Page 79 of Never

Neil spoke fluent Mandarin with atrocious pronunciation. He ordered congee, the rice porridge, with a soft-boiled egg. Kai asked for soy-sauce noodles with tea eggs.

Kai said: ‘You won’t lose much weight eating congee. Chinese food has a lot of calories.’

‘Not as much as American,’ said Neil. ‘Even our bacon contains sugar. Anyway, what’s on your mind?’

That was direct. No Chinese person would be so blunt. But Kai had grown to like the way Americans got straight to the point. He replied equally plainly: ‘North Korea.’

‘Okay,’ Neil replied non-committally.

‘You’re imposing sanctions.’

‘Sanctions were imposed a long time ago, by the United Nations.’

‘But now the US and its close friends are seriously enforcing them, intercepting ships and interdicting cargoes and obstructing international payments that violate the sanctions.’

‘Perhaps.’

‘Neil, stop dicking me around. Just tell me why.’

‘Weapons in Africa.’

Faking mild indignation, Kai said: ‘You’re talking about Corporal Peter Ackerman. The killer was a terrorist!’

‘It’s a pity he used a Chinese gun.’

‘You don’t normally blame the crime on the manufacturer of the weapon.’ Kai smiled as he added: ‘If you did, you would have shut down Smith and Wesson years ago.’

‘Maybe.’

Neil was stonewalling, and Kai needed him to be more honest. He said: ‘Do you know which criminal enterprise is the largest in the world today, in money terms?’

‘You’re going to tell me it’s the trade in illicit weapons.’

Kai nodded. ‘Bigger than drugs, bigger than human trafficking.’

‘I’m not surprised.’

‘Both Chinese guns and American guns are easily available on the international black market.’

‘Available, yes,’ Neil conceded. ‘Easily? Not really. The gun that killed Corporal Ackerman was not bought in a regular black-market transaction, was it? When that sale was made, two governments looked the other way: the Sudanese and the Chinese.’

‘Don’t you understand that we hate Muslim terrorists as much as you do?’

‘Let’s not oversimplify. You hate Chinese Muslim terrorists. You’re not so worried about African Muslim terrorists.’

Neil was uncomfortably close to the truth.

Kai said: ‘I’m sorry, Neil, but Sudan is an ally and it’s good business selling them guns. We’re not going to stop. Corporal Ackerman is just one man.’

‘This is not really about poor Corporal Ackerman. It’s about howitzers.’

Kai was taken aback. He had not expected this. Then he recalled a detail from a report he had read two weeks ago. The Americans and others had raided a large and important ISGS hideout called al-Bustan that had truck-mounted howitzers.

So that was what had prompted the UN resolution.

The food came, giving Kai time to reflect. He felt tense, despite his facade of relaxed camaraderie, and he ate his noodles slowly, with little appetite. Neil was hungry after his workout and wolfed his congee. When they had finished, Kai summed up. ‘So President Green is using the North Korea sanctions to punish China for the artillery at al-Bustan.’

‘More than that, Kai,’ said Neil. ‘She wants you to be more careful about the end-users of the weapons you sell.’