Simon Hawke - The Timekeeper Conspiracy

Lucas and Andre both had a close call. They had tried for the vicinity of the palace and they materialized in the middle of the street outside the Louvre, in a spot where, scant seconds later, a carriage driven by a team of horses was to pass. No sooner had they materialized than Lucas, reacting quickly to the sound of thundering hooves almost on top of them, pushed Andre to one side and then threw himself in the opposite direction. The carriage hurtled by them and they missed being run down by inches. The coachman was a bit shaken. He had been directed to drive full speed toward the palace, not a wise thing to do in the streets of Paris at that hour, and he had been watching very carefully to avoid running anybody down. It was a mystery to him where those two people had come from. Suddenly, they were simply there. There had been no way to avoid them. Had they not jumped out of the way, they would surely have been seriously injured, if not killed. He would have had to stop. It would have meant disobeying the instructions of Milady, but he would have had to stop. As it was, he glanced quickly over his shoulder, saw that the two pedestrians appeared to be unharmed, hastily crossed himself, said a silent prayer of thanks, and turned into the gateway to the palace.

"Maurice," he told himself, "it's past time that you retired to the country and became a farmer."

Lucas and Andre picked themselves up and dusted themselves off.

"I will never grow accustomed to this method of travel," Andre said, taking a deep breath. "Be it magic, be it science, I care not. It is unnatural."

"That's true," said Lucas. "However, you will find that in my time, it is quite natural to live with the unnatural. We call it progress."

"Well, at any rate, we appear to have arrived safely," Andre said. "What happens now?"

"Ever break into a palace?" Lucas said.

"Not one such as this," said Andre, "and not without armor."

"This won't be quite as elaborate as a siege," said Lucas, "but we will be wearing armor, in a sense." He indicated a group of four of the cardinal's guards who had just left by the main gate. "I think that out of the four of them, we should be able to find two uniforms that we can fit into."

Andre grinned. "You think they will mind lending us their clothing?"

"Well, why don't we go ask them?" Lucas said.

Finn and Cobra, accompanied by one other agent, ran as fast as they could toward the Louvre. They had been forced to leave the luckless agent Jaguar behind them in the alley by Moreau's. His leg had broken in his fall and there was no time to waste on tending to him. Besides, Cobra was feeling far from charitable. The three of them reached a small gate at the side of the palace, in the Rue de PEchelle. Cobra asked for Germain and, when he arrived, he said the words, "Tours and Bruxelles." Germain nodded. "How may I serve you, Monsieur?" "We must see Constance Bonacieux at once," said Cobra. "It is a matter of life and death." "Say no more, Monsieur. Please follow me." Germain took them into the palace, through a series of back corridors and several secret passages until they arrived just inside the doorway of the outermost chambers of the queen's apartments.

"Please wait here," Germain said. "And pray, be silent. There are guards stationed just outside this door."

He left them alone for a few minutes which seemed like hours and, finally, the doors on the far side of the room were opened and Constance Bonacieux, alias agent Sparrow, entered. Upon seeing Cobra, her eyes widened and she beckoned them to her urgently, holding a finger to her lips.

She admitted them into the next room, shut the door, and immediately turned to them, an expression of alarm upon her face.

"What is it? What's happened?" she said, anxiously.

"It's hit the fan," said Cobra. "We made our move, but Taylor got away. We figure he had his plate preset with the coordinates for another hideout, just in case. He wasn't taking any chances. He's probably on his way here right now, if he hasn't already arrived."

"Here! The palace?"

Cobra nodded. "His target's here. It could be the queen, it could be Louis, it could be Richelieu, or it could be all three."

"My God," she said. "What do you want me to do?"

"You have your laser?"

"I've got it hidden in my room," she said.

"Get it. And don't let the queen out of your sight. If you see Milady, don't even hesitate. Waste her."

She nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"We've got to get next to the king and Richelieu somehow," said Cobra. "Got any ideas?"

She thought a moment. "I've discovered a secret passageway that leads from the queen's bedchamber to the king's. It seems that there's never been much trust in royal relationships. But the queen is in her bedroom now."

"Can you get her out for a couple of minutes?"

"I'll think of something," she said. "But I have no idea how you can get to the cardinal without being challenged in the halls. There are guards stationed outside the queen's chambers."

Cobra pursed his lips, thoughtfully. "All right. Get us in that passageway and we'll just have to improvise from there. Remember, don't let the queen out of your sight, no matter what. Now think up some excuse to get Anne out of her bedroom, quickly."

Lucas and Andre, dressed in ill-fitting uniforms of the cardinal's guard, entered the main gate. Two of the four guards they had attacked lay tied up and unconscious in a nearby alley. The other two had both been wounded, although not fatally, and they were also bound and gagged with torn strips of clothing and ignominiously covered over with refuse. If they survived the rats, they would come out of it with nothing but their dignity impaired.

"What do we say if we are stopped?" said Andre.

"We bluff our way through," said Lucas. "I'm wearing the uniform of a captain of the guard. I don't even remotely resemble the man to whom this uniform belongs, but if we both act as though we know what we're doing, we just might get away with it."

"And if we do not?"

"Then do everything you can to avoid killing anybody. If we have to fight our way in, use the laser and aim for the extremities."

"What do we do once we're inside?"

"We've got to get to Richelieu. We have to make sure that he never takes delivery of those two studs."

"Suppose he already has them?" Andre said.

"Then we'll have to find a way to get them away from him," said Lucas.

"One thing occurs to me," said Andre. "What if the two studs that the cardinal is to receive from Taylor are, in fact, genuine and it is two of the studs upon the ribbon that D'Artagnan is bringing back that are the false ones?"

"I've thought of that," said Lucas. "But it would have taken too much time to examine them in London. We would have had to find some pretext to get them from D'Artagnan and he would not have parted with them easily. Besides, I think that Taylor would rather arrange things so that he can be sure that his fake studs get into the right hands. I'm betting on it. If I'm wrong, then D'Artagnan still won't be in Paris for some time yet. He'll be delivering the diamond studs to Constance, and Constance is an agent for the TIA."

"You have thought it out quite well," said Andre.

"I sure as hell hope so," Lucas said. "But we're not out of the woods yet."

"What are these two studs that they are so dangerous?" said Andre.

"I can't be sure," Lucas said, "but I think they're something quite old-fashioned. I think that they're bombs."

There was a soft knocking at the door and Cardinal Richelieu said, "Come in."

The Count de Rochefort entered. "Milady de Winter, Your Eminence."

Richelieu smiled. "We have dispensed with secret rendezvous, I see. I find that most convenient. Show Milady in."

"Your Eminence," de Rochefort said, inclining his head in a respectful bow and backing out the door. A moment later, Milady entered.