“Yes, well, I suppose I could do that,” grumbled Darkness. He grunted. “Perhaps you’re right. Under the circumstances, I can’t expect you to cope with all of this yourself. Do you want me to find out what became of Steiger and Delaney, as well?”
“It could be important, Doc. Please.”
Darkness sighed. “Very well.” He grimaced wryly. “Do you think I could depend on you to remain in one place long enough for me to do that?”
“I’ll try to think good thoughts,” said Lucas, sarcastically.
“Yes, do,” s
aid Darkness. “I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared and almost immediately reappeared, standing directly behind Lucas.
“I’m back.”
Lucas jumped, startled. “God, don’t do that!” He took a deep breath. “You certainly cut it close. You only left about a second ago!”
“So?”
“So what if you’d arrived a second earlier and seen yourself leave?”
“So what? As long as I didn’t tell myself what I’d found out in order to save myself a trip so that I couldn’t have found out what I told myself I’d found out in the first place, it wouldn’t have caused any problems whatsoever.”
“Huh? You want to run .that past me again?”
“Never mind. The important thing is that you were correct in what you had surmised. Something did happen here. Miss Cross and Gulliver were abducted at gunpoint by some character right out of a Frank Sinatra movie.”
“Frank who?”
“Never mind. He looked like a 20th century gangster dressed by a Hollywood designer. His .45 automatic was what made the bullet hole you found. He shot at the bottle, apparently to impress them with the fact that he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot if they resisted. They seemed sufficiently impressed. He made them surrender their warp discs, then he replaced them with some he had brought with him. Evidently, they were pre-programmed with the desired transition co-ordinates.”
“What the hell is going on’?” said Lucas. “Where did they go?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Darkness said.
“Great,” said Lucas, with resignation. “Just great.”
“That isn’t all,” said Darkness. “I tached to the 27th century, as well, to check with your headquarters. I spoke briefly with Steiger.
There’s been an attempt on Forrester’s life. He’s critically wounded. Steiger’s had to remain at headquarters’ and assume command.”
“Good God,” said Lucas. “What happened?”
“Steiger said a renegade T.I.A. agent smuggled in a commando assault force in a briefcase and ...” Darkness stopped and frowned. “In a briefcase? No, wait, that can’t possibly be right…”
“Lilliputians!” Lucas said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Lilliput commandos!” Lucas said. “They murdered Steiger’s brother, right here in this very room. They were after Gulliver. They must have—”
“Wait a moment!” Darkness interrupted. “Lilliputians?, Gulliver’ I knew I’d heard that name somewhere before. You’re talking about a novel by Jonathan Swift, for God’s sake!”
“I can explain,” said Lucas. “You see, Gulliver encountered Swift after he escaped from Lilliput Island and—”
“Never mind,” Darkness said, holding up his hand to stop him. “This plot is becoming positively Byzantine. I’ll simply try to follow along as best I can.”
“Fine. What about Delaney?”