Cherie Priest - Fiddlehead

“You’re abandoning us?” Gideon asked with disbelief.

“No. Absolutely not. But I can’t speak on your behalf if I’m dead, and I won’t stand for anyone else getting caught in the fray. Certainly not you, or Mary or Polly,” he said firmly to the old man.

“Now don’t say anything rash. Furthermore, don’t do anything rash,” Lincoln said in a calming voice. “They can’t kill us all. They won’t kill us all, even if they catch us. The police won’t be back for another hour or two, I shouldn’t think; and although Haymes has agents who are willing to break the law, they may not have arrived yet, and surely they won’t come for you here. Not yet. Not yet.” He murmured the words like a mantra. “We have time to think. Time to plan for—”

He was interrupted by a knock on the door, hard and fast, a steady bang of the metal ring.

All three men froze in place, exchanging a violent lightning of glances.

The doctor said, “Gideon, hide.”

And Gideon said, “ No. ”

“No one’s hiding, not yet,” Lincoln said, his timbre a plea for patience and order. It was a plea for time, but even that great man couldn’t wring more from the moment than was already granted.

Down the hall a man came running, all heavy footsteps and rambling, long-legged pace; and behind him trailed the lighter, frantic footsteps of the serving girl. In the library, all three men drew guns, prompting Gideon to wonder where Lincoln had hidden one, and how he used one with those twisted fingers.

He analyzed the situation with his ears.

Polly’s following behind him, whoever he is. He didn’t break inside, he knocked. He is alone except for the girl, who can’t catch up to him. This might not be what it sounds like.

“Abe!” the newcomer shouted before he reached the library. That one word blew the tension from the room like steam through a kettle whistle.

“Grant?” the old president asked, just in time to spy the leader flinging himself around the doorjamb.

“Abe, they’ve killed…” He stopped when he saw Gideon and Nelson, who lowered their guns but did not put them away.

“I know,” Lincoln told him. “Your housemaster, and his wife, and the girl who stole those papers. I got your message half an hour ago, and I’m very sorry to hear of it. Is everything … otherwise all right?”

“No, it’s not. Nothing’s all right. This is about you. ” He pointed at Gideon. “And me. They’ve done this to us, not just to those poor people they’ve killed out of hand.”

“They wish to discredit me,” Gideon said stiffly.

“Oh, that’s not all they want. No, no, no. I’m afraid not.” Grant walked to the far window. He held his hand against the glass to guard his eyes from the glare. Seeing nothing outside, he reached up to draw the heavy velvet curtains shut. He turned around. “They want to keep me cowed, as surely as they want to make you look like a murdering maniac. Maybe they want to make me look mad, too. I had to escape two Secret Service men in order to arrive here unseen. At least I believe I haven’t been seen…”

Lincoln said, “Dr. Wellers is confident they want him dead, too. It’s quite a party here tonight.”

Gideon explained, “Wellers and I were together when the murders happened.”

“Then he might have a point,” Grant said. To Lincoln, he added, “You need to guard this man’s life with … with your life. The four of us,” he said, so out of breath from his trip, and from the revelations that had brought him there, that his speech caught in his throat, “are all that keeps them from milking the Union nearly to death, and slaughtering thousands for the profit.”

Gideon put his gun back in his coat and clenched his fists. He measured his words against his fury and rising fear, and cast it all at the president. “God damn, but you’re being shortsighted, sir! If the war runs on, it won’t just be Atlanta that falls to the plague. Remember the Fiddlehead. Remember the numbers, and the predictions: the continent will fall within the decade if we cannot stop this madness and force a conclusion. Possibly the world!”

Nelson Wellers laughed ruefully. “It’s not enough to save our own skins, or the entire nation.” He sighed. “No, we must save the world as well. All from this library.”

Lincoln gave a crooked shrug. “There are worse places from whence to mount a defense of civilization.”

Grant seemed to agree, but he was flustered, and he rambled. “They threatened me, Abe. Not just me, but Julia—they’ve threatened her. That terrible woman, that dragon in a hat. She’s the one who did this.”

“Where is Julia now?” his old friend asked.

“Baltimore, but that’s not far enough away to keep her safe from Haymes.”

Gideon’s nails dug into his palm. He fought to keep from hitting something for emphasis, but managed to restrain himself for only a few seconds before taking a swing at a bookcase. He knocked it so hard that it rocked precariously, then settled.

“For God’s sake!” he shouted. “Have you not heard a thing? Baltimore won’t be far enough. New York won’t be far enough. Mexico won’t, and Argentina won’t. Canada won’t. The Department of Alaska won’t! There will be no place in this hemisphere far enough away to protect anyone from this walking plague!”

Nelson Wellers positioned his lean frame between Gideon and the other two men with his hands up. “You’re right. We know you’re right—we’ve already said as much. But in the short term, we must take what action we can.”

“We don’t have time for the short term!”

Wellers gave up, flung his upraised hands into the air, and finally hollered back. “ You’re the one who wants to stop a damn news story before morning! You’re wanted for murder. That’s a short-term problem, now, isn’t it?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!”

“Gentlemen!” Lincoln tried to roar, but it came out as a cough. Grant went to his side, and Nelson looked back to make sure that it wasn’t any worse than that.

Gideon did not back down. He mimicked Wellers’s tone when he said, “They want you dead. That’s a short-term problem, too, now, isn’t it?”

“Short term for you—somewhat longer for me! But yes, fine. It serves my point,” Wellers said, struggling to calm himself. “I would prefer to survive. You would prefer to stay out of prison. The Union must be preserved. The war must end. The weapon must be stopped. The walking plague must be addressed. We need stepping stones, Gideon. Stepping stones. ”

Gideon argued, “How are we supposed to stop it? We don’t even know where it’s headed.”

“Executive order!” cried Grant. “I do still wield some authority, you know. I’m only the president, as I’ve been reminded more than once in the last week.”

“Then why not send an executive order now ?” Wellers asked plaintively. “Recall the project, bring the weapon home.”

Grant fidgeted like an angry man, pacing with a stomp. “Because no one will admit that it exists. I can’t recall the project; I have to recall the mission itself. And I can’t find it. ”

A disquieting pause fell, and then the doctor said, “Someone will. Someone has to. Maybe … maybe Troost’ll hear something.”

Lincoln finished his coughing fit, then rallied himself to speak. “We’ve heard nothing from him since yesterday morning, and no mention of Maynard.”

“If anyone can track it down, he can,” Wellers said with desperate confidence.

Gideon didn’t argue, but he worried all the same. Troost was one of a kind, but he already had one mission on deck: bringing the Bardsleys to safety on the northern side of the line. He could swing the impossible, yes, absolutely. But how many impossible things could he juggle at once?