“If he sends for me. I’ll have to,” she said.
“No. It’s too risky.”
“It would be too risky if I didn’t go.” she said. “It would warn him that something was wrong. I have to go on pretending. Scott. For your sake as well as mine.”
“What if he finds out you’ve betrayed him?”
He won’t find out.” she said. “Nobody knows but you and your three friends. And he would never suspect that I could even think of turning against him. After all.” she added, with a grimace, “he’s the Master.”
“He isn’t your master, Jen. Not anymore.”
“I could kill him myself.” she said. vehemently. “Not only because of what he wants to do to you, but because of what he’s done to me. All those years. all my life. I’ve believed that I was something less than human. I’ve believed that ever since I was a little girl, because that’s what I was taught. I’d stand before the mirror and stare atmy reflection, trying to see how I was different, how I was inferior..”
“You weren’t born the same way other people are born.” said Scott, “but that’s the only difference. That and the fact that Drakov had poisoned your mind. I know you’re in the grip of powerful, confusing feelings right now, Jen, but you’ve got to try not to dwell on them. When this is over, I’ll take you back with me and you’ll get some help from doctors who can help you sort out those feelings. They’ll help you to overcome all the damage Drakov has done to you. It will take some time. Jen but you’ll be all right. I promise.”
“And you’ll be with me? We can be together?”
Scott felt a tightening in his stomach. “Yes, we can be together.’
“I feel afraid. Take me out of here. Scoot. I want to be with you now. I need you to hold me. Just you and me, alone, together. the way it’s going to be.”
Across the room, O’Fallon watched over his cards as Scott and Jenny headed for the door.
“There goes the Kid.” he said. “Another minute or two and we’ll have one less temporal agent to worry about?
“So there you have it,” said Delaney. “We seem to be stuck right smack in the middle of a giant confluence point and it looks like there’s no telling which damn universe were in. You seem to have been primarily in this one, which is theirs… I think, or maybe we’re back in ours again. Anyway, it looks like I’ve been crossing over from one to the other. Don’t ask me how. I don’t know if there are specific areas in town where you can cross over if you happen to be in the right place at the right time or if one timeline son of winks out while the other one blinks in. Theoretically, since none of us happen to belong in either time sector, we’re getting tossed around like corks on the ocean.”
“Jesus. That should explain a lot of things.” said Lucas. “Unfortunately. it raises more questions than it answers. How do we happen to know which universe we’re in at any given time? And how do we know which timeline it is we’re supposed to act in? Are the Network and the S.O.G. caught up in this, the same way as we are, or are we the only ones subject to this peculiar phenomenon for some reason? And. if we’re in the wrong timeline when whatever is supposed to happen happens, how do we know we can get back?”
“There are two more questions we have to consider.’ Andre added. “One, how did Drakov manage to learn about everything that’s going on and, two, how do we know that we can trust Jenny Reilly? She’s still one of his hominoids, after all.”
“She seems on the level.” said Delaney. “At least, Scott believes her. And I believe Scott.”
“Scott is also infatuated with her.” Andre pointed out.
“I think it’s much more than just infatuation,” Finn replied. “He made me promise that we’d take Jenny back with us and get her therapy for the damage Drakov has done to her. He said it was his last request, in case he didn’t make it out of this, He said he… he had a feeling that he wouldn’t. And he wanted me to tell you that he understood.”
Lucas exhaled heavily. “God, what a mess “
“Yeah “ Delaney agreed. “But even if we’re not going to trust Jenny-and I’m entirely convinced we should-why would Drakov want to warn us about everything that’s going on back here? Why warn us of his presence? I can see no reason for it. Except that Jenny has actually betrayed him for Scott’s sake.”
“Well, either way, it makes no difference,” Lucas replied. “We got us a whole new ballgame. The only advantage we have, assuming Jenny’s on the level, is that Drakov doesn’t know she’s come over to our side. But there’s no way of knowing how long we’ll have that advantage, so we’re going to have to move fast.”
“Take Drakov first; said Andre.
“We’ll have to. And we’re going to have to do it right now.”
“What about Scott’?” asked Finn.
Lucas shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. All we can do at this point is play it by ear and hope for the best. But we’ll have to hit Drakov fast and hit him hard. Take him alive, if possible. Did Jenny tell
Scott how many people he’s got with him?’
“Scott said she saw at least four at that baseops he’s got in London, on the other side of the chronoplate in the opium den. He’s got Becky, over at the saloon, and some guy named Indian Charlie. Neither Scott nor I have seen him. That’s all we know about. There could be others. Plus he’s got an undetermined number of the Chinese residents of Hop Town that he can call upon. It seems he’s got them thinking he’s some kind of sorcerer. They’re all afraid of him, but whether or not they’ll actually fight for him is anybody’s guess.”
“Considering the risk involved, we’d better call for backup,” Andre said.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lucas replied, and I’m not sure if we should. The more people from the future we introduce into this time sector, the greater the odds of increasing the instability that’s already present here. If we bring in reinforcements, it may force Stone’s hand and we would wind up fighting a pitched battle in the streets of Tombstone, with no one being certain which timeline they’re fighting in. For all we know, that’s exactly what Darkness doesn’t want to happen. Damn it, if only he’d told us more!”
“Only what happens if we go after Drakov by ourselves and we don’t make it?” asked Andre. “Who’s going to stop the S.O.G. and the Network? Who’ll be around to send up the balloon?”
“There’s still Neilson,” said Delaney.
“No good.” said Lucas. “I don’t want to count on him. For one thing, he’s gotten too mixed-up in the scenario. For another, he’s too vulnerable. We’ll need somebody else. We’ll have to bring in someone who can take charge immediately and call in the strike if anything goes wrong and we don’t make it.”
“Cooper?” Andre said.
Lucas nodded. “Yeah, Cooper. We need somebody who won’t get nervous and jump the gun, but who can hit and run with maximum effectiveness if need be. Cooper would be perfect. Under any other circumstances, he’d be the one we’d pick and we’re just going to have to go on our best instincts. We’ve got to treat this as if it were any other mission. We can’t afford to question our decisions and wonder if we shouldn’t be doing something different than what we ordinarily would have done, because of Darkness. He told us that whatever’s going to happen, we’ll be in a position to affect it, so I’ve got to assume were going to live at least that long.
“Well, that’s a cheery thought.” Delaney said.
“We’ve got to consider all the possibilities,” Lucas continued “The key point may come when we make our move against Drakov. Or it may come before that, in the next five or ten minutes, for all we know. Or it may come afterwards, involving either the Network or the S.O.G. or maybe even both. It may come when Cooper brings his troops in. There’s no way we can know, but we do know that we’re going be there when it happens. When it does. Darkness is going to clock in and give us the word and well have to act immediately. So I want to know right now if anybody has any problems with that.”
“I take it you don’t.” Delaney said.
“Yeah. I do.” Lucas replied, with a nod, “but I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to do whatever he says without asking any questions. It’s too great a risk not to. He’s never let us down before. We’re just going to have to trust him.”