Ambassador

fiction by michael werneburg

I looked back at the screen. "The world's leaders are about to introduce themselves to some distant planet's chimpanzee. Or maybe dog."

As the image panned across the dignitaries, I caught a glimpse of the young woman from the Prime Minister's office who'd contacted me about this job in the first place. The daughter of an old colleague from decades before. I looked at Jane. "Well?" I asked.

But Jane just nodded at the television slowly, not saying a word. She had gone flush. "This was supposed to make my career. I'd been talking to three top Universities...."

Cuong began to laugh. I watched him bouncing his fists lightly on the table with delight. "Rover's a space monkey!" Cuong exclaimed. "Extraterrestrial space monkey!"

Jane leaned forward, her chin on her hand. "Won't we look silly when the true designers arrive?"

Cuong looked at her, his brow furrowed. Gesturing with her phone, she said, "It says here that the first manned flight was the same year as Ham's flight."

I gave her a worried look. "So you're saying we have maybe a few months?"

The waitress had listened to all of this. She laughed and walked toward the characters at the bar. "Hey, you should hear this!"

I watched her go in dismay. Our collective failure was going to lead to humiliating embarrassment at the highest levels of international government. And it would be permanent. Whoever was coming would be laughing at us for the rest of time.

But then I realized with a start that I could still head this off. I reached for my phone and headed outside to call young Anika from the PMO. If I could count on any of my contacts at the government, picking up, it would be her. Maybe I'd land that pay-day after all!