"This is where it started for me. This is where it ends."
-Jason Bourne, Bourne Ultimatum
A million dollars would be preferable. Mandy could invest in more resources to perfect LARX and only recruit the best agents. For now, she has to settle with Byer's lack of sense.
Single-minded idiot. It's no wonder Treadstone was run into the ground. All that work, all that research dropped to pursue two agents he's better not having. The only way to deal with them is to retreat and let them think they've won.
She deleted all the computer records she could find after copying them to two flash drives. You've lost all rights to the project, Byer. Consider yourself usurped by your own doing.
In the lab, she takes the rest of the master serum. She'll find a way to duplicate it to keep LARX going. The notes… Marta must've kept them someplace else. Mandy can't resist muttering a few choice words—she knew Marta had only come for the information. What she couldn't figure out was whether the director had actually fallen for it or whether he'd only pretended to in order to win her trust.
At this point, nothing could matter less.
It had never been a question of loyalty as much as it had been one of survival. Before the program was shut down, she wouldn't have thought to question whether she was safer on the inside working alongside the director or whether she'd be better off finding another endeavor. Marta can recall every choice she made along the way that brought her standing between Byer and Aaron while calculating the chances of survival in a fight. Two assassins and Byer. Her and Aaron. Variables, Aaron has some of the serum. Even if he isn't completely programed, he could be unable to dismiss Byer's commands as easily as he had before; Byer won't be unarmed; she can't hold her own against an assassin.
"You're a warrior. You can make it. You're a survivor."
She doesn't trust herself to look at Aaron without giving everything away. He taught her how to survive—ever since she walked back into Treadstone she's been working to survive, doing whatever it takes to try to keep them both alive.
It's what they all want, in their own way. Byer wanting to ensure his survival by standing in command where no one else can question him, the assassins surviving by following orders, Aaron surviving by defying orders. And she has to survive by siding with the enemy.
"The better the programming is, the greater the chances are of any liabilities being significantly decreased. It's only going to get better." She wonders if she could take Aaron in a fight—it's never come up, but would he let her win even if they were on opposite sides? Would he be unable to hurt her after everything that's happened? On some level, Byer's right; emotions can be dangerous. "You could find out yourself."
He catches her eye, before she can look away again and he's trying to see right through her. You were right, Aaron, I could make it if I tried hard enough. I could make it on my own. It was enough to give her an inner breath of exhilaration.
"Forget about volunteering." Byer jerks her back into reality. "You're a thousand dollar piece of Outcome property. I don't need your consent on anything. If I say you're in the program, you're in the program, Cross." His voice holds years' worth of resentment for the ex-agent. "Hold him down" with a snap to the two assassins.
Marta feels for the waiting hypodermic in her lab pocket. If she sides with one or the other, she decides now. A second concentrated dose will have worse effects for Aaron. He might be able to hold his own, but barely. And once the dosage is given, Byer will want to put him through more—to keep him from running away again, to keep him from being his own again.
When the assassins have him pinned in a chair, Marta crouches down to his level aware of Byer right behind her to make sure she does it. He's not going to let her fake it.
She grasped Aaron's wrist, holding it steady to make the injection. With them surrounded she can't tell him, or make any indication they rest understand. Marta meets his gaze, hoping he knows when she gives him another squeeze.
You're going to have to help me out here. I can't do this on my own.
He can't show that he knows what she's going to do, or what his part will be, or what he'll do if this doesn't work be when he looks back at her. Marta pushes the needle into his vein without injecting any of the serum… her thoughts are a whirl and she only has one chance to get this right.
We just have to make it through this. Me and Aaron. I don't care what happens after. As long as he can make it through as his own person and make up for what Outcome made him do—I was part of Outcome, I helped them make him do everything. It doesn't matter anymore, it doesn't matter.
She presses down minimally, just to make a scene, before she tears out the hypodermic and whips her arm back to plunge it into Byer's leg and press down as hard as she can.
Byer falls back with a cry of surprise, shoving her back but Marta hangs on like a madwoman. Aaron, move, move. There's still two assassins and she doesn't… someone kicks her in the stomach, the ribs, her face… she lets go when blood spurts from her nose after another hit to the face, but she can't stay down… Aaron, do something! This is your chance to take them out! Marta rolled to her knees in time to see the female agent coming for her.
Aaron holds his own against two male assassins, fists flying, meeting them move for move, but she doesn't think he can keep it up. They're too good.
Another direct hit is enough to snap her back onto the floor, but Marta pushes back the pain and kicks the assassin in the face with enough effort to break her nose and scrambles to pry one of the other assassins off Aaron to give him an opening.
Byer. Byer. I've got to take him out before he can call for more assassins. She snaps up the gun that's fallen to the floor in the struggle and pulls off two bullets into one of the assassin's heads. Almost point blank and he still comes after her. Staggering, but determined. Blood trickles down his face, only fuels his rage. Marta lines up another shot right into his face. He falls, stays down and she can take a breath.
She's grabbed from behind, an arm snaked around her neck. "Aaron!" She hears the click of a gun. She'd taken her eye off Byer.
Aaron had taken down the assassin—stunned, most likely, and now held up a gun to destroy his last tie to Outcome.
"Take the shot, Cross." Byer tightened his hold on Marta. "Take me out and you take her out too."
The gun stayed in his hand, but it didn't fire. "Don't fall for his trap, Aaron. Take him out. Just take him out! It's what you have to do…. you have to end this." Marta doesn't want to die, but she can't fall apart again like she did the first time. Not again. Not ever again.
You've been playing him all along haven't you? You're damn brilliant, Marta. Damn brilliant. It's not going to end here—it can't. He can't stop us anymore. I promise.
He adjusts his grip on the gun. Take the shot, Cross. An order. That was an order, wasn't it? A part of him strains to obey, pull the trigger is his only objective now, it's so simple, but he can't.
"Shoot her, Cross. You have feelings for this woman, they're nothing. You can't fall in love." Byer goads him on while strangling Marta. "You don't want to come back, you don't have to come back. All you have to do is pull the trigger and you're done."
It's so simple.
"Aaron… just do it. Just shoot us both." Marta, though she looks on the verge of hysterics, manages a calm voice. "You need…" she draws in a wavering breath, which isn't done easily with Byer's hold on her. "You need to take the shot."
"You mean that." He won't answer Byer, tries to ignore the director's focus on him.
"The objective, Cross.
Of course.
He doesn't wait. When he lapses back into the programming, she doesn't blame him. Marta watched his hand drop, felt pain flare into the side of her ribs, a second shot, a third… she's dragged to the floor by Byer.
A hand grabs her wrist and pulls her away from Byer before helping her sit up. Marta expects Aaron but it's Bourne.
The Treadstone agent only tucks his gun into his belt, and moves to stand over Byer. "You got what you wanted, Byer. The best agents, orders followed, good people dead, and that's what you've wanted all along. You don't care who gets in the way."
Byer laughs, nothing more than a smirk muffled by the blood seeping from his mouth. "Sin eaters…" he spits blood at Aaron who's crouched near him "…both of you. No… I… I made… both of you." He gave another gurgled laugh.
It's over.
Marta stares at Byer's corpse, unable to tear her eyes away. She's faced too much death firsthand, but all of it was his fault. He'd put into motion the events that'd made her into what she was now. Holding her side gingerly, Marta crawls over to Aaron.
Their eyes meet. He looks so tired, face bruised and bloody with a tear trailing down his cheek. Broken. "No more objectives, Aaron. He's gone. You're done."
Aaron dips his head in a nod, moving to press his hand against her side. "We're done." His free hand moves up to cradle her face.
"We're probably still on camera."
He chuckles at that. "I get shipped out to Alaska again and I'm dragging you with me. Marta" his tone turns serious. She wonders what he's thinking when he's so close to her, still near Byer's body and heaven knows what Bourne's thinking while he's watching…
Aaron doesn't bother with saying anything else, only leaning closer to kiss her. Now that he's done with the program, it feels right.
They pull away, pausing a minute to rest their foreheads against each other before Aaron looks at his watch. "We've got to clear out of here. Someone's going to come looking for Byer—probably more of those assassins." He glanced at Jason, noticing the blood soaking through the other agent's shirt. "You need to get that bullet out."
"Anyone does come after us and they'll have a field day with all the evidence here."
"I've got it. Get to the lab and get that taken care of before you bleed any more evidence on the floor. There's enough to take care of it is."
Feels like it should be over, with Byer dead and Marta… Aaron frowns down at the corpse, wondering where to leave it. Even if he makes it look natural, anyone with any ounce of sense isn't going to believe it. It happened; no way to erase that.
June checks the shots left in her gun, shutting it with a loud snap. Byer's corpse forms a barrier between them that neither are willing to cross—was that how their whole relationship had been? Based on the program, limited to the boundaries that an organization had set for them? She looks at him with a sigh. "You both know what we have to do. LARX changed me, Kenneth. I'm not one of them, but I'm not… me anymore."
"It doesn't have to end this way," Aaron tried. "Back in training, we were both…"
"And that was then. This is now."
It's not a contest between her and Marta—June was just the first, helped him get through programming. "I can't be LARX anymore than you can go back to just being Outcome. You're right—we're just both two different sides of the program."
"I never was going to kill you." She took a step back, still staring across at him. "It was just the orders."
"I know." Before she can take another step, Aaron sucks in a breath and steps over Byer. "June, don't forget any of it. Those years, even what you did now…maybe it'll get harder to play the part of the assassin but don't let it turn you into one of them."
"I won't."
He pulls her into an embrace, feel her tense beneath him but she gives him a squeeze in return.
"Stay safe, Kenneth."
"June, just…" Aaron isn't ready to let her go. Letting go means admitting that it was just a memory and she meant so much more to him than that. It's not like Marta. He's never tried to compare them. He lets her go with a kiss on the cheek. "…stay alive."
He looks down at his watch again, instead of watching her leave. Not much time left. What's the point in hiding it? If anyone comes, they'll see what Byer deserved. No… it's not just me. Jason. Marta. Aaron drags Byer's corpse into a chair behind the desk, lets the body crumple like a puppet onto it. He fires a shot into the chair cushion and leaves the dead assassin's gun in Byer's hand like he shot himself. Maybe whoever comes will believe the director might've done it. The dead assassin he leaves where he lies and barricades the unconscious one in a closet.
It'll do.
"You call this 'cleaning up'?" Jason glances at Aaron's efforts, who only gives a disgusted shrug. "We go back to that safehouse and they'll find us so I hope you've got a plan."
"Yeah." Aaron reaches to take Marta's hand. "We run."
