'Who are you?' said Andre.
'It is you, isn't it?' said Lucas. 'Andre de la Croix. What do you call yourself in Paris?'
'How do you know me?'
'We've met before,' said Lucas. 'In the lists, on the field of Ashby.'
'At Ashby? Impossible. I don't-'
'I'll refresh your memory,' said Lucas, switching to English. 'You wore red armor and had a fleury cross for your shield device. I wore white and my shield device was an uprooted oak. I remember being quite impressed with your abilities. I never dreamt that you were underground.'
'She isn't,' Bennett said. 'At least, she wasn't then.'
'She?'
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The Timekeeper Conspiracy
'Take a good, close look,' said Bennett. 'Andre is a woman.'
Finn had put away his sword and was now covering Bennett with the laser. 'What is this?' he said. 'What are you trying to pull?'
Moving slowly, keeping his hands in plain sight, Bennett walked over to a chair and sat down.
'You're commandos, aren't you?' he said. 'An adjustment team?'
'That's right,' said Finn, watching him closely.
Bennett seemed relieved. 'Andre, we have to cooperate with these men. They are soldiers from the future.'
Andre nodded. She put her rapier and her dagger down upon the table and slowly approached Lucas.
'That's far enough,' said Lucas, when she was almost within arm's reach of him.
'I am unarmed,' she said, 'and your friend can kill me easily.'
She held out her hands to Lucas.
'Your hand,' she said.
Hesitantly, Lucas lowered his rapier and stretched out his free hand to her. She came closer and took his left hand in both of hers, pressing it against her chest, then slowly moving it down between her legs. There was nothing sexual in the contact at all. She kept her eyes on his, watching for a reaction. She was surprised at what she saw. It was not at all what she had expected.
Lucas raised his eyebrows only slightly and said, 'All right, so you're a woman. What does that prove?'
She glanced at Bennett, uncertainly.
'She's a unique woman,' Bennett said. 'The term that's used is displaced person.'
Now Lucas really looked surprised. 'Are you telling me that-'
'That she is not now nor has she ever been a soldier of the Temporal Corps,' said Bennett. 'Briefly, she was born in the 12th century and orphaned as a child. She started passing for male at an early age and through a series of fascinating circumstances, she acquired the abilities that enabled her to become a mercenary knight errant. I don't know the full story, but she was brought to this time by a friend of mine whom she met in medieval England. Hunter had intended for her to-'
'Reese Hunter?' said Finn.
Now Bennett looked surprised. 'You knew him?'
'Knew?' said Lucas. 'Past tense?'
'Yes,' said Bennett. 'He's dead. Assassinated by a terrorist named Silvera, who believed him to be a TIA agent. Hunter came to Paris with Andre to seek me out for the purpose of obtaining a black market implant for Andre. I've been a major contact and supplier in the underground for many years. To my everlasting sorrow, Hunter arrived at a time when I was involved in a terrorist plot with the Timekeepers. I was with them when he came looking for me. In inquiring as to my whereabouts, Hunter must have attracted the attention of the Timekeepers, who took him to be an agent. They trailed him to his rooms at the Luxembourg Hotel-'
'The Luxembourg!' said Finn.
Bennett frowned. 'Yes, that's right. I thought you looked familiar. You were the men we passed on the stairs.'
'Continue,' Lucas said.
Bennett sighed. 'Hunter was followed to the Luxembourg and killed there. Fortunately, Andre was not there at the time. On the other hand, if she was there, she might have prevented it. She's altogether a remarkable young woman. Well. At any rate, they must have staked out the hotel. When I received word that Hunter was in Paris and staying at the Luxembourg, I immediately went to see him. That was when I met Andre. By that time, Hunter was already dead and she was alone in the hotel with his body, not knowing how to dispose of it, who had killed him, or why he had been killed. I was seen going into the hotel, to Hunter's room. Naturally, the Timekeepers assumed I had betrayed them to the TIA and Silvera broke into the room with the intention of killing me and taking Andre prisoner. However, Andre managed to kill Silvera first.' Bennett was reciting the story in a flat and weary tone of voice. 'We had to smuggle both bodies out of the hotel-'
'That perfumed chest,' said Finn.
'Yes,' said Bennett.
'You passed us on the stairs and I thought I recognized Andre,' Lucas said, 'only I couldn't place her face. Of course, the last time that I saw her, she wasn't dressed as a woman. When I saw her as she is now, leaving Moreau's
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The Timekeeper Conspiracy
Tavern, I recognized her, but I thought she was a man passing as a woman. Instead, it was the other way around!'
'You followed us to the Rue St. Honore?' Bennett said.
'That's right,' said Finn. 'When we saw you flashing that laser around-'
'You assumed I was a Timekeeper and that you had found the house where the chronoplate was being kept,' Bennett finished for him. 'You were almost right. However, I don't have my plate anymore. They took it from me. They have Hunter's plate, as well, but they don't know its fail-safe code. That's why they're after Andre. They don't realize that she's a displaced person and doesn't know how to operate it.'
'And they want you dead because they think that you betrayed them to the agency,' said Lucas.
'Kind of puts you in a tough spot, doesn't it?' said Finn. 'As far as the agency team is concerned, you're with the Timekeepers. The Timekeepers think you've sold out to the agents. The question is, where do you stand?'
'Until a short while ago,' said Bennett, 'I stood with them. I'm against the time wars. That was why I joined the underground and it was why I became involved with the Temporal Preservation League.'
'Then there is a connection between the league and the terrorists?' said Finn.
'Oh, yes. It's the most tenuous of connections, but it exists. I became convinced that the Timekeepers had a workable plan to bring pressure upon the Referee Corps to end the temporal conflicts.'
'A timestream split is what you call a workable plan?' said Finn.
'That was only the announced intention,' Bennett said. 'The Timekeepers themselves never intended to bring about a split. The idea was to create adjustment situations throughout all of history, alerting the Referee Corps to each situation as it was created, so that they would be able to restore historical continuity, but at the price of extended manpower commitments, financial losses, and temporary historical instability.'
'Interesting idea,' Lucas said. 'But surely you must have realized the chance that you were taking? Suppose one of those adjustment situations proved to be irreversible?'
'There was always that chance,' said Bennett. 'However, our aim was to conduct only the most controlled types of interference actions.'
'What changed your mind?' said Finn.
'Adrian Taylor,' Bennett said. 'He's-'
'We know who Taylor is,' said Lucas.
'Do you know that he's totally insane? That he is totally committed to creating a timestream split?'
'The agency is proceeding on that assumption,' Lucas said.
'Then the TIA knows more than Taylor's own people do,' said Bennett.
'Are you saying that the Timekeepers actually don't-'
