TW06 The Khyber Connection NEW (21 page)

"I see I wasn't needed," Darkness said.

They looked up to find him standing in front of them.

He wasn't entirely substantial. The stars in the night sky could be seen through his body and he seemed to shimmer in the dark. He looked exhausted.

"You two look a mess," he said.

"How did you find us?" Andre said.

"I had to search the entire surrounding area at light speed," Darkness said. "I was still too late, wasn't I? I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. I'm a doctor, for Christ's sake, not a commando. Remind me to give you both symbiotracers so I won't have to search all over creation every time the two of you get into a jam. I need to go home and rest."

"What's happening in the pass?" said Finn.

"I've done all I can. The rest is up to Forrester and Phoenix."

"Phoenix?" said Andre. "Who's Phoenix?"

But Darkness was already gone.

The pipes of the Gordon Highlanders could be heard skirling in the distance as the Tirah Expeditionary Force came through the Khyber Pass. Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney stood upon the parapet of their cell, looking out into the distance, where they could see the well formed lines of the British troops advancing.

"They're marching right into a trap," Learoyd said, "and we're helpless to do anything to warn them!"

"Bloody Ghazis mean for us to see 'em cut to ribbons, an' then they'll come back an' take care of us," said Ortheris.

Behind them they heard the bolt to the cell door being drawn back.

"Right," said Mulvaney. "It's all or nothin', lads. Let's show these 'eathens what fightin' men are made of!"

They ran down to the door and as it opened, grabbed the tribesman who came through, and twisted the rifle out of his hands.

"No, Sahib! No!"

"Christ!" said Mulvaney. "It's Din!"

"Good ol' Din," said Ortheris. "Look 'ere, he's done a couple of 'em what for!"

Two dead tribesmen lay in the corridor outside.

Gunga Din opened his robe and produced several knives and pistols, then took the rifles away from the two dead tribesmen.

"You use these, yes?" he said. "We fight well, save soldiers!"

"Bless your 'eart, Din," said Mulvaney. "We'll fight 'em, all right."

"We'll never get to them in time," Learoyd said. "They'll spring the trap and our lads will be caught in a crossfire before we can ever break free of this blasted temple!"

Din ran up the steps to the parapet and looked down.

He could see the troops below, marching in formation, and above them in the rocks on both sides of the pass, white robed Ghazis waiting for the signal to spring their trap. He reached into the folds of his robe and pulled out his battered bugle. He raised it to his lips and sounded Retreat. The shrill notes of the bugle call echoed in the pass, and the bagpipes stopped their playing. Din inhaled deeply and blew again.

The door to the cell burst open and armed tribesmen burst through. Mulvaney shot one down, then clubbed another with his rifle. Learoyd crossed knives with one; the two sword-like blades filled the cell with a clanging counterpoint to the bugle call. Ortheris brought two tribesmen down with his pistol, but still more came running into the cell.

"Blow, Din!" yelled Learoyd. "Blow for all you're worth, soldier!"

Din heard Learoyd call him soldier and his face broke into a wide grin. He raised the bugle to his lips once more and played with all his heart. Then the first bullet took him in the back. Several of the tribesmen who had broken into the cell had raised their rifles and fired at him again and again. Learoyd cut one down. Ortheris shot another, but Din took at least five more bullets before Mulvaney threw himself bodily against the other riflemen and forced the door shut, leaning against it and holding it closed with all his might. Ortheris joined him to lend his weight to the door.

Gunga Din sounded three more pathetic, broken notes then fell forward, draped over the wall of the parapet.

Learoyd reached him just in time to save him from going over. He pulled him back and laid him gently on the floor. Din's back and chest were a bloody ruin.

Blood frothed his lips. He stared up at Learoyd and smiled.

"Din do well, Sahib?"

The troops below had dispersed and taken cover as the Ghazis started firing indiscriminately. It would be a long and drawn-out battle, but their ambush had failed.

Learoyd looked down at Gunga Din, his lips drawn tight.

"You did well, soldier. You did damn bloody well."

He saluted him.

Din coughed twice and attempted to raise his own hand to return the salute, but it fell back lifelessly onto the floor.

"You're a better man than I am. Gunga Din," Learoyd said softly. He reached forward and closed the Hindu's sightless eyes.

There was a knock at the cell door. Mulvaney and Ortheris, leaning all their combined weight against it, stared at each other.

"Who's there?" said Ortheris.

"What do you mean, who's there?" Mulvaney said. "Who in bloody 'Ell d'you think is there, you stupid sod?"

"You just can't help some people," Finn's voice came from the other side of the door. "You get 'em out of trouble, and like idiots they go barging right back in."

"Blimey!" said Mulvaney. They opened the door and saw Finn and Andre standing amidst a pile of Ghazi corpses.

"You boys ready to leave now?" said Finn. "Or were you planning on setting up housekeeping?"

"You're wounded, sir," said Ortheris. "And you, Miss Cross!"

"It isn't serious," said Andre. "Come on, we'd better get you out of here."

"Holy jumping Christ!" Learoyd shouted from the parapet. "Take a look at this!"

Below and to their left, around the bend of the pass, a wild battle was raging between the Ghazis and the British troops. Below and to their right, armed men clad in field-gray uniforms began appearing as if from out of nowhere, materializing out of thin air. The moment they started coming through. Forrester's division, hidden in the rocks above, opened fire. The pass below them became a deadly latticework of laser beams.

"I must be dreamin'," said Mulvaney, looking down. "What in God's name is goin' on down there?"

Ortheris was speechless. He could only stare, slack-jawed, at a sight he couldn't comprehend. The troops from the alternate timeline didn't stand a chance. Forrester had employed the same tactics against them that the Ghazis had hoped to use against the British troops, and the gray-uniformed soldiers could only ineffectually return the fire sporadically as they came through and died. Then, suddenly, the men stopped coming through.

Stability had been restored to the scenario and the rippling effect moved on. The confluence point shifted and those caught coming through at that precise instant screamed as they were caught between the timelines, materializing momentarily only to disappear again, trapped forever in the limbo of non-specific time known as the dead zone. It hadn't lasted more than several minutes. Forrester's men ceased fire while just out of sight, around the bend in the pass, the echoing thunder of rifle shots continued as the British engaged the Ghazis.

"What did we just see, lads?" said Learoyd. "What in the name of heaven were all those lights? Who were those men?"

"What men?" said Finn.

"What lights?" said Andre.

Learoyd turned to look at them, dumbfounded. "But you were standin' right here! Surely you saw them?"

"Saw who?" said Finn. "Learoyd, what are you talking about? Are you all right?"

"It must have been the strain," said Andre.

"Strain!" said Learoyd. "Mulvaney, you tell them! You saw it!"

Mulvaney looked from Learoyd to Finn and Andre. "Saw what, Chris?"

"Those lights! Those men!"

Mulvaney licked his lips. "I didn't see no lights, mate."

"You lying ... Stanley! You saw it, didn't you? You must have seen it!"

Ortheris looked away guiltily.

"Come on, Chris," said Andre, holding out her hand to him. "It'll be all right. It's over now."

Learoyd looked from Mulvaney to Ortheris to Finn and Andre, then drew himself up. "Right. Fine. It was all a bloody hallucination then, was it? A damned mirage? We didn't see a bloomin' thing, right? Right. Fine. Splendid. Let's get the hell out of here."

Phoenix didn't waste any time. He killed the guards in front of Drakov's headquarters and moved fast, running across the courtyard and into the main house. He was dressed like a Ghazi, so the women in the main chamber paid him no mind as he headed for the upstairs section. He met Sadullah coming down the stairs, but the mullah took no notice of him. His face was as white as his hair as he hurried to the scene of battle.

Phoenix took the stairs two at a time. He peered cautiously around the corner, looking into the main room on the second floor. There was nothing there except for the opulent furnishings, the tapestries and the thick rugs and the cushions. He glanced at the balcony facing out over the pass and saw Drakov standing there, his back to him. He took aim with his disruptor and fired.

The figure on the balcony became briefly enveloped in blue mist and then was gone. Phoenix walked into the room and suddenly felt powerful arms around him. The disruptor was twisted from his grasp and he was thrown to the floor. Drakov stood behind him, wearing the clothes of one of his guards.

"I knew you'd be back for me, Martingale," he said. "Or is that really your name? You were with them all along, weren't you? Right from the beginning."

"It's over, Nikolai," said Phoenix. "Your people have lost."

"I expected as much when I didn't find any of them at the temple," Drakov said. "And when Priest did not contact me, I guessed that you had somehow foiled his attempt on Churchill's life, as well. And that means the entire plan's collapsed. No point in going on. They underestimated you, but they won't do so again. It isn't over. The war has only just begun."

"What's in it for you, Nikolai? They're not your people. You belong in this timeline."

Drakov shook his head. "I do not belong anywhere," he said. "I must make my own world and find a place in it. And through this new conflict, I shall succeed. You are a survivor. Martingale, but then, so am I. We could have accomplished unimaginable things together, but you chose to serve the enemy instead. So be it. We shall see which of us survives in the end. Meanwhile the game continues."

With a smile he threw the disruptor on the floor in front of Phoenix, and before the startled agent could react, Drakov had clocked out.

"Son a bitch," said Phoenix. "He's out of his fucking mind, but the bastard's got style."

He picked up the disruptor and made a thorough search of the house, destroying whatever modern weapons and equipment he could find. He discovered a hideous thing in the tower and put it out of its misery. Then, having done all he could think of doing, he took one last look around at the year 1897 and went home.

The attack on Blood's brigade lasted for six hours.

The British soldiers held and the Ghazis finally retired before the devastating, superior firepower of the troops.

The losses among the British were astonishingly slight, considering the ferocity of the onslaught. The most serious losses were among the horses and transport animals.

The Ghazis left behind over 700 corpses. General Elles arrived with his brigade the following day, and the Bedmanai Pass was forced. The rebellion in the northern sector of the frontier was broken.

Winston Churchill never discovered what became of Finn Delaney and Andre Cross. One moment they were both pinning him down to the ground, the next they were gone without a trace. He searched for them and made inquiries, but they were nowhere to be found and it was assumed that they were carried off and killed by Ghazis. Their bodies were never recovered. Churchill was tempted to mention them both in his dispatches, but two things prevented him from doing so. One was that he recalled the promise he had made to Andre Cross to respect her privacy; the other was that it was later discovered there was no subaltern by the name of Finn Delaney on the lists. It was suspected that he had committed some sort of crime and had assumed a new identity in order to escape its consequences. The officers of Blood's brigade agreed that whoever and whatever else he might have been, the man they knew as Finn Delaney died a hero.

General Lockhart defeated the forces of Sayyid Akbar after a fierce battle and continued on with the Tirah Expeditionary Force to crush the uprising of the Pathans. He brought the tribes to their knees and they submitted, surrendering their weapons and paying the fines the British Raj imposed. Sayyid Akbar was never found. Sadullah, likewise, had escaped. The swift action of a specially formed Search and Retrieve Unit from the 27th century prevented the British troops from discovering the bodies of soldiers wearing strange gray uniforms and carrying weapons that would have defied any explanation. The confluence point had shifted, and in that period of history at least, temporal stability had been restored.

Privates Learoyd, Ortheris, and Mulvaney were decorated for bravery, and a special, posthumous decoration was given to the Hindu
bhisti
, Gunga Din. He was buried as a British soldier, with full military honors.

None of the three of them ever mentioned seeing anything unusual in the Khyber Pass, although when Mulvaney got drunk, he was sometimes heard to mumble about "them bloody lights." None of them ever mentioned an officer named Finn Delaney either. Before Finn left them to "escort Andre back to Peshawar and on her return journey to England," he "confessed" to them that he was a deserter, wanted for a certain crime, and that it would be best for him if they did not mention his name. As men who were well-known for not being overfond of regulations, the three soldiers agreed to keep the secret. The only inquiries ever conducted were those made by Chris Learoyd on his return to England.

He made a determined effort to locate a young woman named Miss Andre Cross, but he never found her.

The services were held for Major Lucas Priest in front of the Wall of Honor, where his name had been added to the list of those members of the First Division who had died in combat. The entire division had turned out in full dress, and Forrester, wearing his many decorations, delivered the eulogy. Director General Vargas was present and he awarded Priest a posthumous decoration, the Medal of Honor, the oldest and highest award a soldier could receive. At the close of the service, Forrester called the men to attention and Director General Vargas came forward to address them.