SCENE THREE The Oval Office, The White House, Washington, DC
"No. That is not even minimally acceptable to me, Thomas. In fact I find that to be an entirely insupportable notion, to say the very least." Ulysses Grant insisted, scowling at Thomas Macquillan, Frank Harper, Jeremy Pike, and Jacques D'eglisier in that order.
"Mr. President, all due respect, I feel certain this is the identical request Jim West would make himself, if he were addressing you, just now, Sir." Mac answered, keeping his tone calm. It was not his job to tell the Man when the Man was wrong. Not usually.
"I know it is. And I would give him exactly the identical answer. I am not in the habit of ignoring the needs of my friends and subordinates, as all of you, and James, when he's well, very well know. And from what you tell me, it seems quite clear our young firebrand needs to see… that is, to know without any question whatever, that I am entirely well, and moreover, was unharmed in the attack, due to his own undaunted actions. In fact, it seems to me James deserves nothing leSs than that from me, and a great deal more than the blasted medal I seem to be having such difficulty getting the CongreSs to vote him!" Grant replied, gesturing in the general direction of the Capitol Building.
"Sir," Frank said, dry-scrubbing his face and taking his turn at "bearding the lion'. "It might just be that the CongreSs isn't as sure as we all are that Jim saved your life that day."
"No, blast their narrow-eyed perspective to Perdition!" Grant exclaimed. 'the Medal of Honor Committee, and the Congress as a whole, has come within inches of disputing my own deposition on those events! One step further and they would be accusing me of perjuring myself to aid a loyal friend! You know as well as I do, and so does that damn fool Committee, that James earned such an accolade twenty times and more by this time! Yet they delay and delay and seek to deny him even as little as that! Well, I won't have it!"
"I won't have any more suggestions that I should act in such a timorous, dishonorable manner where that same friend is concerned, gentlemen! I am going to see our young friend down in Baltimore, since we still seem to be absurdly blocked in the effort to remove him from that … wretched place. And frankly, that is something I still cannot comprehend. All this lawyerish nonsense about James being falsely committed there should have been resolved months ago at the least! And when I've done that, my next step will be to the mayor of Baltimore, the County administrator, and the governor in Annapolis. There I will let them know precisely what I think of the contracting of supposed indigent care and protection facilities in their city, county and state! You are all quite welcome to accompany me on that excursion. However, from what you've reported, a crowd of visitors might prove more disturbing to James than otherwise. Artemus and the … doctor are keeping a close watch on the lad now, are they not?"
"Yes, Sir." The whole group chorused.
"But surely not only those two are keeping an eye on our firebrand, just now?" The President demanded, wide eyed. "All respect to Artemus' skills and the doctor's knowledge, and vice versa, the persons who left James there have proven themselves not only mad but dangerous in the extreme."
"No, Sir." Jeremy shook his head, taking his turn answering the Commander in Chief. "We've actually developed a small cadre of agents to keep watch there, on a rough sort of rotation. I'm sorry there hasn't been a time you could meet them. And a lot of them volunteered for this duty, being friends of Jim's like Tommy Newhouse, Terry Hawks, Chris McIntire and Danny Hoffner, for example, or protégés of ours, such as Mac's son, young Mairtin, Frank's youngsters, young Rob and Tom Harper, and Artie's young Texan friend, Sean Oriel Hoynes.
As a matter of fact, Mr. President, following the General Amnesty, and ever since Artie recruited that black-haired San Antonio tombstone, we've had a flood of applicants and new agents from the South coming into the Service. And some of them, not very surprisingly, are related one way or another to that very firebrand we're all talking about. We've had Jim's cousins Ben and Jemison Singer from Raleigh join up. They're part of that cadre, right now. Then there's Dr. Michael Spencer from Chattanooga, another cousin by marriage, Dan Morrissey, Thaddeus and Micah Kuenle, Randolph James Alexander, and Rhys Eilian Parry, who's also a minister. And the newest batch includes a young neighbor of Jim's from Norfolk, Travis Barret Madsen."
"Very good. I want to meet these new agents at the earliest instant it can be arranged, gentlemen. It is past time for our Southern brothers to be accepted as such once again." Grant muttered, as if granting thousands of former Confederates amnesty was no real accomplishment.
"Very well, gentlemen, stop scowling at your Commander in Chief and get ready to accompany me to Baltimore within the week. I will not put off seeing our friend James even a single day longer than that, I assure you. All right, Thomas, you're obviously not ready to acquiesce. What further objections must I listen to now?"
"Mr. President, I stepped down as your Chief Security Advisor some months after you took office. I did that because I knew Jim West could step into that role and do us all proud. And that he has." Macquillan sighed, folding his arms, knowing very well he might not win this argument, either. "Now I've got the job back, despite being perfectly willing to hand it off to any of these fellows or their successors. And as long as I'm in this job I have to do it, Sir, as I swore, to the best of my abilities, always. Therefore I am asking you once more, just as Jim would in my place, to wait until he's not surrounded by treacherous enemies of yours and a population mostly made up of … madmen, Sir."
"And having waited over a year now for James to be removed from just those dangers, how much longer do you suggest I must do that, old friend?" The President demanded, turning his bright, deep set eyes on the Bostonian.
"Jeremy, didn't Artie say he'd had another letter from Jeanny Stuart?" Mac asked his long time friend and partner instead of directly answering 'the Man'.
"Yes, he did, Mac. And she wrote that barring unforeseen problems at sea, she would arrive in Baltimore later this week, with her father, Jimmy Randolph." Pike answered.
"Mr. President, as it turns out, we need Mr. Randolph's help to gain Jim's release from that miserable place. Even though Thomas here was given Jim's power of attorney, nearly ten years ago, just before Jim's father passed on, Jimmy Randolph became Jim's legal guardian twelve years earlier, when Stephen, nearly died of yellow fever. The earlier agreement pretty much contradicts and effectively nullifies the later one, Sir, especially since Randolph is Jim's oldest surviving blood relation."
Ulysses Grant paced and studied the row of agents lined up before him and shook his head. "Gentlemen, as a group of my former officers, you must be aware that as of this moment you could not possibly pass Army muster. Your shoulders slump, your gazes wander. And your general appearance is sloppier than mine was on entering the McLean House, some years back, with far less cause. None of you have ridden a bad stretch of road in a Virigina spring time, the state of that road varying from sinkholes of mud to clouds of dust. None of you went to sleep for the last week with a migraine, waiting for General Lee and his staff to see the reason of the matter.
Furthermore, I find your whole attitude in this to be spiritless at best at this juncture. Nevertheless, I am, for once, pleased with your report, especially yours, Mr. Pike. It clarifies a matter that has genuinely perplexed me for the past year and a little more. But, it seems to me the central question remains unanswered. I shall therefore restate it: When can I expect James West to be released from his wrongful confinement in that so-called asylum? Is that something any one of you is prepared to tell me?"
"Yes, Sir." Macquillan nodded. "James Randolph sent the necessary documents to his son Paul, in Norfolk, nearly a month back. As soon as the elder Randolph is in this country once more he and those papers will be presented to the District Court in Baltimore. Once that's done, we'll take the old gentleman to the asylum, where an officer of the Court will present the Judge's release order. Since there can be no further question of holding him there at that point, we'll simply take Jimmy out of that place, along with Miguel de Cervantes. At this time, the plan is to take the youngster to the home, and more precisely, the hospice/clinic Senora de Cervantes has already established near Richmond. Mr. Randolph may want his nephew to come home to Norfolk at some future point. But it seemed best at first that Jim be under the doctor's care as he continues to recover."
"And what are you leaving out now, Thomas, that leads you to that odd conclusion? Wouldn't James be better off in familiar environs?" Grant demanded.
"Sir, at this point, and as part of our correspondence with Jeanny Stuart and her father, it was generally agreed that taking Jim back to his grandmother's home, or his uncle's in Norfolk might cause … might be more disturbing for him than a less familiar place." Mac answered. "A large part of what happened to the youngster had to do with disrupting, with distorting his memories of growing up there, Mr. President. And considering what he still has to deal with, a "change of venue" as it were seemed the best choice right now. "
Grant frowned again and shook his head sadly. Of all the things he hated about ordering soldiers, or agents, as in this case into hazardous duty, the harm they took doing that duty had to be the worst. "And as regards the injuries James took in saving my life nearly four years ago, Jacques, has there been any change? Have we any hope, as I thought I'd been told that our young friend might regain his eyesight, for example?"
"Oui, M'sieur," Jacques D'eglisier answered, with a typically Lyonnaise shrug. 'doctor de Cervantes was highly confident on that subject when he began his work with James. I was not sanguine at first myself, on the proposed method, that of replacing James' damaged corneas with those from a … from a cadaver. But since then I've read many of the articles that influenced Miguel's conception, and some that he published himself. It sounds quite shocking, oui, but it is not impossible.
Mais, we cannot do this at all, without either Jim's consent or his uncle's. There is far, far too much risk. Indeed, it is tantamount to surgery on the nervous system or the brain, which no one now attempts, M'sieur. It's unheard of. And yet, only a decade ago, M'sieur, when the War was still in progress, thoracic surgery was also unheard of. No one even thought of operating on men with internal injuries, except in the attempt to remove a bullet or the fragment of a burst shell. Otherwise, at that time, those patients we knew were injured, even bleeding internally, either survived without surgery, or they … did not survive."
"I see. Well, thank you. You're all excused, gentlemen. I've rattled your cages enough for one day, I'd have to guess." Grant sighed. "I'll expect your report on the release of our young firebrand as soon as it happens. Just keep this firmly in mind: I will be going to see James, whether in Baltimore or Richmond within the next fortnight. That is my final word on the subject. Dismissed."
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. Merci, M'sieur, Thank you, Mr. President." The agents chorused, and beat a deferential, if hasty, retreat from the Commander in Chief's still scowling presence.
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