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PROLOGUE

WASHINGTON, DC

JANUARY 24, 1865

2:45 PM

He spotted sudden alariven Joseph Henry’s so scientists, not to ious title

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

He was sitting in Henry’s chilly office on a comfortable leather couch, their business nearly concluded He’d made the appointment weeks earlier, and it was supposed to have occurred yesterday, but he’d been delayed Understandable, as a civil war raged just across the river in Virginia, though the conflict seeed since Gettysburg Over 250,000 Confederate soldiers lay dead Another 250,000 languished in Federal prisoner-of-war camps, and 125,000 more were crippled and wounded Where before a Southern victory had seeh tide of the Confederacy had finally run out

“Did you hear that?” Henry asked

Actually, he had

A sharp, crackling sound from overhead

The office sat on the second floor, behind a great rose , between two of the building’s trademark towers

“Could si from the roof,” he said to Henry

The day was bitterly cold The Potomac barely flowed, littered with dense ice that had all but halted river traffic and delayed his arrival Entering the northern capital had not been easy Forts ringed the Federal district Troops were encaht Access in and out came with questions and restrictions Luckily he possessed the necessary credentials to coo, which hy he’d been chosen for this mission

The noise caain

Then, again

“It could be ice,” Henry said “But it’s not”

His host rose and rushed to the office door He followed him out into a cavernous two-tiered lecture hall where dense clouds of s

“The house is on fire,” Henry yelled “Sound the alarm”

The secretary hurried off down the stairs to the ground floor Beyond the s, past the ceiling oculus, the natural light that norloo to clai and closing, and shouts Men flooded into the auditoriuround floor

He ran up one of the aisles toward the adjacent picture gallery, where plaster fro fla the attic and roof A few of the canvases had caught fire As a painter, the sight sickened hiht indicate its point of origin He purged the artist froence operative, analyzing his options and reaching conclusions

Black sathered in thick clouds

Breathing was beco difficult

He’d traveled from Richmond on secret orders from President Jefferson Davis himself The fact that he was acquainted with Joseph Henry and familiar with the Smithsonian had made him the ideal choice A secret peace conference was already scheduled for teeks hence at Hampton Roads Lincoln planned to attend, as would Vice President of

the Confederacy Alexander Stephens, who’d been trying for two years to end the war Jeff Davis hated his second in coian weak and treasonous But Stephens harbored high hopes that an honorable end could be negotiated

He raised an arm and used the sleeve of his wool coat as a filter to breathe On the far side of the lecture hall, past another doorway, flaed the apparatus room, its collection of rare scientific instruments soon to be no more He knew the interior walls both here and across on the other side of the lecture hall did not attach to the ceiling, the idea being that they could be re the entire second floor into h, now aided the fire, which spread overhead unimpeded

“The building is gone,” aa box to safety “Everyone must leave”

That assessht, so he should hurry The purpose of his visit re on the desk It had to be protected Flames had yet to find their way there, but it would be a matter of onlypaintings, others books and records, a few cradling specimens apparently dee had stood since 1846 when Congress finally decided what to do with the 500,000 left in a will by an obscure British cherave as to how to spend the

To found at Washington an establishment, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge a men

Even odder was the fact that Smithson had never once visited the United States, yet he left his entire fortune to its government

It had taken years for Congress to act

Soreat library, others a mere museum, a few pushed for a self-financed lecture series, while another group wanted to publish only respected treatises Southern congressional representatives holly skeptical, thinking the proposed entity would become some sort of foru, wanting siive the money back Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and an establishallery, and lecture hall, as well as a building of liberal scale to acco Ro wings, tall towers, arches, and a slate roof had become unique to the country—its shape and red sandstone exterior like acontrast with the Greek Revival architecture that dominated the rest of the capital city Joseph Henry hated the finished product, calling it a fantastic and al A sadto it by another name

The Castle

Noas burning

He raced back to Henry’s office to find it occupied Another ht him part of the staff Then he noticed the dark-blue unifornia of a Union army captain on both shoulders The man turned and, without a moment’s hesitation, reached for his sidearm

Earlier, he’d thought soet in and out of the Castle unnoticed But things did not always go according to plan

He heard a shot and a bullet splintered the jamb, but he’d already dived from the doorway He’d also noticed that the revolver was one of the new ones with a double action that auto the cylinder

Expensive and rare

He landed in the corridor and reached for his own double-action revolver, tucked into a holster beneath his coat He’d hoped to avoid violence, but now there seemed to be no choice He rose and prepared to take down the man in Henry’s office Twenty-five feet above hi in a blackened path, the entire auditoriu wood rained down both here and inside Henry’s office The captain ran out, the gun in one hand and what he’d brought for Joseph Henry in the other

“Give this to the secretary,” Jefferson Davis had instructed, handing him a brass skeleton key “And retrieve your journal”

He’d seen the volu with the key That this stranger knew exactly what to retrieve was disturbing