Chapter 6: Sunk

Marta was bewildered. "Jason who?"

He had to laugh at her expression; how she sometimes resembled the brilliant but bumbling scientific genius stereotype. Aaron proceeded to tell her about the news bulletins, his story of the name carved into Outcome's cabin, and of his suspicions regarding Jason Bourne and Pamela Landy.

Marta brightened. "Then we team up with them!"

Aaron dimmed.

"No, this is good," Martha countered his dark, gloomy look and squeezed his hand. "We may very well stand a chance now. We just need to connect with them somehow. With the four of us as witnesses, surely we can muster enough doubt to necessitate an investigation into the National Research Assay Group. The government will have to respond to media and public pressure."

Marta stood up and maneuvered around the table toward Aaron. He pushed the weather-beaten table away and caught her about the hips, pulling her onto his lap. Wrapping her arms around his neck, her green eyes twinkled as she said, "We can go loud enough, big enough!"

Aaron hated to dampen her excitement. "Landy's under indictment and Bourne is on the run," he reminded her.

"We have time. It's not like she's been executed for treason already. I know she would probably be impossible for us to reach directly, but she'll have a lawyer we could get to. Her trial hasn't started, has it?"

"Not as far as I know," Aaron answered, impressed, as usual, with her intelligence. Growing up as Kenneth, he had always been into to the smart, bookish girls that never gave him a first-let alone a second-glance. Despite his new, engineered intelligence, that type still did it for him. From his first encounter in the exam room with Marta and her aloof, science-geek, brainiac persona, Aaron was hooked.

Having tried for years to get her to even look him in the eye, Aaron was still amazed that Marta's big, brown doe-eyes were trained intently on his, absorbing all he said, only inches from him. Unable to help himself, Aaron suddenly pulled her in tight and kissed her passionately, catching her off-guard. When he released her she just gazed back at him, a little dazed.

He smiled rakishly then continued the conversation, back on topic. "We may be better off tracking down Bourne first. If he's got an Outcome agent after him, we can probably trace a trail of destruction from newscasts alone. We need intel, though."

Jason Bourne's provenance was still a big question. Aaron figured Bourne was in some kind of beta program for Outcome, due to the length of his history, as reported in the news. He couldn't be completely sure, though, that the program he was involved in had been military, like Outcome was. It could be of CIA, or even NSA, origin. But those agencies almost always operated as teams, like the one at Marta's house, or as partners. Bourne, Aaron, the Outcome agent in the Alaskan cabin, and the Asian in Manila had all been lone wolves which pointed to one program at different advancement levels under military oversight run by Eric Byer's NRAG.

If that was correct, Bourne would have Byer himself after him. Aaron had dealt with him enough to know Byer was a cold, relentless zealot. He undoubtedly considered Bourne and Aaron dangerous, traitorous program defects and would stop at nothing to erase their stain on his impeccable service record. Earnest, loyal soldiers were simply disposable tools to Eric Byer's savage ambitions. He would never stop pursuing them, Aaron concluded unhappily. Marta was right.

Aaron resigned himself to the fight with a sigh and summed up his thoughts aloud. "We have to get back to civilization and get our hands on the most current international newspapers, for a start. We need to confirm if you can visually identify Jason Bourne as Outcome. But given the time line, he was probably in another program under the same agency. Maybe one without the supplement treatment but under the same team. My guess is he was in the beta program to Outcome. We'll know for sure, if you recognize him."

Marta nodded her head in agreement, but some creeping thought was bothering her.

Aaron noticed the puzzled look on Marta's face. "What is it?", he asked.

Her brows were furrowed and her head was cocked in thought. "If your Eric Byer found it necessary to take out my entire research team at a private company lab..." Marta trailed off then began again, thinking aloud, "You told me, in the car, after we escaped my old house that if they were eliminating you-plural," she emphasized, "That I was a fool to think they wouldn't come after us scientists, too."

Her widening green eyes focused on Aaron again as her arms dropped from around him and crossed over her chest defensively. "Those people at my house," she shook her head worriedly. "They weren't Outcome agents. I was a senior researcher and saw all program participants myself. Aaron, they weren't in our program."

Hoping to calm Marta's growing fear, he assured her, "No, they wouldn't have been. You were an unstable, disgruntled employee who had been stockpiling dangerous chemicals, remember?"

She smiled weakly at him and Aaron continued, "It was a legit team that came after you-Homeland Security or the CIA." He shrugged, but registered a nagging thought in his subconscious.

Still troubled herself, Marta asked, "So the guy in Manila...?"

Aaron's blood ran cold and he silently cursed himself for not questioning Marta earlier. Idiot!

Marta felt panic at the look on his face, then realization dawned. "I didn't recognize him," she admitted with a shaking voice, "I should have told you, but didn't think to, until just now. We were running for our lives and had just wrecked. You...you had lost a lot of blood. We made it onto the boat but you were unconscious. We...we barely escaped and I..." She cut herself off and closed her eyes in horrified acceptance.

"I'm so sorry, Aaron," she said, her hands holding her head, as she confirmed what Aaron had obviously already surmised. "He wasn't Outcome. There's another program."