He swung around and looked down into the brown eyes of a woman with dark curly hair. He frowned and snapped his fingers. "Ruth . . ." He remembered. "Patton." They shook hands and Chase said, "You recognized me after all this time?"
"Even with the beard," Ruth smiled. "You're not exactly unknown, are you? Best-selling author and TV celebrity. The cover of
Foolishly he almost blushed. He couldn't get used to fame. The Gavin Chase in the media wasn't him--some other guy. "What are you doing in New York?" he asked her.
"I actually live and work here," Ruth said. "Somebody has to." She told him about Manhattan Emergency on Sixty-eighth Street and her research there. "I have just spent a frustrating and totally fruitless two hours with the medical attache of the Chinese delegation. I heard that they'd introduced a new respiratory drug in China and I've been trying to get hold of a sample to test." Her lips tightened. "Oh, they're exceedingly polite--yes, madam, of course, madam, leave it to us, madam. That makes the third positive assurance in three months."
"And still nothing?"
Ruth shook her head. "You know, we send them our new stuff
It was Chase's turn to shake his head. "If only I knew," he said. "I've been summoned by the executive office of the secretary-general. Beyond that--" He shrugged.
"Madam Van Dorn herself?" Ruth's mouth formed a silent O. "I wish I had that kind of clout. Put in a good word for me."
Chase promised he would.
"If you're staying in New York for a few days why don't we have dinner one evening?" Ruth proposed.
"I'd like that. You can meet my son, Dan. Suppose I give you a call at the hospital and we can fix a date?"
"I'll look forward to it. Don't keep the lady waiting!" Ruth called out and was gone with a wave in the surging tide of people.
It transpired that Chase, and not the lady, was kept waiting.
He sat in an outer office on the twenty-second floor browsing through a stack of glossy UN pamphlets that ranged from famine relief in Indochina to the annual report of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.
Through the high narrow windows the sun was a drab orangy smear, seen diffusely through the murky haze that lay upon the city to a height of two thousand feet. Even at this hour there was hardly any natural daylight: The lights in the offices were kept burning all day long. It was eerily like being underwater, submerged in a viscous ocean.
When the secretary-general did appear, emerging from her office to greet him, she was far more striking in the flesh than as purveyed by the media. She wore a royal-blue silk blouse cut diagonally at the throat and a long pale-cream skirt with a scalloped hem. Her silvery-blond hair was parted at the side and brushed back in a burnished curve that effectively gave prominence to her strong bone structure and widely spaced blue eyes. With spiky high-heeled shoes and an erect bearing, Ingrid Van Dorn was only fractionally shorter than Chase; a stunningly impressive female.
She led him through into a large softly, lit room that was more like a luxury apartment than an office--except there were no windows. "In case of rocket attacks," Ingrid Van Dorn explained casually. "And there isn't anything to see, is there? One might as well stare at a blank wall."
Carpeted steps led down to a circular depression in which fat armchairs and two squat sofas were grouped around a low chrome-and-glass table. In the center of the table a large ceramic sculpture posed in frozen animation. It might have been a surrealist horse or man's soul yearning toward a loftier plane. Chase ran out of inspiration after those two stabs.
Ingrid Van Dorn introduced Senator Prothero, who uncoiled from an armchair, dwarfing Chase by five or six inches. Deeply tanned and beautifully dressed, Prothero had a full head of hair streaked with gray that might have been trimmed and razored not five minutes ago. Thick horn-rimmed glasses lent him an air of thoughtful academic or earnest newscaster.
A secretary appeared, poured fragrant coffee from a silver pot, and silently glided away. Whatever this was all about, it had better be worth it, Chase thought. Worth breaking an itinerary planned months in advance, not to mention a three-thousand-mile flight. He sipped the delicious coffee and waited.
Prothero took time adjusting the crease in his trousers before crossing his long legs. He remarked pleasantly, as if discussing some tidbit of gossip that had reached his ears, "The president, the entire administration, and the Pentagon are, right this minute, making arrangements to leave Washington and set up the seat of government elsewhere. Does that alarm you, Dr. Chase?"
