Free The Case Officer by F. W. Rustmann Page B

ask you something.” The Chinese grasped Mac’s arm tightly. He
wasn’t letting Mac off the hook that easily.
    “Ask me anything you like,” said
Mac contritely.
    “Why me? I know how these things
work. What did I do or say that would give you the impression that I would be a
recruitment prospect? You guys are not like the Russians, who go around
pitching everyone in sight on the off chance someone will say yes. You guys
don’t play the percentages like they do. You plan, you focus. At least that’s
what they tell us back home.”
    “You’re right, Tsung-yao, you’re
absolutely right. You know that sometimes Washington, and I imagine Beijing as
well, works in a vacuum. They don’t know what is really happening out here.
Let’s just drop it, okay?”
    “No, wait… First tell me why you
thought I would agree to betray my country for...for...what? Money? What? What
could you possibly offer me to do that?”
    “I told you. Nothing. Washington
just told me to ask, that’s all.” Mac’s only concern was damage control at this
point. “Now let’s just forget it and get that drink.”
    “I can’t forget it, Mac, and I
don’t believe you.” Huang’s voice was less accusatory than hurt, his tone was
flat. MacMurphy started to interrupt, but Huang stopped him. “You and I are not
in that vacuum you mentioned. I will tell you frankly, I feel like you have
betrayed our friendship. I expected more from you. Certainly not this…
    “When I tell Beijing about this,
they will forbid me to see you any more. And I do not think I want to see you
any more either. I am sorry Mac.” Huang turned to leave. Mac’s muscles
tightened, as a mixture of sorrow and bitter regret engulfed him.
    “Wait.” Mac grabbed his elbow.
“I’m sorry. I really am Tsung-yao. But just listen to me for one minute.” Huang
tried to pull away, but MacMurphy strengthened his grip. “Please don’t say a
word about this to anyone. No one… It’s for your own good.” Huang tugged harder
and Mac blurted, “For God’s sake, Tsung-yao, listen to me. I know what I’m
talking about. They won’t just tell you can’t see me anymore. They’ll recall
you to Beijing. They will jerk your ass out of here so Goddamn fast....”
    Huang jerked his arm free. “Do
not be ridiculous. Why would Beijing do that? I have done nothing wrong.”
    “They will, Tsung-yao,” MacMurphy
said firmly. “I know they will. Listen to me. They always do. I know about
these things better than you.”
    “Better than me? I don’t think
so…”
    Huang turned abruptly and
rejoined his colleagues at the far end of the balcony, never once looking back
toward Mac. His turned back conveyed a message that burned through Mac with an intensity
he hadn’t felt before. Mac had done more than just fail in his doomed
mission—an outcome he had expected; he had also lost a friend…and in the
process, doomed that friend’s future.
    MacMurphy had lost his cherry,
just as his mentor Rothmann had, more than twenty years earlier.
     
    Chapter Twenty-Two
     
    T wo days later, after several
unreturned phone calls to Huang at the Chinese embassy, MacMurphy learned that
Huang had left “for consultations” that afternoon on the regular CAAC flight
from Addis Ababa to Beijing.
    Huang never returned to Addis
Ababa, and it would be more than ten years before he was permitted to travel
outside of China again.
    The system had betrayed MacMurphy
as it had Rothmann so many years before, and Mac thought long and hard about
leaving the clandestine service. His disillusionment sent him into a deep
depression. But in the final analysis, he chalked the whole affair up to
experience and carried on with his career. He had joined the Agency to serve
his country, not to make friends.
    At the end of his Addis Ababa
assignment, he was rewarded with a promotion and a direct transfer to Thailand.
He would be the deputy in Bangkok Station’s Udorn base, tasked with running
cross-border operations