“We believe we’re beyond such childish behavior,” President Novak said. “Everyone on Earth understands the importance of the alliance, and I don’t think anyone will be so easily swayed.”
“What else?”
“A rotating command?”
“That’s not going to happen, at least not in the near future,” Marc said.
“Then at least a military committee with key members present. We would like to have a way to be involved with decisions and to influence them.”
Blake put a hand on Marc’s arm to quiet him. “That’s not unreasonable,” Blake said. “But the Delphinean commander will have the final say.”
“Yes, of course. We understand you cannot run a military based on a majority vote, but we would like to be confident that the commander will listen to our people.”
“I haven’t noticed your people having trouble being heard in the past,” Blake said. “But I’m sure we can work things out.”
◆ ◆ ◆
They spent over two hours working on a basic outline of the changes in the alliance. Marc allowed Blake to deal with most of it since he was familiar with the structure of NATO and the armed services in general. Finally, they made enough progress to hand the effort off to the yet-to-be appointed military committee.
“I thought they were going to make us stay there and write the whole damn thing,” Marc complained as they made their way to their limousine.
“When did you become so impatient?” Blake asked.
“When I’m forced to deal with petty politics and crap like seating arrangements.”
“That was a bit much,” Blake said. “Who’s going to be our chairman?”
“Admiral Michaels.”
“Are you sure? He seems to like Delphi City, and he is the Minister of Defense. Who would replace him?”
“I’m sure; the man loves politics. And I think Captain Clark will be able to handle the defense ministry.”
“You just made him the commander of Delphi Station.”
“You have to roll with the times.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“You two need to get ready for dinner,” Samantha said. “And we do not want to hear you talking about your day. We have far more interesting things to discuss.”
Blake laughed at his brother and followed Jackie into their room. They had a suite at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s Hotel and shared the sitting room. Blake wondered if that was such a good idea as he watched Samantha take over.
“Did you have a tough day?” Jackie asked.
“Not really, just frustrating politics. Can you believe I had to restrain Marc?”
“That is hard to believe,” Jackie said, agreeing a little quicker than Blake would have liked. “Did you accomplish anything?”
“Yes and no. They got most of what they wanted, but it really doesn’t change anything. It just adds a lot more bureaucracy to the alliance coordination, but if it makes them happy . . .”
“It has to do more than that.”
“Probably over the long term,” Blake said. “It sets things up for a more coordinated effort in the future. And who knows what will happen when we have three or four colonies we’re responsible for.”
“You are ambitious. Now zip me up,” Jackie said as she turned around so Blake could zip up her evening gown. “What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”
“Economics.”
“That sounds interesting,” Jackie said as she turned around and started to tie Blake’s bowtie.
“Sound’s boring to me. It’s going to be a bunch more whining, although I’m sure Marc will provide some entertainment as he puts them in their place.”
“Puts them in their place?”
“Get Sam to allow him to describe the first five minutes,” Blake said. “It was quite entertaining.”
They exited the room and met Marc and Samantha in the sitting room as they prepared to leave the suite. The four bodyguards standing around the room were so discreet that it was easy to forget they were there.
“We’re giving you guys a break and eating downstairs today,” Samantha said.
“And why are you being so nice to us?” Blake asked.
“Because tomorrow we’re dining at the royal palace,” Samantha said.
“Oh no,” Blake groaned.
“Be nice. I think it was nice of Queen Mathilde to invite us. Princess Elizabeth remembers Catie from the birthday party,” Samantha said.
“Oh, and has Catie ever forgiven you for that stunt?”
“We’ve reached a truce,” Samantha said, as she thought about Catie spreading the rumor that she and Marc were getting married so that Samantha would have a taste of her own publicity medicine. Samantha had called her out on it, and they had agreed to call their differences even.
“I’d love to hear the inside story on that,” Blake said. “I assume that at least you didn’t come out of the shower green.”
“Thankfully,” Samantha said. “Did you guys ever figure out how she pulled that off?”
“I think she had help,” Marc said.
“I did not assist her in any way,” ADI said.
“Oh, but now you’re acknowledging that she was behind it,” Marc said.
“I did not, but like you, I assume she did it,” ADI said.
“Do you believe her?” Samantha asked.
“Mostly,” Marc said. “She can’t lie, but I still think she was in on it.”
“A true friend never tells,” ADI said.
“Your table is right this way,” the Maître D' said. He obviously recognized someone in their party.
Jackie did get Samantha to allow Blake to tell about how Marc had checked the Chinese president’s scolding, but then they spent the rest of the dinner talking about the ladies’ visit to the Saint-Michel Cathedral, the Grand Palace, and the Royal Museum.
◆ ◆ ◆
The next morning Marc and Blake made their way back to the conference room to see what the G20 members had in mind.
“Welcome back,” the Chinese president greeted them. “We hope we can have as fruitful a discussion today as we had yesterday.”
Marc thought he was piling it on since he didn’t think anyone considered yesterday that fruitful, but he ignored it.
“One of the things we members of the G20 do is oversee the global economy. We continually look for opportunities to enhance the economic wellbeing of our countries through cooperation,” the Chinese president said.
“I’m aware of your agenda,” Marc said without voicing the fact that they tended to
