Borrowed Time (13 page)

She turned back to face me, caught my gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Care to share your thoughts?”

Since I was wearing tight breeches, too, she probably knew exactly what I was thinking. I just couldn’t tell how she felt about it, but as John Paul Jones said (or would say in about twenty years or so) ‘he who will not risk cannot win.’ “I’m thinking I wish I didn’t have to go back to the room I’ve got.”

“Worried about British sentries?” Pam asked innocently.

Jeannie chose that moment to pipe up.
Her breathing is speeding up
.

Thanks. Now go into passive mode.
“Not really. I’d just like to stay here with you tonight,” I told Pam.

Her lips curved in a slow smile. “I was hoping you’d help me get out of all of these buttons. Just make sure you don’t rip any. I need to wear this stuff again tomorrow and I hate sewing.”

As it turned out, I did rip a couple toward the end, but by that point Pam was as eager to get the clothing off as I was and didn’t raise any fuss.

#

I woke the next morning to the sound of water and looked over to see Pam standing next to me stark naked, her feet in a big shallow tin dish as she rinsed off soap. “If you want a bath, too, you’ll need to use the same water,” she cautioned.

“Oh boy.”

Pam rolled her eyes in a silent commentary on males that must be part of women’s genetic makeup, because I’ve seen it in every century and place I’ve ever visited. She toweled off quickly and started pulling on things that needed buttoned, giving me an accusing look as she found a rip. I hastily cleaned up and started dressing as well, trying to think what I should say.

Pam checked herself in the small mirror when she’d got just about everything on, then suddenly turned to face me. “Confession time. I knew you’d be here and now.”

My own half-formed speech professing long-term interest, but regret over the impossibility of a relationship when our home nows were a century apart, dissolved under a wave of surprise. “You did?”

“The TI central records said you’d worked the Virtual City project here and now.”

I frowned. “Those records are confidential.”

“Not any more. They changed that a couple of decades ago. Or about eighty years from your home now. They figured it might help keep TIs from tripping over each other.” She shrugged. “I used it to set up a meeting. I found someone who wanted a TI to make a run here and took the contract. The project records showed the routes you’d been assigned to cover.”

“You wanted to meet me that much?” I must have sounded stupid, but it had never occurred to me that someone like Pam would go to that kind of trouble on my account.

“Yeah. I knew you’d never be able to set up a meeting with me since I was uptime from you. And . . . you did seem kind of interested in that.”

“Very interested,” I agreed. “Should I say it?”

“Only if you want to, and mean it.”

“Then I will. Pam, I fell in love with you in London. I didn’t realize that until I met you again before then.” She smiled happily. “I want to be with you long-term.” Time for the cold water of reality. “But what are the odds that we’ll be able to swing more meetings like this in the future in the past?”

“Not great,” Pam admitted, then spoke in a rush. “Have you ever considered emigrating?”

“Emigrating?” That floored me. Sure, everyone thinks about it at one point or another, the chance to move to another time within the band of centuries where TIs operate from and make it your home now. But hardly anyone does. The rules are very tight, and the idea of leaving everything you know is hard to stomach. So most people never really give it serious consideration. “You really mean that?”

“Yeah.” Pam sat down next to me again, looking at the floor, squeezing her interlocked hands together anxiously. “I didn’t know if I’d ask you, not absolutely for sure, not until I’d spent more time with you. But I do mean it. I can sponsor you. We worked really well together in the future. I couldn’t stop remembering the time we’ll spend together in London. I’ll have a great time with you there and then. I love you, too. And our Assistants like each other.”

“I noticed.” I took a deep breath. “What about you? Emigrating?”

She grimaced. “You know the rules, Tom. If I emigrated downtime I’d have to have my implanted tech downgraded to match your level. That would be like giving Annie a lobotomy. I can’t do that.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to. Sorry I didn’t remember that.”

“But if you came up with me, Jeannie would get an upgrade,” Pam pointed out, then looked slightly guilty at dangling that lure in front of me.

“Yeah. She would,” I agreed in tones designed to show I didn’t mind Pam bringing that up. I breathed deep again, thinking. It was a huge thing. And yet I’d been through century after century and never found anyone like Pam. What kind of idiot would turn down this opportunity? “Can I think about it for a little while? I think I’ll want to, but I need a little while, okay?”

Pam grinned and kissed me. “I’ve got another forty-two hours here. Long enough?”

“It ought to be.” I kissed her back. “Especially if we spend it in this bed.”

She laughed and shoved me away. “I’ve got work to do, and I bet you do, too. Besides, I don’t want to think you’re being motivated by nothing but lust.”

“There’s nothing wrong with lust,” I pointed out. “But, no. I wouldn’t consider emigrating on the basis of lust even for Helen of Troy.” Who
was
incredibly hot, though not even remotely blond like she used to be portrayed. Which was okay, because I’m a bit skittish around blondes after some negative experiences I’ve had.

“Helen was a slut,” Pam responded shortly. Female TIs tend to have strong opinions about Helen, maybe because male TIs tend to talk about her.

“Nothing like you,” I agreed quickly.

“Get your buttons buttoned,” Pam ordered, standing up and grabbing her wig. “I need to turn back into Palmer, and check out routes to Lexington.”

“Are you staying there tonight?”

I must have sounded tragic because she grinned at me. “No. I can’t. Between the locals and all the TIs hiding in the bushes the place is full. I’ll scout the route today, then get in very early tomorrow and deploy my collection gear while everyone else is scrambling around watching each other. The focus of attention will be on the moving British troops and the Colonial VIPs then, so nobody will worry about one more TI moving through the countryside.”

“I’m not so sure. It’s not what you’re doing, Pam, it’s what some nut-case Interventionist might
think
you’re doing. Like the guy who threatened me.”

“You’ll wrap up your job this afternoon, right?” Pam answered. “Want to meet in Cambridge at sunset? I don’t want to have to worry about sneaking out of Boston tonight with the British trying to lock the place down. I was going to get dinner at Cambridge and maybe a little rest before I had to head back to Lexington.”

“Sure. I’ll see you there.” She’d avoided replying to my statement, and we both knew it. But like Pam had said, she was a big girl and she had a job to do.

Only after I’d agreed to meet her did I realize that I was supposed to jump out before sunset, returning to my home now. But it wouldn’t matter if I stayed a little longer since the jump back would cost the same. The Virtual City project wouldn’t cover my expenses after the scheduled end of the job, but that would be pocket change if I just stayed one more night.

We parted ways just outside the inn. I wanted to kiss her goodbye, but with Pam disguised as a man again that probably would’ve attracted the wrong kind of attention in this here and now. Instead we shook hands, Pam repeated “Cambridge, at sunset, where the main road from Boston enters town,” then she headed off to rent a horse while Jeannie popped up my map in my mind and I went to deploy bugs.

#

Boston felt different today, in that just-before-a-thunderstorm sort of way. I wondered if I was imagining it, but lots of locals were extra tense as if they sensed what I knew, that a decade of growing tension was about to burst and put history on a fundamentally different path. TIs were everywhere, giving me suspicious glances as I passed by. I recognized a few that I knew, dressed as soldiers or tradesmen or servants or ladies, all of them fully alert. We were inside the decisive events period, and those ready to try to change those events were already sparring with those trying to keep things unchanged, like unseen armies clashing beneath the surface of actions the locals were experiencing.

I covered the last street on my grid, my coat informed Jeannie that all of its bugs had been deployed, and I headed for the only ground path out of Boston. In this period the city was almost an island, connected to the mainland by a narrow stretch of land known as Boston neck. The British would be sealing off the neck tonight, but I should be early enough to get past them.

I managed to catch the local coach to Cambridge and reached the town well before sunset. Cambridge didn’t have nearly as many TIs hidden among the populace, but once again I spotted one I knew. He meandered over to walk near me as I ambled down the road. “Business done or business to do?” he murmured to me.

“Done,” I replied. “I’m supposed to jump out soon. You?”

“To do. I could use some help if you want to hang around a little longer. My employers pay really well.”

“Thanks, but I’m meeting someone later.”

His glance was skeptical. “I thought you were done.”

“It’s personal.”

“A local?” He grinned. Some TIs loved the fact that they had the perfect opportunity to love them and leave them. “Has she got a friend?”

“It’s personal,” I repeated. “And I thought you were on a job.”

“I’m free until just after sunset.” He looked around casually. “If you’re going to be anywhere around here after midnight be careful. It’s not just the British regulars patrolling all over the place. There’s TIs everywhere and most of them are armed and jumpy.”

“Thanks for the warning. Take it easy yourself.”

“Sure.” He paused as we reached the place where Cambridge stopped and fields began. “This your spot? I’ll see you around.”

“Hopefully not anytime soon,” I added. He winked and moved off.

Pam and her horse came trotting in while the sun was still a finger’s width above the horizon. She nodded wearily to me. “Damn redcoats everywhere, but I’ve got the route scoped out.”

“How long do you have?”

“I need to leave here by about nineteen hundred so I can move slowly and be ahead of the fuss around William Dawes when he comes through.” Pam dismounted and led her horse and I back into Cambridge. “I’ll have the horse taken care of while you and I spend some time.”

“Nineteen hundred?” I should have known that there wouldn’t be time for another romantic interlude. Not a physical one, at least. “You’re going to eat, right?”

“Yeah. No flip tonight, though.”

After Pam dropped her horse off at a stable for a rub-down and a nice bucket of molasses-soaked grain, we found a tavern and took a table in one corner. Between the background noise as the other diners discussed the rising level of tensions with British authorities and the haze of smoke from tobacco and the hearth fire, we had a pretty decent level of privacy as we dug into spit-roasted chicken. “I’m still worried,” I finally stated.

“That’s only allowed if you’re serious about me,” Pam replied, her eyes on mine.

“I’m serious.” Now or never, Tom. Jump through time all you want, but the odds were vanishingly small that I’d ever encounter this moment again. “I’ll go.”

“Go?”

“Emigrate. I don’t want to lose you. Now can I be worried?”

She smiled broadly. “Oh, I wish we weren’t in public so I could kiss you. Yeah, worry away. But it’s okay. I’ve got the British patrols mapped out, I’ve spied on the activity of TIs planning Interventions and Counters around Lexington so I should be able to avoid any that might take me out on general principles, and Annie can tell me if any TIs get too close despite that.” Pam saw my expression. “Hey, any man of mine has to avoid over-protectiveness.”

“Understood.” I exhaled and shrugged. “I know you’re good. You don’t need me holding your hand. Okay. How do we handle the emigration?”

“Here.” She paused.

I’m receiving a certified sponsor affidavit from Pam’s Assistant Annie
, Jeannie informed me.
It conforms to authentication requirements for our home now
.

I gave Pam a look. “You had it ready?”

“I had confidence in you. Besides, there’s not much chance we’ll connect here after my job’s done. You need to get out of here before
you
get hurt.”

“I thought you said it was safe,” I complained.

“Not for someone armed only with a single-shot tranq crystal,” Pam pointed out. She smiled at me in a different way, then made a face. “Annie says I need to get going. Walk me to the stable.”

It was plenty dark out now in that pre-industrial way that defines dark. She stopped short of the stable, in a patch of street very poorly illuminated, pulled me close and kissed me hard. “I can’t wait to see you in my home now.”

“Pam? Did I ever meet anybody else in my own home now?”

She looked away, then back at me, meeting my eyes. “I didn’t look. I didn’t review your personal history at all, just the TI trip files. Because I didn’t want to know.”

And if I went uptime to be with her, I’d never know, either. Because Pam would have staged an Intervention in my future and her past, changing both. She had already changed my future, since I would have left this now already if not for wanting to meet her again. “That’s okay. I wouldn’t want to know either. If there ever would have been anyone else, she couldn’t make me happier than you will.”

Pam kissed me again, then broke contact abruptly. “See you in several centuries. When you emigrate uptime, Annie gave Jeannie directions on how to find me and exactly when to jump to. She also transferred all the credit I’ve got to you. Between us, we’ll be able to afford your jump uptime even though we’ll be paying it off for a long time.”