Foxbat

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‘Can we accomplish this?’

The question was uttered softly, barely above a sibilant whisper, by the short man sitting in a large padded chair at the head, but it fell across the long conference table like a sudden dark shadow on a sunny day. There was no response from any of the six men sitting near him along the sides of the table, all wearing almost identical light-coloured Mao-style jackets. Instead they swivelled slightly in their seats to stare at an eighth man in a chair set apart at the other end.

He was slightly younger than the others but, despite the similarity in dress, his physical separation from them marked him out as a supplicant. For a few moments he didn’t reply, but stared down at the papers laid out on the table in front of him.

‘We have a very narrow window of opportunity,’ he said eventually, ‘but the crucial factor is that we will only get this one chance. If the Americans do succeed in perfecting the new technology they have announced, we will never be able to risk such a venture again.’

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