Patriot games - Tom Clancy [98]
"God, I need a stretch." Jack stood up and beckoned his friend to the stairs.
"How late were you up last night, sport?"
"I think we hit the sack a little after two."
Robby checked to see that Sally was out of earshot. "Being Santa is a bitch, isn't it? If you can put all those toys together, maybe I ought to turn you loose on my broke airplane."
"Wait till I have both arms back." Jack pulled his arm out of the sling and moved it around as they went down to the library level.
"What's Cathy say about that?"
"What docs always say-hell, if you get well too soon, they lose money!" He moved his wrist around. "This thing knots up like you wouldn't believe."
"How's it feel?"
"Pretty good. I think I might get full use back. At least I haven't had it quit on me yet." Jack checked his watch. "Want to catch the news?"
"Sure."
Ryan flipped on the small TV on his deck. Cable had finally made it down his road, and he was already hooked on CNN. It was so nice to get the national and world news whenever you wanted. Jack dropped into his swivel chair while Robby selected another in the corner. It was a few minutes short of the hourly headlines. Jack left the sound down.
"How's the book coming?"
"Getting there. I have all the information in line, finally. Four more chapters to write, and two I have to change around some, and it's done."
"What did you change?"
"Turned out that I got bum data. You were right about that deck-spotting problem on the Japanese carriers."
"I didn't think that sounded right," Robby replied. "They were pretty good, but they weren't that good-I mean, we took 'em at Midway, didn't we?"
"What about today?"
"The Russians? Hey, Jack, anybody wants to fool with me and my Tomcat better have his will fixed up. They don't pay me to lose, son." Jackson grinned like a sleepy lion.
"Nice to see such confidence."
"There's better pilots than me," Robby admitted. "Three, as a matter of fact. Ask me again in a year, when I'm back in the groove."
"Oh, yeah!" Jack laughed. The laugh died when he saw the picture on the TV screen. "That's him-I wonder why-" He turned the sound up.
" killed, including five police officers. An intensive land, sea, and air search is under way for the terrorists who snatched their convicted comrade while en route to a British prison on the Isle of Wight. Sean Miller was convicted only three weeks before in the daring attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales within sight of Buckingham Palace. Two police officers and one of the terrorists were killed before the attack was broken up by American tourist Jack Ryan of Annapolis, Maryland."
The picture changed to show the weather on the Channel and a Royal Navy helicopter, evidently searching for something. It changed again to a file tape of Miller being taken out of the Old Bailey. Just before he was put in the police van. Miller turned to face the camera, and now weeks later his eyes stared again into those of John Patrick Ryan.
"Oh, my God " Jack muttered.
* * *
10
Plans and Threats
ou shouldn't blame yourself, Jimmy," Murray said. "And Bob's going to make it. That's something."
"Certainly," Owens replied sardonically. "There's even a fifty-percent chance that he'll learn to walk again. What of the others, Dan? Five good men gone, and four civilians along with them."
"And maybe the terrorists, too," Murray pointed out.
"You don't believe that any more than I do!"
It had come as a piece of blind luck. A Royal Navy mine-hunter ship conducting an ongoing sonar survey of the English Channel had found a new object on the bottom and immediately sent a camera sled down to classify it. The videotape showed the remains of a ten-meter zodiac-type inflatable boat, with two hundred-horse outboard motors. It had clearly sunk as the result of an explosion near the gas tanks, but there was no evidence of the men who'd been aboard, or their weapons. The vessel's skipper had immediately grasped the importance of the discovery and informed his superiors. A salvage crew was