John Schettler - Anvil of Fate

Rantgar smiled. “Ah, always juggling with the physics, eh Mr. Dorland? Well, not exactly. We haven’t been able to get anyone through at all. Actually, I was ready for a good night’s sleep after matins in Heristal when we got wind of your operation. Really splendid work, if I may say so. Simply outstanding!”

“What are you saying, man?” said Robert. “You mean to say that—”

“That I’ve come from the past,” the visitor said quickly. “The year 705, to be precise. As I say, we got wind of your operation—just another of those unlikely Pushpoints in the Meridian I suppose. Someone saw you arrive! Yes, and he was quite terrified, as you might expect.”

“The footprints!” Robert looked at Paul. “We saw other footprints near our entry point when we returned.”

“Just a simple peasant returning from the fields,” said Rantgar. “God’s will, he happened along just as you shifted in and cowered in the hedge until you left. Then he ran to the Abbot and told him what he had seen, afraid that there were angels or demons about. Well, the Abbot and I are thick as thieves, as it were. It took some time to calm the man down, but once we convinced him he would have the protection of the Saints, as well as my sturdy javelin, he led us to the place. Then we got him safely away and off to sleep with a jug of mulled wine. Of course we immediately notified the Order, and just after matins we received some rather alarming instructions. A really first order emergency appears to be in the works.”

“You’ve come from the past?” said Paul. “How is that possible?”

“Well I shifted in on your retraction scheme!” the visitor replied, clasping his chest with a gloved hand. “At least I think I’m all here. It’s very experimental, you see. We tried several times and failed before we got it right. Yes, Mr. Dorland. Palma has been a real nemesis. In fact, that was its purpose as the Assassins initially conceived it. They had to create such a cataclysm that the penumbra would become impenetrable, and hinder our counter operations into the past. So we decided to try and move someone forward, given the right opportunity. Ms. Lindford’s retraction shift filled the bill nicely.”

“Then how did you get back to the year 705 in the first place?”

“I was there before these unfortunate events reversed the outcome of Palma again. We have people posted all over the continuum now you know. The other side has men at large as well. I believe you encountered a few in your last mission to Rosetta. The Time War began the instant your initial operation concluded. Time travel was proved possible, and of course at our point on that Meridian we developed the technology as well. The other side used it to take a swipe at some events during the Crusades, and then both sides went at it in earnest. After you stopped Palma on that initial operation it became possible for both sides to send operatives to all the key crisis points. I’m posted to the early 8th century. In fact I live there, permanently. Though I’m afraid this business you’ve uncovered has complicated things for me a bit. I’ll have to be on temporary leave here for a brief spell, if you don’t mind.”

Paul had a hundred questions roiling in his mind as he gestured to the elevator. “Well, come up and meet the others,” he said, and they started the journey up to the lab again.

“What about the Assassins,” Paul asked as they walked. “It’s obvious that they’ve been conducting operations as well. How are they getting through Palma’s Shadow?”

“I’d love to tell you,” said the visitor. “But we don’t really know. The theory is that they’ve managed to devise some kind of mobile equipment that allowed them to get inside the natural Nexus Point of Palma. It opened the instant those atomics went off on the flank of Cumbre Vieja, but the Shadow doesn’t start forming until the tsunami actually strikes home in the Western hemisphere. That left a void, as it were, between the moment you first breached the continuum and the actual formation of the Shadow. We believe they shifted back in that interval and established an operational Arch somewhere, and that it may be serving as a kind of relay center for them. The instant you shifted back on the first mission, it became possible for them to use it. They can shift people in to that location because the Shadow hasn’t formed yet at those target coordinates in space-time, and then they send them on to destinations further back on the continuum.”

“Ingenious,” said Nordhausen. “An eye in the storm. They clearly had something like that set up at the Well of Souls we stumbled upon while I was out trying to recover that Ammonite fossil, Paul.”

“That was on another Meridian,” said Paul. “But it may persist in this one as well.”

“The Well of Souls?” Rantgar did not understand.

“Yes, we found just such an operation or outpost, hidden in Wadi Rumm and powered by a natural Oklo reaction,” Paul said to Rantgar. “In fact, they could have used it to shift people back for this Tours operation before we found it. We thought it was a one way ticket to a single location at Castle Masyaf in Syria, the year 1187, but we could be mistaken on that. And if you don’t mind my saying, you’ve been using our complex here in the very same manner.”

“Big of you,” Rantgar smiled.

But another question remained unanswered in Paul’s mind. “You said you just shifted from the year 705 on our retraction scheme? That’s not possible. We had no pattern signature on you. The Arch won’t simply grab any matter it finds at the breaching point. It has to be precisely matched to an exact signature. So be frank with me, sir. We’ve cooperated with you closely in these matters, and though I know there are certain facts you cannot divulge, at the very least you owe us some honesty here. ”

“Correct again,” said Rantgar. “I assure you that I’m being entirely candid with you, Mr. Dorland. You had my signature! We sent the information directly to your computers.” The visitor smiled. “I hope you’ll pardon the intrusion, but this really is somewhat of an emergency. Palma is quite a nuisance where human travel is concerned, but we can get information through, and objects, messages as it were.”

They were up and through the long corridor now, just outside the heavy security door that opened on the lab. As they went through Maeve and Kelly turned to look, their faces registering obvious surprise.

Rantgar made a courteous bow. “Mr. Ramer,” he said. “Good to see you are back. Ms. Linford, my humble apologies for that mad dash as you shifted out, but I had to get inside the radius of your retraction. I hope I didn’t cause too much alarm.”

Kelly and Maeve just looked at one another, clearly bemused. Paul introduced the visitor, sharing some of what he had told them on the way up.

“It seems we still have a few tricks to learn about Time travel,” he concluded.

“You sent your pattern signature directly to our computers?” said Kelly. “How?”

“Actually… We used some of those nifty little programs you designed, Mr. Ramer.”

“The Golems?” Paul was very surprised.

“That’s what they call them, yes! We distributed the information in files we were certain the Golems would harvest, and they brought it to you. Nice of them, don’t you think? That base data and one little worm to activate it at the desired moment was all that was necessary.”

“Worm? You mean you used a virus to collate the data—“ Paul’s eyes narrowed, and he smiled. “Because your associates in the future discovered the exact moment of Maeve’s retraction, and the virus was keyed to assemble your pattern signature and send it to the retraction module at that time. Then you used the energy of our Arch to shift here when we brought Maeve home!” He had suddenly pieced the scheme together.