Free The First Assassin by John J. Miller Page B

distance was Sumter. The day before, on the ship sailing into Charleston Harbor, Mazorca had seen it up close. He could tell immediately that it would not survive a coordinated attack. It was meant to serve as one part of a harbor defense rather than stand on its own. Its enemies were expected to come from the sea, not from the land. If the guns of Fort Moultrie started pounding away, Sumter’s fall would be only a matter of time.
    Mazorca halted at the Battery’s edge. Green water lapped against the seawall. He stood motionless for a while, watching the waves roll up and down. He thought about the job that lay ahead. The objective was a familiar one. Yet it also felt like the most ambitious assignment he had ever accepted. There was much to learn, much to plan. He would enjoy the test and savor the success.
    The papers in his pocket—the will, the codicil, and the letter to Grenier—pressed against his chest. He pulled them out, reviewed them, and put them back. Then he looked down at the water again. Its constant flow fascinated him. He stared at it for a few minutes, engrossed in the way that some people are when they stare at a fire.
    About thirty feet to his right, Marcus placed a cap on the lens that had been pointing at Mazorca for half a minute. As Mazorca turned around and walked toward King Street and the heart of the city, he did not see Marcus. Nor did he see Lucius pat the boy on the back.

SEVEN
     
    SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 1861
     
    The wagon creaked forward, inch by inch. Somebody had taken everything he could manage to remove from his home and piled it onto the cart. The heap of trunks and furniture soared twelve feet off the ground. Two horses strained to pull this load toward the base of the Long Bridge, where Fourteenth Street and Maryland Avenue converged. It was incredible to think they had gotten the wagon to move at all.
    For Colonel Rook, the sight was no novelty. The slow evacuation of Washington by Southerners had been going on for weeks. Some packed lightly because they did not think they would be gone for more than a few months. Others, like this man, seemed to take everything they owned.
    Rook was convinced that even more people would leave now: the fall of Fort Sumter was inevitable. On Friday, the rebels in South Carolina had started firing. There were rumors the next day that Major Anderson had surrendered, but nothing was confirmed. Rook knew it was just a matter of time. Without provisions, Anderson could not withstand a siege. Sumter was finished.
    The wagon crawled closer to the aptly named Long Bridge. The Potomac River was nearly a mile wide here, and the Long Bridge was the only direct route out of the city and into Virginia that did not involve getting into a boat. Rook had his men keep a tally of how many people left each day. It was usually just a handful. Across the weeks, however, the numbers added up. He thought this information was helpful, but even more useful was talking to people before they set foot on the bridge. When he could, Rook liked to conduct the interviews himself. It was a good way to gather intelligence.
    “Good morning, sir,” hailed Rook as the wagon came to a stop right before the bridge. A man sat in front of his big load, and a slave beside him held the reins. The man looked annoyed at having to stop.
    “Where are you bound?” asked Rook.
    “Richmond.”
    “Looks like you expect to be there some time.”
    “Quite a long time.” The Southern accent was unmistakable.
    “And why is that?”
    The man glared at Rook as if the colonel were an imbecile. He hopped off the wagon and swept an arm toward the half-assembled city of Washington. “This will be gone in a few weeks—all of it,” he said. “The city will look like an earthquake had wrecked it. I don’t intend to be here when that happens.”
    The man paused, but Rook said nothing. He knew from experience that interviews often produced their most valuable information when subjects were allowed to