'Of course she has! Didn't you notice the bit about recognizing our traditional concern for the security of termini of the Junction?' Descroix demanded. The Prime Minister nodded, and she shrugged. 'That's very close to offering us the same arrangement we enjoy in Gregor. Admittedly, that sort of arrangement falls far short of anything we could finally accept, since we've already asserted outright sovereignty over the entire system, so I suppose it could be argued that it's actually a ploy to avoid recognizing that sovereignty. But it also moves at least one step towards us, and I think it's a way of signaling us that she's still open to a settlement on the system which we can accept. And the offer to cede those naval bases in the systems around Trevor's Star is probably another. She's showing us the carrot at the same time as she's trying to beat us with the stick, Michael.'
'And this business about the possible recall of her negotiating team for 'consultations'? That's more of the stick?'
'Mostly. It's not as subtle a threat, though. Especially not coupled with their admission of their improved naval capabilities.'
'You think they might seriously contemplate breaking off the negotiating process completely if we don't begin caving in?'
'Probably not permanently,' Descroix said slowly. 'I think Pritchart might consider doing that temporarily— long enough to make her point. But I doubt that she's any more eager to start shooting at us again than we are to start shooting at them.'
'But you might be wrong,' High Ridge said, unable to completely hide his anxiety.
'Of course I might,' Descroix said testily. 'Obviously, I don't think I am, however, or I wouldn't have said it in the first place!'
'I understand.' High Ridge's fingers drummed lightly on his desktop, then he inhaled deeply.
'Clarence brought me the new poll figures this morning,' he said. 'Have you seen them?'
'Not today's, no. But I imagine the trend lines are pretty much what they've been being.'
'By and large,' the Prime Minister agreed. 'The number of people who say they believe there's an immediate military threat from Haven has dropped almost another full percentage point. Approval for the annexation of Lynx is holding steady at almost eighty-five percent. For that matter, those who say they would approve the annexation of the entire Talbott Cluster are up above seventy percent. But those who anticipate the successful negotiation of a formal peace treaty with Haven have dropped another half percentage point. This—' he waved a hand at the note '—is only going to make that worse.'
'Of course it is,' Descroix said impatiently. 'That's one of the things Pritchart is after. But if we let her stampede us into agreeing to her demands and signing that treaty, then we're going to have to call that general election none of us wants to call, Michael.'
High Ridge's jaw muscles tightened angrily at her lecturing tone, but he forced himself not to snap at her.
'I am aware of that,' he said, instead. The very calmness with which he replied rebuked her gently, but he didn't let the rebuke linger.
'My point,' he went on, 'was that I'm beginning to wonder if we might not want to make a few cosmetic concessions. Something to bring Pritchard back to the table and simultaneously bolster the public's faith in the negotiation process.'
'If we were going to do that, we should already have done it,' Descroix replied. 'Something along those lines would probably be a good idea in the long run, but I'd really prefer not to do it right on the heels of this note. The language in this thing is pretty stiff, Michael. If we turn around and make concessions—any concessions—after the Republic's head of state has formally complained about our 'deceptive, intentionally obstructionist refusal to negotiate in good faith,' we give up our claim to the high ground. The momentum moves towards Pritchart's side of the table, and public opinion, both here and in the Republic, will probably see her as the positive force pushing the negotiations. Manticorans may not approve of her language, or even her methods, but if we give ground, we seem to be admitting that her basic accusations are accurate, after all. All of which will only make it harder for us to put the brakes back on later without provoking an even more negative reaction than the one you're worrying about right now.'
'Um.' High Ridge frowned. He considered her argument, then nodded slowly, but his frown remained.
'I see your logic. But it's going to be hard to convince Marisa of it.'
'Marisa!' Descroix snorted contemptuously.
'Yes, Marisa. Whatever you may think, we still need the Liberals, and when Marisa sees this—' he indicated the text of the note again '—it's going to be very difficult to convince her that we can't make at least some concessions. You and I may understand the necessity of not giving in, but she has to consider the more . . . unruly members of her party. Especially now that Montaigne is making so many waves in the Commons.'
'In that case, don't show it to her,' Descroix shot back. 'She's so good at closing her eyes to things it would be inconvenient for her to see. Why not take advantage of that with this?'
'Don't think I wouldn't like to do exactly that. But everyone in the Star Kingdom knows by now that Pritchart's sent us a fresh note. And if we don't make its contents public, in at least general terms, you can be certain that someone—Grosclaude himself, most probably—will see to it that a copy of the original gets leaked to the Opposition. And the 'faxes. But before we make anything public, we're going to have to share the original with the entire Cabinet. Which means Marisa.'
'Let me think about that for a little while,' Descroix said after a moment. 'You're probably right. I don't much like the thought of listening to her piss and moan about her precious 'principles' and the potential danger of Theisman's new fleet. God knows she's been willing enough to share the advantages of stalling the talks! I just think it would be nice if she were willing to shoulder a little of the responsibility, maybe even risk getting her own lily-white hands just a tiny bit soiled doing the dirty work someone has to do. But that doesn't make you wrong about what would happen if we didn't brief her in on this.'
The Foreign Secretary gazed off into the distance for several seconds, staring at something only she could see, then snorted softly.
'You know,' she mused, 'you and I are the only members of the Cabinet who have actually seen this thing.'
'That's exactly what we've just been talking about, isn't it?' High Ridge's brow furrowed in confusion, and she chuckled.
'Of course it is. But it's just occurred to me that there's no reason I couldn't do a little judicious scissors work on Pritchart's more . . . objectionable turns of phrase before I handed it to someone like Marisa.'
High Ridge looked at her in shock. She gazed back at him, then grimaced.
'Let's not start getting holier than thou, Michael!'
'But—I mean, falsifying diplomatic notes—'
'No one's talking about falsifying anything,' she interrupted. 'I wouldn't insert a single word. For that matter, I wouldn't even change any of them. I'd just . . . prune out a few passages completely.'
'And if Pritchart publishes the text herself?'
'I vote we cross that bridge when we come to it. If we release a paraphrase that conveys the same basic information but without using her hardline language, she'll probably let it go. My sense is that she'd cut us some face-saving slack in that regard. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.' She shrugged. 'Be honest, Michael. Do you really think we'd have a lot more trouble holding Marisa if Pritchart published the entire text later than if we showed it to her ourselves right now?'
'Probably not,' he conceded finally. 'But I don't like this, Elaine. Not a bit.'
'I don't like it very much myself; I just like the alternatives less.'
'Even if it works, it's only a temporary fix,' he pointed out fretfully.
'As I see it, those poll trend lines you were just talking about suggest that if we can string Pritchart along for a few more months, long enough to actually push the Lynx annexation through, maybe even move beyond Lynx to the rest of the cluster, we should manage to cement enough public support behind us for even Marisa to be able to weather any concern over how we're handling negotiations with Haven. In the meantime, Edward will have time to get more of his new SD(P)s and CLACs out of the yards, which will go a long way towards offsetting Theisman's new ships. If we pull both of those off, then I think we may actually be able to move the polls far enough in our favor that we can afford to risk that damned election at last. And if we can get to that point, then we can go ahead
