Patriot games - Tom Clancy [29]
The Prince looked deep into his coffee cup. His face was that of a man who had recovered from fear and shame. Now he contemplated cold anger at what might have been.
"Well, they've had their chance, haven't they?"
"Yes, sir. I imagine if they ever try again, it'll be a lot harder. Right, Tony?"
"I seriously doubt that they will ever try again," Wilson replied. "We should develop some rather good intelligence from this incident. The ULA have stepped over an invisible line. Politically, success might have enhanced their position, but they didn't succeed, did they? This will harm them, harm their 'popular' support. Some people who know them will now consider talking-not to us, you understand, but some of what they say will get to us in due course. They were outcasts before, they will be outcasts even more now."
Will they learn from this? Ryan wondered. If so, what will they have learned? There's a question. Jack knew that it had only two possible answers, and that those answers were diametrically opposed. He made a mental note. He'd follow up on this when he got home. It wasn't a merely academic exercise now. He had a bullet hole in his shoulder to prove that.
The Prince rose to his feet. "You must excuse me. Jack. I'm afraid I have rather a full day ahead."
"Going back out, eh?"
"If I hide, they've won. I understand that fact better now than when I came in here. And I have something else to thank you for."
"You would have figured it out sooner or later. Better it should be sooner, don't you think?"
"We must see more of each other."
"I'd like that, sir. Afraid I'm stuck here for a while, though."
"We are traveling out of the country soon-the day after tomorrow. It's a state visit to New Zealand and the Solomon Islands. You may be gone before we get back."
"Is your wife up to it. Your Highness?"
"I think so. A change of scenery, the doctor said, is just the ticket. She had a very bad experience yesterday, but"- he smiled-"I think it was harder on me than on her."
I'll buy that, Ryan thought. She's young, she'll bounce back, and at least she has something good to remember. Putting your body between your family and the bullets ought to firm up any relationship. "Hey, she sure as hell knows you love her, sir."
"I do, you know," the Prince said seriously.
"It's the customary reason to get married, sir," Jack replied, "even for us common folk."
"You're a most irreverent chap. Jack."
"Sorry about that." Ryan grinned. So did the Prince.
"No, you're not." His Highness extended his hand. "Thank you, Sir John, for many things."
Ryan watched him leave with a brisk step and a straight back.
"Tony, you know the difference between him and me? I can say that I used to be a Marine, and that's enough. But that poor guy's got to prove it every damned day, to everybody he meets. I guess that's what you have to do when you're in the public eye all the time." Jack shook his head. "There's no way in hell they could pay me enough to take his job."
"He's born to it," Wilson said.
Ryan thought about that. "That's one difference between your country and mine. You think people are born to something. We know that they have to grow into it. It's not the same thing, Tony."
"Well, you're part of it now, Jack."
"I think I should go." David Ashley looked at the telex in his hand. The disturbing thing was that he'd been requested by name. The PIRA knew who he was, and they knew that he was the Security Service executive on the case. How the hell did they know that!
"I agree," James Owens said. "If they're this anxious to talk with us, they might be anxious enough to tell us something useful.