William Wu - Emperor

“Well…I don’t know. But our mounts were about to fall over from fatigue. We had to do something. And if Hunter grabs me, my hopes are finished.”

“You really don’t have that much to worry about,” said Jane. “I still think the Oversight Committee will handle their review of your robots responsibly.”

“Don’t bother; I’ve heard it before.” Wayne looked at Ishihara. “You have any ideas?”

“I have one.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“We can use the time travel unit to move all the way forward to Khanbaliq, arriving tomorrow morning. Since we know Hunter is behind us, and has no lead on MC 5, Hunter cannot gain on us during the period we are skipping.”

“Say…that’s right.” Wayne nodded. “Before, I was always worried that Hunter would take the component robot during the interval we were jumping. This time we know where he is. And we’ll have the advantage.”

“What about Xiao Li?” Jane asked suddenly.

“What about him?” Wayne shrugged. “He’ll be all right. This is his time.”

“Ishihara, he’s just a child. And he’s only riding around the mountains in the middle of the night because of you two. How can you just abandon him?”

“I expect Hunter to catch him and protect him. With that likelihood established, my first duty is to you two, as humans from our time.”

“But you don’t know he’s safe,” said Jane, wishing she had thought of this argument earlier.

“Hunter is tracking him,” said Ishihara.

“We’ll go back to the outskirts of Khanbaliq,” Wayne said firmly. “We’ll arrive tomorrow morning, back out by the village. Since they’ve already seen us appear like magic, we can do it again.”

“They’ll ask about Xiao Li,” said Jane. “What are you going to tell them?”

“That he’ll be fine,” said Wayne. “Besides, we didn’t bring him with us; he came on his own. He can find his way home if he has to.”

“That’s very callous,” said Jane.

“Let’s go now,” said Wayne, ignoring her.

“All right,” said Ishihara.

Steve slept late the next morning. Even when he woke up, he lay in bed listening to the sounds elsewhere in the inn. He heard doors opening and closing on his corridor; downstairs, footsteps clunked and a chair scraped on the floor, accompanied by muffled conversation.

None of the voices sounded excited. He had not heard Marcia’s door open. Quietly, in no hurry, he got up and dressed.

As the morning passed, Steve finally heard the other guests go outside one by one. Soon the clopping of horses’ hooves reached him as the other patrons rode away. Then a lone set of footsteps walked up the stairs and down the hall.

“Sir?” The innkeeper rapped quietly. “The other guests have taken their leave now.”

Steve opened the door. “Thank you. I’ll get my wife. We will have two breakfasts.”

“Of course.” With a quick bow, he hurried away.

Marcia opened her door, already dressed. “I’ve been listening. Everything’s okay, huh?”

“Yeah,” said Steve. “You okay?”

“Basically. I’m sore from all that riding yesterday.” She winced as she walked out into the hall.

“I’m afraid we have more of the same today. But before we go downstairs, I want to call Hunter.”

“All right.”

“Hunter, Steve and Marcia here. How are you?”

“I am well but have had no success. How are you two? And where are you?” Hunter’s voice was faint and almost drowned out by a great deal of static.

“We just got up at the inn. The other guests have left, so we’re okay. Where are you?”

“I am down the road but on my way back toward you,” said Hunter. “I waited for dawn to rest my horse and to have more light.”

“You’re coming back?” Marcia asked. “That’s great, but what happened to Jane?”

“Ishihara fooled me in the darkness. I followed the tracks of Xiao Li and the animals long after the others had left the road for the forest.”

“What did they do?”

“They moved to the trees directly from their mounts. It is a move familiar to me from our missions to the Late Cretaceous and to Roman Germany, but in the darkness I failed to spot the location.”

“Where’s Xiao Li now?” Marcia asked. “Did you catch up to him?”

“No. I backtracked at sunrise.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Steve asked.

“I believe so,” said Hunter. “My first duty is to Jane, in any case; it must take precedence over my First Law concern over a local human.”

“Are you sure?” Marcia asked.

“Yes.”

“So what happened?” Steve asked.

“Not much,” said Hunter. “I had to examine the tracks closely in order to see where they suddenly became shallower, indicating less weight. Eventually, I was able to find the area where the others had moved into the trees.”

“Why aren’t you still following them?” Steve was puzzled. “You wouldn’t just give up.”

“A short distance from the road, all the tracks and marks in the trees and brush vanish.”

“That’s impossible,” said Marcia. Then her tone changed. “Uh, isn’t it?”

“No,” said Hunter. “After carefully reviewing my observations, I can only conclude that Wayne took Jane and Ishihara to another time.”

“Oh, no,” Steve muttered.

“They left?” Marcia stared at Steve in horror. “Now what do we do?”

“Ishihara still has to protect Jane,” Steve reminded her calmly, “no matter where they went.”

“But where are they?”

“Theoretically, they could be anywhere in history and geography,” said Hunter.

“What do you think they would do?” Steve asked. He was more worried than he wanted to reveal to Marcia.

“Wayne still wants to capture MC 5,” said Hunter. “They have probably gone right back to Khanbaliq.”

“You said you’re coming back toward us,” said Steve. “Why don’t you go back to Khanbaliq after them? We’ll go on to the Great Wall to find the Polos. After we learn if they can help us with MC 5, we’ll rejoin you in a day or two.”

“I dare not. Because of losing Jane, I am again suffering from a feeling of failure. I must reunite with you two as soon as I can.”

“Well, we’re still going to have breakfast, but…how far are you?” Steve asked. “If we sit here and wait, we’ll lose a lot of time.”

“I estimate that I am roughly half a day’s ride behind you at this moment.”

“You’ll catch up some while we’re eating. Then I think we should go on north. We’re safe enough. You’ll catch up to us tonight.”

“Probably,” said Hunter. “Now that the sun is replenishing my energy, I can jog alongside the horses I have with me. That will relieve them of the burden of my weight. However, they are still very tired.”

“We’ll be okay,” said Steve.

“I can accept this if you can assure me you will call at the first sign of danger so we can discuss it,” said Hunter. “And avoid all risks you can see.”

“Of course,” said Steve.

“Hunter out.”

Steve and Marcia went downstairs. The innkeeper hurried out with their breakfast of rice gruel with meat and vegetables in it, and a pot of hot tea. He retired as Steve and Marcia started eating hungrily.

When Steve had finally satisfied himself, he leaned back with a grin and sipped a little more tea. “That sure is familiar. It’s the same breakfast I’ve had in Chinese restaurants in our own time.”

“That’s true,” said Marcia. “I recognize it, too. In fact, much of the Chinese cooking in our own time is, at least in style, many centuries old. Even new ingredients, such as corn from the New World, have been available since the Age of Exploration. An excavation on the Old Silk Road in the late twentieth century revealed mummified dumplings virtually identical to what we eat now…”