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"Sure, I’ll take the what terrible accident had so badly injured the wora in her ears, heading down to the station agent’s office and the here the conductors collected their itineraries, directions, and other notes

Down at that o hts Mercy didn’t want to interrupt, so she stood to the side, not quite out of their line of sight but distant enough that she didn’t appear to be eavesdropping And while she waited for the she really shouldn’t have She knerong even as she ran her finger along the brown folder, and she kneas a bad idea as she peeled the cover aside to take a peek within it But she nonetheless lifted a corner of the folder and glanced at the sheets there, realizing that they weren’t all notes for the conductor: soht there on top, as if Heaven itself had ordained that she read it, she saw a e At first it made no sense whatsoever, but she read it, and she puzzled over it, and she slapped the folder shut when theand went their separate ways

It said,

CB ALERT STOP STALL AT KC AS LONG AS POSSIBLE STOP SHENANDOAH APPROACHING FROM OC TOP SPEED STOP SHOULD CATCH TRAIN BEFORE ROCKIES STOP CONFIRM OR DENY CABOOSE BY TOPEKA IF POSSIBLE STOP SEND WORD FROM THERE STOP

Alas, her workive it a second, h inspection before the conductor spotted her Once he did, she approached hiuilty She handed the folder to the , and returned to her hotel rooe in her uessed that "OC" ht be Oklahoma City, since "KC" was so obviously Kansas City She didn’t knohat the "Shenandoah" was, but if it was traveling at top speed, and trying to "catch" the Dreadnought, she was forced to assuhty piece of machinery indeed And what did "CB" n-​off?

"Shenandoah," she whispered to herself A southern nas "Could be a unit or soet very coh for it that she wanted to stay awake and enjoy the fact that it wasn’t ainst the wall "Or another train?"

The last thing that rolled through Mercy’s er Korht

Someone on board was a Rebel spy

It wasn’t her, and she didn’t think--based on their conversation over supper--that it was the ranger, either So whohed, and said, "Could be almost anyone, really"

And then she fell asleep

Thirteen

Co, Mercy stood on the train station platfor for the opportunity to board once more She noticed a few absences, not out of nosiness, but si the same people day in and out for the previous week Now she sa faces, too, looking curiously at the awe-​inspiring engine and discussing ast the

The conductor overheard the questions, and Mercy listened to his answer, though she didn’t kno ine," he said, patting at the boiler’s side with one gloved hand "But that doesn’tsome bodies of boys from the western territories back hoine out to Tacoma to retrofit it with a different sort of power system"

One curious man asked, "Whatever do youon a two-​fuel systeine of her kind, though I understand the Rebs use diesel engines pretty regularly In Tacoht diesel, like theirs It’ll give us hter payload if we can work it out"

Mercy had a hard tihter than coal, but she was predisposed to disbelieving hient’s--and now that she’d talked to the ranger, and now that she’d seen the telegraht that the war engine was on a peaceful er she looked at it, the more deeply she felt that the train’s backstory was a lie

Then so so obvious that she should’ve thought of it before She did her best not to draw anyone’s attention by dashing Instead, she shuffled back toward the rear end of the train, to the caboose, and the bonus car that trailed bleakly behind with all its s painted over There was a guard standing on the platfor it anyhad coone, or been loaded or unloaded But she spied an older negro porter, and she quietly accosted hi her body to keep her face and her voice away froht’ve been listening

"Yeshave those fellows opened that car at all? Taken anything off it, or put anything inside it?"

"Oh no ma’am," he said with a low, serious voice He shook his head "None of us are to go anyplace near it; as told as soon as it stopped that nobody touches the last car I even heard-​tell that so too close or peeking in the s That thing’s sealed up good"

She said, "Ah," and thanked hier cars, turning this information over in herwar dead home to rest, eren’t any of them ever dropped off? She wondered who on earth she could possibly share her suspicions with, then saw the ranger leaning up against one of the pillars supporting the station overhang, an expression on his face like he’d been licking lemons