“Not really,” I said. Lulu rode in front of me, saying nothing. Meka had been considerate enough to give up his seat, and Horse hadn’t seemed to mind. Meka had found another ride to the rendezvous point, saying that he would meet Horse there.
The humans travelling to the party appeared happy enough. Or stupidly naïve. Like I had been. Most of them didn’t know what was happening either. I had talked to enough of them to know that. This had been McCurdy’s decree or perhaps it had been the President’s choice or maybe they had collaborated in their decision-making.
It was a warm spring evening and occasionally, I caught the scent of cherry blossoms and dogwoods. It would have been a nice evening to stroll down the mall and watch people light lanterns in the top of the Washington Monument.
It would have been, if I hadn’t had to do other stuff.
I didn’t bother meeting with the others. I had Horse stop a block away from the Naval Observatory. I got off him by sliding down his rump, and Lulu followed me. The Embassy of South Africa was on my right. There was a statue of Winston Churchill on my left. It was on the south side of the Embassy of the United Kingdom. There were flickering lights from a torch or a fire, and somewhere inside, Queen Gertrude the 3rd might have been making potato soup. Or maybe she would attend the fete with everyone else, wearing a crown made from macaroni.
Lulu stood at my side. In the growing gloom, she didn’t look so hot. Her normally tanned flesh appeared greenish. Several of the firefly pixies were attached to her hair. She had Zizi put her short hair it in an elegant up do with a few attached blooms. Even passing out hadn’t made her look unseemly. She had wanted to change to something Xena-the-Warrior-like, but we didn’t have time. Now the evening gown had a long rip in the side to permit her freedom of movement, but it didn’t distract from her loveliness. The lucky wretch.
Ahead of us was a line of wagons. Beyond them, a line of torches and lamps revealed more soldiers guarding a makeshift perimeter. They stopped everyone a short distance from the observatory and unloaded passengers. Sure, they didn’t have a metal detector, but they were searching people for weapons.
It was clear to even a novice like me that these people didn’t see a threat in the humans who had been invited to their gala affair.
Huh. Maybe they had a bomb-sniffing new animal. Or they were unwisely overconfident.
I turned to Horse. “Go tell Meka and the others to come here as soon as they can. They won’t have to fight.” I think. “I can convince these people to let our friends go.” I think, I think. “There doesn’t have to be bloodshed.” But I had seen bloodshed in my head, so that wasn’t exactly right either.
Horse eyed the soldiers ahead of us. “They have weapons. Those crossbow things, Meka practiced with them but kept snapping his wrist until it bled. What makes you think they won’t fight you? Or that they won’t take you away like they did the other humans and animals?”
“You speak such good English,” I said instead of answering.
“It’s such an interesting language,” Horse said. “Meka taught it to me. My kind has an affinity for languages.” His blue eyes seemed luminescent in the torch light. The firefly pixies buzzed angrily around us, waiting for me to charge in and save the day. They didn’t understand that the situation was perilous for all of us. Spring would appreciate the time I was taking to think about what needed to be done.
Spring. Damn. Damn. Damn.
“Horse, I need you to hurry,” I sat. I patted the great forehead like I would do to a regular horse, but the un-horse didn’t seem to mind. He nodded his head and trotted back the way we’d come. He got a few rapid glances from the other humans. He appeared to be a horse that had gotten away from his rider. One man leaned out to try and catch his reins, but Horse nickered loudly and danced away with a horsey laugh.
“What are we doing?” Lulu asked. The pretty blue dress didn’t look as good now. With the tear up the leg and the bulk of it around her chest and the Sam Browne belt with three knife sheaths, she looked a little wrinkled. She reached down and tore half the skirt away, dropping the remnant to the ground with a little shrug. I imagined I looked about the same. Post-apocalyptic killer girls with edged weapons. Go us.
“We’re going to see the President,” I said. “A little chat is necessary.”
I adjusted the Japanese sword on my back.
“It’s still a nice dress,” Lulu lamented. “I wish Zach could see it.”
I nearly glanced back at her. She added, “I meant yours, dumb ass.”
“The combat boots look better with it than I would have thought,” Lulu said. “Oh well.”
We walked past the line of wagons. There were dozens of people there, even as much as a hundred. Beyond the line of soldiers were rows of decorated tables, sitting on the asphalt at Observatory Circle and Massachusetts Avenue Northwest. They formed semi-circles around the gate I had entered before. With all of the torches and hurricane lamps, I could see a platform on the inside of the gate. They had finally removed the squad car. Instead, there was a podium on the platform with the official seal of the United States of America hanging in the front. There was also a large covered item sitting to one side that was the size of a bus with one high pointy end, and I wondered if the President had a statue sitting around, ready to be unveiled. A small band played to one side. I didn’t recognize the music, but it sounded like something conservative my nana would have liked. (When she wasn’t listening to Jimi Hendrix or the Doors, that is.) Tents to the side were where the food was being prepared. There was an area cordoned off for dancing. Tiki lamps had been brought in to surround it.
A real hopping jamboree!
No one would notice that the President stayed on his side of the fence. No, he could give his speech and reveal his statue. People would applaud. More humans with special connections to new animals would be acquired for use in the new administration, one that would blackmail them, if necessary, if they weren’t stupid enough to not notice what was happening. After a while, no one would question why the President didn’t leave the Naval Observatory. He could rule from there. McCurdy would be happy to be his maniacal henchman. And hey, my diabolical mind came up with a few reasons why Maston would succeed with very little effort.
If the Vice President of the United States of America had survived the night of the change on the Naval Observatory’s grounds, then what had happened to him?
Who had decided that Corbin Maston was the natural successor? If he was the last remaining member of Congress left alive, then he was it, but it didn’t mean he would be a good President.
“How are we getting past the troops?” Lulu asked.
“We’re invited.”
I brushed my dress off. Horse who wasn’t really a horse shed like a horse. I wondered if Horse would be offended if I asked if he had horse in him somewhere.
“How’s my makeup?” I asked.
Lulu turned me with a hand. “Horrible. Your mascara is running. Why didn’t we use the waterproof kind?” She grimaced. “But, it kind of goes with your look.” She looked around then ripped the piece of lace off that had been hanging. She wet it with her tongue and wiped under my eyes. “Sorry, but I’m fresh out of Wet Wipes.”
“They’re going to wonder why I’m armed and you’re armed,” I said to Lulu.
“Because they’re dickheads?”
“I’ve been eccentric, so I’m giving up my broadsword,” I said. “You need to find a place besides the Sam Browne belt to put a few of your knives.”
“I can do that.”
“The President has several bodyguards including our favorites, Mario and Jack. There’s the regular soldiers or sailors or whatever McCurdy is calling them. Then there’s a roving team at the Naval Observatory itself. They’re the ones to worry about.”
Lulu’s face showed confusion. I wasn’t too clear myself.
“Find a bow and arrow or a crossbow,” I told Lulu. “Shoot at the ones that are across the fence. Hit them wherever you
can. You’re going to have to do your best.”
“I’ve barely practiced with the crossbow,” she said. It was almost a protest and half a warning.
“Do you know anyone here who’s good with a crossbow?”
“Hetta from the train,” Lulu said immediately. “She brought down an antelope with one hand.”
“Hetta from Alabama,” I said. “Do you think she would pick a side?”
“Do you mean, would she pick our side?” Lulu rephrased.
I nodded.
“You saved her ass from the giant moths,” Lulu said. “She’s got friends in Alabama who have those same kind of freaky links to new animals. She told me about the one who hangs with jackalopes.”
“Jackalopes,” I repeated. “You mean rabbits with antlers.”
“That’s what Hetta said,” Lulu said. “I didn’t ask for a photograph, and besides—” she waved at the firefly pixies circling over our heads “— you should talk. Somewhere Walt Disney is screaming about copyright violations.”
“Okay, get Hetta.”
“She’s not going to have her crossbow with her.”
“She’ll have one soon enough.” It was a stupid plan. I didn’t know whether Hetta would back me up or not. More likely that she wouldn’t, considering she would be firing against what was essentially the New Secret Service of the New United States.
“Where are you going to be?” Lulu asked.
“Right up there,” I pointed to the podium with the seal of the United States of America hanging on the front. “Right in the thick of it.”
“Of course,” Lulu said. “That’s your shtick.”
We split up.
“I need you to stay quiet and follow my lead,” I sang to the firefly pixies. I heard them muttering, but many of them landed on me or fluttered around my head without challenging my words.
I continued along the line and up to where the military soldiers were checking people crossing over into the party area. I looked left and right. It was bizarre. Anyone could wander in from either side. They could simply merge into the groups that were already gathered and mingling and no one would be the wiser. Of course, the President couldn’t take care of all the details of security. The people he had weren’t trained in the way that the Secret Service had been trained. It was unlikely any of them were even trained as anything close to what they actually needed. Moreover, McCurdy had been a lieutenant, a man who had a degree in history. I didn’t know what he had done in the navy, but I did know he hadn’t been someone in charge of a VIP’s security.
As I moved forward, cutting in front of people who looked at me askance, I saw others in the distance moving into the groups that had already passed through the second-rate checkpoint. I saw Meka and the girl with the green hair. Her snake was absent for the moment, and I couldn’t remember her name. I even saw Prosper with a glass of champagne in his hand, although the hand was trembling, and his suit didn’t fit very well. I hadn’t even had to tell them, and they were moving in.
Here was the situation. McCurdy had absconded with the firefly pixies. He would know that I would find out before the event. He and/or the President had made the decision to move on me now, before events escalated. They wanted their leverage before this party. They had to know I wouldn’t be happy, that I might show up in a perturbed mood.
The first soldier who saw me recognized me, and his mouth moved into a forbidding frown. He didn’t even have to ask me to remove my sword. I put it down on a table. A girl in a uniform put a little sticky tag on it and presented me with the other half. I had a claim check for my Japanese broadsword. Oh, wonder of wondrous wonders. I put the little ticket in my cleavage because I didn’t have any pockets.
Another soldier patted me down, although he was clearly uncomfortable doing so. He grimaced when he felt the extra padding around my torso. “It’s a leather bustier,” I said. “Goes with the whole bad girl, Goth look, wouldn’t you say?”
He didn’t answer but nodded me through. I saw him raise his hand, and I followed his look to a man standing across from the security checkpoint. Obviously, McCurdy had changed into his dress uniform, shedding the gas mask somewhere. The dress uniform was white and startlingly bright in the torchlight, making him stand out. His medals decorated his breast, full-sized ribbons that resembled a veritable fruit salad. His saucer cap was perched appropriately on his head, and the new ranks on his shoulders gleamed. He also had a naval sword at his side. A gold handle was prominent as it sat in its scabbard.
He suspiciously eyed me as if I was a monster coming in from his childhood closet. Perhaps I was. McCurdy was a traditionalist. This huge change couldn’t have sat in his gut very well, no matter that deep down inside, he had a little mysterious psychic something going on. The first thing he had done was dust off a Stanley Steamer and try to resume a reality that was close to the reality before the change. He talked about our nation’s history in terms of lessons that we had learned, but he failed to understand that there were new lessons to be learned. All the military history books in the world weren’t going to take this nation back.
McCurdy approached me, sauntering rather than at a purposeful stride. I waited because I wanted time for people to get through the checkpoint and for those who were skipping the checkpoint to get within the perimeter. As he closed on me, he said, “You aren’t going to cause trouble, Sophie?”
It was a question, but it was also an order.
The answer was yes, I was going to cause trouble, but I didn’t say it. “Where are the firefly pixies you took?” I asked in a low voice so it didn’t carry to the groups around us. I didn’t want McCurdy to have some people carry me off before things started getting interesting.
“Oh, they’re fine. They started coming around not long after I gassed them,” McCurdy said. “I did put them into a different cage. They’ve got water and earthworms. You see, I did do my homework. They’ll be taken care of…as long as necessary.”
“Let the sisters pierce his eyeballs!” Flowers sang in my ear.
“And you’ve brought some of the others,” McCurdy said. “I knew I didn’t get them all, and your friend, Lulu, was very unhelpful.”
“That’ll happen when you make someone unconscious.”
McCurdy chuckled, certain that he had the upper hand. He was in his element, although I thought I could detect a dash of…shame? I wasn’t armed, and there were lots of soldiers around who were. Pshaw, such a silly little girl to try to intimidate a naval captain.
“I see she still came,” McCurdy nodded as he indicated Lulu about a dozen yards from us. “Sorry about her dress, but she still looks good.”
“It’s hard to uglify Lulu,” I admitted. “She’s the kind of girl who looks good in a paper bag.”
“So are we going to behave, Sophie?” McCurdy asked politely. “I’d hate to have you removed and even before the President gives his speech. He’s got a rather large announcement today and even you will want to hear it.”
I smiled. Well, I bared my teeth anyway. I had gotten rather good at that. Besides, I had a rather large announcement to make, too.
“Perhaps some champagne,” McCurdy suggested. He signaled a waiter, and I saw that the waiter was Harry from the Fredericksburg rail station. He had the winged dog named Spot. Spot wasn’t about, but I suspected that the new animal wasn’t far away. Harry presented me with a fluted glass and then followed up with one to McCurdy. McCurdy grinned to himself as he sipped. As the naval captain turned to look up the hill, Harry winked at me.
“This is quite a scheme you’ve got going,” I said, not reacting to Harry. Harry turned to another group and passed out more flutes of champagne.
McCurdy shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“But you don’t seem to mind.” I took a sip of the champagne. It tasted like crap to me. The bubbles burned my nose hairs. My friend, Kara, would probably say it was an acquired taste, like caviar. When I got back to her, I was bringing a case of both.
“The President needs to incorporate the new with the old,” McCurdy said.
“How long would I have to ‘cooperate’ until you let my friends go?” I asked out of sheer curiosity. I wondered if McCurdy was going to lie or whether he had some scruples in there somewhere.
“It depends on the needs of the nation,” he answered, and it struck me as insanely arrogant.
I looked at the United States seal on the podium. The bald eagle held thirteen arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. I nodded my head toward it. “Do you know what that means?”
McCurdy looked where I was looking. “E pluribus unum? Of course. Out of many, one. I can’t remember much of my Latin, but that’s the gist of it.”
“Do I remember incorrectly that it was intended to mean that out of many states there became one nation? Later, it became indicative that we are a blend of many nations and many peoples.”
McCurdy said, “I see I’m not the only one who took history.”
“High school history. My teacher’s name was Mr. Oakley. I don’t recall his first name. I doubt he made it to our side of the fence. Mr. Oakley was rather rabid about the subject. He thought we should know the ins and outs better than the Founding Fathers.”
“And you implied that you didn’t remember much of it,” McCurdy said.
“I said I didn’t graduate from high school.”
McCurdy made a sound. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“It wasn’t exactly a question. And you didn’t answer mine.”
“Where are the bugs, right?” McCurdy took another sip of champagne. Obviously, he thought it was good stuff, Maynard. “No, I won’t tell you. We need you now and to do that would give up our clout.”
“So I should stick around and be your go-to-new-animal girl? Is that correct?”
“That’s it.”
The band abruptly stopped its version of whatever it was playing and began playing an earsplitting version of Hail to the Chief.
We both turned toward the podium. A group of people moved down the hill from the Vice President’s residence. The President waved at people and motioned at his bodyguards to move away from the front. They complied and even I could see Corbin Maston’s megawatt grin from where I stood.
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