“Because he was involved in the coking works that they set up in Saalfeld after the Ring of Fire.”
“It seems like he was involved in everything after the Ring of Fire.”
“He was. He was the go-to guy for the Mechanical Support division after the Ring of Fire. He worked on the natural gas conversion and the coking ovens. Then they moved him over to the surveying corp, and I don’t know what all else. But he knew Treasury Secretary Wendell, Quentin Underwood and Chad Jenkins, that whole banking bunch, before the Ring of Fire. He could have been one of the financial movers and shakers.”
“So why wasn’t he?” Gayleen asked. Ron rarely talked about Sonny Fortney.
“He went to work for Mike Stearns and Frank Jackson,” Ron told her. “There were some rumors when he got put in the mechanical support division. And it turns out, they were true.”
“He’s a spy,” Gayleen said.
“Not exactly. He’s more of a general fixer, I think.” Ron looked over at her and Gayleen was surprised at how serious his expression was. “You remember what Mike said at the town meeting three days after the Ring? The part about starting the American Revolution early?”
Gayleen nodded.
“I think Sonny’s been doing that ever since the Ring of Fire. That’s why I agreed to let him come. ’Cause I believe in America. Up-time or down-time, it’s still America. It’s still the same truths that Jefferson talked about. And it’s still the same stakes.”
Gayleen nodded again. Though, if she was entirely honest, she really wished that it wasn’t her and her babies risking their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. She had no desire at all to see the inside of an Inquisition torture chamber.
The New Church at Race Track City
“They should be brought before the Inquisition,” Father Lamormaini said, though not, Father Degrassi thought, with any great heat. “They are heretics, after all. And from what I understand, that woman Dana Fortney is something called a New Age spiritualist. They say she practices yoga . . . whatever that is.”
That much was true, Father Degrassi knew. They were sitting in his apartments in the new church that had been built along with the other new buildings at Race Track City. He was in a delicate situation. He was a parish priest as well as a Jesuit, and in his parish the only people who weren’t Catholic were the patricians of Race Track City. “I talked to Dana Fortney and she showed me her books on yoga. It’s an interesting exercise, but hardly the work of the devil. Besides, they are under the protection of the emperor, and he knew that they were not Catholics before they were hired. And I think there is a real possibility of converting some of them.”
“Secret up-timers.” Lamormaini snorted.
“Cardinal Mazzare!” Father Degrassi shot back, even though he appreciated the wit of Lamormaini’s play on “secret Jews.”
“Politics. Mazzare is as much a political cardinal as is the cardinal-infante. Politics, not faith.”
“We are Jesuits, Father, and Pope Urban has spoken.”
“Not definitively.”
Degrassi wasn’t sure that Father Lamormaini was wrong, but he wasn’t willing to push things. The truth was that the Ring of Fire had challenged his faith in way that he never would have expected, and he didn’t know how to handle it. He was a cautious man by nature and his focus was on scholarship, so he was not going to be rushed into any position. As well, he rather liked Dana Fortney and was considering taking her yoga classes.
CHAPTER 13
The Defectors Arrive
December 1634
Race Track City
“I heard that they killed someone in Grantville and that’s why they ran,” Gayleen Sanderlin said over coffee and pastries at the still-not-completed pastry shop. The shop was located about a hundred yards from the race track and mostly catered to the race track workers.
“I hadn’t heard that,” Dana Fortney said. “But we’ll know when the next letter from Grantville arrives. Thurn and Taxis are really good. I was surprised at the speed they can deliver mail.”
“Should we invite them over?” Hayley asked. “The up-timers, I mean, not Thurn and Taxis.”
“Let’s wait on that till we have a better handle on what happened,” Ron Sanderlin said. “I don’t know the Barclays, but Jay Barlow was one of that Club 250 bunch. For him to run off to live among down-timers, it would have to be something serious. I’m not sure that they are the sort of people we want to be involved with.” Ron Sanderlin was a reasonably bright guy, however it was the “think with his hands” sort of bright, not the book learning sort of bright. He had made it through high school, but barely. He wasn’t overly fond of the sort of self-important jerks who waved their credentials in everyone’s face. That was one reason he still wasn’t fond of Simpson, even if the guy had sort of reformed. This group, with Club 250 types and college grads who still couldn’t make it in Grantville, didn’t sound like anyone he wanted to meet.