Marathe's defection: the defection price list — protection and Gertraude's care

The betrayal economics laid bare: Marathe weighs "placing bets on O.N.A.N. and against Fortier, casting his lots finally with one side only" — and the price of the bet is itemized: "hidden protection from Steeply and high-income medical care for the heart- and head-difficulties of beloved Gertraude." The whole geopolitical contest reduces, for Marathe, to a transaction over one woman's failing ventricle and absent skull: he will sell Québec's insurgency to O.N.A.N. for U.S. medical care and witness protection. The politics of the anthology are grounded, here, in the most private of ledgers — a man pricing his nation against his wife's survival.