by Jim Stark
* * *
At 7:41 a.m., Louis St. Aubin came barreling into his office, loaded for bear. “Why the hell didn't you meet me at the airport?” he said to Ralph, roughly. “We've got a cabinet meeting at ten, and I need you to help me with ... Commissioner Joly! What are you doing here?"
Chapter 39
DARK CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON
Trent Marshall sat stone-faced in the elevated anchor chair while a make-up artist fussed over persistent beads of perspiration. “Twenty seconds,” said the producer's voice over the studio speakers. “Fifteen seconds.” Soon a full hand became four fingers, then three, two, one ... and a quick chopping motion.
Marshall: This is a special bulletin from the Alpha News. At eleven o'clock this morning, Prime Minister Louis St. Aubin told the cabinet that he was resigning, for what he has called “personal reasons."
At seven a.m., as he returned from Winnipeg, his plane was met by reporters. He stopped to comment on the Russian wheat sale he announced yesterday, and his mood seemed buoyant and upbeat. He mentioned nothing about any impending resignation.
Alpha News has learned that the Prime Minister's chief of staff Ralph Dellaire has resigned his position as well, also for so-called personal reasons.
The Minister of Defence, Nicholas Godfrey, who was named deputy prime minister only four months ago, is being sworn in by the Governor General as we speak. He will be giving his first press conference as prime minister in a few minutes, and we will join that live when it begins. Our chief political correspondent, Katie Lochart, is standing by in the pressroom at Rideau Hall.
Katie, we reviewed the footage of the Prime Minister's arrival at Uplands airport less than five hours ago, and either Mr. St. Aubin is a terrific actor or something happened between the time he stepped off Maple Leaf One and the moment he arrived for the cabinet meeting. What are you hearing in Ottawa?
Lochart: Trent, there seems to be a consensus among the political pundits that there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye, but no one as yet seems to know what Louis St. Aubin meant by “personal reasons.” No explanation was given to the members of cabinet. The official line here is that any sitting prime minister is entitled to a personal life, and if he says that his reasons for leaving the job are private, then that's just the way it is.
Marshall: But the resignation of a prime minister without any explanation at all would be an unprecedented occurrence in Canada, and his surprise decision will change the shape of government for the whole country. Isn't it reasonable to ask for some kind of statement?
Lochart: Certainly the media all share that view, and there are a number of Government MPs who feel the same way, and have said so. The Opposition Parties are demanding an answer to that question, but the lid is definitely on. Prime Minister Godfrey will be asked about this, of course, but the word from his aides is that there will be no comment on that subject, at least for the moment.
Marshall: We're also given to understand that—
Lochart: Sorry to interrupt, Trent, but Prime Minister Godfrey is about to enter the pressroom and ... Prime Minister, could you please comment on ... ?
Godfrey went straight to the lectern and held up both hands in a gesture that begged the media mob to be seated. As things settled down, the new prime minister of Canada told reporters that he would not conduct the press conference unless they assured him that their LieDecks were off. He gave them a few seconds, and then asked if there was anyone who had a LieDeck operating. When no one said yes, he began to read.
Godfrey: As you know by now, I have just been sworn in as the twenty-third prime minister of Canada. I will serve this great nation to the best of my ability. However, there are some dark clouds on the horizon, and although I cannot elaborate at this time, I will tell you that my colleagues and I will do our best to sail the ship of state safely and responsibly towards our national and international goals, no matter what storms may tear at the rigging.
Now, I'm sure you have questions, but I have several announcements to make.
First, when my good friend Louis St. Aubin resigned as prime minister this morning, he did so for personal reasons. I hope you will accept his right to do so. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. St. Aubin's contribution to Canada and the world, and I have asked him to serve as our ambassador to Australia. He has accepted this post, and I wish him bon voyage and good luck. His chief of staff, Ralph Dellaire, has also resigned. He will continue to work with Mr. St. Aubin at our Australian embassy.
Also, we learned recently that General George Brampton, who was arrested Monday, was involved in a secret and subversive organization called the World Democratic Alliance, or WDA. We also have reason to believe that the former minister of foreign affairs, Jeremy Ford, was a member of the WDA, and fled Canada when the LieDeck threatened to expose him. U.S. President Barker and I will have more to say about this international conspiracy when there has been some headway in our respective investigations.
I have named Senator Joseph Cadbury to the cabinet, as Minister Without Portfolio, to head a new Human Futures Secretariat. There will be a press conference in a few days, at which time Senator Cadbury will announce the precise mandate of this new body and the reasons for its formation.
As for the rest of the cabinet, I foresee no changes in the immediate future. I will retain the defense portfolio for the moment, and I am naming Ms. Bertha McNeil as minister of foreign affairs and as deputy prime minister. Her former post at Agriculture will be filled later.
Questions?
The questions were inevitable and rude.
CBC: Why did you lie when you said that Louis St. Aubin has resigned for personal reasons?
Global: Why did you call Louis St. Aubin your “good friend” when he's not?
CTV: Why did you say that you respected his contribution to Canada and the world when you don't?
CKBY: Why did you say that you can't elaborate on these so-called dark clouds that you see on the horizon, when in fact you can?
Radio Canada: Why did you say that you didn't plan any changes for cabinet when you do plan changes?
After each question, Prime Minister Godfrey just stood, still as a sentry, while his staff scribbled notes. It only took a second of silence to prompt the next reporter to ask the next question, and all the while, Godfrey simply stared at his accusers, one by one. When they finally ran out of LieDeck-verified fibs to ask him about, he moved slightly closer to the microphones, and spoke.
Godfrey: You said you had turned your LieDecks off, but you didn't. You just switched them to the pin mode. I said I'd answer your questions, but I won't. That makes us about even. Let it be known that in future, any reporter who trains a LieDeck on me will not have a single question answered for as long as I'm prime minister. I have thought carefully about this, and I refuse to conduct the business of this proud and great nation in a whisper. That is all.
With that, Godfrey stormed from the room.
Lochart: Well, you heard it. We have a very tough new prime minister on this rainy April afternoon, and we have no explanation as to why Louis St. Aubin suddenly resigned. The American diplomat who was arrested has been linked to an organization called the World Democratic Alliance, that Prime Minister Nick Godfrey has described as “secret and subversive” and an “international conspiracy.” Jeremy Ford, who is still missing, has also been linked publicly to the WDA. Senator Cadbury is now in the cabinet to head what seems to be a new department of the government, the Human Futures Secretariat. Louis St. Aubin and Ralph Dellaire are off to Australia, without so much as a word as to why they resigned. Prime Minister Godfrey is keeping the defense portfolio for the moment, and Bertha McNeil, the former minister of agriculture—she is widely considered a junior minister with modest credentials—has been named Minister of Foreign Affairs, and also given the lofty position of Deputy Prime Minister.
The most striking development for me has to be Nick Godfrey's handling of the LieDeck question. We've never had a prime minist
er who stood up to the press in that way. I have no idea where such a challenge will lead, but for the record, I'll tell you that I didn't have my LieDeck turned on while he spoke ... nor will I in future.
Marshall: Thank you so much for that report, Katie. We will turn now to our panel of experts for their reactions.
Well, that was quite a remarkable performance. I don't know exactly what the Prime Minister meant when he referred to “dark clouds on the horizon” or “storms that may tear at the rigging of the ship of state.” Nicholas Godfrey is not known for fanciful flights of rhetoric. Certainly it is alarming to realize what strange things are happening in Canada and the world, but it sounds to me like there's something else happening, something dangerous, something that he isn't prepared to talk about yet. Any ideas?
The experts included university professors, political hacks, and the usual collection of FIPs and SIPs: formerly-important-persons and semi-important-persons. This format had often produced partisan or personal body shots in the past, but today there was unanimity. The new LieDeck device had to be behind the indecipherable allusions to ominous clouds and storms.
After they agreed that they knew nothing of St. Aubin's reasons for resigning, the debate shifted to the LieDeck itself, to the unprecedented explosion of news events that were linked to or caused by the device.
There had been eight murders, contract killings by all appearances, in the last twenty-four hours: six in Montreal and two in Toronto-just in Canada. The speculation from the panel was that some members of the underworld had obtained LieDecks and were finding things out and settling accounts.
Several senior civil servants had followed the former minister of foreign affairs and disappeared, presumably to save their slimy skins before the LieDeck uncovered illegal activities that they were involved with.
Mini-scandals were breaking out hourly, and many politicians were still following the advice of the former prime minister, whispering in public, especially to the media. Some reporters were refusing to talk to elected officials or public servants who didn't have the guts to use their vocal cords. Most journalists felt that people generally, and politicians in particular, should not have to accept the application of a lie detector every time they opened their mouths. That smacked of “guilty until proven innocent.” It was insulting, unfair, and there was a broad concern that it might even be illegal under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted by Parliament in 1981. Still, it was like steroids in Major League Baseball and other sports—if you want to be competitive, you have to use all of the tools at your disposal.
It was assumed by the whole panel that the discovery of the secret and subversive organization that Godfrey had referred to, the WDA, could also be attributed to the LieDeck. It had been learned in the past hour that the high-ranking RCMP officer who had committed suicide was the head of the Commercial Crime Division, Roy Taggart, and the panel assumed that he must have been involved with the WDA as well. They also made the connection between the WDA and the attack, five days earlier, on the Whiteside estate, and they noted that there was an unconfirmed report that eighteen other RCMP officers had been placed under arrest—the entire senior staff of the Commercial Crime Division.
The media tradition of not reporting suicides for fear of triggering other suicides was openly questioned by the panel. One expert felt moved to tell Canadians they shouldn't panic over the invention of the LieDeck. The unspoken message seemed to be that there had been a dramatic surge of people taking the easy way out. Sales of the 1991 best-seller Final Exit, a how-to book on taking one's own life, had reportedly soared as many people prepared for the real possibility that their reputations, jobs, and marriages might soon be shredded by the LieDeck.
Armed clashes, also attributed indirectly to the LieDeck, had broken out in fourteen countries, mostly in Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, and South-East Asia. The grievances behind these skirmishes were not new, but every faction of every old conflict was suddenly discovering infiltrators and traitors, even before they had an actual LieDeck of their own. They were apparently using the beepers on their watches and electronic pagers to pretend they had a LieDeck operating, and tricking people into admitting things. Security agencies were doing the same on behalf of governments, and taping statements and conversations for LieDeck-verification later. Several governments had banned the importation of LieDecks by citizens and corporations, all while ordering large numbers for official use. It was rumored that LieDeck-related purges, rarely based on the actual LieDeck-verification of anything, had begun inside the fundamentalist wings of various religions, and the panel expected similar purges to begin within political parties and corporations, especially in unstable parts of the world.
Several more UN ambassadors had defected to other countries or had “disappeared.” Canada was still the only country to actually withdraw from the world body, but it was obvious that there was a very serious problem there. The panel assumed that the difficulty in the United Nations had to be connected with the World Democratic Alliance, whatever that turned out to be. There was a collective sense among the panel members that Godfrey had a duty—a duty he had failed to honor—to cough up a few details on what the WDA was.
Police organizations all across Canada and in other countries were bracing for a shock wave to hit the moment LieDecks became available to the general public. Since the first radio advertisements promoting the device had aired Monday, three days ago, Whiteside Technologies had received 58,000 pre-paid orders—many more than it could fill. The ads were now running in ten other countries, in six languages other than English. Credible voices were suggesting that Whiteside should be prevented from proceeding with the sale of the device for a cooling-off period.
The panel guessed that the new Human Futures Secretariat, to be headed by Senator Joe Cadbury, had to be aimed at coping with the impact of the LieDeck. They agreed that this was a sound idea, but they wondered if it would do much good in the short term.
As for Cold War II, that seemed to be anybody's guess. The worst-case scenario was too horrible to contemplate, nuclear war. The hotline between Moscow and Washington, established in the 1960s by John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, was still in place, and had been upgraded to the latest ultra-redundant high-tech specs. The media commentators hoped that it would be used to good effect in the days and weeks ahead, if the need arose.
And there was the impact on the War on Terror to consider, although that war had been reduced to a background noise in recent years—half a year of peace, followed by half a dozen coordinated explosions and a heap of dead civilians. There was no possible “hotline” connection with Osama bin Laden, who was still alive, somewhere. Still, as the panel reminded the audience, there had been a flurry of recent articles about how, maybe, the LieDeck could be used to convince suicide bombers that no self-respecting god would promise automatic entrance into any heaven as the reward for murder.
After all the speculations and calculations, the television screen split into nine boxes, with Trent Marshall's face in the middle box.
Marshall: I think you would all agree that we face difficult times ahead?
Dumb question, they all thought.
"Yes,” they all said.
Chapter 40
IT'S THE PRESIDENT!
Jacques Lafontaine, Nick Godfrey's chief of staff, stuck his head through the doorway of the PMO and waited. Godfrey heard him, but didn't look up. He had some unwinding to do after the press conference, and he felt overwhelmed. Not by the job—by the LieDeck.
"Yes,” he said impatiently.
"It's the President!” said Lafontaine. “Line one."
"Mr. President,” said the prime minister deferentially as he picked up the receiver and waved Lafontaine out the door. “What can I do for you?"
"Prime Minister,” said Leroy Barker, “congratulations on your new job."
"Thank you very much, Mr. President,” said Godfrey. “I accept the challenge gladly, but I must say I'm awfully concern
ed about this WDA thing."
"Well, that's what I'm calling about,” said Barker. “We can't seem to get it under control. We know how we're going to handle it, but we need at least a dozen more of those LieDecks down here if we're going to catch these characters before they can kill themselves or go into hiding. All I have is the one that was given to our ambassador at the UN and one other one that we bought from a Canadian reporter, who got it free from Mr. Whiteside. We have some on order at the Whiteside plant that we can pick up tomorrow, but I need them today. In fact I need them by yesterday, if you know what I mean? I had my VP call Randall Whiteside personally, and Whiteside told the Vice President of the United States of America to wait his bloody turn ... politely, I should say, but I expected more from the man. Now, I've sent a fighter jet to Uplands Airport in Ottawa. Can you see to it that a dozen or so LieDecks are waiting there for him? He'll be there in half an hour."
Godfrey was puzzled. The President hadn't said a word about the fact that Canada had arrested and was still detaining General George Brampton, even though he obviously had diplomatic immunity. Barker could have used that as leverage to get the LieDecks, but he didn't. He didn't even complain about it. “Consider it done, Mr. President,” he said. “Can you tell me more about how you intend to deal with the WDA situation?"
"Just like that Committee on UnAmerican Activities that McCarthy set up to suss out Commies back in the nineteen fifties, Prime Minister. Of course Joe McCarthy was nuts, but what we got here is an unconstitutional and very dangerous conspiracy which could destabilize the entire world. I've got no compunctions about LieDecking any number of people and forcing them to rat on their friends in the WDA, if that's what it takes. It's show-no-mercy time down here, at least on this item. How are you proceeding up there?"
That was probably the first time anyone had used the word “LieDeck” as a verb, and although Godfrey was relieved to realize that the U.S. president was not part of the WDA conspiracy, he was uncomfortable with the possibility that this new device could lead to the kind of Cold War I witch-hunt that had destroyed many thousands of innocent lives in the bad old days of McCarthyism.