Debt Of Honor by Clancy, Tom

“You hardly needed me at all,” Johnson said quietly. “Congratulations,

Mr. President.” To both men it seemed an odd thing to say, but Ryan took

his hand anyway. “God bless you.”

Jack looked around the room. Out the windows he could see the fires on

the Hill. Then he turned back to the camera, for beyond it were millions, and

like it or not, they were looking back at him, and to him. Ryan took a breath,

not knowing that his tie was crooked in his collar.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what happened tonight was an attempt by some-

one to destroy the government of the United States. They killed President

Durling, and I guess they killed most of the Congress-it’s too soon, I’m

afraid, to be sure of much.

“But I am sure of this: America is much harder to destroy than people are.

My dad was a cop, as you heard. He and my mom were killed in a plane

crash, but there are still cops. A lot of fine people were killed only a low

minutes ago, but America is still here. We’ve fought another war and won it.

We’ve survived an attack on our economy and we’ll survive this too.

“I’m afraid I’m too new at this to say it properly, but what I learned in

school is that America is a dream, it’s-it’s the ideas we all share, it’s the

things we all believe in, most of all it’s things we all do, and how we do

them. You can’t destroy things like that. Nobody can, no matter how hard

they might try, because we are who and what we choose to be. We invented

that idea here, and nobody can destroy that either.

“I’m no) ic.illy sure what I’m going to do right now, except to make sure

my wilr and children are really safe first, hut now I have this joh. and I just

pinmiM-d ( MX I thai I ‘d do it the best way I can. For now, I ask you all for your

prnyrr* and vmii hdp. I’ll talk to you again when I know a little more. You

can linn ilic imiu-iu oil now,” he concluded. When the light went off, he

mined In S|»r« ml Aj.!ail Price.