The gaunt, lugubrious features of the scientist seemed to blur for an instant before they resolved themselves into a grimace of distaste. He gestured with his blackthorn walking stick, indicating their surroundings.
"This place looks like a Persian whorehouse. And what is that hideous smell""
"It’s dinner, I’m afraid," said Phoenix. "It smells like goat meat boiled in Cosmoline, but it doesn’t taste too bad once you get used to it." He smiled. "I’d have them set another place, but my wives might become up-set if you suddenly appeared out of thin air at the dinner table. "
"Yes, I believe I saw two of your wives leaving this room before I manifested," Darkness said. "They looked all of fourteen."
Phoenix shrugged. "In their prime and eminently marriageable by Afridi standards. I could hardly have allowed the most desirable young women in this village to marry someone else. Sharif Khan has to maintain a certain image."
"I’ll refrain from commenting on the nature of that image," Darkness said wryly. "Did you have much trouble disposing of your identity as Barry Martingale" "
"Some," said Phoenix. "The commandos complicated matters by giving me a new identity. I would have died of plasma burns if they hadn’t clocked me to that army hospital. They bought my cover and believed I was a deserter. They didn’t want me to be arrested, so they altered official records, believe it or not, and gave me the identity of an MIA. They thought they were helping me when they switched the data in Martingale’s jacket with Reese Hunter’s. Instead they created an official file through which I could be traced if I ever slipped up. I had to make sure Hunter was accounted for somehow."
"So what became of your identity as Hunter"" Darkness said.
"He checked out of the hospital and requested a brief reorientation leave." Phoenix grinned. "After all, he’d been out of action for a while. I managed to stage a convenient accident. Captain Hunter died in a skimmer crash in San Diego. No trace of the body after the explosion. That way, no one asks any questions, and both Martingale and Hunter are disposed of. After that it was a simple matter to wrangle this assignment. The Referees have given over jurisdiction in this matter to the army, which made it the First Division’s mission. You can imagine how Temporal Intelligence took that. They can’t infringe upon an adjustment mission assigned by Vargas himself, but they could send a covert team back to gather information. I was the logical person to head up that team."
"How many agents have you brought with you"" Darkness said.
"Five. Two in my bodyguard and three posing as my senior lieutenants. I picked the men myself. I think that’s enough to handle the situation if it becomes really serious. "
"It’s more serious than you know," said Darkness. "My instruments have detected massive fluctuations in the timestream. I’ve been attempting to pinpoint the source, but it’s impossible. The effect is not a static one. The entire timestream is rippling. It’s Mensinger’s worst nightmare come true."
"Jesus," Phoenix said. "Are you sure""
"Of course I’m sure," said Darkness. "I’m not in the habit of making theoretical pronouncements. Not even Vargas suspects how serious it is, and he has a doctorate in Zen physics. He believes it can be resolved by a temporal adjustment. He doesn’t understand that it’s gone beyond that. I think he’s afraid to admit it to himself. He’s been a bureaucrat too long. The truth is staring him right in the face, but he doesn’t want to see it."
"Just what is the truth, exactly"" said Phoenix.
"Exactly" I don’t know," said Darkness. "An alternate universe exists in a timeline parallel to ours. Perhaps it came about as a result of a massive disruption which overcame the inertia of the timeflow. Perhaps it always existed. Any number of alternate universes can exist, completely independent of each other. Something has happened that has caused two separate timelines to be brought into very close proximity. That would account for the rippling effect, the inertia of one timeline acting upon the inertia of the other, like opposing magnetic fields. Under such circumstances it would be possible for people in one timeline to travel to the other, if they could pinpoint the focus of the disruption that brought the phenomenon about. Even if they couldn’t, it could still be possible, although whether or not they could do so with any degree of control, I cannot say. I, for one, am not about to attempt the experiment until I have more information. You see before you the result of what happened the last time I tried something like that. You have no idea how maddening it can be, being able to travel anywhere I please, teleporting to any point in time and space, yet not being able to walk so much as one step once I get there. I failed to anticipate the influence of the Law of Baryon Conservation, and the result was a permanent alteration of my subatomic structure. Before I make any reconnaissance of a parallel universe, I wish to be certain of the variables. And that’s where you come in."
"I’m not sure I like the sound of that," said Phoenix.
"Relax, I won’t be asking you to do anything so esoteric as teleporting to another timeline. I need you to pinpoint a confluence for me. "
"A confluence" What’s that""
"A point at which two timelines intersect," said Darkness. "There are two possibilities inherent in this situation. One is that agents from the parallel timeline have been able to identify the focus of the original disruption and can travel to this timeline by clocking directly to that point. However, given the rippling effect, I believe the second possibility is more likely that there exist a number of points of confluence where the two timelines intersect as a result of an imbalance in the flow of temporal inertia. One of those points is undoubtedly located in this time period, somewhere nearby. I want you to find it"
"How"" said Phoenix. "I mean, how the hell would I recognise a point of confluence, or whatever the hell it is" ‘,
"Good question," said Darkness. "Since such a phenomenon has never previously existed, I obviously haven’t seen one. In fact, I doubt it would something one could see. "
"How the hell am I supposed to find it then"" said Phoenix.
"You expect me to tell you everything"" said Darkness. "You’re an intelligence agent. Go out and gather some intelligence. And try displaying some on occasion. Use your initiative. The next time I see you, I’ll expect some results. Good day. "
Darkness tached, translating into tachyons that departed at six hundred times the speed of light. Phoenix took a deep breath and expelled it slowly.
"How the hell do you find something you can’t see"" he said to himself. "And how do you find it without stumbling into it"" He looked around nervously. "I’m liable to turn a corner and wind up in another universe. That ought to be good for a few laughs."
"Your Holiness," cried the tribesman, out of breath from having run all the way from his observation post, "lancers approach!"
The man named Sadullah, known to the British as the Mad Mullah, slowly raised his head to stare at the Ghazi sentry. His deeply sunken eyes were dark and their gaze was indeed mad. They never seemed to blink. His dark skin was etched with lines of age and his hair was long, almost to his waist, and utterly white. His head was bare, as were his feet. He wore a long white robe and many amulets and charms around his neck. He sat cross-legged on a rug inside his tent, which was filled with the fumes of bhang. His eyes glittered.