"Do you think you really can get my daughter?" Diane asked.
"I'm going to try. Strike while the iron's hot, and all that."
"It all sounds terrific, Hugh. Almost too good to be true."
"Yes, it looks as if they're bending over backwards to be sweet to us. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit."
"I hope it's something deeper and more permanent,"
"Amen."
"Anything else?" Kinsman asked. 510
"Two things. About the invitation to address the General Assembly. The hitch is that they want you 'at your earliest convenience.' But no later than this coming Thursday."
"Thursday?" Diane echoed. "That's so soon!"
"We can't let any dust gather on this," Harriman said, completely serious. "Things are rolling our way, we've got to take advantage of this favorable tide before something hap- pens to change their minds."
"All right," Kinsman said. "Thursday. What was the other thing?"
"The other? Oh!" Harriman's eyes twinkled. "I spent an hour's time—my lunch hour, the way I figure it—tracking down the jackal who calls himself the Maximum Leader of my native land. Finally got him on the screen."
"To tell him that you're coming Earthside under a UN safe-conduct?"
"No." Harriman smiled with beatific delight. "I just wanted to see his pockmarked face once more and watch the expression on it as I gave him my personal Christmas greet- ing."
"You called to wish him a Merry Christmas?" Diane asked.
"Not quite. I told him to go fuck himself."
Sunday 26 December 1999:
1015 hreUT
"THERE is NO way," Jill Meyers said firmly, "that you are going Earthside, Thursday or any other day. It's medically out of the question!"
They were in Kinsman's office; Jill, Leonov, Harriman, Diane, and Kinsman himself.
"Come on, Jill," Kinsman said. "This is no time for lectures."
She was on her feet, frowning intensely at Kinsman. 511
"Chet, I'm not lecturing. I'm telling you the simple facts. You can't survive on Earth."
"Just for a couple of days . . ."
"Watch my lips," Jill snapped. Then she said with deliberate care, hesitating between each word, "You can not live on Earth."
