"Clancy, Tom - Jack Ryan 02 - Patriot Games" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

arrange his thoughts. "That ambush was planned -- this wasn't any
accidental encounter. But the bad guys caught 'em on the fly . . . They
had to hit a particular car in a particular place. Somebody timed this one
out. There were some more people involved in this, weren't there?" Ryan
heard a lot of silence for a moment. It was all the answer he needed.
"Somebody with a radio . . . those characters had to know that they were
coming, the route they'd take, and exactly when they got into the kill
zone. Even then it wouldn't be all that easy, 'cause you have to worry
about traffic . . . "
"Just an historian. Doctor Ryan?" Ashley asked.
"They teach you how to do ambushes in the Marines. If you want to
ambush a specific target . . . first, you have to have intelligence
information; second, you choose your ground; third, you put your own
security guys out to tell you when the target is coming -- that's just the
bare-bones requirements. Why here -- why St. James's Park, The Mall?" The
terrorist is a political creature. The target and the place are chosen for
political effect, Ryan told himself. "You didn't answer my question
before: was this an assassination or an attempted kidnapping?"
"We are not entirely sure," Owens answered.
Ryan looked over his guests. He'd just touched an open nerve. They
disabled the car with an antitank rifle-grenade, and both of them had the
hand-thrown kind, too. If they just wanted to kill . . . the grenades
would defeat any armor on the car, why use guns at all? No, if this was a
straight assassination attempt, they would not have taken so long, would
they? You just fibbed to me, Mr. Owens. This was definitely a kidnap
attempt and you know it.
"Why just the one security officer in the car, then? You have to
protect your people better than that." What was it Tony said? An
unscheduled trip? The first requirement for a successful ambush is good
intelligence . . . You can't pursue this, idiot! The Commander solved the
problem for Jack.
"Well, I believe we covered everything rather nicely. We'll probably
be back tomorrow," Owens said.
"How are the terrorists -- the one I wounded, I mean."
"He has not been terribly cooperative. Won't speak to us at all, not
even to tell us his name -- old story dealing with this lot. We've only
identified him a few hours ago. No previous criminal record at all -- his
name appeared as a possible player in two minor cases, but nothing more
than that. He is recovering quite nicely, and in three weeks or so,"
Taylor said coldly, "he will be taken before the Queen's Bench, tried
before a jury of twelve good men and true, convicted, and sentenced to
spend the remainder of his natural life at a secure prison."
"Only three weeks?" Ryan asked.
"The case is clear-cut," Owens said. "We have three photographs from
our Japanese friend that show this lad holding his gun behind the car, and
nine good eyewitnesses. There will be no mucking about with this lad."
"And I'll be there to see it," Ryan observed.
"Of course. You will be our most important witness, Doctor. A
formality, but a necessary one. And no claim of lunacy like the chap who
tried to kill your President. This boy is a university graduate, with