Some time later, in Washington DC, as in many other capital cities, a plethora of various groups were clamouring to be the Official Diplomatic Representatives and pleading their cases when a stunned President was informed by an intern that, “Madam President it’s on CNN that the American Team has left.”
“What? I didn’t authorise any Team from here! What Team?”
The President held up her hand for silence as she turned her iphone on to CNN and got the last two seconds of the broadcast the intern had seen. She pressed ‘repeat’, flipped the ‘magnify’ switch and watched the repeat. A well known reporter was saying, “Mathew Western has put together the American Diplomatic Team and they will be leaving in forty-five minutes to join the trip of a lifetime going to another world. There are thirty-one specialist qualifications held by the nineteen team members, mostly in sciences. The leader and organiser, Mathew Western, is a local businessman and will himself be concentrating on aspects of trade and commerce.” The reporter then showed the seventeen men and three women walking into the airport then rehashed the story of Jolene and the three language teachers teaching the Aliens English.
“Who authorised this?” The President asked in a soft voice as her staff winced. They preferred her yelling. It was safer.
“Umm, I think CNN might have been given the wrong impression. Mathew asked if they could be the back-up Team and given we are having so much trouble to persuade the embassy staff in Wellington to put a Team together…”
“Who is this Mathew?” she asked the embarrassed aide.
“A businessman. General Western’s son.”
“What else does he have in the way of qualifications?”
“Contacts.”
“Money and lots of it,” muttered someone else.
“They will get there in time. Maybe we could get them and the embassy staff to combine,” said the aide desperately trying to put things right.
The President fumed as she checked the time on her iphone and realised that airline security would prohibit iphone use from check in to arrival in New Zealand. They were out of contact. She sighed. “Contact the Embassy and explain. This is now your problem. You caused it, you sort it.”