Free The Great Divide by T. Davis Bunn Page A

matter.”
    “The parents have already tried that route.”
    “Then there’s nothing I can do for you.”
    “I can’t believe the State Department would take such a cavalier attitude to a kidnapped American citizen.”
    The man actually smirked. “You don’t know that.”
    Marcus studied the man more intently. “You know Gloria Hall?”
    “Absolutely not. We make it a policy to have nothing whatsoever to do with the lunatic fringe.”
    Marcus leaned closer. “The what?”
    “Gloria Hall was ready to enlist on any side making trouble for the Chinese. As you well know.” The man shook his head, a quick motion like a dog shedding water. “Look, Mr. Glenwood, you’re wasting your time. Gloria Hall went looking for trouble and she found it. We can’t help you.”
    T HE YOUNG LADY at the International Chamber of Commerce was equally direct but far more polite. Her name was Patricia Calloway and she led Marcus through a warren of tiny cubicles to an office with a window. Her card said she was assistant director for Far Eastern policy and the plaques on her wall said she had graduated with honors from Wellesley and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. When Marcus had completed his lead-in, she demanded, “You’ve spoken with someone at the State Department?”
    “I tried. They didn’t offer a thing.”
    “I’m not surprised. With a major trade junket on the horizon, they’re all heads down in the bunkers.”
    “Even so, it seems amazing how little interest they showed over a missing American.”
    “Because it’s a Pandora’s box they don’t dare open.” She watched him with intelligent green eyes, clearly assessing whether he was worth her time, and whether he would actually listen to what he did not want to hear. “A number of Chinese dissidents hold dual citizenship with the United States. They go back planning to be arrested, hoping their mission will pressure Washington to act on human rights abuses.”
    Marcus felt a niggling sensation at the back of his mind.
Mission
. It took a moment to recall where he had come across that word before. “A confrontation over human rights abuses just prior to a trade expedition would be—”
    “An absolute debacle,” she agreed cheerfully. “The State Department’s worst-case scenario.”
    “I seem to recall that this administration included human rights in its election manifesto.”
    “Maybe so. But now it’s trade first, human rights last. And China just happens to be the world’s largest untapped market.”
    Marcus confessed, “I’m surprised at your candor.”
    “Oh, we’re definitely pro-trade around here.” She flashed a quick smile. “But that doesn’t make us blind to reality.”
    “Which is?”
    “That China has been backsliding on human rights ever since Tiananmen Square. They make no bones about it. The recent arrests of those pro-democracy advocates were highly publicized, both inside and outside China. This was a calculated act. They’re telling the rest of the world this is an internal matter, and we’re too big and too powerful for you to risk offending us. So don’t make an issue of it, or we’ll take our business elsewhere.”
    She offered another quick smile. “That’s my ten-cent tour. We dish it up to everybody wanting to tap the Chinese market. Your average American businessman will waltz in here and give us something like, there’s a billion people over there and not a single company making widgets. So we go, fine, but are you willing to get your hands dirty? Because nobody who does business in China stays totally clean.”
    He was listening to what was going on beneath the surface now, and thought he heard a confusing note of concern. “Did you know Gloria Hall?”
    “Just by name. We never met. She was making a reputation for herself as more than just another noisy activist.”
    He leaned forward. “How?”
    “These are all just rumors. But you hear things in this business. She was mentioned in a couple of