Patriot games - Tom Clancy [73]
"I gotta admire your timing. Jack. You made it back almost in time for Christmas break," Skip observed as everyone got in the car.
"I didn't exactly plan it that way," Jack objected.
"How's the shoulder?"
"Better'n it was, guy."
"I believe it," Tyler laughed as he pulled away from the terminal. "I was surprised they got you on the Concorde. How'd you like it?"
"It's over a lot faster."
"Yeah, that's what they say."
"How are things going at school?"
"Ah, nothing ever changes. You heard about The Game?" Tyler 's head came around.
"No, as a matter of fact." How did I ever forget about that?
"Absolutely great. Five points down with three minutes left, we recover a fumble on our twelve. Thompson finally gets it untracked and starts hitting sideline patterns-boom, boom, boom, eight-ten yards a pop. Then he pulls a draw play that gets us to the thirty. Army changes its defense, right? So we go to a spread. I'm up in the press box, and I see their strong-side safety is favoring the outside-figures we gotta stop the clock-and we call a post for the tight end. Like a charm! Thompson couldn't have handed him the ball any better! Twenty-one to nineteen. What a way to end the season."
Tyler was an Annapolis graduate who'd made second-string All-American at offensive tackle before entering the submarine service. Three years before, when he'd been on the threshold of his own command a drunk driver had left him without half his leg. Amazingly, Skip hadn't looked back. After taking his doctorate in engineering from MIT, he'd joined the faculty at Annapolis, where he was also able to scout and do a little coaching in the football program. Jack wondered how much happier Jean was now. A lovely girl who had once worked as a legal secretary, she must have resented Skip's enforced absences on submarine duty. Now she had him home-surely he wasn't straying far; it seemed that Jean was always pregnant-and they were rarely separated. Even when they walked in the shopping malls. Skip and Jean held hands. If anyone found it humorous, he kept his peace about it.
"What are you doing about a Christmas tree. Jack?"
"I haven't thought about it," Ryan admitted.
"I found a place where we can cut 'em fresh. I'm going over tomorrow. Wanna come?"
"Sure. We have some shopping to do, too," he added quietly.
"Boy, you've really been out of it. Cathy called last week. Jean and I finished up the, uh, the important part. Didn't she tell you?"
"No." Ryan turned to see his wife smile at him. Gotcha! "Thanks, Skip."
"Ah." Tyler waved his hand as they pulled onto the D.C. beltway. "We're going up to Jean's family's place-last chance for her to travel before the twins arrive. And Professor Billings says you have a little work waiting for you."
A little, Ryan thought. More like two months' worth.
"When are you going to be able to start back to work?"
"It'll have to wait until he gets the cast off," Cathy answered for Jack. "I'll be taking Jack to Baltimore tomorrow to see about that. We'll get Professor Hawley to check him out."
"No sense hurrying with that kind of injury," Skip acknowledged. He had ample personal experience with that sort of thing. "Robby says hi. He couldn't make it. He's down at Pax River today on a flight simulator, learning to be an airedale again. Rob and Sissy are doing fine, they were just over the house night before last. You picked a good weather day, too. Rained most of last week."
Home, Jack told himself as he listened. Back