Washington, D.C.
Hil ary Clinton’s convoy, with the official car of the French ambassador in tow, arrived at the Mologne House Hotel as the crew and passengers of the Pan Am flight were having supper in the hotel’s restaurant. Clinton and the two ambassadors, surrounded by a close-protection detail of ten Secret Service agents, quickly found Princess Grace of Monaco, who was eating at a corner table with her daughter Caroline and with Coco Chanel. They however had to pass close to the table used by Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, who got frankly curious looks from the ambassadors. On approaching the table of Grace Kelly and Coco Chanel, Ambassador De Lafrenière’s eyes fixed with intense interest the old fashion designer, while Ambassador Noghes 43
eyed Grace Kelly with growing reverence, bowing deeply to Grace once besides her table.
‘’Your Serene Highness, I am Gil es Noghes, Ambassador of Monaco in Washington. To see you so resplendent and beautiful, along with young Princess Caroline, is an indescribable honor to me.’’
‘’To me as well, Your Serene Highness.’ Said the French ambassador.
‘’Jacques De Lafrenière, Ambassador of France, at your service. I am happy as well to be able to meet you, Miss Coco Chanel. Vice-President Clinton was kind enough to escort us here to see you, along with the other French citizens that were on your flight.’
‘’That was very kind of her.’ Replied Grace Kelly. ‘’Wil you sit down with us? I was introducing my little Caroline to some American delicacies.’’
Hil ary Clinton couldn’t help laugh on seeing the face of De Lafrenière when the French diplomat saw that the little girl, sitting in a high chair, was munching with delight on a French fry dipped in ketchup.
‘’Well, at least we don’t call them freedom fries anymore.’
The meaning of her joke, while obvious to a modern American, was totally lost on Grace Kelly and on Coco Chanel. Hil ary thus changed the subject as the group sat at the table, with the escort agents forming a loose circle around their table.
‘’I haven’t had supper yet and I believe that you didn’t either, Messieurs De Lafrenière and Noghes. Even though this restaurant may not rate much in a Michelin Guide, you are welcomed to eat here while we talk.’
‘’If the food here was good enough for your soldiers and their families, then it would be most rude of me to refuse your invitation, Madam Vice-President.’ Said diplomatically De Lafrenière, while already dreading what he would see on the restaurant’s menu. The menu, when brought to them by a waitress, proved less awful than he expected and he ordered a Filet Mignon steak for himself. He however nearly gave up on the wine list before settling by default on a, for him, low quality Bordeaux.
Hil ary Clinton quickly realized that the two ambassadors would much prefer talk in private with their co-citizens, as they kept at first to small talk and to the way the Pan Am plane had found itself in the future. She thus let the ambassadors go up at the end of the meal to the suites occupied by Grace Kelly and Coco Chanel. Promising to wait for their return, Hil ary then approached the table occupied by Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon, who promptly invited her to sit with them.
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‘’I understand from the few news we have seen that your husband was President of the United States a few years ago, Madam Vice-President.’ Said Jack Lemmon good-naturedly. Hil ary nodded her head, realizing that he meant no disrespect.
‘’That’s right, Mister Lemmon. Bil was President for two terms, from 1993 to 2001. I myself ran for the democratic presidential nomination for the 2008 elections but lost to Barak Obama, who then won the subsequent presidential elections.’
Lemmon sighed with genuine embarrassment at his ignorance.
‘’There is so much that I, all of us from our flight indeed, need to learn to feel relevant to this time. I am not even sure that my brand of comedy will be appreciated now.’
‘’It wil , Mister Lemmon, I assure you of that.’
‘’Do you know how the latest film we made in 1958, ‘Some like it hot’, did, Madam Vice-President?’’ Asked Marilyn Monroe, who had been anxious to know that since yesterday. Hil ary nodded, smiling to her.
‘’I do, as a matter of fact. It was a huge box office success and was decades later voted the number one funniest film in history in a survey done by the American Film Institute. It also won the prize for best comedy at the 1960 Golden Globe Awards, where you won the prize for best actress, while Mister Lemmon won the prize for best actor.’
‘’Hey hey! That’s to my liking! Hit it, baby!’ Exclaimed happily Jack Lemmon, exchanging a high five with an ecstatic Marilyn. The latter then looked again at Hil ary, some worry returning to her face.
‘’Could it take long before we know if we can return to the past or not, Madam Vice-President?’’
‘’To be frank, and while I am no scientist, I am afraid that finding a way to the past wil take a very long time, if it is ever done, short of a miracle.’’
Marilyn’s left hand then searched for Jack Lemmon’s right hand on the table and pressed it nervously.
‘’And, if we can’t go back, what wil happen to us?’
Feeling truly sorry for these two and for the rest of the people of the Pan Am flight, Hil ary then decided that they deserved the truth.
‘’Some of you wil adapt well, some others won’t. It is all up to your individual strengths. I am sure however that a famous and talented young actress like you will do wel , especially now that women can play all kinds of roles and are not restricted 45
anymore to play simple sex objects. Even if you choose not to act again, just writing your memoirs would probably bring you a fortune.’
‘’But, I am not only after fame and fortune.’ Said the actress in a sheepish voice while lowering her head. ‘’Love and affection, true love and affection, is truly what I need.’
She seemed embarrassed when she raised her head again to look at Hil ary.
‘’I have heard things in the news yesterday and this morning, things about a romance and a sex scandal with John Kennedy when he was president. I had not dated him yet when I left Paris in 1959, so I don’t real y know what the news are talking about.
Yet, my reputation seems to have been branded by that relationship in a most negative way. What is the truth about it, Madam Vice-President?’’
Hil ary felt her heart melt as she saw the hurt in the eyes of the actress.
‘’Marilyn, I think that it is time that we have a private chat, woman to woman.
How about if we go to your suite to talk?’’
‘’I would like that very much, Madam Vice-President.’ Answered Marilyn before glancing at Lemmon. ‘’I wil be back soon, Jack. Don’t raid the bar too early, though.’
‘’I’l manage, baby.’ Said the actor with a smile. He watched the two women go, surrounded by six Secret Service agents, then eyed Jane Hatfield, who was finishing her supper at a nearby table.
‘’Agent Hatfield, how vulnerable are you to dating attempts by as-been actors like me?’
Jane grinned, amused.
‘’Not too much but, if you promise to sign an autograph for my grand-mother, who loved your films, I wil let you sit at my table.’’
‘’That’s a start.’ Said Lemmon, satisfied, before getting up and changing tables.
Over one hour later, Hil ary Clinton left the hotel with the two ambassadors, with Grace Kelly and Coco Chanel staying. As the convoy of limousines and armored SUVs started rolling away from the hotel, one of two men sitting in a car on Aspen Street, in line of sight of the hotel, spoke in a cell phone while following the convoy with his binoculars.
‘’Clinton and the two ambassadors are leaving, without the target. Al the passengers are stil in the hotel… We count stil eight federal agents outside and around the hotel. There are probably more of them inside… Understood!’’
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The man then closed his cell phone and resumed his surveil ance of Mologne House.
His surveillance job was made much less risky actually than he had expected, thanks to the presence of numerous cameramen, reporters, paparazzi and television crews trying to get close to the hotel and its guests and keeping busy the policemen patrolling the grounds of the old Walter Reed Medical Center. The time was however not ripe to act…yet.
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CHAPTER 6 – DIM PROSPECTS
11:39 (New York Time)
Office of the Vice-President
Old Executive Building, Washington, D.C.