“I believe you called these things DVDs, am I correct?” LeGrand extended the jewel case to Kelly, handing him the disk.
“Where did you get that?” Paul seemed incredulous now.
“You know very well where we got it,” said LeGrand. “You and the professor were quite upset about it.”
“You mean you ran a mission to retrieve DVD media from our time?” Kelly voiced the obvious conclusion.
“That would have been easy,” LeGrand explained. “But it would have taken time and, as simple as it sounds, it would have been risky. So, we encrypted the data in the video stream of this disk when we found it—the one we already had.” His eyes flashed at Kelly now, with a knowing glance. “We timed everything to sync well with the computers of your age. Now all you have to do is play this DVD through your system control module, and the entire operation will be perfectly coordinated as the video plays itself out. It was really quite devious. The R & D people are to be complimented.”
“I don’t understand,” said Kelly.
“You will,” LeGrand said softly. “At least I hope you will.” His eyes softened as he spoke.
Paul looked up, a conclusion plan on his face. “It’s the DVD we placed in your memorial site, Kelly. That’s why the grave site was tampered with. The Assassins were on to your plan as well, and they were trying to get at the DVD to prevent its discovery. Am I right?”
“Close,” said LeGrand with a smile. “It may be that the Assassins have a clue to what we are about to attempt, but they had nothing to do with the incident at Mr. Ramer’s memorial. We did that. Our agent in place for this milieu was instructed to secure it at all costs. We had to be sure we got to the DVD first, you see. It caused a bit of a ripple in the Meridian, and yes, the danger to your friend was very real, but you and the professor fixed that by publishing the backup you had hidden here in the lab. We kept the original, and we encoded it with our mission parameters… And there you have it.” He pointed to the disk in Kelly’s hand.
26
They all looked at the DVD. Paul remembered the moment when he first discovered it, while archiving data from the Palma mission. Watching Kelly working in the lab as he struggled to get the travelers back on target after the disastrous keystroke error that sent them to the late Cretaceous had brought a tear to his eye. He knew then that it would be the only fitting tribute he could offer at Kelly’s memorial.
“How far back is it,” he said. His eyes fixed on the disk. The prospect of another mission was daunting, but he knew they would have to try. Robert and Maeve had only just returned from Rosetta. He was the only other experienced traveler here with a quantum matrix signature on file in the system database. Kelly had never shifted using this equipment.
“A bit beyond the excursion to Rosetta,” said LeGrand. But not nearly as far back as your runabout after the KT event. Quite remarkable, if I may say.”
“How far,” Paul asked again, and his tone said get to the point without any uncertainty.
LeGrand heard the impatience, the urgency in Paul’s voice, and was suddenly very serious. “We make it 10,500 B.C…. or thereabouts.”
Maeve had an uncomfortable expression on her face. “Good then,” she said. “Are you ready, Monsieur?”
“What… Me?” LeGrand gave her a bemused smile. “Oh, I’d love to go,” he explained, “but it’s really quite impossible. I can’t pull a double shift, I’m afraid. Nothing has been programmed, and time is already waiting for me back home.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to some unseen future. “She won’t allow me to switch trains here. It’s out of the question.”
“Just as I suspected,” said Maeve unhappily. “So you want one of us to go in your place. You want the burden of all we might accomplish, and the blood, on our hands.”
“Really, Madame, must you be so gloomy?”
Nordhausen spoke up, tossing a new idea into the argument. “Why don’t you just raid the location of the site in your time? If you know where it is, just get together an assault team and storm the place.”
LeGrand stroked his chin. “You don’t understand,” he said. “We’re no longer in control of our time. They are! Besides, even if we could destroy the site in our time it would do us no good. The damage to the Meridian has already been done by then. No… The moment is now… the question is now. The other side has just moved a Pushpoint, something very old, and lost and utterly insignificant, save for its effect on the discovery of the Rosetta stone. We haven’t the time to find out where or how they accomplished that, so we came up with this counterstrategy as a last hope. You only get one chance, you know. It’s a bit like Judo. Your adversary makes an attack, and you must respond, then and there, and find the leverage to use his own energy against him. Soon the transformation will be complete, Paradox will have run its course, and we would be living in a nightmare world again—believe me, I know of what I speak.”
The look in his eyes revealed real fear now. “Islam will have spread the world over,” he said softly. “The West will be overthrown… everything, democracy, capitalism, the artwork, music, literature—remember what the Taliban did to the Buddhas of Bamiyan? That was just an appetizer. They will tolerate no other religion but Islam… There is no God but God, and Allah is his name, and Mohamed is his prophet—over, final, done. You have no idea what it will be like. It’s not going to be a simple book burning raid here and there. Fahrenheit 451 is nothing compared to the destruction of our culture that will follow if Palma is allowed to re-occur. That’s what they did, you see. They’ve worked it so that Palma happens—just as it was supposed to. Oh, believe me, we’ve done our very best to prevent that. It’s been a real struggle, but we’ve held them at bay. Now the advantage conferred by their hieroglyphic code is just enough to give them the edge.”
“Yes!” said Nordhausen. “It was written on the stone… here, let me remember… ‘Through the ages now he comes to a mystery: one death gives birth, a great wind upon the face of the sea, in a place forever hidden where the lions roar: ‘mine is yesterday, and I know tomorrow.’ A Great wind upon the face of the sea: that must be the tsunami sequence generated by Palma!“
“A place forever hidden where the lions roar,” said Paul. “That has to be a reference to the Sphinx—or both of them.”
“Mine is yesterday, and I know tomorrow.” Nordhausen continued. “An obvious reference to the past, where they’ve hidden a record of all future events. But what does the first part mean?” He looked about, hoping to find the answer with one of the others.
“We believe it refers to Mr. Kelly,” said LeGrand matter of factly.
Kelly looked at him, confused? “Me?”
“I’m afraid so,” said LeGrand. “It was your death that prevented the others from acting to reverse Palma. ‘One death gives birth—to the whole of their dastardly plan, and the destruction of the entire Eastern Seaboard of this continent. That was what we sent Mr. Graves to undo—to prevent that one death—your death.”
He reached up to wipe the sheen of sweat from his brow. “But now they’ve found another lever,” he said. “It changes everything again. This last twist is fatal to our cause—unless we act here and now. We will be reduced to a bare handful of dissidents in our time, hiding out, constantly on the run, hounded into caves and hidden sanctuaries. Storm the site with an assault team? Try showing your white unshaven face in Old Cairo today, in the district known as Maadi, if you get the significance of that name, and see how you fare! Do you honestly think we could get to the place if this transformation takes effect? The Assassins have it completely encircled. The Fedayeen commandos guard it night and day. Their secret police are everywhere—or at least they will be if we don’t act to prevent them. From this moment forward they will begin to use the advantage they have gained. They’ll post a watch on the site, send agents all throughout the continuum to guard it.”