Power and Empire (Jack Ryan Universe, #24)

by Marc Cameron

Each year, almost three-quarters of a billion of these ubiquitous metal containers—roughly 24 trillion pounds of cargo—moved around the world via tractor-trailer, locomotive, and cargo ship. Roughly 180 million TEUs came from China, and well over 10 million of those came through the Port of Dalian—on ships much like Orion

Eff the PRK! Embargo them now!!

naturally relaxed into a smile—a coworker had remarked that he always looked as though he’d just relieved himself in the swimming pool.

dozen orange-clad stevedores,

I’m guessing that unlike their American counterparts, these ChiCom stevedores ain’t union members! Nyuk nyuk.

He made Gao repeat the number of the desired TEU and would not allow him to write it down. Today, the man with the red eye wanted two TEUs—PBCU-112128-1 and PBCU-112128-2—loaded together,

Container Identification Number: BIC Code (Owner prefix) + Equipment Identifier + Serial Number + Check Digit Aahh, memories of my CBP days at L.A./Long Beach Seaport.

Nine hundred yuan, roughly equivalent to a hundred fifty U.S. dollars,

About a 6:1 exchange rate, and roughly the same as in 2022.

Gao was a moral man, opposed to narcotics, but nine hundred yuan was nine hundred yuan, and he rationalized that he did not know with any degree of certainty what was in the container.

The chief of the ants smiled, nine hundred yuan richer, and thought about the pigs he could now purchase for his mother-in-law. He liked his mother-in-law. She was a good and gentle woman, well deserving of some new pigs.

Contrast this toward American attitudes toward mothers-in-law…

Charged with protecting the highest political leaders in China, the duties of the Central Security Bureau were akin to those of the U.S. Secret Service. Operatives in the CSB, however, put much more emphasis on the word secret

A beige photographer’s vest of lightweight nylon hid the Taurus semiautomatic pistol tucked inside the waist of the khakis.

Why would a high-ranking ChiCom PLA officer be carrying a Brazilian-made sidearm like a Taurus as opposed to a standard issue Norinco QSZ-92?

It would not do to have the general secretary or some other party dignitary thinking one of the men who protected him was half blind or, worse yet, half drunk.

What man in his right mind would confide a sudden windfall of money to his wife, of all people?

Jack Ryan, Jr., sat behind the wheel of a dusty Ford Taurus

Not to be confused with the aforementioned Taurus pistol, heh heh.

Dallas, Texas, had a reputation for being muggy, even in fall, but this September night had turned out cool,

An eternally miserable city. Effing Cowpukes.

well into this seedy South Dallas neighborhood. A quick Internet search had revealed that the intersection not three blocks away was among the top five most likely spots in Dallas to get stabbed.

Oak Cliff, by any chance?

the Smith & Wesson M&P Shield pistol

What, no Taurus pistol this time? Heh heh.

Hollywood would have everyone believe the entire communication package, including the mic and radio, could be wrapped up and fit into the tiny bit of plastic worn inside the ear.

“Just thinking about this sexy life of a spy,” Ryan said.

Ding had a master’s degree in international relations, but he could turn on his East L.A. accent at the drop of a hat.

Since the capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, factions of the cartel were becoming even more bloody—if more violence than that brought on by the Sinaloa was even possible.

The men out front spoke in rapid Mandarin—which to Ryan made them sound highly pissed about something.

Haha. That’s waisis!

Gerry Hendley, CEO of Hendley Associates, the financial arbitrage firm and white-side face of The Campus’s

Is that racist too? Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Adara Sherman, another member of The Campus’s operational cadre who was conversant in Mandarin, came over the net.

Wow, learning something new about Adara!

“Damn,” Ryan said. “Am I the only one who’s not fluent in a bunch of other languages besides English?” Ding Chavez, John Clark, Adara Sherman, and Dominic Caruso all answered back in turn. “Sí.” “Da.” “Oui.” “Hai.”

C’mon, Jack, quit being so nekulturniy!

“Looks like I need Rosetta Stone or a multilingual girlfriend,” Jack muttered,

Yes you do, Junior! Become a cunning linguist!

“Parkland Hospital is just south of us,”

The place where both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald died.

Ryan and Midas took the rolls of cash from each man’s pocket to make it look like a robbery and jumped back into the Taurus. They’d voucher the money and turn it over to Gerry Hendley, who’d find some charity that needed it.

Bravo, Gerry!

Captain Leong Tang,

Not to be confused with Leong Wang or Kok Leong Soo.

Like every legal commercial ship on the seas, Orion’s automated information system broadcast a unique identifier.

He took a sip of Sumatran coffee from a ceramic mug that bore the image of a blue-and-silver Dallas Cowboys football helmet. He was not a fan of the team or the game. He only kept the mug because, though it signified something so uniquely American, it had MADE IN CHINA etched on the underside.

Bleechh, Dull-ass Cowpies paraphernalia made in China, double-demonic!

Culturally, Captain Leong should have been drinking tea, but the rigors and travels of a sea captain’s life had simply taught him to know better. Chinese tea had a place among women and gentle souls, but sea captains needed coffee,

There were, no doubt, a few drugs and an illicit weapon or two hidden in some of the containers, but the captain was a freight man, not a smuggler.

At 165,000 tons, and fifty meters longer than an American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier,

southern Japanese island of Kyushu to catch the dark waters of the Kuroshio Current. Similar to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, the Kuroshio flowed up from the equator, pushing her warm waters north and east—and

He liked the Pacific Northwest. There was a quietness to the place that calmed him, even in heavy seas.

Any fool could drive a boat on calm waters. It took a real seaman to save fuel in a storm, aboard a box carrying boxes that were filled with boxes.

Leong Tang supposed boys in every country that was bordered by a sea were somehow beckoned by the lure of salt and wind and adventure.

There is something to be said about living close to the sea (or any body of water for that matter).

refrigerated containers were stowed together—and,

Ah, so-called “reefer” units.

the EDCIS electronic charts, a depth sounder, radio frequency, a tachometer, and the AIS. This Automatic Identifications System broadcast the ship’s name, speed,

Ah so, more memories of my CBP LA/LB Seaport glory days…

Fortunately, Seattle had no pirates, but for the company that pumped the shit from the ships’ holding tanks. Their prices were outrageous.

Aaarrr matey!

With all the soulless plastic, the only nod toward a more traditional helm was the half-sphere compass, its magnetic correction noted on a metal plate affixed to the plastic beside it. It cost just over one American penny to ship a can of beer across the Pacific, but with that efficiency came the loss of soul.

It seemed to Captain Leong that he’d sailed out of one port when sailing had provided him an exotic life of adventure, and then, over the course of that single voyage, while he was not paying attention, it had become a job.

“Better to dwell in the corner of a roof than in a wide house with a brawling woman,” the Proverb said. And when Captain Leong thought about his sniping wife, his life at sea seemed less like the corner of a roof than it actually was.

Hell hath no fury…

Bagus, meaning “handsome” in Bali—was

English—the international language of commerce—and

Countless TEUs went overboard each year. Most sank shortly after hitting the water, but some lurked just below the surface like drifting reefs.

the Wärt.” The rating used the nickname for the engine.

“Wen!” the captain said, calling the addled man by his given name in an effort to steady him.

Leong watched helplessly as the man fell straight back down, into the same fiery pit from which he’d come. Now he believed in Hell.

The straits operator, Petty Officer 3rd Class Barb Pennington,

Any relation to RADM Pennington, USN (or retired Royal Navy officer Peter Pennington)?

Each Coast Guard air station in the United States had at least one B-Zero response crew on duty at any given time. They slept next to the hangar and were ready to deploy inside a thirty-minute window.

“Semper Paratus” indeed!