Tom Clancy's Op-center Novels 7-12 (9781101644591)

by Clancy, Tom

  Presenting his back to the reporter left Hood facing the Brazilian ambassador and his wife. They looked to be in their sixties. The woman was wearing a small diamond engagement ring, which suggested that she was the original Mrs. Ambassador. The man was a former architect who was admiring the Huabiao, an ornamental marble pillar engraved with twining dragons and ominous clouds. He said that the origin of the Huabiao dated to the legendary kings Yao and Shun, who ruled some 4,000 years ago. He said that they were originally wooden columns used as landmarks for travelers.

  His wife smiled benignly. She was a historian, a professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. The handsome, gray-haired woman was on sabbatical to be with her husband during his tenure.

  “The Biaos were not that,” she said, addressing Hood. “They evolved from a pole called a Biao, which was used in building much more recently, around 700 B.C. The Biao was placed in the ground to determine plumb and to mark the boundaries of construction. As larger structures came to be built, stone Biaos were used. By 400 B.C., they had become part of the structure.”

  “While we are here, we are collecting data to ascertain which of us is right,” the ambassador said with a smile for his wife. He added pragmatically, “Whichever of us wins or loses, scholarship benefits.”

  Hood smiled. There was something sweet about their rivalry. The couple had found an activity that allowed them to be together yet still individual. He envied them that.

  They made it through the door and into the ballroom after nearly ten minutes. Their names were checked against a master list by men wearing formal black Chinese military uniforms. Though Hood and most of the guests were dressed formally, the Chinese made no attempt to evoke the dynasties or Western styles. This was a show of traditional Red Chinese influence and authority. Inside, the Chinese leaders were dressed in tuxedos with necks reminiscent of the high-collared Mao jacket.

  The American ambassador was already working on a martini as he chatted with the prime minister through a young female interpreter. Hood felt a flash of anger, not because the man had Le Kwan Po’s ear but because Hasen did not have to wait in line. The feeling passed when the ambassador saw Hood and waved him over. Simultaneously, Hasen excused himself and walked toward Hood. He was glad to see that. Hood did not know who he was supposed to be or why he was here. That was something he was to have discussed with the ambassador before coming. He knew only that he was posing as an observer attached to the embassy.

  The room was already loud with chatter, the voices a combination of English and everything else, most notably the clucking sounds of the Chinese tongue. The ambassador put a hand on Hood’s shoulder as he brought him forward.

  “Sorry I couldn’t meet you earlier,” Hasen said. The very tall, round ambassador spoke softly, his voice nearly swallowed by the din. “The prime minister wanted to meet with someone, and I had to arrange it quickly.”

  “Someone obviously more important than a special envoy to the president,” Hood said with a trace of sarcasm.

  “In this instance, yes,” Hasen said. “It was a friend of yours, actually. General Mike Rodgers.”

  Hood frowned. He had not yet conferred with Rodgers about coordinating their work here, because he was not yet sure what needed to be done. Obviously, that had not stopped Mike.

  Hood did not get to follow up because they reached the prime minister’s side. Le Kwan Po had been distracted by someone who was speaking through his own translator. The Russian ambassador, from the sound of it. The man looked vaguely familiar, and Hood wondered if they had met before. It was possible. He had been to Russia and had worked closely with Sergei Orlov, his counterpart at the Russian Op-Center in Saint Petersburg.

  My former counterpart, Hood reminded himself. Orlov was still running that facility.

  Hasen took that moment to present Hood to the young woman who had been translating for them.

  “Paul, allow me to introduce Ms. Anita Le, daughter of the prime minister,” Hasen said. “Ms. Le, this is Mr. Hood. Paul Hood. He is a presidential aide sent here and there to make sure administration policy is being upheld.”

  “The president should have more faith in his ambassadors,” Anita said to both men.

  “Some of us fall victim to a variation of the Stockholm syndrome,” the ambassador remarked.

  “You start to empathize with your hosts,” Anita said.

  “Speaking of hosts, I’m going to see if I can recapture the prime minister,” Hasen said. “Will you excuse me?”

  “Of course,” Anita said.

  Hasen left, and Hood asked Anita if she would like a drink. She said yes and motioned to a waiter. The whitejacketed young Chinese hurried over. She asked for champagne. Hood ordered a Coke.

  “Do you not drink?” the woman asked.

  “Rarely,” Hood replied. “I like to remember what I hear. More important, I like to remember what I said.”

  “Moderation, Mr. Hood.”

  “Not something Americans are very good at,” he replied.

  “I understand. When I was in school I read novels by Mr. Hemingway and Mr. Fitzgerald. The men were always drinking too much.”

  “The authors, too, I fear.”

  The woman smiled. Anita Le was a striking woman. She was dressed in a sequined white gown that did justice to her slender, athletic figure. She had straight black hair with hints of red and a round, open face with large eyes. She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. She had poise that came from years of negotiating the sharp edges of life.

  Hood glanced over at Hasen. He was still trying to insert himself into a conversation with the prime minister. The crowd around him had grown considerably.

  “Is this your first visit to Beijing?”

  “It is,” Hood replied. “Do you work full-time as a translator?”

  “No. I teach literature at Beijing University. You can tell a lot about the ethos of a culture from its fiction.”

  “Do you follow contemporary literature or just the classics?”

  “I stay as current as time allows,” she said. “Though I must confess I have no particular interest in most of the work being produced by your country right now. Most of it is wish fulfillment for women and men, with very little to offer both. That divides rather than unites a culture.”

  “You mean romances for the women and spy stories for the men.”

  “Yes.”

  “I look at that stuff as aspirational,” Hood said. “It creates idealized heroes and heroines that make us want to be better.”

  “They are comic books for adults,” Anita replied dismissively.

  “What’s wrong with that?” Hood asked.

  “Popular literature is more about superficial external desires, to be strong or beautiful, than about internal growth,” she replied. “There was a time in the nineteenth and early twentieth century when American authors like Herman Melville and John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair addressed social and psychological issues instead of fantasies.”

  “Fantasies have truth in them,” Hood said. “Moby-Dick is a fantasy.”

  “Only as far as the whale is concerned,” the woman replied, “and it is not to be taken literally. The white whale is a personification of Captain Ahab’s destructive desires.”

  “I’m sure many of the enemies in contemporary American literature can be seen that way.”

  “No,” the woman replied with a firm shake of her head. “The Chinese are inevitably portrayed as enemies, as are the Russians. These are very specific references in all your spy novels, your James Bond adventures, and they distort reality in a quest for propaganda.”

  “James Bond is British,” Hood pointed out.

  “An irrelevant detail. The mentality is still Western.”

  “To some degree,” Hood admitted the truth of that. “You have read James Bond novels?”

  “Only Dr. No,” she said. “I saw several of the films. Comedies, really. Dr. No was a villain born in Beijing, a member o
f several tong gangs, a man with a translucent yellow skin with a Chinese Negro bodyguard. Destroying American missiles with a laser beam while posing as an exporter of guano. Mr. Hood, have you ever met a Chinese like that?”

  “No,” he had to admit.

  “Or a dazzlingly brilliant spy like Mr. Bond, who announces his identity to everyone he meets while moving through the world in a tailored tuxedo?” Anita said. She gestured vaguely at Hood’s attire. “A spy would be discreet.”

  “One would think,” Hood said uncomfortably. He saw Hasen returning with the prime minister. Hood’s own powers of subtle intelligence gathering were about to be tested.

  Hood did not know if they would ever find common ground where literature or literary protagonists was concerned. But the woman spoke English magnificently, and while she had the aggressive confidence of an academic, she listened when he was speaking. There was curiosity at work.

  Anita’s manner changed instantly when the men returned. She moved between but slightly behind her father and Hood. Her chin was no longer high and proud but lowered, like her eyes. It was not subservience but respect. Hood wondered if the writers Anita disliked so much would have bothered to note the dynamics between a father and daughter, a prime minister and translator.

  Not the ones who had made Le Kwan Po a Fu Manchu–style tyrant, he reflected.

  Hood and the prime minister shook hands.

  “Mr. Hood. Mr. Hasen says you wished to meet me,” the prime minister said through Anita.

  “Yes, sir,” Hood replied. “Is there someplace we can talk for a moment, privately?”

  “Right here,” the prime minister said. “No one can hear us, and most do not understand English. If you speak and I listen, we will be secure.”

  “All right,” Hood said.

  “But, Mr. Hood—I know your name. Why is that?” the prime minister asked.

  “I’ve been in government for quite some time,” Hood replied.

  “In what capacity?”

  “Most recently as the director of the National Crisis Management Center,” Hood replied.

  “Yes, of course. The renowned Op-Center. Your spies uncovered plots around the world, prevented wars.”

  Anita looked at Hood as she finished translating. Her expression darkened, and Hood felt a flush.

  “Then you know, of course, General Michael Rodgers,” Le Kwan Po said.

  There was an edge to Anita’s voice that had not been there before. Anita had to feel as though Hood had been leading her, patronizing her.

  “Yes, sir. I worked very closely with General Rodgers for years.”

  “Are you here at his request?”

  “Only partly, sir,” Hood admitted. “The president also had reasons for sending me.”

  “I would like to hear those reasons,” Le Kwan Po said. “President Debenport seems to take a harder view of our government than his predecessor.”

  “Harder in what sense, Mr. Prime Minister?”

  “Black and white,” Le Kwan Po replied.

  “I cannot answer for the president, sir,” Hood said. “I can tell you that his regard for you personally is very high. As is mine.”

  “Thank you,” the prime minister replied. He looked at his watch. “The toasts do not begin for another forty minutes. Perhaps we had better go elsewhere.”

  “All right.”

  Le Kwan Po led the way through the crowd toward the back of the ballroom. Well-wishers bowed or clasped his hand. Le smiled politely and patiently as he continued moving forward. It was a tremendous political asset, being attentive without stopping, giving a moment of your time without breaking stride. Le did that and one thing more: he did not show any favoritism. Everyone got the same smile, the same moment of contact. Debenport—and James Bond—might see the Chinese as black, but Le Kwan Po was definitely gray.

  And his daughter was definitely annoyed. She was still walking behind her father, which meant she was walking behind Hood. He caught her sharp stare whenever he maneuvered around someone in the packed hall.

  The group reached the back of the hall. A soldier wearing a formal black uniform opened a door for the prime minister. Le extended an arm, urging the ambassador and Hood to enter. They did, followed by the prime minister and his daughter.

  Hood would talk to Anita later. He would try to explain that she was not wrong about so much spy fiction—though what is often distilled for narrative convenience is not necessarily false.

  Maybe you can invite her to go whale-watching, Hood thought. That would keep his record of wrongheaded approaches to women intact.

  For now, though, Hood had more important matters to deal with. Which was one way life and fiction differed very dramatically. Despite the tuxedo and impressive résumé, he doubted that any spy could attend to a crisis and a woman at the same time.

  THIRTY-THREE

  Beijing, China Wednesday, 8:22 P.M.

  Le Kwan Po found it strange that so many Americans knew about his investigation. There was a cultural difference between the nations, one encapsulated in the saying, “Tell one American and you have told them all.” Chinese were not talkers. To the contrary, they were hoarders. They kept information as though it were fresh water on the high seas. They would share it only if it would bring an exponentially high return or was necessary to save face.

  But Americans talked to a stranger as if he were their best friend. Diplomats were a little better, depending upon their experience. Most of the men sent to China, including Mr. Hasen, had a good deal of experience in government. But Le had met ambassadors who had been newspaper publishers, actors, and even a professional bullfighter before being sent to represent their nations. These men loved to talk. Only occasionally did they listen.

  Paul Hood seemed different. The three men settled into the century-old easy chairs in the antechamber. Anita sat between her father and Hood. The American’s beverage arrived, and he accepted it graciously. By his expression, his easy carriage, the few words he had spoken, even the way he paid attention to Anita, Le could see that Hood was neither obsequious nor pretentious.

  If there were such a thing as the typical movie-hero American, General Rodgers embodied those aggressive, masculine characteristics. If there were such a thing as an average American, Paul Hood seemed to possess those more modest traits. There was something fair but resolute in his eyes. Hood certainly seemed far more open and approachable than General Rodgers had been.

  “Paul, why don’t you tell the prime minister why you’re here?” Ambassador Hasen urged.

  Anita translated for her father. Hood leaned forward in his chair, his hands folded in front of his chin. It looked as though he were praying.

  “Mr. Prime Minister, I am here at the request of the president,” Hood said. “He has asked me to offer whatever help we can to assure a successful launch of your new communications satellite.”

  “Does he have reason to believe the launch is in jeopardy?” Le asked.

  “There is intelligence to suggest you think there is a danger, Mr. Prime Minister.”

  “General Rodgers expressed that concern, but he had no information,” Le said. “What can you tell me?”

  “We believe the explosions in the United States, South Africa, and Taiwan may be related,” Hood said. “With respect, sir, we believe that the perpetrators may be elements within China.”

  “Is your information vague, or are you simply being reticent?” the prime minister asked.

  “I am a guest in your country, sir. I did not come to make charges against individuals, merely to offer help.”

  “What form would that help take?” the prime minister asked.

  “I would like to come to the launch,” Hood said. “Represent the president at a historic moment for China.”

  Le laughed. “We have launched many communications satellites before this.”

  “Not one built with the help of American industry,” Hood said.

  The American ambassador leaned forward. He looked very
sincere. “As I have said before, Mr. Prime Minister, President Debenport wishes for a closer détente with Beijing.”

  “You have said that before, Mr. Ambassador. Yet only recently your government has made arms sales to the rebels across the strait.”

  “The Taiwan Relations Act is for purely defensive use—” Hasen said.

  “Gentlemen, I doubt we will solve the issues of this region right now,” Hood interrupted. “But I hope we can establish some degree of trust regarding this launch. Mr. Prime Minister, you know my background. I would like the honor of standing at your side.”

  The prime minister sat silently while he considered Hood’s offer. He was studying the American.

  “General Rodgers made the same offer,” Le said after a moment. “He said he wanted to ‘watch my back.’ ”

  “It’s a popular expression.”

  “I understand,” Le assured him. “It would also suggest personal weakness and mistrust of our own security forces if I had a small force of Americans looking out for me and for the launch. I told General Rodgers I would consider his offer. In the name of this new détente, I will allow one of you to attend. You understand the situation. Please work it out between you who that will be.”

  “Mr. Prime Minister, it would not be unprecedented to have a representative of the manufacturer and a foreign government present for a launch,” the ambassador pointed out. “And it would show the world that we are approaching a new age in the Sino-American relationship.”

  “Many members of my government would find that an unacceptably generous leap,” Le said, “especially when both representatives spent years working together at an American intelligence agency.” The prime minister rose and regarded Hood. “I must return to my guests. I will expect your answer in the morning.”

  Hood stood. “You will have it. Thank you, sir.”

  Le left the antechamber, followed by his daughter and the two Americans. They walked slowly toward the ballroom. “What is your impression of this man?” he asked Anita.