back into another, increasing it along the way? It was absolutely mindboggling and it had been going on for years.
Corrupt T.I.A. section chiefs affiliated with the Network often lived better than heads of state. They had become so involved in their own transtemporal private enterprises that they looked upon the T.I.A. as a sort of part-time job, their official duties merely the cost of doing business.
Forrester had taken it upon himself to put them out of business, every last one of them, but it was a mighty tall order. In the first sweep operation conducted by the newly organised Internal Security Division, no less than twenty-seven section chiefs were clocked back from their posts, ostensibly for “orientation conferences,' and placed under arrest. The first attempt on Moses Forrester's life was made the very next day.
There had been several more attempts since then, despite the dramatically increased security. Forrester did not like to be crowded and refused to accept having any more guards around him in his private quarters, so elaborate measures had been taken to protect him without his being aware of the increased protection.
Security throughout the entire Headquarters Complex had been beefed up.
Scanning devices and automated defence mechanisms had been installed in all the corridors and lift tubes leading to Forrester's offices and private quarters. Enough security and antipersonnel devices had been installed to hold off an entire battalion, but Forrester had found out about them and ordered them removed., saying that he didn't much care for the idea of computer-controlled autopulsers tracking everybody's movements through the hallways. What would happen if there was a glitch? The antipersonnel devices were removed, but Security had clandestinely re-installed the scanners.
The whole thing had led to a great deal of friction within the agency. Not only had two rival commands been united into one, with all the attendant complications that imposed, but commandos were being used to round up renegade field agents, which only served to exacerbate the problems. What it all came down to was the fact that there was another T.I.A. within the T.I.A., and as if it wasn't bad enough that they were faced with opposition from a parallel timeline, the agency now had to do battle with itself. The urgent summons to Forrester's quarters could have meant anything from another attempt on his life to a new temporal crisis, so Andre wasted no time in getting up there.
Finn Delaney met Andre in the corridor leading to the lift tubes. A bullish, muscular man with dark red hair and wide, good looking, typically Irish features, Delaney was, after Forrester, the most decorated soldier in the Temporal Corps. He might have been command staff rank himself by now if he hadn’t been reduced in' grade so many times for various infractions, ranging from direct disobedience to specific orders to striking superior officers. He had. little patience for such trivialities as hand salutes and uniform regulations and expecting a veteran with his record to adhere to such things was an invitation to have one's teeth loosened.
Delaney took no orders from anybody except his commanding officer, for whom he had boundless respect and admiration. Aside from which, for all his years,
Forrester was the one man Delaney was not sure be could take. As a major,
Forrester had been their training officer on their first temporal adjustment mission and Finn remembered all too well what the old man was capable of dishing out.
Currently, Delaney held the rank of captain, but there was a pool going to see how long he'd keep his bars. Delaney didn't care. The only thing rank meant to him was a slight boost in pay grade, but the only thing he ever spent his money on was Irish whiskey, so it didn't make much difference to him one way or another. A private could get drunk just as cheaply as an officer in the First Division Lounge. And
Delaney was a simple man; the service provided all his other needs. He wasn't a parade ground soldier. He was an adventurer at heart. He was a man who had been born too late and so he lived chiefly in the past. Quite literally. The present was just something he barely tolerated. He and Andre both got into the tube and punched for the top floor.
“He say anything to you?' said Finn.
Andre shook her head. 'No, just said to get up there on the double.'
They were both tense, not knowing what it could be, but knowing that Forrester would never have summoned them like that unless it were something serious.
Col. Creed Steiger was already there when they arrived, having responded to a similar summons. Large framed and well-muscled, though smaller in stature than
Delaney, Steiger was very blond, with pale grey eyes and a sharp, hooked nose, like the beak of an eagle. It gave him a cruel look. He moved with the casual, relaxed-yet-controlled bearing of the seasoned soldier. He was Forrester's exec, formerly the senior covert field agent of the T.I.A. Given recent developments, his position was somewhat uncomfortable, if not acutely precarious.
For years, he had gone simply by the codename of 'Phoenix,' working mostly on his own, changing his entire physical appearance from one covert assignment to the next, assuming a different personality with each role he was required to play. Even within the agency, he had been known as a maverick. Finn and Andre first met him when one of his covert assignments coincided with one of their temporal adjustment missions. With the merging of the First Division and the T.I.A.,
Forrester chose Steiger as his executive officer and assigned him as a partner to Finn and Andre, to replace the late Lucas Priest as the third member of his top temporal adjustment team.
When Forrester's investigations had uncovered the extent of the corruption within the T.I.A. organisation he had inherited, he had called in Steiger and asked him point blank, ''Did you know about any of this?'
'Yes, sir, I did,' Steiger had replied. 'Some of it, anyway. And to anticipate your next question, no, I wasn't involved. I had a job to do and I had to look the other way a lot. '
'I see,' Forrester had said. ' Dammit, why didn't you tell me?'
'With all due respect, sir, I didn't see what in hell would be the point,' Steiger had said. 'You couldn't really do anything about it and with the temporal crisis that we're facing with the other timeline, I figured you already had plenty on your mind.
It was a question of priorities.'
''Indeed? Are you making command decisions for me now, Colonel?' Forrester had said, an edge to his voice. 'What the hell made you think I couldn't do anything about it?'
'No offence, sir, but I don't think you have any idea what you'd be going up against if you took on the Network. You'd be taking on an entrenched clandestine bureaucracy that's been in operation for years. For centuries. A bureaucracy that has its own hierarchy, its own funds, its own supply and communications network and its own agents, all of which means that it can function completely independent of the agency. And it often-'does. The agency, on the other hand, cannot function completely independent of the Network, because the Network is an integral part of the agency, infesting it like a cancer. You can never really know for sure who's in and who's out.'
“I could issue an order to scan all personnel,' said Forrester. “Yes, sir, you could do that. It would tend to make things a little rough on your new command, but even so, you'd still never get them all. Not by a long shot. There are covert field agents out there, hell, there are entire sections out there that have been operating off the books for years. They're so deep, nobody knows about 'em anymore. But the single biggest problem is that you don't know who they are or where they are, while they know who you are and how to get to you, believe me.'
“Is that supposed to scare me?' Forrester said, wryly.
'I don't think you understand, sir. These people play hardball and if you went up against them, you'd have to throw the book right out the window and play twice as hard and three times as nasty. It would be a war, sir. And frankly, I think you'd get your ass shot off. “
'Then you think that I should just look the other way and get on with business; is that it?' said Forrester, in a level tone.
'I guess it doesn't matter what I think, sir, because you're not going to do that, are you?' Steiger had said.
'No, Colonel, I'm not. I can't. I'm just not built that way.'
'Then with your permission, sir, I'd like to take charge of the operation. I know at least a few people in the agency that I could count on and who might just be crazy enough to take on something like this.'
'No, Colonel,' said Forrester. 'I appreciate the offer, but I want you to remain on standby status with Cross and Delaney. With the current crisis, I need my best temporal mission teams available on a moment's notice. I intend to assemble a special strike force to deal with this so-called Network. It will be composed of former
