“Has it occurred to you that by procrastinating on this case because of the agency’s internecine power struggle, you have become a threat to this adjustment?” Lucas said.
“Yes, that has occurred to me. I’m taking a calculated risk.”
“I’ve got news for you, friend,” said Finn. “That decision isn’t yours to make.”
“No one else is in a position to make it,” Cobra said. “Try to see my side of it. With Mongoose dead, admittedly, most of your problems would be solved. However, he’s no good to anybody dead. Leaving aside the fact that he used to be a damn good operative and could be again, he’s exposed a massive flaw in the databank security system by cracking it. Alive, he can tell us how he did that. It doesn’t really matter who winds up being in control of the agency, that would benefit everyone. With Mongoose dead, we might never find out how he keyed into the system, which means that there’s a chance that somebody else might figure out how to do exactly the same thing. We might not be so lucky next time. Mongoose purposely left us a lot of clues. Someone else may not be so considerate. You really want to try going out on a mission when the records used to brief you have been tampered with?”
Neither Finn nor Lucas spoke.
“You see? You really have no choice. Mongoose must be taken alive. Fitzroy understands that.”
“He just doesn’t understand that you’re stalling, waiting for the proper time to act,” said Finn.
“That’s for his own protection,” said the agent. “And I remind you that I didn’t have to tell you that. I’m going out of my way to play it straight with you two.”
“So long as we’re all being so frank and open with each other in this new era of intra-agency cooperation,” Lucas said sarcastically, “I’d like to ask you what you think will happen if the old guard in the agency lose out in their bid for control.”
“Well, that all depends,” said Cobra. “Under the new administration, the autonomy of the agency has been severely curtailed. I’m not particularly qualified to assess the situation, but I can offer some educated guesses. Essentially, what the new director and his people have to do in order to bring matters fully under their control is to find a highly elite group of, well, moles within the agency. That’s not an easy task. When the new director assumed his office, one of his first acts was to order a compilation of a complete roster of all TIA personnel and their field people.”
“Field people?” Lucas said.
“Indigenous personnel in the employ of field office section heads.”
“Hold it,” Finn said. “Do I understand you correctly? Are you telling us that TIA agents in the field employ people within those time periods?”
“Certainly.”
Finn was aghast. “Are you people out of your fucking minds? That’s in direct violation of-”
“I know, I know,” said Cobra, patiently. “However, consider the job the section heads have to do. Their problems are almost insurmountable. Can you imagine the amount of personnel that would be required in order to allow them to gather all the necessary intelligence to profile the historical scenarios to which they are assigned? It would be a highly unstable situation if we brought that many people in. Besides, all anybody’s really interested in are the results. Without them, you people would not be able to function. So, there’s always been a sort of unofficial policy of looking the other way when indigenous personnel have been brought in. The section heads have always been very careful about using them. But now that the new administration has requested a complete personnel roster, it’s all become official. Of course, any such roster would be impossible to compile. No section head would be willing to reveal who his field people are and how many of them he uses. It would compromise the whole setup. That’s what really brought this whole thing out into the open.”
“So you’ve got the new administration and regular agency personnel on the one side,” Lucas said, “and the section heads, field agents such as yourself, and covert operations on the other. Who has final authority, practically speaking?”
“Practically speaking, both sides have final authority,” Cobra said. “That’s why we have our little problem. So long as the new administration doesn’t know who directs covert operations, the handful of people who do know continue to take their orders from the ‘old guard,’ as you put it. Mongoose is only one of several people whom I imagine have access to that information, which is why the director wants him so badly. The point is, he might not need him. Right now, he’s ordered a scanning procedure for all agency personnel. Sooner or later, he’s bound to interrogate somebody who has the right answers. Whoever directs covert operations is probably pulling all the strings available in order to block the scanning operation.”
“How would they do that?” said Lucas.
“I imagine they’d have to coerce an influential member of the Referee Corps.”
“Could they do that?” Lucas said.
“It’s been done before.”
“That’s wonderful,” said Finn. “Next time someone tells me that my paranoia is unjustified, I’ll laugh in their face.”
“I don’t understand how they can justify their actions considering what’s at stake,” said Lucas. “The only thing that has prevented a temporal split so far is the inertia of the timestream and a hell of a lot of luck. The whole mechanism for insuring temporal continuity is held together with nothing more than spit and they’re playing these kind of games.”
“Only because they have to,” Cobra said. “I’m not saying that egos and the desire for power don’t enter into it, but both sides feel that the other is acting to the detriment of temporal continuity. The ‘old guard’ feels that their system of intelligence-gathering and directing operations is the only thing maintaining temporal continuity. My guess is that that’s why the agency tried to take over control of temporal adjustments from the First Division. On the other hand, a valid argument can be made for the position that the TIA has become like an octopus with more tentacles than it can control or knows it has.”
“And where do you stand?” Lucas said.
“I’m a fatalist, Priest,” said Cobra. “I was out on a mission when the breakdown in the chain of command occurred, otherwise Mongoose’s job as head of field operations would have gone to me. If that had happened, I probably would have been the first one interrogated and none of this would have happened. On the other hand, my being out on a mission at precisely that time may not have been circumstantial, if you get my meaning.”
“So you’re saying you’re going with whichever way the wind blows,” Finn said.
“I’m following the orders of my superiors,” said Cobra. “I’m not asking you to do anything other than what you’ve been ordered to do. I realize that you have a lot of leeway in interpreting those orders. I’m only asking you to exercise that option.” He paused to field-strip his cigarette. “Frankly, I think that all any of us can do is go through the motions. I’m convinced that a temporal split is inevitable. There’s simply been too much temporal pollution. We can’t control it any more. It’s like riding a runaway horse. You can’t stop it, all you can do is try to stay in the saddle.”
“There’s just one problem with that kind of thinking,” Lucas said. “It presupposes that there’s already been so much interference with historical events that a breakdown in the timestream is unavoidable. If that’s the case, we might as well give up and go home. The point, to follow your analogy, is not to concentrate on staying in the saddle, but to keep the horse from taking the bit between its teeth and running away with you in the first place. How the hell do you expect to function if you believe that the outcome has already been decided?”
“You continue to function because there’s nothing else to do,” said Cobra. “You think about it too much and you won’t be able to function at all. For instance, have you considered the possibility that there might already have been a timestream split at some point in the past and that we’re part of it?”
“Then why aren’t there two of each of us around?” said Finn.
Cobra smiled. “You never know,” he said. “When you get back, maybe there will be.”
“Maybe,” said Lucas. “That might very well depend on what we do about Mongoose.”
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Cobra said. “You open to a proposition?”
“We’ll listen,” Finn said.
“I can’t trust my own people,” Cobra said, “but I can trust the two of you. If the new director is made to back off and covert operations continues being autonomous, the investigation will be called off and my problem will be solved. If it goes the other way, I’m still duty-bound to deliver Mongoose, but there might be people in my team with orders to eliminate him if that happens. In that event, I’ll need help.”
“What’s your proposal?” Finn said.
