The morning train took Jason and Johanna from Engelberg to the river town of Basel. He opted for a slow route via Bern, requiring two changes and three hours of travel time. At each station, he made sure they weren’t being followed. When they got to Basel, they wandered the city on foot for the rest of the day. He led them on a random route through the storybook streets of the medieval Old Town and on the path by the Rhine, with the twin spires of the Münster rising above the rest of the village.
His goal for the detour was to confirm that he’d evaded surveillance from both Nash Rollins and Le Renouveau. But he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the brief respite from violence, walking hand in hand with Johanna.
That evening, they returned to the Basel Bahnhof and he booked them on an overnight train. Near midnight, they changed at Frankfurt for the multi-hour trip to Hamburg, and he got them a private first-class couchette. As they headed north out of the city, the train car window looked out on the German countryside, which gave the compartment its only light when they passed through the small towns. Otherwise, the carriage was dark, and the rattle of the train provided a hypnotic clatter. They didn’t talk, but they also didn’t sleep. Bourne stretched out on his back on one side of the compartment and Johanna stayed on the other, but soon he heard her slip out of her bed. She moved in beside him, their bodies squeezed next to each other in the cramped space.
“Do you mind?” she murmured. “I want to be with you.”
In fact, he did mind. He knew he should tell her to go, to stay away from him, to keep distance between them like a solid wall. Johanna was Kryptonite, and letting himself get close to her was dangerous for both of them.
But he heard himself whisper, “No, I don’t mind.”
She faced him in bed. She was so close that her breath blew softly on his cheek. In the darkness, he could barely see her, but every few seconds, light would flash across the window, and he would catch a glimpse of her blue eyes staring at him and of her pale lips parted just inches away.
Her arm went around his waist. Her hips molded against his.
“Tell me something,” she said softly.
“What?”
“Do you still love Monika?”
“Love her? How can I? I don’t even remember her.”
“Do you feel like you owe her some kind of loyalty? I mean, because of the past.”
“No.”
“And yet I can feel you hesitating with me,” Johanna said. “Pulling away. You won’t let me get close to you.”
“That’s true.”
“Why? Do you think you’d upset her by sleeping with me?”
“No. Whatever happened between us was a long time ago.”
“Then what is it? Because I’m not shy. I never have been. I nearly died last night, and that only confirmed for me how much I want you. I won’t apologize for that, not to you, not to her. I mean, I think I fell in love with you a little bit ten years ago when we first met in Zurich. I couldn’t have you then because you belonged to my sister. But there’s nothing standing between us now.” She added after a pause, “Is there?”
Jason watched her face appear and disappear with another glimmer of light.
He could have told her that his life was complicated and impossible.
He could have told her that he was still in love with Abbey Laurent.
He could have told her that he hadn’t gotten over finding the bullet-riddled body of his previous lover, Nova, months earlier.
He could have told her that every woman who’d come into his life had paid a terrible price for knowing him. Including Monika.
But he didn’t.
He pulled her against him. She came to him quickly and hungrily, her tongue exploring his mouth, a purr of desire rumbling in her throat. Her hands slipped under his shirt to massage his back. He undid her nylon belt, shimmied her pants down to her thighs, and found the warmth and wetness between her legs. His fingertips caressed her and slipped inside. She pushed hard into his hand, wanting more, but the tight couchette was too cramped for their impatience. They scrambled out of bed and stripped off the rest of their clothes in the darkness. Naked, they embraced, and she fell back with him onto the cot, her legs spread wide. He sank easily inside her, bringing a soft cry, and her thighs wrapped around his back as tightly as a vise.
The first time, wet and wild and urgent, took no time at all. The second time, minutes later, was slower, their invisible movements gentle and unhurried. He got to know every inch of her body with his fingers and lips, and she did the same to him. When he finally entered her again, face-to-face, their coupling built like a fire, a long fuse burning to an explosion that left them clinging fiercely to each other and moaning with release.
Sated, they fell back against the pillow, still tangled together. The clatter of the train shook around them. For a while, all they could do was breathe and recover. Their bodies had grown slippery with sweat, and her blond hair stuck to his neck and shoulders as if pasted there. He heard her giggle in the darkness.
“Jesus,” Johanna said. “I needed that.”
“Me too.”
“I want to do that with you a lot. Okay? A lot. For a long time.”
“Okay.”
But Jason knew that was an easy promise to make and even easier to break. Tomorrow might change everything. Johanna seemed to realize that, too, because she grew silent and didn’t say anything more. She simply held on to him and idly stroked his skin. Eventually, her chest fell into a steady, swelling rhythm against him as she slept.
Bourne slept, too. Not for long, just enough to refresh his mind. When he opened his eyes again, he eased out of the bed, leaving Johanna where she was. He dressed quickly and let himself out of the couchette into the rattling train corridor. When he found the dining car, he bought espresso and croissants. Back in the compartment, he found the lights on and Johanna sitting up, still naked. She looked relaxed and comfortable, her blond hair tangled, her breasts on display below her skinny shoulders.
“Oh, good job,” she said, seeing the food. “I’m starved.”
They ate breakfast together and made small talk. The coffee was bitter, the pastries dry, but he didn’t care. He talked about living in Paris, and she talked about living in Salzburg. They avoided the subject of death on the mountain. When they were done, she helped him out of his clothes and they made love again.
Finally, as morning neared and the sky began to lighten, they sat on the floor of the compartment with their backs against one of the beds.
“We’ll be in Hamburg in a few minutes,” he said.
Johanna nodded. “Yeah. I’m anxious to be there, but I don’t really want this night to end. Does that make any sense?”
“I get it. I know how you feel.” He kissed her and went on in a darker voice. “Listen, it would be better if you don’t come with me to the apartment building. I can drop you near the river, and you can hang out there for a while. If I find Monika, I’ll bring her to you.”
“Why don’t you want me with you?” Johanna asked.
“Because if I was able to find out where she is and who she is, it’s possible Le Renouveau did, too. They may have figured out that I went to Yanis Lorchaud, and they may have gotten him to talk. If so, they could have people waiting for us at the apartment.”
“I don’t care. I’d rather stay with you, David.” Johanna shook her head. “Sorry. I keep doing that. Jason.”
“Johanna, I’m not going to put you at risk—”
“I know, but I’m already at risk, and I feel safer when we’re together,” she broke in. “Every time we’re separated, I wonder if I’ll see you again. And whoever these people are, I don’t want to be left alone to face them by myself.”
He hesitated, but he found himself unwilling to say no. “Yes, all right. But stay close and do exactly what I say.”
“Of course.” She glanced out the train window. The countryside had given way to office buildings and apartment towers as they neared the city. “Ella Graf. That was the name you gave her? That’s who we’re looking for?”
“Yes.”
“Strange. You were David Webb. She was Monika Roth. Now both of you have new identities. And then there’s me. I’m the same person I always was.”
“Listen to me, Johanna. It’s been ten years since you saw your sister. A lot may have happened to her in that amount of time. You have to be prepared for that.”
“I know. A lot already has happened. I wonder what she’ll say to me. To you, too. I mean, I wonder what she’ll say about us. Suddenly, I’m nervous to tell her that we’re involved. I thought I wouldn’t care, but I do.”
“Don’t worry about that now.”
Johanna touched his face, and her fingers were warm. “What are you not telling me?”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s something else about my sister, something you’re not saying.”
He chose his words carefully. “There may be things about her that you never knew.”
“Like what?”
“Someone high up in Le Renouveau said I didn’t know who she really was.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. It could simply be a game he’s playing with me. A misdirection. Sowing mistrust.”
“But you don’t think so,” Johanna said.
“I don’t know what to think. How well did you actually know Monika?”
She frowned. “I thought pretty well, but I was just a teenager. She was much older than me. We were in separate countries most of the time, her in Germany, me in the U.S. Looking back, I guess I didn’t really know her well at all. I only knew what she told me about herself.”
“Did anything she told you ever strike you as odd? Or out of character?”
“Not that I remember. Or that I would have even noticed as a kid. She was a teacher. It seemed to me she mostly liked to read books. She talked a lot about what she was reading. That was it.”
“Where did she go to school?”
“I don’t even know. Somewhere in Germany or Switzerland, I guess. Like I said, she was a lot older. Jesus, you don’t think she’s one of them, do you?”
“I hope not.” Bourne looked out the window as the train started to slow. He heard the noises of people in the corridor getting ready to disembark. “But that’s why you’d be better off letting me do this alone.”
Johanna shook her head firmly. “No. I started this. I found you so that I could find her. I want to be there when you do.”
“Okay,” Jason agreed. “We’ll do this together. But you may not find what you’re looking for. Whenever we find Monika, she may not be the person you remember. She may be a stranger.”