre you, in your nasal twang, going to have my head chopped off by royal decree?”
    “Lay off her!” shouted Flannagan, standing beside Mrs“You got the iron but you don’t
    have to do this! She’s a good woman, a damn good woman, and she was shit on by all the crap
    artists in this town
    “How could she be? She was the general’s wife, the mistress of the manor, wasn’t she? Isn’t
    she?”
    “She was used—”
    “I was laughed at, always laughed at, MrDelta!” cried Rachel Swayne, gripping the arms of louis vuitton denim bags her
    chair“When they weren’t leering or droolingHow’d you like to be the special piece of meat
    passed out like a special dessert to very special people when the dinner and the drinks are over?”
    “I don’t think I’d like it at all
    Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
    102
    “I couldn’t! He made me do it!”
    “Nobody can make anybody do anything like that
    “Sure, they can, MrDelta,” said the general’s wife, leaning forward, her large breasts pressing
    the sheer fabric of her blouse, her long hair partially obscuring her aging but still sensual softfeatured
    face“Try an uneducated grammar school dropout from the coal basins in West Virginia
    when the companies shut down the mines and nobody had no food—excuse me, any foodYou take
    what you got and you run with it and that’s what I didI got laid from Aliquippa to Hawaii, but I
    got there and I learned a tradeThat’s where I met the Big Boy and I married him, but I didn’t rolex gmt master have
    no illusions from day one’Specially when he got back from ’Nam, y’know what I mean?”
    “I’m not sure I do, Rachel
    “You don’t have to explain nothin’ kiddo!” roared Flannagan
    “No, I wanna, Eddie! I’m sick of the whole shit, okay?”
    “You watch your tongue!”
    “The point is, I don’t know nothin’, MrBut I can figure things, y’know what I mean?”
    “Stop it, Rachel!” cried the dead general’s aide
    “Fuck off, Eddie! You’re not too bright eitherDelta could be our way outBack to
    the islands, right?”
    “Absolutely right, Mrs
    “You know what this place is—?”
    “Shut up!” yelled Flannagan, awkwardly plodding forward, stopped by the sudden ear-shattering
    explosion of Bourne’s gun, the bullet searing into the floor between the sergeant’s legsWhen she stopped, Jason continued: “What is this place, MrsSwayne?”
    “Hold it,” the master sergeant again interrupted, but his objection was not shouted now; instead,
    it was a plea, a strong chanel tote man’s pleaHe looked at the general’s wife and then back at Jason“Listen,
    Bourne or Delta or whoever you are, Rachel’s rightYou could be our way out—there’s nothing
    left for us over here—so what have you got to offer?”
    “For what?”
    “Say we tell you what we know about this place and I tell you where you can start looking for
    a lot moreHow can you help us? How can we get out of here and back to the Pac Islands without
    being hassled, our names and faces all over the papers?”
    “That’s a tall order, Sergeant
    “Goddamn it, she didn’t kill him—we didn’t kill him, you said so yourself!”
    “Agreed, and I couldn’t care less whether you did or not, whether you were responsible or not
    I’ve got other priorities
    “Like getting ‘caught up with some old comrades’ or whatever the hell it was?”
    “That’s right, I’m owed
    “I still can’t figure you—”
    “You don’t have to
    “You were dead!” broke in the perplexed Flannagan, the words rushing chanel denim bag ou

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