Simon Hawke - The Zenda Vendetta

“There is,” said Forrester, tensely. “This is a woman I once knew as Elaine Cantrell. We served together in the Airborne Pathfinders a long time ago. She obviously takes more trouble to look youthful than do I and she’s changed her appearance somewhat since we knew each other, but I still recognized her. If you’ll look closely at her left hand, you will see that she’s wearing an unusual-looking ring.” He paused for a long moment. “I gave her that ring. It belonged to my father.”

The three commandos exchanged astonished glances. In all the years that they had known the old man, they had never heard him mention having any women in his life. And hard as it was to picture their crusty old commander in a romantic liaison, it was impossible to imagine him being involved with that woman.

“The TIA knew her as Sophia Falco-code name: Falcon,” said Forrester.

“She’s a temporal agent?” Lucas said, with disbelief. “The Timekeepers infiltrated Temporal Intelligence?”

“How?” said Andre. “Even their clerical personnel have to undergo high-level clearance scanning.”

“It would explain a few things, though,” said Finn, “like why the TIA could never crack them. Difficult to do if you’ve got a mole from the opposition in your organization. If you’re surprised, imagine how they must feel. It would have been extremely difficult, but not at all impossible. I can think of one way they could have done it offhand, but it would mean that the Timekeepers had far greater resources and imagination than we ever gave them credit for. They could have used reeducation conditioning.”

“That means they would have had to subvert someone in the penal system,” Andre said. “I should think that would have been impossible. They’re constantly monitored.”

“Difficult, but not impossible,” said Finn. “Hell, nothing is impossible. Besides, they might have been able to get their hands on the necessary equipment. It still would have been very risky. A reeducation procedure that isn’t conducted by an expert could easily result in a total mind wipe.”

“I still don’t see how reeducation conditioning would help them plant a spy,” said Lucas.

“I think it’s the only answer under the circumstances,” Finn said. He glanced at Forrester. “Sir?”

“Go ahead, Delaney. Let’s hear it.”

Of the four of them, Finn had the most extensive scientific background, having attended Referee Corps School as a young man, though he had washed out of RCS due to his undisciplined personality. The referees’ loss was the First Division’s gain.

“They probably used a variation on the hypnotic mole conditioning first developed by the Soviets in the late 20th century,” said Finn. “The Russians developed the technique of infiltrating agents into key positions-or positions that would become key positions-and leaving them ‘dormant’ for years, capable of being triggered by a key word or spoken code phrase. These agents were frequently preconditioned to perform certain specific missions, based upon long-range projections. Quite often, they were ignorant of the fact that they were agents until the time that they were triggered.”

“You’re to be congratulated, Mr. Delaney,” said Forrester. “Your analysis of the situation and the TIA’s coincide exactly, except for one small point. There is one possibility for gaining access to the right equipment and the necessary expertise that you’ve overlooked. Subverting someone in TAMAC.”

“Hell, that’s right,” said Finn. “That never even occurred to me!”

“The TIA put it all together,” said Forrester, “but then, they had all the facts. When they moved to make mass arrests of the members of the Temporal Preservation League based on the results of your Paris mission, one of the people they apprehended was Captain Lachman Singh of the Temporal Army Medical Corps-a psychiatric specialist. He committed suicide before he could be interrogated and we now know why. Once Falcon’s identity was discovered to be false, the TIA began to backtrack. It turns out that the woman I knew as Elaine Cantrell was a complete fabrication, in a manner of speaking. Whoever she is, she seems to have no history. She must have had herself imprinted with a personality to match her cover identity as Elaine Cantrell prior to joining the service. A check of her service record reveals that she enlisted in Colorado Springs, which means that she would have been processed at TAMAC, where Captain Singh was in an excellent position to find some ‘inconsistency’ in her psych profile and put her through a scanning procedure for verification purposes. That would have given him all the cover he needed to put her through a modified reeducation program, imprinting her with a bogus personality and some sort of trigger, as Delaney puts it, to reawaken her true identity. Then he cleared her, as the records show, and she went on to Pathfinder training and eventual assignment to my unit.”

Forrester winced slightly as he said that. He swallowed hard, then continued.

“Temporal Intelligence confirms that she applied to the agency while still under my command. She passed their scanning procedures-thanks to Captain Singh-and was accepted for training as a field agent. At that point, Elaine Cantrell disappeared in Minus Time. I believed her to be dead, but now I’ve learned that the TIA arranged for her to be MIA so that Elaine Cantrell could ‘die’ and begin a new career with a new identity, as Sophia Falco-code name: Falcon. She became one of their top field agents.”

“And since Mongoose was the senior field agent, they obviously got to know each other pretty well,” said Lucas.

Andre grimaced. “Yes, but unfortunately for Mongoose, not well enough.”

“The ironic part,” said Forrester, “is that the TIA assigned her to infiltrate the Temporal Preservation League with an aim to making contact with the terrorists and infiltrating them. When she succeeded, the Timekeepers knew that they had succeeded, at which point they must have triggered her.”

“It’s almost funny,” said Finn. “It’s as though the Timekeepers gave the TIA the ingredients to make a bomb. The TIA assembled it for them, then gave it back so they could push the button. The scary thing is that Falcon might not have been the only one.”

“That’s precisely what they’re worried about,” said Forrester. “This has thrown the TIA into an absolute panic. They’ve recalled every single one of their field agents in order to put them through a series of exhaustive scanning procedures designed to check for the possibility of imprintation.”

“All of them?” said Lucas. “That could take months!”

“At the very least,” said Forrester. “What that means is that you won’t have any intelligence support upon this mission. Which brings us full circle. Falcon purposely left behind some personal effects belonging to Rudolf Rassendyll at the scene of Mongoose’s murder. Temporal Intelligence has authenticated them. I think that we can safely assume that they’re not trying to bluff us. The Timekeepers have clocked back to the 19th century and eliminated Rassendyll.”

“But why tell us about it?” Andre said.

“I should think that would be obvious,” said Forrester. “They want revenge for what you did in 17th-century Paris. As a result of that mission, their organization was virtually wiped out. They’ve already killed Mongoose. That leaves just the three of you.”

“If they’re trying to make certain that we’re the team sent out on the adjustment,” Andre said, “why play into their hands? Why not simply send in another team?”

“You’re not thinking, Corporal,” said Forrester. “Sending you three in is our best chance to stop them. They know that. They also know that we know that they have already created their disruption. They’ve made a point of telling us about it. There’s nothing preventing them from merely clocking out to another time period except the fact that they want you dead. So long as you’re available, they’ll stick around and try to get the job done.”