details had surely gone to him in one report or another, but that he'd remembered them… Clarence Potter was more nearly flabbergasted than impressed at that grasp of detail. I didn't know he had it in him, he thought. The president went on, 'The point is, three or four of your people are in slots with the state government or a city government where they can be useful to us because everybody reckons they're Yankees.'
'They can do some of that,' Potter said cautiously, 'but not too much. If they don't act like what they're supposed to be, they'll make the real Yankees wonder why they don't. That wouldn't be good. The last thing we want is to make the United States suspicious.'
This time, Featherston's scowl was of a different sort. Potter had no trouble identifying it, though: it was the scowl of a man who wasn't used to people telling him anything he didn't want to hear. Well, too damn bad, the intelligence officer thought. You're the one who brought me back into the Army. Now you have to take the consequences. I'm not one of your Party hacks, and you'd better remember it.
'You telling me you can't do what I need?' The president's voice was harsh and dangerous.
Potter shook his head. 'No, sir. That's not what I said at all. But I am asking you to make sure in your own mind that what you get now is worth the risk of losing a lot later on. If the damnyankees start looking hard for Confederate spies, they're bound to find some. And if they find some, they'll look for more, and…'
'All right.' Featherston held up a hand. 'I see what you're saying. But what's the point of having all these goddamn spies in place if we can't get any use out of 'em?'
'We do get use out of them,' Potter said; for all his grasp of detail, Jake Featherston was missing the big picture here. 'We get information. Without it, we're blind. That's really what they're there for, as far as we're concerned. If they step out of their roles, they may give themselves away.'
Featherston grunted. His eyes showed his own hard suspicion. Regardless of whether his guards did, he remembered the pistol in Clarence Potter's pocket, and he had to know why Potter had had it there. 'If we can't use our people to nudge things along there, how the hell do we do it?' he snapped.
'We can use our people. The ones I run just aren't the right set of tools for the job,' Potter answered. 'Demonstrations, riots, stories in the papers, wireless shows… We can do all that. About the most my men can do is pretend they haven't seen telegrams, things like that. If they try to do much more, the fellows they work for will start giving them fishy stares. Do you see what I'm saying?'
He waited for Jake Featherston to blow. As long as he'd known him, Featherston had had a short fuse. Now the president of the CSA didn't have anybody set above him to make him pull back. If he wanted to lose his temper, he could, and who would say boo?
But Potter had been as cool and dispassionate as he could, and the president seemed to respond well to that, or at least not to take it as a threat. 'All right, then,' he said. 'We'll try that, and see how it works. I do want to leave your people in place, on account of we're not done with Kentucky. Oh, no. We're not done, not by a long shot. That state is ours, and I aim to get it back.'
Clarence Potter could have found any number of things about which to disagree with the president of the Confederate States. Not about getting Kentucky back, though. He stood, came to attention, and saluted. 'Yes, sir!' he said.
Flora Blackford remembered when going out on the floor of Congress had been a thrill. It wasn't any more. Not these days. The Freedom Party Congressmen from Houston and Kentucky made sure of that. They weren't there to do the nation's business. They were there to disrupt it, and they were good at that. The pair of Representatives Utah had elected after the end of the military occupation weren't much better. They seemed more interested in complaining about what had happened over the past twenty-sometimes, over the past sixty-years than in trying to make the next two better.
Congressman Nephi Pratt was complaining even as Flora took her seat. 'I accept your correction with all due humility, Mr. Speaker,' he was saying. 'I would have been more fully abreast of these matters had the government not labored so long and hard to suppress my creed and oppress my state, thereby depriving me of the opportunity to participate in the decisions made by this august body since the end of the war.'
Up jumped a young pepperpot Democrat from New Mexico. 'Perhaps the distinguished gentleman will state on the record in which direction he pointed a gun during the war: at the foes of the United States or at her soldiers.'
Pratt was a portly man with a mane of white hair. He tossed it angrily now. 'I need not answer that-'
'You just did, seems to me,' the Democrat shot back.
'Mr. Speaker, I resent the imputation,' Pratt said.
'Mr. Speaker, I resent having to share the chamber with a damned traitor,' the Congressman from New Mexico said.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The Speaker's gavel descended like the crack of doom. 'Mr. Pratt, Mr. Goldwater, you are both out of order,' he said. 'Any further outbursts from either of you, and I will have the sergeant-at-arms remove you from the floor.'
'The United States hanged my grandfather,' Nephi Pratt said. 'I see things have not changed much since.'
'He had it coming, by God,' Congressman Goldwater snapped.
Bang! Bang! Bang! 'Sergeant-at-arms!' Congressman Cannon of Missouri said. The Speaker looked thoroughly disgusted as he continued, 'You and your assistants are to escort the two contentious gentlemen to separate waiting rooms, in which places they shall remain until they see fit to comport themselves in civilized fashion.'
Congressman Pratt left the room with majestic dignity. Congressman Goldwater shouted, 'Defense of the truth is no vice! I should not be removed.' He scuffled with the men who tried to take him away, and landed one solid blow before they did.
All the Freedom Party men stood up and cheered at the chaos they, for once, had not created. That made Flora signal to the Speaker, a fellow Socialist. He pointed back, intoning, 'The chair recognizes the distinguished Congresswoman from New York, Mrs. Blackford.'
'Thank you, Mr. Speaker.' She waited till the din died down a little, then said, 'In my opinion, the Freedom Party has been the source of most of the problems and most of the bad manners in both houses of Congress, even if members of other parties have caught the disease from it. The Freedom Party-'
She couldn't go on, not right away, for the House chamber echoed with angry shouts from the Freedom Party Congressmen and cries of 'Hear! Hear!' from Socialists, Republicans, and even a good many Democrats. Speaker Cannon again plied the gavel with might and main. At last, something like quiet returned.
Flora resumed: 'The Freedom Party, as I was saying before its Congressmen so neatly proved my point, differs from other parties in the United States in one particular: that its members do not truly wish to take part in the serious business of making this country a better place.'
To her surprise-indeed, to her amazement-Congressman Mahon of Houston sprang to his feet, crying, 'Mr. Speaker! Mr. Speaker! If the distinguished Congresswoman from New York will yield…'
The sight of a Freedom Party man following proper parliamentary procedure must have astonished Congressman Cannon as much as it did Flora. 'Mrs. Blackford?' the Speaker asked.
'I will yield for a brief statement or question,' Flora said. 'Not for a harangue.'
Even that didn't upset Mahon. 'I will be brief,' he promised. Flora nodded. The Speaker pointed to the Houstonian. Mahon said, 'I would like to note that the Freedom Party Representatives do not wish to serve our states here in Philadelphia or in Washington. We-'
This time, shouts of, 'Shame!' drowned him out. The Speaker of the House rapped furiously for order. With some reluctance, he said, 'The gentleman from Houston has the floor. He may continue.'
'Thank you, Mr. Speaker,' Mahon said, willing to be courteous since the presiding officer of the House had ruled in his favor. 'We don't care to be here, I say, because we would rather represent our states in Richmond, since they rightfully belong to the Confederate States of America!'
'Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!' his fellow Freedom Party members chanted, and, 'Plebiscite! Plebiscite! Plebiscite!'
Roars of, 'Treason!' and, 'Never!' came from Democrats, Republicans, and some Socialists. Again, Speaker Cannon had to ply his gavel with might and main to restore quiet-or at least lower the noise. He might have done better by firing a pistol round into the ceiling. But if he'd had a pistol, other Congressman would have, too, and they might have aimed them at one another. The Speaker said, 'Mrs. Blackford has the floor. You may go on, Mrs.
