“What’s wrong, ma’am?”
“I was hoping for a word with Cly before the boys went all the way to water. When they stop by the wharf, and I join the poling crew for surveillance, I’d hoped they’d pause so I could speak with him. ”
“Any special reason, ma’am?” Marylin asked with great and false innocence.
“Not the one you’re thinking. Cly’s a good man and our time together was fine, but that was a long time ago,” she inadvertently echoed Fenn Calais. “I want a word with him because he’s been in Seattle. ”
“What’s Seattle got to do with anything?”
“It might have a whole lot to do with the zombis. ”
“I don’t understand?…”
“Neither do I, dear. But I’m working on it, and it’s coming together. Cly knows something important, something he hasn’t told me. I don’t know if he’s keeping a secret, or if it just hasn’t come up yet. But I need to ask him some questions. ”
“Does this have something to do with that Ranger who came by here last night?”
“Ranger Korman, yes. And Madame Laveau, too, because she’s the one who put the pair of us in touch. ”
“It’s funny, ma’am, you working with a Ranger. ”
“I’m not working with him. We have a thing in common, that’s all. We both want the zombis gone. It’d be madness to ignore him if he knows anything useful—and if he’s in a position to be helpful. ”
“And you think he can help?” Marylin asked.
“Maybe. Texas isn’t real thrilled with him right now, and Austin might not listen to anything he has to say, but I guess we’ll find out. And Captain Cly might hold a piece to the puzzle, though I don’t think he knows it. It might be worth our time—once Ganymede is safely in Union hands—to put those two men’s heads together and see if they don’t crack some sparks. ”
“That’s a violent way of putting it, ma’am. I suppose for now we’ll hope for the best. ”
“No, we won’t,” Josephine said, rising from the seat, although she’d only just taken it.
“We won’t?”
“Well. I won’t. There’s plenty of daylight left. I’ll take the street rail out and have a word with the good captain before the sun sets. Maybe this delay is a good thing for all of us. I’m determined to find a bright side, goddammit. ”
“It’ll let you spend a little extra time together. ”
“That’s not the kind of bright side I meant. ”
“Didn’t mean to suggest it, ma’am. ”
“Oh, hush. ”
Josephine gathered everything she thought she might need for the trip, filling her favorite silk-lined leather bag—the only expensive one she owned, not that it looked half so fancy as the ones she wore with her best dresses. She wouldn’t need a cloak, but it felt like a shawl might be in order, so she threw a light gray one over a similarly colored dress and grabbed a parasol.
With a few parting instructions to Marylin, she set out for Rue Canal to pick up the street rail line that would take her back out to Metairie.
Norman Somers wasn’t hanging around the big lot where the transports parked, but Charlie pointed her in the direction of Norman’s brother, Swinton, who was more than happy to drive her the rest of the way to New Sarpy without asking any questions. Likely as not, Swinton knew the answers regardless, but Josephine didn’t feel like talking and the man didn’t feel like making her, so they rode together in silence to the small riverside settlement.
She descended from the rattling, shuddering transport vehicle and thanked Swinton with a few coins from her bag. He made a polite show of refusal, and she made a polite show of insistence. In the end, he took the money and left her there, standing beside an unpaved road at the edge of a collection of squat, square buildings.
Narrow lines of dirt and mud ran between them, not roads, but walkways and driveways. The grass grew up tall among the spaces where wheels and feet came and went. New Sarpy wasn’t an abandoned place. It simply wasn’t much used.
The coughing of an engine announced the impending appearance of a rolling-crawler, giving Josephine plenty of time to get off the street.
She stepped out of the way and stood, watching as yet more Texians made their leisurely retreat from New Orleans. Not many of them this time, only a few dozen, with the rolling-crawler slowly rolling and crawling to keep their pace—its metal accompaniment serving to tote supplies and offer general marching encouragement, since the machines weren’t big enough to hold more than a handful of men.
Texas had larger devices for transporting personnel and equipment, but Josephine didn’t see any of them on the road. She assumed they were being used elsewhere, or perhaps whoever had recalled these forces figured that they were so tough, they could walk awhile. She didn’t know, and cared only because the swiftness and completeness of their departure would mean the difference between success and a miserable near-miss when it came to her plans for Ganymede.