Sins of the Titanic (A James Acton Thriller, #13) Read Online Free

reading a rather mundane file, listing their grandfather’s personal
information, assignments and commendations. He clicked to the next page, finding
a list of specific missions.
    A spasm
shot through his big toe and up to his knee. He winced as he pulled his foot up
by the pant leg, crossing it over his knee, massaging away the pain.
    “Your
arthritis again?”
    He
nodded. “Getting old.”
    Judy
smiled. “Old? I just had my first great-grandchild. Now that’s old.”
    “Hey,
I’m older than you.”
    Judy lay
her head on his shoulder for a moment. “And I’ll never let you forget it.” She
lifted her head. “What’s that?”
    Steve’s
eyes narrowed at the large blacked out block in the center of the page, one of
their grandfather’s assignments redacted. “That’s odd.” He pointed to the dates
of the previous and next missions. “Notice anything about those dates?”
    Judy
shrugged. “Should I? You know I’m not the history buff like you are.”
    “The
Titanic sank April fourteenth. His previous mission ended two weeks before
that, and his next mission started three weeks after. Don’t you think that’s
too much of a coincidence?”
    Judy
squeezed his forearm as she looked at him. “You don’t think Granddad had
something to do with the sinking, do you?”
    Steve
felt his stomach churn. “I don’t know what to think anymore. But I have to find
out.”
    Judy’s
grip tightened. “But what if he did have something to do with it. Do we
really want to know?”
    Steve
sucked in a quick breath as his heart slammed in his chest, not sure of the
answer. If his grandfather did indeed have something to do with the sinking, it
could destroy the family’s reputation for generations.
    Nonsense!
    The ship
sank because of an iceberg. That was accepted fact, the footage taken of the
ship on the bottom of the ocean proving the firsthand accounts from the survivors,
so there was no way his grandfather was responsible for sinking the ship.
    Yet he
was involved somehow, his guilt haunting him until it finally became too much.
    “I have
to know.”
    “No
matter the consequences?”
    Steve
frowned, looking at his sister.
    “Yes, no
matter the consequences.”
     
     

 
     

     
     
    North Atlantic Ocean
Aboard the RMS Titanic
April 14 th , 1912
     
    It was everything Henry Dodge could do to avoid an audible gasp.
Astor had sent him the letter? It sort of made sense that he could be the
source. He’d definitely have the connections and wanted to see the creation of
the Federal Reserve stopped. And if he was the source, then he definitely knew
about The Assembly, since they were mentioned in the letter.
    He also
knew they would kill should it become necessary.
    Which
meant he had Astor to thank for putting his life at risk.
    “You’re
‘A Concerned Citizen’?” he finally managed to ask.
    “Yes,
but now isn’t the time to speak of such things.” He looked about. “You have the
letter?”
    Dodge
nodded.
    “On your
person?”
    “I fear
to leave it anywhere else.”
    “Good
man. It is essential you deliver that letter to your father in Washington upon
our arrival. He’ll know what to do with it.”
    Dodge
felt his chest tighten as someone approached, Benjamin Guggenheim. Astor shook
his head almost imperceptibly, the man changing direction slightly, striking up
a conversation with a group on another trajectory.
    “Why not
deliver it yourself?” asked Dodge, his voice low, mimicking Astor’s continued
enjoyment of his cigar and spirits.
    “They
would expect me to have it, and I fully expect they will make every attempt to
intercept it before I have a chance to deliver it. Hopefully you’ll succeed
where I’m likely to fail.”
    “But
they know who I am.”
    Astor
paused in mid drink, his eyebrows shooting up. He lowered his glass. “Are you
certain?”
    Dodge
nodded emphatically, catching himself, his earnestness out of place in such
sedately civilized company. “Yes, two men came to my hotel but