Chapter SeventeenThe following day, sunshine warmed Ruth’s back from a cloudless robin’s-egg-blue sky as she and Varis wheeled their bicycles to a stop in front of a large stone manor house in the outskirts of the city. Varis had been awarded some unexpected time off. No one was talking, but the rumor mill indicated that several high-level officials had scheduled a conference, and Ambassador Kennedy did not want to take chances that information from the meeting would leak. Nonessential personnel had been granted leave.
Willow baskets hung from the handlebars of the old and slightly dented bikes they had borrowed from the embassy's collection. Patches of rust marred the dark blue paint, but the seats were new. They had left the ever-present smell of coal dust and rubble behind, and Ruth to
