@@@@@ “Where?” “In my truckIt’s a red semi with
@@@@@
“Where?”
“In my truckIt’s a red semi with white stripes, like the flagIt’s parked out front, on the right
Get around the cab and stay out of sight
“She’ll see me leaveI’m goin’ over and give her a big surpriseI’ll tell her all the CBs are hummin’
and the Bronk is headin’ south to the Carolinas—at least that’s what I heard
“How can I ever repay you?”
“Probably with some of that money you keep talkin’ aboutThe Bronk’s
an animal and I’m a born-again Christian The short trucker swung back the door, nearly shoving
Panov back into the wall againMo watched as his conspiratorial colleague approached the booth,
his conspiratorial arms extended as the trucker embraced an old friend and started talking rapidly;
the woman’s eyes were attentive—she was mesmerizedPanov rushed out of the men’s room,
through the diner’s entrance and toward the huge red-and-white-striped truckHe crouched
breathlessly behind the cab, his chest pounding, and waited
Suddenly, the Bronk’s wife came racing out of the diner, her platinum hair rising grotesquely in
the air behind her as she ran to her bright red automobileShe climbed inside and in seconds the
engine roared; she continued north as Mo watched, astonished
“How are y’doing, buddy—wherever the hell you are?” shouted the short man with no name
who had not only amazingly stopped a nosebleed but had rescued him from a manic wife whose
paranoid mood swings were rooted in equal parts of vengeance and guilt
Stop it, asshole, cried Panov to himself as he raised his voicebuddy!”
Thirty-five minutes later they reached the outskirts of an unidentified town and the trucker
stopped in front of a cluster of stores that bordered the highway“You’ll find a phone there, buddy
“Are you sure?” asked Mo“About the money, I mean
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
233
“Sure I’m sure,” replied the short man behind the wheel“Two hundred dollars is fine—maybe
even what I earned—but more than that corrupts, don’t it? I been offered fifty times that to haul
stuff I won’t haul, and you know what I tell ’em?”
“What do you tell them?”
“I tell ’em to go piss into the wind with their poisonIt’s gonna flash back and blind ’em
“You’re a good person,” said Panov, climbing out onto the pave