Searching for Home (Spies of Chicago Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

on the ground. He didn’t consider himself ace spy material. Not that anyone would miss him if something terrible happened. That considered, maybe that’s what made him perfect spy material.
    Only tonight, after this escapade, he’d return to the secure world of banking and hang up his spy hat forever. He just needed enough information to prove Hugh wrong. Lewis couldn’t be the villain Hugh claimed. Impossible.
    Soot covered the walls of the buildings near the south end of the City. The 1881 law against dense smoke had been nothing more than a perfunctory gesture to the heavyweights whose mansions ate up the north end of Chicago. But in the vice district and near the stockyards, choking clouds of smoke veiled the night sky, blocking out the hope offered by starlight. Foul smells of death and chemicals radiated from the slaughterhouses, the discarded animal carcasses clogging the Chicago River to almost a standstill.
    A scuffling sound of chairs in the second-story room stilled James’s thoughts. He held his breath and craned to listen. If only he could see inside to make out the meeting’s attendees.
    “Looks like we’re all here. No one was followed?”
    A muttering of “No” answered.
    James angled his body, attempting to see faces through the flimsy curtain. His efforts proved fruitless. Hugh’s warning rang in his ears: “ Be covert at all times. The success of the Cygnus Brotherhood depends upon you.”
    The problem was James didn’t much like being depended on.
    A gruff voice cleared his throat inside the room. “The wheels are in motion. Workers won’t stand this treatment for much longer.”
    “Indeed. The seeds of anarchy will only require the blood of a few to take root. Our time is now.”
    A round of table thumping and raucous cheers ensued.
    “But what will an overthrow of our employers really do to better our lot in life? My entire family—wife and three children—work twelve hours a day and we’ve naught to show for it.”
    “Precisely! Your question is the core of our existence. We start with our employers and spread to the government, first with the overthrow of Chicago, then the State. Without them your family would be better taken care of, but now if you dare speak against the factory owners they sic their bloodhounds with billy-clubs after you.”
    “He’s right. The police have broken every rally and meeting we’ve held since ’84. Talk is no longer enough, it’s time to take action against our tyrants.” Metal mugs clanged together.
    A tingling sensation, like a thousand of Aunt Louisa’s needles prickling him, settled upon James’s left calf. The pain twitched up his leg and pulsed into the back of his head.
    “Are you suggesting we up the ante?”
    “Violence is our only recourse now. The laborers of Chicago need an invitation to revolt.”
    “You’re meeting with Downing at that hoity-toity party on Prairie Avenue, yes?”
    “The Cobb’s annual ball. Yes, I’ll report to Downing and he’ll give the next instructions.”
    “Tell him we’re ready. Our bombers and assassins are trained. There are many willing to step forward for the task of individual reappropriation.”
    “Individual what-now?”
    “Burglary, you louse. The wealth needs to be redistributed. It’s time to rise and take what is ours.”
    “This all seems a bit much. When I signed on, we weren’t talking about stealing and murdering.”
    “Unfortunately, it’s the necessary action when the state chooses to repress the working class.”
    That voice .
    James’s heart lurched into his throat and the thump of blood pounded in his ears. He’d know his best friend’s voice anywhere.
    Lewis cleared his throat and his voice filled the room. “Do you believe the government will stand and assist you against your employers? Has the Great Strike of 1877 faded from your memory so quickly? You would be years ahead now if you hadn’t backed down then. Instead your families live in utter squalor, and your