The Clockwork Century: Fiddlehead Part 27

"But, the cargo ship..." The soldier with the rifle asked the captain, "The ship'll pull us out, won't it?"

"How?" Maria demanded, addressing him once more, rather than the handsome captain. "That thing isn't big enough to hold the lot of you, and someone would have to stay behind and set the bomb off, anyway."

The captain argued with her, but without much conviction. "We're going to shoot it from the air. It's a big enough target. But ... I've wondered." Then he muttered, like he couldn't shake the significance, "If it's ... a gas bomb..."

"And one that doesn't just kill..." Henry continued.

"It's the walking plague." The captain said the words softly, almost under his breath. "It's a bomb that gives people ... that turns them into the living dead. That's what this is, isn't it? The walking plague is created by a weapon."

"Well, yes and no," Henry said. He might've said more-asking how the captain had drawn such a conclusion, correct though it might well be-but at that moment Maria had a revelation.

Two thoughts had been bouncing around in her brain, ever since the captain had identified himself: his name, and where she might've heard it before. Those two ideas finally collided, crashing together so that the sparks illuminated the truth. She blurted out, "You're the Captain MacGruder from the nurse's notes!"

Everyone froze, mostly from confusion. The captain asked her, "I'm sorry, nurse? What nurse?"

"On the train," she continued excitedly. "The Dreadnought-you were on the Dreadnought! I read about it!"

He recoiled, stunned. "Read about it? Where on earth could you have read about it? No one's written about it except for me-and what I wrote went *missing,' according to anyone I asked," he said angrily. "I tried to tell them! The walking plague doesn't just walk among soldiers, and it isn't confined to the front."

"But it is you," Maria persisted. "You were the Union captain the nurse trusted, who survived what happened in Utah. Just admit it!"

"The nurse," he muttered, flailing to find the context she prodded him for. "There ... there was a nurse, yes. Mercy, that was her name. She ... she wrote a book? She's alive? I tried to find her, but the ranger, the nurse, the Rebs who made it out alive ... everyone's gone. Rea.s.signed, they told me," he recounted bitterly. "Secret missions. Secrets everywhere, no one talking, no one listening. No one left. All of them, gone."

"And you'll be gone, too, if you finish this mission. We all will."

The forest whistled and shook, as the wind gave one last gasp through the trees, scattering what was left of the leaves and tweaking the brittle branches. No one spoke while they watched the captain reflect, consider, think, and finally ... conclude.

He gave a good, hard glare at the cargo ship through the trees and said, "Get me Frank.u.m. I need to speak with him. You two-Miss Boyd, Marshal-come with me. Graham, Simmons, keep an eye on them."

Maria began to protest. "But we're-"

"I'm not taking any chances."

So, at gunpoint, they followed the captain up the side of the hill, onto the road, and into the middle of the caravan-where they were greeted with stares and gossipy whispers.

The captain announced, "Gentlemen, we have guests: a U.S. marshal and a Pinkerton agent, pulled from the woods like foundlings. They were left there courtesy of Captain Frank.u.m, or so they tell me. So, where is our fine, upstanding dirigible pilot, eh?"

Something about his p.r.o.nunciation of "fine" and "upstanding" implied a keen sense of irony.

Maria and Henry kept close to each other, nearly back-to-back. No one had taken their firearms, which might be construed as a lack of caution on Captain MacGruder's part, except that they had nowhere to go, and they weren't likely to stage a gun-blazing escape in their battered state.

"You two, over here," one of their guards told them, gesturing with the barrel of his gun. He guided them to the big rolling-crawler, and suggested they should stand against it and wait for further instructions. "Captain? Where are you going?"

"I'll be back in a minute," he answered vaguely, and stomped off to the far edge of the convoy, where Maria could no longer see him.

She didn't like it, and Henry didn't, either, but they did as they were told. They put their backs to the thing and tried not to think about what was inside it, now only inches from their bodies. Maria fancied that she could hear a hum, some strained, coursing sound from within. She could feel it better than she could hear it, as the vibrations rattled at her ribs. It was almost as if the bomb were a living thing, with pulse and respiration and a sense of urgency-an awful destiny that it wanted to fulfill.

Maria banished her imagination's wanderings and closed her eyes, exhausted. She wanted to sit down, but she couldn't bring herself to do so, not while so much danger remained ... and she didn't know what form it was likely to take, or even where it might come from.

But she was so, so tired. And so very sore. And she so very badly wanted to sleep.

Eventually, Captain Frank.u.m appeared in their midst, joined by two of his fellow airmen. The captain himself was a short, st.u.r.dy man without an ounce of fat on him, but a squared-off appearance that indicated a great deal of muscle. He was no more handsome or friendly looking up close than he had been in the clouds, nor were either of his men.

Captain MacGruder also returned from whatever errand he'd wandered off to. His face was set in a firm expression, all business and ready for conflict-an effect that was slightly undone, in Maria's opinion, by the pink flush across his nose, brought on by the cold.

"Frank.u.m, there you are. I've got a question for you," he said.

At approximately that precise moment, Frank.u.m noticed the newcomers. At first, his eyes glanced past them, but he did flash a quick second look at Maria. It could've meant anything: He might have recognized her from the sky, or maybe he was only confused at seeing a woman there.

"Who are they?" the Baldwin-Felts man asked.

Captain MacGruder feigned innocence. "You don't know?"

"No, I don't."

"Then why'd you shoot them down a few hours ago?"

"Why did I...?"

"You heard me," MacGruder said, coming in closer. He leaned forward, craning over the shorter man and casting a shadow over him. "Why did you shoot them down? What we have here, Captain"-spitting out the word like it tasted bad-"is a U.S. Marshal and another agent, sent as messengers from the White House."

Maria appreciated that he'd left out the "Pinkerton" part, given how little love was lost between the two firms. It meant he was thoughtful for her safety, perhaps; or it meant that he was smart, and didn't feel like adding the extra trouble to the mix.

"A marshal? Why would the president send a marshal?" Frank.u.m tried to redirect the inquiry, but he didn't do it smoothly-and before the crisis could be forced any further, he gave up the pretense of innocence. "I didn't have any way of knowing who they were. Besides, you have your orders, I have mine. Mine say to keep all crafts away from this convoy, and I was doing my job."

"Mr. Epperson," Captain MacGruder said to Henry, but kept his eyes on Frank.u.m. "Were you flying in a federal craft? Did you make any attempt to identify yourself?"

"A federal craft in Confederate airs.p.a.ce? No, for Christ's sake. And we weren't given the opportunity to identify ourselves; we were attacked without warning upon approach."

Frank.u.m flashed a quick glance at the sky. Then, as if it had just occurred to him, he asked, "Wait a minute. Where's Kramer?"

"Kramer?" Henry echoed.

"Captain Kramer," Frank.u.m said crossly. "He was following us out, in his little supply ship. He stayed behind us; he was supposed to..."

"To what?" Maria demanded. "Kill us? Shoot us down? I hate to disappoint you-or, rather, I don't mind it in the slightest: We survived that encounter somewhat more cleanly than we survived our dustup with your craft. The ashes of that other ship are, at present, raining down softly over Georgia." She added a fluttering motion with her numb, bruised fingers for emphasis.

"You took it down? In your little two-seater?"

"She's a mighty good shot." Henry was exaggerating, but Maria was pleased nonetheless.

"Look, look, look." Frank.u.m held out his hands, both attempting to defend himself and shush everyone else. "What I want to know is, how do we know these two came from the District? And why are you so fast to a.s.sume they're telling the truth? You're just going to let them waltz out of the woods and derail this operation? This very expensive operation, months in the planning? I don't guess they had anything with the presidential seal on them?"

Henry said, "No, but-"

"So we take their words for it? Blow the whole mission, on the word of two spies?"

"We aren't-"

But MacGruder interrupted, "No, I'm not willing to blow the whole mission. But I am willing to delay it a bit. I don't even have much choice, given that we still have to extract this d.a.m.n thing from the road," he said, scowling at the rolling-crawler. "Texian technology ... you'd think it could handle a Southern road. Jesus. Anyway, since we've got a minute, I just now put Bradley on a fast horse to Atlanta, to the taps there."

"But the taps are down, all over the place," the air captain argued.

"Yes, but if they're up again anywhere, they'll be up in the city. We'll just take a break and ask the president ourselves what he wants us to do."

"But, but, that'll take hours!" Frank.u.m sputtered. "And you can't just send the president a note and wait for orders-you already have orders!"

"And I'm following them, until I hear differently," MacGruder said coolly. "But it'll take an hour or more to get this d.a.m.n cart dug out, and once we're back on the road-well, at our pace we're lucky if it's another four hours to the city. Bradley ought to catch us before we reach it, and we can reevaluate the matter depending on what he says."

Frank.u.m stayed calm, but his men were getting antsy. Maria watched them fidget and exchange nervous glances, though their captain's expression was a fierce threat to maintain their composure. The man to his left lost it first. He asked, "Hours?"

The word was small, but it was almost too frightened to be heard.

"Hours," MacGruder nodded.

"We don't have hours."

"Shut up," Frank.u.m said to his man. Then, to MacGruder, "Hours aren't in the plan, and you know it."

"Plans change."

"You're stalling."

"I am stalled," Captain MacGruder declared. "And what does it matter if we reach Atlanta come sundown? The city will go to h.e.l.l as easily at dusk as midday."

Frank.u.m shook his head, and his eyes darted back and forth between his crewmen. "We were supposed to be there by now. We should've been halfway back to the Mason-Dixon by now."

"Plans change. We adapt. Without flexibility, we're all doomed to fail."

"I'm not," Frank.u.m insisted. "And I have obligations elsewhere. I don't have to hover with you fools while you get your act together." He snapped his fingers, and pointed at the cargo craft. "You two, get back in the ship. We're taking off."

"No, you're not," MacGruder said, flatly.

"We need more hydrogen; we've burned off too much sitting around waiting for your men to fix this. If we don't go get more, we won't have enough to pick you up and get us all clear of the blast."

"You're not leaving this caravan until everybody leaves it."

Maria saw an opportunity to deepen the wedge between them, and she seized it. "That was never part of the plan," she blurted out. All eyes turned to her, so she said it again. "It was never part of the plan for any of you to survive the trip."

MacGruder came forward, until he stood directly in front of her. "Out in the woods you said this was a suicide mission for me and my men."

"That's right. That's one reason the president rejected the program."

"There were others?"

"Once he learned what the weapon really does, yes. President Grant doesn't want to create a legion of walking dead men any more than you do."

As she spoke, Frank.u.m and his men began a slow retreat, designed to keep from attracting too much attention.

It didn't work. MacGruder's men stopped them with rifles primed, promising violence if anyone tried to leave the area. The captain himself whirled around on one heel, stomped up to Frank.u.m, and seized him by the collar. He dragged the pilot off his feet, pulling him forward, and slamming him up against the nearest cart.

Frank.u.m's eyes bugged out, darting frantically back and forth. He sought his men but found only MacGruder's face wearing a very big frown.

"Is she telling the truth? Were you supposed to leave us here?"

"You don't understand..."

"So help me understand. She's telling the truth-she is, or you wouldn't be writhing like a worm on a hook. You're caught; now be a man and tell us what we'd be in for if we followed the orders that so conveniently rely on you and your company."

Frank.u.m rallied a nasty laugh, choked off by MacGruder's hand against his throat. "Inconvenient fools, the lot of you."

"We're inconvenient? So we die with the mission?"

"Why do you think there are so many of you?" he spit. "How many men do you think are required to move that d.a.m.n crawler and haul the fuel to keep it rolling? Not the thirty you've got. It could be done with a dozen."

"So this is a death sentence? For being inconvenient?" MacGruder squeezed harder at Frank.u.m's throat, twisting his fingers in the fabric of the man's coat collar. "I know that they want me silenced, and I know why; but the rest of these men are innocent."

"And expendable."

Henry, gone pale with pain but still standing, cleared his throat. "They're part of the weapon. That's it, isn't it? They're supposed to be the first wave of the walking plague after they loose the gas upon the city."

Frank.u.m nodded, insofar as he was able.

Captain MacGruder asked, "But then why are you here? Why send the ship along? To make sure we finish the job? To watch us die?"

"To set off the weapon. But you know that!"

"And why else? Why else, G.o.ddammit!"

"To observe," Frank.u.m squeaked. "To observe and report, and make sure that you do your jobs without ... any..." His face was turning red, but he forced out the last word anyway. "Interference!"

"From people like them?" MacGruder waved a hand toward Maria and Henry.

"From ... anyone..."

The captain released his grip. Frank.u.m's knees folded, and he dropped to the ground, feeling at his throat as if to make certain he was still in one piece. MacGruder stalked back toward his nearest lieutenant and said, "We're stopping here. We wait for Bradley to come back with word from Washington, and then we'll reevaluate. And those three"-he pointed balefully at the cargo ship's crew and captain-"are staying right here with us. Tie them up and throw them into the crawler. If they want to watch the bomb that badly, they can sit on top of it."

"No!" Frank.u.m objected, loudly and suddenly. "No, you can't do that!"

"Why's that?"

"Because ... because..." He swore under his breath, yanked off his hat, and threw it at the ground in a gesture of protest. "Because the d.a.m.n thing won't hold much longer."

"It'll hold, so long as no one blasts it from the air. None of our crew has anything big enough to set it off. We'll need your ship's turret gun for that."

"No, no, you won't. We're here with our ship to shoot the thing and set it off-that's true; I swear it's true," he said, hands aloft again, protesting innocence. "But we're running so late, and there's the failsafe built in..."

"Failsafe?"