"Clancy, Tom - Op-Center 05 - Ballance of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

"So those three little pigs who insisted that they show us
around when we left the hotel," Aideen said
sharply, "the one who put his hand on my butt and
kept it there. They were acting according to some kind of
honorable sexual harassers' code?"
"No," Martha said. "They were acting according to a street
extortionists' code."
Aideen's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
"Those men wouldn't have hurt us," Martha said. "That
would have been against the rules. And the rules are that they
follow women, pester them, and keep at it until
they get a payoff to leave them alone. I was about
to give them one when you acted."
"You were?"
Martha nodded. "That's how it's done here. As for the
police you would have gone to, many of them
collect kickbacks from the street extortionists
to look the other way. Get it through your head.
Playing the game, however corrupt it seems, is
still diplomacy."
BALANCE OF POWER 9
"But what if you hadn't known about their
"profession," their code? I didn't."
Aideen lowered her voice. "I was worried about
having our backpacks stolen and our covers blown."
"An arrest would have blown our covers a whole lot
faster," Martha said. She took Aideen by the arm and
pulled her aside. They stood next to a building,
away from pedestrian traffic. "The truth is,
eventually someone would have told us how to get rid of
them. People always do. That's how the game is played, and
I believe in obeying the rules of whatever game
or whatever country I'm in. When I started out in
diplomacy in the early 1970's on the seventh
floor of the State Department, I was excited as
hell. I was on the seventh floor, where all the
real, heavy-duty work is done. But then I found out
why
I was there. Not because I was so damn talented, though
I hoped I was. I was there to deal with the apartheid
leaders in South Africa. I was State's
"in-your-face" figure. I was a wagging finger that
said, "If you want to deal with the U.s., you'll have
to deal with blacks as equals." was Martha scowled.
"Do you know what that was like?"
Aideen made a face. She could just imagine.
"It's not like having your fanny
patted,
I can tell you that," Martha said. "But I did what
I was supposed to do because I learned one thing very