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Fred disagreed.
At this point Fred reached for his billfold and took a ten Ruble note from it. "This says there'll be a surprising announcement tonight," he said to me and grinned.
Was he asking me to bet on something? I looked at him. I was sure I would win if he were serious. What major surprise could they announce? "Ten it is!" I said, accepting the offer, though I knew I shouldn't have, as I knew that Fred was not a habitual gambler.
As it was, he was right. There was an announcement made even before the dinner was served. It was a most significant announcement indeed, but it was significant only to me. When the panel was introduced, Ushi's name was read out. Fred grinned and reached out his hand.
"Heh, that was cheating," I said to him. "That doesn't count. Insider trading is illegal."
"Wasn't this the most surprising announcement you could have heard?" he said.
I nodded, but waved him off.
"It's half and half then," he said and grinned. "We both win."
+ + +
The Moscow Peace Conference had been scheduled to begin on the 6th of December. This had definitely been the worst timing for me. It meant that I had to interrupt my house construction. The windows needed to be put in place before the winter storms would cause damage to the interior. Also the siding needed to be installed in order to protect the framing. I had hoped to have the whole thing completed by Christmas. That's when Fred arrived from Washington with the invitation.
I had the feeling that Fred had personally come down from Washington for a bigger reason than to just break the news that would interrupt my building 'holiday' as he had called it. I soon realized that I was right. He had come to help to get the house finished far enough so that I could step away from it without being worried. He knew how far along we were with the project and how tough it was at this time to get anybody's help, considering that the value of our money was as uncertain as the weather.
Fred had confronted us all with the simple fact that my attendance had been requested by name, and that the 'demand' to attend had come through official channels. He explained that a request of this type was "too big" for anyone to decline. He told us that none of us, him included, had any choice in the matter. He said it was a matter of protocol that I go, for which my vacation would have to be suspended. He made it clear that to say, no, was not an option no matter how much I needed to work on the house. And so his story went.
To judge by the way Fred spoke, our invitation to go to Moscow seemed important to him. Perhaps the way it was presented was unusual in the diplomatic sense, since such requests are rare and this one came directly from the East without any prior consultation. Also, he couldn't figure out why Moscow had requested me of all people, by name. It seemed to me that he had been ordered to attend as well to keep an eye me to solve this puzzle.
He seemed surprised, though, that I wasn't surprised. I told him that Steve's grapevine has been buzzing with rumors for some time, about something big that would be staged in Moscow.
"Yes, Moscow, on the sixth of December," Fred confirmed. "I don't want to hear any excuses. Your house can wait. You will go, and that's final! In fact, we will both go. Those are my orders from above."
"Of course, I'll go," I replied. "I'd love to go. The sixth is fine with me. I'll hire somebody, somehow, to finish the house."
Maybe I shouldn't have said this. Maybe I should have argued. I caught him a bit off guard. He evidently expected protests. This time I was ready to surprise him. "The sixth is OK," I said.
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