“I’m not exactly sure.” said Steiger. “But we’ve all beenblown somehow. Like I said, your man Castelli was pretty good. I never spottedhim until tonight, but I had this prickly feeling at the back of my neck and Iknew something wasn’t right. so I started looking. I went out for a walk to seeif I could flush my tail, if there was one, and sure enough, after about fiveblocks, I spotted him. Just about the same time, they tried to hit him. Therewere three of them and by rights, they should’ve got him, but he was prettyfast. They missed their first shot at him and he clocked out right away. Didn’twaste a second. I didn’t know the players without a score
card, so I didn’twaste any time doing the same thing. I clocked over to Marshall’s place.because I thought he might’ve had something to do with it. Only when I gotthere, he was already dead. Shot with a laser.”
“Why did you think Marshall was behind it?” Lucas asked.
“Because Marshall’s a deserter. and he was scared_ We wentback a long way together. He used to be in the covert field section. I guess itgot too much for him. He started slowing down and he decided to opt out. Hejust disappeared one day. But we’d both maintained contacts with theUnderground, so it wasn’t too hard to figure out what he’d done. Only I didn’tknow he was in Rome. When this mission came down. I started checking with myold contacts to find out if they had anyone back here and bingo, Marshall’sname came up.”
“Did I understand you correctly?” Travers asked with astonishment.“You maintain contacts in the Underground?”
“Occasionally. they can be very useful,”.Steiger said.
“But … but that’s against the law! Those people arecriminals!”
“Those criminals probably saved your life tonight,” saidSteiger.
“I still don’t understand,” said Travers.
“Marshall must’ve been holding out on me,” said Steiger. “There’sapparently a bunch of them back here. I didn’t know that, hut it’s the onlyexplanation that makes sense.”
“But you said you thought he was behind what happened tonight,”said Andre.
“That’s what I thought at first,” said Steiger. “until Ioverheard you just now, before I came in. Which reminds me. your securitystinks. Why haven’t you got guards posted?”
“Because we didn’t know that we’d been blown.” said Lucas. ‘andbecause we couldn’t spare the people, no thanks to you.” He glanced up asCastelli came back in with Donovan and Andell.
“I need a report fast.” he said.
“I didn’t see anything tonight. sir,” Donovan said.
“Me, neither.” said Andell. “Nobody left Cleopatra’s house afteryou’d gone.”
“They must have clocked out to set up the ambush.” Said Lucas.“We’ll fill you in later, but right now, we need some security around here incase they try again.”
“Right,” said Castelli. “Andell. you take the roof. Donovan.watch the back. I’ll take the front.”
They hurried to their posts.
“All right, get back to Marshall,” Lucas said to Steiger. “Hewasn’t thrilled when I suddenly popped in on him,” Steiger said. “He wasworried that I might turn him in when this was over. He should’ve known better,but he wasn’t the man he used to be. He caught me off guard and drugged me theother night. I guess he meant to kill me, but he lost his nerve. He said hecouldn’t bring himself to do it. But after what happened tonight. I thoughtmaybe he’d changed his mind. Only when I clocked back to his place, he’d beendead for hours. In his room, with the door bolted from the inside.”
“Suicide?” asked Andre.
Steiger shook his head. “No, his laser was still in itshiding place. He’d been murdered. My guess is the S.O.G. caught on to him somehowand took him out. His conscience must have bothered him, so he got his buddiesin the Underground to keep an eye on us. Maybe that’s what tipped theopposition. 1 don’t know, but it’s the only explanation I can think of for what’shappened tonight.”
“It would make sense,” said Lucas, nodding. “The Undergrounddoesn’t want a temporal disruption any more than we do. so they’re backing usup. only the paranoid bastards are staying out of sight so we won’t know whothey are.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, with Marshall dead, unless they contactus, there’s no way we can get in touch with them.”
“Sure looks that way,” said Steiger.
“Well, at least we know one thing,” said Delaney. “There’sno question anymore that our so-called Egyptians are really S.O.G. UnlessCleopatra issues lasers to her troops.”
“I’d just like to know what the hell gave us away,” saidAndre. “I can’t think of anything we’ve done that should have aroused theirsuspicions.”
“Maybe it wasn’t anything you did.” said Steiger. “Maybe itwas something I did, or something Marshall did. Or maybe they’ve already beenthrough this before.”
“What do you mean?” asked Travers.
It’s just an idea, of course,” said Steiger. “but maybe theysent in Observers of their own in advance of the mission, to document thescenario as thoroughly as possible. figure out who all the players were and soforth. Then they could have simply clocked in their Special Operations Groupback to the beginning, after they already knew as much as possible about theway things went down. If that’s the case, then we obviously would’ve stood outlike sore thumbs, because we weren’t around the first time.”
“Wait a minute.” Travers said with a frown. “That doesn’tmake any sense. It would be impossible.”