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  Table of Contents

  PATRIOT GAMES

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - A Sunny Day in Londontown

  Chapter 2 - Cops and Royals

  Chapter 3 - Flowers and Families

  Chapter 4 - Players

  Chapter 5 - Perqs and Plots

  Chapter 6 - Trials and Troubles

  Chapter 7 - Speedbird Home

  Chapter 8 - Information

  Chapter 9 - A Day for Celebration

  Chapter 10 - Plans and Threats

  Chapter 11 - Warnings

  Chapter 12 - Homecoming

  Chapter 13 - Visitors

  Chapter 14 - Second Chances

  Chapter 15 - Shock and Trauma

  Chapter 16 - Objectives and Patriots

  Chapter 17 - Recriminations and Decisions

  Chapter 18 - Lights

  Chapter 19 - Tests and Passing Grades

  Chapter 20 - Data

  Chapter 21 - Plans

  Chapter 22 - Procedures

  Chapter 23 - Movement

  Chapter 24 - Connections Missed and Made

  Chapter 25 - Rendezvous

  Chapter 26 - The Sound of Freedom

  “A bang-up climax!”

  —The Washington Post

  “A novel that crackles!”

  —The New York Times

  “A high pitch of excitement!”

  —Caspar Weinberger, The Wall Street Journal

  “Ambitious, daring ...

  as spectacular as any thriller ever.”

  —Minneapolis Star Tribune

  PATRIOT GAMES

  Phenomenal bestselling author Tom Clancy is one of America’s most acclaimed storytellers. Now he targets a CIA analyst and his family in the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. In an explosive wave of violence, an ultra-left-wing faction of the IRA hunts one man for his act of salvation in an assassination attempt. And now he must pay ... with his life.

  Novels by Tom Clancy

  THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

  RED STORM RISING

  PATRIOT GAMES

  THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN

  CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

  THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

  WITHOUT REMORSE

  DEBT OF HONOR

  EXECUTIVE ORDERS

  RAINBOW SIX

  THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON

  RED RABBIT

  THE TEETH OF THE TIGER

  SSN: STRATEGIES OF SUBMARINE WARFARE

  Nonfiction

  SUBMARINE: A GUIDED TOUR INSIDE A NUCLEAR WARSHIP

  ARMORED CAV: A GUIDED TOUR OF AN ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT

  FIGHTER WING: A GUIDED TOUR OF AN AIR FORCE COMBAT WING

  MARINE: A GUIDED TOUR OF A MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT

  AIRBORNE: A GUIDED TOUR OF AN AIRBORNE TASK FORCE

  CARRIER: A GUIDED TOUR OF AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER

  SPECIAL FORCES: A GUIDED TOUR OF U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES

  INTO THE STORM: A STUDY IN COMMAND

  (written with General Fred Franks, Jr., Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  EVERY MAN A TIGER

  (written with General Charles Horner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  SHADOW WARRIORS: INSIDE THE SPECIAL FORCES

  (written with General Carl Stiner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  BATTLE READY

  (written with General Tony Zinni, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

  Created by Tom Clancy

  TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL

  TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: OPERATION BARRACUDA

  TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: CHECKMATE

  Created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: MIRROR IMAGE

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: GAMES OF STATE

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: ACTS OF WAR

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: BALANCE OF POWER

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: STATE OF SIEGE

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: DIVIDE AND CONQUER

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: LINE OF CONTROL

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: MISSION OF HONOR

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: SEA OF FIRE

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: CALL TO TREASON

  TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: WAR OF EAGLES

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: HIDDEN AGENDAS

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: NIGHT MOVES

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: BREAKING POINT

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: POINT OF IMPACT

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: CYBERNATION

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: STATE OF WAR

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: CHANGING OF THE GUARD

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: SPRINGBOARD

  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE: THE ARCHIMEDES EFFECT

  Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: POLITIKA

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: RUTHLESS.COM

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: SHADOW WATCH

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: BIO-STRIKE

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: COLD WAR

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: CUTTING EDGE

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: ZERO HOUR

  TOM CLANCY’S POWER PLAYS: WILD CARD

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either

  are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and

  any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,

  events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  PATRIOT GAMES

  A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with

  the author

  Copyright © 1987 by Jack Ryan Limited Enterprises, Ltd.

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced

  in any form without permission.

  For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-00239-1

  BERKLEY®

  Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY and the “B” design are trademarks

  belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.

  45

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  When bad men combine, the good must associate;

  else they will fall one by one, an

  unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

  —EDMUND BURKE

  Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad, we are bringing home one unassailable fact—[terrorism is] a crime by any civilized standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene of political conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime....

  [I]n our recognition of the nature of terrorism as a crime lies our best hope of dealing with it....

  [L]et us use the tools that we have. Let us invoke the cooperation we have the right to expect around the world, and with that cooperation let us shrink the dark and dank areas of sanctuary until these cowardly marauders are held to answer as criminals in an open and public trial for the crimes they have committed, and receive the punishment they so richly deserve.

  —WILLIAM H. WEBSTER, Director,

  Federal Bureau of Investigation,

  October 15, 1985

  1

  A Sunny Day in Londontown

  Ryan was nearly killed twice in half an hour. He left the taxi a few blocks short of his destination. It was a fine, clear day, the sun already low in the blue sky. Ryan had been sitting fo
r hours in a series of straight-back wooden chairs, and he wanted to walk a bit to work the kinks out. Traffic was relatively light on the streets and sidewalks. That surprised him, but he looked forward to the evening rush hour. Clearly these streets had not been laid out with automobiles in mind, and he was sure that the afternoon chaos would be something to behold. Jack’s first impression of London was that it would be a fine town to walk in, and he moved at his usual brisk pace, unchanged since his stint in the Marine Corps, marking time unconsciously by tapping the edge of his clipboard against his leg.

  Just short of the comer the traffic disappeared, and he moved to cross the street early. He automatically looked left, right, then left again as he had since childhood, and stepped off the curb—

  And was nearly crushed by a two-story red bus that screeched past him with a bare two feet to spare.

  “Excuse me, sir.” Ryan turned to see a police officer—they call them constables over here, he reminded himself—in uniform complete to the Mack Sennett hat. “Please do be careful and cross at the comers. You might also mind the painted signs on the pavement to look right or left. We try not to lose too many tourists to the traffic.”

  “How do you know I’m a tourist?” He would now, from Ryan’s accent.

  The cop smiled patiently. “Because you looked the wrong way, sir, and you dress like an American. Please be careful, sir. Good day.” The bobby moved off with a friendly nod, leaving Ryan to wonder what there was about his brand-new three-piece suit that marked him as an American.

  Chastened, he walked to the comer. Painted lettering on the blacktop warned him to LOOK RIGHT, along with an arrow for the dyslexic. He waited for the light to change, and was careful to stay within the painted lines. Jack remembered that he’d have to pay close attention to the traffic, especially when he rented the car Friday. England was one of the last places in the world where the people drove on the wrong side of the road. He was sure it would take some getting used to.

  But they did everything else well enough, he thought comfortably, already drawing universal observations one day into his first trip to Britain. Ryan was a practiced observer, and one can draw many conclusions from a few glances. He was walking in a business and professional district. The other people on the sidewalk were better dressed than their American counterparts would be—aside from the punkers with their spiked orange and purple hair, he thought. The architecture here was a hodgepodge ranging from Octavian Augustus to Mies van der Rohe, but most of the buildings had an old, comfortable look that in Washington or Baltimore would long since have been replaced with an unbroken row of new and soulless glass boxes. Both aspects of the town dovetailed nicely with the good manners he’d encountered so far. It was a working vacation for Ryan, but first impressions told him that it would be a very pleasant one nonetheless.

  There were a few jarring notes. Many people seemed to be carrying umbrellas. Ryan had been careful to check the day’s weather forecast before setting out on his research trip. A fair day had been accurately predicted—in fact it had been called a hot day, though temperatures were only in the upper sixties. A warm day for this time of year, to be sure, but “hot”? Jack wondered if they called it Indian summer here. Probably not. Why the umbrellas, though? Didn’t people trust the local weather service? Was that how the cop knew I was an American?

  Another thing he ought to have anticipated was the plethora of Rolls-Royces on the streets. He hadn’t seen more than a handful in his entire life, and while the streets were not exactly crowded with them, there were quite a few. He himself usually drove around in a five-year-old VW Rabbit. Ryan stopped at a newsstand to purchase a copy of The Economist, and had to fumble with the change from his cab fare for several seconds in order to pay the patient dealer, who doubtless also had him pegged for a Yank. He paged through the magazine instead of watching where he was going as he went down the street, and presently found himself halfway down the wrong block. Ryan stopped dead and thought back to the city map he’d inspected before leaving the hotel. One thing Jack could not do was remember street names, but he had a photographic memory for maps. He walked to the end of the block, turned left, proceeded two blocks, then right, and sure enough there was St. James’s Park. Ryan checked his watch; he was fifteen minutes early. It was downhill past the monument to a Duke of York, and he crossed the street near a longish classical building of white marble.

  Yet another pleasant thing about London was the profusion of green spaces. The park looked big enough, and he could see that the grass was tended with care. The whole autumn must have been unseasonably warm. The trees still bore plenty of leaves. Not many people around, though. Well, he shrugged, it’s Wednesday. Middle of the week, the kids were all in school, and it was a normal business day. So much the better, he thought. He’d deliberately come over after the tourist season. Ryan did not like crowds. The Marine Corps had taught him that, too.

  “Daddee!” Ryan’s head snapped around to see his little daughter running toward him from behind a tree, heedless as usual of her safety. Sally arrived with her customary thump against her tall father. Also as usual, Cathy Ryan trailed behind, never quite able to keep up with their little white tornado. Jack’s wife did look like a tourist. Her Canon 35mm camera was draped over one shoulder, along with the camera case that doubled as an oversized purse when they were on vacation.

  “How’d it go, Jack?”

  Ryan kissed his wife. Maybe the Brits don’t do that in public either, he thought. “Great, babe. They treated me like I owned the place. Got all my notes tucked away.” He tapped his clipboard. “Didn’t you get anything?” Cathy laughed.

  “The shops here deliver.” She smiled in a way that told him she’d parted with a fairish bit of the money they had allocated for shopping. “And we got something really nice for Sally.”

  “Oh?” Jack bent over to look his daughter in the eye. “And what might that be?”

  “It’s a surprise, Daddy.” The little girl twisted and giggled like a true four-year-old. She pointed to the park. “Daddy, they got a lake with swans and peccalins!”

  “Pelicans,” Jack corrected.

  “Big white ones!” Sally loved peccalins.

  “Uh-huh,” Ryan observed. He looked up to his wife. “Get any good pictures?”

  Cathy patted her camera. “Oh, sure. London is already Canonized-or would you prefer that we spent the whole day shopping?” Photography was Cathy Ryan’s only hobby, and she was good at it.

  “Ha!” Ryan looked down the street. The pavement here was reddish, not black, and the road was lined with what looked like beech trees. The Mall, wasn’t it? He couldn’t remember, and would not ask his wife, who’d been to London many times. The Palace was larger than he’d expected, but it seemed a dour building, three hundred yards away, hidden behind a marble monument of some sort. Traffic was a little thicker here, but moved briskly. “What do we do for dinner?”

  “Catch a cab back to the hotel?” She looked at her watch. “Or we can walk.”

  “They’re supposed to have a good dining room. Still early, though. These civilized places make you wait until eight or nine. ” He saw another Rolls go by in the direction of the Palace. He was looking forward to dinner, though not really to having Sally there. Four-year-olds and four-star restaurants didn’t go well together. Brakes squealed off to his left. He wondered if the hotel had a baby-sitting—

  BOOM!

  Ryan jumped at the sound of an explosion not thirty yards away. Grenade, something in his mind reported. He sensed the whispering sound of fragments in the air and a moment later heard the chatter of automatic weapons fire. He spun around to see the Rolls turned crooked in the street. The front end seemed lower than it should be, and its path was blocked by a black sedan. There was a man standing at its right front fender, firing an AK-47 rifle into the front end, and another man was racing around to the car’s left rear.

  “Get down!” Ryan grabbed his daughter’s shoulder and forced her to the ground beh
ind a tree, yanking his wife roughly down beside her. A dozen cars were stopped raggedly behind the Rolls, none closer than fifty feet, and these shielded his family from the line of fire. Traffic on the far side was blocked by the sedan. The man with the Kalashnikov was spraying the Rolls for all he was worth.

  “Sonuvabitch!” Ryan kept his head up, scarcely able to believe what he saw. “It’s the goddamned IRA—they’re killing somebody right—” Ryan moved slightly to his left. His peripheral vision took in the faces of people up and down the street, turning and staring, in each face the black circle of a shock-opened mouth. This is really happening! he thought, right in front of me, just like that, just like some Chicago gangster movie. Two bastards are committing murder. Right here. Right now. Just like that. “Son of a bitch!”

  Ryan moved farther left, screened by a stopped car. Covered by its front fender, he could see one man standing at the left rear of the Rolls, just standing there, his pistol hand extended as though expecting someone to bolt from the passenger door. The bulk of the Rolls screened Ryan from the AK gunner, who was crouched down to control his weapon. The near gunman had his back to Ryan. He was no more than fifty feet away. He didn’t move, concentrating on the passenger door. His back was still turned. Ryan would never remember making any conscious decision.

  He moved quickly around the stopped car, head down, keeping low and accelerating rapidly, his eyes locked on his target—the small of the man’s back—just as he’d been taught in high school football. It took only a few seconds to cover the distance, with Ryan’s mind reaching out, willing the man to stay dumb just a moment longer. At five feet Ryan lowered his shoulder and drove off both legs. His coach would have been proud.