“So you’re saying you’re going with whichever way the wind blows,” Finn said.
“I’m following the orders of my superiors,” said Cobra. “I’m not asking you to do anything other than what you’ve been ordered to do. I realize that you have a lot of leeway in interpreting those orders. I’m only asking you to exercise that option.” He paused to field-strip his cigarette. “Frankly, I think that all any of us can do is go through the motions. I’m convinced that a temporal split is inevitable. There’s simply been too much temporal pollution. We can’t control it any more. It’s like riding a runaway horse. You can’t stop it, all you can do is try to stay in the saddle.”
“There’s just one problem with that kind of thinking,” Lucas said. “It presupposes that there’s already been so much interference with historical events that a breakdown in the timestream is unavoidable. If that’s the case, we might as well give up and go home. The point, to follow your analogy, is not to concentrate on staying in the saddle, but to keep the horse from taking the bit between its teeth and running away with you in the first place. How the hell do you expect to function if you believe that the outcome has already been decided?”
“You continue to function because there’s nothing else to do,” said Cobra. “You think about it too much and you won’t be able to function at all. For instance, have you considered the possibility that there might already have been a timestream split at some point in the past and that we’re part of it?”
“Then why aren’t there two of each of us around?” said Finn.
Cobra smiled. “You never know,” he said. “When you get back, maybe there will be.”
“Maybe,” said Lucas. “That might very well depend on what we do about Mongoose.”
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Cobra said. “You open to a proposition?”
“We’ll listen,” Finn said.
“I can’t trust my own people,” Cobra said, “but I can trust the two of you. If the new director is made to back off and covert operations continues being autonomous, the investigation will be called off and my problem will be solved. If it goes the other way, I’m still duty-bound to deliver Mongoose, but there might be people in my team with orders to eliminate him if that happens. In that event, I’ll need help.”
“What’s your proposal?” Finn said.
“I think that I can see a way out of our present predicament,” said Cobra. “You want Mongoose stopped, neutralized before he does something to screw up your mission. I want him alive and I don’t want to interfere with you doing your job as you see it. I think that I may have a line on Mongoose, but my hands are tied right now. As a result, I can’t help you. However, I can misdirect my own people. I’ll be taking a chance, but I think I can pull it off. I also think that I can apprehend Mongoose within a matter of days. I propose to do just that, as soon as possible, and then hand him over to you.”
“There’s only one problem with that idea,” Lucas said. “We can’t protect him for you and continue with this adjustment at the same time. The Scarlet Pimpernel still has work to do. We won’t be able to guarantee
his safety.”
“You can if I give you a chronoplate,” said Cobra. “I’ll stay here with Finn and help him to continue doing the Pimpernel’s work. You and Andre can take the chronoplate and, with Mongoose in your custody, you can get lost.”
“You’re asking us to desert,” said Lucas.
“No, just to go A.W.O.L. for a while.”
“Really?” Finn said. “Who gets to explain their sudden disappearance to Fitzroy?”
“Leave that to me,” said Cobra.
“Forget it, we’re leaving nothing to you,” said Finn. “We came here to do a job and all you’ve done since you arrived is complicate things. This would have been a simple adjustment mission, inasmuch as any mission can be simple, if it wasn’t for the TIA. All you guys were ever meant to do was gather historical intelligence to compensate for inaccuracies and omissions in the books and that’s it, period. Somewhere along the line, you decided to become historical policemen. I find the idea that your people might have a Referee or two in their pocket frankly frightening. Next thing you know, the agency is going to start getting involved in arbitration conflicts. Maybe you people should change your initials to CIA or KGB. They did much the same sort of thing before one became a multinational corporation and the other became a monarchy.”
“I can well understand your frustration, Finn, but I don’t set agency policy, you know.”
“You just got through telling us that you’re the only one in a position to do just that on this adjustment,” Finn said. “Do you know what you’re doing or are you just making all this up as you go along?”
“I take it you’re refusing to cooperate, then?” said Cobra.
“You take it wrong, Agent Cobra,” said Delaney. “ You’re the one who’s refusing to cooperate. If I wasn’t convinced that there might actually be a real threat to Fitzroy’s life, I’d tell him exactly what you’re doing. I’ll give you one thing, you’ve demonstrated that Mongoose must be taken alive, if for no other reason than that the new Observer-backed administration of your agency needs to learn who’s really been calling the shots all this time.”
“I see no conflict there,” said Cobra.
“Well then, I’ll make a deal with you,” said Finn, “and we can stop all this nonsense. Lucas and I will agree to back off and leave Mongoose to you provided that you stop wasting your time shadowing us, get onto Mongoose, and either arrest him or make certain that he doesn’t sabotage this mission. Tell us who your suspect is. We won’t move against him without any proof, but at least we can watch him and work around him.”
“Or else?” said Cobra.
“Or else we grab him ourselves the moment we have an opportunity and turn him over to Fitzroy, who’ll clock him out before your people have a chance to do much more than widen their eyes in surprise. And that’s my proposition.”
Cobra smiled. “That makes a good deal of sense,” he said. “There’s really only one slight problem with that idea.”
“I somehow had a feeling that there might be,” Finn said.