'If they could make that work, it wouldn't be a bad idea,' said Delaney.
Steiger smiled. 'No, it wouldn't. I didn't have the heart to tell them Darkness was already working on it. We know warp discs function in either timestream, because soldiers from the congruent universe had no trouble getting around in ours. It's my understanding the symbiotracers work on similar principles, which means they might work here. Just the same, I wouldn't count on any help from Dr. Darkness. He told me he's not going to attempt crossing over until he has more information about the congruent universe. He has no way of telling how his subatomic structure would react to a convergence.'
'Why should it react any differently from ours?' said Andre.
'How much do you know about tachyons?' said Steiger. 'Not much,' she said.
'Well, he won't admit it,' Steiger said, 'but Darkness probably doesn't know much more about them than you do. How do you study something that's faster than light? Especially when it's yourself. He has no way of knowing what will happen to his tachyonized state if he crosses over through a confluence. He might very well wind up departing in all different directions at six hundred times the speed of light.'
'Instant discorporation,' Andre said. 'I can see why he might be concerned. He's a strange man. You know, you never told us how you met him.'
'That's because I'm not exactly sure myself,' said Steiger. 'He just materialized out of thin air one day and started giving me instructions, as if we'd been working together for years. He's quite a character. Sort of a human deus ex machina. He has agents of his own scattered throughout all of time, mostly people in the Underground. He knew all about me, so he obviously has access to all sorts of top secret information. Then again, how hard would it be for him to find out anything he wanted to know? How do you stop someone who's faster than light? He's living proof that there are more things to heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, as the old saying goes.'
'Shakespeare,' Delaney said, identifying the quotation. 'Prince Hamlet to Horatio.'
Steiger smiled, 'No, actually it was Mooney Dravott.'
'Who?'
'Mooney Dravott,' Steiger said. 'He was a fine old Elizabethan drunk. Shakespeare used him as the model for Falstaff. Mooney would get ripped and say the most amazing things. Bill wrote them down and used them in his plays.'
'Bill?' said Delaney. 'You knew Shakespeare?'
'Oh, yeah,' said Steiger. 'Nice fella. I met him while I was gathering intelligence on the Temporal Underground in the late 16th century. He would have been amused to know how well his work came to be regarded and how long it has survived. He didn't take it all that seriously himself. To him, it was just a living, something he did for enjoyment and to make money. He used to say, 'It beats acting.' He did a lot of his writing in pubs, soliciting reactions and taking suggestions from just about anybody. He wrote for the people, so he had a high regard for their opinion. Much of what he wrote was taken from history, but he was more interested in the story for its own sake than in historical accuracy, which is one of the reasons I always suspect history as handed down to us by storytellers.'
'Such as Apollonius of Rhodes, you mean,' said Andre.
'Exactly.'
'I keep thinking about the mission programming,' said Delaney. 'I've seen a lot of strange things, but if it wasn't for the centaur, I wouldn't have bought any of it.'
'I'm not sure that's not the right approach,' said Steiger. 'Just because we caught a centaur who-or is it which? — corroborated some of the details of an ancient fable doesn't necessarily mean it's all true. If Apollonius really was picking up on psychic impressions of this place, how much of what he wrote can be considered reliable information and how much the result of a primitive mind attempting to make sense of science and technology beyond its grasp?'
Delaney frowned. 'What are you saying?'
'Well, I've been trying to think of rational explanations for what seem to be irrational or supernatural elements in the story,' said Steiger. 'Maybe their technological development here is completely at variance with what we would expect at the same period in our timeline. But that's only one possible explanation. We're at war with the congruent universe. Intelligence is important to each side. It would be in their best interests to supply us with disinformation. Maybe we're actually dealing with a universe in which certain physical laws are different from those in our own timeline. On the other hand, suppose the centaur was actually created by genetic engineers in the future of this universe. This whole thing could be a setup.'
'Interesting idea,' said Andre, 'but it doesn't seem very likely.'
'Why not?'
'All right, let's assume that was what happened,' Andre said. 'They created a centaur in their genetic labs, programmed it with disinformation about this timeline and sent it through the confluence to draw us here. For one thing, if that were the case, they could have taken us by now. And for another, it would require genetic engineering capabilities far in advance of our own.'
'And that's not impossible,' said Steiger. 'There's also the possibility that they could have taken us, only taking us this early in the game didn't fit in with their plans.'
'Okay, I'll grant you that,' Andre said. 'But then it still doesn't add up, because if the centaur had been programmed, it would have shown up in the psych team's debriefing session.'
'Maybe not,' said Steiger. 'What if they're better at psychological conditioning than we are? Can we make a centaur? There's still another possibility to consider. If this is some sort of setup and they really planned the operation carefully, they could have had people on the inside, on our interrogation team.'
Delaney whistled. 'Boy, that's really getting paranoid!'
'Sound too incredible to you?' said Steiger. 'Don't forget, they managed to infiltrate Archives Section before and alter some of our records. There's every reason to suspect they could have managed to infiltrate us elsewhere. It sounds a lot more believable to me than the idea of gods and monsters being real.'
'Is that any less believable than my having been born in the 12th century?' said Andre, playing devil's advocate. 'The first time I saw a suit of armor made from nysteel, I thought it was magic. The first time I saw someone make a temporal transition, I thought he was a sorcerer appearing out of thin air. Well, wasn't he, in a sense? Where does technology stop and magic begin? Isn't it just a matter of perspective?'
'I suppose it all depends on whether an immortal is actually a god or someone who's achieved the ultimate in life extension,' Steiger said.
'But what exactly is a god?' said Andre. 'Whose definition are we using?'
Steiger smiled, 'Why don't we wait until we meet one? Then we can go right to the source.'
They reached the river shortly before dark without encountering anyone, mortal or immortal. The crossing did not prove difficult to find; it was almost exactly where Major Curtis had indicated it on his hastily drawn map. The river flowed swiftly and the water came up to their thighs, so it was necessary for them to move slowly and carry their weapons high as they waded across. They made camp not far from the riverbank. The night was warm and they decided to sleep under the stars, taking turns standing watch. It felt strange hearing the familiar sounds of crickets and nightbirds, seeing familiar constellations and knowing they were in another universe.
As their fire died down, Steiger reached into it and removed a glowing branch. He used it to light a cigarette.
'That's very non-regulation, you know,' Delaney said. 'You're not supposed to bring things like that through to Minus Time.'
Steiger grinned. 'You want a drag?'
'Sure.'
Steiger passed him the cigarette.
They took turns standing watch and the night passed uneventfully. At dawn, they rose and washed up in the river, then checked the baited hooks they had left in the water overnight. Each of them had caught a fish. They were trained in survival techniques, but so far their journey was less a mission than a pleasant hike. Living off the land would pose no problem. As they were finishing their breakfast of cooked fish, someone hailed their campsite from the riverbank.
Exchanging glances, they made sure their weapons were within easy reach before replying to the call. A moment later, a slender, strikingly handsome young man came through the trees and stopped a short distance
