Part 2: A Few More Details

The first thing, though, is to see how he got to Boston, whether he's telling the truth or not. Charlie goes down to the docks and asks around - a guy fitting Gary Martin's description came off a merchant steamer named the Spinning Jenny from Spain. Captain McDermott would be the person to ask about him, but he's on the Jenny on the way back to Spain.

Tommy asks his friend in the War Department to send him the report on the 33rd (which is now rounded down to Company C of the 33rd Battalion, as battalions are big).

"We could sneak into the house at night and pretend to be ghosts..." -Gerti

A bit more research into the Martins turns up that he went to Boston College before leaving for the Great War. Eddie pokes through some society records in the newspaper and turns up a column on their wedding (which mentions the dog trying to make off with the wedding cake). Tommy gets his recruiting records from Fort Devans, which has a reasonable medical physical.

Thursday, October 17
Tommy, Eddie, and Gerti have lunch with Helen to discuss preliminary investigations and clarify what sort of pestering Gary is okay. The possibility of hiring Gerti as a maid is discussed; Helen is willing to set this up if Gerti doesn't object.

Gary goes for a walk in the afternoon, followed by Eddie - he heads to a park, and lies on the grass, looking up at the sky. Helen makes Gary a doctor's appointment with Dr. Schreber. Esme investigates the Forsythes further; Helen is from the Forsythe family, which has a bunch of money - she's the sole heir and has come into more of it now than when she got married, and Mr. Martin was definitely marrying upwards in the social ladder.

Roderick is summoned to look at Gary's aura as he leaves for the walk. He notes that it is somewhat reminiscent of the waitress's hacked-by-a-machete appearance, but is also missing a lot of thickness that even a beaten-on aura normally has. However, there's this one tightly wound clump of aura at the very bottom, the connections to which have mostly all been severed, so that it's metaphorically hanging by one thread, slowly twirling. Roderick reports: "He's been through a lot."

Friday, October 18
Tommy flies to Washington to talk to his War department friend (he brings Adele, who vanishes mysteriously, but enough about her for the moment.) Dr. Schreber makes a house call to the Martins, and examines Gary. Physically, there is nothing to contradict the theory that he's spent the last decade in a hellhole - he has a lot of scars, is significantly malnourished, has broken fingers that have been badly set, and so on. Psychologically, he seems to be trying to cause as little trouble as possible, to keep what is a relatively pleasant situation from changing. Additionally, there's some amount of latent psychological energy that he doesn't seem to be exerting at all. Sheila, acting as Dr. Schreber's assistant/nurse, appears to enjoy the examination well enough.

Tommy, still in Washington, becomes more incensed at the idea of soldiers being held in Turkish prisons, and writes a letter to his Congressman (who, I am amused to note, is probably Edith Rogers, who will in the future be the Chairman of the Committee for Veteran Affairs):

To the Honorable Representative Edith Rogers:
I am writing you to inform you of a terrible injustice done to some of our boys that were lost in the Great War.

Company C of the 33rd Infantry battalion was reported lost on August 13, 1920, while on patrol in the Sinai Desert in Egypt. I have no found out that they were captured by Turks and they were held fifteen years being tortured and starved half to death.

I think this must be against our treaties or laws of war, and even if it isn't, I have it from many reliable sources that one British soldier is worth a hundred of those bastard Turks, and if they can do it, so can we, and that means we could whip hell out of them with just a division or two.

We should declare war on Turkey and take some of their guys and bring them over here and put them in prison camps and see how they like THAT.

Sincerely,

Lt. Thomas R. Valiant
USAAF (Ret)

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