“Look at her,” Foreign Minister Xavier Balleros said.
Below, the young woman parried on the practice floor. Her ease made her two opponents look like sloths, as she deftly turned aside blade after blade without apparent effort or even sometimes motion.
“She"ll be perfect, Amigo. She has the balance of a ballet dancer and the spirit of a tiger. You"re to be congratulated. Where is she now in her studies?” Balleros asked the other, not taking his eyes off her. They stood in the observation booth, fifty feet above the arena, the seats empty but for others about to practice and the occasional vicarious observer. Of the latter, Balleros noted a greater number than might be expected at a university fencing practice.
“She graduates in six months from the aerospace engineering—”
“What about go
