Read Chapter 16: THE DEAD COURIER RETURNS

Caleb Orr came back on Thursday night.

He walked into Warehouse Three wearing a sailor’s coat and carrying a pistol.

Amos reached for a cudgel.

Elias raised a hand.

“Caleb.”

Orr looked thinner than memory, his bad teeth unchanged.

“You have caused me trouble,” Elias said.

“So I hear.”

“Are you British?”

“No.”

“Continental?”

“Sometimes.”

“Then we share a profession.”

Orr did not smile.

Miriam emerged from the office behind him.

“I brought him.”

Elias stared at her.

“You knew he was alive?”

“Since yesterday.”

“Where has he been?”

Orr answered. “New Jersey. Then Long Island. Hart sent me underground after Price approached me.”

“You met Price willingly.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To feed him controlled information.”

Elias laughed bitterly.

“So Hart was running a double channel through my double channel while suspecting me of being a double agent.”

Miriam folded her arms.

“When you say it like that, it sounds inefficient.”

“It is a miracle either army finds the enemy.”

Orr set the pistol on a crate.

“I made a mistake. Price copied parts of my Testament code. Crane got them later.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“I do,” Elias said. “Crane has been using Price. Perhaps bribery. Perhaps blackmail.”

Miriam said, “Lott believes Crane is trying to engineer a break between our network and you.”

“He has succeeded.”

“Not entirely.”

Elias looked at her.

She continued, “Lott wants Crane taken alive tomorrow.”

“So does Harcourt.”

Orr whistled softly.

“That is unfortunate for Crane.”

“It is unfortunate for me. Both sides will be watching the same boat.”

Miriam’s eyes narrowed.

“You planned that.”

“Yes.”

“You told Harcourt?”

“Yes.”

“And Lott?”

“Indirectly.”

“What exactly are you doing?”

Elias looked at Nathaniel and Amos, then back at her.

“Dying.”

Orr blinked.

Miriam swore.

“The Mercy Anne burns after leaving the slip,” Elias said. “Crane aboard. British witnesses on shore. Your witnesses somewhere else. Everyone sees me board.”

“And Crane?” she asked.

“He chooses whether to leave before the fire.”

“That sounds charitable.”

“I am not murdering him.”

“What if he refuses to come?”

“He will come. I have the original Bermuda bill.”

Orr leaned against a barrel.

“You think a man risks his life for a nine-year-old forgery?”

“Not for the forgery. For the fact that my father beat him.”

Miriam looked unconvinced.

Elias explained the partnership, the humiliation, Crane’s attempt to reclaim power by proving Josiah Vale’s son could be destroyed through the same trade in information that had once ruined him.

“Revenge ages well,” Amos said. “Like bad rum.”

Miriam paced.

“If Lott’s men see you escape the burning ship, the plan fails.”

“They will watch from the Manhattan side. We leave on the Brooklyn side under smoke.”

“And British patrol boats?”

“Nathaniel arranged a false alarm near Governor’s Island ten minutes before ignition.”

Miriam looked at Nathaniel.

“How?”

He smiled. “Apparently I have inherited some of the family disease.”

Elias unfolded the harbor chart.

“Orr, I need one thing from you.”

“No.”

“You do not know what it is.”

“Experience suggests no.”

“I need you seen entering Warehouse Three tomorrow afternoon carrying a packet.”

“What packet?”

“A list of Continental contacts.”

“Real?”

“Of course not.”

“And who should see me?”

“Thomas Price, if Harcourt has him watching. Crane’s observer if not.”

Miriam shook her head.

“You are creating so many stories that one will collide with another.”

“That is the point.”

“What?”

Elias looked around the warehouse.

“My old mistake was keeping lies separate. One for Harcourt. One for Hart. Crane defeated me by comparing them. So the final lie cannot depend on separation.”

He tapped the chart.

“It must survive comparison.”

Orr understood first.

“Everyone gets the same story.”

“Yes.”

“Elias Vale stole from both sides, tried to sell both sides, fled with Crane, and died when his boat burned.”

“Yes.”

Miriam said quietly, “You are destroying your own reputation.”

Elias thought of his mother’s condition.

“When a man needs a new name,” he said, “reputation is only excess baggage.”