In High Places Read online

  Afterwards Milly reflected: was disenchantment infectious? Could the great Mr Martening be about to join the parade of senior civil servants who had left the ranks of government for higher-paying industrial jobs? The question made her wonder about herself. Was this a time for departure; a time for change before it became too late for change?

  She was still wondering four hours later as the members of the cabinet Defence Committee began to assemble in the Prime Minister's office suite on Parliament Hill. Dressed in a smartly tailored grey suit with a white blouse, Milly ushered them in.

  General Nesbitson had been last to arrive, his balding, pudgy figure wrapped in a heavy overcoat and scarf. Helping him off with them, Milly had been shocked to see how unwell the old man appeared and now, as if to confirm the opinion, he suddenly began a coughing spell into his handkerchief.

  Milly poured some ice water from a carafe and held it out. The old warrior sipped it, nodding gratefully. After an interval and more coughing, he managed to gasp, 'Excuse me - this blasted catarrh. Always get it when I have to stay the winter in Ottawa. Used to take a winter holiday down south. Can't get away now, with so many important things going on.'

  Next year, maybe, Milly thought.

  'A Merry Christmas, Adrian.' Stuart Cawston had joined them, his amiably ugly features beaming, as usual, like an illuminated sign.

  Lucien Perrault spoke from behind him. 'And such a one to be wishing it, whose taxes pierce our souls like daggers.' Jauntily handsome, with a shock of black curls, bristling moustache, and a humorous eye, Perrault was as fluent in English as in French. At times - though not now - his manner betrayed a touch of hauteur, reminder of his seigneurial ancestors. At thirty-eight, and the youngest member of Cabinet, his influence was actually much stronger than indicated by the comparatively minor office he held. But the Defence Production Ministry had been Perrault's own choosing, and since it was one of the three patronage ministries (the others. Public Works and Transport), by ensuring that plum contracts went to the party's financial supporters, his influence in the party hierarchy was considerable.

  'You shouldn't have your soul so near your bank account, Lucien,' the Finance Minister rejoined. 'In any case I'm Santa Claus to you fellows. You and Adrian here are the ones who buy the expensive toys.'

  'But they explode with such a remarkable bang,' Lucien Perrault said. 'Moreover, my friend, in Defence Production we create much work and employment which bring you more taxes than ever.'

  'There's an economic theory tied in there somewhere,' Cawston said. 'Too bad I've never understood it.'

  The office intercom buzzed and Milly answered. Metallically James Howden's voice announced, 'The meeting will be in the Privy Council chamber. I'll be there in a moment.'

  Milly saw the Finance Minister's eyebrows rise with mild surprise. Most small policy meetings aside from the full Cabinet usually took place informally in the Prime Minister's office. But obediently the group filed out into the corridor towards the Privy Council chamber a few yards away.

  As Milly closed her office door behind Perrault, the last to leave, the Bourbon Bell of the Peace Tower carillon was chiming eleven.

  Unusually, she found herself wondering what to do. There was plenty of accumulated work, but on Christmas Eve she felt disinclined to begin anything new. All of the seasonal things - routine Christmas telegrams to the Queen, Commonwealth Prime Ministers, and heads of friendly governments -had been prepared and typed yesterday for early dispatch today. Anything else, she decided, could wait until after the holiday.

  Her earrings were being bothersome and she slipped them off. They were pearl, like small round buttons. She had never been fond of jewellery and knew it did nothing for her. The one thing she had learned - jewellery or nor - was that she was attractive to men, though she had never quite known why ...

  The phone on her desk buzzed and she answered it. It was Brian Richardson.

  'Milly,' the party director said, 'has the defence meeting started?'

  'They just went in.'

  'Goddam!' Richardson sounded out of breath, as if he had been hurrying. Abruptly he asked, 'Did the chief say anything to you about the blow-up last night?'

  'What blow-up?'

  'Obviously he didn't. There was practically a fist fight at the GG's. Harvey Warrender blew his cork - dipped generously in alcohol, I gather.'

  Shocked, Milly said, 'At Government House? The reception?'

  'That's the word around town.'

  'But why Mr Warrender?'

  'I'm curious too,' Richardson admitted. 'I've a notion it might have been because of something I said the other day.'

  'What?'

  'About immigration. Warrender's department has been getting us a stinking bad press. I asked the chief to lay some law down.'

  Milly smiled. 'Perhaps he laid it down too heavily.'

  'It ain't funny, kid. Brawling between cabinet ministers doesn't win elections. I'd better talk to the chief as soon as he's free, Milly. And there's another thing you can warn him about: unless Harvey Warrender pulls his finger out fast we're heading for more immigration trouble on the West Coast. I know there's a lot sizzling right now, but this is important too.'

  'What kind of trouble?'

  'I had a call from one of my people out there this morning,' Richardson said. 'It seems the Vancouver Post has broken a story about a jerk stowaway who claims he isn't getting a fair deal from Immigration. My man says some goddam writer is sobbing all over page one. It's exactly the kind of case I've been warning everybody about.'

  'Is he getting a fair deal - the stowaway?'

  'For Christ sake, who cares?' The party director's voice rattled sharply into the receiver. 'All I want is for him to quit being news. If the only way to shut the papers up is by letting the bastard in, then let's admit him and have done with it.'

  'My!' Milly said. 'You are in a forceful mood.'

  'If I am,' Richardson snapped back, 'it's because sometimes ^ I get downright weary of stupid hicks like Warrender who ,, make political farts and then look for me to clear up the mess.' "j

  'Apart from the vulgarity,' Milly said lightly, 'isn't that a mixed metaphor?' She found the rough edge to Brian Richardson's tongue and character refreshing after the professional smoothness and spoken cliches of most politicians she met. Perhaps it was this, Milly thought, which had made her think ' more warmly of Richardson of late - more so, in fact, than she had ever intended.

  The feeling had begun six months earlier when the party director had begun to ask her out on dates. At first, uncertain whether she liked him or not, Milly had accepted out of curiosity. But later the curiosity had turned to liking and, on the evening a month or so ago which had ended in her apartment, to physical attraction.

  Milly's sexual appetite was healthy enough but not enormous, which was sometimes, she thought, just as well. She had known a number of men since her feverish year with James Howden, but the occasions ending in her bedroom had been few and far between, reserved only for those for whom Milly felt genuine affection. She had never taken the view, as some did, that romping into bed should be a thank-you-for-the-evening gesture, and perhaps it was this hard-to-get quality which attracted men as much as her casual, sensual charm. But in any case the night with Richardson, which ended surprisingly as it had, did little to satisfy her and merely demonstrated that Brian Richardson's roughness extended to more than his tongue. Afterwards she thought of it as a mistake...

  They had had no other meeting since and, in the meantime, Milly had resolved firmly that she would not fall in love, for a second time, with a married man.

  Now Richardson's voice on the telephone said, 'If they were all as smart as you, doll, my life would be a dream. Some of these people think public relations is sexual intercourse between the masses. Anyway, have the chief call me as soon as his meeting's over, eh? I'll wait in the office.'

  'Will do.'

  'And Milly.'

  'Yes.'

  'How would it be i
f I dropped around this evening? Say sevenish?'

  There was a silence. Then Milly said doubtfully, 'I don't know.'

  'What don't you know?' Richardson's voice held a matter-of-factness; the tone of one not intending to be put off. 'Had you planned anything?'

  'No,' Milly said, 'but...' She hesitated. 'Isn't it a tradition to spend Christmas Eve at home?'

  Richardson laughed, though the laugh had a hollowness. 'H that's all that worries you - forget it. I can assure you Eloise has made her own arrangements for Christmas Eve and they don't include me. In fact she'd be grateful to you for making sure I can't intrude.'

  Still Milly hesitated, remembering her own decision. But now ... she wavered; it might be a long while ... Stalling for rime she said, 'Is all this wise? Switchboards have ears.'

  'Then let's not give 'em too much to flap about,' Richardson said crisply. 'Seven o'clock?'

  Half-unwillingly, 'All right,' Milly said, and hung up. Out of habit, after phoning, she replaced her earrings.

  For a moment or two she remained by the desk, one hand touching the telephone as if a thread of contact still remained. Then, her expression pensive, she moved over to the high arched window overlooking the front courtyard of the Parliament Buildings.

  Since she had come in earlier, the sky had darkened and it had begun to snow. Now, in thick white flakes, the snow was blanketing the nation's capital. From the window she could see the heart of it: the Peace Tower, sheer and lean against the leaden sky, gauntly surmounting the House of Commons and Senate; the square gothic towers of the West Block and, behind, the Confederation Building, hunched hugely like some sombre fortress; the colonnaded Rideau Club nudging the white sandstone US Embassy; and Wellington Street in front, its traffic - as of habit - snarled. At times, it could be a stern, grey scene - symbolic, Milly sometimes thought, of the Canadian climate and character. Now, in the clothing of winter, its hardness and angularity were already blurring into softness. The forecasters had been right, she thought. Ottawa was in for a white Christmas.

  Her earrings still hurt. For the second time she took them off.

  Chapter 2

  Serious-faced, James Howden entered the high-ceilinged, beige-carpeted Privy Council chamber. The others - Cawston, Lexington, Nesbitson, Perrault, and Martening - were already seated near the head of the big oval table with its twenty-four carved-oak and red-leather chairs, scene of most decisions affecting Canadian history since Confederation. Off to one side, at a smaller table, a shorthand writer had appeared - a small, self-effacing man with pince-nez, an open notebook, and a row of sharpened pencils.

  At the approach of the Prime Minister the five already in the room made to rise, but Howden waved them down, moving to the tall-backed, thronelike chair at the table's head. 'Smoke if you wish,' he said. Then pushing back the chair, he remained standing, and for a moment silent. When he began, his tone was businesslike.

  'I ordered our meeting to be held in this chamber, gentlemen, for one purpose: as a reminder of the oaths of secrecy which all of you took on becoming Privy Councillors. What is to be said here is of utmost secrecy, and must remain so until the proper moment, even among our closest colleagues.' James Howden paused, glancing at the official reporter. 'I believe it might be best if we dispensed with a stenographic record.'

  'Excuse me. Prime Minister.' It was Douglas Martening, his intellectual's face owlish behind big horn-rimmed spectacles. As always the Clerk of the Privy Council was respectful but definite: 'I think it might be better if we had recorded minutes. It avoids any disagreement subsequently about who said exactly what.'

  Faces at the centre table turned towards the shorthand writer, who was carefully recording the discussion concerning his own presence. Martening added, 'The minutes will be safeguarded, and Mr McQuillan, as you know, has been trusted with many secrets in the past.'

  'Yes, indeed.' James Howden's response was cordial with a touch of his public presence. 'Mr McQuillan is an old friend.' With a slight flush the subject of their discussion looked up, catching the Prime Minister's eye.

  'Very well,' Howden conceded, 'let the meeting be recorded, but in view of the occasion I must remind the reporter of the applicability of the Official Secrets Act. I imagine you're familiar with the act, McQuillan?'

  'Yes, sir.' Conscientiously the reporter recorded the query and his own response.

  His glance ranging over the others, Howden brought his thoughts into focus. Last night's preparation had shown him clearly the sequence of steps he must follow in advance of the Washington meeting. One essential, to be achieved early on, was persuasion of others in Cabinet to his own views, and that was why he had brought this small group together first. If he could obtain agreement here, he would then have a hard core of support which could influence the remaining ministers to give him their endorsement. ^

  James Howden hoped that the five men facing him would share his views and see the issues and alternatives clearly. It could be disastrous if the fulminations of lesser brains than his own resulted in needless delay.

  'There can no longer be any doubt,' the Prime Minister said, 'of Russia's immediate intention. If there were ever any doubt, events these past few months have surely dispelled it. Last week's alliance between the Kremlin and Japan; before that, the Communist coups in India and Egypt and now the satellite regimes; our further concessions on Berlin; the Moscow-Peking axis with its threats to Australasia; the increase in missile bases aimed at North America - all these admit to only one equation. The Soviet programme of world domination is moving to its climax, not in fifty years or twenty years, as we once comfortably supposed, but now, in our generation and within this decade.

  'Naturally, Russia would prefer its victory without recourse to war. But it's equally plain that the gamble of war may be undertaken if the West holds out and the Kremlin's objectives can be reached in no other way.'

  There was a reluctant murmur of assent. Now he continued. 'Russian strategy has never been afraid of casualties. Historically their regard for human life is notably less than our own and they are prepared not to be afraid now. Many people, of course -- in this country and elsewhere - will continue to have hope, just as there was hope that someday Hitler would stop gobbling Europe of his own accord. I do not criticize hope; it is a sentiment to be cherished. But here among us we cannot afford its luxury and must plan, unequivocally, for our defence and for survival.'

  As he spoke, James Howden was remembering his words to Margaret of the night before. What was it he had said? Survival is worthwhile, because survival means living, and living is an adventure. He hoped it would be true, in the future as well as now.

  He went on, 'What I have said, of course, is not news. Nor is it news that in some degree our defences have been integrated with those of the United States. But what will be news is that within the past forty-eight hours a proposal has been ', made, directly to me by the US President, for a measure of integration as far-reaching as it is dramatic.'

  Swiftly, perceptibly there was a sharpening of interest around the table. 'Before I tell you the nature of the proposal,' Howden said, speaking carefully, 'there is some other ground I wish to be covered.' He turned to the External Affairs Minister. 'Arthur, shortly before we came in here, I asked for your assessment of present world relations. I'd like you to repeat your answer.'

  'Very well. Prime Minister.' Arthur Lexington laid down a cigarette lighter he had been turning over in his hand. His cherubic face was unusually solemn. Glancing to left and right in turn, he said evenly, 'In my opinion, international tension at the moment is more serious and dangerous than at any other time since 1939.'

  The calm, precise words had honed an edge of tension. Lucien Perrault said softly, 'Are things really that bad?'

  'Yes,' Lexington responded, 'I'm convinced they are. I agree it's difficult to accept, because we've been poised on a needle point so long that we're used to crises as a daily habit. But eventually there comes a point beyond crisis. I think we're clos
e to it now.' '

  Stuart Cawston said lugubriously, 'Things must have been easier fifty years ago. At least the threats of war were spaced at decent intervals.'

  'Yes.' There was tiredness in Lexington's voice. 'I suppose they were.'

  'Then a new war...' It was Perrault's question. He left it unfinished.

  'My own opinion,' Arthur Lexington said, 'is that despite the present situation we shall not have war for a year. It could be longer. As a precaution, however, I have warned my ambassadors to be ready to burn their papers.'

  'That's for the old kind of war,' Cawston said. 'With all your diplomatic doodads.' He produced a tobacco pouch and a pipe, which he began to fill.

  Lexington shrugged. He gave a faint smile. 'Perhaps.'

  For a calculated interval James Howden had relaxed his dominance of the group. Now, as if gathering reins, he resumed it.

  'My own views,' the Prime Minister said firmly, 'are identical with those of Arthur. So identical, that I have ordered immediate partial occupancy of the government's emergency Quarters. Your own departments will receive secret memoranda on the subject within the next few days.' At the audible gasp which followed, Howden added severely, 'Better too much too early than too little too late.'

  Without waiting for comment he continued, 'What I have to say next is new, but we must remind ourselves of our own position when a third world war begins.'

  He surveyed the others through the haze of smoke which was beginning to fill the room. 'In the state of affairs today, Canada can neither wage war - at least, as an independent country - nor can we remain neutral. We have not the capacity for the first, nor the geography for the second. I offer this, not as opinion, but as a fact of life.'

  The eyes around the table were fixed steadfastly upon his own. So far, he observed, there had been no gesture of dissension. But that could come later. 'Our own defences,' Howden said, 'have been, and are, of a token nature only. And it is no secret that the United States budget for Canadian defence, though not high as defence budgets go, is greater by far than the total of our own.'