talya leaned across and held her and we all tried to minimize the seriousness of the situation , talking calmly about the usual screw-ups in the vast chinese bureaucracy and the stories wed heard about the time it usually takes to untangle the oriental knot , but what she had said made me tense and uneasy and as soon as i could conveniently do so i left the others to deal with carol and called the embassy from the phone in the main building .