The Jefferson Allegiance (6 page)

“I was given a mission, sir,” Lily said, swimming carefully into dangerous and uncharted waters, but pressing on anyway. “There were no parameters placed on how I was to accomplish it. I was told I had complete freedom of action. I took the most direct means for success given the current tactical situation. I was told the Philosophers were our enemy. I needed to use extreme force to try to get them to speak. Their deaths were an inevitable result of that application of force.”

The file began moving again. “Do you have the Cipher?”

“No.”

The file was placed down on the desktop, and the hand reappeared with an awl. The tip dug into the neck of the tiny ivory soldier. “Then you have failed, and your use of extreme force was futile. Not just futile, but dangerous.”

“I have the names of the last two Philosophers.”

The hands were steady as the awl dug deeper. “Your killings will bring unwanted attention to the Society. In two hundred years there has been a gentlemen’s agreement between the Philosophers and us. How could you--”

She dared to interrupt, her thumb twisting the ring on her finger even faster. “Sir, I am no gentleman. In all those years, the Society has never gotten its hands on the Jefferson Cipher. I thought new tactics were in order. If I am to be the first woman allowed into the Society, I must bring something original to it, and I have done so as you’ve indicated by your own words—something new. I will find the Cipher. I have enough clues to direct me to a place I must visit. I believe the rod and some of the disks will be there. And I will pay a call to the other two Philosophers.”

She watched as the awl continued to work the ivory, bringing form to it.

She swam on. “Even if I do not find the Cipher, the deaths will throw the Philosophers into turmoil. It is a win-win situation for us.”

“What exactly do you think you will be winning?” Lucius sighed deeply, the sound absorbed by the sheer size of the room and the thousands of volumes of books that lined the shelves along the walls. “You are overly optimistic. And underestimate our foes. You killed a few tired, old men. Do you feel proud of that?” The awl stopped moving and the fingers turned the piece to and fro under the light as he examined it.

Pride had nothing to do with it,
she thought
.
“I killed our enemies. No matter what form they take, they deserve no mercy.”

“Things always stand at a careful precipice,” Lucius said. “Your actions—“ he fell into silence, and Lily waited for her fate to be spelled out. Her thumb stopped twisting the ring and pressed hard against the diamonds set in the top, the pain refreshing.

“There are a few things you know,” Lucius finally said, “but many things you don’t and some you probably will never be privy to unless—“ He put the pawn down and his hands disappeared. A few seconds later he placed a diamond-encrusted Society medallion on the table—“you rise to a position to wear this, which is highly unlikely. You came to us from the outside and are largely ignorant of our ways. The bottom line is that the inner sanctum of the Society believes it is our solemn duty to serve our country and protect it in times of need.”

The chair creaked as Lucius once more picked up the file. “Membership in our Society was originally limited to those officers who served no less than three years in the Continental Army or the Navy during the Revolution, or who had been killed in the line of duty. Subsequent membership required an ancestor who met those qualifications. The only reason we accepted you is because you are nine generations directly removed from an officer who fought with Washington, and we have bent the rules further than ever before to grant you this apprenticeship. Most in the inner sanctum disagreed with me over your appointment.” The file rasped away, and small white powder floated in the air around his hands. “We extend a few honorary memberships, usually to Presidents whom we favor and whose policies are in line with our goals.”

“What does the Jefferson Cipher have to do with this?” Lily asked. “The Chair indicated it was just the first part of something larger. If the threat was the Chair and the Philosophers, then I have eliminated half of that threat and I will take care of the rest.”

“They were just caretakers,” Lucius said. “And they will be replaced. They are always replaced, just as someone will replace me in this seat when I am gone. You can also be easily replaced.”

Lily almost smiled at the implied threat, and she began calculating her tactical options against whoever was behind her and Lucius.

“You were given a simple job, a test,” Lucius said, anger in his voice. He turned the pawn, filing away. “You may know military tactics, but you need to understand the historical and political framework of our centuries old stand-off with the Philosophers.”

Lucius pointed the tip of the file at her. “The Federalist Party grew out of the Society of the Cincinnati. It was populated by the true heroes of the Revolution, the men who fought for our freedom. They knew that pure democracy is a sham, since only a small percentage of the population is willing to put their lives on the line to defend the country. Many of the so-called Founding Fathers never approached a battlefield, instead hiding behind desks and arguing with each other over how to pay and supply those who protected them, often short-changing the soldiers in the field while sitting warm and comfortable in the cities, their bellies full. Our Society founders knew the mass of the people were not to be trusted because they were ignorant. They can be trusted even less now.” The file was switched out once more for the awl.

“Our enemy, the Philosophers—the three Philosophers and the Chair—came out of the Anti-Federalist Party led by Thomas Jefferson. He would rather see the country plunged into chaos and another Revolution—even against our own leaders—than be secured from foreign enemies by a strong central government. Like many of the other politicians, Jefferson never saw combat, except to flee Tarleton’s raiders while he was Governor of Virginia during the Revolution. His constituency thought so much of his cowardly actions that he was never again elected to office in Virginia.”

Lucius waved the awl as Lily attempted to speak. “But, whatever their martial frailties, Jefferson and the other members of the American Philosophical Society were not weak men. Do not confuse being misguided with weak. And they were smart, very smart. The military members of the Philosophical Society have always been brave men, however misguided their allegiances have been.

“For over two hundred years our Society has fought to keep our country strong and to protect it from enemies, both foreign and domestic, but primarily we have tenaciously maintained a fragile balance with the Philosophers over the way the Federal government operates to keep it from spiraling into the anarchy they desire.”

A small piece of ivory fell from the pawn onto the desktop, and Lucius paused as he examined the piece under the lamp. Lily remained still, waiting for the old man to get to the point and just tell her whom she could kill.

“I don’t understand the connection to the Cipher, sir.”

“The Cipher leads to the Jefferson Allegiance, which was forged as a necessary compromise during the early battles between the Federalist and anti-Federalists. It is the same threat that has been the wild card behind the scenes of our country for over two hundred years.”

“What is the Jefferson Allegiance?” she asked.

Lucius sighed even as the awl continued to dig away into the ivory. “Concern yourself with the Cipher. Fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, upon their death, the first two Philosophers broke apart their Cipher Wheel—the original one, Thomas Jefferson invented—and spread the disks out: nineteen to the first military Philosopher, who further split six out to each of his subordinate Philosophers, and the last seven and the center rod to the Chair. I doubt you will find them all in the same place. The Cipher holds the key to the location of the Allegiance.”

“It would seem prudent, sir,” she said, “for there to be a way to find the rod and disks even though the owners are dead. A back-up plan must exist so that the Philosophers can reconstitute themselves, as you indicate they will do. And for the Cipher Wheel to be put back together so that they might recover the Allegiance. There must be clues.”

“I’m sure there are,” Lucius said, “but the clues lie with the Philosophers, not with us. Two of whom you killed,” he added pointedly.

“I will find the clues. It would help if—“

Lucius cut her off. “I will not tell you what the Allegiance is, except that it is so powerful a thing that within my lifetime it toppled a President—a man we supported-- when he was confronted with it.”

“Sir, do you wish me to continue my pursuit of the Cipher?”

A long pause played out as Lucius put the awl down and picked up a piece of cloth. He buffed the Minuteman pawn, and then inspected it. Lily could still feel the presence behind her. And she could sense in the way predators could, that it was someone like her, who would kill her at Lucius’ command without the slightest hesitation or feeling of remorse. That threat would have to be dealt with first, then Lucius. Although she suspected Lucius was not as defenseless as he appeared.

Finally Lucius spoke. “You cannot bring those you killed back to life, and we care little for them anyway. It will take the new Philosophers time to learn of their new positions, understand their duties, and regroup. You do have the initiative and it is a military maxim to always exploit such an advantage. What is your next step with the clues you have from the Chair?”

“I’m going to Baltimore to look for the Chair’s disks, with a stop in Annapolis first to deal with one of the two surviving Philosophers.” She felt a warm surge of anticipation at the thought of the detour to Annapolis.

Lucius put down the cloth. He placed the pawn on the desktop, and his hand rested on top of the piece’s tricorner hat. To Lily it appeared perfectly formed. Lucius pressed and with a sharp snap, the head tumbled off. “I sensed the ivory was not pure. An inner defect. Go now.”

Lily spun on her heel as she had also been taught as a plebe at the Air Force Academy a decade previously, and she marched to the double doors. There was a shadowy figure standing to the right, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes facing front.

*************

The doors slammed shut and a short silence filled the room before recessed lights came on, filling the room with a soft glow. A man stepped forward from the shadows near the door and approached Lucius. He was short and stocky, his skull completely hairless. He moved gracefully on the balls of his feet, the sign of someone who had trained his body and stood fast more than once inside the ropes of a boxing ring. His nose had been smashed a long time ago and never fixed, a choice that said much about his lack of concern for appearances and other, darker things deep inside his head.

“Your Surgeon is dangerous, Mister Turnbull.” Lucius swept the ivory scrapings off the desk into a small garbage can. “You did not suspect she would be so aggressive, did you my old friend?”

“I suspected.”

Lucius leaned forward, revealing his own ravaged face to his old comrade. The skin along the right side was red and puckered, the right eye missing, the results of torture inflicted many, many years ago in Korea. A favored son of the Society, Lucius had been brought into the inner sanctum right after the war and stayed in the shadows, nursing his wounds, and gaining knowledge and power as the decades went by until eventually the diamond medallion was passed to him. No one in Washington knew his real name. No one ever would.

Everyone who mattered in Washington did know of his power and his reach.

“’You suspected,’ Mister Turnbull?”

“Dangerous can be good as long as it is controlled.”

“And if it can’t be controlled?”

“Then it is eliminated,” he told Lucius. “Because we brought her in recently, we have excellent deniability.”

“She does not strike me as stable.”

Turnbull shrugged. “She’s a psychopath. I read her discharge evaluation from the Air Force. I had my contact approach her, offering her what she covets most—victims.”

“Despite her moniker,” Lucius said, “she’s acting more like a hatchet than the scalpel I would desire. Two murders. It will be hard to keep this quiet.”

Turnbull nodded. “Hard, but not impossible. Unfortunately, the FBI already has a high-ranking agent investigating. I’ll keep him under wraps and control the investigation. I think she might be correct in some ways. It
will
take the new Philosophers time to pick up the reins and realize their responsibilities. During the transition they’ll be weak and vulnerable. It’s an excellent opportunity to end this stalemate once and for all.”

“Are you getting optimistic?” Lucius asked. “Unusual for you.”

“Realistic, sir. I’ve always been a pragmatist.”

“Pragmatism is not necessarily a good trait,” Lucius said. “It lacks belief and faith.”

“It is a belief and faith of its own,” Turnbull said. “Like you, I believe in the higher good.”

Lucius nodded. “You have never failed me. What about the two Philosophers who are still alive?”

“As she said, they will be dealt with.”

Lucius thought about it for a few moments, before nodding. “Proceed. But you will gather some operatives and follow her. Help her if she is succeeding. However, if she appears to be failing or is about to be caught, eliminate her.”