But it fell flat. Cade had told himself that surely the Chinese, if anybody, would respond to such a philosophy. Hadn’t they themselves practically invented it? Or was the notion of fomenting a “people’s” rebellion now part of a past that they considered themselves to have progressed beyond? But it was clear, even while Cade and Hudro were speaking, that the listeners who mattered were impervious. The leaders they served were already committed and were not going to be budged from their course. It was equally plain that Cade and Hudro would have no heart for the role that had been planned for them, and the matter was not pursued further. Thus, the meeting ended on a note of tacit withdrawal by both sides, each acknowledging that there was nothing further of mutual interest to be discussed.
Cade spoke briefly with Clewes in a corridor downstairs as they were leaving the building. “They’re taking an awful gamble. I know you know it too. If Hudro’s right, it’s going to be a mess. Is there nothing that can be done?”
“Believe me, I’ve tried,” Clewes told him. “But the high command back home are as bad. They’ve never had war in their country. It’s something that happens in other places and in movies, or in exercises where nobody gets hurt. They’re still academy kids playing a game. What they’re letting themselves in for is beyond their comprehension.”
* * *
What was really going on came to him only later that evening, when he was sitting morosely with Hudro in the hotel bar. China was using the Hyadean presence as a justification for uniting a power bloc to end to the West’s domination of the world’s affairs. The Beijing leadership was set on a path that seemed to guarantee the destruction of America as a world leader and the probable demise of Europe, which would lose the Hyadeans their economic leverage. And then what, if a stable measure of autonomy from the Hyadeans was achieved? The AANS breaking up into rivalries—China and the Arab world, maybe; perhaps a fragmented China; a revitalized Russia—all emerging to take on each other? Would there ever be an end to it? Cade watched the other bar patrons and sipped his drink. He was starting to think like Marie.
The thought of her turned his mind back to the prospect of going home—he presumed there would be little further to detain him this side of the Pacific. “Tomorrow, it will be time to start making plans again,” he said to Hudro. “I guess I go back to LA from here. Then I can make arrangements for Yassem to come over. What do you think you’ll do? Go back to Cairns and wait there?”
Hudro seemed to have been thinking along the same lines. He answered without needing much time to consider. “Now, I am not sure what I do. Is not right that Yassem is there and I decide here where we go. Maybe I come back with you. Then Yassem and I make plans together about what we do.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, why not? Is better idea, yes?”
Cade reached over and gripped Hudro’s arm. “I think it’s a lot better,” he said. “Things wouldn’t be the same anymore without you around, Big Guy. I’ll make arrangements with the office in the morning.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
TWO DAYS LATER, Cade and Hudro departed China on a Federation transport flight heading for California and carrying on its wings and fuselage the new, color-reversed insignia of a dark blue, five-pointed star on a white-circle ground. Due to uncertainties resulting from Union interceptors ranging out over the Pacific from bases in northwest Mexico, the flight was routed via Fairbanks, Alaska, and then down the coast of Canada. Washington had declared a war zone extending five hundred miles off the Federation’s west coast, in which all aircraft and vessels were declared to be at risk of attack. This was drawn far enough north to affect the approaches to Vancouver, exacerbating the already volatile situation with Canada, already threatening to fire on further intruders into its air space. Airborne units from several South American states had landed in southern Mexico to aid government troops embroiled in the developing civil war, and an amphibious force was being embarked at Caracas in Venezuela. With its southern front stabilized, the Federation had gone over to the offensive with air attacks on Union bases and crossing points over the Mississippi.