by Simon Hawke
“Make that two,” said Darkness. “I’ll take mine with sugar.” Linda gasped and spun around, instinctively going for her weapon.
“All right, if it’s that much trouble, forget the sugar,” Darkness said.
She expelled her breath and put away her pistol. “Dr. Darkness! You almost gave me a heart attack,” she said. Darkness had appeared sitting on the couch beside Lucas, his legs casually crossed, his right hand resting on a silver-headed, ebony walking stick, which he held upright, its tip resting on the floor. He was dressed in his habitual Inverness coat and tweeds, a faintly bored expression on his gaunt features.
“Doc, am I ever glad to see you!” said Lucas.
“Ah, well, such an enthusiastic greeting can only mean that you’re in it up to your hips,” said Darkness. “What have you done now, boxed yourself into your usual corner or are you experiencing difficulties with the transponder?”
While Linda went to make the coffee, Lucas quickly filled him in.
“Hmm. it does seem as if you’ve bitten off a bit more than you can chew this time,” the scientist said. “Drakov and the Network. And this Hellfire Club, as well. Drakov really is becoming a considerable annoyance, isn’t he
“Doc, you have a positive genius for understatement,” Lucas said.
“I have a positive genius for everything,” Darkness said, “but that is quite beside the point. The question is, what are we going to do about this situation of yours?”
He reached into his jacket pocket for a pack of cigarettes. It was a perfectly ordinary, casual motion, but his right arm left a blurred series of afterimages as he moved, giving the effect of rapid, stop-motion photography. He removed a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply.
“It really is most inconvenient that your people can’t carry communicators all the time,” Darkness said. “That would have solved this entire problem, but I suppose it wouldn’t do to have voices suddenly coming out of little boxes in colonial Boston. It could tend to upset people. And miniature receivers might still have been spotted, but under the circumstances, it would have been worth taking the risk. “
“All right, so maybe I was being too cautious, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. Talking about how I screwed up isn’t going to help us. You got any ideas
“Well, part of your immediate problem can be easily solved. I can locate Steiger. Cross, and Delaney through their symbiotracers and inform them of the situation-”
“Hold it! Wait a minute!” Lucas said. You told me their symbiotracers were malfunctioning!”
“Oh. no. I solved that little problem. It turned out to be merely a minor glitch in my receiving equipment. Simply a matter of fine-tuning. I can locate them anytime I want.”
“And You didn’t tell me?”
Darkness raised his eyebrows. “Well, you didn’t ask.”
Lucas leaned back against the couch and put his hands up to his head. “ Sweet God All Mighty!” he said. “I don’t believe it! Didn’t you hear what I’ve just said? The Network’s got Steiger! And all the time, you could have told me where he was!”
“As I recall,” said Darkness, “the last time we spoke, they didn’t have him or if they did, you neglected to apprise me of the situation. Frankly, I’m not really surprised. Steiger’s knack for getting in over his head is rivaled only by your own. I suppose you’d like me to get him back for you?”
“Yes, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” Lucas said in an exasperated tone.
“No trouble at all,” said Darkness. ‘It’s not as if I haven’t got several dozen more important things to do. I really do wonder, Priest, how you ever managed before I came along. Every time I see you, you’re in some sort of difficulty. All things considered, it’s a miracle we haven’t got at least a dozen temporal disruptions to contend with-”
“ Doc For crying out loud!”
“Oh. I suppose you want me to leave now?”
“If you don’t mind!”
“What about my coffee?”
“Jesus, give me strength! We’ll keep the pot warm, okay’?”
“Well, all right, you don’t need to shout. You realize that I have no way of getting any sort of fix on your other people, since they’re not equipped with symbiotracers.”
“Just get Creed, Andre, and Delaney back here.” Lucas said. “Hunter’s with Delaney. Andre should be on her way hack here by now. In fact. I don’t know what’s keeping her… unless… “
“Unless what?”
“No. No. that’s crazy, she wouldn’t.”
“Can two participate in this conversation or is it a soliloquy?” said Darkness.
“Never mind,” said Lucas. “It’s not important. Just get them back here right away. Please?”
“Certainly. Don’t go away.” He disappeared.
Linda came back into the room. “Coffee’ll be ready in a min… where did he go? What’s the matter?”
Lucas was sitting hunched over, with his head in his hands. “Just once.” he said. “Just once, I’d like to catch him when he’s solid…
Steiger groaned as he tried to stand. Murphy helped him tip out of the chair and pulled his arm around his shoulder. Steiger sagged.”Come on, Steiger, you can make it.” Murphy said.
“Son of a bitch really gave me a working over.” Steiger said, through swollen and cut lips.
“I know.” said Murphy. “I’m really sorry about this, Steiger. I never signed on for anything like this, believe me. It all seemed so harmless in the beginning. Moving goods from one time period to another, supplementing the section allocation with a little temporal smuggling on the side, just a simple business enterprise where no one would get hurt. It’s practically impossible to operate a field section on our budget and they keep cutting our appropriations. I told myself the money was being raised for a good cause. And then, since we were doing so well, it seemed perfectly reasonable to divert a small portion of the profits, set a little aside for our retirement… ah, hell, the whole thing just snowballed. I never dreamed it would come to anything like this.”
“Nobody ever does, Murphy.” Steiger said, leaning against him for support “Shit. My goddamn legs are cramped from being tied down to that chair.” He shuffled one step forward. then another.
“Give me the coordinates for your base of operations.” Murphy said. “I’ll clock us out.”
Steiger turned and stared at him for a long moment.
“You don’t trust me.” Murphy said. “You think I may still be working with the others.” He nodded “Hell. I don’t blame you. But look, I gotta take you somewhere.”
“You’re not taking him anywhere.” said a voice from the door. They looked up to see a man in colonial dress standing in the doorway, a plasma pistol in his hand.
“Cash!” said Murphy
“Going somewhere. Murphy?”
“Put down the gun, Cash,” Murphy said. “Don’t be a fool.”
“Going into business for yourself, eh?” Cash said. “I thought we all had an agreement.”
“It isn’t what you think, Cash,” Murphy said.
“I was taking him out of here.”
“Were you’?”
“He needs medical attention. Stevens went crazy, he beat him half to death. Damn it, Cash, this has gone too far. I don’t give a damn about the Network anymore. I went along with the enterprise, but I’m not going to be a party to murder. You can keep my share of the profits, I don’t care, but let us go. I’ve had enough.”
“You always were a bit too soft. Murphy.” said Cash. “Too much of a guilty conscience. But like you said, you went along with it. You’re in as deeply as the rest of us.”
“I don’t care!” said Murphy. “When we scan taking con-tracts on our own people, it’s gone beyond the realm of sanity. It’s out of control, Cash. It’s got to stop! Think about what you’re doing. for God’s sake! We all took an oath-
“Oh. please. Spare me.” Cash glanced at Stevens, briefly, is he dead?”
/> “No,” said Murphy.
Cash shifted his aim quickly and fired. The low intensity plasma charge struck Stevens in the chest, incinerating most of his upper body. “He is now.” said Cash.
“ You crazy son of a bitch!” said Murphy.
“Morton and Dicenzo never made it back,” said Cash. “The commandos must’ve got ‘CM. I figured it was time to cut our losses and settle for what we’ve got. But now that it’s you and me and the five-million-dollar bounty on our friend. frankly. Murphy. I don’t feel like sharing.”
He raised his pistol.
“So long, Murphy,” he said.
The plasma pistol was suddenly plucked out of his hand by an unseen force.
“What the,-”
There was a loud, dull crack and Cash fell to the floor, blood streaming from the fracture in his skull. Darkness appeared out of thin air, standing over him and wiping off the heavy silver head of his walking stick with a white handkerchief.
“Who in their right mind would pay five million dollars for the likes of you?” he said to Steiger.
Murphy goggled at him. “I must be dreamin’,” he said. “I can see right through that guy!”
“Friend a yours?” said Darkness.
Steiger glanced at Murphy. “Yeah. I guess he is at that.”
“You look like hell.” said Darkness.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Priest sent me. There seems to be some trouble at the field base They’ve moved it, by the way. It’s in a house on a bend in the road where Lime and Lynn streets meet.” He gave them the coordinates. “And here, you might need this.” he added, tossing him the plasma pistol. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve a few more errands to run. Do try to get there in one piece, won’t you? Priest is having some sort of an anxiety attack.”
He vanished.
Murphy blinked several times. “Who in the hell was that?”
“It’s a long story,” said Steiger. “I’ll explain later. We’d better get moving. Oh. and by the way, you’re under arrest.”
“Yeah, right.” said Murphy, with a grimace. He entered the transition coordinates Darkness gave them into his warp disc and they clocked out.
Hunter and Delaney materialized at the corner of Pond and Short streets and started moving quickly toward the house where Dicenzo said Steiger was being held. They turned the corner and hadn’t gone more than twenty yards when a loud voice hailed them.
“Halt! Who goes there? Stand where you are and identify yourselves!”
“Damn, it’s the watch” said Hunter.
“We don’t have time for this,” said Delaney.
“Take it easy. I’ll take care of them,” said Hunter.
Three men with muskets approached them.
“Identify yourselves.” one of the men said.
“I’m Reese Hunter and this is Finn Delaney.” Hunter said. “I don’t know you. What are you doing abroad this time of night?”
“We’re on our way to see a sick friend,” said Hunter. “He’s badly ill. I’m bringing Dr. Delaney to him.”
“A doctor. eh?” the watchman said suspiciously. “There was some sort of a disturbance in the Common tonight. We’ve had reports of shooting. I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that?”
“Shooting in the Common?” Delaney glanced uneasily at Hunter”
“No, we’ve heard nothing.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” the watchman said.
“They could be the Tories that we’ve heard about,” one of the others said. “No, wait,” said Hunter, reaching down into his shirt. He pulled out his Liberty medallion and showed it to them. “Look.”
“Excuse me,” said Darkness, suddenly appealing at their side. “I’d like a word with these gentlemen, if you don’t mind.”
The watchman leapt back with a startled cry.
“A ghost!” shouted one of the others. He threw down his musket and took to his heels. With cries of terror, the others followed him.
“And men like these managed to win the War for Independence.” Darkness said, shaking his head.
“Doc, we need your help,” Delaney said. “The Network has got Steiger. They’re holding him in-”
“Yes, yes. I know, I’m way ahead of you,” said Darkness. “I’ve already taken care of it. Steiger will meet you back at the field base on Lime Street. Priest wants you to get back there right away. Apparently, one of your prisoners has managed to escape.”
“Moffat!” said Delaney.
“Yes, I believe that was his name.”
“And he’ll go straight to Drakov,” said Delaney. “Come on. Hunter. We’ve got no time to lose.” He quickly punched up the coordinates on his warp disc and they clocked out.
“Thank you, Dr. Darkness.” Darkness said, with a wry grimace. “You’re welcome. Don’t mention it. Aaah, I don’t know why I bother…
He disappeared.
Andre came to lying on a comfortable couch. She groaned and felt the back of her head. There was a lump there and blood was matted in her hair. She blinked, her vision focusing on a pretty young woman holding a laser pistol aimed directly at her.
“Please remain perfectly still. Miss Cross, otherwise Sally will be forced to shoot you and she is a very accurate shot. Show her how accurate you are. Sally.”
Sally fired the laser and the thin beam burned a smoking hole in the couch right next to Andre’s left ear. Andre didn’t move.
“Drakov,” she said.
“Ah, you remember.” Drakov said, coming around to where she could see him_ He was dressed in flamboyant colonial finery, in black, as usual. His coat, was of black velvet with jeweled buttons, his waistcoat was black brocade shot through with gold, his breeches were black satin, and his shirt and hose were of white silk. He had silver buckles on his shoes and he wore a powdered wig. but Andre would have recognized him anywhere. That scar marring his dark. Byronic features and those unsettling, emerald-green eyes were unmistakable, as was the voice, rich and deep and resonant, a voice that stage actors would have killed for.
“Which one arc you?” she said. “Do you each have your own run number or do you all think you’re the real thing?”
“That is a fascinating question, Miss Cross.” he said, smiling down at her. “In fact, I’ve wondered about it myself on occasion, not that it makes any real difference. You see, we are all Nikolai Drakov, sharing the same genetic template. the same memories and personality. After a certain point, that is. Childhood experiences must, of necessity, vary, but at a key point in development, each replicate’s subliminal programming is triggered and from that moment on, the memory engrains of the original are manifested. All previous individual experiences are totally forgotten. Each of us shares the same memories from that point on, the same personality and past. Asking which of us is the original is pointless. We are all the same. You might say I am legion.”
Sally’s face was registering growing confusion, but Drakov proceeded as if she wasn’t even there.
“Just think of it as an exponential increase in the opportunities for our paths to cross.” he said, smiling. “You see, there you are. It’s happened once again. Actually, I quite look forward to our encounters, although I confess that each time I think it will be the last. Perhaps this time we will finally conclude our business. I feel rather confident on this occasion.”
“You always do,” she said. “But we’ve beaten you each time. And we’ll beat you once again.”
“Oh. I think not.” said Drakov. “Not this time. Miss Cross. Not this time.”
“We have Moffat, you know.” she said.
The woman called Sally gave a little gasp and her eyes went to Drakov, but only for an instant.
“Yes. I had already surmised that,” he said. He shrugged. “Unfortunate, but it is of no real consequence. He is conditioned to withstand a considerable amount of questioning, and when your friends think they have broken him, he will tell them only what he has
been programmed to tell them. Moffat has served his purpose.”
The stricken look on the woman’s face only served to underscore what Andre had already concluded. Sally and Moffat were in love.
“Master…” she said in a pleading voice, but she got no further.
“Silence,” Drakov said. He deigned to glance at her-Don’t be concerned, Sally. You’ve done your part well. My promise to you still stands. I will provide another mate for you as soon as we are finished here.”
Sally said nothing and the laser in her hand wavered only slightly, but the anguish on her face spoke volumes.
“It isn’t going to work. Drakov,” Andre said. “Your Hellfire Club is going to fail, just like they failed tonight with Macintosh.”
“Merely a minor setback.” Drakov said. “The mere existence of the Hellfire
Club has already placed a strain on temporal inertia in this time period. My final touch will deliver the coup de grace and bring about a timestream split. The plan is elegant in its simplicity. I have pinpointed the three most important men in this temporal scenario. The first of them will die tonight, right under the very eyes of your compatriots, who have been keeping such a very careful watch on him. And Macintosh will never reach his friends in time. My assassin is already on his way.”
He smiled. “I only regret that I will not be able to see the expressions on their faces when it happens. It would have been much more effective if his chief pawn, Ebenezer Macintosh, had died at the same time, but it will make no difference. Without Samuel Adams to lead the Sons of Liberty, the task will doubtless fall to Otis. Hancock is popular, but he has no real ability for leadership and he lacks the genius Adams has for influencing popular opinion. The others will fall to arguing among themselves, and though he has already proven himself to be erratic. Otis is the only one with fire enough to draw them all together. When his mind finally snaps, the blow to the patriotic cause will be irreparable. The Hellfire Club will serve to unify the Tories and the arrival of the British troops will put an end to the rebellious spirit in the. Massachusetts colony.
“The second man to die will be Lord William Howe,” continued Drakov. “I have already established myself socially in England and Howe knows me as a friend. It will be an easy matter for me to see to his demise. Without his foolish indecisiveness and obstinacy, the British troops would have captured the entire Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island and the war would have been over before it even started. With Howe dead, Clinton or Burgoyne will be appointed in his place and either of them will easily prevail over the undisciplined colonial troops, especially without Washington to lead them.”