The Timekeeper Conspiracy (TimeWars 2)

"He must have been in the underground all the time!" said Finn. "What's he doing here?"

"That's what I intend to find out," said Lucas. They were in the Rue des Fossoyeurs. The cavalier went up to No. 14 and knocked on the door. "That's D'Artagnan's house!" said Lucas.

Finn glanced behind them, but he couldn't see anything in the dark streets. "If Mongoose has his people tailing us, I hope to hell they're not sleeping on the job," he said. "This could get nasty."

They crept up to the window and peered inside. The cavalier was seated at a table, talking with an old man whom they had last seen entering the house in the Rue St. Honore.

"Jack Bennett," whispered Finn. "What the hell is going on here?"

"It looks like Mongoose was right," said Lucas. "Our friend D'Artagnan is a Timekeeper."

"I can't believe it," said Delaney. "D'Artagnan can't be an impostor!"

"You have any other explanation?"

"No, but… it just doesn't fit. It would mean that they've had us made right from the very start, before we even arrived in Paris!"

"Well, there's only one way we're ever going to know for sure," said Lucas. He went over to the door and pounded on it.

Someone said, "Who knocks?"

In a perfect imitation of D'Artagnan's voice, Lucas said, "Damn you, Bonacieux, let me in! I've forgotten my key!"

A moment later, the door was unlatched and as the person on the other side started to open it, Lucas shouldered his way in with Finn following close behind.

Jack Bennett was knocked back into the wall. Andre de la Croix leapt up, rapier drawn.

"We meet again, Sir Knight," Lucas said, speaking in Norman.

De la Croix hesitated, obviously taken aback. Bennett clawed for something in his pocket, but the point of Finn's rapier was at his throat in an instant.

"Don't do it," Finn said, in English. "Let's have it. Slowly."

With a look of resignation, Bennett handed over his laser.

"Who are you?" said Andre.

"It is you, isn't it?" said Lucas. "Andre de la Croix. What do you call yourself in Paris?"

"How do you know me?"

"We've met before," said Lucas. "In the lists, on the field of Ashby."

"At Ashby? Impossible. I don't-"

"I'll refresh your memory," said Lucas, switching to English. "You wore red armor and had a fleury cross for your shield device. I wore white and my shield device was an uprooted oak. I remember being quite impressed with your abilities. I never dreamt that you were underground."

"She isn't," Bennett said. "At least, she wasn't then."

"She?"

Simon Hawke

The Timekeeper Conspiracy

"Take a good, close look," said Bennett. "Andre is a woman."

Finn had put away his sword and was now covering Bennett with the laser. "What is this?" he said. "What are you trying to pull?"