Dead Men Don't Lie. Jackson Cain

our weapons after repeated use—especially the Gatling’s firing mechanism. It also doesn’t billow up smoke clouds that obscure your view of the battlefield and prevent you from sighting in on the enemies.”

      “How do you make this smokeless powder?”

      “Usually, we would make a mixture of two parts nitrocellulose, otherwise known as guncotton, to one part nitroglycerin. We don’t have the time or expertise, however, to make nitroglycerin in the huge quantities we’ll need. Instead we’re going to use single-base powder—nitrocellulose colloided with ether alcohol.”

      “And where do we get nitrocellulose?” Mateo asked.

      “It’s just cellulose exposed to nitric acid.”

      “First, what kind of cellulose do we use?”

      “Cotton or wood pulp will work.”

      “Secondly, you said you knew how we could make nitric acid?” Mateo asked. “You sure we can do it? We can’t.”

      “Sure, you can. Find a big porcelain crock, then you boil sulfuric acid and saltpeter in it. Distill the steam, and you’ll have nitric acid. You next soak the cellulose with nitric acid, then colloid the resulting powder with ether alcohol, which will stabilize it and keep it from spontaneously combusting in your faces.”

      “It’s that unstable?”

      “Not in colloid form. In fact, you use the same technique to make dynamite—you mix nitroglycerin with sawdust, and it will be safe to handle.”

      “We also have tons of black powder. What do we do with it? Throw it away?”

      “Oh, you’ll use it. You’ll dig fire trenches a hundred yards in front of your main trenches—where you’ll deploy your Gatlings—and man those breastworks with your riflemen. If the Sonoran soldados start to overrun them, instead of charging them with bayonets, your riflemen’ll drop back and deploy right beside your machine gunners.”

      “What about our mortars?” Mateo asked.

      “We’ll also use the black powder to power your smooth-bore mortars. The mortar shells will be filled with black powder but instead of projectiles, we’ll use thin metal cans packed with shrapnel. The cans will be sealed, airtight and watertight. They will have a trajectory of about three hundred yards, after which the heat and blast will disintegrate the shrapnel-filled can. When it hits, each one will blow scores of soldados to bits—depending how densely they’re clustered around the explosion. The Díazistes will have never seen anything. The Lady Dolorosa and her stepson will never know what hit them.”

      Mateo gave him a mock salute. “Anything else, mi general ?”