He was gone.
Chapter 23
“What the hell happened?” Kelly looked at Paul, dumbfounded. “Was this guy a hologram or something?”
“Do those look like holograms?” Paul pointed at the weapons Rantgar had been carrying. He was as surprised as the rest of them, but his mind immediately went to the physics. “It looks like he lost integrity, even here in a safe Nexus Point. His pattern just seemed like it could no longer hold together. Perhaps there was an error on the data they sent through the Golems, and he failed to re-materialize completely when he came through the arch. Very strange about the weapons, though. Perhaps something about their mass density…”
“Could have been a bad shift,” said Kelly.
“Could have been anything,” said Paul. “I was warned about this when I was at Castle Masyaf. They told me that if your weren’t properly pattern sampled you had a limited life span in the milieu where you shifted. I think they said seven days.”
“He barely lasted seven minutes, “ said Maeve. “Was this Paradox at work?”
“Not within a Nexus Point,” said Paul. “No matter what happened to him the effect is the same. He’s gone.”
“Gone where?” asked Robert, clearly uncomfortable.
Paul had no answer for him. They stood there, still feeling the tinge of cold in the room, smelling the odd odor of ozone.
“Well, maybe the Order pulled him out,” Kelly suggested.
“Not likely,” said Paul. “Not from within our Nexus. Remember, he was expecting us to send him back. It was all they could do to get him here, and he said his shift was very experimental—a new method. And the look on his face spoke volumes. He wasn’t expecting to be pulled out at all. He was as surprised as we were—terrified even. I think something went haywire, and frankly, I don’t believe he’s likely to make his appointment with Grimwald now.”
Maeve had a very serious look on her face. “Then we’ll have to do it,” she said firmly. “Hopefully we still have the fuel.”
“Kelly?” Paul looked at his friend, who was still mulling over the Retraction monitors, thinking he might spot some obvious error in the numbers.“Can we do it? Do we have the fuel?”
“We’ll have the power, alright. As for the Quantum matrix, that’s another matter. The singularity is still stable, but it’s been losing integrity with every shift.”
Paul pursed his lips, thinking hard. They had no other clues of their own to follow, and even their own discourse was wending its way to the mysterious figure of Rantgar in the history, the impious wretch who eliminated Grimwald and thus aided Charles ascension to the position of Mayor of the Palace.
“Maeve,” he decided. “Could you see about some wardrobe. Robert and I will draw lots. You and Kelly remain here to monitor results.”
He looked from one to another, and heard no protest. Exhausted from all they had endured that night, the team was quietly thankful that their unseen allies in the future were able to offer some assistance. Yet now the prospect of another mission weighed heavily on them, particularly one involving murder. Robert leaned heavily on the desk, obviously weary and looking for his coffee mug again.
“Can you do this?” asked Maeve. “I mean… we’re talking about a man in his prime, fairly hardy, and most likely wearing some sort of medium weight armor, a leather jerkin at the very least, possibly even a hauberk. He’ll be armed, and he’ll know exactly how to use whatever weapon he wields. And he won’t be alone. They’ll be a body of retainers, perhaps even a troop of soldiery with him. He was making an official visit to his father’s bedside, and he was the heir apparent of Pippin the Fat. Now… Just how do either of you—or even both of you—propose to kill this man? Ever used a sword? A Javelin? Ever fired an arrow at something with intent to kill?”
“You’ve made your point,” said Paul. “But if Rantgar has evaporated into the ether, we have no other choice but to shift in and see that the job is done. And it’s not as grim as you paint it. He was killed at the shrine. He’ll probably be kneeling before Lambert’s tomb, and most likely alone at that point. The retainers and soldiers will be outside.”
“Pick up that thing and see what you can hit with it,” said Maeve pointing to the javelin Rantgar had left behind.
“It doesn’t have to be all dash and valor,” said Paul. “We can use our heads, be stealthy, and we can use a reagent…”
“What?”
“Poison,” said Paul. “Whatever weapon we use will have to possess a lethal bite, even if it is something as small as a needle. I’ve got compounds down in the lab that would be absolutely fatal. All we have to do is deliver the barb somehow. Our task is to eliminate Grimwald, by any means possible. His presence in that Meridian was apparently a heavy stone on Plectrude’s side of the scale. If he lives, then Charles fails to secure power before Abdul Rahman’s invasion in 732. So we’ll have to shift in and see what we can do about it. It may be that we won’t be able to do a thing. Yes, we may fail. If we lose the singularity we’ll have to shut down and it could take days to regenerate—that’s assuming we have a viable world to live in here, and the food, fuel and freedom to continue operating.”
“Well, we’d better draw lots then,” said Robert. “There’s no point risking two of us on a venture like this, as much as moral support might make that more comfortable.” He reached into his pocket, recovering the pencil he had put there earlier, and he put it back in the cup with the others, willing to leave the matter to chance as it should be. There was no way, he realized now, that he could cheat his friend. So if fate chose him, he resolved to go, though he could not even begin to contemplate what he may have to do. Could they find allies there, other agents of the Order who might render assistance? He shared this idea with Maeve.
“It’s very likely that they have an operation planned, and so yes, there will probably be agents there. Identifying them is the trick, I suppose.”
“Don’t bother with the lots, Robert,” said Paul. “I’ll take care of this myself.“
“Now, now, my man. I’m perfectly willing to stand this watch as well.”
“You said it yourself, Robert. No need to risk the two of us, particularly after what we just witnessed with Rantgar. I have a good idea of what I will do here, so I’m going down to wardrobe. I’ll be in the Arch Bay in ten minutes, Kelly.” He picked up Rantgar’s javelin.
“But where are you going? What’s the target? I’ll need time with the Golems to process everything.”
“Look in the Retraction Module. Rantgar was certainly going to go somewhere, right? Put me right on those temporal coordinates. As for the pattern buffer, you’ll just have to purge his data and substitute my pattern.”
“Alright… I’ll clear extra RAM so I can store a double pattern sweep before you shift. Don’t worry. I’ll keep a firm hold on you.”
“Double or nothing,” Paul smiled. Then he turned and headed for the great titanium door.
Maeve was on the intercom a few minutes later. “Kelly? we’re good to go down here. You can ramp it up at your discretion.”
Kelly looked at Robert, and received a thumbs up for reassurance. He toggled on the power systems monitor and began to take the Arch up to 80%. The wine of the turbines harried them all as they listened, feeling the thrumming vibration.