“Ingenious,” said Nordhausen. “An eye in the storm. They clearly had something like that set up at the Well of Souls we stumbled upon while I was out trying to recover that Ammonite fossil, Paul.”
“That was on another Meridian,” said Paul. “But it may persist in this one as well.”
“The Well of Souls?” Rantgar did not understand.
“Yes, we found just such an operation or outpost, hidden in Wadi Rumm and powered by a natural Oklo reaction,” Paul said to Rantgar. “In fact, they could have used it to shift people back for this Tours operation before we found it. We thought it was a one way ticket to a single location at Castle Masyaf in Syria, the year 1187, but we could be mistaken on that. And if you don’t mind my saying, you’ve been using our complex here in the very same manner.”
“Big of you,” Rantgar smiled.
But another question remained unanswered in Paul’s mind. “You said you just shifted from the year 705 on our retraction scheme? That’s not possible. We had no pattern signature on you. The Arch won’t simply grab any matter it finds at the breaching point. It has to be precisely matched to an exact signature. So be frank with me, sir. We’ve cooperated with you closely in these matters, and though I know there are certain facts you cannot divulge, at the very least you owe us some honesty here. ”
“Correct again,” said Rantgar. “I assure you that I’m being entirely candid with you, Mr. Dorland. You had my signature! We sent the information directly to your computers.” The visitor smiled. “I hope you’ll pardon the intrusion, but this really is somewhat of an emergency. Palma is quite a nuisance where human travel is concerned, but we can get information through, and objects, messages as it were.”
They were up and through the long corridor now, just outside the heavy security door that opened on the lab. As they went through Maeve and Kelly turned to look, their faces registering obvious surprise.
Rantgar made a courteous bow. “Mr. Ramer,” he said. “Good to see you are back. Ms. Linford, my humble apologies for that mad dash as you shifted out, but I had to get inside the radius of your retraction. I hope I didn’t cause too much alarm.”
Kelly and Maeve just looked at one another, clearly bemused. Paul introduced the visitor, sharing some of what he had told them on the way up.
“It seems we still have a few tricks to learn about Time travel,” he concluded.
“You sent your pattern signature directly to our computers?” said Kelly. “How?”
“Actually… We used some of those nifty little programs you designed, Mr. Ramer.”
“The Golems?” Paul was very surprised.
“That’s what they call them, yes! We distributed the information in files we were certain the Golems would harvest, and they brought it to you. Nice of them, don’t you think? That base data and one little worm to activate it at the desired moment was all that was necessary.”
“Worm? You mean you used a virus to collate the data—“ Paul’s eyes narrowed, and he smiled. “Because your associates in the future discovered the exact moment of Maeve’s retraction, and the virus was keyed to assemble your pattern signature and send it to the retraction module at that time. Then you used the energy of our Arch to shift here when we brought Maeve home!” He had suddenly pieced the scheme together.
“I did say we were getting very clever,” said Rantgar.
“Clever is a word and a half for it,” said Paul. “This is the second time we’ve had unexpected guests come in through the Arch. The thought that we would find an Assassin there has also crossed our minds. This is maddening! What’s to stop them from shifting in here and killing us all? We thought we were indispensible, but that’s clearly no longer the case.”
“Oh, I’m sure they would love to do just that,” said Rantgar, but they can’t. They based their technology on quantum string theory. We use the singularity that you first developed. So our Arch corona is fully compatible with yours, but their system is… well, on another wavelength, as it were. Think of it like the AM and FM band on your radios. The two wavelengths can’t be tuned in at the same time. They did this deliberately, you know. Otherwise we would have just shifted in commandos and taken out all their Arch complexes when we had the upper hand on them. Now, when they have the advantage, the situation affords us some small measure of protection. So have no fear. Besides that, you can stop an incoming shift at your whim, as you probably know. Though I’m very grateful you allowed me to come through. Things were about to get very complicated for me on my assigned Meridian, and this seemed a safe way to solve the problem.”
“Well you should have sent commandos to take out all their Arch sites while you could,” said Robert.
“The trouble, of course, is finding them,” said Rantgar. “Look how long it took your whole American Army to hunt down Bin Ladin, ten years! In like manner, their Arch complexes are deviously hidden, as are ours.”
“Rantgar…” Maeve suddenly remembered the significance of this man’s name. “That’s the name of Grimwald’s assassin! Are you saying that you are the man responsible for his death?”
“Forgive me, but yes. I am Rantgar of Frisia, the ‘impious wretch’ spoken of in the continuation of the Chronicles of Fredegar. I was sent back to assure the death of Grimwald in the year 714, though my post starts much earlier. I arrive in the year 700, you see. It does take some time to worm one’s way into the thick of the weave in any given milieu. So I lived out my time there until things started to change. We got word that Lambert’s martyrdom had somehow been prevented by the other side. The ramifications were severe, as you undoubtedly know, because it affected my mission assignment considerably. So the Order was establishing an alternative scenario concerning the elimination of Grimwald, when, well, someone took a shot at me with a poisoned tipped arrow while I was out hunting one day! It seems the Assassins are keen on eliminating me from the picture. But at that very moment I had stooped to tighten a strap on my leggings, and the arrow whizzed harmlessly by. Needless to say, I have been told to be on guard.”
“The Assassins were trying to kill you?” said Paul. “Then I guess the gloves are coming off in this difference of opinion. When I fell through the Well of Souls I was treated with the utmost respect and deference by my captors.”
“Things have changed,” said Rantgar. “I’m afraid they are not so polite now. This is war, ladies and gentlemen, and I’m afraid you’ll have to pick a side. We know your actions to date have been in the interest of preserving your own view of things, the history that you have stored here in your computers, but I’m afraid you’ll have to make some hard choices in the days and years ahead.”
“Then you were sent here for your own personal safety?” asked Maeve.
“Precisely,” said Rantgar. “Once warned that all operatives were now considered at risk, I tried to keep a very low profile. You’ll see that the history has very little to say about this man, Rantgar. He appears at a critical moment, slays Grimwald, and then just seems to vanish. No mention of him in any other narrative on the period. He disappears, you see, because I’m the man who ends up killing Pippin’s legitimate son, and then, immediately afterwards, I’m scheduled to shift safely away to my home Meridian.”