Simon Hawke - Hellfire Rebellion

“Not well enough, apparently,” said Andre. “ I missed the horseman.”

“At such close range?” said Johnny. “I do not think so. You had aimed straight at him. The ball must have passed clean through him. And that other man, who fired from across the street..

“We both missed. Johnny,” she insisted. “I was forced to rush my shot, There was no time to take a careful aim. And a fast-moving target is difficult to hit. I do not believe that there is such a thing as ghosts.”

“But we both saw him disappear!” said Johnny.

“We only thought we saw him disappear.” said Andre. “Sometimes the eyes play tricks. Have you never been hunting in the woods and seen something move out of the corner of your eye, then turned to see that there was nothing there?”

“Yes, truly,” Johnny said, “but this was different. We were both looking right at him!”

“And the street was dark.” she said. “And there were people shouting from their windows and flinging open their doors. The horseman could have turned quickly into a narrow alleyway and in all the noise, we’d not have heard the stallion’s hoofbeats. Now admit it, does that not sound much more likely than the existence of a ghost rider and a ghost horse, who seem to be solid flesh and blood one moment and disappear the next?”

Johnny sighed. “I suppose so.” he said. He grimaced. You make me feel like a fool.”

“It seems this horseman has fooled a lot of people,” she said. “He clearly knows the streets of Boston well, knows all of the back alleys, knows of places to hide. He rides only when the streets are dark and the shadows can conceal him. He is a very clever man, but he is no ghost. And you arc no fool, Johnny Small.

“I have never in my life met a girl like you,” he said.

“Nor I a boy like you.” said Andre. She smiled and touched his cheek. Suddenly he darted forward and kissed her quickly on the lips. He seemed as taken aback by his own action as she was. Before she could respond, he turned and quickly ran down the alley and into the next street.

For a moment, Andre was too surprised to move. She slowly brought her fingertips up to her lips.

“Bit young for you, isn’t he?”

She spun around and saw Steiger, leaning with his arms folded against the wall.

“Damn it, Creed! Don’t go sneaking up on me like that!” She was grateful that in the darkness, he couldn’t see her blush. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Officially, I suppose I’m A.W.O. L..” said Steiger. “Un-officially, I’ve assigned myself to keep an eye on Hunter. Frankly, I don’t trust him.”

“That was you back there, firing the laser.” she said. “That was stupid. The boy saw you.”

“Yes, but I think he accepted your explanation about the muzzle flash,” said Steiger. “And the ghost rider made a much more lasting impression. As, no doubt, did you.” He grinned. “I think that’s called contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Lieutenant.”

“Forget the wisecracks,” she said. “What did you make of the horseman?”

“Well, he wasn’t any ghost, that’s for sure.” said Steiger. “Somebody equipped with a warp disc, programmed for a fugue clocking sequence, so that he keeps clocking in and out faster than the eye can follow. What you see was only there a fraction of a second earlier. It’s risky as all hell, a good way to wind up in the dead zone if you’re not very careful, but it’s certainly effective.”

“That’s what I figured, too.” said Andre. “It’s the only possible explanation. You think maybe it was Drakov?”

“Maybe, but I’d guess not,” said Steiger. “He’s too smart to take those kind of chances. It might well have been a hominoid. Which means that Hunter was right. Drakov is unquestionably here.”

Andre nodded. “Or one of his clone, is,” she said. “Either way, it amounts to the same thing. Big trouble. And thanks to your using a laser, now he’ll know we’re here, as well.”

“That ought to make things interesting,” said Steiger.

“That really wasn’t very smart, Creed.”

“You’d rather I’d have let him run you down’? You’re lucky I was there. I had Hunter’s place staked out from a room across the way. When I saw what was going down. I had to move fast. There wasn’t a lot of time for planning something smart.”

“We’d better go see Hunter.” she said.

“No, you go see him,” Steiger said. “I don’t want him to know I’m here.”

“But his information has panned out,” she said. “ Drakov is here. A temporal disruption is in progress.”

“All the more reason not to alert Hunter to my presence,” Steiger said. “That way I can keep an eye on him, just in he decides to take advantage of the situation. Or have you forgotten that he’s on the other side?”

“I haven’t forgotten.” she said. “But he’s been dealing straight with us so far.”

“And I intend to make sure he keeps it that way,” Steiger said. “What do you figure Drakov’s planning?”

She shook her head. “We don’t know, yet. A disruption, obviously, but there’s no way of telling exactly what he has in mind. If we’re lucky, we may get to find out soon. We’re supposed to be infiltrating a secret Tory group that’s working against the Sons of Liberty. Sounds as if Drakov might be behind it, because there’s no record of any such group in colonial history. The horseman is apparently their leader or at least their symbol. They’ve all been talking about him. Last night, four Sons of Liberty were hanged from the Liberty Tree.”

“A temporal anomaly,” said Steiger.

“Yeah.” said Andre. “The Sons of liberty were essentially unopposed during this time period. Sam Adams led them in agitating the colonies against the British. There are Sons of Liberty groups forming in other colonies and Adams will soon be running them all, through dispatch riders like Paul Revere, who will eventually become the core of the Committees of Correspondence between the colonies. The governor of Boston has sent to New York for British troops, but they’re not due to arrive for a while yet. If the Sons of Liberty are stopped here, before things really get rolling, it could change the course of history. Drakov might actually be trying to prevent the American Revolution.”

“Interesting.” said Steiger.

“What do you mean?”

“In the congruent universe, the American Revolution was won by the British.”

“What are you saying?”

“I just find it interesting that Hunter put us onto this in the first place and that the disruption appears to be intended to alter our timeline in a way that would match the timeline of the congruent universe. Don’t you find that interesting?” She stood silent for a moment.

“You think there’s a C.I.S. team here that’s behind all this and Hunter’s trying to lure us into a trap’? But if the horseman’s one of Drakov’s hominoids, then how does that fit with-”

“We don’t really know he is a hominoid.” said Steiger. “And if he is, we don’t know if he’s one of Drakov’s hominoids, do we’? The hominoids were originally developed in the congruent universe by Dr. Moreau as part of Project Infiltrator, before Drakov hijacked the entire project. The C.I.S. could still have some hominoids left. And there’s also another possibility. For all we know. Hunter could be working with Drakov.”

“I don’t buy it.” Andre said. “Drakov almost had Hunter killed. Hunter wants revenge.”

“Or so he says.” said Steiger. “Maybe they buried the hatchet. Maybe Drakov promised Hunter a trip back home in exchange for trapping us. Maybe Hunter isn’t even Hunter.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe he’s a hominoid.” Andre expelled her breath. “Jesus, we never even considered that. How the hell did you manage to come up with that one?”