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"Must and Shall"  
Asimovs Nov1995
Author Harry Turtledove
First Appearance Asimov's
Reprinted Nebula Awards 32 (1998);
Roads Not Taken (1998)
Collected Counting Up, Counting Down
The Best of Harry Turtledove
Illustrator Bruce Jensen
Genre(s) Alternate History
Publication date November, 1995

"Must and Shall" is a short story which first appeared in Asimov's in November, 1995. It was subsequently reprinted in Nebula Awards 32, edited by Jack Dann, Harcourt Brace, 1998; Roads Not Taken, edited by Stanley Schmidt and Gardner Dozois, Del Rey, 1998; Counting Up, Counting Down; Del Rey, 2002 and The Best of Harry Turtledove, 2021. It is an alternate history story set in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1942, 78 years after the point of divergence, depicting a world in which President Abraham Lincoln is killed in 1864, and the Federal government institutes a more vindictive occupation in the South. Turtledove has described this situation as a metaphor for Northern Ireland in North America. "Must and Shall" was nominated for the Sidewise Award, the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

In a brief prologue, while he is inspecting the ramparts at Fort Stevens, President Lincoln is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter on July 12, 1864. His successor, Hannibal Hamlin, promises a harsh retribution, including the execution of all Confederate higher-ups in his inaugural.

By the time the story takes place, the South has been, for all intents and purposes, an occupied territory of the United States for 77 years. The notion of a Confederacy continues underground as a focus of loyalty for Southern whites. The Federal Government can only count on the support of the black population, a status quo enforced by the 16th amendment. Otherwise, the divergence from OTL is somewhat localized to the U.S., while the wider world has carried on in the exact same way as OTL. World War I appears to have followed roughly the same course as OTL, and World War II is in progress, with the same set of combatants.

Against this backdrop, Agent Neil Michaels of the FBS travels to New Orleans to stop an armed insurrection supported by Germany, following a series of clues and dead informants in a race against time.

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