Part 42 (2/2)
”Go on, go on,” Featherston said indulgently. The director of communications hurried away. Jake got on the telephone. ”Ferd? . . . You heard about the s.h.i.+t that happened in Jackson? . . . Yeah, Saul told me just now. Eleven dead plus the n.i.g.g.e.r! Jesus Christ! . . . How fast can you get the Party mobilized to help the cops and soldiers? . . . That quick? Good! . . . By this time Thursday, then, I don't want one n.i.g.g.e.r left in Jackson-not one, you hear me? And when they get where they're going, I don't want 'em hanging around, either . . . You see to it, that's all. 'Bye.” He hung up-he slammed down the telephone, as a matter of fact.
He wasted a few seconds swearing at the Mormons. Those d.a.m.ned fanatics had come up with a weapon other fanatics could use. Mississippi and Alabama had been in revolt since he took office, and they hadn't been what anybody would call calm even before that. Too d.a.m.n many c.o.o.ns, that was all there was to it. Well, he aimed to thin 'em out. And what he aimed at, he got.
He wondered whom Lulu would announce when she came in again. Instead of announcing anybody, she asked, ”When was the last time you ate something, Mr. President?”
”Why-” Before Jake could finish talking, his stomach let out a rumble you could hear across the room. ”Been a while, I guess,” he said sheepishly.
”I'll get the kitchens to send you something.” She wagged a finger at him. ”You've got to take care of yourself, you know.”
”Right,” Jake said. ”I have been busy, you know.” He was amazed at how defensive he sounded. He could ream out the chief of the General Staff and stop him in his tracks. His own secretary? That was a whole different story. What made the difference? Lulu was right, and Nathan Bedford Forrest III d.a.m.n well wasn't. So he told himself, anyhow.
Not ten minutes later, Lulu came back with a tray with two thick roast-beef sandwiches, potato salad, and a bottle of beer. Jake got outside the food in nothing flat. He did feel better afterwards. He wasn't about to admit it to her. On the other hand, he didn't have to-she would already know.
His restless energy burned off what he ate and left him with the same lanky frame he'd had half a lifetime before. He knew he wasn't as strong as he had been then, though. He wasn't fat, but his muscles had gone soft and slack. He didn't get the exercise he once had. Manhandling a field gun was a lot tougher physically than being President of the CSA and running things from behind a desk.
”I ought to put in time every day at . . . something hard, anyway,” he muttered to himself. ”Something, dammit.” When you got past fifty, you had to take care of yourself the way you took care of a motorcar. You'd break down if you didn't, and replacement parts for your carca.s.s were mighty hard to come by.
But he had no idea what to do to keep fit. He couldn't imagine himself playing golf or riding a bicycle or anything like that. Plain old calisthenics, like the ones from his Army days, were too boring to stand without a drill sergeant making you do them. And where would he find the time, anyway? He didn't have time to do everything he needed to do now.
He muttered again, this time blasphemously. He knew what would happen. He wouldn't wouldn't find the time, and then six months or a year from now he'd be even angrier and more disgusted with himself, because he'd be that much further out of shape. He didn't have any good answers, though. The only way he could find the time to exercise was to stop being President. He wasn't about to do that. find the time, and then six months or a year from now he'd be even angrier and more disgusted with himself, because he'd be that much further out of shape. He didn't have any good answers, though. The only way he could find the time to exercise was to stop being President. He wasn't about to do that.
Some of his pilots took pep pills to stay awake when they needed to fly mission after mission after mission. He'd always stayed away from those. Coffee and his own drive kept him going. But if coffee and his own drive flagged . . .
He shrugged. It was something to think about, anyway. He didn't have to make up his mind once and for all right this minute. If he ever decided he needed those pills, he could get 'em.
Richmond. Capitol Square. A cool, gray, fall day, with the smell of burning leaves in the air-along with other, less pleasant, smells of burning and death. Clarence Potter sat on a bench in the bomb-cratered square and looked at the enormous pyramids of sandbags surrounding the great statues of George Was.h.i.+ngton and Albert Sidney Johnston. The Egyptians wouldn't have been ashamed of pyramids like those. So far, they'd done their job. Despite all the d.a.m.nyankee bombing raids, both statues remained more or less intact.
The Confederate Capitol couldn't be sandbagged. It looked more like a ruin from the days of Greece and Rome than a place where important things happened. And important things didn't happen there anymore. Congress met somewhere else these days-exactly where was cla.s.sified. Potter wasn't sure why. What difference did it make? Even if the USA blew Congress clean off the map, what difference would it make? Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party ran the CSA these days; Congress was a rubber stamp and a sounding board, and that was about it.
Potter lit a cigarette, adding more smoke to the air that had already made him cough twice. He looked at his watch. The man he was supposed to meet here was late, and he shouldn't have been. Had something gone wrong?
But when he looked up, Nathan Bedford Forrest III was picking his way across the battered ground. Forrest already had a cigarette going, the coal furiously red. He sat down next to Potter and smoked in angry silence for a minute or so. Then he said, ”I do thank you kindly for coming.”
”I should get out and about more often,” Potter answered. ”Keeps me fresh. What's on your mind?”
Instead of answering right away, Forrest lit another cigarette. He smoked it halfway down, blowing out an almost continuous stream of smoke. At last, he asked, ”Do you . . . think Jake Featherston's got all his oars in the water?”
Whatever Potter had expected, that wasn't it. He looked around again to make sure n.o.body was paying extra attention to a couple of officers sitting on a park bench. Seeing nothing and no one out of the ordinary, he said, ”Well, I haven't always been in love with the man”-which was a bigger understatement than Nathan Bedford Forrest III might realize-”but I never thought he was ready for the straitjacket, either. How come you do?”
Forrest hesitated again. Potter had no trouble figuring out why-if he went telling tales to the President, the chief of the General Staff was a dead man. But Forrest must have known that before he asked to meet with Potter. The Intelligence officer gestured impatiently, as if to say, p.i.s.s or get off the pot. p.i.s.s or get off the pot. Unhappily, Forrest said, ”Well, things aren't going as well as we wish they were in Pittsburgh.” Unhappily, Forrest said, ”Well, things aren't going as well as we wish they were in Pittsburgh.”
”That makes me unhappy, but it doesn't make Jake Featherston a candidate for the b.o.o.by hatch.” Potter's voice was desert-dry.
”No, of course not.” Nathan Bedford Forrest III looked down at the ground between his feet. He bent and picked up something: a little chunk of shrapnel from a bomb casing. With a grimace, he tossed it away. ”But a few days ago I went and asked him if maybe we wouldn't do better just wrecking Pittsburgh than throwing away more men and materiel than we can afford.”
”And?” Potter asked. ”There's always an 'and' to a story like that.”
”Oh, there is,” Forrest said. ”And he d.a.m.n near threw me out of his office-d.a.m.n near threw me through the door, matter of fact. We're going to take Pittsburgh, take it away from the d.a.m.nyankees, come h.e.l.l or high water, no matter how many soldiers or barrels or airplanes we lose. He . . . just wouldn't listen to me. It was like he couldn't couldn't listen to me. His mind was made up, and nothing anybody could say would change it.” listen to me. His mind was made up, and nothing anybody could say would change it.”
”And so?” Potter said. ”The President's never been what you'd call good at listening to other people or changing his mind. I don't suppose he'd be President if he were, because he would have quit trying a long time ago.” Not liking Jake Featherston didn't mean you could ignore his furious, driving, almost demonic energy.
”This wasn't like a stubborn man talking,” Forrest said-stubbornly. ”This was like-like a crazy man talking.” He looked relieved at finally getting that out. ”By G.o.d, Potter, it really was.”
”All right. Let's say it was.” Potter knew he sounded as if he might be humoring a lunatic himself. ”If it was, what do you propose to do about it? Bear in mind that we're in the middle of a small disagreement with our neighbors right now.” His wave encompa.s.sed the sandbagged statues, the cratered square, the ruins of the Confederate Capitol.
Nathan Bedford Forrest III's eyes followed his hand. Forrest grimaced again, as if he hadn't noticed how things were till then. Maybe he hadn't-maybe he hadn't let himself. ”Jesus Christ, if we followed a nut into this war-”
”You didn't reckon he was a nut as long as things went our way,” Potter said brutally. Forrest flinched. Potter went on, ”Do you really think this is the time to start plotting a coup d'etat coup d'etat? That's what it would have to be, you know. You'd have to take him down. He'd never leave or change on his own.”
”I do understand that,” Forrest said. ”That's why I wanted to talk to you. You were a red-hot Whig even after it wasn't safe to be a Whig anymore.” He did know a fair bit about Potter's past, then. ”If anybody could see the need for putting our house in order, I reckoned you'd be the man. For G.o.d's sake, Potter, we can't afford to lose another war. It would ruin us for good.”
”This one's a long way from lost. We may get Pittsburgh yet.” Part of Potter wanted to leap at any chance to cast down Jake Featherston. That made him even more careful about what he said than he would have been otherwise. He didn't think think Forrest was trying to entrap him-the other officer sounded too upset for that-but he wasn't a hundred percent sure. Forrest was trying to entrap him-the other officer sounded too upset for that-but he wasn't a hundred percent sure. When three men plot, one is a fool and two are government spies. When three men plot, one is a fool and two are government spies. What about two men? What about two men?
I'm already a spy, Potter thought. He laughed inside, though he held his face straight. But he was a spy for the Confederate States. He wasn't a spy for Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party, and he was d.a.m.ned if he'd turn into one. And if he did ever turn into such a debased creature, he doubtless Potter thought. He laughed inside, though he held his face straight. But he was a spy for the Confederate States. He wasn't a spy for Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party, and he was d.a.m.ned if he'd turn into one. And if he did ever turn into such a debased creature, he doubtless would would be d.a.m.ned. be d.a.m.ned.
”So we may.” Forrest spoke cautiously, too. ”But how likely do you think that is, what with the way things look now?”
”I don't know,” Potter said: the exact and literal truth. He thought about Henderson FitzBelmont over at Was.h.i.+ngton University. He thought about 235 and 238, and the trouble FitzBelmont and his fellow physicists were having in separating the one from the other. He had no idea whether Forrest knew about FitzBelmont's project. He couldn't ask, either, for fear the chief of the General Staff didn't.
If the physicists could build their bomb, the CSA would win the war. Drop one of those on Pittsburgh, and it wouldn't cause problems anymore. Drop one on Philadelphia, one on New York City, one on Boston, one on Pontiac . . . That would knock the United States flat and kick them in the teeth while they were down.
Then Potter thought about the U.S. project in Was.h.i.+ngton State. He thought about bombs blowing Richmond and Atlanta and Louisville and Birmingham and New Orleans and Dallas off the map. It was a race, a race into the unknown. Whoever first played Prometheus and stole fire from the G.o.ds would drop that fire on his enemies' heads.
He tried to imagine fighting a war where both sides had bombs like that. His mind recoiled like a horse shying at a snake. That wouldn't be submachine guns at two paces. It would be flamethrowers at two paces.
And what sort of weapons would you use in the war after that that one? To his surprise, the answer formed almost as soon as the question did. one? To his surprise, the answer formed almost as soon as the question did.
You would fight that next war with rocks.
”We're on the tiger's back right now, and we've got hold of his ears,” he said, not knowing and not much caring whether he was talking about Featherston or about the war. ”If you tell me that's not where we want to be, I won't argue with you. But if you say we'd do better letting go and jumping off, I have to say I think you're out of your mind-sir. Do you want Don Partridge trying to run things?” He supposed he'd been talking about Jake after all.
Nathan Bedford Forrest III hissed like a wounded snake himself. ”d.a.m.n you, Potter, you don't fight fair.”
”I didn't know that was part of the requirement,” Potter said. ”I thought the only thing you had to do was win.”
”That's it,” Forrest agreed. ”And that's what I wanted to ask you. Do you think we can win the war with Jake Featherston in charge of things?”
”Do you think we can win without him?” Potter asked in return. ”Do you think we can even get out of the war without him?” He didn't ask about getting out of the war with Featherston still in the Gray House. That wouldn't happen. Period. Exclamation point, even.
Forrest sat on the bench with a faraway look in his eyes. Potter suspected his own face bore a similar expression. How would the Confederate States do if they had to fight on without that pillar of fire at their heart? No, he didn't love Featherston-far from it. He did, reluctantly, respect him.
Slowly, the chief of the General Staff got to his feet. ”Maybe we'll talk about this another time,” he said. ”I hope we don't, but maybe we will.” He tipped his hat and walked away.
A starling perched in a shattered tree not far from where Potter sat. It chirped metallically. The s.h.i.+mmering summer gloss was off its feathers; it wore a duller autumn plumage. Potter swore under his breath. The gloss was off the war, too. He thought of one question he hadn't asked himself before. Could the CSA win even with with Jake Featherston at the helm? Jake Featherston at the helm?
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