Jack Ryan 2 - Patriot Games by Tom Clancy Read Free Book Online Page B

should have tried something else. Maybe I should have said, 'Drop it!' or 'Freeze!' like they do on TV -- but there just wasn't time. Everything was right now -- him or me -- do you know what I mean? You don't . . . you don't reason all this out when you only have half a second of decision time. I guess you go on training and instinct. The only training I've had was in the Green Machine, the Corps, They don't teach you to arrest people -- Christ's sake, I didn't want to kill anybody, I just didn't have a hell of a choice in the matter.” Ryan paused for a moment.
    “Why didn't he -- quit, run away, something! He saw I had him. He must have known I had him cold.” Ryan slumped back into the pillow. Having to articulate what had happened brought it back all too vividly. A man is dead because of you. Jack. All the way dead. He had his instincts, too, didn't he? But yours worked better -- so why doesn't that make you feel good?
    “Doctor Ryan,” Owens said calmly, “we three have personally interviewed six people, all of whom had a clear view of the incident. From what they have told us, you have related the circumstances to us with remarkable clarity. Given the facts of the matter, I -- we -- do not see that you had any choice at all. It is as certain as such things can possibly be that you did precisely the right thing. And your second shot did not matter, if that is troubling you. Your first went straight through his heart.”
    Jack nodded. “Yeah, I could see that. The second shot was completely automatic, like my hand did it without being told. The gun came back down and zap! No thought at all . . . funny how your brain works. It's like one part does the doing and another part does the watching and advising. The 'watching' part saw the first round go right through his ten-ring, but the 'doing' part kept going till he went down. I might have tried to squeeze off another round for all I know, but the gun was empty.”
    “The Marines taught you to shoot very well indeed,” Taylor observed.
    Ryan shook his head. “Dad taught me when I was a kid. The Corps doesn't make a big deal about pistols anymore -- they're just for show. If the bad guys get that close, it's time to leave. I carried a rifle. Anyway, the guy was only fifteen feet away.” Owens made some more notes.
    “The car took off a few seconds later. I didn't get much of a look at the driver. It could have been a man or a woman. He or she was white, that's all I can say. The car went whippin' up the street and turned, last I saw of it.”
    “It was one of our London taxis -- did you notice that?” Taylor asked.
    Ryan blinked. “Oh, you're right. I didn't really think about that -- that's dumb! Hell, you have a million of the damned things around. No wonder they used one of those.”
    “Eight thousand six hundred seventy-nine, to be exact,” Owens said. “Five thousand nine hundred nineteen of which are painted black.”
    A light went off in Ryan's head. “Tell me, was this an assassination attempt or were they trying to kidnap them?”
    “We're not sure about that. You might be interested to know that Sinn Fein, the political wing of the PIRA, released a statement completely disowning the incident.”
    “You believe that?” Ryan asked. With pain medications still coursing through his system, he didn't quite notice how skillfully Taylor had parried his question.
    “Yes, we are leaning in that direction. Even the Proves aren't this crazy, you know. Something like this has far too high a political price. They learned that much from killing Lord Mountbatten -- wasn't even the PIRA who did that, but the INLA, the Irish National Liberation Army. Regardless, it cost them a lot of money from their American sympathizers,” Taylor said.
    “I see from the papers that your fellow citizens --”
    “Subjects,” Ashley corrected.
    “Whatever, your people are pretty worked up about this.”
    “Indeed they are, Doctor Ryan. It is rather remarkable how