The morning air was crisp with frost when the Allied delegation stepped off their private aircraft at Copenhagen's Kastrup airfield.
An entourage of Danish Royal Guards waited with stoic silence. Not a band. Not a parade. Just ceremony stripped to its most efficient parts. Polite. Minimal. Unimpressed.
At the head of the delegation stood Ambassador Charles Montgomery-Hughes of Britain, flanked by his American counterpart, Special Envoy Harold Wexler, and Rear Admiral Jean-Luc Chareau of the French Navy.
Behind them, aides whispered over briefing folders as they stepped into the waiting motorcade.
"Rather cold for a royal welcome," Wexler muttered.
"It's Denmark," Chareau replied with a shrug. "They were never ones for theatre."
"They'll need more than politeness if they want to keep their ports open once this all begins," Montgomery-Hughes said under his breath.
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