“I’m waiting for a question, sir.”
Vargas smiled. “How very diplomatic of you, Colonel. Very well, then. How is it that the finest officer under your command is teamed with a man who has one of the worst records of offences in the entire Temporal Corps, a man who in civilian life might well have been a convicted felon?”
“With all due respect, sir,” said Forrester, “there is absolutely no evidence to support such a conclusion. Granted, Lieutenant Delaney has a disastrous disciplinary record. Calling him a maverick would be a gross understatement. However, I would like to point out that every one of his disciplinary offences occurred in Plus Time, not in the field on the Minus side. And, frankly, I am far more concerned with his performance in the field. I would also like to underscore the nature of those offences.”
“Drunk and disorderly,” said Vargas. “Numerous incidences of direct disobedience to specific orders. Even more numerous incidences of striking superior officers. Insubordination. Etcetera, etcetera.”
“Exactly my point, sir,” said Forrester, wondering where the discussion was leading. The director general was clearly familiar with the records. The question was, why should he have taken the trouble? What could possibly be so important that the director general of the Referee Corps would personally review the dossiers of an adjustment team?
“I don’t dispute that Lieutenant Delaney holds the record for the most reductions in grade of any soldier in the Temporal Corps,” he continued. “But that’s only looking at it one way. He also holds the record for the most promotions for outstanding service in the field. There are soldiers, such as Lieutenant Colonel Priest, who possess qualities and temperaments that make them excellent officers in the field as well as on the parade ground, if you follow my meaning.”
Vargas nodded.
“Others, such as Lieutenant Delaney, possess qualities and temperaments that clash violently with the exigencies of the military infrastructure.” Forrester paused. “This does not necessarily make them bad soldiers. In some cases, these are people whose abilities are under-utilised, who possess personality traits that result in their being suffocated by military bureaucracy. Their personalities render it difficult, if not impossible, for them to follow the orders of officers who are superior to them only in rank. Yet at the same time, these are people who would be even less comfortable in civilian life. They are soldiers first and foremost. In the proper role, and with the right commander, they can excel.”
“Meaning no offence, Colonel,” Vargas said, “but are you quite certain such a description fits Lieutenant Delaney?”
“Like a glove, sir. You can’t take a man like Delaney and put him behind a desk. He’s a veteran of numerous temporal campaigns. If you demand parade ground spit and polish of him, and expect him to jump like a monkey on a stick every time some light colonel half his age says “Boo,” you have a ripe candidate for a court-martial. On the other hand, if you put him in the field where he belongs and give him an opportunity to show initiative, you have a T. E. Lawrence or an Otto Skorzeny. If Delaney wasn’t worth his weight in gold as a commando, I’d have had his ass a long time ago—begging your pardon, sir. The fact that he coldcocks an occasional first lieutenant fresh out of OCS, or gets into a drunken barroom brawl, is of less interest to me than the fact that he’s a first-rate soldier when the chips are down. You can’t take a fighting cock and put him in a henhouse and expect him to lay eggs. If I want a man in the field calling the shots, I’ll pick Priest. If I want someone at my back, I’ll take Delaney. If I can have them both, I’ll bring you results, as their record shows.”
Vargas smiled. “A most impressive argument, Colonel. According to the records, you have interceded for Lieutenant Delaney in almost every case. I was curious to hear your reasons.”
“And having heard them?” said Forrester.
“Having heard them, I am satisfied,” said Vargas. “Which brings us to the third member of this team, Sergeant Cross. Her dossier makes for truly remarkable reading. A 12th century woman relocated to the present and programmed with a modern education. Fascinating. Official records aside, however, what is your personal opinion of her?”
Forrester smiled. “Frankly, sir, if I were seventy years younger, I’d be tempted to take a highly personal interest in Sergeant Cross. She’s sharp, quick thinking, possesses a high degree of initiative, and is utterly fear-less. She grew up an orphan in the 12th century, totally disadvantaged, yet she managed to become literate, at least by the standards of her time, and to survive in a hostile society. She fights as well as any man and better than most. She’s highly adaptable, so much so that she can, and has, easily passed as a man in male-dominated societies. She is the only case of Plus Time temporal relocation on record, and the fact that she is where she is speaks for itself in regard to her abilities. The three of them together function as a well-integrated whole. Whatever it is they are being considered for, sir, I can give them my unqualified endorsement, but I can tell you right now that I’d fight like hell against having them removed from under my command. I’d stake my life on those three. In fact, I have.”
“Excellent,” said Vargas. “I am satisfied that we have selected the right people for the job. I merely wanted to reassure myself by speaking
with you, because this time a great deal more than just your life may depend on their performance, Colonel. If they fail, we may all die.
The mission briefing was held in Forrester’s quarters, not in one of the briefing rooms, as was usually the case. Forrester’s orderly was not present. There were only the four of them. The three commandos were dressed in black Temporal Army base fatigues, bare except for their insignia of rank on narrow black armbands and their division insignia, a stylised number I bisected by the symbol of infinity, pinned to their collars. Forrester was still wearing his full dress uniform, having sent for them immediately following the director general’s departure. Since their commander always dressed in black base fatigues and never wore his many decorations, the sight of him in what Delaney referred to as “full goose turnout” had their curiosity aroused.
They sat around the table, drinking coffee, while Forrester stood. It was not unusual for them to sit in the presence of their commanding officer. Forrester preferred to stand while conducting briefings, so that he could pace back and forth, a practice he claimed helped him think more clearly.
Lucas Priest somehow managed to look as if he were sitting erect, even while he leaned back against the sofa cushions. His fatigues were crisply pressed and his dark brown hair neatly combed. He was slender and fit, the perfect incarnation of an officer and a gentleman. His left eye was natural, his right bionic, though not even the closest physical inspection would have revealed the difference.
Andre Cross was a tall young woman with straw-blonde hair. Her outward symmetry belied the fact that she possessed unusually broad shoulders for a female, her uniform masking her extremely well developed muscularity. She was more striking than attractive, with the graceful poise of a natural athlete and a calm self-assurance in her bearing.
By contrast, Finn Delaney had the outward appearance of a lout. The burly, redheaded Irishman had the physique and posture of a bear and a face that seemed constantly on the verge of an insolent grin, even when he was serious. His uniform looked as if he had slept in it—he often did—and the top of his blouse was unfastened, as usual, revealing a massive and thickly corded neck. In any other unit he would have been a walking invitation to be placed on report. He had spent his entire adult life in the service, a testimony more to obstinacy than to aptitude, but after years of serving on the front lines in the regular corps in battles throughout time, he had finally found a commander who understood how to put his unique capabilities to use.
“What I am about to tell you is classified information,” said Forrester. “You will report to mission programming directly following this briefing and clock out to your assignment from there. There is to be no discussion of this mission with anyone, repeat, anyone outside this room. Clear?”
“Yes, sir,” they said.
“I have just concluded a meeting with the director general of the Referee Corps,” Forrester said. Even Delaney sat up. “He has personally reviewed your dossiers, which should give you some indication of the gravity of this situation. I’ll make it brief. Recently an arbitration action was conducted in Afghanistan in the year 1897, during the Pathan revolt. Background of the conflict between the British Raj and the frontier mountain tribesmen is as follows:
“The British annexed the Punjab territory to their Indian Empire in the year 1849. The move was predicated upon what Britain referred to as her ‘Forward Policy,’ which entailed a gradual extension and consolidation of British influence into the frontier, chiefly to create a so-called “buffer state” between the British Raj in India and what was considered to be likely Russian expansionism. British military campaigns in the Hindu Kush range of Afghanistan resulted partly from concern that Russian control of the area would give them a direct invasion route into India and partly from a desire to pacify the region and curtail invasions into the Punjab of plundering mountain tribesmen. The Pathan tribes recognised no law other than their own and that of the Koran, as imparted to them by tribal holy men who frequently used it to serve their own purposes.
“In the years following the annexation, the Royal Indian Army conducted over fifty punitive campaigns against the Pathans, a situation complicated by there being some half a dozen major independent Pathan tribes on the frontier and dozens of smaller Pathan groups who either gave their allegiance to one of the larger tribes, or to the British, or fought amongst themselves, depending on what side of the bed they got out of that morning. With so many armed conflicts going on, it was decided that the period made a good scenario for conducting temporal arbitration actions.
“During one such campaign, Search and Retrieve units clocked in following a battle between soldiers of the Royal Indian Army and Afridi tribesmen. In recovering the bodies of temporal soldiers who had been infiltrated into the British ranks, S & R found the body of one Sergeant Thomas Court. Court had apparently dragged himself up into the rocks to hide from Ghazi tribesmen who were butchering the wounded. Found next to him was the body of an Afridi tribesman. They evidently killed each other. Now here’s where it gets interesting.”
“With the exception of clothing and colouring, the two bodies were alike in virtually every respect. As he was dying, Court had assumed a curious posture with the index finger of his right hand pressed up against his temple and his other hand pointing at the head of the dead tribesmen. The S & R team leader realised Court had tried to leave a message. He thought Court might have been attempting to indicate an implant in the body of his twin, but their scan did not reveal one. Despite that, the team leader took a gamble and risked clocking back with both bodies so that an investigation could be conducted. An autopsy revealed the presence of an implant, but it was calibrated to a different frequency than standard Temporal Corps implants, which is why S & R’s scanning equipment didn’t register it. More significantly, both bodies had the same fingerprints and the same retinal patterns. A thorough biochemical analysis revealed that the two bodies were identical right down to the DNA. They were both the same man.”
“That isn’t possible,” said Delaney. “That would involve a temporal paradox.”
“Which is precisely why the findings were checked several times and then reported directly to the Referee Corps,” said Forrester. “There was no question. Moreover, the dark pigmentation of the dead Afridi’s skin and the slightly larger nose were both discovered to be the result of minor cosmetic surgery procedures. Both bodies were Thomas Court.”