The Bourne Sanction
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''The Bourne Sanction'' is the title of
Eric Van Lustbader Eric Van Lustbader (born December 24, 1946) is an American author of thriller and fantasy novels. He has published as Eric Lustbader, Eric V. Lustbader, and Eric Van Lustbader. He is a graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columb ...
's third
Jason Bourne Jason Bourne () is the titular character and the protagonist in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. The character was created by novelist Robert Ludlum. He first appeared in the novel '' The Bourne Identity'' (1980), which wa ...
novel, and the sixth novel in the ''Bourne'' series created by
Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 Thriller (genre), thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original ''Bourne (novel series), The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copi ...
. It was released on July 29, 2008, following Lustbader's ''
The Bourne Betrayal ''The Bourne Betrayal'' is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the fifth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum. It was published in June 2007. It is Lustbader's second Bourne novel, following '' The Bourne Leg ...
'' that was published in 2007.


Plot introduction

In the prologue, four prisoners at High Security Prison Colony 13, in
Nizhny Tagil Nizhny Tagil ( rus, Нижний Тагил, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj tɐˈgʲil) is a classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located east of the Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, boundary ...
, Russia, attack Borya Maks and try to kill him. Leonid Danilovich Arkadin, member of the Kazanskaya who appears on scene disguised as a guard, neutralizes the attackers prior to leading Borya into a corridor where, quite ironically, Maks meets his demise. Leonid Danilovich is an assassin sanctioned to kill Borya Maks by Pyotr Zilber. As Arkadin returns to
Campione d'Italia Campione d'Italia (; ) is a (municipality) of the Province of Como in the Italy, Italian region of Lombardy. Located on the shores of Lake Lugano, it is an enclave surrounded by the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Ticino. At its closest, the encla ...
, where Zilber pays him for a job well done. Pyotr then discusses another prospective target by the name of Semion Icoupov. Zilber, unaware that Icoupov is Arkadin's real boss, is subsequently kidnapped by Leonid. He awakens in a room with Semion Icoupov and Leonid Arkadin standing by. The two men begin to extract information out of him but are brought up short when he kills himself with a hidden tab of cyanide. Arkadin's next mission is to
Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...
to get possession of a document that is vitally important to the successful execution of a terrorist act on United States soil.


Plot summary

At the beginning of the book, Bourne is at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
talking with Moira Trevor. Moira Trevor wants Bourne to be the head of security at their new
liquid natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...
terminal in
Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
. Meanwhile, Veronica Hart, a woman determined to get the job as
Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Se ...
, is on her way to the
Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval room has three lar ...
to meet with the
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, Luther LaValle (
Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...
intelligence czar), and
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
General Richard P. Kendall. Whilst at a restaurant with Moira, Bourne senses somebody watching him. He has Moira surreptitiously call him on his phone, leaves the restaurant and waits for his enemy to appear. That failing, Bourne goes back into the restaurant to join Moira. He gradually realizes that it is Moira who is the one being followed. Luther LaValle, Rob Batt and General Kendall are hatching a conspiracy amongst their triumvirate to get Veronica Hart sacked. They want her out of her job as soon as possible. When Bourne and his academic mentor, Dominic Specter, meet in a library, Specter tells Bourne of Pyotr Zilber and his death. Zilber, it is revealed, was a former student of Specter's at Georgetown University. Specter reveals to Bourne that he is a terrorist hunter as well as an academic and would like Jason to go after Semion Icoupov. In Europe, Jason's investigation into the Black Legion turns into one of the deadliest and most tangled operations of his double life: the pursuit of the leader of a murderous terrorist group with roots in the darkest days of World War II. During all of this Leonid Arkadin, who is just as talented as, but even more damaged than Bourne, is getting closer by the minute. While Bourne thinks he is getting closer to Arkadin, Arkadin thinks he's getting closer to Bourne. Bourne goes to
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
using information provided by Professor Specter. He is followed by many people sent in pursuit of him because of intercepted information. Bourne checks into the Metrtopolya Hotel with a girl named Gala. His arrival is expected by many. The taxi driver, Yakov, is paid by a man named Harris Low to drop him off at the hotel. Yakov is a poor man with an unpleasant past who does what he must to survive. Meanwhile, in the hotel, Bourne wrestles with and garottes a phony waiter (agent Anthony Prowess) after dodging his blade. As he exits the room he finds a blood trail that leads to the closet where Prowess had executed a man also sent to trail Bourne. Meanwhile, Soraya and Tyrone are meeting with Luther LaValle and General Kendall. Tyrone and Soraya are to meet with them because LaValle and Kendall believe they are getting
intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
on the Black Legion. Tyrone leaves to finish what he, Soraya and a woman named Kiki are there for. He gets caught and is thrown into a cell. LaValle and Kendall leave Tyrone's life up to Soraya. She must trade Hart for Tyrone. But what LaValle did not know was that Hart was gathering intel that Rob Batt has been gathering ever since he was fired for being a mole. In Moscow, Bourne meets with Dimitri Maslow, who vaguely tells him about Arkadin's life. After the meeting Bourne calls Specter. Specter reveals that Pyotr Zilber was his son and a member of the Black Legion. Bourne knows what Arkadin is capable of doing and is going to go after Specter's last man, Kirsch. Later on when Bourne is in a museum in Munich he leaves Kirsch behind a statue. When he returns he finds him lying there with a bullet through his head. He meets Jens, one of the men Specter sent to give his apartment to Bourne. The pair leaves the building and Semion Icoupov rides up and shoots Jens point blank outside the museum. Escaping the mayhem in the State Museum in Sheremetyevo, Bourne and Petra, a security guard paid to shoot Kirsch, visit Herr Pelz, an older man that Petra knew when she was a child. He helped her in
Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...
, where she grew up. "Old" Pelz tells Bourne more information about the Black Legion. Bourne shows Pelz a picture and asks him if he can identify the people in it. Pointing to the picture of Professor Specter he says "Damn, I'd swear this one is Asher Sever." He told Bourne that Sever's dad, Ibrahim, killed Semion Icoupov's father. For that Icupouv executed Ibrahim. The brothers hated each other and wanted the other one killed. After being dropped off at Kirsch's apartment by Petra, Bourne finds a tiny transmitter planted on his passport. The door bells rings and it is Semion Icoupov. A couple of minutes later Arkadin blasts through the window with Devra coming in the back way and armed as well. Icoupov shoots Devra in the chest, but she then manages to shoot him in the shoulder, and he runs out of the house escaping to a rooftop. Arkadin then catches up with Server and Icoupov in their Mercedes and executes them in cold blood with a
SIG Sauer Mosquito The SIG Sauer Mosquito is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic pistol aesthetically based on the SIG Sauer P226, but 10% smaller in size and chambered for the .22 LR cartridge. The pistol is manufactured with an aluminum-zinc alloy slide and poly ...
. Bourne jumps out a helicopter onto the ''Moon of Hormuz'' (the tanker), following Arkadin. Bourne and Arkadin team up (or at least Bourne thinks so) to find Sever's man on board with the Black Legion symbol. Once Moira kills the doctor---Sever's man---Bourne comes down in the lower room because the captain told him that she was down there. As he comes up Arkadin lunges at him with a knife aiming at Bourne's stomach. After a long fight, Arkadain goes overboard with a twelve-story drop, plunging into the frigid water below. Back at the hospital where Asher Sever (who we find out is Dominic Specter) is on life support, Bourne meets Willard, the chef at the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
(NSA)
safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is a dwelling place or building whose unassuming appearance makes it an inconspicuous location where one can hide out, take shelter, or conduct clandestine activities. Historical usage It may also refer to ...
. There Willard tells him that Arkadin was a member of Treadstone. Conklin knew Icoupov and they agreed it would be good to train Arkadin because he had the drive and nothing to lose. In the end, however, Jason Bourne was the superior asset.


Reception

Joe Hartlaub reviewed the book for the Bookreporter and spoke highly of the author's contribution to the Bourne series calling it "is a thrill-a-minute work." Hartlaub also stated that Lustbader is "one of the best at creating believable and extremely dangerous villains who are the equal." The novel holds a rating of 3.9 out of 5 on
Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...
with 32% of the 8,691 ratings being 5 stars.


See Also

* Audio book review. * Joe Hartlaub.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne Sanction, The 2008 American novels Novels by Eric Van Lustbader Bourne (novel series) American spy novels American thriller novels