With a Vengeance

by Riley Sager

Your singular presence is requested on an overnight rail journey from Philadelphia to Chicago beginning the evening of December 14 aboard the Philadelphia Phoenix Departing Philadelphia at 7 p.m. EST Arriving in Chicago at 7 a.m. CST

It’s 1954, after all.

Now here they are—five guests, one hostess, her accomplice, and a corpse.

Anna Matheson

Hostess

Seamus scowls,

Accomplice?

reviewing the names and assigned room numbers of the six passengers invited onboard. Sal Lawrence, Car 12, Room A Lt. Col. Jack Lapsford, Car 12, Room B Kenneth Wentworth, Car 12, Room C Herb Pulaski, Car 13, Room A Edith Gerhardt, Car 13, Room B Judd Dodge, Car 13, Room C

Soon it was all gone. Tommy first. Then her father. Then her mother, whose light at that point had long been extinguished.

“I’m here to get justice. Because I have irrefutable proof that the six of you are responsible for destroying my family.”

Judd knows because he designed it that way. That was his job, once upon a time. Building engines for the Union Atlantic Railroad,

Judd- Train designer

I know what you did. If you don’t come, others will know, too.

Judd

Herb Pulaski chose a dark green Brioni suit that—like

It will be to your financial benefit if you come.

Herb

Someone, it turns out, Herb used to work with. He feels a fresh sheen of sweat on his brow as Judd Dodge

Judd and Erb used to work together

Judd had headed up the design team, located in a section of the company jokingly known as the Brain Train. Herb spent his time in the manufacturing plant, the factory foreman who made sure the engines Judd designed got built, including the one pulling the very train they are on.

The invitation only details the trip to Chicago. There’s no mention of how they’re supposed to get back home.

Remember the old you? I do.

Sally was blackmailed into helping with the fraud train and became rich as a result

She hopes it will stay that way—and that the journey won’t be something she later regrets.

Well that aint gonna happen

How much will you pay to keep your secret?

Edith

While Edith doesn’t know who’s behind this obvious case of blackmail, she has her suspicions. As for what she’s being blackmailed about, well, it could be one of two things—and both have to do with her life in Germany.

Two men—one in a garish green suit made for someone half his age and half his weight, the other in more appropriate black—and a woman in ivory.

Herb- Green Judd- black Sally- ivory Edith - gray

How does it feel to have blood on your hands?

Lt Jack

Which is how Lapsford found himself having a steak and scotch dinner with a man connected to an entire railroad. Only the man wasn’t lobbying for a big military contract. He wanted Lapsford to give one to someone else—for the most nefarious of reasons.

Lt. Jack part of train conspiracy

You and I have unfinished business.

Father Wentworth, but brought by son Dante

One he always gets away with. He’s young, handsome, charming, and rich—four characteristics that allow those who possess them to do practically whatever they please.

In this instance, it also doesn’t hurt that his father owns the Philadelphia Phoenix. Not originally, mind you. A dozen years ago, the Phoenix—and the company that had built it—belonged to Arthur Matheson.

Dante is the son of the competitor who benefitted from the conspiracy to the detriment of Matheson

Annie.

Oh, Anna is Annie

Absorb your pain. Control your hatred. Hone your stillness until it becomes dagger sharp. The people who flail and rage rarely accomplish anything. But those who control their emotions even in the most fraught of situations? They get results.

“Thirty-seven men were killed in that explosion,” she says. “Including my brother. All that remained of him was a piece of charred uniform.

I wonder if he actually died

Anna’s father was eventually hit with dozens of federal charges, ranging from sabotage to treason to thirty-seven counts of murder, including that of his own son. Denied bail, he was sent to federal prison to await trial. It never happened. On his second day there, an inmate stabbed Anna’s father thirty-seven times. Once for every person killed in the explosion.

five star witnesses gave sworn testimony about how and why Arthur Matheson committed sabotage. Lt. Col. Jack Lapsford said Anna’s father approached him about manufacturing trains expressly for troop transport. Judd Dodge described several meetings in which he tried to convince Arthur that his locomotive design was doomed to failure. Herb Pulaski swore that Arthur had ordered him to cut corners as much as possible in the building of that locomotive. Sally Lawrence provided notes detailing those conversations, along with dozens of memos signed by her father backing them up. Edith Gerhardt testified about how Arthur seemed highly interested in the Third Reich and even insinuated he’d hired her simply because she was German.

What Anna wants is for each of them to lose the will to live—and then be forced to keep on living. Only then will she be satisfied. Revenge is fleeting. Vengeance lasts a lifetime.

fallow

He removes his suit coat and passes it to Anna, who roots through the pockets, finding only a striped breath mint in a cellophane wrapper.

Boss’s orders.

Alone outside his house on an unseasonably warm October night.

Prompt- autumn

“Grauer Geist,”

Dante starts cleaning the spot she missed, standing so close that Anna can smell his aftershave. It’s the same scent she remembers after all these years. A mix of cedar and citrus.

by a young redhead

Prompt- red hair