pants have no sense of menace. They smile too much, they laugh.” He laughed. “You see? It sets you at ease.” Then he barked and cleared his throat. “I don’t want the Americans at ease. I want them tossing at night, waking at odd hours in a sweat.” He laughed again, as if he finally found something that pleased him. “What sort of message is that?”

“Why the drama, hiding me away in this little room?”

“You’ll board a few minutes after everyone else. The plane will wait around with the door open until our sedan pulls up. The crew will know there was a last-minute passenger put aboard; they’ll tell their friends. The story will seep in here and there. That’s good. I’ll get out of the car just long enough to wave good-bye. I want some people to wonder what I’m doing.”

4

The delegation leader looked at his watch and stood up. “Time to get moving,” he said. He turned to me. “We got off to a bad start. I apologize.” He extended a hand. “Nothing is easy these days. It’s hard enough to do my job under normal circumstances. We’ll stay out of each other’s way.”

I went on high alert. I’d been with smooth characters before, but this one was going to be a champion, I could tell. I shook his hand.

“Once we go into the meeting room, please sit at the end, next to Mr. Roh.” The young man, the one who had smiled to himself, nodded slightly. “If we decide to break for a delegation meeting, come out of the room with us. It’s their turn to invite us to dinner, which they’ll probably do just as we adjourn for lunch. I’ll accept, but we’ll make excuses for your inability to attend.”

This was the first real sign of the game he was going to play, keeping me in a box. “I’m afraid I have to tag along,” I said. “Where you go, I go, too.” That card was on the table. I wanted to see what he would do with it.

He shook his head. “The instructions I received this morning said only that you were to attend the talks; there was nothing about the dinners.” The man was a curious mix. One minute he was pliable, the next he was unbending. His tone of voice stayed calm throughout; even the look on his face didn’t change that much. Somehow, though, he conveyed what he wanted you to know. On my being at his dinner table, he was adamantly opposed.

“Maybe not, but I’m afraid you have no choice.”

His reply was cut off when the door opened and a woman looked in. “Their cars are on the way up the drive.”

“Very well. We’ll greet them in the entry hall. Everyone put on a pleasant face.” The delegation leader turned to me. “It’s how we conduct our business. We are pleasant. You don’t object?”

I smiled at him. “Will this do?”

“It would be best if you came in at the last minute. If they see a new face during the initial pleasantries, it may put them off.” He looked at my jacket and swallowed hard. “Your pin seems to have gone missing.”

“It does seem to have done that.” I hadn’t even brought the pin bearing the leader’s small portrait with me to Geneva. I was indifferent to wearing it, but I didn’t like sticking my finger every time I put it on. Pak never commented on its absence anymore, and Sohn—though I was sure he had noticed right away—never said anything. I straightened my tie. “How do I look?”

The delegation filed into the front hall. I went over to the window and pulled back the drapes. A sedan pulled up, followed by a van. The press had been allowed in the compound, and the photographers were taking a lot of pictures of nothing. When I heard people moving into the meeting room, I slipped in the side door. No one gave me a second look.

Once we were seated, the introductions began. People nodded solemnly when their names were mentioned. “And finally, at the far end to my left is Mr. Kim.” The faces across the table turned to look. “He is a researcher in the Ministry, assigned temporarily to our mission here.” It sounded ridiculous, though the other side didn’t seem to notice. A couple of them made notes; the rest stared at me for a moment, thoroughly uninterested or uncomprehending. Or both.

I didn’t plan on picking up my pen during the