"Hooker!"
It was Hooker who had gasped. He stood looking down at his own dead body with a glassy-eyed stare. He had been garroted with a monofilament wire that had cut very deeply into his throat.
"Christ," whispered Delaney.
After the initial shock had worn off, Lucas understood. Somehow, something had gone wrong up ahead. Irving had discovered who they were. Maybe he had known from the very beginning, wherever in time the beginning was. Now he was playing with them and it was a grisly game. Somewhere in the not too distant future, Irving had killed Hooker and he had brought his body back into the past-their present-to tease them with the knowledge that he knew and that they were doomed to certain failure.
Hooker doubled over and clutched his stomach. He vomited. Delaney grabbed him, holding him and steadying him until the shaking and the heaves abated.
"Well, I guess that tears it," Bobby said, as soon as Lucas told him what had happened. "We've lost before we even had a chance to get started."
"Maybe," Delaney said. "And then again, maybe not."
"You mean maybe that's not me lying there?" said Hooker. He was trying not to look at the dead body, but his eyes kept straying back to it, as though the corpse exerted some sort of magnetism upon him. He was badly shaken and Lucas could hardly blame him. He could not imagine what his own reaction would be if he were confronted with his own corpse.
"Oh, that's you, all right," said Finn. "And I'll admit that you don't look too healthy, but that's not necessarily the way it's got to be."
"Are you telling me," said Hooker, "that that's not real?" He pointed to the body.
"It's real," said Finn. "It's a real possibility. Or, to put it another way, it's a potential reality."
"What the fuck are you talking about? I'm standing here and looking at the way I'm going to die!"
Hooker was on the edge of total hysteria. He was just barely keeping himself under control. Delaney took him by the shoulders and sat him down.
"All right. Take it easy. Take a couple of deep breaths. I mean now, boy, do it! Come on."
Hooker inhaled and exhaled heavily several times while Delaney stood over him.
"That's right, don't be afraid to look at it," Finn said. "Don't let it rattle you. He wants you to be rattled. That's why he did it."
"But I'm going to-"
"Don't talk, just keep taking those deep breaths. Again. Again."
After a few more breaths, Hooker relaxed a bit and nodded.
"You all right now?" Lucas said.
Hooker managed a very weak smile. "I'm not all right," he said, "but I think I can handle it."
"There's only one way we're ever going to make it through this thing," Delaney said, "and that's to act as though nothing is real as far as the future is concerned. Nothing. And that includes that." He jerked his head toward Hooker's corpse.
"Sure looks real enough to me," said Bobby.
"Yeah, and it was real," said Delaney. "It was real when it died. But the minute our friend Goldblum clocked back with it, it ceased to be real and it became only potentially real." He glanced at Hooker. "Maybe you're going to buy it this way, kid. And then again, maybe you won't. Because by bringing this corpse back here, Irving has created a time paradox. What's more, he knows it. Think about this, now. He can't possibly know everything. He can't possibly have this whole mission knocked, because if he did, then why are we standing here and talking about it right now? If he knew it all, he could take care of us at any time."
"Well, suppose he can," said Bobby. "He just might be playing with us. With that damn chronoplate in his possession, he can damn well do anything he wants to. He can take us out any time he wants to."
"So why doesn't he?" said Finn. "Why hasn't he?"
"Maybe he will," Bobby said. "Shit, maybe he already has. Maybe he's going back into the past even as we're standing here. Maybe he's going to arrive at some point prior to right now and do us in."
"Then what will happen to us?" Hooker said. "If he pops back in an hour ago and kills us, what will happen to us now? How could we even be here now if he killed us in the past?"
"Hold it right there," said Finn. "Don't start getting bent all out of shape. That's exactly what he wants. Let's talk theory for a moment. Here's how we stand right now: assuming Irving travels back into the past, our past relative to where we are right this very moment, then he might succeed in killing us. If he does that, then the timeline will have been disrupted and there will be a skip in it. There had to be a past for us not to be killed in, otherwise we wouldn't be standing here right now. In the same manner, there has to be a potential future in which Irving can come back to this time to mess things up. From the perspective of the future that we came from, history has not been changed. At least, it hadn't been changed up to the moment that we departed for this time period. We've got to preserve the status quo from which we came. As it stands right now, the timeline from here on is in potential flux. Irving has confronted us with a potential future in which Hooker has been killed. We know that there is no absolute future. There is only an infinite number of possible futures. There has to be a potential future in which Hooker did not know that he was going to die. We have been confronted with that very real possibility. By confronting us with it, Irving has managed to rattle us, which is precisely what he intended. He has also managed to warn us."
"You mean it might still happen," Hooker said.
"It might," said Finn. "What we don't know is this: when this Hooker died," he indicated the corpse, "he might not have known that he was going to die. Meaning, this Hooker might not ever have had the opportunity to see his own corpse."
"On the other hand, maybe he did," said Hooker. "Maybe I did."
"That's right," said Finn. "But we don't know for sure. So you've got a choice to make right now, son. You can either resign yourself to this fate," he pointed at the nearly severed head of the corpse, "or you can determine that you're going to do everything in your power to prevent this from ever happening. And that means you're going to have to watch your back."
Hooker took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. "Yeah," he said. "But when?"
"I don't have all the answers, Corporal."
"Thanks."
"Sarge," he said to Bobby, "why don't you take the boy outside and let him walk around a bit? He doesn't look too steady. Go on, get him out of here."
"Come on, Hooker," Bobby said. "Let's go out and get some air. It's getting a little close in here."
He led Hooker out of the pavilion. Finn stood at the entrance, watching them.
"They can't hear us now, can they?" Lucas said, softly.
Finn turned around and shook his head.
"You know what I'm about to say, don't you?" Lucas said.
"You mean about the paradox?" said Finn.
"What paradox?"
Finn nodded, glumly.
"That corpse doesn't represent a paradox," said Lucas. "At least, not yet. You smoked the kid, Finn."
"I had to. I had no choice. Surely you can see that."
Lucas took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Jesus. What a mess. You know, something sounded wrong while you were talking to him, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I'm still not sure I can follow it through completely, but then I'm just a simple dog soldier. So are you, for that matter. Or are you? You seem pretty well versed in temporal mechanics, even for a veteran with your experience."
"I'm not a mission plant, if that's what you're getting at," said Finn. "What you see is what you get. I'm a lifer, son. I've served a lot of time. I've gone up and down in rank like a yo-yo, mainly because I don't always play it by the rules, but…"