The Cleopatra Crisis tw-11

by Simon Hawke

  “He means I’m going to be all right,” said Lucas, smiling.He looked better than he had in weeks, as if an enormous burden had been liftedfrom him. “But the doc’s going to have to go back to the drawing board. Lookslike his thought-controlled transponder is a long way from being perfected.

  “You needn’t sound so damned smug about it,” Darkness saidirritably.

  Forrester felt enormously relieved. “You mean there’s nochance of his experiencing discorporation

  “None whatsoever.” Darkness replied. “There was very littlechance of that to begin with. I was reasonably certain that I had the problemsolved, but it seems that the transponder itself is still unstable. It simplywon’t hold up. I can’t imagine why.” He grimaced. “It’s really quite annoying.”

  “So you mean to say he’s going to be the same way that hewas before?” asked Forester, his hopes rising. “Completely normal?”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” said Darkness with a sigh of exasperation. “Giventhe rate of decay. I would say within a week or two, at most. Perhaps only in amatter of days. Then he can once more revel in being the same, depressingly ordinaryclod he always was.”

  “Thanks,” said Lucas wryly.

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “That brings up my next question,” said Forrester. “With theexception of the people in this room, nobody knows that Priest is still alive.Or perhaps I should say, alive again. That presents us with a problem. Ishould have informed Director General Vargas of what you’ve done, only I’vedone as you asked and I haven’t. At least, not yet. I’m not at all sure I’vedone the right thing in not telling him at once, but I was more concerned aboutPriest’s health and emotional well-being. Now that that issue seems to havebeen settled, there are a few things I need to know. Is there any reason why Ishouldn’t tell Director Vargas about what’s happened?”

  “I suppose not.” Darkness said. “although I really can’t seewhat purpose that would serve. They’d only bury you in official inquiries. Itwould cause them to start running about like chickens with their heads cut off,flying to figure out if there’s been a temporal disruption.”

  “Has there been a temporal disruption?”

  “I wouldn’t concern myself with that.”

  “Perhaps you wouldn’t. but I’m afraid I have to.”Forrester replied.

  “The world isn’t going to end merely because Priest issitting there, grinning like a Cheshire cat over the fact that my transponderis decaying,” Darkness said.

  “How can you know that for certain?” Forrester asked.

  “Take my word for it,” said Darkness.

  “I’d like to. Robert, but how can you know that for sure?”Forester persisted. “Unless, of course, you’re from the future?”

  The others stared at him.

  “You are, aren’t you?” Forester said quietly.

  Darkness regarded him with a steady gaze. “Very good. Moses.Very good, indeed. I see I’ve underestimated you.”

  “Jesus Christ.” said Finn Delaney. “Now it all suddenlymakes sense!”

  “When did you first suspect’?” asked Darkness.

  “I’m not sure when the idea first occurred to me,” said Forrester.“I’m just amazed that it didn’t occur,to me sooner. I’ve been doing a lot ofdigging, trying to cheek you out. I didn’t get very far. Everything about yourbackground is classified. Even I can’t get to it. It’s restricted to anaccess code that no one seems to know.”

  “I know you couldn’t have cracked the code,” said Darkness.

  “No. I wasn’t able to,” Forrester admitted. “But I have afeeling that if I had, I would have discovered that the records had somehowbeen erased. Or something like that, right? There would have been some sort ofmalfunction that would have rendered them inaccessible, because past a certainpoint, your background would either be a forgery or it would simply stop. So,frustrated in that endeavor, I decided to do the next best thing. Find out whohad the clearance to access your file.”

  “Only you could not discover that, either,” said Darkness.smiling.

  “No. I couldn’t. However. I’m not the sort of man to give upon a problem. So I began to trace the authorization for the file’s beingclassified.”

  “And you couldn’t find it.” Darkness said.

  “That’s right.” said Forrester. “I couldn’t find it. Only Ishould have been able to find it. You see. that’s the trouble with coveringyour tracks. Robert. Sooner or later, it becomes obvious that they werecovered. And that’s when I knew. You were worried that someone might getcurious, find the authorization order, and clock back to the date that it wasissued to investigate. So you buried the order. If there even was an order tobegin with. The whole thing was a sham. But I wanted to be absolutely certain.so I put a research team from Archives Section on the project and had them doit the hard way. They clocked back as far as we could trace you and starteddigging. And the trail just ran out. Past a certain point, you simply ceased toexist. That’s why none of your peers in the scientific community can understandyour work. It’s why you’ve always been so far ahead of them. Because you were,quite literally, ahead of them. Years ahead.” He paused. “How many years,Robert?”

  “As you people in Temporal Intelligence are so fond of saying,”Darkness replied laconically, “you have no need to know.”

  “I think I do,” said Forrester. I think we all do.”

  “What you think is really of no consequence.” Darkness replied.It is what you do that matters. And as you should know, better than anyoneelse, what you do must not be affected by your knowledge of what will be done.”

  “Just tell me one thing. Robert. Are you a temporal agentfrom the future or are you doing whatever it is you’re doing on your own?”

  “I think I’ve answered enough questions.” Darkness said. “Youalready know a great deal more than you should.”

  ‘The one thing I don’t understand is, why the warp grenade?”asked Forrester. “You had to know what it would do. Didn’t you? So why?”

  “There is a reason for everything I’ve done. Moses,”Darkness said. “And everything that I will do. At the proper time. That isreally all that I can tell you.”

  “God damn it. Robert, don’t you-”

  Suddenly he simply wasn’t there anymore.

  “Jesus Christ.” said Steiger.

  “It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it?’ Delaney said. “We thinkof ourselves as being the ones who go back into the past to adjust things andhere we are, being adjusted ourselves. Sort of like the big fish eating thesmall fish eating the smaller fish.”

  “It does explain a lot.” said Andre. “What do you think happenedwhere he came from? You think it all finally fell apart and now he’s trying tofix it?”

  “We have, unfortunately, no way of knowing.” Forester said. “And,though I don’t like it. we may well be better off not knowing. However, we doknow at least one thing. What we’re doing, or what we will do, is significantenough from the standpoint of the future for Darkness to have taken as muchtime as he has to involve himself with us.”

  ‘“Swell.” said Lucas. “So not only is the past messed up,but something’s screwed up in the future. too. It figures. I knew it had to hitthe fan one of these days. Well, at least there’s a bright side to all of this.With that particle gizmo of his going on the fritz, pretty soon I won’t have toguard my thoughts so carefully. No more dreaming of ancient Rome and waking upthere.”

  ‘“Funny you should say that.” said Forester.

  2

  “We’ve received a report of what appears to be a temporalanomaly from one of our L.T.O.’s,” said Forrester.

  “That sounds serious,” said Steiger. “L.T.O.’s don’tgenerally jump to conclusions.”

  “No, they don’t.” said Forrester. “The man’s name isTravers. Capt. Jonathan Travers. I’ve had his file pulled. He’s one of our bestpeople. He’s assigned to Julius Caesar. “

  Lucas exhaled heavily and shook his head. “A temporal anoma
lyinvolving Caesar could pose all sorts of problems. He didn’t exactly lead anuneventful life. When did Travers make his report?”

  “This morning. He clocked in with it personally. leaving Caesar’scamp on the night before he crossed the Rubicon and started the civil war in Rome.”Forrester said. “He clocked back out so he’d arrive just after he left, so hewas only gone from Minus Time for a matter of minutes. Therefore, the risk wasminimal and he felt justified in taking it. Under the circumstances. I’minclined to agree. At first, he wasn’t sure that what he had on his hands wasan anomaly. Caesar, like other people of his time, was in the habit ofconsulting soothsayers and it seems that word had reached him of an oracle ofsome sort, a man named Lucan, who could see into the future. He had sent forthis oracle to give him a reading on the night before he crossed the Rubicon.There’s no historical record of any such event, but as we all know, that doesn’tnecessarily mean it didn’t happen. Still, Travers found it curious, since bothCaesar and his classical biographers had mentioned most of the occasions whenhe had received significant prophecies or omens. To receive a prophecy on thenight of one of the most important events in his life would certainly seemsignificant. yet it was possible that history might have overlooked it.

  “In any event,” Forrester continued, “Travers didn’t thinkmuch of it at first He thought it might make for an interesting incident in hisbook. He plans to write a biography of Caesar when he returns to Plus Time. Hemanaged to be present during the reading. which turned out to be ratherunusual, to say the least. The oracle told Caesar that he would be successfulin his civil war, that his fame would live for generations. and that he wouldfall in love with a beautiful young queen. an apparent reference to Cleopatra.”

  “Well, with all due respect. sir.” said Delaney. “thatsounds more like a generalized bit of fortune-telling than an anomaly. None ofthose so-called predictions would seem particularly farfetched for a Romangeneral with Caesar’s reputation. Roman military governors often becameinvolved with royalty. There were more kings and queens back then than youcould shake a stick at. And flattering a general by promising him victory andfame would only be good business sense for an enterprising soothsayer.”

  “This soothsayer also told Caesar the exact date when hewould be assassinated and to beware of men named Cassius. Brutus, Cimber, andCasca.”

  “oh.” said Delaney.

  “Yeah, oh. What’s more, he told Caesar there was a chancethat he could change his fate if he paid attention to the omens, and one inparticular, which he cited rather cryptically. ‘That which was concealed shallstand revealed.’ After the oracle went out the gates of Caesar’s camp, Traverstried to follow him, only he had mysteriously disappeared.”

  “This was at night, wasn’t it?” said Steiger. “Travers mighthave simply lost him in the darkness.”

  “The moon was out,” said Forrester. “And the terrain aroundthe camp was an unbroken slope that stretched down to a meadow, affording anunobstructed view for several miles.

  “He might have gone around the camp. hugging the wall.”

  “Or he might have clocked out.” said Andre. “I think Traverswas right. It definitely sounds like a potential disruption. We can’t afford tooverlook it.

  “That which was concealed shall stand revealed.’” saidLucas, frowning. “What does that mean?”

  “I have no idea.” said Forester.-Travers is going to checkback in as soon as something breaks. In the meantime. I want you all to reportfor mission programming and stand by to clock out on a moment’s notice.”

  “That could pose a small problem. sir,” asked Priest. “Officially,I’m still dead. If I report for mission programming, I’m liable give them onehell of a shock in Archives.”

  “Steiger can take care of that.” said Forester. “The T.I.A.’salways maintained its own programming facility for covert field agents. He cangive you the coordinates and you can clock right in from here. I’ll have thefacility cleared. then Steiger can access the data from Archives and run thedownload himself.”

  “What about what Darkness said?” Steiger asked.

  “That stays in this room.” said Forrester. “I don’t knowwhat the hell he’s up to, but there’s little point in trying to second-guesshim. You can’t effect a temporal adjustment while you’re worrying aboutwhatever he might do. Or whether you’re doing the right thing from thestandpoint of the future. You can’t try to second-guess yourselves. either. It’llonly interfere with your mission. Just go in and do what you have to do. Forgetabout Darkness. There’s not really anything that we can do about him. anyway.-

  “I’ll need a warp disc,” Lucas said. “With my transponder decaying.I don’t want to take a chance on not being able to clock out if I have to.”

  “Good point,” said Forrester. I’ll see that you get one.”

  “I wish we’d asked Darkness one more question.” saidSteiger.

  “What’s that?”

  “What happens if that decaying transponder starts malfunctioningand causes Priest to translocate without being able to control it?”

  Priest glanced at him. “Oh. thanks a lot. Now youbring that up!”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t go out on this one.” Steiger said.

  “Forget it,” Lucas said firmly. “I need a mission. I’ve beengoing stir crazy cooped up in here. Besides. Darkness didn’t say anything aboutthe transponder’s chronocircuitry running out of control. he just said it wasdecaying.”

  “As I recall, he also thought he had all the bugs ironed outof it in the first place,” Steiger said.

  “Look, if it’s going to happen, it’ll happen whether I’mhere or on the mission,” Lucas replied. “Staying behind won’t change a thing.”

  “Maybe not, but it would keep you from jeopardizing the missionby clocking out suddenly at the wrong moment.”

  “I’m afraid he’s got a point, Lucas.” Forrester said.

  Priest made a tight-lipped grimace. “All right, I’ll concedethat, but we still don’t know it’s going to happen. I think Darkness would’vesaid something if there was a chance of that.”

  “But the point is that we still don’t know for sure.” saidSteiger. “It means taking a risk.”

  “Like you’ve never taken risks?” Lucas countered.

  “Give me a break. Creed. Everything we do entails risk. Andyou’ve certainly taken more than your share.” He turned to Forester. “Sir. ifyou order me to stay behind on this one. I’ll understand, but I’m asking younot to do that. I need this assignment. I’ll start climbing the walls if I haveto stay cooped up in here much longer.”

  Forrester glanced at the others. “You’re the ones that’ll beout there,” he said. “It’s your call.”

  “Lucas and I have taken our share of risks before.” Delaneysaid. “I’d rather go out with him than without him. I vote yes.”

  Andre looked at Lucas and smiled. “So do I.”

  Steiger shrugged. “Well, it looks like I’m outvoted.”

  “If it’s a problem for you. Creed, you can request to be relieved,without prejudice.” said Forrester. “I don’t want you going out on this missionif you haven’t got complete confidence in every member of the team.”

  Steiger glanced at Lucas. “Priest, you understand, it’snothing personal.”

  “I understand.” said Lucas. suppose if our positions were reversed,I might feel exactly the same way.”

  “But you’re still not going to withdraw?” said Steiger.

  “No.”

  “Well, in that case, I’d like to be relieved.”

  For a moment, there was an uncomfortable silence.

  “Very well,” said Forrester, breaking the tension. “Youthree report for mission programming in half an hour. Steiger, you want to setup that download for Priest?”

  Steiger nodded. “I’ll get right on it.” He started to walkout with Forrester and paused at the door, looking back. “Priest?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Look.. this isn’t personal. N
o offense, huh?”

  “None taken.”

  Steiger nodded and turned to follow Forrester out the door.The old man was waiting for him at the lift tube

  “This isn’t like you, Creed.” he said. “You’ve taken biggerrisks before and you’ve never yet turned down a mission.”

  “That’s right, sir. And I’m not about to start now. Withyour permission. I’d like to go along on this one, only undercover.”

  Forrester sighed and nodded. “Somehow I had a feeling that’swhat was on your mind.”

  “It’s what I do best. sir.” Steiger said. “Those three havebeen working together for a long time. I’ve seen how they function in thefield. They trust each other. Each of them has an instinct for how the othersthink. I’m the odd man out. I just don’t fit in. I’ve always worked best on myown. It’s what 1 was trained for.”

  “You’re saying you want to go back on covert status?”

  “Yes, sir, I do. I think I’d have much more to contributethat way.” ‘“We’ve been over this before, Creed. My decision to shut down thecovert field section wasn’t arbitrary. you know.”

  ‘“Yes. sir, I realize that. I know you don’t approve of themethods we used in covert field section. And I know there were abuses, but thatstill-”

  “Abuses is putting it mildly,” Forrester interrupted. “Thecovert field section was nothing but a bunch of thrill-seeking cowboys whoplayed fast and loose with regulations and had too much contact with theUnderground. Part of our job is to apprehend those people. Steiger, notemploy them as mission support. Or as functionaries in the Network.”

  “I understand that, sir, but it was a matter of priorities.Look, you know I was never involved with the Network. And the Underground isjust as concerned as we are about temporal disruption. A disruption threatensthem. too. They might be criminals from the purely legal standpoint, but they’renot the real danger and they never have been. So when it came to a choicebetween busting some members of the Underground or enlisting them as sub rosaoperatives, or trading information with them, okay, we didn’t worry about theline points of the law. There was a lot more than that at stake. I know you don’tthink there’s a place for the way we used to do things. sir, but with all due respect,I think you’re wrong.”