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He released the edge of the curtain and retreated to the hallway, pausing to duck into the Lincolns’ bedrooh thebeside a tall wardrobe Outside it was nearly as dark as inside He thought he sawquickly froht on soht was full of raccoons and rabbits, after all

Knowing this did not prevent hi the , he carefully walked back to the hallhere there was aluidance He worked from memory, from the map in his head of a house he’d visited dozens of tih he’d rarely seen these private cha couple spent their quieter days

At the end of the hall was an oversized du when he and Wellers had installed it together last June It was a closet with a floor built on a lift, an elevator large enough to hold Lincoln and his chair, and perhaps one other person The structure of the house would perive up part of the kitchen pantry And as it turned out, she could not

The last roouest rooh the narrow slit in the curtains, but saw nothing he didn’t already know Men in the woods Shadowed figures, distinguished lilint of a spyglass lens

The hints of spyglass worried hilass was only for observation, or if it was affixed to the barrel of a weapon Gideon fervently hoped that none of the new recruits were sharpshooters, but he couldn’t count on it; he couldn’t count on anything, not tonight So he remained wary of any seams in the cloak of darkness they’d forced upon the house He’d turned off all the gaslights and electric lights, and forbidden any torches--electric or otherwise Any light within would tell the ht be a vague target, but it’d be a direction in which to shoot

Two more rooms to check--and then he was done, and the second story was clear Back down the stairs he traveled, announcing hi softly, "Mr Grant? The upstairs is as tight as I can make it"

"Good," came the reply by the front door But it sounded distracted

Gideon kept his back to the wall until he reached the president; then he slid down into a sitting position beside hi more men"

"I know And we’re not"

"They know"

"It’s only a matter of time, now," Grant said, low and quiet, "until they coer, put on a show for another hour or two"

Grant nodded, scratching his salt-and-pepper beard "I don’t suppose that big brain of yours has co tactics, but he offered them anyway "We need to spread out Put Polly and Mary upstairs, at opposite ends Let them play sharpshooter, or at least make a lot of noise By sound alone it’s hard to tell a couple of shooters fro the second story and us on the first, we can mount a satisfactory defense that ets the wohts hoe ood We can’t spare a runner right now, and even if we could, we’d be sending someone on a suicide o in the first place," he said, giving a voice to so he’d suspected Grant didn’t contradict hi to make a dash for it, but he’d never make it Mary would have the best chance; she’s a little old lady, and a well-known one at that … but I don’t suppose that’s on the table"

"No, it isn’t," Grant said fast Then, after a pause, "She’d do it if we asked her, though We’ll work around it"

"The cellar is a fortifiable position of a kind, but it’s a dangerous one Only tays in or out, but, once in, we’d never be able to mount any kind of response It should be considered, but only as a last option Not least of all because we’d have to carry Mr Lincoln down those steps"

"Doesn’t he have an elevator?"

"Yes, but it only goes between the first and second floors Structural issues prevented us froher?" Grant’s eyebrow lifted

"There’s an attic, but it won’t be of any use to us Just another place to get ourselves stuck And the cellar is hed "It’s a damn shame we don’t have that machine of yours here and handy, isn’t it? We could just ask it what to do, and it’d tell us"

"That’s not hoorks"

"No?"

Since the president seeenuinely curious, Gideon told him, in brief "The Fiddlehead collects information, and sorts out the possible results into levels of probability It can tell you what’s likely to occur, but if you prefer a different outcome, it’s your responsibility to find another path"