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deal with her father.
“We can’t visit the White House officially,” she said. “But are you
here in your capacity as Chief of Staff?”
    “What do you mean, ‘we’?” her father
asked and settled back on the sofa. Nick took the other club chair.
“Your privileges haven’t been revoked. You can visit me any time
you want.”
    “I seriously doubt that,” Olivia told
him. “Or has White House security relaxed their tolerance for
foreign nationals wandering the halls?”
    She could see he understood exactly what
she was implying by the way his eyes narrowed. “You’ve given up
your United States citizenship?” he asked softly.
    “And your name, too,” she said
flatly.
    Nick took in a breath. “Perhaps I should
leave you two alone for a while and let you catch up.”
    “No, please stay, Nick,” Olivia told
him. “You’re family now. You should get to know my father
properly.” She looked back at her father, who had shown no surprise
at her reference to Nick as family. How much did he already know?
“I am Señora Castellano now. I am also the Vistarian Ambassador to
the United States.”
    “For a faction that has no control over
the country they call theirs,” her father shot back. “Really,
Olivia, can we at least be civilized? You said…” He glanced at
Nick. “When you made that call from Vistaria, you said you would
work to find a way for us to at least speak to each other once
more. I have met you more than halfway. This…” he waved his hand at
the room in general, “is more than any non-recognized nation would
receive from the United States.”
    “We appreciate your gesture of good
will,” Nick said smoothly. “And I appreciate the opportunity to
speak with you, even if it is not in an official capacity.”
    Olivia could almost see her
father switch mental gears. The politician was in the seat, now.
“The United States and I are very grateful for everything the
Loyalists have done to protect our citizens,” he told Nick.
“Although there is the matter of three Blackhawk helicopters that
we would like back.”
    “You should take that up with my
civilian and military quarter-masters, through normal channels,”
Nick replied just as blandly. “I am not aware of what happened to
the Blackhawks after the raid on the White Sands. I was busy
arranging transport to take your daughter to Acapulco for medical
treatment.”
    Nick was in effect saying, ”I made your
daughter a priority and you should, too.”
    Her father sighed. “I don’t care about
the choppers either,” he said flatly. “Although as this is the most
official meeting you’ll get from anyone in the White House, it is
my duty to speak of them. Nicolás…may I call you Nicolás?”
    “Nick, preferably,” Nick said easily,
but Olivia could tell he hadn’t dropped his mental guard.
    “Nick, then. Thank you. Your arrival in
Washington puts the White House in an awkward position. You are not
in control of Vistaria.”
    “Yet,” Nick said flatly. “That will
change. And soon.”
    “You sound very sure of yourself.”
    “I know the quality of the men in my
army. And I know the Insurrectos are recalculating their position
and double-guessing ours, after the raid. Serrano is wondering now
if we have the silent support of the United States, a possibility
that is probably keeping him awake at nights. His spies will have
told him by now that I am in the States. Depending on how deeply
entrenched his intelligence system is, in the next few hours he
will learn that you and I met, too. That will give Serrano
nightmares.” Nick’s smile was predatory.
    Her father gave a small smile back. “It
is because of your assistance with the White Sands exercise that I
am here at all. That, and my daughter, of course,” he tacked
on.
    Olivia shook her head in wonder. He
hadn’t changed at all.
    “However,” he continued, “you should not
consider the goodwill you have generated to be in endless supply.
There is only so much we can