UTF-8 in RTF Template not working? Need tab in barcode

The base issue is that we need to have a horizontal tab encoded into the barcode on our invoice.  The invoice is being developed using Template Builder for Word 10.1.3.4.1 Build 130.

The barcode function we're using is <?format-barcode:DATA-TO-BE-ENCODED-HERE;'code128a'?>

I've tried encoding a tab character directly, and I've tried using the UTF-8 encoding, but it appears neither is respected by the processing engine.

<xsl:value-of select="'     '"/> -- (where there is a tab character inside quotes) produces a single space.

<xsl:text>&#09; </xsl:text> -- produces a literal &#09;

<xsl:value-of select="'&#36;'"/> -- produces a literal &#36;

Other combinations of quote marks produce various errors, or nothing at all.  Putting &#09; in the data source produces the literal &#09;.