"No, sir. Excuse me, I did not mean to give that impression, but we're not a bunch of hyperaggressive barbarians either. My job was to carry out orders, to be as aggressive as the situation called for, and to exercise some amount of judgment, like any officer. But I was only there three months, and I was still learning how to be an officer when I was injured. Marines follow orders. Officers give orders, of course, but a second lieutenant is the lowest form of officer. You take more than you give. I guess you've never been in the service," Ryan tagged on the barb at the end.
   "So, what sort of training did they give you?" Atkinson demanded, either angry or feigning it.
   Richards looked up to Ryan, a warning broadcast from his eyes. He'd emphasized several times that Jack shouldn't cross swords with Red Charlie.
   "Really, basic leadership skills. They taught us how to lead men in the field," Ryan replied. "How to react to a given tactical situation. How to employ the platoon's weapons, and to a lesser extent, the weapons in a rifle company. How to call in outside support from artillery and air assets –"
   "To react?"
   "Yes, sir, that is part of it." Ryan kept his answers as long as he thought he could get away with, careful to keep his voice even, friendly, and informative. "I've never been in anything like a combat situation – unless you count this thing we're talking about, of course – but our instructors were very clear about telling us that you don't have time to think very much when bullets are flying. You have to know what to do, and you have to do it fast – or you get your own people killed."
   "Excellent, Sir John. You were trained to react quickly and decisively to tactical stimuli, correct?"
   "Yes, sir." Ryan thought he saw the ambush coming.
   "So, in the unfortunate incident before this court, when the initial explosion took place, you have testified that you were looking in the wrong direction?"
   "I was looking away from the explosion, yes, sir."
   "How soon afterwards did you turn to see what was happening?"
   "Well, sir, as I said earlier, the first thing I did was to get my wife and daughter down under cover. Then I looked up. How long did that take?" Ryan cocked his head. "At least one second, sir, maybe as many as three. Sorry, but as I said earlier, it's hard to recall that sort of thing – you don't have a stopwatch on yourself, I mean."
   "So, when you finally did look up, you had not seen what had immediately transpired?"
   "Correct, sir." Okay, Charlie, ask the next question.
   "You did not, therefore, see my client fire his pistol, nor throw a hand grenade?"
   Cute, Ryan thought, surprised that he'd try this ploy. Well, he has to try something, doesn't he? "No, sir. When I first saw him, he was running around the corner of the car, from the direction of the other man, the one who was killed – the one with the rifle. A moment later he was at the right-rear corner of the Rolls, facing away from me, with the pistol in his right hand, pointed forward and down, as if –"
   "Assumption on your part," Atkinson interrupted. "As if what? It could have been any one of several things. But what things? How could you tell what he was doing there? You did not see him get out of the car, which later drove off. For all you know he might have been another pedestrian racing to the rescue, just as you did, mightn't he?"
   Jack was supposed to be surprised by this.
   "Assumption, sir? No, I'd call it a judgment. For him to have been racing to the rescue as you suggest, he would have had to come from across the street. I doubt that anyone could have reacted anywhere near fast enough to do that at all, not to mention the fact that there was a guy there with a machine gun to make you think twice about it. Also, the direction I saw him running from was directly away from the guy with the AK-47. If he was running to the rescue, why away from him? If he had a gun, why not shoot him? At the time I never considered this possibility, and it seems pretty unlikely now, sir."
   "Again, a conclusion. Sir John," Atkinson said as though to a backward child.
   "Sir, you asked me a question, and I tried to answer it, with the reasons to back up my answer."
   "And you expect us to believe that all this flashed through your mind in a brief span of seconds?" Atkinson turned back to the jury.
   "Yes, sir, it did," Ryan said with conviction. "That's all I can say – it did."
   "I don't suppose you've been told that my client has never been arrested, or accused of any crime?"
   "I guess that makes him a first offender."
   "It's for the jury to decide that," the lawyer snapped back. "You did not see him fire a single shot, did you?"
   "No, sir, but his automatic had an eight-shot clip, and there were only three rounds in it. When I fired my third shot, it was empty."
   "So what? For all you know someone else could have fired that gun. You did not see him fire, did you?"
   "No, sir."
   "So it might have been dropped by someone in the car. My client might have picked it up and, I repeat, been doing the same thing you were doing – this could all be true, but you have no way of knowing this, do you?"
   "I cannot testify about things I didn't see, sir. However, I did see the street, the traffic, and the other pedestrians. If your client did what you say, where did he come from?"

   "Precisely – you don't know, do you?" Atkinson said sharply.
   "When I saw your client, sir, he was coming from the direction of the stopped car." Jack gestured to the model on the evidence table. "For him to have come off the sidewalk, then gotten the gun, and then appeared where I saw him – there's just no way unless he's an Olympic-class sprinter."
   "Well, we'll never know, will we – you fixed that. You reacted precipitously, didn't you? You reacted as you were trained to by the U.S. Marines, never stopping to assess the situation. You raced into the fray quite recklessly, attacked my client and knocked him unconscious, then tried to kill him."
   "No, sir, I did not try to kill your client. I've already –"
   "Then why did you shoot an unconscious, helpless man?"
   "My Lord," prosecutor Richards said, standing up, "we have already asked that question."
   "The witness may answer on further reflection," Justice Wheeler intoned No one would say that this trial was unfair.
   "Sir, I did not know he was unconscious, and I didn't know how long it would be before he got up. So, I shot to disable him. I just didn't want him to get back up for a while."
   "I'm sure that's what they said at My Lai."
   "That wasn't the Marines, Mr. Atkinson," Ryan shot back.
   The lawyer smiled up at Jack. "I suppose your chaps were better trained at keeping quiet. Indeed, perhaps you yourself have been trained in such things . . . "
   "No, sir, I have not." He's making you angry, Jack. He took his handkerchief out and blew his nose again. The two deep breaths helped. "Excuse me. I'm afraid the local weather has given me a "bit of a head cold. What you just said – if the Marines trained people in that sort of stuff, the newspapers would have plastered it on their front pages years ago. No, moral issues aside for the moment, the Corps has a much better sense of public relations than that, Mr. Atkinson."
   "Indeed." The barrister shrugged. "And what about the Central Intelligence Agency?"
   "Excuse me?"
   "What of the press reports that you've worked for the CIA?"
   "Sir, the only times I've been paid by the U.S. government," Jack said, choosing his words very carefully, "the money came from the Navy Department, first as a Marine, then later – now, that is, as an instructor at the United States Naval Academy. I have never been employed by any other government agency, period."
   "So you are not an agent of the CIA? I remind you that you are under oath."
   "No, sir. I am not now, and I never have been any kind of agent – unless you count being a stockbroker. I don't work for the CIA."
   "And these news reports?"
   "I'm afraid that you'll have to ask the reporters. I don't know where that stuff comes from. I teach history. My office is in Leahy Hall on the Naval Academy grounds. That's kind of a long way from Langley."
   "Langley? You know where CIA is, then?"
   "Yes, sir. It's on record that I have delivered a lecture there. It was the same lecture I delivered the month before at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. My paper dealt with the nature of tactical decision-making. I have never worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, but I did, once, give a lecture there. Maybe that's where all these reports started."
   "I think you're lying, Sir John," Atkinson observed.
   Not quite, Charlie. "I can't help what you think, sir, I can only answer your questions truthfully."
   "And you never wrote an official report for the government entitled 'Agents and Agencies' ?"
   Ryan did not allow himself to react. Where did you get that bit of data, Charlie? He answered the question with great care.
   "Sir, last year – that is, last summer, at the end of the last school year – I was asked to be a contract consultant to a private company that does government work. The company is the Mitre Corporation, and I was hired on a temporary basis as part of one of their consulting contracts with the U.S. government. The work involved was classified, but it obviously had nothing at all to do with this case."
   "Obviously? Why don't you let the jury decide that?"
   "Mr. Atkinson," Justice Wheeler said tiredly, "are you suggesting that this work in which the witness was involved has a direct connection with the case before the court?"
   "I think we might wish to establish that, My Lord. It is my belief that the witness is misleading the court."
   "Very well." The judge turned. "Doctor Ryan, did this work in which you were engaged have anything whatever to do with a case of murder in the city of London, or with any of the persons involved in this case?"
   "No, sir."
   "You are quite certain?"

  "Yes, sir."
   "Are you now or have you ever been an employee of any intelligence or security agency of the American government?"
   "Except for the Marine Corps, no, sir."
   "I remind you of your oath to tell the truth – the whole, complete truth. Have you misled the court in any way, Doctor Ryan?"
   "No, sir, absolutely not."
   "Thank you, Doctor Ryan. I believe that question is now settled." Mr. Justice Wheeler turned back to his right. "Next question, Mr. Atkinson."
   The barrister had to be angry at that, Ryan thought, but he didn't let it show. He wondered if someone had briefed the judge.
   "You say that you shot my client merely in the hope that he would not get up?"
   Richards stood. "My Lord, the witness has already –"
   "If His Lordship will permit me to ask the next question, the issue will be more clear," Atkinson interrupted smoothly.
   "Proceed."
   "Doctor Ryan, you said that you shot my client in the hope that he would not get up. Do the U.S. Marine Corps teach one to shoot to disable, or to kill?"
   "To kill, sir."
   "And you are telling us, therefore, that you went against your training?"
   "Yes, sir. It is pretty clear that I was not on a battlefield. I was on a city street. It never occurred to me to kill your client." I wish it had, then I probably wouldn't be here, Ryan thought, wondering if he really meant it.
   "So you reacted in accordance with your training when you leaped into the fray on The Mall, but then you disregarded your training a moment later? Do you think it reasonable that all of us here will believe that?"
   Atkinson had finally succeeded in confusing Ryan. Jack had not the slightest idea where this was leading.
   "I haven't thought of it that way, sir, but, yes, you are correct," Jack admitted. "That is pretty much what happened."
   "And next you crept to the corner of the automobile, saw the second person whom you had seen earlier, and instead of trying to disable him, you shot him dead without warning. In this case, it is clear that you reverted again to your Marine training, and shot to kill. Don't you find this inconsistent?"
   Jack shook his head. "Not at all, sir. In each case I used the force necessary to – well, the force I had to use, as I saw things."
   "I think you are wrong, Sir John. I think that you reacted like a hotheaded officer of the United States Marines throughout. You raced into a situation of which you had no clear understanding, attacked an innocent man, and tried then to kill him while he lay helpless and unconscious on the street. Next you coldly gunned down someone else without the first thought of trying to disarm him. You did not know then, and you do not know now what was really happening, do you?"
   "No, sir, I do not believe that was the case at all. What was I supposed to have done with the second man?"
   Atkinson saw an opening and used it. "You just told the court that you only wished to disable my client – when in fact you tried to kill him. How do you expect us to believe that when your next action had not the first thing to do with such a peaceful solution?"
   "Sir, when I saw McCrory, the second gunman, for the first time, he had an AK-47 assault rifle in his hands. Going up against a light machine gun with a pistol –"
   "But by this time you saw that he didn't have the Kalashnikov, didn't you?"
   "Yes, sir, that's true. If he'd still had it – I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have stepped around the car, maybe I would have shot from cover, from behind the car, that is."
   "Ah, I see!" Atkinson exclaimed. "Instead, here was your chance to confront and kill the man in true cowboy fashion." His hands went up in the air. "Dodge City on The Mall!"
   "I wish you'd tell me what you think I should have done," Jack said with some exasperation.
   "For someone able to shoot straight through the heart on his first shot, why not shoot the gun from his hand. Sir John?"
   "Oh, I see." Atkinson had just made a mistake. Ryan shook his head and smiled. "I wish you'd make up your mind."
   "What?" The barrister was caught by surprise.
   "Mr. Atkinson, a minute ago you said that I tried to kill your client. I was at arm's-length range, but I didn't kill him. So I'm a pretty lousy shot. But you expect me to be able to hit a man in the hand at fifteen or twenty feet. It doesn't work that way, sir. I'm either a good shot or a bad shot, sir, but not both. Besides, that's just TV stuff, shooting a gun out of somebody's hand. On TV the good guy can do that, but TV isn't real. With a pistol, you aim for the center of your target. That's what I did. I stepped out from behind the car to get a clear shot, and I aimed. If McCrory had not turned his gun towards me – I can't say for sure, but probably I would not have shot. But he did turn and fire, as you can see from my shoulder – and I did return fire. It is true that I might have done things differently. Unfortunately I did not. I had – I didn't have much time to take action. I did the best I could. I'm sorry the man was killed, but that was his choice, too. He saw I had the drop on him, but he turned and fired – and he fired first, sir."
   "But you never said a word, did you?"
   "No, I don't think I did," Jack admitted.
   "Don't you wish you'd done things differently?"

  "Mr. Atkinson, if it makes you feel any better, I have gone over that again and again for the past four weeks. If I'd had more time to think, perhaps I would have done something different. But I'll never know, because I didn't have more time." Jack paused. "I suppose the best thing for all concerned would be if all this had never happened. But I didn't make it happen, sir. He did." Jack allowed himself to look at Miller again.
   Miller was sitting in a straight-back wooden chair, his arms crossed in front of him, and head cocked slightly to the left. A smile started to take shape at one corner of his mouth. It didn't go very far, and wasn't supposed to. It was a smile for Ryan alone . . . or maybe not me alone. Jack realized. Sean Miller's gray eyes didn't blink – he must have practiced that – as they bored in on him from thirty feet away. Ryan returned the stare, careful to keep his face without expression, and while the court reporter finished up his transcription of Jack's testimony, and the visitors in the overhead gallery shared whispered observations, Ryan and Miller were all alone, testing each other's wills. What's behind those eyes? Jack wondered again. No weakling, to be sure. This was a game – Miller's game that he'd practiced before, Ryan thought with certainty. There was strength in there, like something one might encounter in a predatory animal. But there was nothing to mute the strength. There was none of the softness of morality or conscience, only strength and will. With four police constables around him, Sean Miller was as surely restrained as a wolf in a cage, and he looked at Ryan as a wolf might from behind the bars, without recognition of his humanity. He was a predator, looking at a . . . thing – and wondering how he might reach it. The suit and the tie were camouflage, as had been his earlier smile at his friends in the gallery. He wasn't thinking about them now. He wasn't thinking about what the court would decide. He wasn't thinking about prison, Jack knew. He was thinking only about something named Ryan, something he could see just out of his reach. In the witness box, Jack's right hand flexed in his lap as though to grasp the pistol which lay in sight on the evidence table a few feet away.
   This wasn't an animal in a cage, after all. Miller had intelligence and education. He could think and plan, as a human could, but he would not be restrained by any human impulses when he decided to move. Jack's academic investigation of terrorists for the CIA had dealt with them as abstractions, robots that moved about and did things, and had to be neutralized one way or another. He'd never expected to meet one. More important, Jack had never expected to have one look at him in this way. Didn't he know that Jack was just doing his civic duty?
   You could care less about that. I'm something that got in your way. I hurt you, killed your friend, and defeated your mission. You want to get even, don't you? A wounded animal will always seek out its tormentor. Jack told himself. And this wounded animal has a brain. This one has a memory. Out of sight to anyone else, he wiped a sweaty hand on his pants. This one is thinking.
   Ryan was frightened in a way that he'd never known before. It lasted several seconds before he reminded himself that Miller was surrounded by four cops, that the jury would find him guilty, that he would be sentenced to prison for the remainder of his natural life, and that prison life would change the person or thing that lived behind those pale gray eyes.
   And I used to be a Marine, Jack told himself. I'm not afraid of you. I can handle you, punk. I took you out once, didn't I? He smiled back at Sean Miller, just a slight curve at the corner of his own mouth. Not a wolf – a weasel. Nasty, but not that much to worry about, he told himself. Jack turned away as though from an exhibit in the zoo. He wondered if Miller had seen through his quiet bravado.
   "No further questions," Atkinson said.
   "The witness may step down," Mr. Justice Wheeler said.
   Jack stood up from the stool and turned to find the way out. As he did so, his eyes swept across Miller one last time, long enough to see that the look and the smile hadn't changed.
   Jack walked back out to the grand hall as another witness passed in the other direction. He found Dan Murray waiting for him.
   "Not bad," the FBI agent observed, "but you want to be careful locking horns with a lawyer. He almost tripped you up."
   "You think it'll matter?"
   Murray shook his head. "Nah. The trial's a formality, the case is airtight."
   "What'll he get?"
   "Life. Normally over here 'life' doesn't mean any more than it does stateside – six or eight years. For this kid, 'life' means life. Oh, there you are, Jimmy."
   Commander Owens came down the corridor and joined them. "How did our lad perform?"
   "Not an Oscar winner, but the jury liked him," Murray said.
   "How can you tell that?"
   "That's right, you've never been through this, have you? They sat perfectly still, hardly even breathed while you were telling your story. They believed everything you said, especially the part about how you've thought and worried about it. You come across as an honest guy."
   "I am," Ryan said. "So?"
   "Not everybody is," Owens pointed out. "And juries are actually quite good at noticing it. That is, some of the time."
   Murray nodded. "We both have some good – well, not so good – stories about what a jury can do, but when you get down to it, the system works pretty well. Commander Owens, why don't we buy this gentleman a beer?"
   "A fine idea. Agent Murray." Owens took Ryan's arm and led him to the staircase:
   "That kid's a scary little bastard, isn't he?" Ryan said. He wanted a professional opinion.
   "You noticed, eh?" Murray observed. "Welcome to the wonderful world of the international terrorist. Yeah, he's a tough little son of a bitch, all right. Most of 'em are, at first."
   "A year from now he'll have been changed a bit. He's a hard one, mind, but the hard ones are often rather brittle," Owens said. "They sometimes crack. Time is very much on our side, Jack. And even if he doesn't, that's one less to worry about."

  "A very confident witness," the TV news commentator said. "Doctor Ryan fended off a determined attack by the defense counsel, Charles Atkinson, and identified defendant Sean Miller quite positively in the second day of The Mall Murder trial in Old Bailey Number Two." The picture showed Ryan walking down the hill from the courthouse with two men in attendance. The American was gesturing about something, then laughed as he passed the TV news camera.
   "Our old friend Owens. Who's the other one?" O'Donnell asked.
   "Daniel E. Murray, FBI representative at Grosvenor Square," replied his intelligence officer.
   "Oh. Never saw his face. So that's what he looks like. Going out for a jar, I'll wager. The hero and his coat-holders. Pity we couldn't have had a man with an RPG right there . . . " They'd scouted James Owens once, trying to figure a way to assassinate him, but the man always had a chase car and never used the same route twice. His house was always watched. They could have killed him, but the getaway would have been too risky, and O'Donnell was not given to sending his men on suicide missions. "Ryan goes home either tomorrow or next day."
   "Oh?" The intelligence officer hadn't learned that. Where does Kevin get all his special information . . .?
   "Too bad, isn't it? Wouldn't it be grand to send him home in a coffin, Michael?"
   "I thought you said he was not a worthwhile target," Mike McKenney said.
   "Ah, but he's a proud one, isn't he? Crosses swords with our friend Charlie and prances out of the Bailey for a pint of beer. Bloody American, so sure of everything." Wouldn't it be nice to . . . Kevin O'Donnell shook his head. "We have other things to plan. Sir John can wait, and so can we."

   "I practically had to hold a gun on somebody to get to do this," Murray said over his shoulder. The FBI agent was driving his personal car, with a Diplomatic Protection Group escort on the left front seat, and a chase car of C-13 detectives trying to keep up.
   Keep your eyes on the damned road, Ryan wished as hard as he could. His exposure to London traffic to this point had been minimal, and only now did he appreciate that the city's speed limit was considered a matter of contempt by the drivers. Being on the wrong side of the road didn't help either.
   "Tom Hughes – he's the Chief Warder – told me what he had planned, and I figured you might want an escort who talks right."
   And drives right, Ryan thought as they passed a truck – lorry – on the wrong side. Or was it the right side? How do you tell? He could tell that they'd missed the truck's taillights by about eighteen inches. English roads were not impressive for their width.
   "Damned shame you didn't get to see very much."
   "Well, Cathy did, and I caught a lot of TV."
   "What did you watch?"
   Jack laughed. "I caught a lot of the replays of the cricket championships."
   "Did you ever figure out the rules?" Murray asked, turning his head again.
   "It has rules?" Ryan asked incredulously. "Why spoil it with rules?"
   "They say it does, but damn if I ever figured them out. But we're getting even now."
   "How's that?"
   "Football is becoming pretty popular over here. Our kind, I mean. I gave Jimmy Owens a big runaround last year on the difference between offside and illegal procedure."
   "You mean encroachment and false start, don't you?" the DPG man inquired.
   "See? They're catching on."
   "You mean I could have gotten football on TV, and nobody told me!"
   "Too bad, Jack," Cathy observed.
   "Well, here we are." Murray stood on the brakes as he turned downhill toward the river. Jack noticed that he seemed to be heading the wrong way down a one-way street, but at least he was going more slowly now. Finally the car stopped. It was dark. The sunset came early this time of year.
   "Here's your surprise." Murray jumped out and got the door, allowing Ryan to repeat his imitation of a fiddler crab exiting from a car. "Hi, there, Tom!"
   Two men approached, both in Tudor uniforms of blue and red. The one in the lead, a man in his late fifties, came directly to Ryan.
   "Sir John, Lady Ryan, welcome to Her Majesty's Tower of London. I am Thomas Hughes, this is Joseph Evans. I see that Dan managed to get you here on time." Everyone shook hands.
   "Yeah, we didn't even have to break mach-1. May I ask what the surprise is?"
   "But then it wouldn't be a surprise," Hughes pointed out. "I had hoped to conduct you around the grounds myself, but there's something I must attend to. Joe will see to your needs, and I will rejoin you shortly." The Chief Warder walked off with Dan Murray in his wake.
   "Have you been to the Tower before?" Evans asked. Jack shook his head.
   "I have, when I was nine," Cathy said. "I don't remember very much."
   Evans motioned for them to come along with him. "Well, we'll try to implant the knowledge more permanently this time."
   "You guys are all soldiers, right?"
   "Actually, Sir John, we are all ex-sergeant majors – well, two of us were warrant officers. I was sergeant major in 1 Para when I retired. I had to wait four years to get accepted here. There is quite a bit of interest in this job, as you might imagine. The competition is very keen."
   "So, you were what we call a command sergeant-major, sir?"
   "Yes, I think that's right."
   Ryan gave a quick look to the decorations on Evans' coat – it looked more like a dress, but he had no plans to say that. Those ribbons didn't mean that Evans had come out of the dentist's office with no cavities. It didn't take much imagination to figure what sort of men got appointed to this job. Evans didn't walk; he marched with the sort of pride that took thirty years of soldiering to acquire.
   "Is your arm troubling you, sir?"
   "My name's Jack, and my arm's okay."
   "I had a cast just like that one back in sixty-eight, I think it was. Training accident," Evans said with a rueful shake of his head. "Landed on a stone fence. Hurt like the very devil for weeks."
   "But you kept jumping." And did your push-ups one-handed, didn't you?
   "Of course." Evans stopped. "Right, now this imposing edifice is the Middle Tower. There used to be an outer structure right there where the souvenir shop is. They called it the Lion Tower, because that's where the royal menagerie was kept until 1834."
   The speech was delivered as perfectly as Evans had done, several times per day, for the past four years. My first castle, Jack thought, looking at the stone walls.
   "Was the moat for-real?"

   "Oh, yes, and a very unpleasant one at that. The problem, you see, was that it was designed so that the river would wash in and out every day, thereby keeping it fresh and clean. Unfortunately the engineer didn't do his sums quite right, and once the water came in, it stayed in. Even worse, everything that got thrown away by the people living here was naturally enough thrown into the moat – and stayed there, and rotted. I suppose it served a tactical purpose, though. The smell of the moat alone must have been sufficient to keep all but the most adventurous chaps away. It was finally drained in 1843, and now it serves a really useful purpose – the children can play football there. On the far side are swings and jungle gyms. Do you have children?"
   "One and a ninth," Cathy answered.
   "Really?" Evans smiled in the darkness. "Bloody marvelous! I suppose that's one Yank who will be forever – at least a little – British! Moira and I have two, both of them born overseas. Now this is the Byward Tower."
   "These things all had drawbridges, right?" Jack asked.
   "Yes, the Lion and Middle towers were essentially islands with twenty or so feet of smelly water around them. You'll also notice that the path into the grounds has a right-angle turn. The purpose of that, of course, was to make life difficult for the chaps with the battering ram."
   Jack looked at the width of the moat and the height of the walls as they passed into the Tower grounds proper. "So nobody ever took this place?"
   Evans shook his head. "There has never been a serious attempt, and I wouldn't much fancy trying today."
   "Yeah," Ryan agreed. "You sweat having somebody come in and bomb the place?"
   "That's happened, I am sorry to say, in the White Tower, over ten years ago – terrorists. Security is somewhat tighter now," Evans said.
   In addition to the Yeoman Warders there were uniformed guards like those Ryan had encountered on The Mall, wearing the same red tunics and bearskin hats, and carrying the same kind of modern rifle. It was rather an odd contrast to Evans' period uniform, but no one seemed to notice.
   "You know, of course, that this facility served many purposes over the years. It was the royal prison, and as late as World War Two, Rudolf Hess was kept here. Now, do you know who was the first Queen of England to be executed here?"
   "Anne Boleyn," Cathy answered.
   "Very good. They teach our history in America?" Evans asked.
   "Masterpiece Theater," Cathy explained. "I saw the TV show."
   "Well, then you know that all the private executions were carried out with an ax – except hers. King Henry had a special executioner imported from France; he used a sword instead of an ax."
   "He didn't want it to hurt?" Cathy asked with a twisted smile. "Nice of him."
   "Yes, he was a considerate chap, wasn't he? And this is Traitor's Gate. You might be interested to know that it was originally called the Water Gate."
   Ryan laughed. "Lucky for you guys too, eh?"
   "Indeed. Prisoners were taken through this gate by boat to Westminster for trial."
   "Then back here for their haircuts?"
   "Only the really important ones. Those executions – they were private instead of public – were done on the Tower Green. The public executions were carried out elsewhere." Evans led them through the gate in the Bloody Tower, after explaining its history. Ryan wondered if anyone had ever put all this place's history into one book, and if so, how many volumes it required.
   The Tower Green was far too pleasant to be the site of executions. Even the signs to keep people off the grass said Please. Two sides were lined with Tudor-style (of course) houses, but the northern edge was the site where the scaffolding was erected for the high-society executions. Evans went through the procedure, which included having the executionee pay the headsman – in advance – in the hope that he'd do a proper job.
   "The last woman to be executed here," Evans went on, "was Jane, Viscountess Rochford, 13 February, 1542."
   "What did she do?" Cathy asked.
   "What she didn't do, actually. She neglected to tell King Henry the Eighth that his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was, uh, amorously engaged with someone other than her husband," Evans said delicately.
   "That was a real historic moment," Jack chuckled. "That's the last time a woman was ever executed for keeping her mouth shut."
   Cathy smiled at her husband. "Jack, how about I break your other arm?"
   "And what would Sally say?"
   "She'd understand," his wife assured him.
   "Sergeant major, isn't it amazing how women stick together?"
   "I did not survive thirty-one years as a professional soldier by being so foolish as to get involved in domestic disputes," Evans said sensibly.
   I lose, Ryan told himself. The remainder of the tour lasted about twenty minutes. The Yeoman led them downhill past the White Tower, then left toward an area roped off from the public. A moment later Ryan and his wife found themselves in another of the reasons that men applied for the job.
   The Yeoman Warders had their own little pub hidden away in the 14th-century stonework. Plaques from every regiment in the British Army – and probably gifts from many others – lined the walls. Evans handed them off to yet another man. Dan Murray reappeared, a glass in his hand.
   "Jack, Cathy, this is Bob Hallston."
   "You must be thirsty," the man said.
   "You could talk me into a beer," Jack admitted.
   "Cathy?"
   "Something soft."
   "You're sure?" Hallston asked.
   "I'm not a temperance worker, I just don't drink when I'm pregnant," Cathy explained.
   "Congratulations!" Hallston took two steps to the bar and returned with a glass of lager for Jack, and what looked like ginger ale for his wife. "To your health, and your baby's."
   Cathy beamed. There was something about pregnant women, Jack thought. His wife wasn't just pretty anymore. She glowed. He wondered if it was only for him.
   "I understand you're a doctor?"
   "I'm an ophthalmic surgeon."
   "And you teach history, sir?"
   "That's right. I take it you work here, too."
   "Correct. There are thirty-nine of us. We are the ceremonial guardians of the Sovereign. We have invited you here to thank you for doing our job, and to join us in a small ceremony that we do every night."
   "Since 1240," Murray said.
   "The year 1240?" Cathy asked.
   "Yeah, it's not something they cooked up for the tourists. This is the real thing," Murray said. "Right, Bob?"
   "Quite real. When we lock up for the night, this museum collection becomes the safest place in England."
   "I'll buy that," Jack tossed off half his beer. "And if they get past those kids out there, the bad guys have you fellows to worry about."
   "Yes." Hallston smiled. "One or two of us might remember our basic skills. I was in the original SAS, playing hare and hounds with Rommel in the Western Desert. Dreadful place, the desert. Left me with a permanent thirst."
   They never lose it, Ryan thought. They never lose the look, not the real professionals. They get older, add a few pounds, mellow out a little, but beneath all that you can still see the discipline and the essential toughness that makes them different. And the pride, the understated confidence that comes from having done it all, and not having to talk about it very much, except among themselves. It never goes away.
   "Do you have any Marines in here?"
   "Two," Hallston said. "We try to keep them from holding hands."
   "Right! Be nice, I used to be a Marine."
   "No one's perfect," Hallston sympathized.
   "So, what's this Key Ceremony?"
   "Well, back in the year 1240, the chap whose job it was to lock up for the night was set upon by some ruffians. Thereafter, he refused to do his duty without a military escort. Every night since, without interruption, the Chief Warder locks the three principal gates, then places the keys in the Queen's House on the Tower Green. There's a small ceremony that goes along with this. We thought that you and your wife might like to see it." Hallston sipped his beer. "You were in court today, I understand. How did it go?"
   "I'm glad it's behind me. Dan says I did all right." Ryan shrugged. "When Mr. Evans showed us the block topside – I wonder if it still works," Ryan said thoughtfully, remembering the look on that young face. Is Miller sitting in his cell right now, thinking about me? Ryan drank the last of his beer. I'll bet he is.
   "Excuse me?"

  "That Miller kid. It's a shame you can't take him up there for a short haircut."
   Hallston smiled coldly. "I doubt anyone here would disagree with you. We might even find a volunteer to swing the ax."
   "You'd have to hold a lottery, Bob." Murray handed Ryan another glass. "You still worrying about him. Jack?"
   "I've never seen anybody like that before."
   "He's in jail. Jack," Cathy pointed out.
   "Yeah, I know." So why are you still thinking about him? Jack asked himself. The hell with it. The hell with him. "This is great beer, Sar-major."
   "That's the real reason they apply for the job," Murray chuckled.
   "One of the reasons." Hallston finished his glass. "Almost time."
   Jack finished off his second glass with a gulp. Evans reappeared, now wearing street clothes, and led them back out to the chilled night air. It was a clear night, with a three-quarters moon casting muted shadows on the stone battlements. A handful of electric lights added a few isolated splashes of light. Jack was surprised how peaceful it was for being in the center of a city, like his own home over the Chesapeake. Without thinking, he took his wife's hand as Evans led them west toward the Bloody Tower. A small crowd was already there, standing by Traitor's Gate, and a Warder was giving them instructions to be as quiet as possible, and not, of course, to take any photographs. A sentry was posted there, plus four other men under arms, their breath illuminated by the blue-white floodlights. It was the only sign of life. Otherwise they might have been made of stone.
   "Right about now," Murray whispered.
   Jack heard a door close somewhere ahead. It was too dark to see very much, and the few lights that were turned on only served to impair his night vision. He heard the sound of jingling keys first of all, like small bells rattling to the measured tread of a walking man. Next he saw a point of light. It grew into a square lantern with a candle inside, carried by Tom Hughes, the Chief Warder. The sound of his footsteps was as regular as a metronome as he approached, his back ramrod-straight from a lifetime of practice. A moment later the four soldiers formed up on him, the warder between them, and they marched off, back into the tunnel-like darkness to the fading music of the rattling keys and cleated shoes clicking on the pavement, leaving the sentry at the Bloody Tower.
   Jack didn't hear the gates close, but a few minutes later the sound of the keys returned, and he glimpsed the returning guards in the irregular splashes of light. For some reason the scene was overpoweringly romantic. Ryan reached around his wife's waist and pulled her close. She looked up.
   Love you, he said with his lips as the keys approached again. Her eyes answered.
   To their right, the sentry snapped to on-guard: "Halt! Who goes there?" His words reverberated down the corridor of ancient stone.
   The advancing men stopped at once, and Tom Hughes answered the challenge: "The keys!"
   "Whose keys?" the sentry demanded.
   "Queen Anne's keys!"
   "Pass, Queen Anne's keys!" The sentry brought his rifle to present-arms.
   The sentries, with Hughes in their midst, resumed their march and turned left, up the slope to the Tower Green. Ryan and his wife followed close behind. At the steps that capped the upward slope waited a squad of riflemen. Hughes and his escort stopped. The squad on the steps came to present-arms, and the Chief Warder removed his uniform bonnet.
   "God preserve Queen Anne!"
   "Amen!" the guard force replied.
   Behind them, a bugler stood. He blew Last Post, the British version of Taps. The notes echoed against the stones in a way that denoted the end of day, and when necessary, the end of life. Like the circular waves that follow a stone's fall into the water, the last mournful note lingered until it faded to nothingness in the still air. Ryan bent down to kiss his wife. It was a magical moment that they would not soon forget.
   The Chief Warder proceeded up the steps to secure the keys for the night, and the crowd withdrew.
   "Every night since 1240, eh?" Jack asked.
   "The ceremony was interrupted during the Blitz. A German bomb fell into the Tower grounds while things were under way. The warder was bowled over by the blast, and the candle in his lantern was extinguished. He had to relight it before he could continue," Evans said. That the man had been wounded was irrelevant. Some things are more important than that. "Shall we return to the pub?"
   "We don't have anything like this at home," Cathy said quietly.
   "Well, America isn't old enough, is she?"
   "It would be nice if we had something like this, maybe at Bunker Hill or Fort McHenry," Jack said quietly.
   Murray nodded agreement. "Something to remind us why we're here."
   "Tradition is important," Evans said. "For a soldier, tradition is often the reason one carries on when there are so many reasons not to. It's more than just yourself, more than just your mates – but it's not just something for soldiers, is it? It is true – or should be true – of any professional community."
   "It is," Cathy said. "Any good medical school beats that into your head. Hopkins sure did."
   "So does the Corps," Jack agreed. "But we don't express it as well as you just did."
   "We've had more practice." Evans opened the door to the pub. "And better beer to aid in our contemplation."
   "Now, if you guys could only learn how to fix beef properly . . . " Jack said to Evans.
   "That's telling 'em, ace," the FBI agent chuckled.
   "Another beer for a brother Marine." A glass was handed to Ryan by another of the warders. "Surely you've had enough of this para prima donna by now."

   "Bert's one of the Marines I told you about," Evans explained.
   "I never say bad things about somebody who buys the drinks," Ryan told Bert.
   "That is an awfully sensible attitude. Are you sure you were only a lieutenant?"
   "Only for three months." Jack explained about the helicopter crash.
   "That was bad luck. Bloody training accidents," Evans said. "More dangerous than combat."
   "So you guys work as tour guides here?"
   "That's part of it," the other warder said. "It's a good way to keep one's hand in, and also to educate the odd lieutenant. Just last week I spoke to one of the Welsh Guards chaps – he was having trouble getting things right, and I gave him a suggestion."
   "The one thing you really miss," Evans agreed. "Teaching those young officers to be proper soldiers. Who says the best diplomats work at Whitehall?"
   "I never got the feeling that I was completely useless as a second lieutenant," Jack observed with a smile.
   "All depends on one's point of view," the other yeoman said. "Still and all, you might have worked out all right, judging by what you did on The Mall."
   "I don't know, Bert. A lieutenant with a hero complex is not the sort of chap you want to be around. They keep doing the damnedest things. But I suppose the ones who survive, and learn, do work out as you say. Tell me. Lieutenant Ryan, what have you learned?"
   "Not to get shot. The next time I'll just shoot from cover."
   "Excellent." Bob Hallston rejoined them. "And don't leave one alive behind you," he added. The SAS wasn't noted for leaving people alive by accident.
   Cathy didn't like this sort of talk. "Gentlemen, you can't just kill people like that."
   "The Lieutenant took rather a large chance, ma'am, not the sort of chance that one will walk away from very often. If there is ever a next time – and there won't be, of course. But if there is, you can act like a policeman or a soldier, but not both. You're very lucky to be alive, young man. You have that arm to remind you just how lucky you are. It is good to be brave, Lieutenant. It is better to be smart, and much less painful for those around you," Evans said. He looked down at his beer. "Dear God, how many times have I said that!"
   "How many times have we all said it?" Bert said quietly. "And the pity is, so many of them didn't listen. Enough of that. This lovely lady doesn't want to hear the ramblings of tired old men. Bob tells me that you are expecting another child. In two months, I shall be a grandfather for the first time."
   "Yes, he can hardly wait to show us the pictures." Evans laughed. "A boy or a girl this time?"
   "Just so all the pieces are attached, and they all work." There was general agreement on the point. Ryan finished off his third beer of the evening. It was pretty strong stuff, and he was getting a buzz from it. "Gentlemen, if any of you come to America, and happen to visit the Washington area, I trust you will let us know."
   "And the next time you are in London, the bar is open," Tom Hughes said. The Chief Warder was back in civilian clothes, but carrying his uniform bonnet, a hat whose design went back three or four centuries. "And perhaps you'll find room in your home for this. Sir John, with the thanks of us all."
   "I'll take good care of this." Ryan took the hat, but couldn't bring himself to put it on. He hadn't earned that right.
   "Now, I regret to say that if you don't leave now, you'll be stuck here all night. At midnight all the doors are shut, and that is that."
   Jack and Cathy shook hands all around, then followed Hughes and Murray out the door.
   The walk between the inner and outer walls was still quiet, the air still cold, and Jack found himself wondering if ghosts walked the Tower Grounds at night. It was almost –
   "What's that?" He pointed to the outer wall. A spectral shape was walking up there.
   "A sentry," Hughes said. "After the Ceremony of the Keys, the guards don their pattern-disruptive clothing." They passed the sentry at the Bloody Tower, now dressed in camouflage fatigues, with web gear and ammo pouches.
   "Those rifles are loaded now, aren't they?" Jack asked.
   "Not very much use otherwise, are they? This is a very safe place," Hughes replied.
   Nice to know that some places are, Ryan thought. Now why did I think that?

Chapter 7
Speedbird Home

   The Speedway Lounge at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4 was relaxing enough, or would have been had Jack not been nervous about flying. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows he could see the Concorde he'd be taking home in a few minutes. The designers had given their creation the aspect of a living creature, like some huge, merciless bird of prey, a thing of fearful beauty. It sat there at the end of the Jetway atop its unusually high landing gear, staring at Ryan impassively over its daggerlike nose.
   "I wish the Bureau would let me commute back and forth on that baby," Murray observed.
   "It's pretty!" Sally Ryan agreed.
   It's just another goddamned airplane. Jack told himself. You can't see what holds it up. Jack didn't remember whether it was Bernoulli's Principle or the Venturi Effect, but he knew that it was something inferred, not actually seen, that enabled aircraft to fly. He remembered that something had interrupted the Principle or Effect over Crete and nearly killed him, and that nineteen months later that same something had reached up and killed his parents five thousand feet short of the runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Intellectually he knew that his Marine helicopter had died of a mechanical failure, and that commercial airliners were simpler and easier to maintain than CH-46s. He also knew that bad weather had been the main contributing factor in his parents' case – and the weather here was clear – but to Ryan there was something outrageous about flying, something unnatural.
   Fine, Jack. Why not go back to living in caves and hunting bear with a pointed stick? What's natural about teaching history, or watching TV, or driving a car? Idiot.
   But I hate to fly, Ryan reminded himself.
   "There has never been an accident in the Concorde," Murray pointed out. "And Jimmy Owens's troops gave the bird a complete checkout." The possibility of a bomb on that pretty white bird was a real one. The explosives experts from C-13 had spent over an hour that morning making sure that nobody had done that, and now police dressed as British Airways ground crewmen stood around the airliner. Jack wasn't worried about a bomb. Dogs could find bombs.
   "I know," Jack replied with a wan smile. "Just a basic lack of guts on my part."
   "It's only lack of guts if you don't go, ace," Murray pointed out. He was surprised that Ryan was so nervous, though he concealed it well, the FBI agent thought. Murray enjoyed flying. An Air Force recruiter had almost convinced him to become a pilot, back in his college days.
   No, it's tack of brains if I do, Jack told himself. You really are a wimp, another part of his brain informed him. Some Marine you turned out to be!
   "When do we blast off. Daddy?" Sally asked.
   "One o'clock," Cathy told her daughter. "Don't bother Daddy."
   Blast off. Jack thought with a smile. Dammit, there is nothing to be afraid of and you know it! Ryan shook his head and sipped at his drink from the complimentary bar. He counted four security people in the lounge, all trying to look inconspicuous. Owens was taking no chances on Ryan's last day in England. The rest was up to British Airways. He wasn't even being billed for the extra cost. Ryan wondered if that was good luck or bad.
   A disembodied female voice announced the flight. Jack finished off the drink and rose to his feet.
   "Thanks for everything, Dan."
   "Can we go now, Daddy?" Sally asked brightly. Cathy took her daughter's hand.
   "Wait a minute!" Murray stooped down to Sally. "Don't I get a hug and a kiss?"
   "Okay." Sally obliged with enthusiasm. "G'bye, Mr. M'ray."
   "Take good care of our hero," the FBI man told Cathy.
   "He'll be all right," she assured him.
   "Enjoy the football, ace!" Murray nearly crushed Jack's hand. That's the one thing I really miss."
   "I can send you tapes."
   "It's not the same. Back to teaching history, eh?"
   "That's what I do," Ryan said.
   "We'll see," Murray observed cryptically. "How the hell do you walk with that thing on?"
   "Badly," Ryan chuckled. "I think the doc installed some lead weights, or maybe he left some tools in there by mistake. Well, here we are." They reached the entrance to the Jetway.
   "Break a leg." Murray smiled and moved off.
   "Welcome aboard. Sir John," a flight attendant said. "We have you in 1-D. Have you flown Concorde before?"
   "No." It was all Jack could muster. Ahead of him, Cathy turned and grinned. The tunnel-like Jetway looked like the entrance to the grave.
   "Well, you are in for the thrill of your life!" the stewardess assured him.
   Thanks a lot! Ryan nearly choked at the outrage, and remembered that he couldn't strangle her with one hand. Then he laughed. There wasn't anything else to do.
   He had to duck to avoid crunching his head at the door. It was tiny inside; the cabin was only eight or nine feet across. He looked forward quickly and saw the flight crew in impossibly tight quarters – getting into the pilot's left seat must have been like putting on a boot, it seemed so cramped. Another attendant was hanging up coats. He had to wait until she saw him, and walked sideways, his plaster-encased arm leading the way into the passenger cabin.
   "Right here," his personal guide said

   Jack got into the right-side window seat in the front row. Cathy and Sally were already in their seats on the other side. Jack's cast stuck well over seat 1-C. No one could have sat there. It was just as well that British Airways wasn't charging the difference between this and their L-1011 tickets; there would have been an extra seat charge. He immediately tried to snap on his seat belt and found that it wasn't easy with only one hand. The stewardess was ready for this, and handled it for him.
   "You are quite comfortable?"
   "Yes," Jack lied. I am quite terrified.
   "Excellent. Here is your Concorde information kit." She pointed toward a gray vinyl folder. "Would you like a magazine?"
   "No thank you I have a book in my pocket"
   "Fine. I'll be back after we take off, but if you need anything, please ring."
   Jack pulled the seat belt tighter as he looked forward and left at the airplane's door. It was still open. He could still escape. But he knew he wouldn't do that. He leaned back. The seat was gray, too, a little on the narrow side but comfortable. His placement in the front row gave him all the legroom he needed. The airplane's inside wall – or whatever they called it – was off-white, and he had a window to look out of. Not a very large one, about the size of two paperback books, but better than no window at all. He looked around. The flight was about three-quarters full. These were seasoned travelers, and wealthy ones. Business types mostly. Jack figured, many were reading their copies of the Financial Times. And none of them were afraid of flying. You could tell from their impassive faces. It never occurred to Jack that his face was set exactly the same.
   "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Nigel Higgins welcoming you aboard British Airways Flight 189, Concorde Service to Washington, D.C., and Miami, Florida. We'll begin taxiing in approximately five minutes. Weather at our first stop, Washington's Dulles International Airport, is excellent, clear, with a temperature of fifty-six degrees. We will be in the air a total of three hours and twenty-five minutes. Please observe that the no-smoking sign is lighted, and we ask that while you are seated you keep your seat belts fastened. Thank you," the clipped voice concluded.
   The door had been closed during the speech, Ryan noted sourly. A clever distraction, as their only escape route was eliminated. He leaned back and closed his eyes, resigning himself to fate. One nice thing about being up front was that no one could see him except Cathy – Sally had the window seat – and his wife understood, or at least pretended to. Soon the cabin crew was demonstrating how to put on and inflate life jackets stowed under the seats. Jack watched without interest. Concorde's perfect safety record meant that no one had the first idea on how to ditch one safely, and his position near the nose, so far from the delta-shaped wing, ensured that if they hit the water he'd be in the part of the fuselage that broke off and sank like a cement block. Not that this would matter. The impact itself would surely be fatal.
   Asshole, if this bird was dangerous, they would have lost one by now.
   The whine of the jet turbines came next, triggering the acid glands in Jack's stomach. He closed his eyes again. You can't run away. He commanded himself to control his breathing and relax. That was strangely easy. Jack had never been a white-knuckled flier. He was more likely to be limp.
   Some unseen tractor-cart started pushing the aircraft backward. Ryan looked out of the window and watched the scenery move slowly forward. Heathrow was quite a complex. Aircraft from a dozen airlines were visible, mainly sitting at the terminal buildings like ships at a dock. Wish we could take a ship home, he thought, forgetting that he'd been one seasick Marine on Guam, years ago. The Concorde stopped for a few seconds, then began moving under its own power. Ryan didn't know why the landing gear was so high, but this factor imparted an odd sort of movement as they taxied. The captain came on the intercom again and said something about, taking off on afterburners, but Ryan didn't catch it, instead watching a Pan Am 747 lift off. The Concorde was certainly prettier, Ryan thought. It reminded him of the models of fighter planes he'd assembled as a kid. We're going first class.
   The plane made a sweeping turn at the end of the runway and stopped, bobbing a little on the nose gear. Here we go.
   "Departure positions," the intercom announced. Somewhere aft the cabin crew strapped into their jump seats. In 1-D, Jack fitted himself into his seat much like a man awaiting electrocution. His eyes were open now, watching out the window.
   The engine sounds increased markedly, and Speedbird started to roll. A few seconds later the engine noise appeared to pick up even more, and Ryan was pressed back into the fabric and vinyl chair. Damn, he told himself. The acceleration was impressive, about double anything he'd experienced before. He had no way of measuring it, but an invisible hand was pressing him backward while another pushed at his cast and tried to turn him sideways. The stew had been right. It was a thrill. The grass was racing by his window, then the nose came up sharply. A final bump announced that the main gear was off the ground. Jack listened for its retraction into the airframe, but the sheer power of the takeoff blocked it out. Already they were at least a thousand feet off the ground and rocketing upward at what seemed an impossible angle. He looked over to his wife. Wow, Cathy mouthed at him. Sally had her nose against the plastic inside window.
   The angle of climb eased off slightly. Already the cabin attendants were at work, with a drink cart. Jack got himself a glass of champagne. He wasn't in a celebrating mood, but bubbly wines always affected him fast. Once Cathy had offered to prescribe some Valium for his flying jitters. Ryan had an ingrained reluctance to take drugs. But booze was different, he told himself. He looked out the window. They were still going up. The ride was fairly smooth, no bumps worse than going over the tar strip on a concrete highway.
   Jack felt every one, mindful of the fact that he was several thousand feet over – he checked – still the ground.
   He fished the paperback out of his pocket and started reading. This was his one sure escape from flying. Jack slouched to his right, his head firmly wedged into the place where the seat and white plastic wall met. He was able to rest his left arm on the aisle seat, and that took the weight off the place on his waist where the cast dug in hard. His right elbow was planted on the armrest, and Ryan made himself a rigid part of the airframe as he concentrated on his book. He'd selected well for the flight, one of Alistair Home's books on the Franco-German conflicts. He soon found another reason to hate his cast. It was difficult to read and turn pages one-handed. He had to set the book down first to do it.
   A brief surge of power announced that first one, then the other pair of afterburners had been activated on the Concorde's Olympus engines. He felt the new acceleration, and the aircraft began to climb again as she passed through mach-1, and the airliner gave meaning to her call sign prefix: "Speedbird." Jack looked out the window – they were over water now. He checked his watch: less than three hours to touchdown at Dulles. You can put up with anything for three hours, can't you?