Famous Last Meals by Richard Cumyn

you’re not. I understand.”
    â€œMy father got me this job. He said it would be the perfect introduction, a foot in the door.”
    â€œAn honourable route. You’re not the first to have forgone a salary to gain valuable experience.”
    â€œTell me what?” Adam picked up the money and sat. She had him and he knew it. Being held by her like this, the way she might a hand of cards, made him feel secure. It wasn’t a difficult thing, this being told. It bypassed so much that was complicated. He might just as well have said, “Yes, I’m yours. Take me. Tell me what to do.”
    â€œWe have intelligence that Mr. Bliss—Kundule, rather—is a member of a terrorist cell planning an attack on public buildings somewhere in the Northeast.”
    â€œSo arrest him.”
    â€œHe’s more valuable to us out of captivity. We need to keep him close.”
    â€œHow close?”
    â€œIdeally? We’d love to see him installed in an office in the Centre Block. In a substantial way it would give him a false sense of security.”
    â€œIf he gets elected that will happen, won’t it?”
    â€œTrue. But as an MP he might go dormant on us, might feel it too dangerous to try anything given the scrutiny he’d be under. We think he realizes this and that’s the reason why he trumped up the story about you leaking Don’s secrets to him. He wants to lose.”
    â€œWhy doesn’t he just step down, not run?”
    â€œWe’re not sure about that. Could be pride. Could be loyalty to the old lady, who has a zealous belief in his ability to win. She doesn’t know anything about his background. For her he’s a cause, the socialist underdog, the new immigrant, the man of colour poised to rise and assume his position in the assembly of the powerful. She’s quite drunk on the idea, in fact. We figure he doesn’t want to let her down.”
    â€œI still don’t understand...”
    â€œIf you run you’ll win. Don’t ask how. It will be a given. Challenge me on it afterward and I will disavow any knowledge of ever having met you. You’ve seen Mission Impossible .”
    This was surreal. He, a Member of Parliament?
    â€œYou’d be given everything you needed. A staff, of course, and—”
    â€œLB would be part of it.”
    â€œNow you’re catching on. Excellent, Adam, excellent.”
    Without apparently taking more than the smallest bites, she had consumed almost everything on her plate, while his meal remained largely untouched.
    â€œI’ll need some time to think about it.”
    â€œOf course. Take whatever time you need.”
    â€œI don’t think I can go back to the hotel.”
    â€œNo, you’re right, you can’t.” She took a phone out of her purse. The device was a little larger than a makeup compact. “I’ll get you a room at the casino hotel.” She called someone she knew by name, made the reservation and put the phone away. “Your belongings will be transferred. Don’t worry, no one will know where you are unless you want them to.”
    â€œHow are you going to convince Don not to run? I mean, I thought this was his dream from when he was a little boy.”
    She looked at him, lowered her eyes, raised them, glanced out the window and turned her head back. “I really need a smoke. I don’t suppose...”
    â€œNo. Sorry.”
    â€œDon Feeney is a Party stalwart. He has always done the right thing. He will do the right thing this time.”
    As Hannah Pachter had promised, Adam’s clothes and luggage were transferred from the Lord Nelson ahead of his checking into the casino. He had a sauna and a swim in an attempt to relax, watched television, walked the length of the boardwalk and back, ate an early supper, which he charged to the room, and thought about what Hannah Pachter had said to him. Maybe she had been joking and he had missed