Page 478 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

She unbuttoned his shirt. While he was taking it off, she stood up and quickly slipped out of her dress.

George said: "Before we go any farther . . ."

"What?" She sat down again. "Are you having second thoughts?"

"On the contrary. That's a pretty bra, by the way."

"Thank you. You can take it off me in a minute." She unbuckled his belt.

"But there's something I want to say. At the risk of spoiling everything . . ."

"Go ahead," she said. "Take a chance."

"I'm realizing something. I guess I should have figured it out before."

She watched him, smiling a little, saying nothing, and he had the strangest feeling that she knew exactly what was coming.

"I'm realizing that I love you," he said.

"Do you, really?"

"Yes. Do you mind? Is it okay? Have I ruined the atmosphere?"

"You fool," she said. "I've been in love with you for years."

*

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Rebecca arrived at the State Department in Washington on a warm spring day. There were daffodils in the flower beds, and she was full of hope. The Soviet empire was weakening, perhaps fatally. Germany had the chance to become united and free. The Americans just needed a nudge in the right direction.

Rebecca reflected that it was because of Carla, her adoptive mother, that she was here in Washington, representing her country, negotiating with the most powerful men in the world. Carla had taken a terrified thirteen-year-old Jewish girl in wartime Berlin and had given her the confidence to become an international stateswoman. I must get a photograph to send her, Rebecca thought.

With her boss, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and a handful of aides, she went into the art-moderne State Department building. The two-story lobby featured a huge mural called The Defense of Human Freedoms, which showed the five freedoms being protected by the American military.

The Germans were greeted by a woman whom Rebecca had known, until now, only as a warm, intelligent voice on the phone: Maria Summers. Rebecca was surprised to see that Maria was African American. Then she felt guilty at being surprised: there was no reason why an African American should not hold a high post in the State Department. Finally, Rebecca realized there were very few other dark faces in the building. Maria was unusual and Rebecca's surprise was, after all, justified.

Maria was friendly and welcoming, but it soon became clear that Secretary of State James Baker did not feel the same. The Germans waited outside his office for five minutes, then ten. Maria was clearly mortified. Rebecca began to worry. This could not be an accident. To keep the German vice chancellor waiting was a calculated insult. Baker must be hostile.

Rebecca had heard before of the Americans doing this kind of thing. Afterward they would tell the media that the visitors had been snubbed because of their views, and embarrassing stories would appear in the press back home. Ronald Reagan had done the same to the British opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, because he, too, was a disarmer.

Rebecca hardly cared about the insult as such. Male politicians postured a lot. It was just boys waving their dicks around. But it meant the meeting was likely to be unproductive, and that was bad news for detente.

After fifteen minutes they were shown in. Baker was a lanky, athletic man with a Texas accent, but there was nothing of the country bumpkin about him: he was immaculately barbered and tailored. He gave Hans-Dietrich Genscher a notably brief handshake and said: "We are deeply disappointed in your attitude."

Fortunately, Genscher was no pussycat. He had been vice chancellor of Germany and foreign minister for fifteen years, and he knew how to ignore bad manners. A balding man in glasses, he had a fleshy, pugnacious face. "We feel that your policy is out of date," he said calmly. "The situation in Europe has changed, and you need to take that into account."

"We have to maintain the strength of the NATO nuclear deterrent," Baker said as if repeating a mantra.

Genscher controlled his impatience with a visible effort. "We disagree--and so do our people. Four out of five Germans want all nuclear weapons withdrawn from Europe."

"They are being duped by Kremlin propaganda!"

"We live in a democracy. In the end, the people decide."

Dick Cheney, the American secretary of defense, was also in the room. "One of the Kremlin's primary goals is to denuclearize Europe," he said. "We must not fall into their trap!"

Genscher was clearly irritated to be lectured on European politics by men who knew a good deal less about the subject than he did. He looked like a schoolteacher trying in vain to explain something to pupils who were deliberately being obtuse. "The Cold War is over," he said.

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