The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [131]
That suited George Winston, who tossed his coat over a chair when he came in. Like himself, Scott Adler was a working guy, and those were the people with whom Winston was most comfortable. He might be a career government puke, but the son of a bitch had a work ethic, which was more than he could say for too many of the people in his own department. He was doing his best to weed the drones out, but it was no easy task, and civil-service rules made firing unproductive people a non-trivial exercise.
"Have you read the Chinese stuff?" Adler asked, as soon as the lunch tray was on the table.
"Yeah, Scott. I mean, holy shit, fella," TRADER observed to EAGLE.
"Welcome to the club. The intelligence stuff we get can be very interesting." The State Department had its own spook service, called Intelligence and Research, or I&R, which, while it didnt exactly compete with CIA and the other services, occasionally turned up its own rough little diamonds from the thick diplomatic mud. "So, what do you think of our little yellow brothers?"
Winston managed not to growl. "Buddy, I might not even eat their goddamned food anymore."
"They make our worst robber barons look like Mother Teresa. Theyre conscienceless motherfuckers, George, and thats a fact." Winston immediately started liking Adler more. A guy who talked like this had real possibilities. Now it was his turn to be coldly professional to counterpoint Adlers working-class patois.
"Theyre ideologically driven, then?"
"Totally—well, maybe with a little corruption thrown in, but remember, they figure that their political astuteness entitles them to live high on the hog, and so to them its not corruption at all. They just collect tribute from the peasants, and peasant is a word they still use over there."
"In other words, were dealing with dukes and earls?"
The Secretary of State nodded. "Essentially, yes. They have an enormous sense of personal entitlement. They are not used to hearing the word no in any form, and as a result they dont always know what to do when they do hear it from people like me. Thats why theyre often at a disadvantage in negotiations—at least, when we play hardball with them. We havent done much of that, but last year after the Airbus shoot-down I came on a little strong, and then we followed up with official diplomatic recognition of the ROC government on Taiwan. That really put the PRC noses seriously out of joint, even though the ROC government hasnt officially declared its independence."
"What?" Somehow SecTreas had missed that.
"Yeah, the people on Taiwan play a pretty steady and reasonable game. Theyve never really gone out of their way to offend the mainland. Even though they have embassies all over the world, theyve never actually proclaimed the fact that theyre an independent nation. That would flip the Beijing Chinese out. Maybe the guys in Taipei think it would be bad manners or something. At the same time, we have an understanding that Beijing knows about. If somebody messes with Taiwan, Seventh Fleet comes over to keep an eye on things, and we will not permit a direct military threat to the Republic of China government. The PRC doesnt have enough of a navy to worry our guys that much, and so all that flies back and forth, really, is words." Adler looked up from his sandwich. "Sticks and stones, yknow?"
"Well, I had breakfast with Jack this morning, and we talked about the trade talks."
"And Jack wants to play a little rougher?" SecState asked. It wasnt much of a surprise. Ryan had always preferred fair play, and that was often a rare commodity in the intercourse among nation-states.
"You got it" Winston confirmed around a bite of his sandwich. One thing about working-class people like Adler, the SecTreas thought, they knew what a proper lunch was. He was so tired