Cull. Stafford Ray
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to could have been decades in the planning and they can do it in secret. I get the impression they’re getting ready for something.” She sat back again and looked away, aware of his intense stare. She paused as her imagination shocked her with mental images of mushroom clouds over Manhattan and Los Angeles. “And it scares me!”
“Yes, I felt that too.” He looked again out of the window recalling the personal message at the end of the meeting as he tried to reassure her.
“But I haven’t given up on Ho.” He nodded as he continued as if to also reassure himself. “He’s a rationalist and knows any overt aggression against the US carries a huge risk. He knows we have enormous clout. With our allies in Europe and Asia and of course, subs in the strait, we have enough fire power to destroy even a country like China. More likely he’s assembling bargaining chips. It would not be like him to start anything!”
He noted her dubious expression and smiled. “Well, not yet!”
Th ey both felt his words might carry more hope than reality but there seemed nothing more to be said. With that shared thought, they again fell silent as the limousine entered their hotel. A simple “Good night” sufficed as he left her outside her room and went on to his own, weighed down by the mood of the past few hours.
Next morning they met as usual for breakfast. Mae had been working late into the night on the minutes of the meeting, writing up her report from notes and sound recording. After a cursory “Good morning”, they spoke little over the bacon, eggs and toast, not yet ready to reopen the worrying matters that concerned them and always aware of listening devices that could have been secreted in any salt shaker or flower vase. When the plates had been cleared away, they moved to the Western Terrace for tea and coffee.
Harry carried the tray with his coffee pot, Mae’s cup with two slices of lemon balanced on the saucer and her tea pot. Mae was occupied with collecting her handbag, laptop and bulging briefcase of documents. He walked ahead and chose a table for four in the morning sunshine. As Mae joined him and placed her bags on the table, he removed two of the chairs that may have been seen as an invitation to visit from another of the several other Westerners enjoying the balmy autumn weather.
Mae squeezed lemon into her green tea and took a test sip as Harry stirred his customary one sugar and milk into strong coffee. As he lifted the coffee to his lips she removed documents from the brief case and placed a stack of stapled sheets in front of him. They fell silent as Harry read and Mae blew onto the surface of her tea to cool it. Her first small cup was sipped carefully, then refilled.
The documents were couched in the usual diplomatic language of softened disagreements and disguised truth. Harry smiled as he read her carefully crafted reinterpretation of the exchanges.
Harry nodded as he glanced up at her tired face. “I see what you were getting at yesterday,” he said. “They have certainly moved…”
His head jerked up as he looked sharply at her, jabbing his finger at the page. “What’s this?”
He read aloud. “Secret installations in Mongolia could pose an imminent threat! What’s that doing in here?”
“I’m sorry Harry, but that’s the impression I got.”
Harry growled in reply, “You had better have more than an impression for including this stuff in the report!” He shook his head as he went on angrily: “This could be a shit load of trouble!”
She turned to him to speak but he went on, “Jesus Christ, Mae, There was nothing yesterday like that. You have to be careful what you put in official reports to those trigger-happy bastards at State! They already think Ho’s crazy.”
She interrupted. “I’m sorry, but there’s stuff you don’t know that I picked up on the recorder when I was listening to the playback. It wasn’t what Ho said, it was General Funny Hat…the military side-kick.” Mae paused as she searched for the name.
Harry looked at her struggling and joked. “Goose.”
She laughed. “Oh, stop it Harry! General Duk Wing.”
He laughed again as she pulled the page around to look at it and relaxed as Harry’s anger abated, seeking the memory but not reading. “He whispered something in Ho’s ear, remember?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
Mae pushed the papers back to Harry. “No, well, I did hear something at the time and couldn’t quite make it out, but the recorder did pick it up. He spoke in a Western Province dialect that I wasn’t supposed to understand so I thought it prudent not to try to translate the little I did hear and what was clearly meant to be for his ears only.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “I didn’t notice anything in particular. Duk was continually passing stuff to Ho.”
“That’s right, but…” Mae paused and Harry prompted. “Was it when we were talking about their atomic energy program? He was saying that he would welcome UN inspections. Remember that? He said he would allow American inspectors in on the day we allow Chinese inspectors into the US.”
“No, it was when he asked about the man with the money and that led to the exchange about Denver and you did your crocodile smile and asked the question about Mongolia, remember? That’s when Duk became agitated.”
“So that’s what upset Duk,” he mused as Mae went on.
“Yes. While you were still talking, Duk was mumbling something to Ho.”
Harry nodded as she added, “He didn’t want Ho to provoke you into looking more closely at something there. The mention of Mongolia got him going.”
She paused and looked at Harry’s face as he processed that thought. “Well! What do you know! I just wanted to put him off balance. We don’t have any hard information about secret stuff in Mongolia. It was raised at home as an early heads up, nothing definite.”
“Duk was standing well back from his microphone, but it did come out fairly clearly on the recording. I didn’t fully understand what it meant, but the way he said it frightened me.”
Harry broke in. “Look, I appreciate that you heard something spoken as an aside, but what the hell possessed you to put it in the report?”
She looked to Harry apologetically. “I thought it might be important.”
“That’s not good enough, Mae. If it was important enough to go into the report, I needed to know…at the time, so I could address it.” He shook his head in admonishment. “An official report is not a jotter for your suspicions!” His voice again had an edge of anger. “For Christ’s sake, Mae, it makes me look stupid because I didn’t ask more questions about it. You don’t put stuff like that in without running it past me!” He was still shaking his head in annoyance. “You don’t realise how explosive these things can be!”
Mae stared at Harry, surprised at his anger, but dismayed at his imputation of her judgment. “I know how it is, Harry! But I didn’t hear it clearly at the time, and even if I had, I still would not have understood what he meant. If I’d tried to interpret it then, you would have had to push it and I decided discretion was appropriate. It was clearly not meant for our ears.”
She checked his expression, was satisfied and continued, “I’ve listened to the tape over and over and with time to think about it, I have most of it. Like I said, I became worried and I’m running it past you now. Do you want to hear what I think Duk said or don’t you?”
He nodded, anger subsiding. “Of course I want to know.”
She took time to assemble her words. “Duk told Ho to draw your attention away from Mongolia and not to threaten you because they were not yet ready for something.”
“You mean inspections?”
“No, it wasn’t inspections.”
She was clearly troubled as she wrestled with her thoughts. “He said what it was, but I wasn’t familiar with the