Patriot Games by Tom Clancy

“I can’t go into specifics yet,” Owens said. “But we might have a small break. We’re trying to decide now if it’s real or not. That’s the good news. The bad is that His Royal Highness is traveling to America this coming summer. A number of people were informed of his itinerary, including six on our list of possible suspects.”

“How the hell did you let that happen, Jimmy?”

“No one asked me, Dan,” Owens replied sourly. “In several cases, if the people hadn’t been informed it would have told them that something odd was happening — you can’t simply stop trusting people, can you? For the rest, it was just another balls-up. Some secretary put out the plans on the normal list without consulting the security officers.” This wasn’t a new story for either man. There was always someone who didn’t get the word.

“Super. So call it off. Let him get the flu or something when the time comes,” Murray suggested.

“His Highness won’t do that. He’s become quite adamant on the subject. He won’t allow a terrorist threat to affect his life in any way.”

Murray grunted. “You gotta admire the kid’s guts, but –”

“Quite so,” Owens agreed. He didn’t really care for having his next king referred to as “the kid,” but he’d long since gotten used to the American way of expressing things. “It doesn’t make our job any easier.”

“How firm are the travel plans?” Murray asked, getting back to business.

“Several items on the itinerary are tentative, of course, but most are set in stone. Our security people will be meeting with yours in Washington. They’re flying over next week.”

“Well, you know that you’ll get all the cooperation you want, Secret Service, the Bureau, local police, everything. We’ll take good care of him for you,” Murray assured him. “He and his wife are pretty popular back home. Will they be taking the baby with them?”

“No. We were able to prevail on him about that.”

“Okay. I’ll call Washington tomorrow and get things rolling. What’s happening with our friend Ned Clark?”

“Nothing as yet. His colleagues are evidently giving him rather a bad time, but he’s too bloody stupid to break.”

Murray nodded. He knew the type.

Well, they wanted me to take off early, Ryan thought. He decided to accept an invitation to a lecture at Georgetown University. Unfortunately, it was something of a disappointment. Professor David Hunter was Columbia’s enfant terrible, America’s ranking authority on political affairs in Eastern Europe. His book of the previous year, ‘Revolution Postponed’, had been a penetrating study of the political and economic problems of the Soviet’s unsteady empire, and Ryan, like others, had been eager to hear his new information on the subject. The speech had turned out to be little more than a rehash of the book, with the rather startling suggestion at the end that the NATO countries should be more aggressive in trying to separate the Soviet Union from her captives. Ryan considered that to be lunacy, even if it did guarantee lively discussions at the reception.

At the end of the talk, Ryan moved quickly to the reception. He’d skipped dinner to make it here on time. There was a wide table of hors d’oeuvres, and Jack filled his plate as patiently as he could before drifting off to a sedate corner by the elevators. He let others form knots of conversation around Professor Hunter. On the whole, it was nice to be back at Georgetown, if only for a few hours. The “Galleria” in the Intercultural Center was quite a contrast to the CIA institutional drab. The four-story atrium of the language building was lined with the glass windows of offices, and a pair of potted trees reached toward the glass roof. The plaza outside was paved with bricks, and known to the students as Red Square. To the west was the old quadrangle, and the cemetery where rested the priests who had taught here for nearly two hundred years. It was a thoroughly civilized setting, except for the discordant shriek of jets coming out of National Airport, a few miles downriver. Someone jostled Ryan just as he was finishing his snacks.

“Excuse me, Doctor.” Ryan turned to see a man shorter than himself. He had a florid complexion and was dressed in a cheap-looking suit. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle with amusement. His voice had a pronounced accent. “Did you enjoy the lecture?”

“It was interesting,” Ryan said diffidently.

“So. I see that capitalists can lie as well as we poor socialists.” The man had a jolly, overpowering laugh, but Jack decided that his eyes were sparkling with something other than amusement. They were measuring eyes, playing yet another variation of the game he’d been part of in England. Already Ryan disliked him.

“Have we met?”

“Sergey Platonov.” They shook hands after Ryan set his plate on a table. “I am Third Secretary of the Soviet Embassy. Perhaps my photograph at Langley does not do me justice.”

A Russian — Ryan tried not to look too surprised — who knows I’ve been working at CIA. Third Secretary could easily mean that he was KGB, perhaps a diplomatic intelligence specialist, or maybe a member of the CPSU’s Foreign Department — as though it made a difference. A “legal” intelligence officer with a diplomatic cover. What do I do now? For one thing, he knew that he’d have to write up a contact report for CIA tomorrow, explaining how they’d met and what they’d talked about, perhaps an hour’s work. It took an effort to remain polite.

“You must have the wrong guy, Mr. Platonov. I’m a history teacher. I work at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. I was invited to this because I got my degree here.”

“No, no.” The Russian shook his head. “I recognize you from the photograph on your book jacket. You see, I purchased ten copies of it last summer.”

“Indeed.” Jack was surprised again and unable to conceal it. “My publisher and I thank you, sir.”

“Our Naval Attache was much taken by it. Doctor Ryan. He felt that it should be brought to the attention of the Frunze Academy, and, I think, the Grechko Naval Academy in Leningrad.” Platonov applied his considerable charm. Ryan knew it for what it was, but . . . “To be honest, I merely skimmed the book myself. It seemed quite well organized, and the Attache said that your analysis of the way decisions are made in the heat of battle was highly accurate.”

“Well.” Jack tried not to be overly flattered, but it was hard. Frunze was the Soviet staff academy, the finishing school for young field-grade officers who were tagged for stardom. The Grechko Academy was only slightly less prestigious.

“Sergey Nikolay’ch,” boomed a familiar voice, “it is not kulturny to prey upon the vanity of helpless young authors.” Father Timothy Riley joined them. A short, plump Jesuit priest, Riley had headed the history department at Georgetown while Ryan had gotten his doctorate. He was a brilliant intellect with a series of books to his credit, including two penetrating works on the history of Marxism — neither of which, Ryan was certain, had found their way into the library at Frunze. “How’s the family, Jack?”

“Cathy’s back to work, Father. They moved Sally over to Hopkins. With luck we’ll have her home early next week.”

“She will recover fully, your little daughter?” Platonov asked. “I read about the attack on your family in the newspaper.”

“We think so. Except for losing her spleen, there seems to be no permanent damage. The docs say she’s recovering nicely, and with her at Hopkins, Cathy’s able to see her every day,” Ryan said more positively than he felt. Sally was a different child. Her legs weren’t fully healed yet, but worst of all, his bouncing little girl was a sad thing now. She’d learned a lesson that Ryan had hoped to hold off for at least ten more years — that the world is a dangerous place even when you have a mother and a father to take care of you. A hard lesson for a child, it was harder still for a parent. But she’s alive, Jack told himself, unaware of the expression on his face. With time and love, you can recover from anything, except death. The doctors and nurses at Hopkins were taking care of her like one of their own. That was a tangible advantage of having a doctor in the family.

“A terrible thing.” Platonov shook his head in what seemed to be genuine disgust. “A terrible thing to attack innocent people for no reason.”

“Indeed, Sergey,” Riley said in the astringent voice that Ryan had known so well. When he wanted, “Father Tim” had a tongue that could saw through wood. “I seem to recall that V. I. Lenin said the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, and that sympathy in a revolutionary is as reprehensible as cowardice on the field of battle.”