“Their ambassador pretends to understand, but of course he doesn’t. I tried to explain to him. ‘You elect a President/ I said, ‘and we elect a King.’ And he counters, ‘But how can you give absolute power to a new person every five years?’ I asked him the same question and of course he gave me that cow-eyed pitying look they all do whenever the subject comes up. Insists the American President doesn’t have anywhere near the same kind of power. So I list historical examples for him and he gets all huffy and self-righteous.
“But he can cause real trouble. So that’s why you’ve got to go over there and convince that girl she’s got her tape systems crossed. So much planning has gone into this birthday present for the King—too much for the ravings of some neurotic adolescent to ruin it. We could take less orthodox steps to quiet her, but—well, you know that’s just not our style. If we did that we’d be exactly the kind of folk she seems to think we are.”
167
WITH FRIENDS LUCE THESE . ..
Yan spread his hands. “Mars colonization! Honestly! But why me, sir? Why not someone from the Defense Ministry?”
“You know her, Michael. As a friend. None of her tirades included you. We know, we taped them. Either she doesn’t believe you’re involved, which is unlikely, or else she has a desire not to implicate you, which is better.”
“Look, sir . . .” Michael squirmed uncomfortably.
*Tm an engineer. I have a fiancee, and I’m just not going to try and seduce some misguided teenager.”
“We’re not asking you to be nearly so melodramatic about this, Michael. Of course,” the administrator murmured, “if you should happen to find the situation developing along apolitical lines, it wouldn’t be…”