Her head throbbed in pain. A bandana or bandage of some kind had been wrapped around her head. She tried to raise her arms to feel the wound, but her hands were bound to the back of the chair.
“Where am I?” she rasped.
She groggily recalled the events of the day. The accident. Driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, heading to Mason’s office. The call with Rachel. Mason . . .
Omigod!
Andrea jolted into full consciousness. She desperately tried to free herself from the chair. She kicked, shook, rocked, everything she could do, to no avail.
“Help! Somebody help me!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs. “The president is in danger!”
A loud buzzer pierced the room. A door opened and a tiny bit of light entered. She heard the footsteps of someone approaching her, but the darkness obscured the person.
“Help! Get me out! I work for the president! He’s in danger!”
The stranger responded quietly, “I know.”
“Get me out of here so I can help him!”
“That is not part of the plan.”
Andrea had nearly screamed herself hoarse as she struggled in vain against her restraints.
The stranger drew closer to Andrea and into the glow of the bulb. The light revealed a short, slight Chinese woman dressed in a baby-blue Mao jacket and pants.
“Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t give a hoot who you are,” said Andrea. “If you don’t get me out of here, someone is going to kill the president!”
“Oh, my dear, he’s already dead.”
Andrea felt time slowing down, almost as if she could feel the signal traveling across her neurons in slow motion as she processed what she’d just heard. How could the Secret Service have ignored her? She’d tried to save the president and instead ended up helplessly imprisoned in some godforsaken basement, unable to warn anyone else about what was unfolding. She raged at her impotence.
“Goddamn you,” she shouted as she violently struggled against the cables binding her wrists and feet to the chair. “Who do you think you are?”
“I am the person who engineered the destruction of your government and soon will establish its replacement.” The woman walked around Andrea’s chair slowly. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” said Andrea.
“You should never have invited Chinese troops onto American soil,” the woman said calmly.
“That’s pretty obvious now, you damned commie.”
“But you had no choice because you made such a mess of your budget. Now how about I tell you who I am so you can stop calling me a ‘damned commie’?”
“You can tell me your name, but it won’t stop me from calling you a damned commie.”
The woman slapped Andrea across the face.
“That is enough of your disrespect, you bankrupt American failure.”
She leaned down, her nose inches from Andrea’s.
“My name is Xu Li. I am the head of Chinese State Security.”
“How did you get into the country?”
“Our aircraft carriers and destroyers are very large and I am very small.”
“Who else have you grabbed?”
“Oh, it’s only you, my dear. We killed the president.”
Andrea tried to kick her legs, but her feet were bound too tightly to the chair. “Why don’t you just kill me, then?”
“Because I don’t want you dead . . . yet. I just want you here.”
Andrea was confused. Who kidnaps the OMB director? All the targets in Washington, DC, and China picks the OMB director?
“Who are you, anyway?” Andrea was so dazed Xu Li’s introduction hadn’t registered the first time.
Xu Li walked directly under the light, then turned and faced Andrea.
“You did not hear me before? I see the sedative hasn’t worn off yet. My name is Xu Li. I am Minister of State Security of the People’s Republic of China.”
China.
It was China all along.
“Tell me, Xu Li, why is the Chinese Minister of State Security interested in America’s OMB director? Don’t tell me you couldn’t find anyone with more sex appeal.”
“Because you are the biggest threat to me.”
Andrea wondered if her head wound included a concussion.
“I am the biggest threat to you?” she responded in amazement. “I command exactly zero divisions, zero aircraft, and zero ships. If the OMB director is your biggest threat, you’re living one weird life.”
“Again with the derogatory comments,” replied Xu Li calmly. “I would think someone in your position, bankrupt, tied to a chair with a bleeding head wound and a dead president, might be a little more respectful toward me. Me, who has put you in this position.”
Xu Li continued to slowly circle Andrea’s chair.
“We Chinese have been patiently planning to use your national debt to bring America down. For years we watched you borrow money to spend on capitalist baubles. The bread and circuses for your masses whom you allow to vote. You must listen to them. And what do they say? ‘More, more, more for me.’”
Xu Li pulled out a silver chain, thicker than a necklace, and swung it menacingly.
“Your people, they do not care where you get the money,” she continued. “How is it you say? Robbing Peter to pay Paul? As long as they aren’t Peter, they are happy, yes? You have to give in and give them their free goodies or else they won’t vote for you.”
“What’s your point?” Andrea spat.
Xu Li’s slow footsteps crunched against the broken concrete. “You Americans are proud of your so-called democracy. But it isn’t a democracy. It’s a bribe-ocracy. In China, we have corruption and bribery, too, but only among a small few. You Americans, you must bribe a whole nation. That is not good for one’s fiscal health, now is it?”
Xu Li continued to spin the silver chain around her finger as she walked. The threat of violence hung in the air.
“China and her allies were only too happy to lend you money for all your domestic bribery. You Americans didn’t even realize you were borrowing from banks and countries secretly allied with China in her fight against the United States. And now here you are, forty trillion dollars later, all frittered away with nothing to show for it. The only thing better than an America hopelessly in debt is an America hopelessly in debt to us. To me.”
“What do I have to do with any of this?” asked Andrea.
“You, my dear, thwarted my plans at every turn. Who do you think was behind the Pripyat Consortium? I picked a Russian town just to throw you off. And not just any Russian town, but the one synonymous with disaster. But your emergency budget kept the country from ruin, and for some reason your people didn’t revolt as we expected.”
Andrea recalled what she’d said to President Murray about how America was an idea, an experiment, whose goal was to maximize human freedom. “Totalitarians like you don’t understand us at all,” she said.
“And how is that?” For the first time Xu Li seemed off balance, her voice tinged with a hint of uncertainty.
“Because Americans are survivors,” said Andrea. “That’s what makes us great. Free people find ways to survive. We buckle down and bear hardship because we are confident better days are ahead. Free people can correct their mistakes and control their own destiny. Totalitarians like you treat your people like commodities. Like so many cans of beans.”
“That is no explanation,” Xu Li said defensively. “You are the bankrupt one, not me.”
“If you want to delude yourself into thinking your totalitarian government will last, go right ahead,” said Andrea. “You totalitarians perpetually have your finger in the dike. You think you can solve every problem by the government just pulling on this economic lever or suppressing that political speech. The pressure builds up and you have to take ever more extreme measures to keep people content. The more you push off the inevitable, the worse the explosion when it finally comes. And it
always comes.”
“Oh my, you are much feistier than Mason warned me.” Xu Li smiled and regained her cockiness. “How China treats her people is beside the point. It is your bankruptcy that has brought us together. But even though you thwarted our plans with Pripyat, you hopelessly weakened yourself to do it. You provided China an opportunity to rectify some historical wrongs.”
“Taiwan and the South China Sea,” Andrea muttered.
“Now you are catching on, my dear,” said Xu Li, still circling Andrea, swinging the chain a bit faster. “With the United States impotent, we took back China’s rightful inheritance.”
“Except we weren’t as impotent as you thought,” Andrea said.
“So it was. And again it was you who thwarted us by keeping the war going with your budgetary gimmicks and tricks. When your people failed to revolt after we took Taiwan, sank your ships, and confiscated your most valuable national heirlooms, there was only one way to end capitalism and topple the American government.”
“And what was that?”
Xu Li stopped circling and leaned closer to Andrea. Her slight smile disappeared. Andrea could feel and smell her breath, so foul it seemed Xu Li hadn’t brushed her teeth in weeks. Xu Li stared directly into Andrea’s eyes with a fanaticism Andrea had never seen.
“Brute force.”
“This is what it’s all about?” asked Andrea. “Toppling the American government? Ending capitalism?”
“I should say those are rather lofty goals, wouldn’t you? Should it be about something else?”
“World domination? More territory? Middle Eastern oil? How should I know what else you might want?”
“All that will come, my dear. With America a bankrupt shell of itself, all things are possible for China.”
“What is it you want from me?”
Xu Li smiled and laughed faintly. “I want you right here, unable to come up with your clever and creative budget schemes to thwart my plans. I cannot have you interfering any longer.”
Andrea paused as she momentarily felt relief that Xu Li had said nothing about killing her. She had been so focused on parrying Xu Li’s rhetorical attacks she hadn’t realized she was starting to become light-headed. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten. Her hunger, the pitter-patter and squeaking of rats scampering in the darkness, and the musty smell of rodent feces, dust, and mold were making Andrea delirious.
“I’m starving,” Andrea said.
Xu Li went to a dirty sink by the wall and filled a filthy plastic cup with brownish water. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small packet, tore it open, and poured a white powder into the cup. She then pulled a straw from her pocket, dropped it into the cup, and stirred.
“I see the worry on your face,” Xu Li said. “You must be a very poor card player. Do not worry. This powder is only a nutritional supplement. I want you alive, but I can’t waste food on you. I have soldiers to feed. But you have created problems for me. People who create problems for me do not die easy deaths. The last thing you see will be the collapse of your country and the new People’s Republic we put in its place.”
Andrea was so desperately hungry and thirsty she was willing to take her chances with the filthy drink.
Xu Li leaned over and placed the straw under Andrea’s lips. “You are not like the other Americans I have dealt with in my time.”
“Is that so?” Andrea asked. She sucked a deep sip of the cloudy water through the straw.
“Yes, it is. I’ve never dealt with anyone quite as feisty and without pretense as you.”
“I’m glad I lived up to your high standards,” Andrea replied. “I’ll bet you didn’t expect that from an OMB director.” Still parched, she took another sip of the water. It might have been dirty, but Andrea savored it going down like Pellegrino.
“I expected a sniveling, terrified prisoner willing to tell me anything,” replied Xu Li.
“A year ago, you might have gotten that. But now, with the entire country hating me, politicians on both sides hating me, and even my neighbors hating me, I’m not that person anymore. I’m actually quite dangerous.” Andrea sucked air through the straw loudly as she took the last remaining sip of the drink, making sure the slurping at the end was pronounced.
“And why is that?”
“Because I have nothing to lose.”
“I doubt that. Surely you’re worried about me killing you. Or your children?” Xu Li paused. “Oh yes, I know all about them. Where they live, where they go to school.”
Andrea jerked her hands and feet wildly trying to escape. Xu Li was relishing this moment of weakness with a wicked smile on her face.
No, stop. Don’t show you’re scared for the kids. Maybe then she’ll leave them alone.
“If my emergency budget saves the country and preserves their futures, it will have been worth it,” Andrea replied.
“Even if I were to kill you?”
“You don’t think I’d take a bullet for the United States?” Andrea was revived and relieved that the powder probably was nothing more than a nutritional supplement. “Just because I’m an accountant and not an Army veteran doesn’t mean I wouldn’t give my life to save the country from its debt problem. Congratulations. You took a shrinking violet CPA homebody and turned her into a lethal patriotic weapon ready to die to save her country.”
Xu Li folded her hands across her chest and smiled. “You’d fit right in at my Ministry,” she said.
“I’d rather you just kill me.” Andrea couldn’t believe she’d said it.
“Why are you Americans so cross? Your country is bankrupt, your president is dead, your country blames you for the mess, and now you are our prisoner. Why wouldn’t you want to join us?”
“All your spying and you know nothing about me,” Andrea said. “Here’s a history lesson for you. The czars drove half my family out of Russia, and the Nazis drove the other half out of Germany. Totalitarian governments have been singularly awful to my family. I’m not about to roll the dice on another one.”
“I’m sure we could arrange a much better reception for you in China.”
“You mean the Chinese government would treat me better than the czars and Hitler? Don’t hurt yourself trying to do that.”
Xu Li drew her right arm back and sharply struck Andrea’s neck. Andrea toppled forward and her forehead smashed against the dirt-caked floor. She looked up, expressionless, and saw Xu Li hovering menacingly over her as if gloating about her strength. Xu Li righted her chair and stared into Andrea’s eyes.
“Enough of your insolence!” Xi Lu shouted.
Andrea merely groaned and winced in pain.
“You are like all Americans,” Xu Li spat. “Your bullying ways get you in nothing but trouble. How do you say it? Writing checks with your mouth that your body cannot cash?”
This is nothing, Andrea thought. Remember those graves in Arlington. Every blow she lands on you is a blow she’s not landing on the country. The more time she spends torturing you, the less time she’s spending torturing the country.
Xu Li turned her back to Andrea and walked toward the door.
A thought crossed Andrea’s mind. Don’t let her leave. If you keep her in this basement, she won’t be able to direct whoever she has working for her.
“You know this whole scheme of yours isn’t going to work, right?” Andrea shouted.
Xu Li stopped and turned to Andrea. “What scheme?”
“The whole topple-the-American-government scheme.”
Xu Li cocked an eyebrow. “And why do you say that?”
“Because Americans will sell their organs before they capitulate to foreign invaders. By now, Vice President Campbell has already been sworn in as president and is hunting your sorry ass. Someone will come to get me out of here, you know that, right?”
Xu Li laughed. “Oh, my dear, you really are quite precious. Your president is dead and your government is doomed. It is only a matter of time before we end capitalism and put
a People’s government in place.”
“I suppose you don’t see the irony in all this.”
“Irony?” Xu Li responded.
“I’m only one person,” Andrea said. “But this one person, given the freedom to speak and challenge the party line, has thwarted the grandest plans of your entire Communist machine. Someone like me would get thrown in your gulags. But in the United States, a simple accountant like me can speak loud enough and long enough that they make a difference. Freedom might have gotten us into this mess, but freedom is going to get us out of it.”
The chain reappeared in Xu Li’s hands as she slowly rolled it between her fingers.
“You don’t know when to quit, do you—”
Two explosions followed by gunfire from upstairs shattered the quiet of the basement. Xu Li whipped her head around to the door. Then she glanced at Andrea, eyes widened. For the first time Andrea saw surprise on Xu Li’s face.
“You hear that? That’s the sound of freedom,” Andrea said, hoping it was true. “The cavalry is here.”
Xu Li stared at Andrea, searching for something to say, but nothing came out of her mouth.
“Look at you now,” Andrea continued. “Where is your vaunted army now, huh? Anyone coming to save you like they’re coming to save me?”
Xu Li was frozen, uncertainty written on her face.
Shouting in Chinese and English pierced the darkness as the gunfire upstairs continued.
Xu Li screamed in frustration as she violently pressed a button on her large wristwatch over and over and looking toward the door. But the door remained closed.
Xu Li then came back to Andrea with a small pocketknife, frantically trying to cut off the cables tying Andrea’s hands, feet, and waist to the chair.
“You don’t have all day, honey. You could build a bridge with these cables they are so strong. Why don’t you—”
Xu Li smacked Andrea’s face so hard that the chair fell over again. Andrea’s jaw connected with the concrete floor and she screamed in pain. Her ears rang and black spots danced in her eyes.
“There!” a voice shouted. “She’s down there!”
Debt Bomb Page 29