Each
was completely “authentic” with the... Each
was completely “authentic” with the appropriate vehicular traffic, police, dress codes, shops,
grocery and drug stores, gas stations and mock structures of buildings—many of which rose two
stories high and were so real they had American hardware on the doors and windowsObviously, as
vital as the physical appearances was language—not merely the fluent use of English but the
mastery of linguistic idiosyncrasies, the dialects that were characteristic of specific locationsAs
Jason wandered from one section to another he heard all around him the distinctive soundsFrom
New England Down East with its “eeahh” to Texas’s drawl and its familiar “you-alls”; from the
gentle nasality of the Midwest to the loud abrasiveness of the large Eastern cities with the
inevitable “know what I mean?” tacked on to conversational sentences, whether questions or
statementsIt was all incredibleIt was not simply beyond belief, it made the true suspension of
disbelief frighteningly viable
He had been briefed on the flight from Vnokova by a late-middle-aged Novgorod graduate who
had been urgently summoned from his Moscow apartment by KrupkinThe small, bald man was
not only garrulously instructive, but in
ceramic chanel his own way mesmerizingIf anyone had ever told Jason
Bourne that he was going to be briefed in depth by a Soviet espionage agent whose English was so
laced with the Deep South that it sonorously floated out of his mouth with the essence of
magnolias, he would have deemed the information preposterous
“Good Lawd, Ah do miss those barbecues, especially the ribsYou know who grilled ’em best?
That black fellow who I believed was such a good friend until he exposed meCan you imagine? I
thought he was one of those radicalsHe turned out to be a boy from Dartmouth workin’ for the
FBIHell, the exchange was made at Aeroflot in New York and we still write
each other
“Adolescent games,” had mumbled BourneOh yes, he was a mighty fine coach
“Coach?”
“Sure ’nuffA few of us started a Little League in East PointThat’s right outside Atlanta
“May we concentrate on Novgorod, please?”
“Sutt’nlyDimitri may have told you, I’m semi-retired, but my pension requires that I spend five
days a month there as a tak govorya—a ‘trainer,’ as you would say
“I didn’t understand what he meant
Robert Ludlum ?? THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
411
“Ah’ll explain The strange man whose voice belonged to the old Confederacy had
dior saddle bag been
thorough
Each compound at Novgorod was divided into three classes of personnel: the trainers, the
candidates and operationsThe last category included the KGB staff, guards and maintenanceThe
practical implementation of the Novgorod process was simple in structureA compound’s staff
created the daily training schedules for each individual section, and the trainers, both permanent
and part-time retirees, commandeered all individual and group activities while the candidates
carried them out, using only the language of the compound and the dialects of the specific areas in
which they were locatedNo Russian was permitted; the rule was tested frequently by the trainers
who would suddenly bark orders or insults in the native language, which the candidates could not
acknowledge understanding
“When you say assignments,” Bourne had asked, “what do you mean?”
“Situations, mah friendJest about anything you might think ofLike ordering lunch or dinner,
or buying clothes, or fillin’ the tank of your car, requesting a specific gasoline leaded or unleaded
and the degrees of octane—all of which we don’t know a thing about hereThen, of course, there
are the more dramatic events often unscheduled
chanel white ceramic watch so as to test the candidates’ reactionsSay, an
automobile accident necessitating conversations with ‘American’ police and the resulting insurance
forms that must be filled out—you can give yourself away if you appear too ignorant
The little things, the insignificant things-they were vitalA back door at the Kubinka Armory
“What else?”
“So many inconsequential things that a person might not consider significant, but they can be
Say, being mugged in a city street at night—what should you do, what shouldn’t you do?
Remember, many of our candidates, and all of the younger ones, are trained in self-defense, but
depending upon the circumstances, it may not be advisable to use those skillsQuestions of
background could be raisedDiscretion, always discretionFor me, as an experienced part-time
tak govorya, of course, I’ve always preferred the more imaginative situations which we are
permitted to implement whenever we care to as long as they fall within the guidelines of
environmental penetration
“What does that mean?”
“Learn always, but never appear to be learningFor example, a favorite of mine is to approach
several candidates, say, at a bar in some ‘location’ near a military testing groundI
big chanel pretend to be a
disgruntled government worker or perhaps an inebriated defense contractor—obviously someone
with access to information—and start ladlin’ out classified material of recognized value
“Just for curiosity,” Bourne had interrupted, “under those circumstances how should candidates
react?”
“Listen carefully and be prepared to write down every salient fact, all the while feigning total
lack of interest and offering such remarks as”—here the Novgorod graduate’s Southern dialect
became so rough-mountain South that the magnolias were replaced by sour mash—“ ‘Who gives a
barrel a’ hogshit ’bout that stuff?’ and ‘They got any of them whoors over there lak people say they
got?’ or ‘Don’t understand a fuckin’ word you’re talkin’ about, asshole—all Ah knows is that
you’re borin’ the holy be-Jesus outta me!’
“Then what?”
“Later, each man is called in and told to list everything he learned—fact by salient fact
“What about passing along the information? Are there training procedures for that?”
Jason’s Soviet instructor had stared at him in silence for several moments from the adjacent seat
in the small plane“I’m sorry you had to ask the question,” he said slowly“I’ll have to
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