William Wu - Dictator

Judy watched him uncertainly. Hunter had already decided to take the greatest risk of exposing new technology he had ever considered on these missions. Before the agents regained their composure and entered, he walked over to Judy and triggered his belt control, taking them back to their own time.

Steve angrily marched down the hall away from Room F-12 in the Bohung Institute. He was mad at Jane for arguing with him. Even more, he was mad at himself for handling his resignation so poorly.

As he furiously replayed the conversation in his mind, he realized that he should have raised the subject earlier. Jane had a legitimate point about that. He could have shared his thoughts over breakfast, while he was still undecided.

At the same time, the episode reminded him that he really did not belong with educated, sophisticated company. Jane and Hunter would have handled themselves properly. So would all the historians who had joined them for one mission or another. He was better off up in his mountain shack.

Steve also pictured Jane in his mind. He had grown to like her a lot and, in Jamaica, he had felt they were growing closer. Then in Germany, they had not spent much time alone together. After all, those missions were serious, not a time to socialize. In any case, he still saw no reason that a woman with her education would be interested in a desert rat like himself. He was better off just going home.

Steve turned the last corner into the main lobby and headed for the front doors. Then running footsteps behind him got his attention. Puzzled, he stopped and turned around.

“Steve!” Hunter’s voice boomed from down the hall. When he came bounding around the corner, his long black overcoat flapping around him, he was recognizable, but much altered-shorter and broader than usual. “We need help.”

“Huh? Come on, Hunter. We already settled that. You don’t need me.”

“I have an emergency, Steve. We already left.” Hunter walked up to Steve, calmly now.

“You already left-and came back again?”

“Prematurely, I assure you. We have not even begun to locate MC 4.”

“What happened? You would never even consider coming back here like this in the middle of the other missions.”

“The First Law gave me no other choice. I had to bring Judy back here to escape the potential of extreme harm. Jane is in 1941 alone. Please help.”

“Well, you can rejoin Jane right after you left her, can’t you? You can take care of her.”

“I have considered this. The society we entered is more complex than that of the Roman frontier or the Jamaican buccaneers. The Stalin regime is very dangerous and unpredictable. Finding MC 4 near the front of a major war will be more difficult in the industrial age than in earlier times. I am desperate for your help.”

“You sure?” Steve looked at him skeptically.

“I even took another step out of desperation. In prior missions, I would not knowingly allow any local to see the team appear or vanish in time, because it might set up lines of thinking or behavior that have a significant effect on them. However, I had to escape with Judy from a confined room. NKVD agents saw us go in and will find us gone, even though the room has no exit except the one they are watching.”

“Really? That’s a big change for you.” Steve suddenly realized how serious this was. “You must have been desperate.”

“I have just taken two risks I would not have considered before. The irrationality and viciousness of the NKVD required me to take this lesser risk, rather than allow them the chance to torture Judy for information.”

“Yeah,” said Steve. “If they questioned her under torture, and she broke, they would learn that people were coming back from the future.”

“These were among my considerations, yes.”

“Well, I approve of your looser interpretation of chaos theory. But if any of you had changed history, it would be different right now, already.”

“It could be changed, right now, in ways that we have not noticed in the few seconds since I have returned. Judy and I must go back. Please join us.”

Steve sighed, but nodded. As much as he did not want to rejoin the team, he did like feeling needed. “I have one request, though, Hunter.”

“What is that?”

“Would you change your appearance back to normal, at least until this masquerade becomes necessary again? I can’t get used to this.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

Steve walked with him quickly back to Room F-12.

In the room, Judy was pacing anxiously. “Are we ready? Can we go right back?”

“One more moment,” said Hunter. He altered the shape of one forefinger slightly and plugged it into an electrical outlet. “I used an usually large amount of my stored energy during the night. Recharging from here will be very brief. Steve will come with us this time.”

“Ivana can’t survive the NKVD,” said Judy frantically. “We have to help her somehow. Let’s go right back.”

“No,” Hunter said firmly. “The NKVD took you because you happened to be with her. It was the result of our presence and I could justify taking you away again. However, the NKVD came for Ivana for reasons of their own. We did not precipitate her arrest in any way.”

“You mean you refuse to help her?” Judy’s eyes were wide with shock.

“I must. The First Law imperative to avoid changing history requires it.”

“Hunter,” she wailed. “Please. How can one elderly woman’s freedom change the course of history? How? Tell me that, will you?”

“The potential chain of events we could set in motion would be impossible to predict.”

“Maybe it won’t make any difference. If you can’t predict it, you can’t know.”

“The chance of harm to all the humans in the time line is too great to risk,” Hunter said patiently.

“All right. All right.” Judy took a deep breath. “Just indulge me for a moment, though.”

“How?”

“Give me an example of how saving Ivana might ruin history as we know it. She’s already old, Hunter. And she probably won’t survive long after this battle anyway, but her suffering could be eased.”

“Ivana alone is not the problem. We must also consider the NKVD agents with whom she is in contact. The agents are younger and may survive into the Cold War era at the end of World War II, less than four years from her time. Their actions and opinions may be influenced by what happens to her-”

“Specifically, Hunter? What could these agents do that would matter?”

“Perhaps these agents will be politically active when the Soviet Union comes to an end in the early 1990s,” said Hunter. “What if seeing the cruelty of their system to a helpless old woman in 1941 helped to change their opinion of the system they served? If we rescue Ivana somehow, maybe they will have one less doubt about their country.”

“That’s a very small change.”

“I hate to argue his side,” said Steve. “But in this case, I agree. These agents may have relatives who will remember family stories about this time, too, and be influenced.”

“Ivana has two sons in the Red Army,” Judy said slowly.

“They may die in the war or they may live into the Cold War years, too,” said Hunter. “What if the fate of their mother spurred them to participate in the later dismantling of the Soviet Union? If she is rescued, they might-”

“Might not turn against the system,” Judy finished for him. She sighed. “I get it. I guess I always did. I just wanted to hear you convince me.”

“I am already worried that vanishing with you out of the room the way we did may have disturbed the NKVD agents significantly,” said Hunter.