“You seem to be mediating between us.” She looked at him. “I’ll say it for the last time. You’ve come to see me. You want me to hear you out.”

“Very well.” He smiled. “You see, there were some bleeding-heart liberals in Congress who objected to the way these toy pandas were manufactured, saying it was against the World Trade Organization’s regulations. Some nonsense about forced labor in Chinese prisons. When we procured U.S. import concessions and tax breaks for these furry creatures, we broke down the barrier for similar deals. This agreement is a landmark in relieving the Chinese of certain practices.”

As he spoke, she put Lulu on the grass and propped the little back against her shins. “The ‘we’ being the royal you?” Nola asked.

“Your humble servant.”

“I assume that the real live pandas became part of this package so the Chinese would score brownie points in the U.S. in case some human-rights group makes noises about the forced labor camps where the toy pandas were made,” she said.

He smiled his assent.

“As a former senator, how can you justify using prisoners to manufacture goods?” she asked.

“Labor camps are operated by the Chinese military, which also happens to own most of the industry in China. It’s not for me—nor the U.S.—to tell a foreign nation how to manage its army, nor how to pay for its maintenance and growth. For that matter, I don’t think they would listen. Would we?” He went on. “BRW is developing the stuffed animals as cartoon characters, Wei and Mei, to be sold at all our outlets—the restaurants, movie theaters and theme parks. There’s a huge profit in owning beloved premium characters; it will pay hefty dividends for generations to come. Our StarVision studios are working on a Wei- and Mei-animated video and TV series that will replace Teletubbies, Dora and Clifford. That’s the beauty of synergy. We create a new entity—the characters—and, by cross-marketing, tie together all our venues into something bigger than all its parts.”

“Synergy. I get it. Soon I’ll be asked to do a voice-over for one of these cute pandas—if not record songs for the movie soundtrack,” she said.

“You wouldn’t want us to ask another performer, would you?”

“As Confucius says: ‘Cut to the chase.’ Where do I—and Lulu—fit in?”