Jack Ryan 11 - Bear And The Dragon (46 page)

It had gotten to the point that he recognized her knock at the door. Nomuri set his drink down and jumped to answer, pulling it open less than five seconds after the first sexy tap tap.

“Ming,” Chet said.

“Nomuri-san,” she greeted in turn.

He pulled her in the door, closed, and locked it. Then he lifted her off the floor with a passionate hug that was less than three percent feigned.

“So, you have a taste for Japanese sausage, eh?” he demanded, with a smile and a kiss.

“You didn't even smile when I said it. Wasn't it funny?” she asked, as he undid a few of her buttons.

“Ming -- ” Then he hesitated and tried something he'd learned earlier in the day. “Bau-bei,” he said instead. It translated to “beloved one.”

Ming smiled at the words and made her own reply: “Shing-gan,” which literally meant “heart and liver,” but in context meant “heart and soul.”

“Beloved one,” Nomuri said, after a kiss, “do you advertise our relationship at your office?”

“No, Minister Fang might not approve, but the other girls in the office probably would not object if they found out,” she explained, with a coquettish smile. “But you never know.”

“Then why risk exposing yourself by making such a joke, unless you wish me to betray you?”

“You have no sense of humor,” Ming observed. But then she ran her hands under his shirt and up his chest. “But that is all right. You have the other things I need.”

Afterward, it was time to do business.

“Bau-bei?”

“Yes?”

“Your computer still works properly?”

“Oh, yes,” she assured 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.”

Damn, 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 breasts 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. Hell” -- 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 anticipated.”

“Tough shit” 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 document 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 document 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-point-eight-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 anticipation. 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 [email protected] that he'd arranged for a second recipe that he hoped she might find tasty.

“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. Ambassador 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 noblemen 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 brass. Everyone had a tiny glass 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 blow job, 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 dick 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 bitch, 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 bastard'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 assigned 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 principal 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 titular chief diplomat, because the Chinese often ran things that way. It occurred to Gant that maybe he could fuck 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 fucking 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 fucking 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?” Amusement 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 ambassador 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 assigned credit for all this to that madman Japanese pilot who'd killed so much of official Washington in that one lunatic gesture.