Gone Over by David Chacko

Author:David Chacko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: revolutionary war
Publisher: Foremost Press

* * *

“Their black asses are mortgaged to South America, and they want no foreclosure,” said Wentworth as he strode before the window of the room in the Hotel d’Avignon, his plush gaol. “It’s wonderful what fear can do for a sovereign. Now, we’ll see what it does for rabble. I will hold this card in Franklin’s face and smile.”

But the doctor had not agreed to a meeting, and Bancroft had not yet answered. Israel was confident that he would—if it were possible.

“I’ll send word by courier when I have news,” said Israel. “Don’t use the same man in return. You will have word of the meeting, in which case you will come. Or not.”

“But please be quick.”

“You might wait in more comfort at the abbey.”

“You imagine I have something to confess.”

Israel thought so, and the penance would consume decades. “Of course not,” he said. “But a new acolyte has just arrived from Rouen. She’s an actual nun. Or was.”

“Intriguing,” said Wentworth. “I’ll confess to a curiosity for unspoiled goods.”

“It’s more than that, I hear. They say her hunger shames the Prince of Wales.”

“Impossible,” said Wentworth. “But perhaps I should test the waters.”

Israel waited until Wentworth got himself together with unseemly haste and left the hotel by the front door. When he passed into the street, the two men on watch at the building opposite split to each side of the street and followed. That left one unaccounted for.

Israel left the building by the servants’ stairs to the roof, where he had to walk the ledge to the next building, then drop ten feet to that roof. As he touched down, his timing off a bit, his foot slipped and went out. For a second, he was flailing for balance, careening into one of the chimneys and sending a blast of loose mortar to the ground, looking for what seemed like a long time into a drop of twenty feet. With a lunge, Israel grabbed the top pipe, felt it come off in his hand, and fell to his knees on the tile at the edge of the roof.

It was dizzy down there among the shit and ruins. Israel sat on his haunches with the soot and deep stench of the pipe on his hand, knowing he had sprained his ankle but saved his bones, and thinking that he had lost the last watcher.

But was that what he wanted? The first two would follow Wentworth to the abbess. It was often more useful to direct the attention of spies where it should be put.

Israel worked his way back to the hotel, dropping to the ground more painfully than he liked. But that moved the third watcher, who wore a blue cape, onto his trail. Israel saw him through the glass of a peruke-maker’s shop as he rounded the corner into Rue St. Andre.

He followed across the bridge to the residence of the Spanish ambassador, where Israel left him to enjoy the wet chunky snow that had begun to fall. At

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.