The provided excerpts from Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Ultimatum describe a high-stakes espionage narrative centered on David Webb, a scholar who must revert to his deadly alter ego, Jason Bourne, to protect his family from unknown threats. The central conflict involves Bourne, his former intelligence colleague Alex Conklin, and a handful of trusted allies racing against time to hunt down the notorious assassin Carlos the Jackal and dismantle a covert operation known as Medusa. The text outlines complicated plots, including a disinformation campaign that created the Bourne legend, the assassination of a NATO commander to frame Bourne, and the dangerous pursuit across various international locales, culminating in a desperate confrontation on the island of Montserrat and in a Soviet training facility in Novgorod, where the threat to Webb and his family remains imminent even after the apparent death of the Jackal.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.