The Abyss: A Rex Dalton Thriller by JC Ryan

Author:JC Ryan [Ryan, JC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Urgent messages

Beijing, China

LANG LEFT FENG LIN’S house early on Friday morning after Lin had served him breakfast and ordered his driver to take him to Zhongnanhai.

After Lang had left, Lin watered the pot plants on the kitchen windowsill and swapped them around with the plants from the back porch, which started blooming a few days before.

One of the people passing her house that morning was a middle-aged man on a bicycle who passed this house on his way to work every weekday morning for the past ten years. He was one of a few who noticed the beautiful red flowers in the kitchen window brightening up the façade.

When he got to his office, he took out his cellphone and phoned his wife to let her know he was going to be about an hour late that night as one of the clothing stores near the office had a big sale on and he wanted to go and buy himself a new shirt for work.

Well, actually, that’s what he told the woman who answered the phone. But she told him he must have the wrong number because her name was not Darling, and she had no husband. The man apologized profusely, the woman accepted his apology and disconnected.

The man checked the number, saw he had touched quite a few wrong digits, shook his head, and admonished himself loudly. He then concentrated on dialing the correct number.

***

GENERAL LANG DIDN’T GET much sleep. His mind was too busy processing the shocking news about the famine. He was in the president's office in Zhongnanhai at 7:00 a.m. Since becoming a spy for the CIA, with the help of the long-suffering Feng Lin, he had cut back on his excessive drinking, and his brain was functioning much better for it.

The transcript of last night’s meeting was on its way to his handler. Last night was the first time in a very long time Lang Jianhong had stopped thinking about himself and started thinking about his country and her people. One thought that settled in his mind when he heard President Liao talking about the impending crisis was that the worst possible strategy would be to start a war. He was one of the generals who believed that China had more than just a good chance to beat America and the world into submission in a war—if everything played out as planned. But now, even thinking of starting a war while a famine of the extent Liao had described was raging was raving madness.

That was Lang’s opening statement after he had taken his seat in the president’s office.

Liao agreed and explained to Lang that China already had to deal with slowing economic growth, an aging society, and a rapidly shrinking birthrate—the result of the one-child policy. “And now this—the total destruction of the economy and the starvation of our people. China will be thrown back to the 1970s when we were among the poorest countries in the world. One must be completely and certifiably insane to even contemplate going to war now.

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