Patriot Games - vastav

"He was unconscious – he didn't wake up for two hours, and had a nasty
concussion when he did."
If I'd known he had that grenade, I wouldn't have shot him in the ass! "How was I
supposed to know that?" Ryan asked reasonably. "I was about to go up against
somebody with a light machine gun, and I didn't need a bad guy behind me. So I
neutralized him. I could have put one through the back of his head – at Quantico
when they say 'neutralize,' they mean kill. My dad was the cop. Most of what I
know about police procedures comes from watching TV, and I know most of that's
wrong. All I knew was that I couldn't afford to have him come at me from behind. I
can't say I'm especially proud of it, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.
"I moved around the right-rear corner of the car and looked around. I saw the guy
was using a pistol. Your man Wilson explained that to me – that was lucky, too. I
wasn't real crazy about taking an AK on with a dinky little handgun. He saw me
come around. We both fired about the same time – I just shot straighter, I guess."
Ryan stopped. He hadn't meant it to sound like that. Is that how it was? If you
don't know, who does? Ryan had learned that in a crisis, time compresses and
dilates – seemingly at the same time. It also fools your memory, doesn't it? What
else could I have done? He shook his head.
"I don't know," he said again. "Maybe I should have tried something else. Maybe
I should have said, 'Drop it!' or 'Freeze!' like they do on TV – but there just wasn't
time. Everything was right now – him or me – do you know what I mean? You
don't . . . you don't reason all this out when you only have half a second of decision
time. I guess you go on training and instinct. The only training I've had was in the
Green Machine, the Corps, They don't teach you to arrest people – Christ's sake, I
didn't want to kill anybody, I just didn't have a hell of a choice in the matter." Ryan
paused for a moment.
"Why didn't he – quit, run away, something! He saw I had him. He must have
known I had him cold." Ryan slumped back into the pillow. Having to articulate
what had happened brought it back all too vividly. A man is dead because of you.
Jack. All the way dead. He had his instincts, too, didn't he? But yours worked better
– so why doesn't that make you feel good?
"Doctor Ryan," Owens said calmly, "we three have personally interviewed six
people, all of whom had a clear view of the incident. From what they have told us,
you have related the circumstances to us with remarkable clarity. Given the facts of
the matter, I – we – do not see that you had any choice at all. It is as certain as such
things can possibly be that you did precisely the right thing. And your second shot
did not matter, if that is troubling you. Your first went straight through his heart."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, I could see that. The second shot was completely automatic,
like my hand did it without being told. The gun came back down and zap! No