China Crisis

“New man?” Tilman asked, suddenly alert. “You vetted him?”

“Relax, Pete,” Chomski said. “He’s ex-military. Served with Vic back when. Got ditched because he got a hard-on over some pussy UN officer who turned chicken and had to shoot some local warlord. I ran a computer check on him. He’s been in a few scrapes with the law. Just toughed it out with some redneck trying to run a scam. Looks okay, but don’t worry, we’ll keep an eye on him.”

Tilman picked up his glass and swallowed hard.

“If you say so.”

“Ralph, is the Kibble matter settled?” Townsend asked.

Chomski nodded. “Account closed. We won’t be hearing from him again. Neither will anyone else.”

“Joseph, I’m calling in a backup contact for this Guang Lor deal. We have to complete this order on time. Su Han will start getting impatient if we lose time. And I don’t want to upset the Chinese government.”

“I understand. Are you talking about Dupont?”

“He works the same research department Kibble was in at RossJacklin. We brought him in and kept him in the background in case anything soured the Kibble deal.”

“Did I miss something? Do we have a problem with Kibble?” Tilman asked.

“Kibble backed off. Said there were problems at the plant. Security had been tightened. He wanted out.”

“Scared people do things like caving in and talking to the wrong people,” Chomski said. “We couldn’t risk that, so Mr. Kibble has gone AWOL. For good.”

“I’ll do some checking,” Tilman said. “See if the Agency is involved.”

“Fine, Pete.”

“By the way, our friend from Beijing called earlier,” Riotta said. “It appears our Chinese clients have an updated list of requirements.”

“Can we handle it?”

“I gave it to Ralph.”

“More of the same,” Chomski admitted.

“Anything else?”

Chomski smiled. “Only details on deep-cover U.S. operatives working the Asian beat.”

“That might come under your wing, Pete,” Townsend said.

“I’ll see what I can do. It’s going to depend on which agency they’re with. Leave it with me.” Tilman glanced at his watch. “I’d better get on out of here. I’m going to be busy once I get back.”