by Tom Clancy
John Patrick Ryan. Deputy to the Director of Central Intelligence, nominated by the President—politics at work—and confirmed less than two years previously. Prior to that acting Deputy Director (Intelligence), following the death of Vice Admiral James Greer. Prior to that, Special Assistant to DDI Greer, and sometime special representative of the Directorate of Intelligence over in England. Ryan had been an instructor in history at the Naval Academy, a graduate student at Georgetown University, and a broker at the Baltimore office of Merrill Lynch. Also, briefly, a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. Clearly a man who enjoyed career changes, Wellington thought, noting all the important dates.
Personal wealth. The requisite financial statement was in the file, near the top. Ryan was worth quite a bit. Where had it come from? That analysis took several hours. In his days as a broker, J. P. Ryan had been a real cowboy. He’d bet over a hundred thousand dollars on the Chicago and North Western Railroad at the time of the employee takeover, and reaped ... over six million from it. That was his one really big score—sixty-to-one opportunities were not all that common, were they?—but some of the others were also noteworthy. On hitting a personal net worth of eight million, he’d called it quits and gone to Georgetown for his doctorate in history. Continued to play the market on an amateur basis—that wasn’t quite right, was it?—until joining government service. His portfolio was now managed by a multiplicity of investment counselors ... their accounting methods were unusually conservative. Ryan’s net worth looked to be twenty million, maybe a little more. The accounts were managed on a blind basis. All Ryan saw was quarterly earnings statements. There were ways around that, of course, but it was all strictly legal. Proving impropriety was virtually impossible unless they put a wiretap on the line of his brokers, and that was not something easily accomplished.
He had been investigated by the SEC, but that had actually been a spinoff of the SEC’s look at the firm he’d bought into. The summary sheet noted in clipped bureaucratese that no technical violation had been made, but Wellington observed that this judgment was more technical than substantive. Ryan had balked at signing a consent order—understandably—and the government had not pressed him on the issue. That was less understandable, but explainable, since Ryan had not been the actual target of the investigation; someone had decided that it had all probably been a coincidence. Ryan had, however, broken that money out of his main account ... Gentleman’s Agreement? Wellington wrote on his legal pad. Perhaps. If asked, Ryan would respond that he’d done it out of an overscrupulous sense of guilt. The money had gone into T-Bills, rolled over automatically for years and untouched until it had all been used to ... I see. That’s interesting....
Why an educational trust fund? Who was Carol Zimmer? What interest did Ryan have in her children? Timing? Significance?
It was amazing, as always, that so much paper could show so little. Perhaps, Wellington mused, that was the real point of government paperwork, to give the appearance of substance while saying as little as possible. He chuckled. That was also the point of most legal papers, wasn’t it? For two hundred dollars per hour, lawyers loved to quibble over the placement of commas and other weighty matters. He paused, recycling his brain. He had missed something very obvious.
Ryan was not liked by the Fowler Administration. Why, then, had he been nominated for DDCI. Politics? But politics was the reason you selected people unqualified for ... Did Ryan have any political connections at all? The file didn’t show any. Wellington riffled through the papers and found a letter signed by Alan Trent and Sam Fellows of the House Select Committee. That was an odd couple, a gay and a Mormon. Ryan had sailed through confirmation much more easily than Marcus Cabot, even easier than Bunker and Talbot, the President’s two star cabinet members. Part of that was because he was a second-level man, but that didn’t explain it all. That meant political connections, and very fine ones. Why? What connections? Trent and Fellows ... what the hell could those two ever agree on?
It was certain that Fowler and his people didn’t like Ryan, else the Attorney General would not have personally placed Wellington on the case. Case? Was that the right term for his activities? If there was a case, why wasn’t this being handled by the FBI? Politics, obviously. Ryan had worked closely with the FBI on several things ... but ...
William Connor Shaw, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was celebrated as the most honest man in government. Politically naive, of course, but the man dripped integrity, and that wasn’t all so bad a quality in a police agency, was it? Congress thought so. There was even talk of eliminating special prosecutors, the FBI had become so clean, especially after the special prosecutor had bungled the ... but the Bureau was being segregated from this one.
This was an interesting case, wasn’t it? A man could win his spurs on something like this.
17
PROCESSING
The days were shorter now, Jack told himself. It wasn’t that he was all that late, just that the days were shortening. The earth’s orbit around the sun, and the way the axis of rotation was not perpendicular with the plane of the ... ecliptic? Something like that. His driver dropped him off in front of the door, and he walked tiredly in, wondering when the last day had been, outside of the weekends, when he’d seen his house in daylight and not outlined by electric lights. About the only good news was that he didn’t bring work home—but that wasn’t quite true either, was it? He brought no documents home, but it was less easy to clear out his mind than to clear off his desk.
Ryan heard the sounds of a normal house, the TV tuned to Nickelodeon. The washing machine was making noise. Have to have that fixed. He walked into the family room to announce himself.
“Daddy!” Jack Jr. ran over to deliver a hug followed by a plaintive look. “Daddy, you promised to take me to a baseball game!”
Oh, shit ... The kids were back in school, and there couldn’t be more than a dozen home games left up in Baltimore. He had to, had to, had to ... When? When could he break loose? The new communications center project was only half done, and that was his baby, and the contractor was a week behind, and he had to get that back on line if it was going to be ready when it was supposed to be....
“I’m going to try, Jack,” Ryan promised his son, who was too young to understand about any obligation beyond a father’s promise.
“Daddy, you promised!”
“I know.” Shit! Jack made a mental note. He had to do something about that.
“Bedtime,” Cathy announced. “Tomorrow’s a schoolday.”
Ryan hugged and kissed both of his children, but the exercise in affection merely left an empty spot in his conscience. What sort of a father was he turning into? Jack Jr.’s First Communion was next April or May, and who could say if he’d be home for that? Better find out the date so that he could schedule it now. Try to schedule it now. Jack reminded himself that little things like promises to his kids were—
Little things?
God, how did this ever happen? Where has my life gone?
He watched the kids head to their rooms, then himself headed to the kitchen. His dinner was in the oven. He set the plate on the breakfast counter before walking to the refrigerator. He was buying wine in boxes now. It was much more convenient, and his taste in wine was getting far less selective of late. The cardboard boxes held a Mylar bag full of—Australian, wasn’t it? About where California wines had been twenty years earlier. The vintage in question was very fruity, to mask its inadequacies, and had the proper alcohol content, which was what he was mainly after anyway. Jack looked at the wall clock. If he were very lucky, he might get six and a half, maybe seven hours of sleep before a new day started. He needed the wine to sleep. At the office, he lived on coffee, and his system was becoming saturated with caffeine. Once he’d been able to nap at his desk, but no longer. By eleven in the morning his system was wired, and by late afternoon his body played a strange melody of fatigue and alertness that sometimes left him wondering if he
were going a little mad. Well, as long as he asked himself that question....
A few minutes later he finished his dinner. Pity the oven had dried it out. Cathy had done this one herself. He’d been—he’d planned to be home at a decent hour, but ... It was always something, wasn’t it? When he stood, there was a twinge of discomfort from his stomach. On the way into the family room he opened the closet door to pull a packet of antacid tablets from his coat pocket. These he chewed and washed down with wine, starting off his third glass in less than thirty minutes at home.
Cathy wasn’t there, though she’d left some papers on the table next to her customary chair. Jack listened and thought he heard a shower running. Fine. He took the cable controller and flipped to CNN for another news-fix. The lead story was something about Jerusalem.
Ryan settled back into his chair and allowed himself a smile. It was working. The story was about the resurgence of tourism. Shopowners were loading up in anticipation of their biggest Christmas in a decade. Jesus, explained a Jew who’d opted to stay in the town of Bethlehem, was after all a nice Jewish boy from a good family. His Arab partner toured the camera crew through the store. Arab partner? Jack thought. Well, why not?
It’s worth it, Ryan told himself. You helped bring that about. You helped make that happen. You have saved lives, and if nobody else knows, the hell with it. You know. God knows. Isn’t that enough?
No, Jack told himself in a quiet flash of honesty.
So what if the idea had not been completely original? What idea ever was? It had been his thought that had brought it together, his contacts that had gotten the Vatican on board, his.... He deserved something for it, some recognition, enough for a little footnote in some history book, but would he get it?
Jack snorted into his wine. No chance. Liz Elliot, that clever bitch, telling everybody that it was Charlie Alden who’d done it. If Jack ever tried to set the record straight, he’d look like a swine stealing credit from a dead man—and a good man, despite his mistake with that Blum girl. Cheer up, Jack. You’re still alive. You have a wife, you have kids.
It still wasn’t fair, was it? Fair? Why had he ever expected life to be fair? Was he turning into another one of them? Ryan asked himself. Another Liz Elliot, another grasping, small-minded ass with an ego-size inversely proportionate to her character. He’d so often worried and wondered about the process, how a person might be corrupted. He’d feared the overt methods, deciding that a cause or a mission was so vital that you might lose perspective on the important things, like the value of a single human life, even the life of an enemy. He hadn’t lost that, not ever, and knew that he never would. It was the subtler things that were wearing at him. He was turning into a functionary, worrying about credit and status and influence.
He closed his eyes to remind himself of what he already had: a wife, two kids, financial independence, accomplishments that no one could ever take away.
You are turning into one of them....
He’d fought—he had killed—to defend his family. Maybe Elliot was offended by that, but in quiet moments like this, Jack remembered the times with a thin, grim smile. Not two hundred yards from where he now sat, he’d drilled three rounds into a terrorist’s chest, coldly and efficiently—steel on target!—validating all the things they’d taught him at Quantico. That his heart had been beating a thousand times per second, that he’d come close to wetting his pants, that he’d had to swallow back his vomit, were small things. He’d done what he had to do, and because of that his wife and children were alive. He was a man who’d proven his manhood in every possible way—winning and marrying a wonderful girl, fathering two God-sent children, defending all of them with skill and courage. Every time fate had presented its challenge, Jack had met it and gotten the job done.
Yeah, he told himself, smiling at the TV. Screw Liz Elliot. That was a humorous thought. Who, he asked himself, would want to? That cold, skinny bitch, with her arrogance and ... what else? Ryan’s mind paused, seeking the answer to the question. What else? She was weak, wasn’t she? Weak and timid. Beneath all the bluster and the hardness, what was really in there? Probably not much. He’d seen that sort of National Security Advisor before. Cutter, unwilling to face the music. Liz Elliot. Who’d want to screw her? Not very smart, and nothing in there to back up what smarts she did have. Good thing for her that the President had Bunker and Talbot to fall back on.
You’re better than all of them. It was a satisfying thought to accompany the end of this glass of wine. Why not have another? This stuff really isn’t all that bad, is it?
When Ryan returned, he saw Cathy was back also, going over her patient notes in the high-backed chair she liked.
“Want a glass of wine, honey?”
Dr. Caroline Ryan shook her head. “I have two procedures tomorrow.”
Jack came around to take his place in the other chair, almost not glancing at his wife, but he caught her out the corner of his eye.
“Wow.”
Cathy looked up from her paperwork to grin at him. Her face was nicely made up. Jack wondered how she’d managed not to mess her hair up in the shower.
“Where did you get that?”
“Out of a catalog.”
“Whose, Fredericks?”
Dr. Caroline Muller Ryan, M.D., F.A.C.S., was dressed in a black peignoir that was a masterpiece of revelation and concealment. He couldn’t tell what held the robe portion in place. Underneath was something filmy and ... very nice. The color was odd, though, Cathy’s nighties were all white. He’d never forgotten the wonderful white one she’d worn on their wedding night. Not that she’d been a virgin at the time, but somehow that white silk had made her so ... that, too, was a memory that would never go away, Jack told himself. She’d never worn it since, saying that like her wedding dress, it was something to be used only once. What have I done to earn this wonderful girl? Jack asked himself.
“To what do I owe this honor?” Jack asked.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
“Well, Little Jack is seven. Sally is ten. I want another one.”
“Another what?” Jack set his glass down.
“Another baby, you dope!”
“Why?” her husband asked.
“Because I can, and because I want one. I’m sorry,” she went on with a soft smile, “if that bothers you. The exercise, I mean.”
“I think I can handle that.”
“I have to get up at four-thirty,” Cathy said next. “My first procedure is before seven.”
“So?”
“So.” She rose and walked over to her husband. Cathy bent down to kiss him on the cheek. “See me upstairs.”
Ryan sat still for a minute or two, gunning down the rest of his drink, switching off the TV, and smiling to himself. He checked to make sure the house was locked and the security system armed. He stopped off in the bathroom to brush his teeth. A surreptitious check of her vanity drawer revealed a thermometer and a little index card with dates and temperatures on it. So. She wasn’t kidding. She’d been thinking about this and, typically, keeping it to herself. Well, that was okay, wasn’t it? Yeah.
Jack entered the bedroom and paused to hang up his clothes, donning a bathrobe before joining his wife at the bedside. She rose to wrap her arms around his neck, and he kissed her.
“You sure about this, babe?”
“Does it bother you?”
“Cathy, to please you—anything you want that I can get or give, honey. Anything.”
I wish you’d cut back on the drinking, Cathy didn’t say. It wasn’t the time. She felt his hands through the peignoir. Jack had strong but gentle hands that now traced her figure through the outfit. It was cheap and tarty, but every woman was entitled to look cheap and tarty once in a while, even an associate professor of ophthalmologic surgery at The Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Jack’s mouth tasted like toothpaste and cheap white wine, but the rest of him smelled like a man, the man who�
��d made her life into a dream—mostly a dream. He was working too hard, drinking too much, not sleeping enough. But underneath all that was her man. And they didn’t come any better, weaknesses, absences, and all.
Cathy made the proper noises when Jack’s hands found the buttons. He got the message, but his fingers were clumsy. Annoying, the buttons were small and in those damned little fabric loops, but behind the buttons and the fabric were her breasts, and that fact ensured that he would not stop. Cathy took in a deep breath and smelled her favorite dusting powder. She didn’t like perfume. A woman generated all the smells a man needed, she thought. There. Now his hands found her bare, smooth and still young skin. Thirty-six was not old, not too old for one more child. One more was all she craved, one more time to feel a new life growing within her. She’d accept the stomach upsets, the compressed bladder, the odd discomfort that merely gave detail to the wonder and the miracle of new life. The pain of birth—it was not fun, not at all, but to be able to do it, to have Jack at her side as he’d done with Sally and Little Jack, it was the most profound act of love that she had ever known. It was what being a woman meant, to be able to bring life to the world, to give a man the only kind of immortality that was, as he gave it to her.