"Am I interrupting anything?" he leered.
"Yes. We're planting a mistletoe tree. What do you want, Hugh?"
"While you two have been playing all day at your infantile games," Harriman answered, "I have been engaged in many hours of earnest and fruitful discussion with my fellow diplomats Earthside."
Kinsman sat up a little straighter. "On Christmas Day?"
"You sound like Bob Cratchit, for God's sake! Yes, on Christmas Day. It hasn't been easy to put all the pieces together, since nobody wants to go on the record with this. They'd rather talk from their homes on the holiday than from their offices during business hours. All under the table, highly unofficial and all that."
"For Chrissakes, Hugh, you're sounding more like a Foggy Bottom bureaucrat every day! What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well!" Harriman put on his injured look, but let it melt away immediately. "Okay, here's the story. One: Marrett called early this morning and told me that you couid expect a personal invitation from the Secretary General of the United Nations to address the General Assembly in a special session. As a private person, mind you, not as a head of state. But he will invite you officially only if he knows beforehand that you'll accept. Can't afford to lose face and all that shit."
Kinsman felt his breath coming faster. "When?"
"Before the week is out."
Diane moved closer to Kinsman. "Will the American government allow someone from Selene to land there?"
"My dear child, what do you think I've been trying to arrange all day long? Do you think I'd miss the feasting and the girl-goosing of this festive occasion for sheer lack of team spirit?"
"Cut the crap, Hugh. What did you accomplish?" 508
"Plenty, if I say so myself." He hesitated only a moment. "I explained to Marrett that oui position with the Yankee Federates is rather delicate. He understood and said the UN had already requested a safe-conduct guarantee for you and all your party."
"So?"
"So while I was wondering whether I should try to get a call through to the American State Department—knowing that nobody who could exert any authority would be available on Christmas Day—I received a call from an old chum of yours: Colonel Franklin Delano Roosevelt Colt."
"Full colonel?"
"Seems Frank's landed on his feet, Earthside. He was wearing a bird colonel's eagles."
"He's at Vandenberg?"
"Right. Apparently they've let him take over your Gen- eral Murdock's command."
"Sonofabitch!"
