Chin Zhonghua Renmin Gonghehuo, the Peoples Republic of China, achieves a late 21st century technological triumph with a "Great Leap Upward," the deployment of a "space elevator" rising from an equatorial mountain peak in Kalimantan to an enormous microgravity production satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and on starward to a spacecraft inertial launch and retrieval complex. This radical, innovative system permits the importation of lunar and orbital hard goods at negligible cost, creating economic chaos in world marketplaces. Blackmailed into accepting a "suicide" mission to penetrate the space elevator's closely guarded secrets and effect temporary sabotage, United Nations intelligence asset Rodolfo Cateel becomes embroiled in the subterfuge of China's counterintelligence director, who convinces China's hierarchy that economic overkill might end in thermonuclear holocaust and, since system repair and rework are mandatory, arranges an artificial hiatus in operation in order for China to "save face." Things go awry when a Nipponese double-agent is ordered to do away with Cateel and effect totally destructive sabotage.