Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

122 JEFF EDWARDS
Elizabeth sighed and held her hand out for the phone. She had to
endure two minutes of hold-music before it was picked up again on the
other end.
“Prime Minister Amman.”
“Good evening, Prime Minister,” she said. “This is Elizabeth
Whelkin.”
“Ah, Madam Secretary,” the Egyptian prime minister replied. “It is an
honor to hear your voice again. Peace be unto you.” His voice carried a
note of well-disguised condescension.
Egyptian men were inimical toward women on the best of days, and—
polite conversation aside—their distaste for having to treat female political
leaders as equals was never very far beneath the surface.
“And unto you,” Elizabeth said, trying very hard to keep the weariness
out of her own voice. Exhaustion was a form of weakness, and weakness
could be exploited.
“May the blessings of the one true God be upon your home, and upon
your children, and upon your children’s children,” the prime minister said.
“And unto you and your family, blessings,” said Elizabeth Whelkin.
“May the Lord God protect you and keep you safe from harm.”
“Are you enjoying your stay in Beijing?” the prime minister asked.
“So kind of you to ask,” Elizabeth said. “I didn’t get a chance to spend
much time in Beijing. But I did enjoy what little I saw of it. I have
concluded my visit, and now I’m flying back to Washington.”
“I trust that your business in China was brought to a satisfactory
conclusion?”
“I believe that we made some progress. It is, of course, a bit too early
to tell how much.”
“A pity that you could not have stayed a few extra days to enjoy the
local culture. I’m told that the water-silks produced in the Xi’an province
are particularly fine this year.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes and massaged her right temple. The Arabic
system of conversation was built around elaborate layers of small talk.
Face-to-face meetings were practically rituals, nurtured carefully—never
rushed—and fueled by a seemingly endless stream of thimble-sized cups
of hot Arabic coffee. Luckily, the telephone version was much
abbreviated. Even so, it was considered rude to attempt to arrive at the
point of the conversation without first exchanging an extensive series of
irrelevant pleasantries.
“I hadn’t heard,” she said. “But now that I know, I will certainly look
for silk the next time I’m in China. Xi’an province, did you say? Please
excuse me for a second, while I write that down.” She closed her eyes for