Patriot Games - vastav

we called him Son of Kong. Anyway, he looks us up and down and says, 'Girls, I
got some good news, and I got some bad news. The good news is, if you prove that
you're good enough to get through this here course, you ain't got nothin' left to
prove as long as you live.' And he waits for a couple of seconds. 'The bad news is,
you gotta prove it to me!' "
"You were top in your class," the Prince said. He'd been briefed, too.
"I was third in that one. I tied for first in the Basic Officer's Course later on. Yeah,
I did okay. That course was a gold-plated sonuvabitch. The only easy thing was
sleeping – by the time your day was finished, falling asleep was easy enough. But,
you know, Son of Kong was almost right.
"If you make it through Quantico, you know you've done something. After that
there was only one more thing left for me to prove, and the Corps didn't have
anything to do with that." Ryan paused for a moment. "Her name is Sally. Anyway,
you and your family are alive, sir. Okay, I helped – but so did you. And if any
reporter-expert says different, you still have the Tower of London, right? I
remember that stuff in the press about your wife last year. Damn, if anybody'd
talked that way about Cathy I'd have changed his voice for him."
"Changed his voice?" His Highness asked.
"The hard way!" Ryan laughed. "I guess that's a problem with being important –
you can't shoot back. Too bad. People in that business could use some manners, and
people in your business are entitled to some privacy, just like the rest of us."
"And what of your manners, Sir John?" A real smile now.
"Mea maxima culpa, my Lord Prince, you got me there."
"Still, we might not be here except for you."
"I couldn't just sit there and watch some people get murdered. If situations had
been reversed, I'll bet you'd have done the same thing I did."
"You really think so?" His Highness was surprised.
"Sir, are you kidding? Anybody dumb enough to jump out of an airplane is dumb
enough to try anything."
The Prince stood and walked over to the mirror on the wall. Clearly he liked what
he saw there. "Well," he murmured to the mirror. He turned back to voice his last
self-doubt.
"And if you had been in my place?"
"I'd probably just've wet my pants," Ryan replied. "But you have an advantage
over me, sir. You've thought about this problem for a few years, right? Hell, you
practically grew up with it, and you've been through basic training – Royal Marines,
too, maybe?"
"Yes, I have."
Ryan nodded. "Okay, so you had your options figured out beforehand, didn't you?