MESSING WITH CHINESE SPIES 113“Mr. Kang,” I whispered conspiratorially, “I am not authorized to
share this with you, so please do not tell anyone this came from me. Get your
people out of Managua by next Tuesday!”
I slowly looked over my shoulders one last time for good measure and
then relaxed back into my chair, pleased to see that Mr. Kang was scrib-
bling furiously in his notepad. I could literally feel my blood pressure drop-
ping, and I felt an overwhelming sense of serene calm. I’m pretty sure it
was my first Zen moment.
Once again, after wrapping up the meal and his mission, Mr. Kang
stood, shook my hand, and sent me off with a bow.
I never did hear back from Mr. Kang, so after a few months I tried to call
him at the Chinese embassy. Had I considered him a promising devel-
opmental I would have stayed off monitored phones, but this call was
simply to satisfy my morbid curiosity. The operator patched me through
to the “Cultural” section. Someone picked up the phone and asked who
was calling. When I gave my name, I could hear some frantic, suppressed
discussion in Chinese in the background. The phone was then passed to
another Chinese embassy staffer. Giggling nervously, she thanked me for
calling and informed me that Mr. Kang was no longer in Palmera. Before
I had a chance to ask why, she hung up.
We may never know why Mr. Kang left Palmera three years short of
tour, but I like to believe that he was yanked home unceremoniously after
his superiors in Beijing determined that his blockbuster intelligence report
about the secret American invasion of Nicaragua turned out to be a load
of crap.
Did China evacuate its embassy in Managua as I recommended,
leaving only “essential personnel” behind to report on the impending war?
Did they all bug out in a panic? How much money (and face) did this
cost the Chinese government and all who found his report credible? Is this
really why Mr. Kang was recalled to Beijing?
One can only hope.
This episode will not likely go down as a success in the annals of the
CIA’s storied history, but I did at least manage to amuse myself.