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Page 292
and unreal to her. The horrifying information about the nuclear contamination with its attendant possibility of nuclear war came and went in her mind like little stabs of reality. Those horrors meshed in some peculiar underlying manner in her consciousness with the remembrance of bursting grenades and broken windows, Pierre Grau's body rolling over and over across the hood of that Bronco. I'm going to have to come to terms with all this, Anna thought, but not right now.
Masses of very tense people seemed to be rushing into the room, conferring quietly with one or more of the very tense principals, then going away in a flurry of activity. She looked around the Oval Office, admiring the President's desk, and stifled a laugh. She was still paying more attention to the furniture than to the matters at hand, whatever they might be. Her part in all this turmoil was unclear.
She squirmed in her seat, trying to smooth her skirt, tuck in her blouse a little better. The leather had been totally scraped off the toe of her right shoe. She'd showered in Avery Peters's fiberglass bathtub forty-eight hours ago, but it seemed much longer. I hope I don't smell as bad as I must look, she thought.
The room grew misty again. To keep awake, she forced herself to try to place everyone she'd met so far. The handsome, voluble, and angry woman in the room when Anna first arrived had turned out to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Charlotte Conroy. A woman had rushed in and handed her a message of some sort, and Ms. Conroy made her apologies and left almost immediately.
''Ambassador Conroy is going back to New York to brief the UN," President Caidin had explained, smiling at Anna, his even white teeth gleaming, his brown eyes locked on hers, his famous charm on display. I suppose I should be impressed, she thought, persuaded that I am the most important thing in his life at this moment. If so, he's got a surprise in store. I hate professionally charming men with a passion, even those with acquiline features and broad shoulders and lots of power.

 
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