Good Will Towards Men

Charles Wu looked out on the cold Potomac River as his taxi to the airport crossed overhead. It had been on odd week in the news, with the U.S.E.P.A. under a hail of criticism by Governor Terminator for blocking emissions regulations while federal officials returned from a visit to China's newly aggressive and praised environmental protection agency. Former Senator Evermore Breadman wanted to know whether China was going to start leaning on his clients' Chinese factories, and whether China's criticism of the U.S. posture at the recent climate change meeting was for real. Wu wanted to know these things himself. He pulled out the last letter his mother in Hong Kong had written him, asking him to visit for the holidays if his highly demanding international banking job would allow it. He sighed and felt uncomfortable. He would have only four nights in Hong Kong, and then on to Beijing. He folded her letter back up, feeling a little regret about the information he had recently passed to his British contact. He knew how it would be: in Hong Kong, he would feel pro-Chinese, and in Beijing, he would feel pro-British. And so it went. And he missed his mother! And that made him the most uncomfortable of all. Deep in the cold water, Ardua remained baffled about Charles Wu, who often spread evil and yet remained unconnected to Ardua.

Christmas music continued playing on the taxi driver's radio. The Pakistani driver remained silent. When they got on I-66, Wu came out of his reverie and began quizzing the driver about Pakistan. He was going to have excellent information to give the Chinese...and the British in Hong Kong. If he had bothered counting it, Wu would know that he had already made $5 million dollars this year, most of that not declared as part of his official consulting business. When the Pakistani had told him all he knew for the moment, Wu thought about whether he should visit his mother more often. When the driver let him out at Dulles and said "Merry Christmas!", Wu, thought of a song he had learned as a child about peace and good will towards men. He collected his bag and looked at the faces around him, all distressed just at the thought of entering a post-9/11 Washington airport on a busy flying day. Wu wondered where they were all going that was important enough to draw them through this painful process. They all had somebody somewhere.

Back in the Potomac, Ardua settled low on the bottom. She hated this time of year, and was planning to doze until 2008...when the ambitious of Washington would be ready to pull out their claws and sharpen their teeth again....