“That’s very kind of you,” Mary said.
He took her hand in his again and said, “We have a saying here. ‘An ambassador arrives in tears because he knows he will be spending years in a foreign place, away from his friends, but when he leaves, he leaves in tears because he must leave his new friends in a country he has grown fond of.’ I hope you will grow to love our country, Madam Ambassador.” He massaged her hand.
“I’m sure I will.” He thinks I’m just another pretty face, Mary thought grimly. I’ll have to do something about that.
Mary sent the children home and spent the rest of the day at the embassy in the large conference room, meeting with the section heads, the political, economic, agriculture, administrative, and commerce consulars. Colonel McKinney was present as the military attaché.
They were all seated around a long, rectangular table. Against the back walls were a dozen junior members of the various departments.
The commerce consular, a small, pompous man, spoke, rattling off a string of facts and figures. Mary was looking around the room, thinking: I’ll have to remember all their names.
Then it was the turn of Ted Thompson, the agriculture consular. “The Romanian agriculture minister is in worse trouble than he’s admitting. They’re going to have a disastrous crop this year, and we can’t afford to let them go under.”
The economic consular, Patricia Hatfield, protested, “We’ve given them enough aid, Ted. Romania’s already operating under a favored-nations treaty. It’s a GSP country.” She looked at Mary, covertly.
She’s doing this deliberately, Mary thought, trying to embarrass me.
Patricia Hatfield said, patronizingly, “A GSP country is—”
“—is a generalized system of preferences,” Mary cut in. “We treat Romania as a less-developed country so that they get import and export advantages.”
Hatfield’s expression changed. “That’s right,” she said. “We’re already giving the store away and—”
David Victor, the commerce consular, interrupted. “We’re not giving it away—we’re just trying to keep it open so we can shop there. They need more credit in order to buy corn from us. If we don’t sell it to them, they’re going to buy it from Argentina.” He turned to Mary. “It looks like we’re going to lose out on soybeans. The Brazilians are trying to undercut us. I would appreciate it if you’d talk to the prime minister as soon as possible and try to make a package deal before we’re shut out.”
Mary looked over at Mike Slade, who was seated at the opposite end of the table slouched in his chair, doodling on a pad, seemingly paying no attention. “I’ll see what I can do,” Mary promised.
She made a note to send a cable to the head of the Commerce Department in Washington asking permission to offer more credit to the Romanian government. The money would come from American banks, but they would make the loans only with government approval.
Eddie Maltz, the political consular as well as the CIA agent, spoke up. “I have a rather urgent problem, Madam Ambassador. A nineteen-year-old American student was arrested last night for possession of drugs. That’s an extremely serious offense here.”
“What kind of drugs did he have on him?”
“Her. It’s a young girl. Marijuana. Just a few ounces.”
“What’s the girl like?”
“Bright, a college student, rather pretty.”
“What do you think they’ll do to her?”
“The usual penalty is a five-year prison sentence.”
My God, Mary thought. What will she be like when she gets out? “What can we do about it?”
Mike Slade said lazily, “You can try your charm on the head of Securitate. His name is Istrase. He has a lot of power.”
Eddie Maltz went on. “The girl says she was framed, and she may have a point. She was stupid enough to have an affair with a Romanian policeman. After he fu—took her to bed, he turned her in.”
Mary was horrified. “How could he?”
Mike Slade said dryly, “Madam Ambassador, here, we’re the enemy—not them. Romania is playing patty-cake with us, and we’re all buddies, and it’s smiles and hands across the sea. We let them sell to us and buy from us at bargainbasement discounts because we’re trying to woo them away from Russia. But when it comes right down to it, they’re still Communists.”