Guests

I

I walk down Low Street past the wall that surrounds the US embassy, and step out of the rain into the portico over the south entrance security checkpoint. I stay carefully out of the way of the security monitors and place a call. "Hey Mark."

Mark Gannon is in his thirties, rake thin and bearded, with grey hairs temples. A total affectation he got in a clinic near the docks. He does not wear specs, having had his lace programmed to emulate local protocols. He's fascinated by ZOCU in general but wishes he'd been posted to Nidaros, Erebus, or Choseon (because he speaks good Korean) not Tempest, because the heat disagrees with him. He plays local MMOs to pass the time and is occasionally fucking the French military attaché's daughter. He cannot hold his liquor but embassy rules do not allow him to smoke marijuana, which is his preference.

He looks like hell. so. He's pale, sweating and in day old clothes.

"What do you need Riya?" his voice is wane.

"Come down to the South Entrance. I'll get you some breakfast."

"How'd you know I skipped breakfast?" He grabs his jacket and begins walking down towards me, the picture flickering as the AR system stops using his desk cam and starts using whatever fake version of the embassy he had the CIA program into his lace.

"Yellow superpowers." I grin at him as he steps out. His office is a minute away from this entrance. "You look terrible. Come on." We walk down into a covered market and then up a discrete flight of steps and into the flat of a friend of mine. The owner of a cafe where Kasarna (my girlfriend) tests new types of chocolate.

"When did you last eat?" I ask him, programming the food processor.

"I ate a sandwich sometime yesterday. Really I'm not hungry." He tries to wave me off as I come back with two plates of food.

"No, your body has just stopped talking to you about it. Now eat."

Mark reluctantly bites into a spring roll then blinks and then blinked and started to eat more quickly. I go back and get him another. For a moment we don't talk, with him eating and me watching him eat.

After a while he sits back and looks at me. "So why the call?" he asks.

"I want to know about Rebecca Smith."

"Oh I should have fucking known!" he explodes. "That woman. . . that woman and you people!" he gesticulates, throwing his chopsticks down. "Her and a staff of twenty turn up full of all the latest germs from earth, and you people, you people won't give her a visa. We have to make her staff at the embassy to get her in." He slumps back, looking at me. "Now I have a millionaire who's used to being obeyed on my hands!"

"Billionaire." I rest back as the food arrives. "She's a billionaire. I've been assigned to babysit her. Do you know why she's here?"

"No, not a clue. Rumours are she's here for secret negotiations with elements of your civil service about buying some land." I try to keep a straight face at that. "Perhaps, to make the lives of everyone at the embassy a living hell."

"What's she like?" I ask.

"She's like a Billionaire. She's used to having stuff go her way." Mark starts on the bread. "If you do piss her off she's going to make a lot of stuff difficult for you with the current administration. The president and her are pretty tight. If she gets sufficiently annoyed then she can probably sink the current round of trade talks at least."

I realize again what an alien world Mark comes from. One minute it's like he's normal, the next it's as if he stepped out of another dimension. "Well, you know us." I begin to eat my own food."

"Yeah I do. I know you wouldn't even let a non ZOCU billionaire into the country if we hadn't forced the issue. That's why I didn't get any sleep last night." Mark picks up his chopsticks and stabs them at me for emphasis, then decides he'd be better off using them on more food. I let him while I think what I'm going to do when I meet Rebecca Smith.

II

I meet Rebecca Smith first in an inner room of the embassy. She is surrounded by people, aids, a doctor, security. We've just been introduced, using my government name, and now we're negotiating. We've been at this twenty minutes.

"Ms. Linendra, you cannot seriously expect Ms. Smith to walk around your city protected by only two bodyguards from your public security." The speaker is the pugnacious chief of staff."

"Mr. Rook." I'm rapidly losing patience. "The only reason any of you are even here is because you forced the issue. We didn't give you visas, Ms. Smith used her money and influence to get the US embassy to employ you as staff. We don't owe you even the cooperation we're giving you. If you people don't like that, you're free to leave."

He breaths in to speak, turning red. Smith puts a hand on his arm. "Please Ms. Linendra, no offense was meant. However I am used to travelling with a larger staff. It would be a serious diplomatic incident if something where to happen to me. As you said I'm a person of influence."

"Which is precisely why I'm not authorized to allow your security to accompany us. Do you really think that a group of armed foreigners walking around this city will be safer than one motherly old lady?"

Smith chuckles and then nods. "Very well. May I at least bring Alfonso then?" she motions to the doctor.

"Very well, though our emergency cover is excellent. The rest of your people are of course free to go into the city but only in small groups, and if they attempt to follow you then you'll all be escorted back here."

Smith nods. "That's reasonable." she rises, spryly. "Let's go see the sights."