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office. Overkill, in a way,
given the guards in and around the building.
Just to make matters a shade more difficult for whoever might be following
me, I retraced my path
back to the Natural Resources building, except I had to show my
identification to the guard on the Spazi
side of the tunnel. Then I went up to my old offices on the fifth
floor.
Estelle was there. She smiled as I walked in.  Minister Eschbach! It is so
good to see you. Turning
to the black-bearded young man beside her, she added,  Doktor Eschbach was
the subminister before
Minister Kramer.
 Pleased to meet you, sir. He edged back ever so slightly. Clearly, he
had heard of me.
 I should only be a bit, Stephan, Estelle said brightly.  We don t get
to see Doktor Eschbach much
anymore.
 I ll check back in a few moments. Stephan looked at me once more before
he stepped past us and
out into the main hallway.
 How do you like being back in New Bruges?
 It s definitely a change. I laughed.  But not so much as I d thought.
The teaching is interesting.
Other things aren t that different. What about here?
Estelle glanced around, then lowered her voice.  It hasn t been the same
since you left. Everyone
worries about whether the Hartpencers will go after them.
  Hartpencers? 
 The Speaker put his own people everywhere  She broke off and forced a smile
as the door to
the right opened.  Minister Kramer do you remember Minister Eschbach?
 It s good to see you, Kenneth. I hope the job is treating you well. I
gave a half-bow.
 It has been an education, my successor offered.  And Estelle has been
most helpful. He glanced
toward her.
 I understand. Perhaps the next time I m in the Federal District.
They both nodded. I stepped into the corridor, then made my way to the
Seventeenth Street exit.
From there I took a cab up to the Ghirardelli Chocolatiers right off Dupont
Circle. Llysette would enjoy
some chocolates, even as a peace offering. The cab waited, for an extra
dollar, then eased through the
heavy afternoon traffic in a stop-and-go fashion.
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Up New Bruges Avenue, I could see the rising-sun flags where the massive
Japanese embassy stood
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on one side of the avenue, less than two blocks above DuPont Circle. While
I could not see it from the
cab window, the embassy of Chung Kuo stood across from it, just as the two
Far Eastern empires
squared off across the Sea of Japan. I also could not see the cordoned-off
section of the sidewalk where
the ghosts of ten Vietnamese monks still wailed fifteen years after they
immolated themselves there in
protest. Still, I knew they were there, and so did the Chinese not that it
seemed to stop them. They
seemed to like the reminder of the futility of protest to their endless
expansion.
Although the Chinese Empire was far larger than the Japanese, even the
Chinese understood that
Japan was unconquerable, especially because the Japanese were fortifying
every island and creeping ever
closer to isolated Australia. Once the Low Countries had fallen to
Ferdinand, the Chinese and the
Japanese had intensified their efforts to annex the former Dutch
possessions in Southeast Asia. Again, I
wondered how long the Philippines would last.
It wouldn t be in our lifetime, but what would happen when the Chinese, the
Japanese, and the
Austro-Hungarians finally assimilated Asia and what was left of Russia?
The cab jerked forward and around the circle, turning back onto New Bruges
and thence back to
the Mall and directly to the B&P station. Although I would have liked to
have made some other stops,
the stops would not have been fair to those people. So I caught the five
o clock to New Amsterdam.
9
After my breakfast, exercise, and shower, I dressed and took the Stanley
down to the post centre to
see what had arrived in my absence.
As always on Saturday, the square was crowded with steamers, the flagstone
sidewalks filled with
dark-clad shoppers. I had to park over by the church and walk across the
square.
 Greetings to you, Doktor Eschbach, offered the young watch officer who
had known about ghosts.
 And to you, Officer Warbeck, I said politely enough, finally close
enough to read his name plate.
He smiled politely and walked past, up toward the college, while I
continued north to the post centre.
 Good day, Professor Eschbach, offered Alois Er Recchus with a broad smile
as I went up the
steps to the post centre. His dull-gray work jacket was thrown open by the
expanse of his abdomen, and
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he wore bright red braces over his gray work shirt and trousers. I hadn t
thought him the type for red,
even in braces.
 Good day. I don t see the dean.
 She s off to some conference in Orono. Something about the need for
interlinking among women in
academia.
 Interlinking that must be the latest term.
Alois shrugged, smiled, and waddled down toward the hardware store. I
went inside and opened my
box. Besides three bills and an announcement from the New Bruges Arts
Foundation, there was an
invitation. The return address was clear enough: the Presidential
Palace.
I closed the box, preferring to wait until I got home before opening
anything. After another handful of
casual greetings, I retreated to the Stanley and headed back across the
river, waiting for several minutes
at the bridge for a log steamer to cross.
Of course, once at home and in my study, I dropped the post offerings on the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]