The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [275]
"Yeah, that's rare enough in this town, too," Jack acknowledged.
That wasn't fair. He'd chosen his inner circle well, and almost exclusively of people with no political ambition, which made them an endangered species in the environs of Washington. The same was true of Golovko, a man who preferred to serve rather than to rule, in which he was rather like the American President. "Back to the issue at hand. Are the Chinese making some sort of play, and if so, what?"
"Nothing that I see, Jack," Foley replied, speaking for his agency in what was now an official capacity. "But remember that even with SORGE, we don't see that much of their inner thinking. They're so different from us that reading their minds is a son of a bitch, and they've just taken one in the teeth, though I don't think they really know that yet."
"They're going to find out in less than a week."
"Oh? How's that?" the DCI asked.
"George Winston tells me a bunch of their commercial contracts are coming up due in less than ten days. We'll see then what effect this has on their commercial accounts—and so will they."
The day started earlier than usual in Beijing. Fang Gan stepped out of his official car and hurried up the steps into the building, past the uniformed guard who always held the door open for him, and this time did not get a thank you nod from the exalted servant of the people. Fang walked to his elevator, into it, then stepped off after arriving at his floor. His office door was only a few more steps. Fang was a healthy and vigorous man for his age. His personal staff leaped to their feet as he walked in—an hour early, they all realized.
"Ming!" he called on the way to his inner office.
"Yes, Comrade Minister," she said, on going through the still-open door.
"What items have you pulled off the foreign media?"
"One moment." She disappeared and then reappeared with a sheaf of papers in her hand. "London Times, London Daily Telegraph, Observer, New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Boston Globe. The Western American papers are not yet available." She hadn't included Italian or other European papers because she couldn't speak or read those languages well enough, and for some reason Fang only seemed interested in the opinions of English-speaking foreign devils. She handed over the translations. Again, he didn't thank her even peremptorily, which was unusual for him. Her minister was exercised about something.
"What time is it in Washington?" Fang asked next.
"Twenty-one hours, Comrade Minister," she answered.
"So, they are watching television and preparing for bed?"
"Yes, Comrade Minister."
"But their newspaper articles and editorials are already prepared."
"That is the schedule they work, Minister. Most of their stories are done by the end of a normal working day. At the latest, news stories—aside from the truly unusual or unexpected ones—are completely done before the reporters go home for their dinner."
Fang looked up at that analysis. Ming was a clever girl, giving him information on something he'd never really thought about. With that realization, he nodded for her to go back to her desk.
For their part, the American trade delegation was just boarding their plane. They were seen off by a minor consular official who spoke plastic words from plastic lips, received by the Americans through plastic ears. Then they boarded their USAF aircraft, which started up at once and began rolling toward the runway.
"So, how do we evaluate this adventure, Cliff?" Mark Gant asked.
"Can you spell 'disaster'?" Rutledge asked in return.
"That bad?"
The Assistant Secretary of State for Policy nodded soberly. Well, it wasn't his fault, was it? That stupid Italian clergyman gets in the way of a bullet, and then the widow of that other minister-person had to pray for him in public, knowing that the local government would object. And, of course, CNN had to be there for both events to stir the