by Simon Hawke
With a smile he threw the disruptor on the floor in front of Phoenix, and before the startled agent could react, Drakov had clocked out.
“Son a bitch,” said Phoenix. “He’s out of his fucking mind, but the bastard’s got style.”
He picked up the disruptor and made a thorough search of the house, destroying whatever modern weapons and equipment he could find. He discovered a hideous thing in the tower and put it out of its misery. Then, having done all he could think of doing, he took one last look around at the year 1897 and went home.
The attack on Blood’s brigade lasted for six hours. The British soldiers held and the Ghazis finally retired before the devastating, superior firepower of the troops. The losses among the British were astonishingly slight, considering the ferocity of the onslaught. The most serious losses were among the horses and transport animals. The Ghazis left behind over 700 corpses. General Elles arrived with his brigade the following day, and the Bedmanai Pass was forced. The rebellion in the northern sector of the frontier was broken.
Winston Churchill never discovered what became of Finn Delaney and Andre Cross. One moment they were both pinning him down to the ground, the next they were gone without a trace. He searched for them and made inquiries, but they were nowhere to be found and it was assumed that they were carried off and killed by Ghazis. Their bodies were never recovered. Churchill was tempted to mention them both in his dispatches, but two things prevented him from doing so. One was that he recalled the promise he had made to Andre Cross to respect her privacy; the other was that it was later discovered there was no subaltern by the name of Finn Delaney on the lists. It was suspected that he had committed some sort of crime and had assumed a new identity in order to escape its consequences. The officers of Blood’s brigade agreed that whoever and whatever else he might have been, the man they knew as Finn Delaney died a hero.
General Lockhart defeated the forces of Sayyid Akbar after a fierce battle and continued on with the Tirah Expeditionary Force to crush the uprising of the Pathans. He brought the tribes to their knees and they submitted, surrendering their weapons and paying the fines the British Raj imposed. Sayyid Akbar was never found. Sadullah, likewise, had escaped. The swift action of a specially formed Search and Retrieve Unit from the 27th century prevented the British troops from discovering the bodies of soldiers wearing strange gray uniforms and carrying weapons that would have defied any explanation. The confluence point had shifted, and in that period of history at least, temporal stability had been restored.
Privates Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney were decorated for bravery, and a special, posthumous decoration was given to the Hindu bhisti, Gunga Din. He was buried as a British soldier, with full military honors. None of the three of them ever mentioned seeing anything unusual in the Khyber Pass, although when Mulvaney got drunk, he was sometimes heard to mumble about “them bloody lights.” None of them ever mentioned an officer named Finn Delaney either. Before Finn left them to “escort Andre back to Peshawar and on her return journey to England,” he “confessed” to them that he was a deserter, wanted for a certain crime, and that it would be best for him if they did not mention his name. As men who were well-known for not being overfond of regulations, the three soldiers agreed to keep the secret. The only inquiries ever conducted were those made by Chris Learoyd on his return to England. He made a determined effort to locate a young woman named Miss Andre Cross, but he never found her.
EPILOGUE
The services were held for Major Lucas Priest in front of the Wall of Honor, where his name had been added to the list of those members of the First Division who had died in combat. The entire division had turned out in full dress, and Forrester, wearing his many decorations, delivered the eulogy. Director General Vargas was present and he awarded Priest a posthumous decoration, the Medal of Honor, the oldest and highest award a soldier could receive. At the close of the service, Forrester called the men to attention and Director General Vargas came forward to address them.
“Stand at ease,” he said. “A solemn occasion such as this may not be the best time for this briefing, but we are faced with a new and very serious threat. I leave from here tonight to go directly to the meeting of the Council of Nations in Geneva. As of this morning, an official ceasefire was called in all current temporal confrontation actions. I have been in contact with the Council members separately and we have been conducting informal negotiations. I have no reason to believe there will be any dissension during the session of the Council.
“The scientific evidence I will present at the session is overwhelming in its conclusiveness. We are faced with a confluence effect between two separate timelines, an effect rendering both timestreams unstable. Due to unthinking and tragic actions on our part, we have been confronted with hostile actions from the other timeline. There is, at present, no means of negotiating with the opposition and no reliable means of pinpointing the various loci of confluence. Every effort will lire made to pursue that course, but in the meantime we must be prepared to face further hostilities, further attempts at interfering with our history in order to cause a temporal split in our own timestream.
“For this reason a massive and rapid reorganization of our temporal forces and support apparatus is essential, and these changes are already under way. In order to meet this new threat, the Referee Corps has decided to merge the two units most experienced in temporal confrontation and adjustment actions. As of this moment, officially, the Temporal Intelligence Agency has been brought under the umbrella of the Temporal Army Command, and I will propose at the Council of Nations meeting that we establish a unified command among all temporal forces, to be headquartered here at Pendleton Base. Henceforth the quasi-civilian status of the TIA is converted to full military status, with an end to the covert nature of their activity in this timeline. The function of monitoring temporal inconsistencies and disruptions will be taken over by the Observer Corps.
“The First Division is henceforth incorporated into the TIA and Colonel Forrester is assigned as deputy director with the rank of brigadier-general. This new unit will be headquartered here, and additional quarters will be provided for the new incoming personnel. Special security procedures will be devised to guard against infiltration. The function of this new agency will be twofold: to conduct adjustment operations to maintain temporal integrity, and to conduct active, covert operations to create disruptions in the alternate timeline if points of confluence for crossover can be identified. You will be briefed as developments occur. In the mean time all leaves are cancelled and the entire unit is on Yellow Alert standby status. General Forrester?”
Forrester called the unit to attention.
“There remains one more item of business which I would like to personally take care of before I depart for the Council meeting,” Vargas said. “Lieutenant Finn Delaney and Sergeant Andre Cross, step forward please.”
They marched to the front and stood to attention.
“I would like to personally commend you on your performance,” Vargas said. He stepped forward and pinned the Temporal Star on both of them, then handed each of them a small plastic box containing insignia of rank. Andre was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and Delaney, to his chagrin, found himself looking down at captain’s bars. As Vargas gave him the bars, he smiled. “Try not to strike anyone above the rank of major, Captain,” he said. “We need capable officers such as yourself.”
After Forrester dismissed the unit, most of them adjourned to the First Division lounge, where they all made a final toast to Lucas Priest. Forrester joined Finn and Andre at their table.
“I’m buying,” he said. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m in a mood to get blind drunk.”
“Sounds good to me,” Delaney said. Andre nodded. Forrester cracked a bottle and poured for them. “To Lucas,” Finn said.
They raised their glasses.
“I’d like to join in that toast, if I may,” said a voice from behind them.
They turned to see a col
onel dressed in black base fatigues standing behind them. His sandy hair was cropped short and his gray eyes regarded them steadily with a somber expression.
Finn almost dropped his glass. “Martingale! But … you’re supposed to be dead!”
“No, just transferred.” He came to attention and saluted Forrester. “Colonel Steiger reporting for duty, sir.”
Forrester returned his salute absently and beckoned him to sit.
“Steiger?” Andre said.
“It’s my real name. Now that the TIA has gone army, we’ve dispensed with code names and agent Phoenix is now just plain Colonel Creed Steiger.”
“Phoenix!” Finn said. “So you’re the one Darkness was talking about.”
Steiger nodded. “By the way, he asked me to give you these.”
He held out two small plastic envelopes containing what looked like plastiskin grafts.
“Symbiotracers?” Andre said.
“He thought they might come in handy.” Steiger looked over his shoulder and they followed his gaze. There was a strange dark blur in the far corner of the First Division lounge, and as they watched, it resolved itself into the figure of Dr. Darkness. He held a glass of scotch whiskey in his hand. “About that toast,” said Steiger.
“To Lucas,” Finn repeated.
“To Lucas.”
They raised their glasses and drank. When they looked back, Darkness was gone.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Although the historical events portrayed in this book actually happened (with the exception of my embellishments, of course), certain events were compressed and sequentially altered for the sake of the story. Winston Churchill obtained six weeks of leave from his regiment and arrived at Malakand on September 2nd of that year in the capacity of press correspondent for the Pioneer and Daily Telegraph. He was anxious to see active service and wanted to be eventually attached to the force in a military capacity. Consequently his actual arrival on the scene took place at a later point than I have it taking place in this story, but he was involved in the campaign and he chronicled in detail the adventures and accomplishments of the Malakand Field Force in a book by the same name, for which I am indebted to the people at The Court Place Bookshop and Fine Arts Galley in Denver.
Sharif Khan (alias agent Phoenix) was, as might be suspected, a fictional creation, but Sadullah the Mad Mullah (believe it or not, I didn’t make that up) and Sayyid Akbar actually existed, as did the British officers who are named. The story of Surgeon-Lieutenant Hugo saving a man’s life by holding his severed artery closed with his fingers while under enemy fire for three hours is genuine, and I could not resist including such an incredible feat in my narrative.
Devotees of Rudyard Kipling will naturally recognize Gunga Din, the regimental bhisti, as they will be familiar with Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney, who appeared in Plain Tales from the Hills and Soldiers Three. And if you haven’t read any Kipling, may I earnestly urge you to acquaint yourself with one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Those interested in the history behind this story can find a great deal of available information in their local library, and I especially recommend Charles Miller’s Khyber: British India’s Northwest Frontier, for having a highly readable and entertaining style.
I am also indebted to Bill Barr and to John J. Harty for providing me with information about jezail rifles. Acknowledgments must also be given to those who, in one way or another, provided valuable support during the writing of this book: Leanne Christine Harper and Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics in Denver, Colorado; Edward Bryant; Robert M. Powers; the Denver Area Science Fiction Association; and Ginjer Buchanan of the Berkley Publishing Group.
And, of course, special thanks to Dr. Darkness for general wizardry and special effects.
Simon Hawke
Denver, Colorado