the street at a dead run.
'You bastard! My clothes!' shouted Lucas, throwing the chain after him furiously.
Only his boots remained lying on the street. 'Great! Just fucking great!'
There be was, alone in one of the worst areas of 20th century New York. Andre and Gulliver were being held prisoner by Nikolai Drakov, and he was standing in the middle of Washintgon Street in his underwear with two dead bodies at his feet.
All be needed now was for a police car to come by. Although that wasn't very likely. The police knew better than to cruise a neighbourhood like this.
Lucas glanced down at the two dead punks. They looked none to clean, but the one with the Mohawk was just about his size. With a grimace of distaste, Lucas stripped off the punk's clothes. He slipped on the tight-fitting black jeans and the motorcycle jacket, after wiping some of the blood off. -He. hoped he wouldn't get lice, but if be did, it wouldn't be the first time. He walked over to the other corpse, pulled the switch-blade free and picked up the butterfly knife the punk had dropped. As serious weapons, they left a lot to be desired, but they were better than nothing.
He glanced back toward the building Drakov had gone into just in time to see him coming out again. The man with him had to be the Network man Darkness had described. He was pushing Andre ahead of him into the limousine. There was no sign of Gulliver.
“Darkness, damn it, where the hell are you?' Lucas said, watching as they got into the car. 'Delaney…'
But there was no sign of them. He had to do something. The limo was pulling away from the curb and making a U-turn in the middle of street. His gaze fell on the trunk.
All right, he thought, here goes nothing. Desperately hoping that his telempathic chronocircuitry could compute the time-space co-ordinates and the trajectory from the input — of his
senses, Lucas stared hard at the trunk of the departing limousine, willing himself into it.
He tached.
Gulliver shook his head, backing away as the two gunmen came toward him. 'No, please,' he said. 'Don't. '
The men grinned, aiming their guns. Suddenly, both guns flew out of their hands and disappeared.
The gunmen stared, dumbfounded, and then a voice spoke from behind them.
'Are you gentlemen looking for these?'
Dr. Darkness stood behind them, flickering like a stroboscopic ghost. He held out his hands. A gun rested in each palm.
“Hey!' said Finn Delaney.
Both gunmen spun around to see Delaney, who had materialised within a foot of them. He reached out quickly and slammed their heads together. They both collapsed to the floor.
'That was a little tight there, Doctor,' said Delaney.
'Another foot closer and it would've gotten messy.'
Darkness shrugged. 'How was I to know that they'd be standing there?'
Gulliver shut his eyes and almost sobbed with relief. 'Delaney!'
Finn glanced down at the figure sprawled out on the floor.
'Well, well,' he said. 'Look what we've got here. I believe we've recaptured an escaped prisoner.'
'Damn you, Delaney, get me loose,' said Hunter.
'You know this man, Delaney?' Darkness said.
'I knew his twin,' Delaney said. 'Dr. Darkness, meet Capt.
Reese Hunter, of the Counter Insurgency Section of the Special Operations
Group.' He bent down over Hunter and cut his bonds with his commando knife.
'You look like hell,' he said.
'I feel like hell,' said Hunter. He got up to his feet and winced.
'Where's Andre?' said Delaney, using his laser to burn through Gulliver’s cuffs.
'Drakov took her,' Gulliver said.
'Yeah, you just missed 'em,' Hunter said.
'Damn! What about Lucas?'
'Lucas?' Hunter said, rubbing his sore wrists. 'Lucas Priest? I thought he was dead. '
'It's a long story,' said Delaney. 'I don't suppose you have any idea where he took her?'
Hunter shook his head. His gaze fell on Darkness and he stared. 'Say, pilgrim, am I still punchy or am I actually seeing through that guy?'
'Yeah, well, that's a long story. too,' Delaney said, taking the two guns from Dr.
Darkness. One was a Browning Hi-Power, the other was a Czech CZ-75. 'Premium hardware for this time period,' said Delaney, examining the pistols. He glanced at Hunter. 'You know how to use these?”
'9-mm semi-autos?' Hunter said. 'Yeah, I can manage. Why, don't tell me you're actually going to arm an escaped prisoner?'
'I'm going to take a chance,' Delaney said, handing rum the Hi-Power. 'Now you can shoot me in the back with that thing or you can help. It's up to you. Drakov isn't just our enemy. he's yours as well. I figure any business we've got between us can wait till this is finished. What do you say?'
'All right. I'm in. I've got a score to settle with that man.' 'Truce?' Delaney said, offering his hand.
'Truce,' said Hunter. They shook.
Hunter hefted the Hi-Power in his hand. He jacked out the magazine and checked to see that it was full, then slapped it back in. He tucked the gun into his waistband in the small of his back.
Delaney beckoned to Gulliver. — 'Lem. come over here. Take this one,' be said, handing him the black CZ.
“I have never seen such a gun,' said Gulliver, dubiously.
'This one's a lot easier to shoot then anything you might have seen,' Delaney reassured him. 'It has two different carry modes, double action or cocked and locked. You're only going to worry about one, the double action. If you want to shoot, all you do is point the gun and squeeze the trigger, simple as that.
You can fire fifteen shots without reloading.'
'Fifteen? Without reloading?'
'As fast as you can pull the trigger,' said Delaney. 'But don't fire all fifteen. It's better to shoot in groups of three. Now the trigger pull on the first shot is going to be a little stiffer than on the succeeding ones, so be
'prepared for that. And use two hands, like this.'
Delaney demonstrated a proper combat stance and showed him how to sight.
Gulliver gingerly took the pistol and followed his example. 'Good. It will kick a bit, but don't let that throw you.' Hunter watched the brief instruction session with curiosity.
'Are you sure he knows what he's doing? Just what time period is he from, anyway?
“Well, that's-'
'Yeah, I know. A long story.-Never mind. Forget I asked.' 'Sorry, Hunter, but you're on a need-to-know basis. You are from the other side, after all.'
'Yeah, sure. It's just that I'd feel better about this if we had a little more help. '
~
'We do,' said Delaney. He picked up a leather valise that was sitting on the floor on the spot where he'd clocked in.
'What's that?' Hunter said.
'A little more help,' Delaney said. “Very little.'
The limousine turned left on the Avenue of the Americas, known to native New
Yorkers simply as Sixth Avenue, then headed north towards the fashionable neighbourhood of Soho, short for 'South of Houston.'
'Where are you taking me?' said Andre.
'Patience, Miss Cross,' said Drakov. 'All will become self-evident before too long. '
'Why, Drakov?' she asked. 'Why work for the Network?
What are you after?'
'I should think that would be obvious, Miss Cross,' said Drakov. 'The Network pays me very well and I find
