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"We were looking in the wrong place."
"Oh, Christ," he groaned. "That tears it. Damn. No doubt at all?"
"Not in my mind."
"Hang on."
Sandecker picked out a cigar from a humidor on the bedside table and lit it. Even though the trade embargo with Cuba had been lifted in 1985, he still preferred the milder flavor and looser wrap of a Honduras over the Havana. He always felt that a good cigar kept the world at bay. He blew out a rolling cloud and came back on the line. "Dirk."
"Still here."
"What do I tell the President?"
There was silence. Then Pitt spoke slowly and distinctly. "Tell him the odds have dropped from
a million to one to a thousand to one."
"You found something?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then what are you working on?"
"Nothing more than a gut feeling."
"What do you need from me?" asked Sandecker.
"Please get ahold of Heidi Milligan. She's staying at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. Ask her to dig into old railroad archives for any maps that show New York & Quebec Northern Railroad tracks, sidings aivd spurs between Albany and the DeauvilleHudson bridge during the years eighteen eighty to nineteen fourteen."
"Okay, I'll take care of it. Got her number?"
"You'll have to get it from information."
Sandecker took a long puff on the cigar. "How does it look for Monday?"
"Grim. You can't rush these things."
"The President needs that treaty copy."
"Why?"
"Don't you know?"
"Moon clammed up when I asked."
"The President is speaking before the House of Commons and the Senate of the Canadian Parliament.
His speech centers around a plea for merging our two countries into one. Alan Mercier let me in on it this morning. Since Quebec went independent, the Maritime Provinces have been considering statehood. The President is hoping to talk the Western Provinces into joining too. That's where a signed copy of the North American Treaty comes in. Not to coerce or threaten, but to eliminate the red-tape jungle of the transition and stonewall any objections and interference from the United Kingdom. His pitch for a unified North America is only fifty-eight hours away. You get the action?"
"Yes . . ." Pitt said sullenly. "I've got it now. And while you're at it, thank the President and his little group for letting me know at the last minute."
"Would it have mattered otherwise?"
"No, I guess not."
"Where can Heidi get in touch with you?"
"I'll keep the De Soto moored at the bridge site as a command post. All calls can be relayed from there."
