Later that day the Chinese ambassador took the podium. Although he didn't carry the weight of Tomas Delgado, the delegates paid attention. He was delivering his response to the US position.

"The American President has proposed that we focus on nuclear energy for powering our economies and to not use it as a weapon. This is fine irony considering who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. China has long maintained that our world is safer when all countries have the means to stand up to the imperialists of America. They want to control the world economy in order to enrich themselves. We will have none of it. We applaud both Colombia and Venezuela. We welcome them to the nuclear club. May they have great success in beating down the industrialists to their north who have long exploited their countries."

In a conference room in another part of the building, Susan Winters, Pedro Cardenas, and Ky Fan Yang, a high-ranking Chinese diplomat, were hammering out the details of an agreement. It called for a seven-nation commission to adjudicate the Colombian-Venezuelan dispute. Its decisions would be non-binding but it was hoped that world opinion would agree with them and thus put pressure on the two South American countries to settle their differences.

Later that afternoon the two US diplomats flew back to DC and went straight to a meeting in the Oval Office. Delgado had sandwiches and beers brought in. He got a good start on his snack while Winters and Cardenas briefed him.