The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy L. O'Brien

Author:Timothy L. O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Mystery, Historical
ISBN: 0345535596
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE PULLMAN

Nail housed Temple, Fiona, and Augustus in a three-room shack abutting the warehouse where he made his cogniacs. There were two beds in one of the rooms, a single bed in another, and a common washbasin and some chairs in the third. Other than that, the shack was empty, soured by the stench off the Tiber Canal, an odor that crawled across every path and room in Swampdoodle. After spending Sunday night discussing their plans for the following days, they all fell into a deep sleep.

Temple awoke ahead of the other two early the next morning, and when he stepped outside, he found Nail sitting in a chair facing the shack, his Enfield resting on his lap. His legs were stretched out in front of him, and from the look of his eyes and the muss of his hair he had been keeping watch all night. He sat up as Temple walked outside, glad to have the company.

“Some folks are talking about General Sherman, saying Stanton was worried about letting him in the District with all of his troops,” Nail said. “They aren’t letting Sherman sit in the reviewing stand near the President’s House on the first day. It’ll just be Johnson, Grant, and Stanton: two drunks and a bully.”

“President Johnson and Grant may be drunks, but General Grant is a leader. And Mr. Stanton is a complicated man.”

“Well, to get your chance to speak with him tomorrow you’re gonna have to get close to him. Have you thought on that?”

“I have. Still thinking. But until I arrive at the solution, I have something else for you. We’ve made more sense of some of the pages from the Booth diary, and I’d like you to look at them.”

Temple first gave Nail a copy of the Vigenère table and the slip of paper with MARKOFCAIN on it. Nail eyed the cipher and smiled.

“Booth was rather taken with his own drama, was he not? Makin’ his shatty little deed biblical.”

Temple gave him four telegrams and Nail spread them out on the ground, putting rocks on each of them to hold them down. He read through all of them several times, murmuring as he did so and letting his finger slide along under each name, stopping at names that, while decoded, were still a mystery:

March 4, 1865

From: Patriot

To: Avenger

There is a room for you at National. I am for Elmira and Montreal. Horses to Richmond when you have Tyrant.

April 5, 1865

From: Patriot

To: Avenger

Maestro sends funds. Goliath and others will join you. Wise Man and Drinker should be taken with Tyrant.

April 11, 1865

From: Patriot

To: Avenger

You will be allowed to pass at Navy Yard Bridge. Refuge at Tavern.

April 14, 1865

From: Patriot

To: Avenger

It is Ford’s. Praetorians send a Parker to guard Tyrant. He will abandon the door or let you pass.

Nail read the notes several times and became so enmeshed that he didn’t notice that Augustus had awoken and walked out of his shack to join him and Temple outside. When Nail was done parsing the notes he looked up and nodded a hello to Augustus.

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