The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [106]
The FBI agent nodded. "Yeah, bosses are like that in the Bureau, too, but hes supposed to know what the problems are, right? If he does, he knows he has to give you the time and the resources to play it out. How many men you have on it now?"
"Six here, and three more in St. Petersburg."
"May want to get some more, bro." In the FBIs New York OC office, a case like this could have as many as twenty agents working it, half of them on a full-time basis. But the Moscow Militia was stretched notoriously thin. For as much crime as there was now in Moscow, the local cops were still sucking hind tit when it came to government support. But it could have been worse. Unlike much of Russian society, the militiamen were getting paid.
"You tire me out," Nomuri protested.
"There is always Minister Fang," Ming replied with a playful look.
Was the enraged reply. "You compare me with an old man?"
"Well, both of you are men, but better a sausage than a string bean," she answered, grasping the former in her soft left hand.
"Patience, girl, allow me to recover from the first race." With that he lifted her body over his and let it down. She must really like me, Nomuri reflected. Three nights in a row. I suppose Fang isnt the man he thinks he is. Well, cant win em all, Charlie. Plus the advantage of being forty years younger. There was probably something to that, the CIA officer admitted to himself.
"But you run so fast!" Ming protested, rubbing her body on his.
"There is something I want you to do."
A very playful smile. "What might that be?" she asked while her hand wandered a little.
"Not that!"
"Oh … " The disappointment in her voice was noteworthy.
"Something for work," Nomuri explained on. Just as well she couldnt feel the shaking inside his body, which, remarkably enough, didnt show.
"For work? I cant bring you into the office for this!" she said with a laugh, followed by a warm, affectionate kiss.
"Yes, something to upload onto your computer." Nomuri reached into the night-table drawer and pulled out a CDROM. "Here, you just load this into your machine, click INSTALL, and then dispose of it when youre done."
"And what will it do?" she asked.
"Do you care?"
"Well … " Hesitation. She didnt understand. "I must care."
"It will allow me to look at your computer from time to time."
"But why?"
"Because of Nippon Electric—we make your computer, dont you see?" He allowed his body to relax. "It is useful for my company to know how economic decisions are made in the Peoples Republic," Nomuri explained, with a well-rehearsed lie. "This will allow us to understand that process a little better, so that we can do business more effectively. And the better I do for them, the more they will pay me—and the more I can spend on my darling Ming."
"I see," she thought, wrongly.
He bent down to kiss a particularly nice spot. Her body shuddered in just the right way. Good, she wasnt resisting the idea, or at least wasnt letting it get in the way of this activity, which was good for Nomuri in more than one way. The intelligence officer wondered if someday his conscience would attack him for using this girl in such a way. But business, he told himself, was business.
"No one will know?"
"No, that is not possible."
"And it will not get me into trouble?"
With that question he rolled over, finding himself on top. He held her face in both hands. "Would I ever do something to get Ming-chan in trouble? Never!" he announced, with a deep and passionate kiss.
Afterward there was no talk about the CD-ROM, which she tucked into her purse before leaving. It was a nice-looking purse, a knockoff of something Italian that you could buy on the street here, rather like the genuine ones in New York that "fell off the back of the truck," as the euphemism went.
Every time they parted, it was a little hard. She didnt want to leave, and truly he didnt want her to depart, but it was necessary. For them to share an apartment would be commented upon. Even in her dreams, Ming couldnt think of that, actually sleeping at the apartment of a foreigner, because