Page 66 of Never

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal an all-white Swatch Day-Date with a plastic strap. ‘A present from my granddaughter,’ he explained.

‘Which makes it so much more valuable than anything you could buy in a jewellery store.’

‘Exactly.’

She laughed. ‘I like a man who has the right priorities.’

Chess was a shrewd practical statesman with a conservative bias towards letting sleeping dogs lie. Before going into politics he had been a senior partner in a Washington law firm specializing in international law. Pauline liked his dry, concise briefings, with not a word wasted.

He said: ‘We may lose the vote at the UN today. You’ve already had the numbers in the report from Josh.’ The American ambassador to the United Nations was Joshua Woodward. ‘Our support has shrivelled up. Most of the neutral countries who originally promised to back us have now said they’ll abstain or even vote against. I’m sorry.’

‘Damn,’ said Pauline. It had been looking dubious over the weekend and she was dismayed to have her fears confirmed.

Chess went on: ‘The Chinese have won a lot of people over by threatening to cancel investments.’

Vice-President Milton Lapierre was sitting opposite Pauline, fiddling with a purple scarf he had been wearing when he walked in. He spoke indignantly. ‘We should do the same – use our overseas aid programme as a lever. People we help should help us!’ In his southern accent,helpcame out ashay ulp. ‘And if they don’t, they can go to hell.’Hail.

Chess shook his head patiently. ‘Much of our aid is tied to purchases from American manufacturers, so if we pull the aid we get in trouble with our businessmen.’

Pauline said: ‘This resolution wasn’t such a bright idea.’

Chess said: ‘We all thought it was a good plan at the time.’

‘Rather than lose the vote, I’d like to pull the resolution.’

‘Suspend it. We can say it’s a postponement to discuss amendments. You can suspend for as long as you like.’

‘Okay, Chess, but it breaks my heart when a kid from a salt-of-the-earth American family like the Ackermans has just been killed by a terrorist with a Chinese rifle. I’m not giving up on this. I want to make sure China knows there’s a cost to what they do. They won’t get away with it scot-free.’

‘You could protest to the Chinese ambassador.’

‘I most certainly will.’

‘The ambassador will say that the Chinese sell guns to the Sudanese armed forces, and it’s not really China’s fault if the Sudanese sell them to ISGS.’

‘While the Chinese and Sudanese governments turn a blind eye.’

Chess nodded. ‘Imagine what they’d say about us if Afghan army officers sold American rifles to the anti-Beijing rebels across the border in Xinjiang province.’

‘The Chinese government would accuse us of trying to bring them down.’

‘Madam President, if you want to punish China, why not tighten up the sanctions against North Korea?’

‘That would cost the Chinese money, but not very much.’

‘No, but it would show the world that China ignores UN sanctions, and that would embarrass them. And if they protest, that will only prove our point.’

‘Very sly, Chess. I like it.’

‘And we wouldn’t need a UN vote, because the UN has already imposed trade restrictions on North Korea. All we need to do is enforce existing rules.’

‘For example…?’

‘Import–export documents are published on the Internet, and if we scrutinize them closely we can tell which are false.’

‘How?’

‘I’ll give you an example. North Korea makes piano accordions, good quality and cheap. In the past, they exported them all over the world, now they can’t. But you’ll find that last year some province in China imported four hundred and thirty-three of them, and in the same year China exported to Italy exactly four hundred and thirty-three piano accordions marked:Made in China.’