The Prince of Spies (Hope and Glory #3) - Elizabeth Camden Page 0,100

as she snuck out of her bedroom. The house was dark, and she crept in stocking feet down the hall. Even the sound of her heart pumping blood in her ears felt loud as she tiptoed downstairs, clutching a pair of shoes to her chest. She waited until she was outside to tug them on.

Twenty minutes later she was on the sidewalk outside the Poison Squad’s boardinghouse. A light illuminated one of the upstairs rooms, and she scurried up the steps, knocking with vigor to get that unknown person’s attention.

It was St. Louis, already dressed for an early morning sprint through the deserted city streets. “Aren’t you the photographer lady?” he asked.

She stepped inside the house. “I am. The last time I was here was the infamous night of the mass poisoning. You ran to fetch Dr. Wiley.”

“I remember,” he said. “You were holed up with Delacroix over there on that window seat all night. Say, where is he these days? He disappeared on us.”

“That’s what I’m here about.”

St. Louis’s eyes widened in disbelief when she told him about Luke’s arrest and why he’d been taken into custody. He rounded up the Rollins brothers and Princeton, the only other men awake at that hour. All were aghast at what had happened to Luke.

“Was he the one writing articles for Modern Century all along?” St. Louis asked.

She nodded.

Princeton’s normally gregarious demeanor was unexpectedly grim. “Are you telling us that Congress knew those chemicals could make people sick and buried the test results?”

“It was only a single committee that knew,” she said. And one of the men on that committee was her own father, which made it hard to hold up her head, but that was the reason she was here.

“How can we help?” Princeton asked, and Marianne smiled, knowing she’d come to the right place.

Twenty-Nine

Luke listened in amazement as Gray recounted what had been going on in the outside world over the past week. Gray and Mr. Alphonse told him the good news as they sat in the tiny meeting room.

“The Poison Squad are the most popular men in town,” Gray said. “They’re giving daily interviews to the newspapers, and Dr. Wiley isn’t reining them in anymore. There’s an annoying Italian who is always touting the extent of his suffering and hamming it up for the press. He announced he would be signing autographs at the base of the Washington Monument tonight.”

Luke grinned. “Nicolo will do anything for attention, especially if it involves attention from the ladies. Keep talking.”

This was too good to be true. The Poison Squad was trying to gin up as much attention for his case as possible, and they were doing a bang-up job of it. The Associated Press and Reuters had picked up the stories and wired them to newspapers all over the nation. Even some of the foreign newspapers were carrying the story of the brave young men putting their lives on the line for science, but Luke didn’t care about the foreign press. All he cared about was putting enough pressure on Congress to get him released from jail.

“All the stories are being spun in your favor,” his lawyer said. “Journalists don’t like people being thrown in jail for reporting the truth, and the pressure is on Congress to explain why they have been suppressing those studies.”

“What are they saying?” Luke asked.

“Congressman Dern is doing all the talking,” Gray said. “He’s claiming the studies weren’t suppressed, they were merely being withheld pending a complete analysis of all the data, and frankly, he’s got a valid point. He’s incensed about the article you wrote and isn’t backing down.”

“Then we dial up pressure in the press,” Luke said, but Mr. Alphonse shook his head.

“The only fight that matters is the one in court, not the press. Congressman Dern has a better hand of cards than we do if this case goes to court, and he’s bracing for a long battle.”

The familiar prickling sensation forced Luke to stand and start pacing in the tight confines of the meeting room. There was barely any space to move, but the thought of remaining locked up indefinitely made it impossible to sit still.

“Can I get out on bail until the trial?”

“We’ve already tried and failed,” Gray said. “Your only shot of getting out of here is revealing how you got your hands on those studies. If you give us the name—”

“That’s never going to happen,” he interrupted.

“I repeat: If you give us the name, we can have you out of