In spite of everything, Flora smiled. “Thanks, Franklin. I needed that. What are we going to do? If we can’t stop these rockets and we can’t even warn against them, how do we go on?”
“As best we can,” Roosevelt answered. “Stick a rabbit’s foot in your purse if you don’t already have one. Remember that every time the Confederates build one of these, they don’t build something else. And some will be duds, and some will go boom without doing much damage. As much as anything else, they’re trying to scare us.”
“They’re pretty good at it, aren’t they?” Flora said. Roosevelt laughed merrily, as if she were joking. What he hadn’t said was that some of the rockets would blow houses and apartments and factories to kingdom come. Then something even worse than that occurred to her. “Can they load anything besides ordinary explosives onto these…things?”
“You mean like gas? I think explosives would hurt us more,” Roosevelt said.
Flora had no doubt he was being dense on purpose. “Gas, maybe,” she said. “Or other things.” She didn’t want to say too much on the telephone.
Obviously, neither did he. “Not right away,” he answered. “I’ve already talked with some people. They need a bigger rocket or a smaller thing. So that’s all right for a while, anyhow.”
“For a while. How long is a while?”
“I have no idea. If it’s not till we finish licking them, it doesn’t matter. And now I’ve got to go. Other people to talk to. Stay safe.”
“How?” Flora asked, but she was talking to a dead line. Sighing, she hung up, too. She heard no more bangs out of the blue. That was something. Maybe Featherston had only two ready, and more would have to wait a while. Again, though, how long was a while? Not nearly so long as the Confederates would need to load a uranium bomb on a rocket—Flora was all too sure of that.
Her secretary looked into the inner office. “Were those booms the Confederates or the Mormons, Congresswoman?”
“Mr. Roosevelt says they were the Confederates, Bertha,” Flora answered.
Bertha nodded. “Figured you’d be talking to him. How did they sneak the bombs in? Can’t we stop stuff like that?”
Were the rockets secret? The War Department would probably like to keep them that way, but it would be like trying to classify the sunrise. Like it or not, everybody would know about them before long. Flora told Bertha what she’d heard.
“All the way up from Virginia? How do they do that?” Bertha said.
“If we knew, we’d do it, too,” Flora said dryly. “I bet like anything we’re trying to figure it out, though.”
“Oh, boy.” Bertha didn’t sound impressed, for which Flora could hardly blame her. “What’s to keep us all from getting murdered in our beds without even any warning?”
Nothing, Flora thought. “We’re going to take Atlanta pretty soon. If we smash the Confederate States to pieces, they won’t be able to go on with the war.”
“Oh, boy,” her secretary repeated. “How long will that take?”
“I don’t know. Not too long, I hope.” Please, God, let it be before they send Joshua into action. I haven’t asked You for much, but give me that.
“They’ll be shooting off these skyrocket things all the time till then?” Bertha asked.
“Not if we can bomb the places where they shoot them from,” Flora said.
“Hmp.” Bertha made a noise redolent of skepticism. “Did anybody know what a nasty war this would be before they went and started it?”
“Does anybody ever?”
“What are we going to do?” Bertha asked.
“What can we do? We’re stuck in it. We’ve got to win,” Flora said. Bertha didn’t say no, but she didn’t say yes, either.
BOOKS BY HARRY TURTLEDOVE
The Guns of the South
THE WORLDWAR SAGA
Worldwar: In the Balance
Worldwar: Tilting the Balance
Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
Worldwar: Striking the Balance
COLONIZATION
Colonization: Second Contact
Colonization: Down to Earth
Colonization: Aftershocks
Homeward Bound
THE VIDESSOS CYCLE
The Misplaced Legion
An Emperor for the Legion
The Legion of Videssos
Swords of the Legion
THE TALE OF KRISPOS
Krispos Rising
Krispos of Videssos
THE TIME OF TROUBLES SERIES
The Stolen Throne
Hammer and Anvil
The Thousand Cities
Videssos Besieged
Noninterference
Kaleidoscope
A World of Difference
Earthgrip
Departures
How Few Remain
THE GREAT WAR
The Great War: American Front
The Great War: Walk in Hell
The Great War: Breakthroughs
AMERICAN EMPIRE
American Empire: Blood and Iron
American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold
American Empire: The Victorious Opposition
SETTLING ACCOUNTS
Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
Settling Accounts: Drive to the East
Settling Accounts: The Grapple
Settling Accounts: In at the Death*
*forthcoming
Settling Accounts: The Grapple is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2006 by Harry Turtledove
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Turtledove, Harry.
Settling accounts : The grapple / Harry Turtledove.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. United States—History—20th century—Fiction. 2. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Fiction. 3. Confederate States of America—History—Fiction.
PS3570.U76 S475 2006
813'.54—dc22 2005056010
www.delreybooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-345-49364-4
v3.0