At the New a Capital Airport in Beijing, Caldwell and Mei Lin sailed through immigration without a hitch except that an immigration officer took a lot of ving that the sole was indeed a puter. Caldwell had to switch it on and log on to cyberspace before the man was vinced. He』d never seen anything like it before and made a point of telling his colleagues that it was the weirdest and coolest puter he has ever seen. Mei Lin had explaio Caldwell that the first thing they o do in Beijing was to get their hands on some guns. This was not Hong Kong. Things were going to start getting dangerous.
「Believe me we won』t get far in Beijing without being armed, if only to heighten our powers of persuasion. The gun speaks a universal language. If you get caught hag in Beijing or accessing forbidden areas, the sequences be dire indeed. A gun may be your only hope to get yourself out of your predit,」 she explained. She khe perfect place to get some ons. You could evehem by the hour.
「Perfect,」 Caldwell said. He was not sure he really meant it.
After a long taxi ride, most of it on a spanking new ring road, they checked into the Zhongguan tial Hotel, a black obelisk bang in the ter of Zhongguan, Beijing』s version of Sili Valley. Mei Lin informed Caldwell that Zhongguan was just a short walk away from Tsinghua Uy, Beijing Uy and a whole bunch of other sce parks at a』s cutting edge of teology.
Everything in Beijing was built to gigantic scale, making Caldwell feel totally Lilliputian. There were gover buildings that filled the entire horizon, hulking great monoliths that were at once modern and traditional. The architecture was a freic fusion of East a – ultra-modern architecture with ese characteristics. There were pagoda-like skyscrapers that disappeared into acid rain clouds. The curved roofs of office blocks modeled on aemples reflected sunlight in a billion different places, shiniaments to New a』s pla the world.
Beijing today was like New York or London three or four decades ago, except everything was grander, bigger, gaudier, wackier and crazier. In London or New York, corporate logos domihe sky, perched on top of those cities』 greatest crete and glass phallic symbols. In Beijing corporate brands not only covered everything, at night they filled the polluted yellow skies. The entire heavens became a flickering ema s paying homage to the corporate brands.
Mei Lin had opted for a two bedroom suite, saying that she did not feel safe in Zhongguan, the teology Wild West of Beijing, where a woman could be dragged kig and screaming through the lobby of a five star hotel and nobody would bat an eyelid. Caldwell had no plaints although he was a little apprehensive about having her so close. The closer Mei Lin got to him the harder it was going to be to plan his future after Fouler had given back what was taken from him. There had been an odd silen the matter of their relationship but Caldwell reed that Mei Lin probably sidered it all a thing of the past.
heless, he had no doubt in his mind that he』d fallen in love with her all ain ae his reservations there was no point in denying it. He wondered whether he should let her know at dionight how he felt, if only to get it out of the way. He』d rather have it out in the open than lingering, with so many important things at stake.
So at dinner over fusion cuisine Caldwell said the unspoken.
「Mei Lin, I have something to tell you.」
「Yes.」
「I thin