a fairly hard line.'
'Our exact position at the summit is going to be up to the President's direction,' Montreau's said just a bit coolly.
'Of course, Madam Secretary. I didn't mean to suggest it shouldn't be. It's just that, especially after Solon and Zanzibar, I'm afraid the man in the street's in a fairly bloodthirsty mood.'
'I know. On the other hand, formulating long-term diplomatic policy on the basis of public opinion surveys isn't exactly a good idea.'
'Of course, Madam Secretary,' Nesbitt said again, bobbing his head with a pleasant smile. 'In that case, suppose I go and pull everything we have on Torch? I'll request a full background download from Director Trajan over at FIS, as well. Let me spend a few days reviewing it with my senior people and possibly get a few of your senior staffers involved for input from their side of the aisle. After that, I'll be able to delineate specific areas of concern and formulate proposals for dealing with them.'
'That sounds like the best way to proceed,' Montreau agreed, and Nesbitt smiled again and climbed out of his chair.
'I'll go and get started, then. Good afternoon, Madam Secretary.'
'Good afternoon, Colonel.'
Nesbitt let himself out of the Secretary's office and started towards the building's lift shafts, then paused. He stood there a moment, then turned and crossed the hall to knock lightly on the frame of an open door.
'Oh. Good afternoon, Colonel,' Alicia Hampton said, looking up from her workstation.
'Good afternoon, Ms. Hampton.' Nesbitt stepped into the fairly spacious, comfortably furnished office. 'I was just finishing up my meeting with Secretary Montreau, and I thought I'd poke my head in and see how you're getting along.'
'Thank you Colonel. That's very thoughtful of you.' Hampton smiled a bit tremulously. 'It hasn't been easy. Secretary Montreau's a perfectly nice person, and she takes her job seriously, but she's just not Secretary Giancola.' Her eyes were suspiciously bright, and she shook her head. 'I still can hardly believe he's gone-him and his brother, both at once, just gone like that. It was all such... such a stupid waste.'
'I know exactly what you mean,' Nesbitt said feelingly, although not for quite the same reasons.
'And he was such a good man,' Hampton continued.
'Well, Ms. Hampton-Alicia,' Nesbitt said, 'when we lose a good man, a leader, we just have to hope someone else can step into the gap. I think Secretary Montreau's going to try very hard, and I hope all of us can help her as she does.'
'Oh, I certainly agree, Colonel! And it was so good of her to keep me on as her administrative assistant!'
'Please, I think we've known one another long enough now for you to call me Jean-Claude,' he said with a pleasant smile. 'And it was good of her to keep you on. Of course, it was also smart of her. Secretary Giancola often told me how much he relied on you to keep the Department running smoothly. Obviously, your background knowledge and experience must have been very valuable to Secretary Montreau during the transition.'
'I like to think so, anyway... Jean-Claude,' Hampton said, her eyes dropping shyly for just a moment. Then she looked back up at him and returned his smile. 'I've tried. And she's beginning to delegate a little more than she was willing to when the Senate first confirmed her.'
'Good!' Nesbitt nodded vigorously. 'That's exactly what I was talking about, Alicia. And I hope you'll keep me in mind, as well. Secretary Giancola was more than just a boss to me, too, and I'd really like to see his work carried on. So if there's anything I can do for you or Secretary Montreau, any security or intelligence matter, or anything of that sort, please let me know. After all, part of my job is being able to intelligently anticipate what the Secretary's likely to need before she actually gets around to asking me.'
'Of course, Jean-Claude. I'll bear that in mind.'
'Fine. Well, I've got to be on my way now. I'll check back with you in a day or so, once this whole conference idea's had a chance to shake down a little more. Maybe we could discuss the Secretary's needs over lunch, down in the cafeteria.'
'I think that would be a good idea... Jean-Claude,' she said.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Honor Alexander-Harrington stood between her husband and her wife. Her left hand held Emily's right, and her right hand held Hamish's left, while the three of them watched through the outsized window as Dr. Knippschd's technicians carefully rolled the artificial womb into the room beyond. Dr. Franz Illescue and his team stood waiting, gowned and prepared outside the sterilizing field.
Honor felt her hands tightening on her spouses', and forced herself to relax-physically, at least-before she did any damage. Hamish leaned towards her, pressing the side of his head briefly and gently to hers, and she smiled. Then she bent beside Emily's life-support chair and pressed her own cheek against Emily's.
'I never thought I'd see this,' Emily whispered in her ear.
'Just wait a couple of months,' Honor whispered back, and Emily looked up at her with an enormous smile.
'It'll be hard. But at least it looks like you'll be able to be here then, too.'
'We can hope,' Honor agreed, and straightened back up.
She glanced over her shoulder, and her lips twitched as she glanced at Nimitz and Samantha. Dr. Illescue and she weren't exactly friends, and she doubted they ever would be, but their relationship had become much more cordial since his apology and her acceptance of it. Still, he and Briarwood had seemed a bit nonplussed by the notion of having a pair of six-limbed, furry arboreals in attendance during a birthing. And the passel of armed security personnel standing behind the parents-all three of them-and the living grandparents, seven-year-old aunt and uncle, plus the unofficial aunts and uncles and the god parents-had only added to the staff's consternation. They were accustomed to having the immediate family present at such times, but this 'immediate family' had challenged them.
Which was why they were gathered in the observation gallery of a full-scale operating room, rather than one of the smaller, more intimate delivery rooms normally used. Briarwood simply hadn't had a regular delivery room large enough to accommodate the crowd.
Colonel Andrew LaFollet, Lieutenant Spencer Hawke, Sergeant Jefferson McClure, Sergeant Tobias Stimson, and Corporal Joshua Atkins stood between the parents' family and the observation gallery's single entrance in a solid wall of Harrington green. Alfred and Allison Harrington stood side-by-side, each with an arm around the other, to Emily's left. Faith and James stood in front of their parents, watching with huge eyes and most imperfectly suppressed excitement. Lindsey Phillips, their nanny, stood beside them, keeping a watchful eye peeled, and Miranda LaFollet and James MacGuiness stood to Hamish's right, with Farragut cradled in Miranda's arms. Willard Neufsteiler and Austen Clinkscales had arrived from Grayson for the event, accompanied by Katherine Mayhew and Howard Clinkscales' widows, and Michelle Henke, Alice Truman, and Alistair McKeon completed the party.
Almost, that was. The Queen of Manticore and her Consort were also present, along with their treecats, and half a dozen of the Queen's Own to bolster the Harrington security cordon. Not to mention the additional security clamped around the outside of the building.
No wonder Illescue's people seemed a bit boggled by the guest list, Honor thought, suppressing a sudden, almost overwhelming temptation to giggle. Nerves, she told herself sternly. That's nerves talking, Honor.
As if Illescue had felt her thinking about him, the doctor looked up at the observation window, nodded once, and beckoned his team forward.
It's a routine procedure he performs every day, Honor reminded herself. A routine procedure. Nothing to worry about. Shut up, pulse!
She breathed deeply, drawing on decades of martial arts training, but it was hard, hard. She wanted to stand on tiptoe, press her nose to the glass, to strain for the first glance, the first sight. She wanted to wrap her arms around Emily and Hamish, to sing. She felt Nimitz and Samantha with her, sharing her excitement and her joy, and she suddenly realized no other human being had ever shared the moment of her child's birth with a mated pair of treecats.
On the other side of the glass, Illescue and his team opened the unit. The inner chamber rose smoothly, and
