The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [168]
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. Hed once thought Japanese 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 Wang, 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 Peoples Republic? In this, China sounded a lot like Japan had once done, but the new Japanese government had opened up their markets. While there was still a trade deficit in Japans favor, fair competition on the playing field had muted American criticism, though Japanese cars were still less welcome in America than they had been. But that would pass, 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 hadnt forgotten Germany and Hitler. As well they shouldnt, he thought. His last thought before retiring was to wonder how the new software was working on Chais 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! Chais system lacked Mings transcription software, but it was transmitting what it had. Okay, fine, they had linguists at Langley to fiddle with that. He didnt have the desire to do so, and just uploaded it and headed back to bed.
"Damn!" 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 wouldnt exactly be a first for a field officer to have that active a sex life, but it wasnt 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 SONGBIRDS 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 Mings latest notes from Minister Fang Gan. Hed be talking about the trade negotiations, she hoped, then to see that, sure enough, he was … This would be important, the DDO thought. Shed soon be surprised to find out how wrong that impression was.
CHAPTER 23—Down to Business
Bacon and eggs, toast and hash-brown potatoes, plus some Colombian-bean coffee. Gant was Jewish but not observant, and he loved his bacon. Everyone was up and looking pretty good, he thought. The government-issued black capsule (they all called it that, evidently some sort of tradition that he didnt know about) had worked for all of them, and the cookie-pushers were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Most of the talk, he noted, was about the NBA. The Lakers were looking tough again. Rutledge, Gant saw, was at the head of the table chatting amiably with Ambassador Hitch, who seemed a solid citizen. Then a more ruffled employee of the embassy came in with a manila folder whose borders were lined with