"Think first, fight afterwards—the soldier's art: / One taste of the old time sets all to rights."

-Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"

Half the world was on his trail, wanting him dead, most of them the CIA people you never want to mess with and now Landy looked murderous enough to sign herself up for the chase. She might pull a gun and shoot him through the head right now and he wouldn't blink.

"This isn't how I'd hoped our reunion would be." Jason kept his hands loose at his sides, away from his gun, though why he had to play civil with Landy was almost unreal. He would've have shot her then and he wouldn't shoot her now. But since he screwed up, he has to play nice…by her rules.

"I think I knew the whole time that you would've taken that shot." As though she'd thought he'd had the control to let Byer off with a warning. "I told your partner that wasn't how this would happen. Don't try to deny it. I have my sources too, Jason. I know as well as you do that Aaron had in mind what I'd told him, chose to ignore it and didn't bother telling you."

Actually, he did tell me. I'm the one who ignored it when Aaron took the shot to disable him to save the doctor. I knew what I was getting into and that you wouldn't like it. "There's no playing nice with these people, Pamela." He shifts his stance, giving a quick glance around the near empty terminal they're in. "And before you protest it, think really carefully whether you've got a good enough argument to stand on, knowing what you know about what they did to me."

Silence.

"He had a hostage."

"Jason…"

"He was going to kill her, Pamela." The lack of understand in her eyes frustrates him. She'd never approved of Marie, would approve Nicky even less and would hold it over his head for the rest of his life if she knew about the assassin that posed as Marie—he already knows her argument, you let your feelings for that woman manipulate you to the point where you can't see the facts in front of you. Not even the CIA could've pulled off an exact copy of Marie Kreutz. The warning signs were right in front of you and you were too fixated to notice.

It's my life, not yours. I'll deal with my own consequences.

"Then why did you want to see me if you intend to completely regard my methods for fixing the situation?" She glances at her watch. They can't risk being seen together for too long, but Landy's his only link to the past aside from Nicky. It reminded him there's a chance he could go back to before this all began, with most of his memories intact, turn his back on the government and become his own person again instead of a fugitive. "I offered you a way out."

"That wasn't a way out. You know what we're up against, what they can do and you think a man like Eric Byer wouldn't have walked right out of that courtroom after framing all of us?" He pauses, letting the words sink in. "He would turn all the evidence around and point at me, at you, at Cross for being unstable. I know Cross' story and what jury wouldn't move to convict him after Byer found a way to blame the entire shutdown on him?"

"You're playing a dangerous game, Jason."

"I wasn't the one who started it." They were running out of time. "If Byer's dead, who would take his place? We need to know who we're dealing with—you were in the front line, who else was with there with you?"

Landy considered him. "You're dealing with extremely dangerous people. Eric Byer was cunning, but some of the other ones are even more ruthless. They left him out as the target, did you consider that, Jason? They wanted him dead and you took the bait."

Jason gritted his teeth. Had they been playing him all this time? "Who are they?"

"The files you helped me take were secured before they could do any damage. You aren't invincible. These men have a government behind them to back up their decisions… Mark Turso dealt with Outcome, he's probably the one who took the files from me. Terrance Ward, he was the assistant supervisor to Outcome. But the one who would've taken up the reigns in Noah Vosen."

Vosen. He'd taken the shot. "Thanks, Pamela. That's all I needed. I'll find them before they find me."

Knowing that he'd volunteered for the program, known the risks and signed up anyway had been hard to swallow after all he'd learned in the field. Would you like to serve your country? , haunting him as he'd run from the agents pursuing him. When there'd only been one in front and the river behind him, he'd taken the closer look at recognized some part of David Webb in that agent's eyes.

"Look at us, look at what they make us give." Memories, freedom, identity all so an agent of theirs can be born in the dead body of an American citizen.

The agent hadn't responded, but the gun trembled in his hands.

Get out before you become like me. Used, thrown away then hunted down. You're probably a good kid who shouldn't be involved in Treadstone.

Just before the agent might've let him past, he heard the rest of the pursuers coming leaving him with only one way out. He turned and ran for the edge of the railing, a ten story drop that might make his only option death, but it's better than being captured again now that he knew. Just before the jump he glanced back and saw Vosen with a gun raised.

Crack of the bullet.

Air rushing past as he fell.

Pain, burning pain.

City lights mirrored in the water, making him stupidly think that it looked like a peaceful place to die.

Peace? Ha.

My name is David Webb. My name is David Webb. I volunteered for the Blackbriar program under force to serve my country. I'm not longer Jason Bourne. My name is—

And then he'd hit the water.

Then she's gone. Another person near him that the rogue CIA can exploit, use as bait or destroy if he doesn't watch himself. If Vosen's behind this, forget about Byer, he owes the CIA employee for taking that shot at him on the roof.

He won't make the same mistakes his predecessor in death made. Vosen is smarter, and, if possible has more reason to hate Jason.

This called for more than a strike and hit, it needed strategy. The only way Vosen'll come out in the open is if he thinks the bait is good enough. The opportunity to finish what he'd started two years ago should tempt him if Cross doesn't push his hand.