“Gentlemen,” said Maeve. “This will lead us nowhere. You were summoned here to the consideration of peace, not to continue quarreling with one another.”
“You pardon,” Aziz nodded, his eyes still narrow under heavy dark brows beneath his gold braided headset. His prominent nose was raised slightly, a proud, yet haughty face if Paul had ever seen one.
LeGrand was a sturdy man, fairly short, broad in the shoulders, yet with a girth that tended more to brawn than to excess weight. Gray-brown tresses of hair dangled freely from beneath a floppy burgundy cap, framing his round face and high, ruddy cheeks. His eyes were alight with a mischievous glint that seemed ignited by the Sheik’s discomfiture. He was, of course, the very same man Robert and Maeve had encountered in their mission to Rosetta. The Order apparently had been satisfied with his ability to adequately persuade the Founders on more than one occasion, and perhaps they felt familiarity would strengthen their side of the arguments here as well.
“We have called you here to ask for a complete cessation of any and all intervention in the continuum,” said Paul. “I realize that you may be constrained in what you may or may not reveal to us here, but recent events have produced a number of alarming and unexpected irregularities, at least insofar as we perceive the Time theory here.”
He briefly related his experience in arriving slightly out of phase on his last retraction. “We had good numbers on that shift.”
“Very high integrity percentages,” said Kelly. “Also adequate power and perfect stability on a quantum level.”
“Yet I apparently overshot my targeted reentry point, if only be a few milliseconds, and it was both painful and disturbing when I finally manifested in sync with this present. I was there all along, of course, but not yet there, by the barest fraction of a second, and for all intents and purposes I was a ghost at that moment, unseen by any of my associates here, though I could still dimly perceive them.”
“I still don’t understand why,” said Robert.
“If I may, professor,” LeGrand cleared his throat. “Everything you see and perceive is information from the recent past. It takes the barest wee bit of Time for the light to bounce about and reach your eyes, and that Time interval extends the farther away you look. Why, have a glance at the heavens above tonight. Your eyes will be taking in light that has been traveling eons to reach you. Everything you see is not really information from the present. It is the night sky as it appeared ages ago, and in some places millennia ago. You can clearly look into the past, it’s the absolute present and the future you can never really see or perceive.”
Nordhausen nodded, satisfied.
“Then there’s an issue with the movement of objects through Time,“ said Maeve “in both directions. You people have been quite sloppy it seems.”
“We believed an object could not be moved unless there was a pattern signature in the system,” said Paul. “Now I understand your side is using String theory as the basis of your physics.” He looked at Aziz. “Yet we have tangible evidence of objects that have been found where they should not be, where it would be impossible for them to exist.” He was fingering the metal key in his pocket as he spoke, but made no mention of it.
The Sheik smiled. “Do you mean things like parts of plastic laminated playing cards tucked discretely in a copy of the Holy Koran?” His smile faded.
“Come, come, now,” said LeGrand. “To err is human. We found that a very clever ploy, and Mr. Ramer’s play on words concerning his surname in the hieroglyphics was equally ingenious.”
“Now who makes sweet compliments,” said the Sheik.
“The point is,” said Maeve, “we have come to feel we are doing irreparable damage to the continuum. Every breaching point, every mission, each intervention, all the meddling about with Prime Movers, and the risky flirtation with Free Radicals, it’s very, very dangerous, and may make a fatal wound in the continuum, if it hasn’t already done so.”
“We were not the ones who took the life of Primes,” said Aziz. “You will note that we intervene by sparing life. You call us Assassins, yet we are merciful, as Allah commands.”
“Sparing life? Merciful?” said LeGrand. “If you call the obliteration of countless billions mercy, then you are demented, man. Yes, you spared lives, ever so discretely, heedless of what the outcomes and consequences might be.”
“We were very mindful of the consequences,” said Aziz. “They were simply not to your liking, that is all.”
“Not to our liking, indeed.” LeGrand said smugly. “And how do you like them now? We’re back on our feet again. The tables have been turned round once more. See how you like hiding out in caves and high mountain passes now, eh?”
“Gentlemen!” Paul warned. “I was hoping to reason with you, but I may just as well make my point another way. We can turn off this whole thing. Our latest intervention can be withdrawn as easily as I can shut down this Arch at the moment. I know exactly what we did, the where and when of it all, and I can restore both Bismarck and Palma to the Meridian in a heartbeat. As this Nexus Point remains open, I’ll warrant neither of you have a clue on this operation yet, nor will you until we dissipate our Nexus. You will therefore be powerless to prevent anything we decide to do here.”
He looked at LeGrand. “You may have the advantage if we let this intervention stand, Mr. LeGrand, but I can change all that. So I warn you, I will not hesitate to do so, even if it means we live our lives out here in the agony of our Post-Palma world, the merciful gift of the Sheik and his oh so pious followers of the Koran here.”
“You can’t be serious,” said LeGrand. “You would align yourself with them?”
“We would see it another way entirely,” said Maeve. “It would be a defense of the original Prime Meridian, wherein the Palma event has a rightful place. So you can wipe that smug look off your face and get serious about negotiating here, or we’ll settle the matter without further input. And as for you,” she pointed at the Sheik, “you won’t like the latest twist we have planned either. We’ll make certain your side shares fully in the suffering caused by Palma. You will not emerge unscathed, nor will you ascend to a dominant position in your future if we can prevent it. And we can. It’s all planned. The operation is ready to go and, I assure you, our final intervention will be completely unassailable.” She folded her arms, bluffing, but doing so in a most convincing manner, in a way only Maeve could truly pull off.
LeGrand seemed stunned. “My, my,” he said at last. “I hardly expected to have a gun put to my head here.”
“Cocked and ready, “ said Paul. “Now, we want some information, whether it means you divulge something critical or not is of no concern to us at this juncture. This business concerning a British steamer, the Darlington Court, is somewhat disturbing. It was blown to pieces upon arrival at its berthing point in the U.K., and the explosion was so powerful it damaged vessels over a mile away. That was no natural explosion, gentlemen. We suspect a bomb was placed on board.” He looked from one to the other, his gaze resting on the Sheik at the end.
“War is war,” said the Sheik. “Yes, we sabotaged that ship. Regrettable, but there it is.”
“When?” said Paul, waiting cautiously and hoping the Sheik would be forthcoming with an answer.
“It was part of the general plan for this campaign. I do not have the exact shift time for that mission at hand.”
“Well enough,” said Paul. “Except for this… In our history, the information we hold protected here in our touchstone RAM Bank, there was also an unusual explosion during the attack on convoy HX-126. We uncovered evidence of obvious tampering in that event stream—ships reassigned, steaming orders changed, and a strange underwater explosion that was noted in the reports of several eye witnesses.”