The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1986. It was the sequel to Ludlum's bestseller The Bourne Identity (1980) and precedes Ludlum's final Bourne novel, The Bourne Ultimatum (1990).

The Bourne Supremacy was adapted into a film of the same name in 2004 starring Matt Damon, although the film has a completely different plot from the novel.

Plot summary

In the first book, The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne suffered amnesia. Over the course of the book he regained his memory with the help of a Canadian economist, Marie, and later found that he was previously an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency in an elite project in Southeast Asia and Vietnam codenamed Medusa. Following the American forces withdrawal from Vietnam he joined Project Treadstone 71, where he was used as bait for the infamous European assassin, Carlos the Jackal. Bourne took credit for various kills in China and the rest of Asia, acting as a rival to the Jackal, in order to draw him out of hiding.

At the beginning of The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne has recovered from most mental and all physical injuries and is teaching Asian studies at a university in Maine under his real name of David Webb. He is also living happily on campus with Marie and is getting regular psychological tests from his doctor, Morris Panov.

The reader is then privy to a secretive conversation between high ranking U.S. officials in which they discuss the fragile situation in China. A rogue high ranking Chinese official who is one of the most well liked, respected men in China is planning a hostile takeover that will send all of Asia into a giant civil war disrupting world order. This tai-pan has taken advantage of the Jason Bourne lie created through Treadstone 71, and is deploying this new real-life Jason Bourne to assassinate his rivals in the Chinese government to pave the way for his rise to power. Knowing Webb's mistrust of the U.S. government, and deep-seated emotional instability due to a brutal attack in Vietnam that killed his previous wife and two children, they hatch a plan to abduct Marie, throwing him back into the primal state in which he existed as Delta, his alias while operating in Medusa.

It is then that a representative of the U.S. Government arrives and informs Webb of an imitator in Asia, someone who is killing under the name of Jason Bourne, a name feared in Asia because of the accredited kills during his work with Treadstone 71. Webb is told he requires a more visible security force because there is evidence someone wants him dead.

Soon thereafter, Marie is abducted by unknown men while Webb is at the University. Webb returns to the house, finds clues to her abduction, and immediately phones government officials, threatening to leak information about Treadstone and Medusa in an attempt to get assistance. He finds out information has been manipulated in order to make him seem crazy and delusional, and that his only course of action is to follow the instructions left for him by the kidnappers. He turns to the only person he thinks will be able to help him, Alexander Conklin. Conklin is convinced there is government involvement but that they have lost control of the situation and the hired guns holding Marie are no longer in their control. Webb who now has transformed back into his hated persona of Jason Bourne now has no choice but to go to Hong Kong and play out the scenario to get Marie back. There he meets with a wealthy Tai-Pan who wants Bourne to bring back the imposter Jason Bourne because the imposter killed his wife.

Marie, held captive in a British hospital, fakes an illness and escapes, taking refuge with Catherine Staples, a former colleague employed at the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong. She is later contacted by Conklin, who confronts Under-Secreatry MacAllister and Ambassador Havland, the orchestrators of the plan to manipulate Webb. Webb, tracing the impostor Bourne through Kowloon and Macau, tracks him to mainland China, where he encounters Echo, another former Medusa operative, who is also tracking down the impostor Bourne, who he personally trained. They track Bourne to a meeting in a bird sanctuary, where Echo is captured, and executed by Sheng Jo Yang, the Chinese nationalist leader that Havland has been desperately trying to eliminate. Webb captures the impostor Bourne, but in attempting to swap the impostor for Marie, is misled by MacAllister, as Marie is still held in secret by Conklin. Without Marie, Webb has stated clearly he will kill the impostor, whom Havland and MacAllister need to track down Yang. Thinking Marie has been killed, Bourne assaults Havland's "sterile house" estate, where the impostor is killed and Bourne nearly as well, saved only by the timely arrival of Marie and Conklin.

Bourne is then told of the whole plan and why Havilland had to abduct Marie. Since Bourne has seen what Sheng is capable of, he says that he must go back into the fray and kill Sheng. McAllister goes with Bourne, and during their search for Sheng, McAllister explains that he must be the one to kill Sheng, that was his plan from the start. The meeting between Sheng and Bourne and McAllister takes place on the Chinese border, and during the meeting McAllister is shot before he can make the kill, so Bourne has to kill Sheng instead, in which he does. They escape with Sheng's helicopter.

The story is set during the British negotiated handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on the expiration of its ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories. Southeast Asia is particularly volatile and fragile, and mistakes cannot be tolerated by any world power.

Publication history