Executive orders - Tom Clancy [328]
The director, cued ahead of time to the question, had selected the camera zeroed in on Ryan's face just in time to see his eyes go as wide as doorknobs. He really wasn't all that good at controlling his emotions. Tom, I-
The viewers should know that you played a decisive role in one of the greatest intelligence coups of all time. We got our hands on an intact Soviet ballistic-missile submarine, didn't we?
I won't comment on that story. By this time his makeup couldn't hide the pale look. Cathy turned to look at her husband, having felt his hand in hers turn to ice.
And then less than two years later, you personally arranged the defection of the head of the Russian KGB.
Jack managed to control his face, finally, but his voice was wooden. Tom, this has to stop. You're making unfounded speculations.
Mr. President, that individual, Nikolay Gerasimov, formerly of the KGB, now lives with his family in Virginia. The captain of the submarine lives in Florida. It's not a 'story'-he smiled-and you know it. Sir, I don't understand your reticence. You played a major role in bringing that peace to the world that you talked about a few minutes ago.
Tom, let me make this clear. I will not ever discuss intelligence operations in any public forum. Period.
But the American people have a right to know what sort of man sits in this office. The same thing had been said eleven hours before by John Plumber, who winced inwardly to hear himself quoted in this way, but who could not turn on his own colleague in public.
Tom, I have served my country to the best of my ability for a number of years, but just as you cannot reveal your news sources, so our intelligence agencies cannot reveal many of the things they do, for fear of getting real people killed.
But, Mr. President, you have done that. You have killed people.
Yes, I have, and more than one President has been a soldier or-
Wait a minute, Cathy interrupted, and now her eyes were flaring. I want to say something. Jack joined CIA after our family was attacked by terrorists. If he hadn't done those things back then, none of us would be alive. I was pregnant with our son then, and they tried to kill me and our daughter in my car in Annapolis and-
Excuse me, Mrs. Ryan, but we have to take a break now.
This has to stop, Tom. This has to stop right now, Ryan said forcefully. When people talk about field operations in the open, real people can get killed. Do you understand that? The camera lights were off, but the tapes were still rolling.
Mr. President, the people have a right to know, and it's my job to report the facts. Have I lied about anything?
I can't even comment on that, and you know it, Ryan said, having almost snarled an accurate answer. Temper, Jack, temper, he reminded himself. A President can't have a temper, damned sure not on live TV. Damn, Marko would never cooperate with the-or would he? He was Lithuanian, and maybe he might like the idea of becoming a national hero, though Jack figured he might just talk him out of such a thing. But Gerasimov was something else. Ryan had disgraced the man, threatened him with death-at the hands of his own countrymen, but that didn't matter to a man like him-and stripped him of all his power. Gerasimov now enjoyed a life far more comfortable than anything he might have enjoyed in the Soviet Union, which he had sought to maintain and rule, but he wasn't the sort of man to enjoy comfort so much as power. Gerasimov had aspired to the sort of position Ryan now enjoyed himself, and would have felt very comfortable in this office or another like it. But those who aspired to power were most often those who misused it, which distinguished him from Jack in one more way. Not that it mattered at the moment. Gerasimov would talk. Sure as hell. And they knew where he was.
So what do I do now?
We're back in the Oval Office with President and Mrs. Ryan, Donner intoned for anyone who might have forgotten.
Mr. President, you are an expert in