He had to keep going. He had to keep struggling, forever hoping that some action he would take would result in a future scenario in which they did not send a team back after him. Meanwhile, he had to play it carefully. Sooner or later, he would prevail. The demands upon him were enormous, but he accepted that. Great men had to overcome great obstacles.
All right, he thought, time to bring things to a boil. Andre de la Croix was, by now, already at Torquilstone, in a position to move against De Bracy and Bois-Guilbert. That would deprive John of his two strongest allies. The Saxon leaders were in his hands, he could now clock them directly into De Bracy's dungeons. He reached under his bed, first deactivating the safety field on the chronoplate with his remote unit. He opened the case and began to assemble the border circuits. He wasn't quite through with Hooker yet.
Hooker would, indeed, be in a unique position. After all, how many men would ever know the exact manner of their death?
* * * *
Lucas and Hunter materialized in the exact center of the camp, so near to Alan-a-dale that he jumped a foot and promptly passed out.
"Ooops," said Hunter. "That was a little close, wasn't it?"
Lucas was too busy upchucking to reply. He was still a little weak and his stomach had reacted badly to the chronoplate.
"Sorry about that," said Hunter. "I would've floater-clocked us in, but I don't want to pull out any technology that might alert our friend. Someone might've spotted us coming in that way."
"Suppose I had clocked in right in his space," said Lucas, wiping his mouth and looking at the unconscious minstrel.
"Hey, you gotta bring some to get some, pilgrim. I'll try to be more careful from now on."
"I would appreciate that."
Within seconds of their dramatic appearance, they were surrounded by the merry men, who gazed at Hunter with a mixture of awe and fear. Delaney and Johnson, accompanied by Marion, pushed their way through. At the sight of Hunter, Finn's jaw dropped.
"What the—"
"Silence!" Hunter took out his .45 and fired into the ground at Delaney's feet. Finn jumped back, eyes wide. "Any insolence will be severely dealt with," said Hunter.
"Holy shit," said Bobby.
Hunter pointed the weapon at him and Bobby quickly raised his hands.
"What do you demand of us?" said Marion.
Finn and Bobby exchanged quick glances. They were profoundly relieved to see Lucas alive, but who in God's name was the guy with the automatic?
"Some of you know this man," said Hunter, scowling at the outlaws. They were clearly terrified of him. "He is the white knight, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. You are to give him shelter. You are to obey him as you would obey me. You are to say nothing of his presence here to anyone. You know the consequences."
They were all deathly silent.
"You. And you," said Hunter, pointing out Finn and Bobby. "Come with me." To Marion, he said, "See to it that we are not disturbed. The rest of you go on about your business."
* * * *
"A deserter with a chronoplate," said Finn. "Man, you must be living the life of Riley."
Hunter grinned. "It suits me."
"These men obviously know you," said Bobby. "If I was really Robin Hood, I suppose I would have known about you, too, but how is it that we've never even heard anyone mention you?"
"Fear," said Hunter. "It makes for an effective deterrent. It's not hard to preserve your anonymity in an age where there isn't much mobility, but I couldn't hope to hide from everyone. I put the fear of God into these people, or fear of the devil, if you prefer. I value my privacy, so I told them that there was a spell protecting me. Anyone who speaks of me aloud will be struck down, unless they're addressing me personally. And just to keep them in line, to remind them of the consequences of giving in to temptation, every so often I waste a couple of them. Something showy like laser beam decapitation or a pyrogel grenade."
"I guess that would do it," Finn said softly.
"You mean you just . . . kill a number of them . . . at random!" said Bobby, shocked.
"I told you, they killed my boys," said Hunter. "Why should I care about their lives? Besides, I've got a strong streak of self-preservation."
"Seems to me I've heard that phrase before," said Finn, glancing at Bobby.