“I’m sure that’s what they said at My Lai.”
“That wasn’t the Marines, Mr. Atkinson,” Ryan shot back.
The lawyer smiled up at Jack. “I suppose your chaps were better trained at keeping quiet. Indeed, perhaps you yourself have been trained in such things . . . ”
“No, sir, I have not.” He’s making you angry, Jack. He took his handkerchief out and blew his nose again. The two deep breaths helped. “Excuse me. I’m afraid the local weather has given me a “bit of a head cold. What you just said — if the Marines trained people in that sort of stuff, the newspapers would have plastered it on their front pages years ago. No, moral issues aside for the moment, the Corps has a much better sense of public relations than that, Mr. Atkinson.”
“Indeed.” The barrister shrugged. “And what about the Central Intelligence Agency?”
“Excuse me?”
“What of the press reports that you’ve worked for the CIA?”
“Sir, the only times I’ve been paid by the U.S. government,” Jack said, choosing his words very carefully, “the money came from the Navy Department, first as a Marine, then later — now, that is, as an instructor at the United States Naval Academy. I have never been employed by any other government agency, period.”
“So you are not an agent of the CIA? I remind you that you are under oath.”
“No, sir. I am not now, and I never have been any kind of agent — unless you count being a stockbroker. I don’t work for the CIA.”
“And these news reports?”
“I’m afraid that you’ll have to ask the reporters. I don’t know where that stuff comes from. I teach history. My office is in Leahy Hall on the Naval Academy grounds. That’s kind of a long way from Langley.”
“Langley? You know where CIA is, then?”
“Yes, sir. It’s on record that I have delivered a lecture there. It was the same lecture I delivered the month before at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. My paper dealt with the nature of tactical decision-making. I have never worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, but I did, once, give a lecture there. Maybe that’s where all these reports started.”
“I think you’re lying, Sir John,” Atkinson observed.
Not quite, Charlie. “I can’t help what you think, sir, I can only answer your questions truthfully.”
“And you never wrote an official report for the government entitled ‘Agents and Agencies’ ?”
Ryan did not allow himself to react. Where did you get that bit of data, Charlie? He answered the question with great care.
“Sir, last year — that is, last summer, at the end of the last school year — I was asked to be a contract consultant to a private company that does government work. The company is the Mitre Corporation, and I was hired on a temporary basis as part of one of their consulting contracts with the U.S. government. The work involved was classified, but it obviously had nothing at all to do with this case.”
“Obviously? Why don’t you let the jury decide that?”
“Mr. Atkinson,” Justice Wheeler said tiredly, “are you suggesting that this work in which the witness was involved has a direct connection with the case before the court?”
“I think we might wish to establish that, My Lord. It is my belief that the witness is misleading the court.”
“Very well.” The judge turned. “Doctor Ryan, did this work in which you were engaged have anything whatever to do with a case of murder in the city of London, or with any of the persons involved in this case?”
“No, sir.”
“You are quite certain?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you now or have you ever been an employee of any intelligence or security agency of the American government?”
“Except for the Marine Corps, no, sir.”
“I remind you of your oath to tell the truth — the whole, complete truth. Have you misled the court in any way, Doctor Ryan?”
“No, sir, absolutely not.”
“Thank you, Doctor Ryan. I believe that question is now settled.” Mr. Justice Wheeler turned back to his right. “Next question, Mr. Atkinson.”
The barrister had to be angry at that, Ryan thought, but he didn’t let it show. He wondered if someone had briefed the judge.
“You say that you shot my client merely in the hope that he would not get up?”
Richards stood. “My Lord, the witness has already –”
“If His Lordship will permit me to ask the next question, the issue will be more clear,” Atkinson interrupted smoothly.
“Proceed.”
“Doctor Ryan, you said that you shot my client in the hope that he would not get up. Do the U.S. Marine Corps teach one to shoot to disable, or to kill?”
“To kill, sir.”
“And you are telling us, therefore, that you went against your training?”
“Yes, sir. It is pretty clear that I was not on a battlefield. I was on a city street. It never occurred to me to kill your client.” I wish it had, then I probably wouldn’t be here, Ryan thought, wondering if he really meant it.
“So you reacted in accordance with your training when you leaped into the fray on The Mall, but then you disregarded your training a moment later? Do you think it reasonable that all of us here will believe that?”
Atkinson had finally succeeded in confusing Ryan. Jack had not the slightest idea where this was leading.
“I haven’t thought of it that way, sir, but, yes, you are correct,” Jack admitted. “That is pretty much what happened.”
“And next you crept to the corner of the automobile, saw the second person whom you had seen earlier, and instead of trying to disable him, you shot him dead without warning. In this case, it is clear that you reverted again to your Marine training, and shot to kill. Don’t you find this inconsistent?”
Jack shook his head. “Not at all, sir. In each case I used the force necessary to — well, the force I had to use, as I saw things.”
“I think you are wrong, Sir John. I think that you reacted like a hotheaded officer of the United States Marines throughout. You raced into a situation of which you had no clear understanding, attacked an innocent man, and tried then to kill him while he lay helpless and unconscious on the street. Next you coldly gunned down someone else without the first thought of trying to disarm him. You did not know then, and you do not know now what was really happening, do you?”
“No, sir, I do not believe that was the case at all. What was I supposed to have done with the second man?”
Atkinson saw an opening and used it. “You just told the court that you only wished to disable my client — when in fact you tried to kill him. How do you expect us to believe that when your next action had not the first thing to do with such a peaceful solution?”
“Sir, when I saw McCrory, the second gunman, for the first time, he had an AK-47 assault rifle in his hands. Going up against a light machine gun with a pistol –”
“But by this time you saw that he didn’t have the Kalashnikov, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir, that’s true. If he’d still had it — I don’t know, maybe I wouldn’t have stepped around the car, maybe I would have shot from cover, from behind the car, that is.”
“Ah, I see!” Atkinson exclaimed. “Instead, here was your chance to confront and kill the man in true cowboy fashion.” His hands went up in the air. “Dodge City on The Mall!”
“I wish you’d tell me what you think I should have done,” Jack said with some exasperation.
“For someone able to shoot straight through the heart on his first shot, why not shoot the gun from his hand. Sir John?”
“Oh, I see.” Atkinson had just made a mistake. Ryan shook his head and smiled. “I wish you’d make up your mind.”
“What?” The barrister was caught by surprise.
“Mr. Atkinson, a minute ago you said that I tried to kill your client. I was at arm’s-length range, but I didn’t kill him. So I’m a pretty lousy shot. But you expect me to be able to hit a man in the hand at fifteen or twenty feet. It doesn’t work that way, sir. I’m either a good shot or a bad shot, sir, but not both. Besides, that’s just TV stuff, shooting a gun out of somebody’s hand. On TV the good guy can do that, but TV isn’t real. With a pistol, you aim for the center of your target. That’s what I did. I stepped out from behind the car to get a clear shot, and I aimed. If McCrory had not turned his gun towards me — I can’t say for sure, but probably I would not have shot. But he did turn and fire, as you can see from my shoulder — and I did return fire. It is true that I might have done things differently. Unfortunately I did not. I had — I didn’t have much time to take action. I did the best I could. I’m sorry the man was killed, but that was his choice, too. He saw I had the drop on him, but he turned and fired — and he fired first, sir.”