Deadly Payload

“If this works, thank you,” Price countered.

Captain Ho popped the CD from his drive, took the overview document and headed for Ambassador Chong’s office.

“W ITH THE N ORTH K OREANS confirming the information we’ve sent our contacts in the Chinese intelligence community, we might actually pull this off,” Price said hopefully.

“Taiwan is a tempting prize,” Kurtzman stated. “The hard-liners who want all of China unified will be hard to dissuade.”

“We just have to keep playing the back alleys,” Price answered. “Keep hitting the Red Chinese with reason until they back down from their urge to hit the Nationalist Chinese for retaliation.”

“Reason has rarely been an effective tool against invasion,” Kurtzman replied. “If an administration is gung ho and ready for battle, almost nothing slows it down. For every war that we pulled the plug on, another took place somewhere else.”

“So just because we have misses, we’re supposed to give up?” Price asked. “We didn’t shut down because we couldn’t prevent the Towers from falling. And we didn’t give up because the President ignored our recommendations of force application in Iraq. We just keep plugging to save the world, whether it wants it or not.”

“I’m not saying to throw in the towel,” Kurtzman said. “I’m just not counting on this to be resolved by common sense, which isn’t as common as you’d think.”

“We’ve made a difference before. It’s what we do. Batting a thousand isn’t possible, but humanity’s still here.”

Kurtzman nodded. “You’re right, Barb.”

“How is everything on the files we pulled out of Phoenix’s haul?” Price asked.

“Hunt’s going through it. He’s thorough, and there’s a lot of herrings and worms crawling around in there,” the computer wizard explained. “It’s not going quickly, but he’s pulling clues out of the drive.”

“I just thought he was slow,” Price said with a wink and a grin.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.