Patriot games - Tom Clancy [59]
Richards stood. "My Lord, the witness has already-"
"If His Lordship will permit me to ask the next question, the issue will be more clear," Atkinson interrupted smoothly.
"Proceed."
"Doctor Ryan, you said that you shot my client in the hope that he would not get up. Do the U.S. Marine Corps teach one to shoot to disable, or to kill?"
"To kill, sir."
"And you are telling us, therefore, that you went against your training?"
"Yes, sir. It is pretty clear that I was not on a battlefield. I was on a city street. It never occurred to me to kill your client." I wish it had, then I probably wouldn't be here, Ryan thought, wondering if he really meant it.
"So you reacted in accordance with your training when you leaped into the fray on The Mall, but then you disregarded your training a moment later? Do you think it reasonable that all of us here will believe that?"
Atkinson had finally succeeded in confusing Ryan. Jack had not the slightest idea where this was leading.
"I haven't thought of it that way, sir, but, yes, you are correct," Jack admitted. "That is pretty much what happened."
"And next you crept to the corner of the automobile, saw the second person whom you had seen earlier, and instead of trying to disable him, you shot him dead without warning. In this case, it is clear that you reverted again to your Marine training, and shot to kill. Don't you find this inconsistent?"
Jack shook his head. "Not at all, sir. In each case I used the force necessary to-well, the force I had to use, as I saw things."
"I think you are wrong, Sir John. I think that you reacted like a hotheaded officer of the United States Marines throughout. You raced into a situation of which you had no clear understanding, attacked an innocent man, and tried then to kill him while he lay helpless and unconscious on the street. Next you coldly gunned down someone else without the first thought of trying to disarm him. You did not know then, and you do not know now what was really happening, do you?"
"No, sir, I do not believe that was the case at all. What was I supposed to have done with the second man?"
Atkinson saw an opening and used it. "You just told the court that you only wished to disable my client-when in fact you tried to kill him. How do you expect us to believe that when your next action had not the first thing to do with such a peaceful solution?"
"Sir, when I saw McCrory, the second gunman, for the first time, he had an AK-47 assault rifle in his hands. Going up against a light machine gun with a pistol-"
"But by this time you saw that he didn't have the Kalashnikov, didn't you?"
"Yes, sir, that's true. If he'd still had it-I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have stepped around the car, maybe I would have shot from cover, from behind the car, that is."
"Ah, I see!" Atkinson exclaimed. "Instead, here was your chance to confront and kill the man in true cowboy fashion." His hands went up in the air. " Dodge City on The Mall!"
"I wish you'd tell me what you think I should have done," Jack said with some exasperation.
"For someone able to shoot straight through the heart on his first shot, why not shoot the gun from his hand. Sir John?"
"Oh, I see." Atkinson had just made a mistake. Ryan shook his head and smiled. "I wish you'd make up your mind."
"What?" The barrister was caught by surprise.
"Mr. Atkinson, a minute ago you said that I tried to kill your client. I was at arm's-length range, but I didn't kill him. So I'm a pretty lousy shot. But you expect me to be able to hit a man in the hand at fifteen or twenty feet. It doesn't work that way, sir. I'm either a good shot or a bad shot, sir, but not both. Besides, that's just TV stuff, shooting a gun out of somebody's hand. On TV the good guy can do that, but TV isn't real. With a pistol, you aim for the center of your target. That's what I did. I stepped out from behind the car to get a clear shot, and I aimed. If McCrory had not turned his gun towards me-I can't say for sure, but probably I would not have shot.