Ted Underwood woke that morning thinking he would have the whole day to attend to other matters. On the television in the main area of his suite the announcer broke into the regular programming with a ‘…live breaking story out of Ottawa…’ Now what, thought Ted. He finished shaving quickly and walked in to listen.
‘…..yes, that’s right. We are expecting a comment from Ottawa soon - apparently the Provinces of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island have announced that they have formed an unusual alliance - all three Provinces will be holding a Referendum on the same day, March 15th , and in anticipation of a Yes vote, will all become US States – the 55th 56th and 57th – for those of you keeping track – and that will pretty much take care of the eastern seaboard of what used to be a large country called Canada. Let’s reflect for a moment….’"No, let’s not." Ted clicked off the television.
Events were moving faster than he had anticipated. His sources had mentioned nothing of a combined effort by those Provinces, but with everything happening, he felt lucky anybody was talking to anybody about anything. He made a few notes, then picked up the phone and dialed.
"You have reached the offices of Elliot Stevens. Please leave a message, Mr. Stevens will return your call." After the beep, he quickly said, "Elliot, this is Ted. Please give me or Gloria a call. Thanks."
Ted next made contact with Hank’s secretary, who said that Mr. MacDougall would be gone until evening. Ted left the message that he should call Gloria Townsend.
"Third time’s a charm." He quickly dialled Gloria’s private number; she picked it up on the second ring.
"Good morning, Ted. Yes, I was watching it. Yes, I thought we’d have more time too. Oh – all right, good. If I don’t hear from either of them shortly, I’ll find them tonight….England? Oh God, Ted. Are you sure we are at that point? Is there nothing that can be done to stop the collapse?….Yes, I agree. How long will you be gone? That should be fine. See you in a week."
Gloria hung up the phone, clicked off the television and sat down. The full impact of what was happening had finally settled in. She, Hank and Elliot had enjoyed their think-tank sessions over the years, exploring various world scenarios. One of their favourites had been, ‘What if the States totally assimilated Canada?’ It was Elliot that had quickly offered, "Hell, we could just start our own Canada – here – on the island," and the game of the day was set. None of them had ever dreamed it would actually happen, nor would they ever want, or work towards those events occurring. Privately, Gloria was horrified that some kind of cosmic karma was causing Canada to fall – like they had staged it in their debates.
After booking his flights, Ted went down to use the secure phone in the car for his next call. "Hey Adam, did you watch TV this morning?"
"Yes, what does that do to scheduling?"
"It means we have to accelerate. We’ll need everything up and running in three months, tops. I think we have that much time, maybe more, but we can’t count on it."
"That’s what I figured. It should be close but okay. The Control Centre’s ready – I’m headed there now. It’s all tested out and good for cut-over. The installations in the north were done last fall, ahead of the bad weather so they’re ready. The programmers just finished with the software for the SmartCards – I should have the Training CDs to Wilma in a few days. The new blade servers are up and running. Other than that, except for the usual odds and sods, we are go for a 90-day Island communication separation."
"Good stuff, Adam. Keep on it. Throw any resource you need onto whatever you think needs doing. I’ll be out of the country for about a week."
Ted hung up and went to pack his Brolly. It was time to earn his pay; time to do what he had been hired to do, if it became necessary, which it had.
