Dragon Fire

The White House, Washington, DC

‘I think you need to wake the President on this one.’ Reece Overhalt, the American Ambassador, was speaking to the White House Chief of Staff, Charles Nugent, from the secure communications room in the Embassy in Beijing. Nugent was propped up in bed, eyeing his clock and trying to sound polite.

‘I don’t see it, Reece,’ said Nugent. ‘You say it’s an Indian cock-up. If we woke the President every time a Third World government screwed something up the man would be a walking zombie.’

‘China could lose it,’ Overhalt insisted, ‘become uncontrollable.’

‘Well, let them lose it in the morning — Eastern Standard Time.’