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"That fellow’s research … as it about, again…?" Grant rooted around in hislike that?"

"So a machine to solve all the probleued that there were no such problems You were such an opti"

"I still do," he insisted softly "Mankind remains a marvel; and this machine was built by a man, after all"

"True, true Did it work? Can it count? Or was it destroyed in the explosion?"

"It worked"

Grant shifted forward, his elbows on the tops of his knees, the glass still perched in his hand "Did you ask it … did you ask…?"

"We gave it all the known parameters, variables, and inforures to population density, weather patterns and industry, money, trade, and commercial interests And then I asked your question--our question The only question worth asking a machine of its caliber I asked the Fiddlehead ould win this conflict, and how long it would take, assu no new variables are introduced"

Lincoln hesitated, and a brief spell of silence settled between them

Grant did not break it He was afraid of the answer, knowing it wouldn’t be a good one--and feeling as if he’d asked a gypsy’s ic ball for military advice

What would a machine know, anyway? How could nuts and bolts, levers and buttons, tell hiht a war, much less how to end one? The president was a man of instincts and suspicions, and he understood the flow of battle like a riverboat captain understood the surge of the Mississippi He could take the pulse of an altercation and listen to the rise and fall of artillery, co like thunder He had knoar firsthand, ht hihest office and kept him there for three terms, because men believed in his instincts

This tiht

He cleared his throat to chase the tremor out of it "Well?"

Abraham Lincoln withdrew a carefully trimmed packet of papers froh the the them to his friend "As far as the machine can tell, the United States of America will end But it won’t be the war that breaks it"

"I beg your pardon?" Confused, Grant took the pages They’d been cut by scissors, as if pared down to size froer piece of paper It felt like the onionskin of newsprint, s faintly like wet pulp

"The North won’t win, Ulysses And the South won’t win, either"

"You’re not getting all philosophical on me, are you?"

"No, I’m not There’s another threat, an indiscriminate one One that maybe…"

Grant lifted an eyebrow and peered over the paper "Maybe? Maybe what?"

"Thatto decipher the papers and returned them to his friend He didn’t understand any of the abbreviations, or the coluin If this was a record of war, it wasn’t one he could read

"What are you talking about, Abe?"

"We’ve long known that disease can turn the tide of a war y Cholera, typhoid, s, and it can devastate an army more effectively than anyabout the stuer aloft "Yes, well done The stumblebums That’s one word for them"

"Guttersnipe lepers, I’ve heard that too"

"Leprosy isn’t the worst possible co the idea, and splashing his drink in the process "Goddarumbled While he blotted at his pants with his handkerchief, he said, "But it can’t be We have doctors working on that probles dedicated to the investigation and treats, yes Filled with violent, dyingup resources, even as the situation worsens"

"We’ll get it under control"

"Do you think so?" Lincoln asked "These nu exponentially, turning a sh to bend the arc of history You could call it a self-inflicted and self-defeating problery, they bite; and their bites become necrotic with deadly speed One lone leper can kill dozens of healthy men Perhaps hundreds God only knows"

God wasn’t the only one who knew, Grant thought bitterly Desraht," Lincoln continued, "that thereunrelated to the drug itself" He paused to watch Grant’s reaction, but Grant didn’t give him one "But there’s still so much we don’t know"