"Yes?"

"Your computer still works properly?"

"Oh, yes," she a.s.sured him in a sleepy voice.

His left hand stroked her body gently. "Do any of the other girls in the office use their computers to surf the'Net?"

"Only Chai. Fang uses her as he uses me. In fact, he likes her better. He thinks she has a better mouth."

"Oh?" Nomuri asked, softening the question with a smile.

"I told you, Minister Fang is an old man. Sometimes he needs special encouragement, and Chai doesn't mind so much. Fang reminds her of her grandfather, she says," Ming told him.

Which was good in the American's mind for a Yuck! and little else. "So, all the girls in the office trade notes on your minister?"

Ming laughed. It was pretty funny. "Of course. We all do."

d.a.m.n, Nomuri thought. He'd always thought that women would be more . . . discreet, that it was just the men who bragged in the locker room over their sweat socks.

"The first time he did me," she went on, "I didn't know what to do, so I talked with Chai for advice. She's been there the longest, you see. She just said to enjoy it, and try to make him happy, and I might get a nice office chair out of it, like she did. Chai must be very good to him. She got a new bicycle last November. Me, well, I think he only likes me because I'm a little different to look at. Chai has bigger b.r.e.a.s.t.s than I do, and I think I'm prettier, but she has a sweet disposition, and she likes the old man. More than I do, anyway." She paused. "I don't want a new bicycle enough for that."

What does this mean?" Robby Jackson asked.

"Well, we're not sure," the DCI admitted. "This Fang guy had a long talk with our old friend Zhang Han San. They're talking about the meeting with our trade team that starts tomorrow. h.e.l.l"-Ed Foley looked at his watch-"call that fourteen hours from now. And it looks as though they want concessions from us instead of offering any to us. They're even angrier over our recognition of Taiwan than we'd antic.i.p.ated."

"Tough s.h.i.t," Ryan observed.

"Jack, I agree with your sentiment, but let's try not to be over-cavalier about their opinions, shall we?" Foley suggested.

"You're starting to sound like Scott," the President said.

"So? You want a yes-man handling Langley, you got the wrong guy," the DCI countered.

"Fair enough, Ed," Jack conceded. "Go on."

"Jack, we need to warn Rutledge that the PRC isn't going to like what he has to say. They may not be in a mood to make many trade concessions."

"Well, neither is the United States of America," Ryan told his Director of Central Intelligence. "And we come back to the fact that they need our money more than we need their trade goods."

"What's the chance that this is a setup, this information I mean?" Vice President Jackson asked.

"You mean that they're using this source as a conduit to get back-channel information to us?" Mary Patricia Foley asked. "I evaluate that chance as practically zero. As close to zero as something in the real world can be."

"MP, how can you be that confident?" President Ryan asked.

"Not here, Jack, but I am that confident," Mary Pat said, somewhat to the discomfort of her husband, Ryan saw. It was rare in the intelligence community for anyone to feel that confident about anything, but Ed had always been the careful one, and Mary Pat had always been the cowgirl. She was as loyal to her people as a mother was to her infant, and Ryan admired that, even though he also had to remind himself that it wasn't always realistic.

"Ed?" Ryan asked, just to see.

"I back Mary up on this one. This source appears to be gold-plated and copper-bottomed."

"So, this doc.u.ment represents the view of their government?" TOMCAT asked.

Foley surprised the Vice President by shaking his head. "No, it represents the view of this Zhang Han San guy. He's a powerful and influential minister, but he doesn't speak for their government per se. Note that the text here doesn't say what their official position is. Zhang probably does represent a view, and a powerful view, inside their Politburo. There are also moderates whose position this doc.u.ment does not address."

"Okay, great," Robby said, shifting in his seat, "so why are you taking up our time with this stuff, then?"

"This Zhang guy is tight with their Defense Minister-in fact he has a major voice in their entire national-security establishment. If he's expanding his influence into trade policy, we have a problem, and our trade negotiations team needs to know that up front," the DCI informed them.

So?" Ming asked tiredly. She hated getting dressed and leaving, and it meant a night of not-enough sleep.

"So, you should get in early and upload this on Chai's computer. It's just a new system file, the new one, six-pointeight-point-one, like the one I uploaded on your computer." In fact, the newest real system file was 6.3.2, and so there was at least a year until a write-over would actually be necessary.

"Why do you have me do this?"

"Does it matter, Bau-bei?" he asked.

She actually hesitated, thinking it over a bit, and the second or so of uncertainty chilled the American spy. "No, I suppose not."

"I need to get you some new things," Nomuri whispered, taking her in his arms.

"Like what?" she asked. All his previous gifts had been noteworthy.

"It will be a surprise, and a good one," he promised.

Her dark eyes sparkled with antic.i.p.ation. Nomuri helped her on with her dreadful jacket. Dressing her back up was not nearly as fun as undressing her, but that was to be expected. A moment later, he gave her the final goodbye kiss at the door, and watched her depart, then went back to his computer to tell that he'd arranged for a second recipe that he hoped she might find tasty.

CHAPTER 22.

The Table and the Recipe Minister, this is a pleasure," Cliff Rutledge said in his friendliest diplomatic voice, shaking hands. Rutledge was glad the PRC had adopted the Western custom-he'd never learned the exact protocol of bowing.

Carl Hitch, the U.S. Amba.s.sador to the People's Republic, was there for the opening ceremony. He was a career foreign service officer who'd always preferred working abroad to working at Foggy Bottom. Running day-to-day diplomatic relations wasn't especially exciting, but in a place like this, it did require a steady hand. Hitch had that, and he was apparently well liked by the rest of the diplomatic community, which didn't hurt.

It was all new for Mark Gant, however. The room was impressive, like the boardroom of a major corporation-designed to keep the board members happy, like n.o.blemen from medieval Italy. It had high ceilings and fabric-covered walls-Chinese silk, in this case, red, of course, so that the effect was rather like crawling inside the heart of a whale, complete with chandeliers, cut crystal, and polished bra.s.s. Everyone had a tiny gla.s.s of mao-tai, which really was like drinking flavored lighter fluid, as he'd been warned.

"It is your first time in Beijing?" some minor official asked him.

Gant turned to look down at the little guy. "Yes, it is."

"Too soon for first impressions, then?"

"Yes, but this room is quite stunning . . . but then silk is something with which your people have a long and fruitful history," he went on, wondering if he sounded diplomatic or merely awkward.

"This is so, yes," the official agreed with a toothy grin and a nod, neither of which told the visiting American much of anything, except that he didn't waste much money on toothbrushes.

"I have heard much of the imperial art collection."

"You will see it," the official promised. "It is part of the official program."

"Excellent. In addition to my duties, I would like to play tourist."

"I hope you will find us acceptable hosts," the little guy said. For his part, Gant was wondering if this smiling, bowing dwarf would hit his knees and offer a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b, but diplomacy was an entirely new area for him. These were not investment bankers, who were generally polite sharks, giving you good food and drink before sitting you down and trying to bite your d.i.c.k off. But they never concealed the fact that they were sharks. These people-he just wasn't sure. This degree of politeness and solicitude was a new experience for Gant, but given his pre-mission brief, he wondered if the hospitality only presaged an unusually hostile meeting when they got to business. If the two things had to balance out, then the downside of this seesaw was going to be a son of a b.i.t.c.h, he was sure.

"So, you are not from the American State Department?" the Chinese man asked.

"No. I'm in the Department of the Treasury. I work directly for Secretary Winston."

"Ah, then you are from the trading business?"

So, the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d's been briefed . . . But that was to be expected. At this level of government you didn't freelance things. Everyone would be thoroughly briefed. Everyone would have read the book on the Americans. The State Department members of the American crew had done the same. Gant, however, had not, since he wasn't really a player per se, and had only been told what he needed to know. That gave him an advantage over the Chinese a.s.signed to look after him. He was not State Department, hence should not have been regarded as important-but he was the personal representative of a very senior American official, known to be part of that man's inner circle, and that made him very important indeed. Perhaps he was even a princ.i.p.al adviser to the Rutledge man-and in a Chinese context, that might even mean that he, Gant, was the man actually running the negotiations rather than the t.i.tular chief diplomat, because the Chinese often ran things that way. It occurred to Gant that maybe he could f.u.c.k with their minds a little bit . . . but how to go about it?

"Oh, yes, I've been a capitalist all my life," Gant said, deciding to play it cool and just talk to the guy as though he were a human being and not a f.u.c.king communist diplomat. "So has Secretary Winston, and so has our President, you know."

"But he was mainly an intelligence officer, or so I have been told."

Time to stick the needle: "I suppose that's partly true, but his heart is in business, I think. After he leaves government service, he and George will probably go into business together and really take the world over." Which was almost true, Gant thought, remembering that the best lies usually were.

"And you have worked some years with Secretary Winston." A statement rather than a question, Gant noted. How to answer it? How much did they really know about him . . . or was he a man of mystery to the ChiComms? If so, could he make that work for him . . . ?

A gentle, knowing smile. "Well, yeah, George and I made a little money together. When Jack brought him into the cabinet, George decided that he wanted me to come down with him and help make a little government policy. Especially tax policy. That's been a real mess, and George turned me loose on it. And you know? We just might get all of that changed. It looks as though Congress is going to do what we told them to do, and that's not bad, making those idiots do what we want them to do," Gant observed, looking rather deliberately at the carved ivory fixture on the wooden display cabinet. Some craftsman with a sharp knife had spent a lot of time to get that thing just right . . . So, Mr. Chinaman, do I look important now? One thing about this guy. He would have been a pretty good poker player. His eyes told you nothing at all. Not a f.u.c.king thing. Gant looked down at the guy again. "Excuse me. I talk too much."

The official smiled. "There is much of that at times like this. Why do you suppose everyone gets something to drink?" Amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice, letting Gant know, perhaps, who was really running this affair . . . ?

"I suppose," Gant observed diffidently and wandered off with the junior-or was he?-official in tow.

For his part, Rutledge was trying to decide if the opposition knew what his instructions were. There had been a few leaked hints in the media, but Adler had arranged the leaks with skill, so that even a careful observer-and the PRC amba.s.sador in Washington was one of those-might have trouble deciding who was leaking what, and to what purpose. The Ryan administration had utilized the press with a fair degree of skill, probably, Rutledge thought, because the cabinet officers mainly took their lead from Ryan's chief of staff, Arnie van Damm, who was a very skillful political operator. The new cabinet didn't have the usual collection of in-and-out political figures who needed to stroke the press to further their own agendas. Ryan had chiefly selected people with no real agenda at all, which was no small feat-especially since most of them seemed to be competent technicians who, like Ryan, only seemed to want to escape Washington with their virtue intact and return to their real lives as soon as they finished serving their country for a short period of time. The career diplomat had not thought it possible that his country's government could be so transformed. He a.s.signed credit for all this to that madman j.a.panese pilot who'd killed so much of official Washington in that one lunatic gesture.

It was then that Xu Kun Piao showed up, sweeping in to the greeting room with his official entourage. Xu was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Chinese Politburo, though referred to in the media as the country's "Premier," which was something of a misnomer, but one adopted even in the diplomatic community. He was a man of seventy-one years, one of the second generation of Chinese leaders. The Long March survivors had long since died out-there were some senior officials who claimed to have been there, but a check of the numbers showed that if they had, they'd been sucking their mothers' nipples at the time, and those men were not taken seriously. No, the current crop of Chinese political leaders were mainly the sons or nephews of the original set, raised in privilege and relative comfort, but always mindful of the fact that their place in life was a precarious one. On one side were the other political children who craved advancement beyond their parents' places, and to achieve that they'd been more Catholic than the local communist pope. They'd carried their Little Red Books high as adults during the Cultural Revolution, and before that they'd kept their mouths shut and ears open during the abortive and predatory "Hundred Flowers" campaign of the late '50s, which had trapped a lot of intellectuals who'd thought to keep hidden for the first decade of Maoist rule. They'd been enticed into the open by Mao's own solicitation for their ideas, which they'd foolishly given out, and in the process only extended their necks over the broad block for the axe that fell a few years later in the brutal, cannibalistic Cultural Revolution.

The current Politburo members had survived in two ways. First, they'd been secured by their fathers and the rank that attached to such lofty parentage. Second, they'd been carefully warned about what they could say and what they could not say, and so all along they'd observed cautiously, always saying out loud that Chairman Mao's ideas were those which China really needed, and that the others, while interesting, perhaps, in a narrow intellectual sense, were dangerous insofar as they distracted the workers and peasants from The True Way of Mao. And so when the axe had fallen, borne as it had been by the Little Red Book, they'd been among the first to carry and show that book to others, and so escaped the destruction for the most part-a few of their number had been sacrificed, of course, but none of the really smart ones who now shared the seats on the Politburo. It had been a brutal Darwinian process that they had all gotten through by being a little smarter than those around them, and now, at the peak of the power won for them by brains and caution, it was time for them to enjoy that which they'd earned.

The new crop of leaders accepted communism as truly as other men believed in G.o.d, because they'd learned nothing else, and had not exercised their intellectual agility to seek another faith, or even to seek solutions to the questions that Marxism could not answer. Theirs was a faith of resignation rather than enthusiasm. Raised within a circ.u.mscribed intellectual box, they never ventured out of it, for they feared what they might find out there. In the past twenty years, they'd been forced to allow capitalism to blossom within the borders of their country, because that country needed money to grow into something more powerful than the failed experiment in the Democratic Republic of Korea. China had experienced its own killer famine around 1960, and slowly learned from it and the Chinese also used it as a launching point for the Cultural Revolution, thus gaining political capital from a self-imposed disaster.

They wanted their nation to be great. In fact, they already regarded it as such, but recognized the fact that other nations lacked this appreciation, and so they had to seek out the means to correct the misimpression foolishly held by the rest of the world. That had meant money, and money had meant industry, and industry required capitalists. It was something they had figured out before the foolish Soviets to their north and west. And so the Soviet Union had fallen, but the People's Republic of China remained.

Or so they all believed. They looked out, when they bothered themselves to do so, at a world that they pretended to understand and to which they felt superior for no better reason than their skin and their language-ideology came second in their self-reckoning; amour propre starts from within. They expected people to defer to them, and the previous years of interactive diplomacy with the surrounding world had not altered their outlook very much.

But in this, they suffered from their own illusions. Henry Kissinger had come to China in 1971 at the behest of President Richard Nixon not so much from his perceived need to establish normal relations with the world's most populous nation as to use the PRC as a stick with which to beat the Soviet Union into submission. In fact Nixon had begun a process so lengthy as to be considered beyond Western capabilities-it was more the sort of thing that Westerners thought the Chinese themselves capable of conceiving. With such ideas, people merely show ethnic prejudices of one sort or another. The typical chief of a totalitarian government is far too self-centered to think much beyond his own lifetime, and men all over the world live roughly the same number of years. For that simple reason, they all think in terms of programs that can be completed in their own living sight, and little beyond, because they were all men who'd torn down the statues of others, and such men had few illusions over the fate of their own monuments. It was only as they faced death that they considered what they had done, and Mao had conceded bleakly to Henry Kissinger that all he'd accomplished had been to change the lives of peasants within a few miles of Beijing.

But the men in this ceremonial room were not yet close enough to death to think in such terms. They were the magisters of their land. They made the rules that others followed. Their words were law. Their whims were granted with alacrity. People looked upon them as they once looked upon the emperors and princes of old. All a man could wish to have, they had. Most of all, they had the power. It was their wishes that ruled their vast and ancient land. Their communist ideology was merely the magic that defined the form their wishes took, the rules of the game they had all agreed to play all those years before. The power was the thing. They could grant life or take it with the stroke of a pen-or more realistically, a dictated word, taken down by a personal secretary, for transmission to the underling who squeezed the trigger.

Xu was a man of average everything-height, weight, eyes, and face . . . and intellect, some said. Rutledge had read all this in his briefing doc.u.ments. The real power was elsewhere. Xu was a figurehead of sorts, chosen for his looks, partially; his ability to give a speech, certainly; and his ability to front the occasional idea of others on the Politburo, to simulate conviction. Like a Hollywood actor, he didn't so much have to be smart as to play smart.

"Comrade Premier," Rutledge said in greeting, holding out his hand, which the Chinese man took.

"Mr. Rutledge," Xu replied in pa.s.sable English. There was an interpreter there, too, for the more complex thoughts. "Welcome to Beijing."

"It is my pleasure, and my honor, to visit your ancient country again," the American diplomat said, showing proper respect and subservience, the Chinese leader thought.

"It is always a pleasure to welcome a friend," Xu went on, as he'd been briefed to do. Rutledge had been to China before in his official capacity, but never before as a delegation leader. He was known to the Chinese Foreign Ministry as a diplomat who'd climbed his way up the ladder of his bureaucracy, much as they did in their own-a mere technician, but a high-ranking one. The Politburo chief raised his gla.s.s. "I drink to successful and cordial negotiations."

Rutledge smiled and hoisted his gla.s.s as well. "As do I, sir."

The cameras got it. The news media people were circulating around, too. The cameramen were doing mainly what they called "locator" shots, like any amateur would do with his less expensive mini-cam. They showed the room at an artificial distance, so that the viewers could see the colors, with a few close-ups of the furniture on which no one was supposed to sit, with somewhat closer shots of the major partic.i.p.ants drinking their drinks and looking pleasant to one another-this was called "B-roll," intended to show viewers what it was like to be at a large, formal, and not overly pleasant c.o.c.ktail party. The real news coverage for the event would be by people like Barry Wise and the other talking heads, who would tell the viewer what the visuals could not.

Then the coverage would shift back to CNN's Washington studio, down the hill from Union Station, where other talking heads would discuss what had been leaked or not leaked to them, then discuss what they in their personal sagacious wisdom thought the proper course for the United States of America ought to be. President Ryan would see all this over breakfast, as he read the papers and the government-produced Early Bird clipping service. Over breakfast, Jack Ryan would make his own terse comments to be noted by his wife, who might discuss it over lunch with her colleagues at Johns Hopkins, who might discuss it with their spouses, from whom it would go no further. In this way, the President's thoughts often remained a mystery.

The party broke up at the predetermined hour, and the Americans headed back to the emba.s.sy in their official cars.

"So, what can you tell us off the record?" Barry asked Rutledge, in the sanct.i.ty of the stretch Lincoln's backseat.

"Not much, really," the a.s.sistant Secretary of State for Policy replied. "We'll listen to what they have to say, and they'll listen to what we have to say, and it'll go from there."

"They want MFN. Will they get it?"

"That's not for me to decide, Barry, and you know that." Rutledge was too tired and jet-lagged for intelligent conversation at the moment. He didn't trust himself to speak under these circ.u.mstances, and figured Wise knew that. The reporter was leaning on him for just that reason.

"So, what are you going to talk about?"

"Obviously, we'd like the Chinese to open their markets more, and also to take a closer look at some issues we have, like patent and copyright violations that American business has complained about."

"The Dell Computer issue?"

Rutledge nodded. "Yes, that's one." Then he yawned. "Excuse me. The long flight . . . you know how it is."

"I was on the same airplane," Barry Wise pointed out.

"Well, maybe you're just better at this than I am," Rutledge offered. "Can we postpone this discussion a day or so?"

"If you say so," the CNN reporter agreed. He didn't much like this preppy a.s.shole, but he was a source of information, and Wise was in the information business. The ride was a brief one in any case. The official delegation hopped out at the emba.s.sy, and the emba.s.sy cars took the newsies back to their hotels.

The emba.s.sy had sleeping accommodations for the entire official party, mainly to ensure that anything they said wouldn't be recorded by the MSS bugs in every hotel room in the city. This was not to say that the accommodations were palatial, though Rutledge had a comfortable room. Here protocol failed Mark Gant, but he did have a comfortable single bed in his small private room and a shared bathroom with a shower. He opted instead for a hot bath and one of the sleeping pills the physician who accompanied the official party had issued him. It was supposed to give him a solid eight hours or so, which would just about synchronize him with local time by the morning. There would then be a big working breakfast, much like the astronauts got before a shuttle launch, and as much of an American tradition as the Stars and Stripes over Fort McHenry.

Nomuri caught the arrival of the trade delegation on Chinese TV, which he watched mainly to hone his language skills. These were improving, though the tonal nature of Mandarin drove him slightly nuts. He'd once thought j.a.panese was hard, but it was a walk in the park compared to Guoyu. He looked at the faces, wondering who they were. The Chinese narrator helped, stumbling badly over "Rutledge," however. Well, Americans murdered Chinese names, too, except for simple ones like Ming and w.a.n.g, and listening to an American businessman try to make himself understood to a local was enough to make Nomuri gag. The commentator went on to talk about the Chinese position on the trade talks, how America owed the PRC all manner of concessions-after all, was not China generous in allowing Americans to spend their worthless dollars for the valuable products of the People's Republic? In this, China sounded a lot like j.a.pan had once done, but the new j.a.panese government had opened up their markets. While there was still a trade deficit in j.a.pan's favor, fair compet.i.tion on the playing field had muted American criticism, though j.a.panese cars were still less welcome in America than they had been. But that would pa.s.s, Nomuri was sure. If America had a weakness it was in forgiving and forgetting too rapidly. In this, he greatly admired the Jews. They still hadn't forgotten Germany and Hitler. As well they shouldn't, he thought. His last thought before retiring was to wonder how the new software was working on Chai's computer, and if Ming had actually installed it or not. Then he decided to check.

Rising from bed, he switched his laptop on and . . . yes! Chai's system lacked Ming's transcription software, but it was transmitting what it had. Okay, fine, they had linguists at Langley to fiddle with that. He didn't have the desire to do so, and just uploaded it and headed back to bed.

d.a.m.n!" Mary Pat observed. Nearly all of it was unreadable, but this was a second SORGE source. That was evident from the pathway it had taken through the 'Net. She wondered if Nomuri was showing off, or had somehow managed to get in the pants of a second high-ranking Chinese government secretary. It wouldn't exactly be a first for a field officer to have that active a s.e.x life, but it wasn't all that common, either. She printed it up, saved it to disk, and called for a linguist to come up and translate. Then she downloaded SONGBIRD's current take. It was becoming as regular as The Washington Post, and a lot more interesting. She settled back in her chair and started reading the translation of Ming's latest notes from Minister Fang Gan. He'd be talking about the trade negotiations, she hoped, then to see that, sure enough, he was . . . This would be important, the DDO thought. She'd soon be surprised to find out how wrong that impression was.