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Harry feigned attention to his jPad at a corner table, using every ounce of effort to keep control. Hearing André voice the negotiating words he should be speaking felt so disjointing. He loosened his tie yet could still feel his wet shirt inside his suit jacket, in spite of the cool air in the Prime Minister’s plane. His mind repeated over and over the cardinal rules of negotiating. When on defense, show concern, listen attentively yet defer judgement and postpone commitment into the political future if at all possible. Great theory. God, shit, fuck!
What they’ll tell Minister Kendall’s office was hard to fathom. Fuck, fuck ,fuck. The brain storming session in the limo with Paul and André had not gone off well. When he asked for ideas on what could be said to best inform the Minister, all he got was André’s most recent research on geoengineering. The implications were horrendous. Extreme weather events past adaptation he kept repeating. The southern Alberta floods. Why did he keep harping on those? Predicted long ago to be brought on by climate change, André said, and they could supposedly be reduced by global cooling. So the HICCC could even be perceived to be helping Canada. That was such bullshit! “Why didn’t you keep me up to date?” he had demanded. “You would never respond,” André said. “You showed no interest in my reports.” Harry had scowled. There were no floods in Ottawa! But he couldn’t help thinking now of their Ottawa house and their planned move to a new neighbourhood. Should they move to higher ground? Was Vanier North above the flood plain?
Focus.
He looked across the oval conference room. His assistants appeared to nodded their heads as they listened to the engineer. At least they would gather information. God, fuck, shit. Not just to disclose to the Minister’s office, but Minister Kendall was going to require solid suggestions on how to speak to the Prime Minister’s office. Minister Kendall’s office will be grilling him on that soon. He could only imagine what the Prime Minister or whoever he assigns to speak would say at COP for Christ’s sakes.