witnesses. And when he leaves. Curly Bill plugs him.”
“What about the others?”
“I’ve got six of the boys waiting for Delaney at his rooming house. I made it clear to them that he’s extremely dangerous and if they screw up, it could mean their lives. The moment they spot him, they’ll open up, As for Priest and Cross. I’ve got four of our best riflemen stationed on the roof of Hafford’s Saloon, across from their hotel. As soon as Delaney gets it, someone’s going to run inside and tell them he’s been shot. The minute they step outside, the snipers will open fire with their Winchesters. Meanwhile, we’ll all be sitting right here, having a nice, friendly game of cards and establishing our alibis.”
“How are you going to prove to the organization that we got them?” Zaber asked.
O’Fallon smiled, “We won’t have to, Paul. Forrester is going to do that for us. We’ll be able to collect on that contract as soon as their names appear on the First Division’s Wall of Honor.
Zaber smiled and nodded. “Nice.”
“Minimum risk, maximum profit.” said O’Fallon. “That’s the way to run things. Then as soon as it’s over, we fold the operation and pull out, before any of their backup can arrive.”
“What happens if anything goes wrong?”
“Relax and have a drink. Nothing will go wrong.” He pushed a pack of cards toward him. “Shuffle the deck and deal.”
Scott stood at the bar with Jenny, watching the Network men out of the corner of his eye. He was torn with indecision. He felt certain, somehow, that he was at the center of this whole temporal scenario. What should he do? Would he have to think twice about every single action he was going to take from now until… whenever? Or should he simply attempt to do nothing? Maybe he should just hole up in his room and not come out until the time for whatever was supposed to happen had passed. Only how was he to know when that would be?
What troubled him the most was Drakov. Drakov troubled the others, too. Not only because of who and what he was, but because somehow he had found out about everything that was going on in this scenario. What Scott knew, he knew only from what Jenny had told him, and from what he had deduced from that, but clearly Jenny did not know everything. Drakov had told her only as much as he felt she needed to know to do her job for him. Obviously, he himself knew a great deal more. Only how’?
He knew about the Network and who they were. He knew about Ben Stone being S.O.G. and if there were others-and it would seem there had to be-he probably knew about them. too. He knew about Zeke Bailey. How could he know all that? How could he know about all the forces at work in this scenario without any of them knowing about him?
“Scott?”
He looked at Jenny.
“You look so worried.”
He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Everything’s going to be all right. Jen. “
“What did you and Finn talk about before?”
“Oh, we were discussing what our plans should be.” he lied. “What we should do about Drakov and the others.”
“I watched Finn’s face while you two were talking.” she said. “He didn’t look as if he thought everything would be all right. “
“We’re all worried, Jen. It’s a dangerous situation. I just want you to stay out of it, that’s all. I don’t want to see you hurt. And I don’t want you going back to Drakov.”
“If he sends for me. I’ll have to,” she said.
“No. It’s too risky.”
“It would be too risky if I didn’t go.” she said. “It would warn him that something was wrong. I have to go on pretending. Scott. For your sake as well as mine.”
“What if he finds out you’ve betrayed him?”
He won’t find out.” she said. “Nobody knows but you and your three friends. And he would never suspect that I could even think of turning against him. After all.” she added, with a grimace, “he’s the Master.”
“He isn’t your master, Jen. Not anymore.”
“I could kill him myself.” she said. vehemently. “Not only because of what he wants to do to you, but because of what he’s done to me. All those years. all my life. I’ve believed that I was something less than human. I’ve believed that ever since I was a little girl, because that’s what I was taught. I’d stand before the mirror and stare atmy reflection, trying to see how I was different, how I was inferior..”
“You weren’t born the same way other people are born.” said Scott, “but that’s the only difference. That and the fact that Drakov had poisoned your mind. I know you’re in the grip of powerful, confusing feelings right now, Jen, but you’ve got to try not to dwell on them. When this is over, I’ll take you back with me and you’ll get some help from doctors who can help you sort out those feelings. They’ll help you to overcome all the damage Drakov has done to you. It will take some time. Jen but you’ll be all right. I promise.”
“And you’ll be with me? We can be together?”
Scott felt a tightening in his stomach. “Yes, we can be together.’
“I feel afraid. Take me out of here. Scoot. I want to be with you now. I need you to hold me. Just you and me, alone, together. the way it’s going to be.”
Across the room, O’Fallon watched over his cards as Scott and Jenny headed for the door.
“There goes the Kid.” he said. “Another minute or two and we’ll have one less temporal agent to worry about?
“So there you have it,” said Delaney. “We seem to be stuck right smack in the middle of a giant confluence point and it looks like there’s no telling which damn universe were in. You seem to have been primarily in this one, which is theirs… I think, or maybe we’re back in ours again. Anyway, it looks like I’ve been crossing over from one to the other. Don’t ask me how. I don’t know if there are specific areas in town where you can cross over if you happen to be in the right place at the right time or if one timeline son of winks out while the other one blinks in. Theoretically, since none of us happen to belong in either time sector, we’re getting tossed around like corks on the ocean.”
“Jesus. That should explain a lot of things.” said Lucas. “Unfortunately. it raises more questions than it answers. How do we happen to know which universe we’re in at any given time? And how do we know which timeline it is we’re supposed to act in? Are the Network and the S.O.G. caught up in this, the same way as we are, or are we the only ones subject to this peculiar phenomenon for some reason? And. if we’re in the wrong timeline when whatever is supposed to happen happens, how do we know we can get back?”
“There are two more questions we have to consider.’ Andre added. “One, how did Drakov manage to learn about everything that’s going on and, two, how do we know that we can trust Jenny Reilly? She’s still one of his hominoids, after all.”
“She seems on the level.” said Delaney. “At least, Scott believes her. And I believe Scott.”
“Scott is also infatuated with her.” Andre pointed out.
“I think it’s much more than just infatuation,” Finn replied. “He made me promise that we’d take Jenny back with us and get her therapy for the damage Drakov has done to her. He said it was his last request, in case he didn’t make it out of this, He said he… he had a feeling that he wouldn’t. And he wanted me to tell you that he understood.”
Lucas exhaled heavily. “God, what a mess “
“Yeah “ Delaney agreed. “But even if we’re not going to trust Jenny-and I’m entirely convinced we should- why would Drakov want to warn us about everything that’s going on back here? Why warn us of his presence? I can see no reason for it. Except that Jenny has actually betrayed him for Scott’s sake.”
“Well, either way, it makes no difference,” Lucas replied. “We got us a whole new ballgame. The only advantage we have, assuming Jenny’s on the level, is that Drakov doesn’t know she’s come over to our side. But there’s no way of knowing how long we’ll have that advantage, so we’re going to have to move fast.”
“Take Drakov first; said Andre.
“We’ll have to. And we’re going to have to do it right now.”
“What about Scott’?” asked Finn.
Lucas shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. All we can do at this point is play it by ear and hope for the best. But we’ll have to hit Drakov fast and hit him hard. Take him alive, if possible. Did Jenny
