“How’d you finally figure it out?” said Finn.
Martingale grinned. “Quite literally, by the oldest method in the book. Drakov has books on sailing and navigation in the library. I learned how to take a sighting with a sextant.”
“A sextant,” Finn said, shaking his head with admiration. “I never would have thought of that. Not bad. That’s what I call initiative.”
“You say the slaves he bought from Lafitte are kept on the outside, like a local tribe of cannibals?” said Lucas.
“That’s right.”
“We don’t want to have any of them killed,” said Lucas. “What would be the chances of getting the attacking force clocked directly inside?”
“Very risky,” Martingale said. “I can’t supply any coordinates. There are several locations inside the base which are used for clocking people in. That’s how I went there and back. But they’re inside buildings. You can get the program for the one I’ve got preset in my own disc, but you can’t use it to clock in a large body of men. A squad, maybe two, at most.”
“At least that will get a squad or two on the inside,” said Lucas. “The main force will have to come in through the opening.”
“Airborne with floater-paks?” said Finn.
Lucas nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Unfortunately, that will give the people inside a point on which to concentrate their fire.”
“It’s a fairly large opening,” said Martingale.
“Still, it’ll leave the attacking force exposed unless they have an opportunity to attack at night. Timing is going to be critical. We have to catch the sub inside the base and keep it from clocking out.”
“And the Valkyrie, as well,” said Finn, “though she’s nowhere near as important as the sub.”
“I wish to hell I knew what Drakov’s plan was,” Lucas said, chewing on his knuckle. “I’m really bothered by those people he has clocking out to other time periods. What could they be doing?”
“If we can pass the location of the base on to the Doctor,” Martingale said, “he could tach to Plus Time and let your people know. They could attack the base and try to get the information out of the people there. Then, by the time we arrive with the sub-”
“It might work, but it’s too risky,” said Lucas. “The submarine has to be the first priority. We only have two options there. Either we find a way to destroy it while we’re on board, or we wait until we get to the base and catch the sub inside the base. Specifically, we’ve got to catch Drakov outside the sub. That’s when the attack has to occur. So long as he’s not aboard, he can’t clock the sub out and he can’t fire any missiles.”
“Good point,” said Martingale.
“What worries me the most,” said Lucas, “is that once we get back aboard the sub, Drakov is going to have us watched constantly. He plans to send us back to Forrester with his ultimatum and that will leave only you at the base. We need for the attack to happen while we’re still there.”
“Don’t forget Ned Land and Jules Verne,” said Andre.
Lucas rubbed his temples. “Damn. I’m getting a killer headache. No matter how well we try to plan it, it will still result in temporal disruption. The only question is, how severe?”
“At least our chances now are better than they were before,” said Finn. “Martingale here has done a good deal of the job.”
“No, I’ve just done a small part,” Martingale said. “The big part’s coming up and that’s going to be, you’ll pardon the expression,” he said, looking at Lucas, “your headache.”
“Can you draw a layout of the base for us?” said Lucas.
“Come on inside. I’ll get some paper and a quill.”
“All right,” said Martingale, using the quill to point out various points on the rough map he had drawn. “This part here at the bottom is a lake. It’s deep and the underwater canal feeds into it at about this point, I think, I can’t say exactly. Around here you have a sort of beach, maybe five hundred yards of it. The buildings on this side, on the lower slope, are quarters for the personnel. You’ll note they’re constructed on several levels. Walkways have been cut or built into the sides of the volcano here, here, here and here. You’ve got two Bailey bridges running across the lake to the other side, here and here, and cable span bridges going across, close to the side here. The buildings on this other side are larger, used for gatherings, storage, mess hall and kitchen, recreation and so forth. Drakov’s quarters are this separate building over here, higher up and to the side of the cable span. It’s built on a ledge, giving him a view over the entire base.”
“It’s pretty spread out,” said Finn. “You know, I’m thinking the smartest thing for our guys to do would be to lob a warp grenade or two in once they’ve made sure the sub was there. From the outside, it would look like one hell of a volcanic explosion, I suppose. From the inside, well, I don’t think we’d get much of a chance to see anything.”
“I really hate to agree with you,” said Martingale, “but that would be the best thing.” He shrugged. “Who knows, there might be a chance for us to get out before the whole damn mountain gets nuked. What the hell, if I was Forrester, that’s probably just what I’d do. Order a warp grenade strike.”
“No,” said Lucas. “That’s the last thing he’d do. Even if the attacking force sustains heavy casualties, it’s better than a warp grenade strike. We’ve got to try and take as many of Drakov’s people alive as possible, so they can be conditioned to forget what happened and returned to their own times. Each one of them constitutes a potential disruption in the timestream.”
“I don’t see how you can avoid killing a lot of them,” said Martingale. “Stunners don’t have the same range as lasers do and they’ll be shooting at your people. You’re going to have to take a good number of them out, any way you look at it.”
“I know,” said Lucas. “We can only hope the show of force will intimidate most of them into surrendering. All we can do is hope that temporal inertia compensates.”
“If their having been taken from their own time periods hasn’t caused any disruptions, then killing them all might-”
“We don’t know that,” Lucas said. “A surgical strike would be nice and clean, even if it did take all of us with it, but it would be taking too much of a chance. Forrester will know he doesn’t have that option. For all we know, their having been taken from their own time periods has caused disruptions. Maybe not, if we’re very lucky. There have already been disruptions, thanks to Drakov’s actions. Temporal inertia will only compensate for so much. It might be irreversible already. All we can do is hope.”
“You’ll lose a lot of people,” Martingale said.
“It can’t be helped,” said Finn.
“You’ll have to clock out to signal the attack at the proper time,” said Lucas.
Martingale frowned. “Why me?”
“Because Drakov will be expecting us to try something like that,” said Lucas. “You’ll have the best chance of getting out without being missed.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” said Martingale.
“We’ll try to work that out,” said Lucas. “I can show you how to program a fugue sequence on your disc. That way you’ll be able to clock out and clock back in almost at the same time.”
“But if Drakov is going to send you back to Forrester with his demands anyway, why not let him? He won’t know you have the location of the base and you’ll be able to clock back in-”
“No, I told you, the attack has to occur while we’re still there,” said Lucas. “For one thing, I don’t trust him. For another, even if we could do that, it would leave only you behind at the base. We have to make absolutely certain Drakov doesn’t have a chance to fire the missiles or escape on the sub. And someone has to protect Verne and Land, as well.”