Читать книгу Strike Zone - Dale Brown - Страница 23

Chen Lo Fann waited on the bench in the antechamber, soothing his troubled mind by staring at his surroundings. He had spent considerable time here as a boy, racing through his grandfather Chen Lee’s house; under ordinary circumstances, those memories would soothe him.

They failed to now. In fact, the more he stared, the further those days became, faded pages from a discarded book.

Chen Lo Fann had failed in his mission to provoke a war between China and India. The weight of that failure sat heavily on him, blocks of iron pressing him from every direction. Fann might believe in the endless surging of the universe, but it offered little consolation, for he must now face the one man he loved and feared above all others, and admit his failure.

Time passed; he did not note it.

One of Chen Lee’s secretaries stood before him. Without saying anything, Chen Lo Fann rose and followed the man through the hallway to the office where Chen Lee waited.

The old man stood gazing out the window. Taipei sat in the distance, a dirty gem in the rough land the old man had helped make prosperous. The old clock in the corner of the office ticked, slowly counting to itself as Chen Lo Fann waited for his grandfather to speak.

‘Your mission failed,’ said Chen Lee finally.

‘Yes, Grandfather,’ said Fann.

‘History is a terrible force,’ said the older man, still looking through the window. ‘It cares for no individual. It is like the ocean wave in that way. And yet it can be turned.’

Chen Lo Fann gazed at the back of his grandfather’s white head. The old man had given him many lessons here, allowed him to watch and listen. Fann’s education in America was nothing compared to those lessons.

‘I have a second plan,’ said Chen Lo Fann. ‘The ASEAN exercises can be disrupted.’

Chen Lee had clearly thought of this already, because he answered without his usual pause to consider.

‘Simply disrupting them will not be enough. An attack must be provoked.’

‘If the Americans participate,’ said Chen Lo Fann, ‘I will succeed.’

The old man said nothing. Chen Lo Fann realized he had made the same promise in the matter of war between the communists and India.

‘If the meeting is not canceled, we shall have to take graver action,’ said Chen Lee. ‘Be prepared.’

He turned back to the window.

‘Yes, Grandfather,’ said Chen Lo Fann. He bowed, then left the room.