| Panov could feel the car briefly swerve as the driver momentarily lost
controlA minute and a half later: ?The whole fuckin? jaw? Half the face??
?It?s either that or the whole of the patient?s life Thirty seconds later: ?You think I could have
something like that??
?I?m a doctor, not an alarmistI merely noted a symptom, I did not make a diagnosis
?So bullshit! So make a dagassnossis!?
?I?m not qualified
?Bullshit! You?re a doctor, ain?t you? I mean a real doctor, not a fasullo who says he is but ain?t
got no shingle that?s legit
?If you mean medical school, yes, I?m that kind of doctor
?So look at me!?
?I can?t Panov suddenly felt the guard?s thick strong hand clawing at his
head, yanking the kerchief off himThe dark interior of the automobile answered a question for
Mo: How could anyone travel in a car with a blindfolded passenger? In that car it was no problem;
except for the windshield, the windows were not merely tinted, they were damn near opaque, which
meant from the outside they were opaqueNo one could see inside
?Go on, look!? The capo subordinato, his eyes on the road, tilted his large chanel designer head grotesquely
toward Panov; his thick lips were parted and his teeth bared like those of a child playing monster in
the mirror, he shouted again?So tell me what you see!?
?It?s too dark in here,? replied Mo, seeing essentially what he wanted to see in the front window;
they were on a country road, so narrow and so country the next step lower was dirtWherever he
was being taken, he was being driven there by an extremely circuitous route
?Open the fuckin? window!? yelled the guard, his head still twisted, his eyes still on the road, his
gaping mouth approaching a caricature of Orca, the about-to-vomit whale?Don?t hold nothin?
backI?ll break every goddamn finger in that prick?s hands! He can do his fuckin? surgery with his
elbows! I told that stupid sister of mine he was no fuckin? good, that fairyAlways readin? books,
no action on the street, y?know what I mean??
?If you?ll stop shouting for a few seconds, I can get a closer look,? said Panov, having lowered
the window at his side, seeing nothing but trees and the coarse underbrush of a distinctly
backcountry road, one he doubted was on too many vintage cartier watch for sale maps?There we are,? continued Mo, raising
his loosely bound hands to the capo?s mouth, his eyes, however, not on that mouth but on the road
ahead?Oh, my God!? cried Panov
?What?? screamed the guardPockets of pus everywhereIn the upper and lower mandibles
?Oh, Christ!? The car swerved wildly, but it did not swerve enough
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
217
A huge treeOn the left-hand side of the deserted road! Morris Panov surged his
bound hands over to the wheel, lifting his body off the seat as he propelled the steering wheel to the
leftThen at the last second before the car hit the tree, he hurled himself to the right, curling into a
fetal position for protection
The crash was enormousShattered glass and crushed metal accompanied the rising mists of
steam from burst cylinders, and the growing fires of viscous fluids underneath that would soon
reach a gas tankThe guard was moaning, semiconscious, his face bleeding; Panov pulled him out
of the wreck and into the grass as far as he could until exhaustion overtook him, just before the car
exploded
In the moist overgrowth, his breath somewhat restored d |
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