The Cleopatra Crisis

1

TAC-HO. Pendleton Base, California, June 13, A.D. 2627

The penthouse of the headquarters building of the TemporalArmy Command had originally been the personal quarters of the Pendleton Basecommander, but since General Moses Forrester had assumed that post, as well asthe directorship of the Temporal Intelligence Agency, it was hardly ever usedForrester. a bull of a man, completely bald with a face like a pugnaciousbulldog and a powerful, bodybuilder’s physique that belied his advanced age,lived on the floor immediately beneath it. where his offices were located. Theywere the same quarters he had resided in when he was the commander of the eliteFirst Division, better known as the Time Commandos.

Forrester had spent his entire life in the service, whichhad entailed, as life in the service always had, a great deal of moving around.Now that he had reached a point in his career where he didn’t have to move, hebloody well wasn’t going to. not even if it was just upstairs. He had grownaccustomed to his quarters. and even if they were not as spacious and luxuriousas the penthouse. they suited his needs. He merely had to step outside his doorto reach his suite of offices, the heart of TAC-HQ), and he had his secret roomthere, concealed behind a wall, a small private sanctum that only a few peopleknew about where he kept his prized and highly unauthorized mementos of thepast. Occasionally. he had used the penthouse to hold parties or house visitingdignitaries, but it was now a highly restricted area.

Aside from Forrester himself, only three people were authorizedaccess to it. Those three were Capt. Finn Delaney, Lt Andre Cross. and Col.Creed Steiger of the Temporal Intelligence Agency. And one other man, who hadno official authorization, because he did not need one. Dr. Robert Darkness,the man who was faster than light.

The sole tenant of the penthouse was the reason for the maximumsecurity. He was Col. Lucas Priest, whose name was listed on the Wall of Honorin the lobby of the building. along with the names of all the other members ofthe First Division. now merged with Temporal Intelligence, who had been killedin action in Minus Time. Lucas Priest was, with the possible exceptions of Lazarusand Christ. the only man in history to have come back from the dead.

He had died saving the life of Winston Churchill: but theenigmatic Dr. Darkness had interceded with his fate. The story was as complexas it was baffling. It pivoted around the mysterious, brilliant, and eccentricscientist and the nature of what he had become.

Darkness had once been an obscure research scientist workingin the field of temporal physics. In the course of his work, which was centeredon temporal translocation, he had invented the most devastating weapon everdevised by man-the warp grenade, a combination nuclear device and time machine.It was small enough to be carried in one hand and its built-in chronocircuitryallowed for pinpoint adjustment of its nuclear explosion. It could be “fine-tuned”to use all or any part of the tremendous energy that was released. The surplusenergy was then clocked through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. a-wormhole in thefabric of space and time, to explode harmlessly in the farthest reaches of thecosmos. Or so it was believed.

No one knew exactly what had happened. The prevailing theorywas that such incredible amounts of energy clocked through Einstein-RosenBridges, perhaps combined with the strain already placed upon the timestream bythe actions of the Time Wars. had somehow shifted the chronophysical alignmentof the universe. The result was that a parallel timeline, a mirror-imageuniverse, had been brought into congruence with our own. Each time a warpgrenade was detonated, the parallel universe was nuked. Space colonies thatthey had established were utterly destroyed, with catastrophic loss of life.And now the two parallel timelines were at war.

It was a “limited-war, but it was still the most dangerouswar humanity had ever fought. Both sides refrained from the use of strategicweapons. because each of their time streams had become perilously unstable.Both timelines were “rippling, — intertwining like a double helix. The result wasthe “confluence phenomenon.” At various points in space and time, the twotimelines intersected and the parallel universes met. At those points, it waspossible to cross over from one universe into the other. The resultingpotential for the disruption of either timestream was staggering.

People simply disappeared. A man could be walking down thestreet. turn a corner, and suddenly find himself in another universe. And theseconfluence points did not necessarily correspond in space and time. That sameman might turn a corner and suddenly find himself not only in another universe,but in another country, in a different time period. If he kept his head abouthim and was able to retrace his steps exactly. there was a chance he could getback to his own time and universe, assuming he was lucky. Confluence pointswere invisible. Their focal points varied in size and they were incrediblyunstable. There was no telling how long they would last. The time streams wouldripple and a confluence point would come into existence, a ‘window” intoanother time and another universe. The ripple effect would move on and theconfluence point would disappear. It could last for hours. days. weeks, or onlyseconds. It could lead to a point in the middle of an ocean or a desert in theother universe, or even to deep space. in which case death was instantaneousand horrible.

In the face of such a threat, international conflicts hadbecome utterly meaningless. The Time Wars as they had once been fought hadceased, escalating into a far more frightening conflict. Each universe was nowthreatened by the very existence of the other. Each was now faced with threeprime necessities.

The first was to map as many confluence points as possible.If a confluence point could be located, it could be used to cross over from oneuniverse into another, to stage temporal disruptions in the opposite timeline.Ranger Pathfinder units whose job was to map confluences and the territory onthe other side had the most hazardous duty in the entire Temporal Corps. Theyhad no idea what they might find on the other end of the confluence and theycould never be sure that they would be able to get back. If the scouts did comeback, with detailed accounts of what they had encountered in the paralleluniverse. further action could be contemplated. If they did not return, theworst was assumed and no one else was sent through that confluence point. Ineither case, the confluence was secured for its duration, to make sure no oneblundered into it and that no one or nothing came through from the other side.In some cases, it was to no avail. Occasionally, something could come throughthat nobody could stop, as had happened at Tanguska. in Siberia. where a meteorcame through a confluence point and caused incredible destruction.

The second imperative both universes were confronted withwas the Time War that they waged between themselves. Each attempted to locatesafe confluence points that the other had not yet managed to discover, so they couldsend agents through to disrupt the continuity of the opposing timeline.

Apparently, temporal physicists in the parallel universe believedthat a temporal disruption of a magnitude sufficient to bring about atimestream split in the opposing universe would work to overwhelm theconfluence effect and separate the two timelines once and for all.Consequently, they were sending across agents and temporal strike teams fromtheir Special Operations Group to gather intelligence and stage temporaldisruptions in an attempt to split the timestream. There was a chance thattheir thinking was scientifically sound, however, temporal physics-or Zenphysics, as it was often called-was a nebulous and elusive area of science. Itwas where scientific logic merged with metaphysics. Temporal relativity wasnever absolute. There was also a chance that a timestream split in eitheruniverse, aside from the potentially devastating consequences in the universein which it would occur, could result in the creation of yet another timelinethat would compound the confluence effect and make it even worse, with threetimelines intersecting. Or, worse still, it could set off a chain reaction,with the creation of another timeline disrupting the temporal continuity of theother two, creating further timestream splits and the creation of still moretimelines. with no end in sight. It could end in ultimate entropy. No one knewfor sure. Yet both universes continued to wage their Time Wars, on theprinciple that the more the opposing universe was occupied in trying tocompensate for disruptions in its own timestream, the less time, energy, andmanpower it could expend in trying to disrupt the timestream of the other.

The third problem faced by each universe was safeguardingthe temporal continuity of their respective timelines. The confluencephenomenon dramatically increased the chances of temporal disruption. It wasnecessary to clock as many Observers as possible into the past. so that historycould be preserved. In order to facilitate this seemingly impossible task. themajority of the temporal forces of all nations had been converted to TemporalObserver status, with the best and brightest assigned as L.T.O.’s, to keepwatch on figures of historical significance. C.T.O.’s. or Chief TemporalObservers, functioned as field commanders. supervising the T.O. units in theirrespective sectors. Any sign of a disruption was immediately reported toTAC-HQ. so that a team of temporal Intelligence agents could be dispatched toMinus Time to deal with it. Yet, this task was akin to bailing a rapidlysinking rowboat with a thimble. No matter how many Observers were dispatchedinto the past-and thousands upon thousands were-they could not possibly coverall of human history. And the increased presence of people from the future inthe past served by itself to increase the odds of temporal disruption.

Waging the war with strategic weapons would have been toodangerous. for there was no way of telling if a nuke launched at the opposinguniverse would actually explode there, or if it might become caught in aconfluence and cause untold destruction, and possibly a timestream split, inthe universe that had launched it in the first place. So the war was foughtthrough the means of historical disruption. But there were more than just twosides.

The conflict was complicated further by the existence of the‘temporal Underground. a loosely organized confederation of deserters from thefuture who had fled into the past in order to escape the madness. No one wasquite certain what to do about them. Technically. they were criminals,fugitives. It was up to the Temporal Intelligence Agency to track them down andapprehend them, but the particularly the covert field section. had neverseriously considered them a priority. In fact, many of the old covert fieldagents had maintained contacts among the members of the Underground andsometimes called upon them for assistance in their missions. When Forrester hadassumed the directorship of the agency, he had put a stop to such practices. aswell as to the corruption in the T.I.A. he had discovered that many of thecovert field agents, as well as their section chiefs, had been running an extensivetrans-temporal black market operation to enrich themselves. The corruption wentall the way up to the previous director.

Their immensely profitable and highly illegal sideline was referredto as-the Network’ and it involved such things as using time travel tomanipulate the stock and commodities markets, smuggle rare coins from the pastto sell in future time periods, practice piracy on the Spanish Main and sellthe booty in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Network had hijacked gold andworks of an from the Nazis. They were involved in the East India Company. Theyused time travel to scam betting operations, and the list went on and on andon. They were the ultimate soldiers of fortune. less interested in their dutiesas temporal agents than in their

Crosstime financial ventures. Forrester had tried to put astop to their dangerous and illegal activities, but he had not been entirelysuccessful. He had disbanded the covert field section and put every agent hecould get his hands on, from the lowliest records clerk to section chiefs andsenior administrators, through a scanning procedure in an effort to ferret outthe ones who were involved in the Network. However, word got out and many ofthem simply disappeared, going underground in time and becoming a trans-temporal.Mafia, the ultimate organized crime family. They had put a price on Forrester’shead. There had already been several attempts on his life. He had no doubtthere would be more.

And what of the man who had started it all? As he walkeddown the corridor from his quarters to the lift tubes. Forrester thought thatperhaps it was unfair to blame it all on Robert Darkness. Darkness had notstarted the Time Wars. The Time Wars had come about when nations had decided touse time travel to settle their conflicts by having their troops do battle inthe past, in order to protect the present from the ravages of war. There was noreal evidence to support that it was the invention of the warp grenade. and notthe actions of the Time Wars, that had brought about the confluence phenomenon.Yet. Darkness himself seemed to accept responsibility for what had come about.

He was not on Earth when the confluence phenomenon came intobeing. he had disappeared mysteriously and no one had any idea what had becomeof him. Forrester later learned that Darkness had established a research laboratoryon some far-off, desolate planet and had gone there to perfect his process oftachyon conversion. Darkness had discovered a way to focus a tachyon beam andsend it through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, which amounted to instantaneoustransmission. No time lag whatsoever. Going from Point A to Point B withouthaving to cover the distance in between. His next step was to start working ona process whereby the human body could become converted into tachyons, whichwould depart at six hundred times the speed of light along the direction of thetachyon beam, through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. His main concern had been thattachyon conversion might violate the Law of Uncertainty. The beam was focusedby means of gravitational lenses, but there was no receiver, so in order toinsure that what would materialize at the other end would not be some kind of ablob, he had incorporated a timing mechanism into the conversion process. whichwould reassemble him in the proper order, at the proper time and place, basedon the temporal coordinates of transition. What he was seeking was the ultimateform of transportation, something that would surpass even the chronoplatedevised by Dr. Mensinger.

Unfortunately, when Darkness tried the process on himself.he had discovered that it was ultimately restrained by a little known law ofphysics called the Law of Baryon Conservation. When he had arrived at his pointof destination, he discovered that he could not move from the spot on which hestood. Something had happened to his subatomic structure. He took on theappearance of a hologram. He had become a ghost with substance. His body hadbeen permanently “tachyonized.” He had become faster than the speed of light.He could move from place to place. traveling through time and space at will,but only by translocating or, as he called it. “taching.” He could not walk somuch as one step. He could appear to “walk.” after a fashion, but it was only aseries of incredibly rapid translocations, having the multiple-image effect ofhigh-speed photography.

Quite possibly, thought Forrester. the tachyonization hadhad an effect upon his mind as well, although with Darkness, it was difficultto tell. The man was incredibly brilliant, light-years ahead of all his peers(both figuratively and literally). They could not even begin to understand hiswork. His personality was, to say the least. idiosyncratic. He was a man ofimmense wealth, holding the controlling interest in Amalgamated Techtronics anda number of other large multinational corporations. he felt himself accountableto no one. What he had done with Lucas Priest was a perfect example.

Lucas should have died. thought Forrester, despite the factthat Col. Priest was his closest friend. He should have died and he should havestayed dead. What Darkness had done was inexcusable. Ever since he’d done it.Forrester had spent many sleepless nights. worrying about the possibleconsequences. As had Lucas Priest himself, on whom the strain was obvious.

It had happened in the year 1897, while Priest. Cross, and Delaneywere clocked out on a mission to Afghanistan, during the Pathan revolt againstthe British. A strike team of the S.O.G.. from the parallel universe, had comethrough a confluence in the Khyber Pass and was working to change the course ofhistory. Priest and Cross had been standing on a bluff with the British commandstaff, watching the fighting that was taking place below them, between theGhazis and the Bengal Lancers. A lone Ghazi sniper who had concealed himself inthe rocks had drawn a bead on the battalion surgeon, mistaking him for theBritish general. Priest had spotted the sniper and, without thinking about thepossible consequences of his interference, had shouted out a warning. Thesurgeon, his instincts honed by combat, had immediately dropped to the ground,but by doing so, he had left the young Winston Churchill, who was present as awar correspondent, directly in the line of fire. Churchill was too slow torespond and Priest. in his cover as a missionary. had not been carrying aweapon. He had done the only thing that he could do-he flung himself atChurchill. knocked him out of the way, and took the bullet meant for him. Or,more accurately, meant for the surgeon with whose destiny Priest had interfered.

Lucas was killed instantly. They had even buried him. ButDr. Darkness changed all that in a manner that Forester still could notcompletely comprehend. During a prior mission, Darkness had implanted each ofthe three commandos, as well as temporal agent Steiger, with a particle-leveltracer device of his own design. one that bonded itself to their molecularstructure. It allowed him to find them no matter where they were in space andtime. What Darkness had not revealed to them was the fact that these tracerdevices were also prototypes of a new invention he was trying to perfect-a newgeneration warp disc. The original warp disc, the one now issued to all temporalpersonnel. functioned on the same principle as the warp grenade and had supersededthe more cumbersome, obsolete chronoplate of Dr. Mensinger. The new modelDarkness had designed was not worn on the person, but was integrated on theparticle level, actually bonding itself with the individual. Moreover, it wasthought-controlled, an idea that still scared the hell out of Forester.

The prototypes had all malfunctioned. The tracer functionsworked perfectly, but the bonding process had damaged the temporaltransponders. rendering them useless-all except Priest’s. Rather than lose hisonly working prototype. Darkness had elected to bring Lucas Priest back fromthe dead.

How he had done it was a Zen physics puzzle. The leader ofthe S.O.G. strike team from the opposing timeline had been Priest’s twin fromthe parallel universe. A man whose personal history was apparently somewhatdifferent from the Priest that Forester knew, but who was identical to him inevery other respect, right down to his genetic code. After Priest had died.Finn Delaney had killed the “twin Priest.” Darkness had tached through time andtaken the body of the twin Priest, then tached back and, moving faster than thespeed of light, had substituted it for their Lucas Priest, snatching him out ofthe bullet’s path at the last nanosecond, pulling him into his tachyon fieldand taking him back to his headquarters on that unknown planet. There, he hadactivated the dormant, tachyon-based, thought-controlled transponder Priest hadbeen implanted with. And now Priest had returned, to see his own name listed onthe Wall of Honor, among those killed in action. There still remained thequestion-what had actually become of him? And what had he become’?”

Darkness had gone back into the past and changed somethingthat had already happened. Or had he? Had he actually altered the past or hadhis actions in fact restored the past to the way it had originally happened? Itseemed to Forrester, and to Priest as well, that there had to exist a point intime, somewhere. a moment in which Lucas Priest had actually died. Logic wouldseem to dictate that for Darkness to have gone back and saved him from death,he would have had to have died in the first place. otherwise there would havebeen no necessity for Darkness to do what he had done. However, when it came to‘Zen physics, logic frequently broke down.

After the mission was completed, an S amp; R team wasclocked back to retrieve Lucas Priest’s remains. But had Search amp; Retrievebrought back his body. or that of his twin? Even if the remains had not beencremated, how would it have been possible to tell, since both were identical,right down to their DNA? Had Priest actually died, or had the corpse of histwin taken the bullet? Had Darkness merely caused a temporary “skip” in thetime stream’s continuity, or had what he had done in saving Priest become atemporal disruption that could have unforeseen consequences further down thetimestream? Those questions plagued not only Forester, but Lucas Priest, aswell. And there were still more problems that Priest had to contend with,beyond the metaphysical riddle of his own existence.

By experimenting on himself. Darkness had created an instabilityin his own subatomic structure, an instability that seemed to be increasingwith the passage of time. Darkness believed that, eventually, his tachyonizedstate would decay into discorporation and he would depart at multiples of lightspeed in all directions of the universe. Forester shuddered at the thought ashe stepped into the lift tube and punched out the restricted code for the penthouse.Knowing that something like that would inevitably happen to you had to have aneffect upon your mind.

He stepped in front of the scanner and a beam of lightplayed on his right eye, reading his retinal pattern. Then the tube started toascend. Priest could be facing the same thing. Although the process he had beenexposed to via the particle-level implant in his body was different from thatwhich had tachyonized Darkness, it was based on similar principles. Priest hadno idea whether or not it would eventually do the same thing to him. Moreover,he had to contend with the problem of having been turned into a living timemachine. It had become necessary for him to learn an entirely new level ofmental discipline, because now any stray thought could launch him on a tripthrough time. It had already happened on a number of occasions. The thought-controlledtemporal transponder was unable to differentiate between when he was awake andwhen he was asleep. Consequently, a dream could launch him on a trip throughtime as well. As Darkness had typically understated it. the device still “had afew bugs” in it.

The trouble was, since the transponder had become permanentlybonded to Lucas, fused with his atomic structure, there was no way to removeit. Priest would simply “have to adapt.” as Darkness had put it. Forresterwould have dearly loved to take a swing at Darkness and lay the bastard out,then throw his ass in jail, but how could you hit someone who was faster thanthe speed of light, much less hope to incarcerate him?

The tube arrived at the penthouse floor and revolved to letForrester out. Priest had called him the moment Darkness arrived. He “droppedin” from time to time to check on the progress of his living prototype.Forrester had asked Priest to prevail on Darkness to stay long enough to talkto him. but he had no idea if the man would still be there. Darkness did notwait on generals, or anybody else, for that matter. He could already have left,thought Forester, and arrived back where he had started from before he haddeparted.

However, when he entered the penthouse. he saw that Darknesswas still there. The scientist was standing behind the bar. helping himself toForrester’s twelve-year-old Scotch. Andre Cross was there, as well, along withFinn Delaney and Creed Steiger.

Delaney, a brawny, powerfully built man with a face like anoveraged delinquent’s, looked, as usual, as if he’d slept in his black basefatigues. His dark red hair was uncombed, his heard scruffy, and his bootsunshined. a stark contrast to Steiger, who always looked like a smartlyturned-out member of a S.W.A.T. team. Col. Steiger’s hair was dusty blond, hewas clean-shaven and his hooked nose and cruel mouth gave him a predatory look.Andre Cross sat beside Priest. Her long, ash-blond hair fell to her shouldersand her fatigues were neatly pressed. Her movements denoted a finely honed,athletic muscular control. Her sharp features were striking and attractive.Sitting next to her. Priest looked, as always, like a model military officer.Slim, dark-haired, and handsome, he would have made a perfect model for arecruiting poster. The very vision of an officer and a gentleman.

They had all been trying to spend as much time with Priestas possible. Priest needed the support of his friends just now. he was under agreat deal of strain. Forrester visited as often as he could, but the duties ofcommand left him with little spare time.

They all got to their feet as he entered.

“As you were.” he said.

Darkness glanced up at him from behind the bar. “You wantedto see me, Moses?”

He was tall and slender, a gaunt-looking man, with dark, unrulyhair, deep-set eyes. a sharp, prominent nose, and a neatly trimmed moustache.He was wearing a Norfolk tweed shooting jacket in dark brown herringbone, withrust-colored suede leather elbow patches and a matching, quilted shooter’s padon the right shoulder. He had on a dark brown vest with a gold watch chain, awhite Oxford shirt and maroon silk paisley ascot, dark brown tropical woolslacks and light brown calfskin jodphurs. He looked like the ghost of anEnglish country gentleman. Forrester could see the back of the bar rightthrough him.

“I have a few questions and I’d like some straight answers,Robert, if you don’t mind,” Forester said.

Everybody else called him “Doc” or “Doctor,” but Foresterand Darkness were on a first name basis, based upon a curious blend of mutualrespect and cordial dislike.

“Ask.” said Darkness, suddenly appearing about two feet infront of Forrester, holding a glass of whiskey. Instinctively, Forrester backedoff a step and grimaced, annoyed with himself for doing so. Darkness smiled.

“I’ll never get used to the way you pop around all over thedamn place.” Forester grumbled.

“You said you had some questions,” Darkness said. His voicesounded cultured. vaguely Continental. There was nothing about the way he spokethat was overtly arrogant or condescending, but that effect came across justthe same. He was, thought Forester, an irritating bastard.

“What’s the long-term prognosis on Priest’s condition?”

“We were just discussing that.” said Lucas.

“Yes,” said Darkness. “Unfortunately, it would appear thatthe long-term prognosis is not very favorable. There’s been a dramaticallymeasurable decay. It’s apparently irreversible.”

Forester glanced at Priest with alarm. “You mean-”

“He means his particle gizmo,” Lucas said. “not me.”

“Particle gizmo, indeed!” said Darkness, rolling his eyes.

“Well, whatever you want to call the damn thing,” Lucassaid. “It seems the good doctor hasn’t quite got it figured out yet. It’sfailing. Looks like it’s eventually going to stop working altogether.” Hegrinned. “Ain’t that a damn shame?”

“What does that mean in terms of his health?” askedForrester.

“His health?” said Darkness. “His health is excellent andwill undoubtedly continue to remain so. unless he manages to get himself in theway of another bullet. I cannot be held responsible for his propensity forfoolish heroics.”

“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.