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Red Vicar ostentatiously selling off his possessions (some of which were surely Anglican church property), announcing that the proceeds would go to feed and clothe the poor in his parish. It was a very early memory, and literally forced her to wonder how many homeless could be housed, and for how long, for the cost of the royal French table around which they had gathered. For some reason, the thought made her want to giggle. It must be the pill, she thought, trying to compose herself. |
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General Bolton leaned forward and said to Anna, "One of our satellites tracked a Russian missile submarine from Hudson Channel to the Caribbean last January, Mrs. Neville." |
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He seemed to be waiting for some comment from her, so she said, "Colonel Morgan told me of that sighting, General." |
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Bolton looked discomfited. "Yes. Well. The main point is, we believe that this submarine was the same boat that you and your husband discovered in Hudson Bay, and that shot you down." |
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"That may or may not be so, General. It is true I saw a submarine before we were struck. I'm not sure even now of its nationality. Pierre Grau, my lawyer, was convinced that it was American." |
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Bolton's voice rose. "Your lawyer was a Russian-trained, dues-paying member in good standing of the Canadian Committee for Nuclear Disinvestmentwhich is, as I am sure you know, a clone descendant of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, which spent most of the years of the cold war trying to strip the West of weapons that we needed to confront the threat posed by the Russians, Mrs. Neville." |
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Anna looked at him with distaste. "General Bolton, Pierre Grau is dead. He can't defend himself." |
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"General Bolton is telling the truth, Mrs. Neville. Pierre Grau has been known to us as an agent of influence, a secret member of the Communist party of Canada, for a long while," Heloise Duquesne said. "It is a fact." |
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Two against one, Anna thought, ganging up on me. Calm |
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