Sublime

“He’s a short man with black hair—or

Tyler’s tall, thin body and square-framed glasses were well known across the world. The recently retired US secretary of defense, he had exerted a deep influence on his country’s national strategy.

The newcomer was blond, tall, and dressed like a surfer in a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops. He was one of those antsy guys who never stopped moving, was always looking this way and that, touching and tapping his fingers on everything in sight.

Terrismen were tall—especially Terrismen eunuchs—and it was very disconcerting to be dwarfed

Which are you? he asked the silver squiggle. Dark dead yin or brilliant living yang?

Then another guy appeared, much much younger and much much bigger, half a head taller even than Gyuri, Malaysian or Indonesian with a face tattoo and eyepopping diamonds in his ears and a black topknot on the crown of his head that made him look like one of the harpooners from Moby Dick, if one of the harpooners from Moby Dick had happened to be we

It was the Economic Attaché. He beamed down at us from the terrace above, a great warm welcoming smile, full of confidence, like the man who keeps his friends because he uses the right deodorants.