TW02 The Timekeeper Conspiracy NEW (25 page)

There was a light burning on the second floor, on the right side of the building. Finn looked up at the second floor of Moreau's Tavern, where the rooms were rented out. It was possible that he might get a shot—

“
Don't move, Delaney.
"

A hand of ice clutched at his intestines and he froze, damn-ing himself for not being more careful. If I turn around fast and fire, he thought—

"Priest said that you should've called 'Tails.' "

Slowly, Finn turned around, holding his laser pointed at the ground.

"I saw the muscles in your neck and shoulders tense," the man said. "It's a bad habit. You should learn to control it. You telegraph that way. The name's Cobra, TIA."

There were two men standing with him, all three were wear-ing black cloaks. Cloak-and-dagger, thought Finn, stifling a chuckle.

"I should have been more careful," he said. "How long have you been tailing me?"

"We picked you up about two blocks back," said Cobra. "It's a lucky thing you kept your comset.

We don't like to lose our equipment, so we set it up with tracing signals."

Finn reached into his pocket and pulled out the comset, wrapped in a handkerchief.

"I should've thrown the damn thing away," he said. "Seems like I have lots of bad habits. I don't like to lose equipment, either."

"Fortunately for you," said Cobra, "that's one habit that worked for you. We caught onto your little switch and I had a chat with Captain Priest. He told me Mongoose was working both sides of the street.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself." He nodded toward the building they were in.

"What made you believe it enough to check it out?" said Finn.

"Well, it was pointed out to me by Captain Priest that I could not afford to take the chance that he was not telling me the truth," said Cobra. "Also, I've been at this for a while. After a few years, it gets so that you don't trust anybody. You don't take things for granted; that way you live longer."

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be thankful for spook paranoia," Finn said.

"I'll take that as a compliment, though I'm sure you didn't mean it as one," said Cobra, with a mirthless, tight-lipped smile. "And now I really think we ought to do something about those three in there."

"At least the odds are on our side," said Finn. "Four against three."

"Six against three, actually," said Cobra. "I've already got two men in that tavern there. They should be in position in that room opposite the window on the second floor there. If there's anybody in that room, they'll be temporarily inconve-nienced, I'm afraid."

Even as he spoke, an agent came running out of the tavern, approaching them.

"All set," he said. "It was one of the whores' rooms. Jaguar's got a prosty in there, but she's unconscious. Used a nerve pinch. When she wakes up, she won't even know what happened."

"Good work. How's it look up there?"

"We're in luck. There's a window directly across the way. It's shuttered, but that shouldn't present much of a problem. We'll be able to swing right across and break through."

"Sounds almost too easy," Finn said.

"Nothing ever is," said Cobra. "Fortunately, they won't be expecting anything. They'll be thinking that we're all miles away."

"It will still have to be pretty tight, though," Finn said. "Remember, they've still got at least one chronoplate. Which reminds me, where's yours?"

"Back at the safehouse," Cobra said. "I've got a man sta-tioned there. We lucked out there, too.

Mongoose didn't take his plate with him. He must've figured on returning. This must be some last-minute conference. I get the shakes when I think about the fact that we'd all be clocking in back there one at a time when we'd finished covering the musketeers. He would've been able to take us all out with no sweat." Cobra took a deep breath. "It was a close call for me. Soon as the floater said one of the commandos was an imposter, I clocked right back to check with Mongoose. He must've just left. If he'd still been there when I arrived and if I had told him ..." He let it hang.

"We've all had close calls," said Finn. "I'm thinking that breaking in on them might not be a good idea.

Why not just get them as they come out?"

Cobra shook his head. "That might work, but I don't want to take the chance that any of them might be using that plate to get into position for whatever it is that they've got planned. You think it's a hit?"

"I think it's a hit."

"Give me that comset," Cobra said. He took it from him and handed it to the agent who had just come from Moreau's. "Take this and give it to Jaguar. I've got one on me." He pulled a tiny box out of his pocket. "Tell him to put it on, but to keep his mouth shut, just in case. You never know. Don't even breathe hard. Have him get ready to swing over. We're going in the front way. We'll burn through the lock and get as close to them as we can. When I say
now,
we hit 'em from both sides. You stay in that room and cover Jaguar as he goes across. Delaney, you stay right here, in case any of them get by us.

Cover the street."

"I'd much rather be going in with you," said Finn.

"I know," said Cobra. "But odds are someone's going to get burned breaking in there. It was our man that went bad. I figure we owe you one."

"What are you going to do with Mongoose?"

"If I can, I'll try to take him alive," said Cobra. "But I'm not going to try too hard."

Neither Lucas nor Andre even bothered trying to get any sleep. The situation was extremely volatile.

At four o'clock in the morning, someone knocked softly at their door.

There had been no warning over the comset telling them to expect visitors. Both of them drew their rapiers and slowly approached the door, ready for anything. In French, Lucas asked who was there, affecting a sleepy sounding voice. The reply was scarcely above a whisper, but they recognized that it was Athos. Lucas opened the door.

"Good, I see you are both still dressed," said the mus-keteer, quietly. "I could not get to sleep in this pestilential hole, either. Planchet has seen strangers about. We'd best quit this place and be on our way.

Ah, here comes D'Artagnan and Planchet. Softly, now, let us be off. Planchet, did you tell Grimaud to saddle the horses?"

"Yes, Monsieur Athos. I told him to move with stealth, just as you said."

"Excellent," said Athos. "I do not much care for running away like a thief in the night, but it would be the prudent thing to do. I did not like the look of our innkeeper. He was a shade too friendly for having been wakened in the middle of the night."

Moving on tiptoe, they crept down the stairs and out the door, heading for the stables. Their horses were all saddled and awaiting them, but there was no sign of Grimaud. Athos glanced about him, searching for his servant.

"Grimaud!" he called, softly.

There was no reply.

"Grimaud, damn you for a laggard, where the devil are you?"

An answering moan came from within a pile of straw, from which a boot could be seen sticking out.

Athos rushed over to the straw pile and, pulling by the foot, dragged out Grimaud, who appeared to have been bashed over the head. He was semiconscious and bleeding profusely from the scalp. At that very moment, they were attacked.

A group of men dressed as peasants, yet betrayed by the fine rapiers which they brandished, leapt out at them from all corners of the stable. One appeared over the stall behind D'Artagnan, stabbing down viciously with a dagger. The quick-witted Gascon ducked aside and caught the man's arm, dragging him over the stall and flipping him down onto the ground. He twisted the dagger out of the would-be assassin's hand and stabbed him with his own weapon, plunging the blade into the man's chest. He sidestepped a lunge from another and dropped him with a right across the jaw, then swung into the saddle and yanked free his rapier.

Lucas and Andre both drew their swords and daggers and met the men who charged them. Lucas turned a sword away from his attacker and booted its wielder in the groin. He quickly slashed his dagger across the man's face, then turned to meet his next opponent. D'Artagnan came riding up at that moment, rearing his horse and interposing it between Lucas and two swordsmen, giving him time to swing up into the sad-dle. The stables became filled with the sounds of ringing steel.

Andre parried one sword-thrust with her dagger and en-gaged another with her blade. She executed a quick beat and disengage, then quickly thrust the point of her rapier into her opponent's eye. The second swordsman lunged again and she twisted her body, feeling the blade ripping through her cloak and passing perilously close to her ribs. She moved into the thrust, trapping the man's blade and stabbing her dagger deep into his abdomen. The man fell, clutching at her and dragging her off balance, taking her down with him. She fought free and started to get up, turning in time to see another man bear-ing down on her. D'Artagnan ran him down with his horse and she took four running steps and leaped over the hind-quarters of her horse and into the saddle.

Athos had pulled out his pistols and fired at the first onrush, dropping two of his attackers. He barely had the time to drop his pistols and draw his sword before he found himself beset by three opponents.

He dodged a thrown dagger and it embedded itself in a post behind him. However, his ducking the dagger had given his opponents time to hem him in and he stood braced with his back against the post, fending off the three rapiers that darted in at him. He parried one thrust, kicked the man in the groin as he parried yet another, and felt the third blade scrape along his arm. He lunged quickly and killed one man, but that one was immediately replaced by another. Andre had already bulled her way through on horse-back to the outside and Lucas and D'Artagnan were both mounted up and by the door, keeping attackers at bay.

"I am taken!" Athos shouted. "Go on, D'Artagnan! Spur!
Spur!”
D'Artagnan only paused long enough to hurl his dagger at one of Athos's attackers, seeing it thud home into his back.

"One for all—"
D'Artagnan shouted.

"Get the devil out of here!"
screamed Athos.

They set spurs to their horses and galloped off after Andre, their number now reduced to four.

Planchet, alone, had man-aged to leap into the saddle and gallop out the stable door before their attackers had closed in on them. He was waiting for them further down the road, looking terrified.

"Coward!" D'Artagnan shouted at him, leaning over in the saddle and flailing at him with his hat. "You should have stayed and fought!"

"With what, Master?" Planchet cringed, attempting to ward off the blows.'' I don't have a sword!"

They rode at breakneck speed for St. Omer, beyond which lay Calais.

"Hawk One, where the hell were you?" Lucas said, furi-ously.

There was no reply.

"Hawk One!"

Silence.

"Damn you, Hawk One.
..." It suddenly occurred to Lucas why Hawk One was not responding. He simply wasn't there. Cobra had said that he would pull several men off the operation to check his allegations against Mongoose. He had been coldly efficient in making his selection. If what Lucas had said was true, then the Timekeepers would be striking back in Paris and manpower would be needed there. If Lucas had lied, then he had been disarmed of his most effective weapon and, as a traitor, would not require reconnaissance reports. The second floater could very well be overhead and he most likely was. Cobra had said that they would be covered every inch of the way. But Hawk Two was on a different fre-quency and, in any case, until the truth was known, he would not be reporting in to Lucas.

Effectively, they were on their own.

Thus far, everything had happened according to the original scenario. History reported that D'Artagnan and all three musketeers survived the mission, but Andre and Lucas were both extraneous factors. That gave fate a lot of leeway.

A short distance outside Calais, D'Artagnan's horse col-lapsed. Planchet's animal was all done in as well, so Lucas and Andre each took a passenger and they barely reached Calais, their horses totally exhausted. Dismounting, they made it to the port on foot and sought out the captain of a small skiff, who was already engaged in a discussion with another gentle-man. D'Artagnan ran up to them and interrupted, asking if they could set sail at once to England.

"I say, sir," said the well-dressed gentleman, somewhat taken aback at the Gascon's rudeness, but the captain raised a hand, silencing them both.

"As I was about to tell this gentleman," the captain told D'Artagnan, "I am able to set sail at once.

However, this morning an order arrived stating that no one should be al-lowed to cross without permission from the cardinal."

"I
have
that permission," said the well-dressed gentleman, taking out a paper and holding it out.

"It must be examined by the governor of the port," the cap-tain said.

"And where shall I find him?"

"At his country house. You can see it from here, at the foot of that little hill. The slated roof."

With an arch glance at D'Artagnan, the man departed with his servant, heading toward the house of the governor of the port. D'Artagnan returned, crestfallen, to confer with Andre and Lucas.

"We are undone," he said. "The cardinal has ordered that no one—"

"Yes, we heard," said Lucas. "No one can cross without his express permission. So? What is the problem?"

"But we have no such permission!"

"True," said Lucas, turning to look after the departing gentleman, "but that man does."

D'Artagnan followed his gaze and he frowned, then understanding dawned. "Ah, yes! Of course, how stupid of me. We'll simply take it from him." He reached for his sword, but Lucas stayed his hand.

"Not
here,"
he said. "Follow him. Discreetly, eh? Andre and I will remain here and make sure that no one else tries to book passage."

D'Artagnan and Planchet followed the gentleman and Andre and Lucas took a little time to get some much-needed rest.