Page 24 (1/2)

"The gas kills anyone who inhales it But a significant portion of those who breathe it don’t stopInstead, it takes over their nervous system and makes them intothe contagion while seeding terror"

"I should think so,"to eat me, I’d be quite terrified"

She leaned forward, her thorny s "Oh, but that’s not even the worst of it Everyone’s afraid to die, yes, but everyone dies eventually--we all know it, even if we’d rather not think about it But i I in control of your own faculties, at the mercy of a cheainst the people you once knew and loved That, Mr President, is truly a fate worse than death And our studies have shown that, indeed, ue-walkers more than they fear a bullet to the head"

It was such a precise comparison that Grant knew ithi, for a moment

"So this is what it’s come to"

She reclined, somewhat crossly Apparently that wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear "Yes, this is what it’s come to You want the war to end? This is how you end it"

"It sounds … unethical Unfair It doesn’t sound like war; it sounds like cheating"

"Call it what you like But for all your talk of preserving and restoring the Union, I’ boys to do the jobs of ive a woman a crack at it And let me assure you: I will do what needs to be done I’ll do what none of you have been able to do so far, or what you haven’t had the stomach for"

Grant shook his head, then sat forward to tap one finger on the edge of the desk for e that this weapon is only effective for a s I know about it for certain--and that it’s too big and heavy to be deployed from a cannon, or even hurtled down a hill That was nificent war-ending weapon needs a team of, what--two dozen men? At least?--to deploy it, and those men will almost certainly die in the delivery Even if we could findto sacrifice their lives on account of this stunt, it’s highly unlikely that one of these gas boh to end the war I’alvanize the South Deploying a weapon of such … terror, that was the word you used? Deploying such a thing will frighten them more than it will harm them"

"And fear does no har about a nation that has been at war for an entire generation--and, like what’s left of the United States, their population has become almost complacent about it Warfare has become the standard of existence, a -running staleued "The South is in decline"

He launched the tapping finger of eh that they’re finally bending under the weight of this conflict To change the rules now is to risk a resurgence in effort and planning on their part Your weapon will give theive the," she told him "And if a few dozen men are required to safely transport the Maynard, then a few dozen er of assu the uniforoverner and threw his hands in the air "Precious few of the ned up to do so of their own accord!"

"Fine So it’s overnment conscripts them and sends them to war, and they die The result is the sa such issue with the particulars"

"I don’t understand how you write them off so easily," he coood Union men on a square mile of devastation could possibly turn the tide of the war, except to turn it against us"