Free Darkness Under Heaven by F. J. Chase Page A

good,” said Marquand. “Another diplomatic incident averted. The ambassador will be ecstatic.” He was checking through the release document. “Did you really cross out all this stuff right in front of the Chinese?”
    â€œYou’d better believe it. And good thing, too, otherwise you would have been delivering the formal apology from the middle of Tiananmen Square, dressed in nothing but a Chinese flag jockstrap.”
    â€œJust as well, then. Red and gold really aren’t my colors. Did you hit on the doctor?”
    â€œI have to admit,” Avakian said. “She’s not the tight-ass I thought she was. She could have blown the whole deal any number of times, but she kept her head and kept her mouth shut when she needed to. Then we ran into that road accident and she saved a guy’s life, just as cool as you please.”
    â€œSo you did hit on her.”
    â€œWe’re having dinner,” Avakian said grudgingly.
    â€œDo you good. Your mother probably always wantedyou to meet a nice Jewish doctor. And the Chinese don’t think the Indoor Stadium recon is any big whoop either?”
    â€œNot officially.”
    â€œWell, look, don’t worry about it. With the Taiwan president in there, they’re going to have that place hermetically sealed anyway. CIA station chief is practically living with his Chinese counterpart over this. All the big eyes and big ears are tuned this way.”
    â€œI hope so,” said Avakian.
    Â 
    â€œHe looks like Telly Savalas,” said Doctor Judith Rose.
    Doctor Regine Toussaint, her partner on the team, looked up from her coffee. “And who is Telly Savalas?”
    â€œYou’re kidding. Kojak? ”
    â€œIf you make me guess, I have to say a TV show.”
    â€œNow you’re pretending you’re too young to remember Kojak .”
    â€œAnd I must be doing a very fine job of it. What else was this Telly Savalas in?”
    Doctor Rose had to stop and think. “The Dirty Dozen!”
    â€œThis time, I’m going to guess that was a movie.”
    â€œYou’ve never seen The Dirty Dozen? ”
    â€œM’dear, why on earth would I have ever seen a movie called The Dirty Dozen? ” Doctor Toussaint’s family had rowed from Haiti to Miami when she was a little girl, and she still had the Creole lilt to her voice.
    â€œIt’s a classic.”
    â€œWhat is this Telly Savalas doing now?”
    Doctor Rose sighed. “He’s dead.”
    â€œYou don’t say.”
    Doctor Rose paused to try and calculate how old Doctor Toussaint had been when Kojak was on the air, then abandoned the effort when it began to depress her.She wracked her brain for an age-appropriate alternative. “Vin Diesel!”
    â€œHe looks like Vin Diesel?” said Doctor Toussaint, without an enormous amount of enthusiasm.
    â€œNo, not really. He’s short, and bald, with very strong kind of ethnic features.” That made her pause again. “I’m not making him sound very attractive, am I?”
    â€œCome to think of it, I seem to remember your new friend from that party. With the shaved head? The craggy face?”
    â€œWeathered,” Doctor Rose countered. “A distinguished face.”
    â€œAnd the large nose?”
    â€œIt’s not that large.”
    â€œDarlin’, it’s not Cyrano, but it’s not small.”
    â€œOh, all right.”
    Doctor Toussaint unleashed a triumphant smile. “Now I see what you’re getting at. He’s a sexy ugly man.”
    â€œHe’s not ugly, Regine. He’s just not…conventionally attractive. How about that?”
    â€œI always say you can tell a lot about a man by how he deals with male pattern baldness.”
    â€œYou have to admit he’s a striking looking man.”
    â€œM’dear, I don’t have to admit anything.”
    â€œHe can also pull off wearing a hat with a