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SITTING AT THE DESK IN her hotel room, Julia pushed the send button on the sat phone. She waited for the digital noises to progress through their song as the phone attempted to connect her with Brian back in Virginia. It was half past one and Julia had just returned from the restaurant where she and Sam were to have connected. She had eaten slowly, waiting for Peng and Sam to show up for lunch and make the reverse transition. However, by 1:00 they had still not arrived. Julia and Sam had arranged for a 5:00 backup meeting in front of the Forbidden City if, for whatever reason, Sam did not show for lunch. Julia was hopeful that his absence was a good sign of Sam’s progress inside ZG, and she was now using the rest of the afternoon to get caught up with events on the home front.
There w
