Jack Ryan 2 - Patriot Games Read Online Free PDF Page B

place. A bloody Yank -- an Irish-American to boot! -- whose wife claims he's the chap in the white hat.” Wilson laughed again. "Total chaos!
    “First order of business, of course, was to get the Royals to safety. The police and guardsmen handled that, probably praying by this time that someone would make trouble. They're still in an evil mood, they tell me, angrier even than from the bandstand bombing incident. Not hard to understand. Anyway, your wife flatly refused to leave your side until you were under doctor's care here. Quite a forceful woman, they tell me.”
    “Cathy's a surgeon,” Ryan explained. “When she plays doc, she's used to having her own way. Surgeons are like that.”
    “After she was quite satisfied we drove her down to the Yard. Meanwhile we had a merry time identifying you. They called your Legal Attache at the American Embassy and he ran a check through your FBI, plus a backup check through the Marine Corps.” Ryan stole a cigarette from Wilson's pack. The policeman lit it with a butane lighter. Jack gagged on the smoke, but he needed it. Cathy would give him hell for it, he knew, but one thing at a time. “Mind you, we never really thought you were one of them. Have to be a maniac to bring the wife and child along on this sort of job. But one must be careful.”
    Ryan nodded agreement, briefly dizzy from the smoke. How'd they know to check through the Corps . . . oh, my Marine Corps Association card . . .
    “In any event we have things pretty well sorted out. Your government are sending us everything we need -- probably here by now, actually.” Wilson checked his watch.
    “My family's all right?”
    Wilson smiled in rather an odd way. “They are being very well looked after. Doctor Ryan. You have my word on that.”
    “The name's Jack.”
    “Fine. I'm known to my friends as Tony.” They finally got around to shaking hands. “And as I said, you're a bloody hero. Care to see what the press have to say?” He handed Ryan a Daily Mirror and a Times.
    “Dear God!”
    The tabloid Mirror's front page was almost entirely a color photograph of himself, sitting unconscious against the Rolls. His chest was a scarlet mass.
ATTEMPT ON HRH -- MARINE TO THE RESCUE
    A bold attempt to assassinate Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales within sight of Buckingham Palace was thwarted today by the courage of an American tourist.
    John Patrick Ryan, an historian and formerly a lieutenant in the United States Marines, dashed barehanded into a pitched battle on The Mall as over a hundred Londoners watched in shocked disbelief. Ryan, 31, of Annapolis, Maryland, successfully disabled one gunman and, taking his weapon, shot another dead. Ryan himself was seriously wounded in the exchange. He was taken by ambulance to St. Thomas's Hospital, where emergency surgery was successfully performed by Sir Charles Scott.
    A third terrorist is reported to have escaped the scene, by running east on The Mall, then turning north on Marlborough Road.
    Senior police officials were unanimous in their opinion that, but for Ryan's courageous intervention. Their Highnesses would certainly have been slain.
    Ryan turned the page to see another color photograph of himself in happier circumstances. It was his graduation photo from Quantico, and he had to smile at himself, resplendent, then, in blue high-necked blouse, two shiny gold bars, and the Mamaluke sword. It was one of the few decent photographs ever taken of him.
    “Where did they get this?”
    “Oh, your Marine chaps were most helpful. In fact, one of your Marine ships -- helicopter carrier, or something like that -- is at Portsmouth right now. I understand that your former colleagues are getting all the free beer they can swill.”
    Ryan laughed at that. Next he picked up the Times, whose headline was marginally less lurid.
    The Prince and Princess of Wales escaped certain death this afternoon. Three, possibly four terrorists armed with hand grenades and