Lost in Translation Page 0,99

together, it will fly off to the heavens in random pinwheels, no gravity. So they expect stuff like this. They work with it. It’s the deal."

"Why didn’t he bring this up in the meeting?"

"I suppose he found it difficult to ask you directly." Of course, she knew, it was also because she’d just beaten him and he’d lost unimaginable face.

"But I don’t have any more money."

"I know," she sympathized.

He rubbed at his head. He took his notebook out, wrote the numbers, and stared at them. "Alice, help me out here. Is there any way around this?"

"No," she said. "Not entirely. The PLA is a business. You’re a customer. You want something special and it’s going to cost. Now the first price has been named. In my experience, once a bribe is demanded, it has to be satisfied. It might be negotiated down—but it must be paid. Otherwise he’ll lose face again. And then you’ll never get what you want."

"So how do we negotiate?"

She thought. "Entering a nuclear silo is a pretty stiff request. I think it’s worth at least a thousand U.S. dollars. Let’s say you aim to end up at that level—that would be about eight or nine thousand renminbi—you should start out offering say, half that. Offer four or five hundred dollars. Then there’s room to compromise."

"I don’t even have that much to spare."

She fell silent.

"You got a credit card?" he asked.

"Of course."

"Well?"

She looked at him sharply. "Well what? Would I put up the money?"

"We’ve come this far! Alice, you saw it—the monkey sun god—the cave—the fossils’re in there!"

"But why should I—"

"Look, I know how this must sound to you. But I would pay you just as soon as I could."

"Bie shuo-le, " she said in Chinese without thinking, Don’t talk like that.

"You mean you will?"

"I didn’t say that."

"But you will?"

"I have to think."

"Alice, I would—"

"Save your breath." She cut him off.

He stopped.

Who am I really? she thought. Am I a woman who’s careful, who follows the set plan, does only her duty? Because there is no need for me to go any farther than I’ve gone already; I’ve given all this time without pay. So I could stop. Or I could commit to go on, a little farther, into all this that I never expected in my wildest dreams to happen. Breaking some respected boundaries means a torrent of new life. And Lin. Lin wants Peking Man, wants it so badly.... "Anyway," she said. "That’s the way to negotiate. We get a much smaller amount of cash, we show it to Shan—U.S. dollars, you never know—he just might take it."

"But where are we supposed to get actual U.S. dollars in Eren Obo?"

"Oh, that’s no problem. That, they’ll have."

"What? No phones here, no running water..."

She rolled her eyes. "You are so naive, Adam. You’re right, there’s not much here in Eren Obo. But I guarantee you, they will have American currency."

The next day Alice went to the village bank. She had decided to front Spencer’s money and he had fallen all over himself, thanking her, the night before. "Don’t thank me," she had said. "It’s only a loan. And don’t you think I’m dying to go into the cave too?" Now as she entered the single desk-crammed room inside a tiny loess-brick structure to draw money on her credit card, she noticed something odd.

"Is that a phone?" she asked.

"Does it look like a phone?" the Mongol inquired.

"Of course. Sorry."

He shrugged and went back to counting out her money in U.S. tens and twenties.

"Might I use it?"

He stared at her as if she had asked for a free camel. "This is the only telephone in the village! It is for the bank’s use."

"Pitiable," she said softly.

He gazed at the amazing pile of American money, mouth working silently. Finally he said, "Of course, for a small fee, the bank might consider allowing its use. I’m not too clear. I could ask. We’re talking about an emergency, of course."

"Of course," she agreed, and took her money and left.

Kong Zhen had also noted the presence of a telephone in the bank; he possessed an internal radar that guided him infallibly to available telecommunications devices. A gift of rough, sweet local wine to the bank manager came first. Then, the next day, he casually asked permission to make a call to Beijing.

Kong chose the time with care. It was early morning; the bank would be half empty. In Beijing, his cousin Vice Director Han would just be sitting down at his desk, with