TW02 The Timekeeper Conspiracy NEW (24 page)

Finn was getting tired of alleys. He had been sitting in the dark alleyway across the street from the TIA house in the Rue Servadoni for hours and his legs were beginning to feel stiff. The smell was offending his nostrils and once someone with a second-floor window facing out onto the alley dumped a chamber pot out and the contents landed right next to Finn, missing him by inches. He had lasered several rats that had become too curious, but there was one big one, almost the size of a house cat, that proved to be too quick for him. Clearly regarding the alley as its turf, it was annoyed at his presence and twice it attacked him. The first time, it sank its teeth into his boot and he kicked it away. The second time, he fired at it with his laser, but missed. Thereafter, it remained in the shelter of a large pile of rotting garbage and he could see its lambent little eyes glaring at him malevolently. Finn occupied himself by spitting at it.

Mongoose hadn't moved. Finn knew he was inside, but he could do nothing but wait and watch the house. He wondered how Lucas was doing. Finn had called "Heads" and won the coin toss. He elected to remain behind. He had tried to read Lucas's expression then, but whatever he had been feeling, Priest had hidden it well. Finn wondered what he had felt. They both knew that he had chosen the more dangerous course. Finn knew that Lucas, had he won, would have done the same. He wondered if he would ever be seeing him again.

He hated times like this, times when he was alone and inac-tive, with time to think. Liquor helped at such times and he had none now. Wine only gave him headaches if he drank too much of it. It never numbed his nerves.

There was a scratching, scuttling sound that came quickly toward him and he glanced up in time to see the huge rat scrabbling closer. It froze when it saw him looking at it and its feral gaze met his. Finn spat at it and hit it squarely in the snout. It squealed angrily and darted back into its pile of rotting garbage.

"If you had any class at all, you'd spit right back," said Finn, meeting the rat's ferocious gaze. He tried to stare it down, then realized what a ridiculous thing he was doing and looked back at the house across the street.

Mongoose had just walked out the door. He almost missed him.

They made another two hours of hard riding before Aramis said that he could go no further. He had lost some blood and he was pale. It was all he could do to remain in the saddle until they reached Crevecoeur, where they left him at a cabaret with Bazin to look after him.

Lucas had refused to discuss the matter of Delaney's sud-denly becoming a blonde with Hawk One and, after press-ing him several times without success, the floater became strangely silent. It made Lucas very apprehensive. There was no further communication with Hawk One until they reached the inn of the Lis d'Or.

They arrived at about midnight and the innkeeper, dressed in nightgown and nightcap and carrying a candle, received them solicitously, but apologized for having only two rooms, at opposite ends of the hotel. Athos found this suspicious, but it was decided that he and D'Artagnan would share one room while Monsieur Dumas and Andre shared the other. As a further safeguard, Grimaud was ordered to sleep in the stables with the horses and Planchet firmly announced his intention to protect his master by sleeping on a pile of straw before his door. Shortly after they had separated to go to their rooms, Lucas heard the floater's voice inside his ear.

"All right, Priest, you're going to have a visitor in a little while. It'll be one of us, so don't get
twitchy. You've got some explaining to do."

Lucas warned Andre and they settled down to wait. He had no idea what to expect. Just in case, they both kept their weapons ready. Twenty minutes passed and Lucas began to feel very nervous; then there was a soft knock at their door.

"It's open," Lucas said.

The door opened and a man dressed in a red doublet and black cloak entered. He paused when he saw Lucas holding his laser pointed at him and he looked long and hard at Andre. Then he slowly turned around and closed the door behind him.

"The name's Cobra," he said, "and spare me the wise-cracks. I'm the number-two agent on this operation." He took another long look at Andre. "You want to tell me about it?"

"Sure," said Lucas. "What do you want to know?"

"Don't get cute. What's
she
doing here? Where's Delaney?"

"Back in Paris."

"Why?"

"He's got saddle sores."

The agent stared at him silently for a moment. "You're not in any position to play games, Captain.

Mongoose has disap-peared and now I find out that Delaney stayed behind in Paris. The last time anyone saw
her,"
he said, glancing at Andre, "one of our agents got burned. Now I'm giving you the chance to explain. I'm trying to be reasonable. I don't much like what I'm thinking, so you'd better set my mind at ease and do it fast."

Lucas sat silently for a moment, debating. He took a deep breath.

"Suppose you don't believe my explanation?"

"Make me believe it. I'm willing to listen."

"All right," said Lucas, "but you're not going to like it."

"Try me."

"There's good reason to believe that this ride is nothing but a smokescreen. The terrorists never intended to interfere with the musketeers. We're all being decoyed away from where the real disruption is going to occur.''

"Who's decoying us away?"

"Mongoose," Lucas said. "He's either been a double agent all along or he's gone over to the Timekeepers."

"You're right," said Cobra, "I don't like it. You can't seri-ously expect me to believe that?"

"I didn't think you would," said Lucas. "That's why Finn stayed behind in Paris, to keep an eye on him. Mongoose was followed to a secret meeting with Bruno Freytag and—"

"Followed by
whom?"

Lucas sighed. "Andre followed him."

The agent snorted. "That's your proof? You've just made one whale of an accusation, Mister. You're going to have to come up with better evidence than that."

"I can't," said Lucas. "At least, not now. I told you, I didn't expect you to believe me. But suppose, just for one mo-ment, that Mongoose went over. Where would that leave you? What would be my motive for lying to you?"

"Well, let's suppose that
you
went over," Cobra said. "We know that Delaney, at least, has some sympathy for the league. And you were out of the service for a period of time. Who knows what you were doing? Not to mention the fact that you're here with someone who burned one of our agents."

"She did that in self-defense and you know it," Lucas said, angrily. "Besides, you know our records.

They speak for themselves."

"So does Mongoose's."

"All right, then, pull us off the mission," Lucas said. "But ask yourself why, if I'm not on the level, I haven't taken ad-vantage of all the opportunities I've had to sabotage this mis-sion. Finn and I could easily have taken Mongoose out. We could easily have killed any one of the musketeers or even all of them. Besides, you picked us for this mission. Can you af-ford to take the chance that I'm not telling you the truth? Can you afford not to check it out?"

"You're putting me in a very bad position, Priest." The agent thought a moment. Lucas found that his palms were sweating. Finally, Cobra nodded. "You're right," he said. "I can't afford to take the chance.

All right. I'll take some men and return to Paris. It means pulling some people off this operation and I don't like that. You'd damn well better be right."

"Fine," said Lucas. "Let's go."

"You're not going anywhere," said Cobra. "You two are going to finish out this ride. You'll be covered every inch of the way. You make one wrong move and you've both had it, understand? And I'll take those lasers."

He held his hand out, palm up.

"No way," said Lucas.

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you," the agent said. "You want me to stick my neck way out for you.

You're asking me to consider your position; well, I'm asking you to consider mine. You'll still have your daggers and your rapiers, but after this, I'd have to be insane to let you keep your lasers. Now let's have them."

Lucas licked his lips nervously and glanced at Andre.

"He is only asking for a gesture of good faith," she said.

"He's asking a lot more than that," said Lucas, "but I'm afraid I see his point."

He reversed his laser and handed it over. Andre did the same.

"Okay," said Cobra. "I'll take some men and leave right away. Where can I find Delaney?"

"I don't know," said Lucas. "He's probably trailing Mon-goose, wherever he is."

"He still wearing his comset?"

"I doubt it," Lucas said. "With Mongoose in charge, he would be wide open if he was transmitting.

Which reminds me, just how far do these things go?" he said, pointing at his throat.

"Not to Paris, if that's what you're thinking. They're short-range. Assuming what you're saying is true, and Mongoose is a renegade, Delaney will have every reason to expect hostility from us. Can you think of anything that I can do to convince him that I'm giving you a chance to prove your allegations?"

Lucas thought a moment. "Yeah. Tell him that I wish he had called 'Tails.' He'll know what it means."

Finn followed Mongoose to the same alley in the Rue Ferou where Andre had seen him confer with Freytag. Mongoose was being sloppy. He didn't expect anyone to be on his trail, so he didn't even bother to check to see if he was being fol-lowed. Just the same, Finn gave him plenty of room. It was late and the darkness made it easier. As the agent stepped into the alley, Finn quickly ran across the street.

He would be in good position to fire at them in the alley, but then he'd have no idea where Taylor was.

He debated the question of whether or not to go for the sure thing and kill the two of them now, hoping to catch Taylor on his own, or follow them to Taylor and try taking them out all at once.

It was tempting. All he had to do was step into the mouth of the alley and sweep it quickly with the laser and it would be all over for Mongoose and Freytag. But then it would mean cutting it very close with Taylor. Finn's cover did not gain him admission to the palace, whereas Taylor's did. He'd either have to sneak into the palace somehow and catch "Milady" inside, which would be next to impossible considering the odds, or get Taylor before he went into the palace, and there was no way of knowing for certain which entrance he would use. Finn could not cover all of them at once.

Staying low and keeping to the shadows, Finn glanced into the alley. He could just barely make out two shapes in there. The big one had to be Freytag. On the floor directly above him, a man and a woman were screaming at each other and there was the occasional crash of crockery. The noise made it impossible for him to overhear anything that went on inside the alley. He cursed the quarreling couple, but didn't want to risk getting any closer. He felt the laser in his right hand and wished that he could get it over with right now, but he fought down the impulse to fire. Two of them would not be good enough.

He'd have to get all three. He steeled himself and waited. They would lead him to Taylor. They
had
to.

"All right, let's do it," Mongoose said.

Freytag smiled. "Sure. Anything you say. Adrian would just love to see you."

Mongoose looked down at the slim laser in Freytag's hand. It was aimed directly at his midsection.

"What the hell is this?"

"Just don't move a muscle, friend, or I'll fry your guts right here," said Freytag, reaching out with his other hand and pat-ting him down. He relieved Mongoose of his weapon.

"I thought we had a deal," said Mongoose,

"Immunity from prosecution and a blanket pardon in return for handing Taylor over to you personally?" Freytag chuckled. "That's not what I call a very attractive deal. It won't put any money in my pocket."

"How much do you want?"

"You must really take me for a fool," said Freytag. "Once you had Taylor, you'd hang me, as well.

You should've tried your pitch on Darcy. He might've been stupid enough to go for it; but then, he's dead."

"Don't be a fool, Bruno. You'll never get away with this."

"Who's to stop me?" Freytag said. "You wanted Taylor to yourself so badly that you sent all your people off on a wild goose chase. Your own colossal ego did you in, Mongoose. If not for that, you might've stopped us, but you blew it. You did just what Taylor said you would. You know, I didn't believe him. I told him that nobody could be that stupid. But here you are."

Casually, Mongoose reached up as if to scratch himself. Freytag slapped his hand down.

"You go for that panic button one more time and you've had it," he said.

"Taylor wouldn't like that," Mongoose said. "I'm sure he'd be real disappointed if you didn't bring me in alive."

"I'm sure he would be, but nothing says I gotta bring you in with both your hands still attached to your wrists."

"I'm afraid you've got a point," said Mongoose.

"All right. Now we're going to take a little walk. You walk in front of me, nice and easy. I'll tell you where to go. And don't get any ideas. You try anything and I'll burn your legs off at the knees and carry you the rest of the way. Now let's go."

Finn could hardly see inside the alley. Occasionally, he would catch some motion in there, but it was hard to make out what was happening. There was a fresh burst of screaming from the couple fighting upstairs and a crash as a thrown footstool hurtled through the window and out into the alley. Finn ducked down, quickly. When he looked up, both men had moved out into the center of the alley and were silhouetted as they walked out the other end. He followed, keeping at a distance.

They went several blocks, walking casually down the street until they came to a familiar neighborhood. With a shock, Finn realized that they were heading straight toward Moreau's Tavern.

They passed the entrance to the tavern and went into the house right beside it.

"Jesus Christ," said Finn. "They were that close all the time!"