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Mercy grabbed her satchel and threw off her cloak to make her movements easier--never mind the cold between the cars; she could stand it She checked her guns, and the to a second wave of unifor weapons Then they turned different directions, and ran
Mercy backtracked the way she’d just co people in the central cars intothe hysterical that a plan was in place, though she went out of her way to keep fro oing straight to hell, and the soldiers appeared to appreciate it, going so far as to assist where possible as they polarized the up defensive positions and barricades in the places where the Confederate raiders seemed most likely to attack
She er car When she’d finished herding its occupants into the second car, the captain reached for Mercy’s arm and lured her back into the first one, where his soldiers were holing up and readying the, and not knowing how to phrase it
"Can I help you, Captain?" she tried to pro the right thing, leaving the passenger cars unguarded"
She said, "So do I"
"It’s placing a great deal of faith in our enereed, "Perhaps" Then she looked about Seeing no truly unoccupied corners, she led him over to an abandoned coile "
"By allyour pardon?"
"I may not be an officer, but I’m not an idiot, either And this train, this tripit’s a big fat pile of horse pucky, and it s about," he said, with just enough hesitation to
Exasperated, she said, "Look at those machines out there They’ll be on us at anylike them, have you?"
"No, I haven’t But ould you--?"
"They’re expensive, I bet Probably made in Texas like all the best war toys, and then shipped up here on one of the Republican rail lines thatto do"
"Madam, I assure you this is purely a civilian mission--"
"Oh, and I’ain she pointed out the , to a place where the vehicles were sharassy nubs on the prairie "Look at theers are a bluff They’re aiine and the caboose, or the after-caboose And I want you to tell me, Captain MacGruderwhy?"
The captain stiffened, and said slowly, "As a civilian, none of this is your concern"
"As a wooddaetting ready to open fire on us, it sure as hell isnoise up front declared that the Dreadnought’s defense syste strands and coils of bullets up to the Gatling-copies ine’s sides Mercy said, "Captain!" She wasn’t sure what she’d folloith, a plea for infor had time to coer cars anda line of bullets across the sand-colored earth and blasting pits in wavy rows The e, and they dodged, ducking and bucking left to right and back again--unexpectedly stable for such spindly looking creations In a hted themselves and struck a forward course once more
"Get back to your car and stay down," the captain commanded, at the exact moment the Rebel craft fired back
A hail of bullets s sprays of glass exploding through the narrow co shards out of their hair and off their shoulders Mercy crouched in the coain, "Go, for God’s sake!"
More fire fro the towed couns were fired Mercy retreated as ordered--stopping at the doors and holding her breath, waiting, trying to calculate the incalculable There was no way to time her steps to a steady roll of the train, because she had no way of knohen it would fire; so she breathed deeply, yanked at the door, flung herself into the next car, and hoped for the best
By the tioal, a ht up to her from the first co off the Rebs
The soldier called out, "Mrs Lynch!"
When she turned around, he did not wait for confirmation, just wheezed, "Can you coot some men hurt"
"Already? But I just left!" she exclaimed, then waved her hands as if to disht behind you"
The sun waslighting the train The porters had snuffed the gas la up and down the aisles was like crashing through sohtht faded and the confusion ht she couldn’t possibly find her way through one id handle and clutching it, in order to move herself across the wind-torn space
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