If Lewis noticed any of this, he showed no concern. When the limousine stopped in front of the foyer, Lewis headed into the building, hands buried deep in the pockets of his overcoat and head bowed. Even when he was inside, he ignored the embassy staff as he headed down the corridors and up the stairs, followed by Jan, to the office he had been using over the past two days. Once there, he went to a chair overlooking the main embassy courtyard, where he sat staring vacantly out the window, without bothering to remove his coat. Seeing that he was, to say the least, uncommunicative, Jan left him to go in search of coffee and something to eat. Food and drink, she thought, might help him overcome his gloom. And if it did nothing for him, at least Jan's search for it gave her something to do with her nervous energy.
When she returned with a serving tray filled with breakfast pastries, coffeepot, and cups and saucers, Lewis finally began to stir. Whether it was the clanking noise of the cups and plates on the tray that Jan intentionally made or the smell of the fresh-perked coffee that brought Lewis about didn't matter. As she poured a cup for both of them, Lewis stood up, slipped his overcoat off, jammed his hands into his pants pockets, and walked over to Jan. Accepting a cup fixed just the way he liked it from Jan, Lewis watched her as he waited until she had prepared her own cup and stood facing him. Finally ready to speak, he looked Jan in the eye, took a sip of coffee, and smiled. It was, to Jan, a tired, unhappy little smile.
"You know, Jan, I'm constantly amazed by the way you and Amanda go about through this world each in your own way, but very much the same."
Struck by this strange comment, Jan wondered if she had missed something. But she knew she hadn't, so she said nothing, allowing Lewis to ramble on between sips of coffee.
Lewis chuckled. "I can see by your expression you're wondering what in the hell I'm talking about. Well, to tell you the truth, Jan, I'm not sure, at least not right now. You see, both you and Amanda are willing to accept people and things for what they are. Both of you, each in your own way, work with what you have, trying to keep things together and in harmony. Me, I guess I'm no better than every other guy who set out with what he thought were the ideals and principles that were the only true way to everlasting peace and happiness for the whole world, ready to cram them down the throat of everyone that disagreed with him." Lewis paused as he set his cup down and poured himself more coffee. "Well, Jan, it's hard for a man like me to suddenly realize that he doesn't have all the solutions, all the answers. I feel… I feel like Superman must have felt like the first time he was exposed to kryptonite."
For the first time since leaving the Chancellor's office, Jan spoke. "I take it, Ed, that the Germans are not ready to negotiate?"
His tone and demeanor betrayed the incredulousness he felt. "Negotiate? That, Jan, is the wrong word. I think the Germans call it Diktat. No, Jan, there doesn't seem to be a man in this city, from Ruff all the way down the line to Interior Minister Fellner, the one who was supposed to be reasonable, interested in negotiating. Instead, all of them, to a man, have a list of grievances and conditions that they insist must be worked out before serious discussions between our two governments can start."
Caught up now in Lewis's discourse, Jan asked what exactly those conditions were.
Raising an eyebrow as he took a sip of coffee, Lewis slowly replaced the cup onto the saucer and stared at it for a moment before answering. "Oh, though there are a whole bunch of little bones of contention that vary in importance depending on who you talk to, everything comes down to two really big items that all the Germans seem to agree on."
"And they are?"
Lewis, his eyes betraying no emotion, looked at Jan as he spoke. "First, all U.S. military forces must, and I emphasize the word they used, must withdraw from German territory by this July."
"But we can't simply up and leave in less than six months. They can't be serious. Are they?"
"Quite, Jan. They have been watching the American political landscape and they realize that few Americans would object to our pulling our troops home as part of an effort to reduce our annual military budget. After all, we have been after the Europeans for years to assume a more active role in their own defense. Here on a silver platter they give us the very thing that many of our fellow countrymen have been demanding."
He was, Jan realized, right. Chancellor Ruff knew that the Wilson administration would have a hard time justifying the continued retention of American forces in a Europe free from the specter of worldwide Soviet domination. "And the other demand, Ed?"
With a sigh, Lewis looked down at the floor, then back into Jan's eyes. "There, I'm afraid, they have us again. You see, Chancellor Ruff believes that Germany, in order to maintain its position in the European community as one of the leading states, must be able to stand side by side with the other states as an equal in fact as well as in word."
"How can we, the United States, help them achieve that? Most of the European community already acknowledge Germany's role in the new Europe."
"Jan, Ruff wants more than a verbal acknowledgment. He wants the horsepower to back it up. He believes that Germany, in order to be taken seriously, must be allowed to join the most exclusive club that all nations who want a say in shaping this world must belong to. In short, Jan, Germany, or I should say Chancellor Ruff, wants nothing less than for the United States of America to accept her as a nuclear power, free to retain the weapons she already has and develop her own as she sees fit."
Though she knew that she should have seen it coming, Lewis's articulation of that demand startled Jan. Dark, sinister images flashed through her mind as she stood there in silence trying to grasp the significance of what Lewis had said. Finally able to speak, she looked up at him. "But we can't do that. I mean, we can't agree to any of that."
Lewis slowly set the cup and saucer he was holding down on the tray, then thrust his hands into his pants pockets. "I know, Jan, I know."
Both Jan and Lewis were standing there looking down at the floor in silence when a member of the embassy staff knocked and entered the room. She paused, however, when she saw both Jan and Lewis standing motionless around the small table in the center of the room. "Oh, excuse me. I am sorry for interrupting."
Shaken out of his grim thoughts, Lewis looked up at the staffer. "Oh, no, you weren't interrupting. What can I do for you?"
"The ambassador was wondering when you would be returning to Washington. You had mentioned last night that you wanted to depart this afternoon after one more round of discussions with Chancellor Ruff. Is that still correct?"
Lewis thought about that for a moment before answering. "No, there has been a change. Please ask the ambassador if he would be so kind as to make the necessary arrangements for me to go to Prague to meet with the commander of the Tenth Corps."
While the embassy staffer acknowledged Lewis's request, Jan looked up at Lewis with a quizzical look on her face, but said nothing until the staffer was gone. "What are we going to Prague for?"
Lewis shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know right now. But we have a few hours to figure that out. Now if you would excuse me, Jan, I need to call the President, pay the ambassador my respects, and pack."
After crossing over to the north bank of the Uh River, Nancy Kozak ordered her driver to move off the road. Taking up a position from which she could see the northern approach of the bridge she had just crossed, Kozak settled down to wait for the last of her company to cross the river before they continued their withdrawal into Slovakia. She, like the rest of her company, would be glad to see Slovakia again, where they would be able to rest and relax. Their mission as the flank guard for the 1st Brigade's southern flank had been, except for the initial six hours, tedious on one hand while at the same time, due to their exposed position on the brigade's flank, nerve-racking. Once the Ukrainian armored brigade's effort to force a crossing against Kozak's company had been rebuffed and the Air Force had worked it over during the day, the remnants had been content to slip away to the southeast and establish blocking positions north of Uzlovaya. They still, however, were a threat that could not be ignored.