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The plating, the weaponry, and the overall size of the tres impractical There was nowhere to simply "stop" the ship unless they wanted to abandon it outside of town and then walk

"We could try that," she said "But I don’t know if it’s wise"

Sihing the options as if his skull was the axis on a set of scales "I’d hate to toss her," he said "She’s a sweet set of wings, and notwe keep her, and bail on the Crow?" Hainey asked arning, but also curiosity

"No, I ain’t suggesting that I’el loose until we’re good and certain we’re done with her We land on the other side of the river, maybe--we start in Indiana and walk our way over--and then what? Maybe we find the Free Crow, and irl on fire and kicks her into the Ohio Maybe we need to ain Maybe a whole lot of things could happen, and we’d need a ship as big and fast as this one to see us safe back west If we’d taken anything shter than this warbird, we’d have never made it out of Missouri, and you know it sa with you And it’s a quandary, I know But Louisville is east, it ain’t west And I can’t…" he looked at Maria and then frowned in a way that said so she didn’t understand, not at first "There are places in Kentucky I couldn’t go even if the laasn’t looking for me"

Then he turned to Maria and addressed her directly "Three black o over real well, don’t you think? That wouldn’t raise a lick of suspicion in anyone, anywhere"

"You have a point"

"I usually do"

"But perhaps I can help"

Hainey alh to say, "What do you have in mind?"

She said, "Put me down on the far side of the river and wait over there, in the woods if you have to Tether down, and I’ll catch a ride into the city I’ll send a few telegrams, ask a few questions, and see if I can’t locate our mysterious sanatorium, which--as you and I both know--is no sanatorium at all"

Sirily "And then hat? We sit like fish in a barrel and wait for the charitable Belle Boyd to return?" He turned to the captain and said, "She’ll leave us here and finish her job, let her Yankee bosses pat her on the head, or maybe she’ll co by !"

Lamar said with less venom, but more measured concern, "Once we’ve set her down and sent her off…if she finds the sanatoriuoals are not so dissientlemen," she cajoled "You want your ship, I want to stop your ship and destroy this weapons laboratory--by hook or crook if necessary Perhaps I could do this alone and perhaps I couldn’t, but this ship is the best hope I have for intercepting another vessel, now isn’t it?"

"It’s surely your most obvious," the captain said before the crew could coardless "But Captain, she--"

"Time is of the essence, don’t you think?" he asked the first o our separate ways; and we could try through our connections to learn where the sanatoriuh channels that wouldn’t let us pass the front door or the back door, either Who do you think will learn the most, the fastest?"

"She would," Simeon scowled "But we can’t trust her"

"Who said I trust her?" Lamar sniffed, and the captain said, "I trust her to shoot like an ace, and I trust her to fight for the country that’s turned her away I trust her to be as sneaky a bitch as ever the South did breed, and I trust her to understand that we’re her best hope every bit as much as she’s ours, because like Minnericht, and like you, and like me, that wo today Nooman," he said to her, "Did I tell any lies just now?"

She was seated still, hands folded in her lap over the gun she’d drawn froospel truth I have no reason to lie to you The captain is right and I aenerally desire oal will be best served by preserving Danville froood would it do me to hand you over…if there is no nation left to prosecute you?"

Hainey swung a hand out and pointed it at her, as if to say, "See?" but he did not say it aloud Instead he said, "On your word then, lady On your word as a Southerner, and a Confederate, and, and," he searched for sorave, and on your--"