by LJ Frank

We met on a bridge in Amsterdam.

Are you saying that the man was always deluded? Mad?

Correct. People hear words differently. It’s situational. He lived in a context of narcissistic rationalizations and within his own severely slanted political view of the world and himself. He was cunning and insensitive to another’s blood spilled on the ground in his name. He believed in his own lies and those lies were easy to succumb to by his followers needing someone and something greater than themselves to believe in.  Self-disclosure was unfathomable to him. Crisis after crisis unfolded. Then this happened.

What happened?

Two weeks ago, an event occurred. It was his…shall we say, social dilemma. He stayed up several nights reading and rereading a dossier on the peregrinations of a certain female.

What? 

I have often meditated on chance and fate.  What in life occurs suddenly with little notice? 

I can only speculate. May I ask how did you…?

The advisory group to select members of a multinational bank.

What’s its name? 

TDPG. The Diplomatic Protocol Group.

Why wasn’t I informed of this?

I didn’t find out until after the…Indiscretion…when I was visiting an embassy at The Hague.

Who told you?

One of the advisory group members who also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She invited me over to her apartment for a glass of wine and to share what she knew up to that point…thought I should know.

Why you?

My position and access, I guess.

So now what?

The group apparently experienced a communication issue with both an American and an Eastern European…diplomat. It involved an alleged soblaznitel’nitsa. 

A temptress?

Yeah! The spouse of the country’s leader.

Jesus! What now?

I suppose there is no what now. The spouse or temptress is in the process of escaping with the Finance Minister’s spouse of a Western European country.

You mean involving another country of interest having its own economic issues?

Yeah.

It’s hard to tell who’s who.

Both spouses are fluent in several languages and…

Wait. The Finance Minster’s spouse of a Western European country? Are…we talking about?

My wife.