The Bourne Identity At the beginning of the novel, Jason Bourne is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea with several bullet wounds covering his body, including a major head wound which has given him amnesia. The fisherman that found have presumed him dead and brought him to a doctor on shore. The doctor treating him examines his body and finds a device surgically embedded in his hip that contains the number of a Swiss bank account in Zurich. In Zurich, Switzerland, Bourne arrives at the bank and is recognized by the teller. Here he learns that his name is Jason Bourne. While attempting to retrace his steps from when he was previously in the city he attracts the attention of several people who either fear him, warn him of danger, or try to kill him. But they all assume that he already knows why and do not understand that Bourne cannot remember his past. He also meets or sort of kidnaps a woman named Marie St Jacques in Zurich and in the spur of the moment, uses her as a sort of hostage to escape an attacker in a crowded hotel. As Bourne forces Marie to transport him while he searches for evidence of his previous life he begins to suspect, on the basis of some pretty clear evidence from a newspaper and the circumstances he is in, that he may have been a professional assassin before he lost his memory at sea. Eventually Marie escapes from Bourne and immediately tries to get help from men she thinks are police, but they turn out to be enemies of Bourne and related to a skilled assassin named Carlos. When Bourne rescues her at the risk of his own life, Marie decides to actually be useful and help him. Bourne realizes that he has put her life in danger as well, and asks her to leave but she refuses. As the story moves along, Bourne discovers information that leads him to Carlos. Bourne learns that he has an alias named Cain that he used in order to challenge and kill Carlos as part of a mission called Treadstone Seventy-One. His fellow