President Zhou shouted, throwing the receiver back on its cradle and jumping to his feet. “I will not stand being spoken to by a miserable sniveling white round-eyed dog like Phoenix!” He patted his jacket and pants pockets for cigarettes and found none. “Bring cigarettes in here!” he shouted to his outer office assistant. He turned to the chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, Colonel General Zu Kai. “Now what happened out there, General?” he asked angrily. “I authorized you to retrieve pieces of the wreckage if possible, and now the Americans accuse us of downing two helicopters!” He turned to his outer office again. “Where in blazes is that assistant? Bring cigarettes, dammit!” “I do not care about the American’s accusations, Comrade President, and neither should you,” Zu said dismissively. With him in the president’s office were Vice President Gao Xudong and Foreign Minister Tang Ji. “They are going to accuse us of everything under the sun.”
