"Naturally, my Order has many secrets which we must maintain," Erasmus said with an unchanged smile. "What I can tell you is that our country has only scratched the surface of alchemy, and the secrets that we have not yet discovered threaten the lives of everyone on the planet. We need the information hidden within those notes to assure that alchemy is handled responsibly in the future."
"Oh, I see," Carlyle said, his eyes widening in realization. "That explains why your Order of Hermes has been coming after me. You don't just want the notes; you want me as well. The knowledge I hold within my mind of medical alchemy and Basque Grand's Iron Blood alchemy must be significant to you people. I see… you're a bunch of hoarders."
For the first time, the smile dropped from the face of Erasmus. "I would call us a 'humanitarian organization.' We're just trying to make the world a better place, you know."
"Through acts of terrorism," Carlyle said, finishing the other alchemist's sentence. "Anyway, I don't see what you could possibly gain from reading Kimblee's notes. Over the past few days, I deciphered the first few chapters, and I didn't find anything that could save the world. All I found was a step-by-step guide for bomb making and the unsettling ramblings of an insane man. Wait, I also found one other thing." He gestured to the pocket where he had placed Kimblee's notes a moment before. "I also found something really interesting. It took me a while to figure this out, but these aren't actually Kimblee's original notes. No, this is a perfect copy, handwritten in such exact detail that the cipher remained in place."
Colonel Carlyle looked over at Hotchkiss and gave an exaggerated shrug. "Now, that got me thinking: who would go through the trouble of copying a State Alchemist's notes instead of just taking them? Who had access to these notes but didn't have the authority to check them out? Maybe, just maybe, we should be looking into the librarians working at the state libraries in Central. What do you think, Erasmus?"
Carlyle looked over at Erasmus, hoping to see a momentary flicker in his expression. Unfortunately, the magician kept a perfect poker face the entire time. The man clearly had some skill in hiding his true feelings behind a facade of affability.
"What do I think?" Erasmus said with his usual unmoving smile. "Well, I think I've stalled for long enough. She should be arriving…"
The entire train shook violently, and the two soldiers had to brace against the movement to stop themselves from falling over. As if expecting the sudden jerking movement, Erasmus's stance did not falter at all.
"...right now."
Carlyle turned toward the back of the cabin and realized that the turbulence was caused by another train crashing into the back of their car. He couldn't see what caused the collision due to the heavy metal shield he had transmuted to protect them from the fusillade of enemy bullets.
"Shit!" Carlyle swore loudly as he realized what had caused the collision. He had played right into Erasmus's hand. The magician spent so long talking in order to buy enough time for Miriam to catch up. Even the fresco of Hermes Trismegistus and the Philosopher of the East must have been created to get Carlyle to waste time talking.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Carlyle leveled his revolver and fired. Erasmus began to say something, but the gunshot cut off his verbal barb. The sparking brass bullet struck the side of the steel cabin a few meters past where Erasmus had transmuted a large pillar of steel, and a piercing spike of steel shot out toward the eccentric magician with enough speed to kill. Carlyle wasn't going to take any half measures when facing two skilled alchemists.
With the speed of a trained fighter, the magician dodged the piercing steel spike. Carlyle had been expecting as much; his spear had a second target. The spike flew past Erasmus and crashed into the mirror he was using to keep an eye on Carlyle and Hotchkiss. In an instant, the mirror shattered into a thousand small shards of glass, and Carlyle could only hope that one of the shards managed to wound his opponent.
With Erasmus temporarily blinded, Carlyle whistled a quick command to Hotchkiss before turning around to face the newcomers. As he turned, a cascading deconstruction procedure began to fly through the slab of metal that blocked his sight, and it was shattered into small lumps of rectangular metal.
The destruction of the large metal shield allowed Carlyle to see what had just struck his train car. Somehow, the previous train car had managed to catch up to the train, even though it was detached from the engine. Miriam was able to do this, Carlyle realized, by transmuting a combustion engine from scratch out of the elements found in the last train car.
Carlyle couldn't stop himself from marveling at the level of skill necessary to do such a thing. He certainly didn't know enough about combustion engines to create one without looking at an in-depth blueprint. He did have enough skill, however, to take one apart.
As the large transmuted engine entered his view, Carlyle cycled through his cylinder until he reached a chamber he knew held a Steel Deconstruction Round. Crouching low to the ground, he aimed his revolver at the area of the engine right below the smoke stack and pulled the trigger. There was a zap of blue lightning, and several large chunks of steel flew out the side of the engine. The plume of smoke suddenly stopped, and the train car began to slow down.
Before Carlyle had enough time to destroy the transmuted, however, Miriam was able to jump onto the last passenger car. Just as Carlyle's Steel Deconstruction Round was flying through the air, Miriam landed a few meters in front of him on the same train car.
"You are way too skilled to stay a rogue alchemist," Carlyle said with a sigh as he rose to his feet. "Come work for me, and I'll make you a State Alchemist."
This statement stopped Miriam in her tracks, and her eyes widened in surprise. This surprise only lasted a second, and her expression hardened once more. Through clenched teeth, she said, "I knew you were a killer, Colonel Carlyle. I didn't know you were a liar as well."
Miriam charged forward, her arms outstretched in a fighting stance, and Carlyle moved to intercept this attack.