Embee Deng, Jack Ryan's Ugandan bodyguard, tells him that Viktor Cherevin hired him (and other foreign nationals) to work for his company as private bodyguards for foreign visitors who come to see him. Otherwise, they may be paranoid that a Russian serving as a private bodyguard may be working with or on behalf of the FSB.note Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii or Federal Security ServiceSince Cherevin is working covertly on behalf of the Russian government to launch a terrorist attack on New York, it would make sense that he would use his own personal bodyguards to launch a hit on Ryan so that if any law enforcement agency tries to investigate his death, Moscow can say that the FSB has nothing to do with it, given that they are allowed under Russian law to assassinate anyone who may be a threat to Russian interests.
But why would Cherevin stop trying to kill Ryan just because his hitman disappeared? This should not have lessened any threat that Ryan posed.
I don't think he did. In fact, Embee's disappearance made Cherevin a bit more cautious at first.
The Operator tells Jack that he survived because he was a Marine. What about those analysts who aren't former Marines? Does the CIA expect that a certain number of their employees are simply Redshirts?
It's more like she's aware that he's very stressed out (as fighting for one's life tends to cause) and on the edge of losing it, and is trying to get him calmed down and thinking clearly.
The plan Jack describes is to crash the United States economy and send us into a Second Great Depression. Okay, but what about those countries dependent on the United States to buy their products? Even if China, for instance, gets new buyers in the form of the Russian Federation and Europe, it still doesn't equal the amount of money the United States spends buying Chinese goods each year. So they aren't going to rebound as Jack suggests — unless by rebound he means settle for a lower standard of living. (And let's not even discuss the countries dependent on the United States for humanitarian aid each year, because they are effectively screwed.) Even the Russians oil reserves won't help them, because who's gonna need oil or gas when you can't put food on the table?
