by Tom Clancy
“I see you’ve told him.” The Queen returned as quietly as a cat. The Duke, Jack saw, was talking to Admiral Charleston. About what? he wondered. “Congratulations, Sir John.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, and thank you for a lot of things. We’ll never be able to repay you for all your kindness.”
The Christmas-tree smile again. “It is we who are repaying you. From what Caroline tells me, you will now have at least one positive reminder of your visit to our country.”
“Indeed, ma’am, but more than one.” Jack was learning how the game was played.
“Caroline, is he always so gallant?”
“As a matter of fact, ma’am, no. We must have caught him at a weak moment,” Cathy said. “Or maybe being over here is a civilizing influence.”
“That is good to know, after all the horrid things he said about your little Olivia. Do you know that she refused to go to bed without kissing me goodnight? Such a lovely, charming little angel. And he called her a menace!”
Jack sighed. It wasn’t hard for him to get the picture. After three weeks in this environment, Sally was probably doing the cutest curtsies in the history of Western Civilization. By this time the Palace staff was probably fighting for the right to look after her. Sally was a true daddy’s girl. The ability to manipulate the people around her came easily. She’d practiced on her father for years.
“Perhaps I exaggerated, ma’am.”
“Libelously.” The Queen’s eyes flared with amusement. “She has not broken a single thing. Not one. And I’ll have you know that she’s turning into the best equestrienne we have seen in years. ”
“Excuse me?”
“Riding lessons,” Cathy explained.
“You mean on a horse?”
“What else would she ride?” the Queen asked.
“Sally, on a horse?” Ryan looked at his wife. He didn’t like that idea very much.
“And doing splendidly.” The Queen sprang to Cathy’s defense. “It’s quite safe, Sir John. Riding is a fine skill for a child to learn. It teaches discipline, coordination, and responsibility.”
Not to mention a fabulous way to break her pretty little neck, Ryan thought. Again he remembered that one does not argue with a queen, especially under her own roof.
“You could even try to ride yourself,” the Queen said. “Your wife rides.”
“We have enough land now, Jack,” Cathy said. “You’d love it. ”
“I’d fall off,” Ryan said bleakly.
“Then you climb back on again until you get it right,” said a woman with over fifty years of riding behind her.
It’s the same with a bike, except you don’t fall as far off a bike, and Sally’s too little for a bike, Ryan told himself. He got nervous watching Sally move her Hotwheel trike around the driveway. For God’s sake, she’s so little the horse wouldn’t even know if she was there or not. Cathy read his mind.
“Children do have to grow up. You can’t protect her from everything,” his wife pointed out.
“Yes, dear, I know.” The hell I can’t. That’s my job.
A few minutes later everyone headed out the room for dinner. Ryan found himself in the Blue Drawing Room, a breathtaking pillared hall, and then passed through mirrored double doors into the State Dining Room.
The contrast was incredible. From a room of muted blue they entered one ablaze with scarlet, fabric-covered walls. Overhead the vaulted ceiling was ivory and gold, and over the snow-white fireplace was a massive portrait—of whom? Ryan wondered. It had to be a king, of course, probably 18th or 19th century, judging by his white ... pantyhose, or whatever they’d called them then, complete with garter. Over the door they’d entered was the royal cipher of Queen Victoria, VR, and he wondered how much history had passed through—or been made right in this single room.
“You will sit at my right hand, Jack,” the Queen said.
Ryan took a quick look at the table. It was wide enough that he didn’t have to worry about clobbering Her Majesty with his left arm. That wouldn’t do.
The worst thing about the dinner was that Ryan would be forever unable to remember—and too proud to ask Cathy—what it was. Eating one-handed was something he’d had a lot of practice at, but never had he had such an audience, and Ryan was sure that everyone was watching him. After all, he was a Yank and would have been something of a curiosity even without his arm. He constantly reminded himself to be careful, to go easy on the wine, to watch his language. He shot the occasional glance at Cathy, sitting at the other end of the table next to the Duke and clearly enjoying herself. It made her husband slightly angry that she was more at ease than he was. If there was ever a pig in the manger, Ryan thought while chewing on something he immediately forgot, it’s me. He wondered if he would be here now, had he been a rookie cop or a private in the Royal Marines who just happened to be at the right place. Probably not, he thought. And why is that? Ryan didn’t know. He did know that something about the institution of nobility went against his American outlook. At the same time, being knighted—even honorarily—was something he liked. It was a contradiction that troubled him in a way he didn’t understand. All this attention was too seductive, he told himself. It’ll be good to get away from it. Or will it? He sipped at a glass of wine. I know I don’t belong here, but do I want to belong here? There’s a good question. The wine didn’t give him an answer. He’d have to find it somewhere else.
He looked down the table to his wife, who did seem to fit in very nicely. She’d been raised in a similar atmosphere, a monied family, a big house in Westchester County, lots of parties where people told one another how important they all were. It was a life he’d rejected, and that she had walked away from. They were both happy with what they had, each with a career, but did her ease with this mean that she missed ... Ryan frowned.
“Feeling all right, Jack?” the Queen asked.
“Yes, ma’am, please excuse me. I’m afraid it will take me a while to adjust to all of this.”
“Jack,” she said quietly, “the reason everyone likes you—and we all do, you know—is because of who and what you are. Try to keep that in mind.”
It struck Ryan that this was probably the kindest thing he’d ever been told. Perhaps nobility was supposed to be a state of mind rather than an institution. His father-in-law could learn from that, Ryan thought. His father-in-law could learn from a lot of things.
Three hours later Jack followed his wife into their room. There was a sitting room off to the right. In front of him the bed had already been turned down. He pulled the tie loose from his collar and undid the button, then let out a long, audible breath.
“You weren’t kidding about turning into pumpkins.”
“I know,” his wife said.
Only a single dim light was lit, and his wife switched it off. The only illumination in the room was from distant streetlights that filtered through the heavy curtains. Her white dress stood out in the darkness, but her face showed only the curve of her lips and the sparkle of her eyes as she turned away from the light. Her husband’s mind filled in the remaining details. Jack wrapped his good arm around his wife and cursed the monstrosity of plaster that encased his left side as he pulled her in close. She rested her head on his healthy shoulder, and his cheek came down to the softness of her fine blond hair. Neither said anything for a minute or two. It was enough to be alone, together in the quiet darkness.
“Love ya, babe.”
“How are you feeling, Jack?” The question was more than a simple inquiry.
“Not bad. Pretty well rested. The shoulder doesn’t hurt very much anymore. Aspirin takes care of the aches.” This was an exaggeration, but Jack was used to the discomfort.
“Oh, I see how they did it.” Cathy was exploring the left side of his jacket. The tailors had put snap closures on the underside so that it would not so much conceal the cast as make it look dressed. His wife removed the snaps quickly and pulled the coat off. The shirt went next.
“I
am able to do this myself, you know.”
“Shut up, Jack. I don’t want to have to wait all night for you to undress.” He next heard the sound of a long zipper.
“Can I help?”
There was laughter in the darkness. “I might want to wear this dress again. And be careful where you put that arm.”
“I haven’t crunched anyone yet.”
“Good. Let’s try to keep a perfect record.” A whisper of silk. She took his hand. “Let’s get you sitting down.”
After he sat on the edge of the bed, the rest came easy. Cathy sat beside him. He felt her, cool and smooth at his side, a hint of perfume in the air. He reached around her shoulder, down to the soft skin of her abdomen.
It’s happening right now, growing away while we sit here. “You’re going to have my baby,” Jack said softly. There really is a God, and there really are miracles.
Her hand came across his face. “That’s right. I can’t have anything to drink after tonight—but I wanted to enjoy tonight.”
“You know, I really do love you.”
“I know,” she said. “Lie back.”
6
Trials and Troubles
Preliminary testimony lasted for about two hours while Ryan sat on a marble bench outside Old Bailey’s number two courtroom. He tried to work on his computer, but he couldn’t seem to keep his mind on it, and found himself staring around the hundred-sixty-year-old building.
Security was incredibly tight. Outside, numerous uniformed police constables stood about in plain sight, small zippered pistol cases dangling from their hands. Others, uniformed and not, stood on the buildings across Newgate Street like falcons on the watch for rabbits. Except rabbits don’t carry machine guns and RPG-7 bazookas, Ryan thought. Every person who entered the building was subjected to a metal detector sensitive enough to ping on the foil inside a cigarette pack, and nearly everyone was given a pat-down search. This included Ryan, who was surprised enough at the intimacy of the search to tell the officer that he went a bit far for a first date. The grand hall was closed off to anyone not connected with the case, and less prominent trials had been switched among the building’s nineteen courtrooms to accommodate Crown ν Miller.
Ryan had never been in a courthouse before. He was amused by the fact that he’d never even had a speeding ticket, his life had been so dull until now. The marble floor—nearly everything in sight was marble—gave the hall the aspect of a cathedral, and the walls were decorated with aphorisms such as Cicero’s THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE HIGHEST LAW, a phrase he found curiously—or at least potentially—expedient in what was certainly designed as a temple to the idea of law. He wondered if the members of the ULA felt the same way, and justified their activities in accordance with their view of the welfare of the people. Who doesn’t? Jack asked himself. What tyrant ever failed to justify his crimes? Around him were a half-dozen other witnesses. Jack didn’t talk with them. His instructions were quite specific: even the appearance of conversation might give cause to the defense attorneys to speculate that witnesses had coached one another. The prosecution team had bent every effort to make their case a textbook example of correct legal procedure.
The case was being handled on a contradictory basis. The ambush had taken place barely four weeks ago, and the trial was already under way—an unusually speedy process even by British standards. Security was airtight. Admittance to the public gallery (visitors entered from another part of the building) was being strictly controlled. But at the same time, the trial was being handled strictly as a criminal matter. The name “Ulster Liberation Army” had not been mentioned. The prosecutor had not once used the word terrorist. The police ignored—publicly—the political aspects of the case. Two men were dead, and this was a trial for first-degree murder—period. Even the press was playing along, on the theory that there was no more contemptuous way to treat the defendant than to call him a simple criminal, and not sanctify him as a creature of politics. Jack wondered about additional political or intelligence-related motives in this treatment, but no one was talking along those lines, and the defense attorney certainly couldn’t defend his client better by calling him a member of a terrorist group. In the media, and in the courtroom, this was a case of murder.
The truth was different, of course, and everyone knew it. But Ryan knew enough about the law to remember that lawyers rarely concern themselves with truth. The rules were far more important. There would therefore be no official speculation on the goal of the criminals, and no involvement of the Royal Family, aside from depositions that they could not identify the living conspirator and hence had no worthwhile evidence to offer.
It didn’t matter. From the press coverage of the evidence it seemed clear enough that the trial was as airtight as was possible without a videotape of the entire event. Similarly, Cathy was not to testify. In addition to forensic experts who had testified the day before, the Crown had eight eyewitnesses. Ryan was number two. The trial was expected to last a maximum of four days. As Owens had told him in the hospital, there would be no mucking about with this lad.
“Doctor Ryan? Would you please follow me, sir?” The VIP treatment continued here also. A bailiff in short sleeves and tie came over and led him into the courtroom through a side door. A police officer took his computer after opening the door. “Show-time,” Ryan whispered to himself.
Old Bailey #2 was an extravagance of 19th-century woodworking. The large room was paneled with so much solid oak that the construction of a similar room in America would draw a protest from the Sierra Club for all the trees it required. The actual floorspace was surprisingly small, scarcely as much as the dining room in his house, a similarity made all the more striking by a table set in the center. The judge’s bench was a wooden fortress adjacent to the witness box. The Honorable Mr. Justice Wheeler sat in one of the five high-backed chairs behind it. He was resplendent in a scarlet robe and sash, and a horsehair wig, called a “peruke,” Ryan had been told, that fell to his narrow shoulders and clearly looked like something from another age. The jury box was to Ryan’s left. Eight women and four men sat in two even rows, each face full of anticipation. Above them was the public gallery, perched like a choir loft and angled so that Ryan could barely see the people there. The barristers were to Ryan’s right, across the small floorspace, wearing black robes, 18th-century cravats, and their own, smaller wigs. The net effect of all this was a vaguely religious atmosphere that made Ryan slightly uneasy as he was sworn in.
William Richards, QC, the prosecutor, was a man of Ryan’s age, similar in height and build. He began with the usual questions: your name, place of residence, profession, when did you arrive, for what purpose? Richards predictably had a flair for the dramatic, and by the time the questions carried them to the shooting, Ryan could sense the excitement and anticipation of the audience without even looking at their faces.
“Doctor Ryan, could you describe in your own words what happened next?”
Jack did exactly this for ten minutes, without interruption, all the while half-facing the jury. He tried to avoid looking into their faces. It seemed an odd place to get stage fright, but this was precisely what Ryan felt. He focused his eyes on the oak panels just over their heads as he ran through the events. It was almost like living it again, and Ryan could feel his heart beating faster as he concluded.
“And, Doctor Ryan, can you identify for us the man whom you first attacked?” Richards finally asked.
“Yes, sir.” Ryan pointed. “The defendant, right there, sir.”
It was Ryan’s first really good look at him. His name was Sean Miller—not a particularly Irish name to Ryan’s way of thinking. He was twenty-six, short, slender, dressed neatly in a suit and tie. He was smiling up at someone in the visitors’ gallery, a family member perhaps, when Ryan pointed. Then his gaze shifted, and Ryan examined the man for the first time. What sort of person, Jack had wondered for weeks, could plan and execute such a crime? What was missing in him, or what terrible thi
ng lived in him that most civilized people had the good fortune to lack? The thin, acne-scarred face was entirely normal. Miller could have been an executive trainee at Merrill Lynch or any other business concern. Jack’s father had spent his life dealing with criminals, but their existence was a puzzlement to Ryan. Why are you different? What makes you what you are? Ryan wanted to ask, knowing that even if there were an answer the question would remain. Then he looked at Miller’s eyes. He looked for ... something, a spark of life, humanity—something that would say that this was indeed another human being. It could only have been two seconds, but for Ryan the moment seemed to linger into minutes as he looked into those pale gray eyes and saw ...
Nothing. Nothing at all. And Jack began to understand a little.
“The record will show,” the Lord Justice intoned to the court reporter, “that the witness identified the defendant, Sean Miller.”
“Thank you, My Lord,” Richards concluded.
Ryan took the opportunity to blow his nose. He’d acquired a head cold over the preceding weekend.
“Are you quite comfortable, Doctor Ryan?” the judge inquired. Jack realized that he’d been leaning on the wooden rail.
“Excuse me, your hon—My Lord. This cast is a little tiring.” Every time Sally came past her father, she had taken to singing, “I’m a little teapot ...”
“Bailiff, a stool for the witness,” the judge ordered.
The defense team was seated adjacent to the prosecution, perhaps fifteen feet farther away in the same row of seats, green leather cushions on the oak benches. In a moment the bailiff arrived with a simple wooden stool, and Ryan settled down on it. What he really needed was a hook for his left arm, but he was gradually becoming used to the weight. It was the constant itching that drove him crazy, though there was nothing anybody could do about that.
The defense attorney—barrister—rose with elegant deliberation. His name was Charles Atkinson, more commonly known as Red Charlie, a lawyer with a penchant for radical causes and radical crimes. He was supposed to be an embarrassment to the Labour Party, which he had served until recently in Parliament. Red Charlie was about thirty pounds overweight, his wig askew atop a florid, strangely thin face for the ample frame. Defending terrorists must have paid well enough, Ryan thought. There’s a question Owens must be looking into, Ryan told himself. Where is your money coming from, Mr. Atkinson?