Patriot games - Tom Clancy [166]
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17
Recriminations and Decisions
yan awoke to find Robby waving a cup of coffee under his nose. Jack had managed to sleep without dreams this time, and the oblivion of undisturbed slumber had worked wonders on him.
"Sissy was over the hospital earlier. She says Cathy looks all right, considering. It's all set up so you can get in to see Sally. She'll be asleep, but you can see her."
"Where is she?"
"Sissy? She's out runnin' some errands."
"I need a shave."
"Me, too. She's getting what we need. First I'm gonna get some food in ya'," Robby said.
"I owe you, man," Jack said as he stood.
"Give it a rest, Jack. That's what the Lord put us here for, like my pappy says. Now, eat!" Robby commanded.
Jack realized that he'd not eaten anything for a long time, and once his stomach reminded itself of this, it cried out for nourishment. Within five minutes he'd disposed of two eggs, bacon, hash-browns, four slices of toast, and two cups of coffee.
"Shame they don't have grits here," Robby observed. A knock came to the door. The pilot answered it. Sissy breezed in with a shopping bag in one hand and Jack's briefcase in the other.
"You better freshen up, Jack," she said. "Cathy looks better than you do."
"Nothing unusual about that," Jack replied-cheerfully, he realized with surprise. Sissy had baited him into it.
"Robby?"
"Yeah?"
"What the hell are grits?"
"You don't want to know," Cecilia Jackson answered.
"I'll take your word for it." Jack walked into the bathroom and started the shower. By the time he got out, Robby had shaved, leaving the razor and cream on the sink. Jack scraped his beard away and patched the bloody spots with toilet paper. A new toothbrush was sitting there too, and Ryan emerged from the room looking and feeling like a human being.
"Thanks, guys," he said.
"I'll take you home tonight," Robby said. "I have to teach class tomorrow. You don't. I fixed it with the department."
"Okay."
Sissy left for home. Jack and Robby walked over to the hospital. Visiting hours were under way and they were able to walk right up to Cathy's room.
"Well, if it isn't our hero!" Joe Muller was Cathy's father. He was a short, swarthy man-Cathy's hair and complexion came from her mother, now dead. A senior VP with Merrill Lynch, he was a product of the Ivy League, and had started in the brokerage business much as Ryan had, though his brief stint in the military had been two years of drafted service in the Army that he'd long since put behind him. He'd once had big plans for Jack and had never forgiven him for leaving the business. Muller was a passionate man who was also well aware of his importance in the financial community. He and Jack hadn't exchanged a civil word in over three years. It didn't look to Jack as though that was going to change.
"Daddy," Cathy said, "we don't need that."
"Hi, Joe." Ryan held out his hand. It hung there for five seconds, all by itself. Robby excused himself out the door, and Jack went to kiss his wife. "Lookin' better, babe."
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Muller demanded.
"The guy who wanted to kill me was arrested yesterday. The FBI has him," Jack said carefully. He amazed himself by saying it so calmly. Somehow it seemed a trivial matter compared with his wife and daughter.
"This is all your fault, you know." Muller had been rehearsing this for hours.
"I know," Jack conceded the point. He wondered how much more he could back up.
"Daddy-" Cathy started to say.
"You keep out of this," Muller said to his daughter, a little too sharply for Jack.
"You can say anything you want to me, but don't snap at her," he warned.
"Oh, you want to protect her, eh? So where the hell were you yesterday!"
"I was in my office, just like you were."
"You had to stick your nose in where it didn't belong, didn't you? You had to play hero-and you damned near got your family killed," Muller went on through his lines.
"Look, Mr. Muller." Jack had told himself all these things before. He could accept the punishment from himself. But not from his father- in-law. "Unless you