The Bourne Betrayal
“This was the center of the once immense Byzantine Empire that, at its height, extended from southern Spain to Bulgaria to Egypt.
Modern-day Sultanahmet had lost neither its spectacular architecture nor its power to awe. The center was a hillock called the Hippodrome, with the Blue Mosque on one side and the Hagia Sophia, built a century earlier, on the other. The two were linked by a small park. Nowadays the social center of the district was nearby Akbiyik Caddesi, the Avenue of the White Mustache, whose northernmost end gave out onto Topkapi Palace. This wide thoroughfare was lined with shops, bars, cafйs, groceries, restaurants, and, on Wednesday mornings, a street market.
Bourne, appearing among the loudly chattering hordes packing Akbiyik Caddesi, was barely recognizable. He wore the traditional Turkish outfit, his jaw hidden behind the full beard.
He stopped at a street cart to buy simit-sesame bread-and pale yellow yogurt, eating them as he took in his surroundings.
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