However, if he timed things correctly, and was lucky, he stood a fair chance of managing tofight his way quickly to the space beneath that copse of cedar trees just as the air began toshimmer and the window appeared. Yet it was quite probable that his body would suffer too muchcombat damage to recover itself.
But that was of little importance.
The small wafer of silicon in his head was all that mattered; getting that through the windowand sent back to the future in one piece was the onlyconsideration. Even if the best he could do was poke his head into the portal as it activated,leaving his headless corpse behind, then that would satisfy his primary mission objective. Thegathered intelligence would be back with the field office, precisely where it needed tobe.
Bob stirred. It was nearly time for him to make his move.
But something in his small organic mind urged him to reassess his mission priorities, like asmall child’s nagging voice. A whimpering plea that travelled down thin internalwires.
Don’t leave him behind.
Bob’s head twitched uneasily as his AI attempted to deal with conflicting assertions.There was an authoritative, emotionless silicon reply to that child’s voice.
[Mission objective: gather and returninformation]
But… there was so little information to relay, so very little that they’d managedto gather. Bob could return to the field office — alive or dead — and they coulddownload from his head what he’d seen and heard. But the vast majority of this data wasjust smoke and gunfire; there was little they’d learned that could be of use. Not enoughto fix on a precise point of origin for this time contamination. More information was needed,much more. Specifically — knowledge of the events that had come before this invasion. Located here in 1956 he had a far better chance of uncoveringthe recent past than back in the altered world of 2001.
His head convulsed anxiously, his finger thumbed the safety catch with increasinglydistracted vigour.
[Mission parameters require reprioritization]
The unit was out of his comfort zone now. His AI could deal with detailed and speedysituation analysis, but decision-making was something far betterdealt with by a human mind. His on-board memory recalled Foster’s words from a few daysago.
‘… And that’s the reason the agency sends a humanoperative back as well as the support unit. A robot can’t make intuitive judgements,Liam… not nearly as well as a human can…’
The tiny nodule of wrinkled flesh in Bob’s skull — the undeveloped brain — understood this all too well. It understood help was needed while the hard-wired computer codecontinued to argue the case that mission orders were orders to be obeyed at all costs.
Must Find Him.
[Recommendation: update mission parameters]
Bob’s finger froze; his body remained rigid, utterly still. His internal computerfocused now on one thing alone, every micro-volt of computing power devoted to one end.
Re-ordering his mission priorities.
Making a decision.
[Mission updated: locate and rescue Operative LiamO’Connor]
CHAPTER 47
2001, New York
Foster and Maddy watched the countdown on the computer screen. ‘Thirtyseconds,’ he announced.
Maddy nodded; she could see the display too. ‘And what if they miss this window aswell?’
‘We’ll deal with that when — if — itcomes to it.’
Maddy looked over her shoulder at the floor, an area cleared of cables and detritus with thefaint circle of chalk inscribed in the middle where Liam and Bob were — hopefully- going to materialize very soon. She was glad Foster had sent Sal out to sit in TimesSquare and observe. If she was here, she’d be worrying, interrupting, agitating…distracting. Foster already looked stressed enough as it was, without having to constantlyassure her Liam and Bob were going to be fine.
And what if they came back, Liam wounded… or worse?
Better that Sal was elsewhere right now.
‘Since they missed the other back-ups,’ she said, ‘something must havehappened to them. Right?’
‘We don’t know that for sure. Quite often I’ve missed a scheduled window ortwo on the missions I’ve been on,’ said Foster. ‘The unforeseen happens- that’s why we have several back-ups.’
‘But if they do miss this one…?’
He looked at the display.
Ten seconds.
‘If they miss this one, then we need to communicate a new rendezvous point tothem.’
She looked at him. ‘Communicate? How?’
‘It’s complicated. I’ll talk you through that later.’
She let out a breath. ‘So it’s not the end of the world, then? I thought…you know… I thought we’d lost them forever.’
Foster checked the phase interruption indicator; no sign of any shifting packets of densitywhere the extraction portal was due to open. That was good. The soldiers must have gone.
‘All right… here we go,’ he said.
The displacement machinery began to hum and the lights in the archway dimmed as all powerdiverted towards it. Then, across the floor from them a large sphere suddenly began toshimmer, and through the undulating air Maddy thought she could make out the dancing, twistingform of tree trunks.
‘Come on, Liam,’ whispered Maddy. ‘Move your butt.’
Foster swallowed anxiously. ‘Yes, get a move on.’
If they were there, they should step through immediately. Keeping a portal open unnecessarilywasn’t wise; a window on to chaotic dimensions in which anything could lurk… The sooner it was closed the better.
‘Come on!’ he uttered impatiently.
The sphere hovered, shimmered, glowing a soft blue in the flickering dimness of the archway.Foster glanced at the computer screen. The portal had been open ten seconds and a red cautionmessage had already begun flashing on the screen.
‘I have to close it,’ said Foster. ‘Any longer and we risk attracting aseeker. They’re not there.’
‘No!’ cried Maddy. ‘Let it stay open just a bit — ’
‘They’ve failed the rendezvous,’ snapped Foster. He hit the abort button onthe screen and instantly the sphere vanished, the hum of surging powerdiminished and the dimmed flickering ceiling lights grew bright once more.
‘Dammit, Foster, they might just have been running a bit late!’
‘There’s no running late, Madelaine. You’reeither there or you’re not. The window opens, and either they step through or theydon’t. I’m afraid there’s no leaving it open just to wait andsee.’
They sat in silence for a moment, staring out across the floor at the chalk circle, as ifhoping both Liam and Bob might still magically appear, Liam with a guilty expression on hisface for their rather late arrival.
‘So… OK. It’s not the end of the world, then,’ said Maddy, forcingherself to be businesslike. ‘You mentioned something about sending a message?’
Foster nodded. ‘That’s right. We need to send them details on a newtime-stamp… and perhaps we need to pick another location. Not too far away from thefirst location, but somewhere more discreet, less busy, I think would be better.’
Maddy pursed her lips. ‘And how exactly will they get this message?’
‘Tachyon transmission,’ he replied. ‘I’ll give you the technicalexplanation later… It’s complicated.’
She shrugged. ‘I can wait.’
CHAPTER 48
1956, command ship above Washington DC
Kramer dined alone. He wasn’t in the mood to celebrate the victory withReichsmarschall Karl Haas, the senior divisional commanders and their aides. Several dayssince the surrender, and despite a few minor skirmishes as several individual US states in thewest fought on bitterly, America was now a part of the Greater Reich.