TW06 The Khyber Connection NEW (15 page)

"But ... that's crazy!" Phoenix said. "The more you increase temporal instability, the greater the chance of bringing about a timestream split!"

"Ah, but in which timeline?"

"The one with the greater instability?"

"Pour yourself another drink, lad. You've just hit the nail right on the head. A timestream split would be almost certain to overcome the confluence effect, and it could result in changing the chronophysical alignment between the two timelines, forcing them apart, in a manner of speaking. But that's only in theory. And it's only one possibility."

"What are the other possibilities?"

"Theoretically it could also result in three timelines experiencing points of confluence with an exponential increase in the instability factor. Then the same thing would begin all over again, only you'd have three timelines trying to achieve stability by merging into one. And in order to prevent that, you'd have to increase the instability again to a point where it would overwhelm the compensating influence of the Fate Factor, and you could wind up with yet another timestream split, resulting in four timelines, and so on ad infinitum. You'd be trapped in a situation where you'd have passed a point of no return and the only way to make it better, for the short term, would be to keep on making it worse."

"Jesus. Where would it all end?"

"You've got me. What's the absolute opposite of entropy?"

"I don't know. What?"

"I don't know either. Could be the Big Bang all over again."

"So what the hell do we do?"

"Dr. Darkness does not, alas, know everything," the scientist said, sighing heavily. "I must admit to a certain morbid fascination with all this. What an incredible opportunity for research. This could enable us to quantify Zen physics. We could be in a position to actually observe—"

"Doc!"

"What? Oh, sorry. You must forgive my enthusiasm. Occupational hazard. I'll try to keep a lid on it."

"So what's the answer?"

"What's the question?"

"What do we do we about this mess?"

"Stall."

"What do you mean, stall? How?"

"Well, since no clear-cut solution seems to present itself, the most we can do under the circumstances is to maintain the status quo as long as possible," said Darkness. "The people from the alternate timeline are obviously attempting to hit us with a massive temporal first strike, trying to cause a significant historical disruption that might lead to a timestream split in our own timeline. We must not only prevent that, we must strike back at them in the same way. They interfere with our history, we interfere with theirs; each of us tries to adjust for the disruptions and maintain the instability as long as possible while trying to preserve a reasonable amount of temporal integrity on both sides."

Phoenix stared at him, slack-jawed. "Are you serious?"

"I'm very serious. It doesn't solve the problem, admittedly, but it might keep it from getting worse. And it does have the added benefit of giving everyone a common enemy. No more temporal conflicts between nations. Everyone will be too busy fighting against the other timeline. It could have considerable domestic advantages. Now we'll really have a Time War on our hands."

"And just how long do we keep this up?" said Phoenix.

Darkness shrugged.

"Christ. I think I need another drink."

They were taken to a large chamber in the temple and locked inside. The massive wooden door was thick, bolted, and reinforced with iron. There were no windows in the chamber, but light filtered in from the top of a short flight of stairs. There were two large, thick pillars in the center of the room, supporting the ceiling.

The walls were mortared stone. Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney had already been brought there, but they were still unconscious. Gunga Din climbed the flight of stairs, and a moment later they heard him call out. They followed him up the stairs.

"Sahib Finn! Memsahib Cross! Look!"

The stairs ended on a parapet built out of the side of a mountain cliff. Below them was an abyss, a sheer drop to the bottom of the Khyber Pass.

"It's a long way down," said Finn.

"Looks like we're stuck," said Andre.

"Sahib Finn, how we come here? Who are these people?"

"I don't know how to tell you. Din," said Finn.

"They are demons!"

"No, Din, they're net demons. Just . . . powerful fakirs." He shrugged. How else could he explain it?

"They will kill us, yes?" Din said.

"I don't know."

"Soldier sahibs dead."

"No, they're not dead, Din. Drugged. They'll be waking up before too long."

"This place. . . Kali worship," Din said. "These men serve Kali. Thugee. Kill us all."

"We're not dead yet. Go keep an eye on Mulvaney and the others. They should be coming 'round soon."

Shaking his head in despair, Din shuffled back down the stairs.

"Finn, look!" said Andre.

She pointed down into the pass. Far below them two men appeared out of the mist, rising up toward them rapidly on jet-paks. They entered the temple through another chamber cut into the side of the cliff below them.

"That's how they're getting through," said Finn.

"The bridge between the timelines must be down there."

"What about the British troops stationed in the pass?" said Andre. "What about the forts?"

"Undoubtedly taken over." Finn said. "Some of those tribesmen we saw in the main chamber were wearing khakis and turbans with red swatches of cloth in them. Khyber Rifles. These people have taken advantage of the jehad to get all the tribesmen on their side. The Ghazis must think they're gods or something."

"Finn, that's it!" said Andre, grabbing him by the arm. "According to history: Sadullah promised the tribes they'd defeat the British on the Night of the Long Knives, when the gates of Paradise would open and a great heavenly host would come forth to help them drive out the infidels." She pointed down into the pass.

"That's where they'll be coming through. They'll fight on the side of the Ghazis, and the British won't stand a chance."

"It makes sense," said Finn. "While Blood was putting down the uprising in the Malakand, the Mad Mullah escaped and joined Sayyid Akbar in the Khyber Pass. They overran Landi Kotal and burned every fort in their path. Akbar demanded the withdrawal of all British forces. To stop him, the British sent the Tirah Expeditionary Force under General Sir William Lockhart. Their objective was to defeat Akbar and then strike at the tribes in the Tirah Valley. That crushed the revolt."

"Only with the soldiers from the other timeline fighting with the Ghazis, it won't happen that way,"

Andre said. "That's what he meant by a first strike. We thought Churchill was the focus of the disruption. It was never Churchill. It was the entire Tirah Expeditionary Force!"

"If they destroyed the expeditionary force," said Finn, "there'd be nothing stopping the Ghazis from sweeping down into Peshawar. The British control of the frontier would be eliminated, leaving the way open for the Russians to come in. And the Russians have already been negotiating with Abdur Rahman in Kabul. It would completely alter history in this part of the world."

"We've got to stop them somehow."

"I'm open to suggestions," Finn said. "We've had our warp discs taken from us, and even if we do figure out a way to escape, we have to make sure Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd get out with us. We can't just leave them here."

"What if there's no other choice?"

Finn grimaced. "Right now we don't have any choices. Unless we can learn to fly, I don't know how we're going to get out of here. And we're running out of time."

"We have to find the point of confluence," said Darkness, pacing back and forth across his laboratory. "My instruments can only detect energy fluctuations in the timestream. They were never designed to pinpoint inertial surge. I might be able to find it if I'm on the scene."

"Then get me back to Earth in Plus Time," Phoenix said. "Somebody has to let them know what's going on. I can alert the TIA and the Referee Corps."

"No, you leave that to me," said Darkness. "The confluence must be located first. The best thing for you to do is concentrate on Drakov."

"We have a problem there," said Phoenix. "There really was a tribal leader named Sayyid Akbar. Knowing Drakov as I do, he probably killed the real one and took his place. That means we need him. Sayyid Akbar was a key figure in the scenario. His revolt in the Khyber was what caused the British to launch the Tirah Expeditionary Force. Without him—"

"Wait," said Darkness. "What about this expeditionary force?"

"They put down Akbar's revolt in the Khyber and then pursued a punitive campaign against the tribesmen in the Tirah Valley," Phoenix said. "It ended the uprising and—wait a minute! If the Tirah Expeditionary Force had been defeated, it could have ended British control of the frontier. It would have given the Russians a foothold. Control of the frontier would give them access to India. It could lead to a war."

"And a timestream split," said Darkness. "That's the connection. The Khyber Pass."

"And Akbar—or Drakov—controls the Khyber Pass."

"The confluence must be there," said Darkness. "It has to be, everything points to it. Our timing must be precise. We must allow Drakov and Sadullah to join forces and begin their Night of the Long Knives. We cannot act until the British have launched the Tirah expedition."

"What about Drakov?" Phoenix said. "When he finds out I've escaped, he'll know his cover's blown."

"Then they'll be prepared," said Darkness, "but they can't stop now. Too much rides on their plan. They're committed."

"There's still an adjustment team back there somewhere."

"The last place they were was at the Malakand fort. I tried to home in on Priest's symbiotracer, and as I said, only found his grave. The regiment had already departed for Chakdarra. I couldn't manifest because there were several other soldiers present. They were on their way to Peshawar with dispatches."

"None of the dispatches from the Malakand have been getting through," said Phoenix. "Drakov's tribesmen have been intercepting them."

"They could easily have teleported if they ran into trouble," Darkness said. "But we're overlooking something. Your agents are all unaccounted for, except for the two with you who were killed. I knew there was something I was forgetting! If all three of them were taken out, it suggests the possibility that our friends front the alternate timeline have a means of tracing warp discs. Probably by scanning for them in the same manner Search and Retrieve units conduct their sweeps."

"Which means they could have taken out the adjustment team," said Phoenix.

"Perhaps not. Drakov was going to turn you over for interrogation. An adjustment team would clearly be more valuable to them alive than dead, for the same reason. They may have taken your agents prisoner, as well."

"Assuming they're alive," said Phoenix, "what are the chances they're still in our timeline?"

"Impossible to say," said Darkness. "If there are soldiers from the alternate timeline active in that area, they must have a base of operations somewhere. I'd guess it would be close to the confluence, which narrows the area down to the vicinity of the Khyber Pass. I'll conduct a search. Meanwhile, do you think you could infiltrate Drakov's forces without being recognized?"

"No problem, long as I don't get close enough to Drakov so he can get a good look at me. He's got thousands of men. I'll just blend in with the crowd as an Afridi."

"Good. Here's the plan then. I'll take you back there, then tach to Plus Time and warn Director Vargas. Then I'll try to find the confluence point and the enemy base of operations. I'll simply search the entire area of the Khyber Pass at light speed. I'll give you a replacement warp disc and a molecular disruptor. Try to get close to Drakov without being spotted."

"And the moment they make their move, I hit him," Phoenix said.

"Exactly."

"Okay, what are we waiting for? Let's go."

Mulvaney groaned and rolled over. "Where in the bloomin' blazes are we?"

"Sahib Finn!" cried Din.

"I'm coming, Din," Delaney said. Andre followed him down the stairs, back into the tomblike chamber.

"A fine bloody state of affairs this is," said Learoyd, sitting up slowly. "How did we get here? Wherever

'here' is."

"We're being held prisoner in an old temple high above the Khyber Pass," said Finn.

"The Khyber?" said Learoyd. "Have we been out so long then?"

"Look 'ere, sir." Mulvaney said to Finn, "what's 'appened to us? What's gain' on 'ere?"

"We've fallen into the hands of enemy soldiers," Finn said. "Soldiers who are using the tribesmen for their own purposes."

"What's their aim?" said Learoyd.

"Apparently they're out to undermine our control of the frontier," Delaney said. He had to improvise. He tried to think how much he could get away with telling them.

"That one officer was American," Learoyd said. "It makes no damn sense. Why would the Americans do such a thing?"

"Some of them might be Americans," said Delaney, "but I don't believe it's an American unit. They weren't wearing American uniforms. They seem to be a mixed bunch. Soldiers of fortune, perhaps."

"The Russians," said Learoyd. "That must be it. They're in the pay of the Russians."

"I shouldn't be surprised," said Finn. "However, knowing that won't help us much right now."

"What do they intend to do with us?" Ortheris said.

"I don't know," said Finn. "Question us, most likely. Find out about troop strength and the like, I should imagine."

"Well, we've got to figure some way out of here," Learoyd said. "Where do those stairs back there lead?"

"To a parapet overlooking the Khyber Pass," said Finn. "Forget it. There's no way down. And the door's too heavy for us to break through•"

"We'll have to try and jump them when they come for us," Learoyd said. "There's nothin' else for it. We haven't anythin' to lose."