'After all we have been through together, I certainly did not expect you to be squeamish. Or sentimentally moralistic. I should have had you killed as well, but that would have left a lot of unanswered questions. Our meeting like this only serves to prove what I told you once before, that our destinies are linked. I gave you a position of power and responsibility. You betrayed me. I would like to hear your reasons. What did the Time Commandos have to offer you that I could not''
Phoenix snorted. 'Sanity, for one thing.'
Drakov’s eyes widened slightly. 'You truly think I am insane' Could an insane man have accomplished what I have''
'It’s been done before,' said Phoenix wryly. 'I could name examples, but I don’t think you’d care for the comparisons. On the other hand, you might be flattered.'
Drakov smiled. 'You don’t understand. That much, at least, is clear. I suppose that was my mistake. As a leader, I should have motivated my men, imbued them with a sense of purpose. I failed with you. As you can see, I have not failed with these. 'He swept his arm out to indicate the guards.
'What’s it all about, Nikolai'’ said Phoenix. 'What are you trying to do here''
'Finish what I began,' said Drakov. 'More to the point, what the Timekeepers began and were never able to see through to the end. Before a new order can be established, the old one must be torn down, destroyed completely. That is the first principle of anarchism. As in the karmic cycle, death must come before rebirth. Only in this case the cycle has been interfered with. Mensinger’s warnings went unheeded, and what he feared most has finally come to pass.'
'The alternate timeline,' Phoenix said.
Drakov raised his eyebrows. 'You surprise me. I am forever underestimating you. How much do you know' '
'Only that temporal interference has resulted in massive fluctuations in the timestream,' Phoenix said, 'bringing about a confluence between two separate timelines. Where do you fit in''
'I am an integral part of it,' said Drakov. 'I may even have helped bring it about. When your treachery caused my submarine base to be raided, I escaped along with Benedetto. We had a contingency plan. We had preset our coordinates to the 27th century, the last time period in which anyone would think to look for us. But fate had a surprise in store for us. Somehow we clocked forward into a different timeline, almost identical to this one, a virtual mirror image, only with some significant discrepancies. We did not realise this at first, which led us to make mistakes that resulted in our being apprehended. Their surprise was as great as ours. Both Benedetto and I were exhaustively debriefed. They wrung us dry to get information about this timeline, which they had been unaware of. What they learned from us explained a great deal about certain phenomena they were experiencing.
'They had a Mensinger as well,' Drakov continued, 'one very much like ours. Only they listened to him. They possessed the sanity to stop their Time Wars. But we have forced them to begin again by making war on them. '
'What are you talking about'' said Phoenix. 'No one’s made-'
'What do you think happens when someone sets off a warp grenade'' said Drakov, 'such as when Lucas Priest exploded one in 19th century Ruritania to break out of Zenda Castle''
Phoenix frowned. 'What are you getting at''
'A peculiar temporal phenomenon occurs,' said Drakov. 'The chronocircuitry in a warp grenade, as I understand it, is designed to clock the surplus energy of the explosion through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge to the Orion Nebula, where it can do no harm. Correct' Eminently practical for military applications, one would think. You can focus the energy of a nuclear explosion with pinpoint precision while the major force of its destructive power is teleported elsewhere. Only such massive expenditures of energy are never totally predictable, especially when coupled with the delicate alignment of chronotransitions.'
'Which means'' said Phoenix.
'It means, my friend, that this latest insane escalation of military weaponry has thrown off the chronophysical alignments of the bridges Einstein-Rosen Generators tap into. The people in the alternate timeline have been the unfortunate victims of this phenomenon. You have been waging nuclear war upon them.'
'My God,' said Phoenix. 'That would mean. His voice trailed off.
'Thousands have been annihilated,' Drakov said. 'Hundreds of thousands. And they never knew the reason for the holocaust. They had no idea who was behind it. Until now.'
Chapter 8
They clocked into a large, shadowy hall inside a dark, cavernous building. The atmosphere was dank and musty, with a feeling of great age. Massive stone columns supported a domed ceiling, and torches flickered in stone sconces. At the far end of the hall, atop a giant altar, was a huge obsidian statue of the goddess Kali, arms held out like an arachnid, skulls around her neck, tongue lolling. Their footsteps echoed on the stone floor.
'Whereare we'' said Finn.
'Inan old, deserted lamasery high above the Khyber Pass,' said the twin Priest. 'It used to be the temple of a thugee cult, which accounts for the statue and the grotesque carvings on the columns. It makes for a suitable base of operations. From below it’s virtually in-visible. An observer won’t even spot it with field glasses unless he knows what he’s looking for.'
They saw a number of Pathan tribesmen standing guard and a few gray-uniformed soldiers moving about briskly, carrying equipment. They were taken to a small chamber, lit by portable lamps which generated their own power. There was a long table in the center of the room, with about a dozen chairs around it. Priest directed them to sit.
There were a number of soldiers in the room, all standing around the perimeter, watching them. A number of the faces looked unfamiliar, but Delaney spotted one he thought he knew.
' Bryant' ' he said.
The officer looked back at him, deadpan.
'Bryant, but not B * ryant,' Finn said.
The officer gave him a faint ghost of a smile.
'Martin,'said Andre, seeing another man.
The husky, bearded lieutenant gave her a brief nod.
'It’s amazing, — said Delaney. 'A mirror-image universe.'
'Not quite,' said Priest. 'But close.' He walked up to Finn and pulled off his turban. 'If you have a counterpart, I haven’t met him.' He turned to Andre and yanked off her turban. Her long blonde hair cascaded down.
There was a strange look on his face. 'Tell me about the other Lucas Priest,' he said. 'What was your rela- tionship to him''
'Wewere a team,' she said. 'The three of us. Lucas was my friend.'
'For what it’s worth, I’m sorry he’s dead. How did it happen''
'He died saving a man’s life.'
Priest nodded. 'As good a way to go as any, I suppose. I wanted very much to meet him. I’d heard a great deal about you three.'
'From whom'' Delaney said, frowning.
Priest smiled. 'From a man named Drakov.'
'Drakov!' saidDelaney.
'Nikolai Drakov arrived in our timeline escaping from you. Exactly how he managed to arrive is a complex question which we’ll save for the time being. He was unaware at first that he was not quite where he thought he was. As a result he made several mistakes which led to his arrest. Imagine his surprise, and ours, when we learned the truth. He was put through an exhaustive interrogation, the purpose of which was to learn as much about your timeline as we could. I use the term we generically. I was not personally involved. At least not at that point.
'The discovery of your timeline’s existence explained a great many things for us. It also raised a number of extremely difficult questions. For a number of years we had enjoyed uninterrupted peace. Our history, it seems,
