Her double laughed and it was her own laugh, exactly. Then she spoke in a completely different voice. A voice Milady had come to know only too well. 'Why, Milady, don't you recognize me?'
'Taylor! In God's name, how is this possible? How-'
'Why don't you ask Him when you see Him?' Taylor said. He pointed a slim tubelike instrument at her. A bright, pencil-thin light stabbed out from it as Taylor quickly flicked his wrist.
Milady's head, severed by the laser, fell upon the floor and rolled grotesquely into a corner of the room.
The man called Doc turned his head away and made a whimpering sound.
'Jesus, Taylor!' He leaned against the door jamb for support.
'Weak stomach, Doc?'
'You didn't have to kill her,' Doc said, his voice quivering.
'Oh, I did, indeed. We're playing for high stakes, my friend. It wouldn't do to have two Milady de Winters running around now, would it? Besides, I did her a favor. I spared her from the headsman's axe.'
'By beheading her yourself,' said Doc. 'You didn't tell me you were going to kill her.'
'She would have done the same to me, Doc, or to you or any one of us. This was one very nasty lady. Besides, if you want to salve your conscience, think of all the lives that will be saved when we bring the time wars to a halt.'
'I agree that the time wars should be stopped,' said Doc, 'but I can't believe that your end justifies your means.'
'You went into this with your eyes wide open, Doc,' said Taylor. 'It's a bit late for second thoughts now, don't you think?'
'Yes, I'm afraid it is.' He took a deep breath, refusing to look at the headless body on the floor. 'Well, I've done all that you asked. You don't need me anymore. Am I free to go, or am I going to end up like her?'
'Why, Doc,' said Taylor, gently placing his hand alongside the man's cheek, 'what makes you say a thing like that?' His voice was a perfect mimicry of de Winter's voice. Doc jerked away.
'Let him go,' said Taylor.
The man was led away.
'You think he's going to be a problem?' said one of the others.
'I doubt it,' Taylor said. 'We've got his chronoplate. What harm can he do? Still, I don't suppose that it would hurt to keep an eye on him.' He walked up to the mirror in the room and examined his reflection. He smiled de Winter's smile. 'He did a hell of a good job, wouldn't you say? Amazing what just a little cosmetic surgery can do. Damn, look at me. I'm beautiful.'
The other man cleared his throat uneasily.
Taylor grinned. 'Sort of gets to you, doesn't it? What do you think, Jimmy? You think Richelieu will know the difference?'
Taylor threw back his head and gave a startlingly feminine laugh. Jimmy left the room.
Their instructions were to proceed to the tavern in Meung, and from there to make their way to Paris. Somewhere along the way, they would be contacted by an agent code-named 'Mongoose.'
'Are they all named after animals?' Finn had asked Darrow.
'Yes, why do you ask?'
'Oh, I was just wondering if there was an agent Jackass or an agent Baboon, you know. Just curious.'
Darrow had not appreciated Finn's sense of humor.
'What is it you've got against these people, anyway?' Lucas asked him as they rode their horses at a walk on the road to Meung.
'They're sly,' said Finn. 'I don't like people who are sly. They're always sneaking around like weasels-wonder if there's an agent Weasel? — and they're totally untrustworthy. I prefer to work with people I can depend on. I wouldn't turn my back on a TIA agent for one second.'
'You don't really think we have anything to worry about, do you?' Lucas said.
'Who knows, kid? Who knows what this mission really is? They say it's the Timekeepers, but it could be the Daughters of the American Revolution for all I know. They don't even tell each other everything.'
They conversed in French, a language they spoke as easily as English, thanks to their implant programming. Anyone seeing them upon the road would have taken them for nothing more than what they appeared to be, cavaliers, soldiers of fortune, comrades in arms. Finn's normally red hair was now an auburn shade, Lucas's was a chestnut brown. Both men wore their hair down to their shoulders, in the style of gallants of the time. Lucas wore a waxed moustache, Finn wore a moustache and a goatee, a style that would one day be known as a Van Dyke. Both men wore high boots and leather baldricks, both carried daggers and rapiers. Their apparel did not lend an air of wealth or fashion to them. Both their cloaks were brown and well worn. Finn's doublet was yellow, cut from inexpensive cloth; Lucas's was brown. Neither man wore lace anywhere about his person; both wore simple sashes of green silk and white shirts that were in need of laundering. Their hats were plumed, but the feathers had seen better days.
'I hate this cloak-and-dagger stuff,' said Finn, then chuckled at the thought that both of them actually had real cloaks and daggers. 'I don't like the idea of not even knowing what our contact is supposed to look like. I'm not even sure what we're supposed to do.'
'My impression was that we were to act as a sort of back-up team to the TIA boys,' Lucas said. 'Look, it might not be so bad. They might not even need us. This mission could turn into a Minus Time vacation.'
'You wouldn't want to place a little bet on that, would you?' said Finn.
'Actually, no. Not really.'
'I didn't think so.'
'What do you think about this idea of someone in the underground going in with these Timekeepers?' Lucas said.
'I don't know. Why, you thinking about Hunter?'
'How'd you guess?'
'Wasn't too hard.'
'I just can't see it, somehow. I couldn't see someone like Hunter going along with that kind of insanity. No one appreciates the potential dangers of a split more than a soldier, even a deserter. Why would someone who has gone to all the trouble of going over the hill and stealing a plate place himself at the disposal of a bunch of terrorists? It just doesn't make sense. What could they possibly have that he would want?'
'They wouldn't have anything that Hunter would want,' said Finn, 'but not all deserters are like Hunter. Think about all the things that would make a man desert. This character is probably someone who couldn't take it anymore or some maladjusted individual who just couldn't make it in Plus Time. Maybe it's some fanatic who joined the service with some idea of subverting it from within, who knows? Whoever he is, he's got to be just as crazy as the Timekeepers. No one in their right mind would set out to cause a split.'
'I can't believe anyone would really go that far,' said Lucas.
'Darrow may have a point on that one,' Finn said. 'They may hope that they won't have to, but if they get pushed, if their bluff gets called, they'll have no choice. Nobody knows what sort of an effect a split will have. Maybe they think that that's what it will take to bring the war machine to a grinding halt. It might at that. But I'd just as soon not have to find out just what a split would do. Just researching it made Mensinger a nervous wreck. And the whole idea of this mission isn't doing my nerves any good.'
They reached the inn at Meung without being contacted by anyone. They took a room and ordered dinner in the tavern. The wine was passable and it felt pleasant after their journey. The innkeeper, although he had been somewhat wary of their well-traveled and rough appearance at the beginning, had warmed up considerably at the prospect of entertaining two customers who paid as they were served. He had been stiffed so many times by gallant cavaliers that he fussed over Finn and Lucas like a mother hen, ever solicitous of their satisfaction and trotting out from the kitchen constantly to see if they were enjoying their meal. Finn was on his second roasted chicken and Lucas was enjoying the innkeeper's best wine, a pleasant Bordeaux, when a young man almost completely covered with dust entered the establishment. Once inside the door, he began pounding at his clothing, so that within seconds he became almost completely obscured by a dust cloud.
'Some more wine, Monsieur?' said the innkeeper, bringing yet another bottle to their table.
'With pleasure,' Finn said. 'And pour a glass for young Lochinvar over there, he looks as though he could do
