Paul raised an eyebrow at that. “I suppose we could,” he said. “All we would have to do is boldly publish a call in our data stream—now, while we still have the protection of a Nexus Point. Both sides will surely pick it up. They’ll get a clear variation signal, and when they investigate it they will see it’s our message.”
“Stick it in an apple?” said Maeve with a wry smile.
“No I think a digital message will do this time,” said Paul. “Hopefully both sides will respond immediately. Let’s ask each side to send someone back to this location. Right here, right now. Conclave! You’re a genius, Kelly!”
Kelly took off his Giants baseball cap and proffered a gracious bow.
Chapter 30
Lawrence Berkeley Labs, Conclave
“Please be seated, gentlemen,” said Paul. “Thank you for responding and welcome to the original Arch facility here at Berkeley. We’re glad it’s still here…” He looked at the Sheik, an obvious message in his eyes.
LeGrand had a look of disdain on his face, showing obvious sympathy for Paul’s remark. The Sheik smiled unpleasantly, Sheik Basim Abd Al Aziz, who’s name meant ‘Smiling Servant of the Powerful.’
“It is certainly a tribute to the skill and ingenuity of the Founders,” said the Sheik.
“When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce,” said LeGrand, also smiling.
“Do you not wish as much?” the Sheik said sharply. “Or would you have me take my leave and we shall continue this struggle through the ages? We shall see who prevails!”
“You forget, Sheik, that Palma is no more,” LeGrand said flatly. The instant this Nexus is dissipated all your conniving and scheming will have come to naught when the Heisenberg Wave finishes the job.”
“We are not without means in that event,” said Aziz. “You have not set your hand upon our hidden sanctuaries, in any Meridian we can see. And they will survive. We will strike again, as Allah wills it. And perhaps this time your Founding Fathers here will not be so quick or insightful in redeeming your lost causes.”
“Gentlemen,” said Maeve. “This will lead us nowhere. You were summoned here to the consideration of peace, not to continue quarreling with one another.”
“You pardon,” Aziz nodded, his eyes still narrow under heavy dark brows beneath his gold braided headset. His prominent nose was raised slightly, a proud, yet haughty face if Paul had ever seen one.
LeGrand was a sturdy man, fairly short, broad in the shoulders, yet with a girth that tended more to brawn than to excess weight. Gray-brown tresses of hair dangled freely from beneath a floppy burgundy cap, framing his round face and high, ruddy cheeks. His eyes were alight with a mischievous glint that seemed ignited by the Sheik’s discomfiture. He was, of course, the very same man Robert and Maeve had encountered in their mission to Rosetta. The Order apparently had been satisfied with his ability to adequately persuade the Founders on more than one occasion, and perhaps they felt familiarity would strengthen their side of the arguments here as well.
“We have called you here to ask for a complete cessation of any and all intervention in the continuum,” said Paul. “I realize that you may be constrained in what you may or may not reveal to us here, but recent events have produced a number of alarming and unexpected irregularities, at least insofar as we perceive the Time theory here.”
He briefly related his experience in arriving slightly out of phase on his last retraction. “We had good numbers on that shift.”
“Very high integrity percentages,” said Kelly. “Also adequate power and perfect stability on a quantum level.”
“Yet I apparently overshot my targeted reentry point, if only be a few milliseconds, and it was both painful and disturbing when I finally manifested in sync with this present. I was there all along, of course, but not yet there, by the barest fraction of a second, and for all intents and purposes I was a ghost at that moment, unseen by any of my associates here, though I could still dimly perceive them.”
“I still don’t understand why,” said Robert.
“If I may, professor,” LeGrand cleared his throat. “Everything you see and perceive is information from the recent past. It takes the barest wee bit of Time for the light to bounce about and reach your eyes, and that Time interval extends the farther away you look. Why, have a glance at the heavens above tonight. Your eyes will be taking in light that has been traveling eons to reach you. Everything you see is not really information from the present. It is the night sky as it appeared ages ago, and in some places millennia ago. You can clearly look into the past, it’s the absolute present and the future you can never really see or perceive.”
Nordhausen nodded, satisfied.
“Then there’s an issue with the movement of objects through Time,“ said Maeve “in both directions. You people have been quite sloppy it seems.”
“We believed an object could not be moved unless there was a pattern signature in the system,” said Paul. “Now I understand your side is using String theory as the basis of your physics.” He looked at Aziz. “Yet we have tangible evidence of objects that have been found where they should not be, where it would be impossible for them to exist.” He was fingering the metal key in his pocket as he spoke, but made no mention of it.
The Sheik smiled. “Do you mean things like parts of plastic laminated playing cards tucked discretely in a copy of the Holy Koran?” His smile faded.
“Come, come, now,” said LeGrand. “To err is human. We found that a very clever ploy, and Mr. Ramer’s play on words concerning his surname in the hieroglyphics was equally ingenious.”
“Now who makes sweet compliments,” said the Sheik.
“The point is,” said Maeve, “we have come to feel we are doing irreparable damage to the continuum. Every breaching point, every mission, each intervention, all the meddling about with Prime Movers, and the risky flirtation with Free Radicals, it’s very, very dangerous, and may make a fatal wound in the continuum, if it hasn’t already done so.”
“We were not the ones who took the life of Primes,” said Aziz. “You will note that we intervene by sparing life. You call us Assassins, yet we are merciful, as Allah commands.”
“Sparing life? Merciful?” said LeGrand. “If you call the obliteration of countless billions mercy, then you are demented, man. Yes, you spared lives, ever so discretely, heedless of what the outcomes and consequences might be.”
“We were very mindful of the consequences,” said Aziz. “They were simply not to your liking, that is all.”
“Not to our liking, indeed.” LeGrand said smugly. “And how do you like them now? We’re back on our feet again. The tables have been turned round once more. See how you like hiding out in caves and high mountain passes now, eh?”
“Gentlemen!” Paul warned. “I was hoping to reason with you, but I may just as well make my point another way. We can turn off this whole thing. Our latest intervention can be withdrawn as easily as I can shut down this Arch at the moment. I know exactly what we did, the where and when of it all, and I can restore both Bismarck and Palma to the Meridian in a heartbeat. As this Nexus Point remains open, I’ll warrant neither of you have a clue on this operation yet, nor will you until we dissipate our Nexus. You will therefore be powerless to prevent anything we decide to do here.”
He looked at LeGrand. “You may have the advantage if we let this intervention stand, Mr. LeGrand, but I can change all that. So I warn you, I will not hesitate to do so, even if it means we live our lives out here in the agony of our Post-Palma world, the merciful gift of the Sheik and his oh so pious followers of the Koran here.”
“You can’t be serious,” said LeGrand. “You would align yourself with them?”
“We would see it another way entirely,” said Maeve. “It would be a defense of the original Prime Meridian, wherein the Palma event has a rightful place. So you can wipe that smug look off your face and get serious about negotiating here, or w
e’ll settle the matter without further input. And as for you,” she pointed at the Sheik, “you won’t like the latest twist we have planned either. We’ll make certain your side shares fully in the suffering caused by Palma. You will not emerge unscathed, nor will you ascend to a dominant position in your future if we can prevent it. And we can. It’s all planned. The operation is ready to go and, I assure you, our final intervention will be completely unassailable.” She folded her arms, bluffing, but doing so in a most convincing manner, in a way only Maeve could truly pull off.
LeGrand seemed stunned. “My, my,” he said at last. “I hardly expected to have a gun put to my head here.”
“Cocked and ready, “ said Paul. “Now, we want some information, whether it means you divulge something critical or not is of no concern to us at this juncture. This business concerning a British steamer, the Darlington Court, is somewhat disturbing. It was blown to pieces upon arrival at its berthing point in the U.K., and the explosion was so powerful it damaged vessels over a mile away. That was no natural explosion, gentlemen. We suspect a bomb was placed on board.” He looked from one to the other, his gaze resting on the Sheik at the end.
“War is war,” said the Sheik. “Yes, we sabotaged that ship. Regrettable, but there it is.”
“When?” said Paul, waiting cautiously and hoping the Sheik would be forthcoming with an answer.
“It was part of the general plan for this campaign. I do not have the exact shift time for that mission at hand.”
“Well enough,” said Paul. “Except for this… In our history, the information we hold protected here in our touchstone RAM Bank, there was also an unusual explosion during the attack on convoy HX-126. We uncovered evidence of obvious tampering in that event stream—ships reassigned, steaming orders changed, and a strange underwater explosion that was noted in the reports of several eye witnesses.”
“You mean the subterranean earthquake?” the Sheik smiled.
“That was no earthquake,” said Paul, frowning. “We believe it was an explosion on one of the ships sunk by U-556 in that attack, the Darlington Court. Imagine our surprise to discover the history in our own RAM bank had already been tampered with.”
The Sheik’s jaw hardened, his eyes narrowing. LeGrand gave him a suspicious and reproachful look, but the heavy set man also seemed discomfited.
“We can say nothing more on the matter,” said LeGrand. “I do not wish to seem stubborn or uncooperative here, but there are some things that we simply cannot divulge—out of respect to your very own rules concerning Prime Movers, Miss Lindford.”
Paul nodded, satisfied that he now knew enough about that event to justify his inner fears and suspicions. The reaction of the two men was transparent. It was clear that the history had been tampered with, but his mind moved on to greater consequences.
“There is something else at stake now that is bigger than all our mutual interests here,” Paul took a seat and leaned forward heavily, elbows resting on his legs, hands clasped under his chin.
“We believe the continuum is fracturing, gentlemen. The minor phasing aberration I experienced on retraction was but the barest inkling of what is to come. And we think the fractures already caused in this conflict will propagate out to much more serious consequences in your day. There’s a reason why you asked for Arch support at this end before you shifted in, LeGrand. And you, my dear Sheik, there is a reason why you missed your target date by three days, eh? Because I saw you three days ago, down in the garage when I was seeing to the fuel situation during our Tours intervention. You appeared, holding that very same sword at your side there, then vanished. I believe you saw me as well, so you know I speak truthfully here.”
The Sheik was flustered. “It was merely a ‘Spook Job’ to use a phrase you have coined. A simple reconnaissance.”
“Rubbish,” said Paul. “Yes, you will tell me that the penumbra of Palma accounts for these irregularities, but we believe something more is happening. Be frank with me, sir, or suffer our eternal enmity. If we side with LeGrand and his people we’ll checkmate you at every turn. Our privileged position on the continuum gives us enormous leverage on events. We antedate every other Arch complex you can build and you may wish to consider the advantage that gives us in any ongoing conflict. We have stopped your entire operation cold, Palma, the Sami’s little scheme at Castle Masyaf, Rosetta, Tours, then we sunk the damn Bismarck and reversed Palma yet again. Are you hearing me? Am I making myself clear?”
The Sheik was clearly cowed, the look on his face speaking volumes behind his wan smile. “We had no intention of sparing Bismarck as a means of restoring Palma. That was an unexpected dividend,” he said testily.
“Well, whatever you were up to, it’s over,” said Paul.
The Sheik eyed him suspiciously. “Not quite…” he started, then seemed to reconsider, sighing heavily. “A gun to our heads, indeed,” he looked at LeGrand.
“Very well,” said LeGrand, folding his heavy arms over his belly. “You’re on to it, quite clearly, and you may as well know. What you have said is true. The continuum is fracturing, to use your term. You don’t notice it here yet, but you will in due course. By our day we’re facing some rather severe ramifications. You know of what I speak, Aziz.”
The Sheik nodded solemnly. “Phase shift is the least of our worries, Mr. Dorland, a mere nuisance, but there is more.”
“Quite a lot more, I’m afraid,” said LeGrand. “Things are…well, not as they should be. We have predictors that return integrity numbers you would be proud of Mr. Ramer, but then events shift, they slip, they twist into an unexpected consequence that no one, in spite of all our considerable efforts, has foreseen. The incidence of Free Radical elements encountered in even the slightest intervention is astounding. We think we have everything nailed down in the research, and then it all goes to mayhem when we intervene.”
“For not even the wise can foresee all ends,” said Kelly.
“Thank you, Gandalf,” Maeve smiled at him. But LeGrand was not finished.
“At first we considered that these difficulties might be counter operations conducted by the Assassins. Then, in a moment of rare clarity and frankness, one of your associates disclosed the fact that you were struggling with similar aberrations in your operations as well.”
“In the interest of accord I will confirm this,” said Aziz. “We believed our problems were the work of our enemies as well, or even the Founders here, yet soon even simple courier missions became so problematic that we were forced to suspend operations. It is the reason, in part, we sought to etch the history in stone, quite literally, in an archive hidden deep in the past, well away from the damage we were observing. We thought the Shadow of Palma was deepening, and we could have no certainty in our day. There were regrets among many of our most senior Seers and Khadis. Some even advocated that we undo the mischief and misery we unleashed upon the world with Palma.”
“Then you will not be too distressed to learn we’ve done the job for you,” said Maeve.
“I’m afraid it goes far beyond Palma,” said LeGrand. “We always wondered about something else,” he said darkly, “and undoubtedly you have posed this question as well my dear Sheik. You see… we have a future as well. When we leave here we go forward, returning to the present we know, which is well in your future,” he gestured to the Meridian team members. “But we have a future as well, and it always bothered us that no one from that future, to this day, has ever paid us a visit with any friendly advice in the heat of this struggle. We took that as a bad omen when the scales were balanced against us, but even when we had the upper hand, our future remained entirely dark and silent. We get no messages in apples, as it were. Not a whisper, not a wink or a nod, and we have come to feel that there is some cataclysm of unimaginable immensity waiting for us just round the next turn in the Meridian. We do not know if the damage we have caused continues beyond our point in the continuum, but it is reasonable to assume it does. Are we responsible for this gre
at silence? It is most unsettling.”
“As for now,” said the Sheik, “ I can say we have shared the dread you speak of. For we, too, have prayed, and called to our brothers who may live in generations yet to come. We have sent many messages, words we were certain our future generations would discover and surmise, yet we, too, receive no answer. We have come to believe that all Meridians are bent toward one great Finality. We are blind to what it is, or where it may wait for us in the future, though the strange aberrations we have experienced may indeed be the root cause. Believe me, it is unnerving when one sets down a goblet of wine and turns to a friend in conversation, only to find the goblet and wine missing when you reach for it again, the bottle unopened, the friend not there when you whirl about in amazement and find yourself alone. All of our Walkers report such experiences now. We perceive the changes, yet we do not forget what we once knew to be correct. We ourselves are not altered. At first we believe these were mere hallucinations—after effects caused by too many Time shifts, but they continue and continue, and they are increasing. We call out to our future like a frightened child, and we wait, yet no word ever returns…”
The implications of what the two men shared confirmed Maeve’s worst fears. “Gentlemen,” she said softly. “If you ever do want to hear a voice from that future I most strongly advise you both to heed this voice now from your past. As the Founding Director of Outcomes and Consequences, hear me roar. Stop this war. Cease fire. At once. I want a complete cessation of all operations and planned interventions. Furthermore, I want all operatives presently stationed on any Meridian, in any Milieu, to be immediately recalled. Then, upon receiving a signal that we will initiate, I want every last Arch complex you possess, known facilities and hidden ones as well, to cease operation and dissipate their Nexus Points. It is the only way we can still down the continuum enough to see what we have done and assess the damage. If as much as a single Nexus Point remains open, then we can reach no clarity on the matter. Time will wait. We’ve lifted her skirts and she’ll show us plenty of leg if we persist with this nonsense, and then, one day, there’ll come that unexpected kick. You gentlemen know exactly what I mean.”
Golem 7 (Meridian Series) Page 26
