The Timekeeper Conspiracy (TimeWars 2)

"Who are you?" he said, gently.

"Andre de la Croix."

"You speak English very well, but it's not your native language. And your French, from the little I heard, is less than perfect. Are you underground?"

She frowned for a moment, then remembered. "That was the purpose for our journey here. Hunter came to seek you out."

"You're a recent deserter, then. I thought as much."

"You thought wrong," she said. "I was never a part of the armies of the future. I am a Basque whose time is over four hundred years distant."

"Good Lord. You're a D.P.," said Bennett, astonished.

"What?"

"A displaced person. And Hunter brought you here to join the underground, to receive an implant?"

She nodded.

"You must be an extraordinary young woman," Bennett said. "I can imagine what you must have been going through these past two days."

"I need your help," she said.

"You have it. It's the very least that I can do. God. Poor Hunter."

"Who did this?" Andre said. "Why was he killed? You say it was on your account?"

"I'm afraid so," Bennett said. "It must have been an accident. A horrible misunderstanding. There was no way he could have known. They must have thought that he was someone else. Yes, there could be no other explanation. They-"

"Who?" shouted Andre. "What kind of misunderstanding could have led to this? What could he not have known? Tell me, this instant!"

Bennett stared at her. "Yes, I'll tell you. I can't condone it any longer. They've gone too far. I've made a terrible mistake and now my friend of many years has paid for it. I'll tell you, but I don't know what in God's name we can do about it now."

"Precious little, I'm afraid," said another voice. Andre saw Bennett's eyes widen even before the man spoke and she was already spinning around to face the threat, but she was too late. She felt a sharp blow to her side and she fell into the bedroom, off balance and carried by the momentum of the kick to land at Bennett's feet. The rapier fell from her hand and clattered to the floor. She lunged for it, but Bennett stopped her.

"Don't!" he said, stepping on the sword with his foot.

"Are you mad?"

"I'd listen to the good doctor if I were you," the man said. She saw the little tube in his right hand. It was a weapon, one she didn't understand, but she knew what it could do. Hunter had shown her once. A deadly light that could cut through steel. The same light that had burned through the lock on her door could burn through her flesh as easily as a hot knife passing through fresh butter.

"A good thing Adrian decided to keep tabs on you, Doc," the terrorist said. "Seems like your commitment's sl

ipping. We can't have that."

"Let the woman go, Silvera," Bennett said. "She doesn't know anything."

"But you were about to fix that, weren't you?" said Silvera. "No, you're expendable, Doc, but I'm afraid she's not. I got her partner, but Adrian's going to want this lady alive. We need to find out how many more of them there are, and where they are, and what they know."

"She's not an agent!" Bennett said.

"You'll have to do better than that, Doc."

"She's not, I tell you! And neither was he," he said, pointing at Hunter's body. "He was a friend of mine! He was in the underground!"

Silvera nodded. "That's what he kept saying. It makes for a good cover, doesn't it? He was good, I'll give him that. He didn't talk. But I think the lady will. Adrian's a little better at persuasion than I am."

"Silvera, listen to me! You're making a mistake, I swear it! Kill me, if you must, but let her go. She doesn't know a thing, she's a D.P., she's harmless to you!"