“That river is on the map. What big rivers do they have in England?” I ask.
“This isn’t England,” Viznir replies.
“The map is English,” I counter.
“The men in that castle are English, too. But that river is the Seine. We’re in France. If this image scan is correct, that’s the Castle Gaillard, and it’s under siege by the French.”
“Seige?” I study the landscape in front of me. “They’re not causing much of a ruckus for having a siege. If they hadn’t been downhill, we probably would have walked right into them before we heard them.”
“That’s because they aren’t trying to take the castle by force yet. Depending on the timestream, this siege takes the French anywhere from eight months to a year. In most cases, they’ll finally take it in March of 1204. Based on the temperature, we could be close to then. We’ll have to see when we get closer.”
“Castle siege, huh? This could be fun.” I begin plodding down the hill still looking at our map. “Our object is a book of something religious I think. It’s got crosses on it.” I turn the image sideways to look at it. “Would they have us steal a Bible?”
Viznir consults his scan of the image. “It does look like one.”
“Oh, man. We’re going straight to Hell.”
“Think of it as preserving it for posterity. You’re doing them a favor.”
I put the map back in my pocket and concentrate on the terrain. The hill begins to level out, and we see more and more evidence of the siege around us. Trees have been felled for lumber and there are occasional scorch marks from fires. We approach a berm of dirt and grass and crouch behind it to take in the view beyond.
The French encampment is sprawled around the castle in all directions, but most of the activity seems to be happening inside a wooden perimeter of the castle. The attackers have breached the wooden exterior wall and torn down sections of it to gain access to the stone walls inside. Gashes and a few indents on the walls show previous impacts from the siege engines and trebuchets, but the rounded exterior of the castle seems to have withstood them well.
Viznir pulls a pair of binoculars from his pack and scans the area. After a minute he hands them to me. “If thousands of French soldiers can’t find their way in, I’m not sure how we’re going to.” He frowns and goes back to his tablet.
I observe the scene with curiosity through the binoculars. With the added magnification I can make out some of the defenders through the arrow slits in the towers and along the battlements. The south side of the castle we’re looking at tapers to a point toward us and is guarded by three rounded towers. The towers occasionally open hatches at the top and drop things on the attackers below. I realize that our quiet descent downhill was coincidence as we’d merely arrived at a lull in the action. A creaking trebuchet launches a projectile into one of the upper walls with a tremendous crash, and bits of rock and debris tumble down the wall. I track the action at the base of the wall around to the right, scanning the other surfaces, and suddenly have to jerk back at what I see.
“Holy shit!”
“What?” Viznir looks up from his tablet.
I focus the lenses on my binoculars. “I see Jonah’s dog!”
“Really? Where?”
I pass the binoculars to Viznir and point toward the right side of the castle. “It’s along the far side, away from the action. Right near the base of the wall.” Even without the binoculars I can make out the Labrador pacing back and forth and looking up the face of the castle wall.
“Well look at that. I wonder where the kid is?” Viznir lowers the binoculars again and looks around. A rustling from the woods behind us makes me turn. At the sight of two figures approaching, my hand automatically reaches for my non-existent gun, but then I see who it is. Cliff’s face is red from exertion. Jettison waves as they emerge from the trees and crouches as he jogs the rest of the way to our position.
“How’s it looking, Travers?” He swings his pack off his shoulders and lies on the slope next to me, then pops his head up to have a look over the berm.
“We get to storm a castle.” I smile.
“Yeah, I noticed.” Jettison grins back. “They’re ratcheting up the danger level on us.”
Cliff is breathing hard when he collapses onto the berm next to Jettison. He nods to me, then gives another nod to Viznir. Viznir frowns and goes back to his binoculars.
“What are you guys after?” I ask, curious to hear about another team’s adventures.
“Banner from a throne room.” He shows me his map and I compare it to mine. His has a detailed drawing of the central keep labeled “Inner Bailey.”
“Special banner?” I ask.
“Apparently it belonged to Richard the Lionheart,” Jettison replies. “He’s the one who built this castle.”
“Sweet! The Robin Hood king? Are we going to get to meet him?”
“Nah.” Jettison shakes his head. “According to the data, he died a decade ago. John’s king now.”
“Ah, bummer.” I frown. “That’s too bad. Although I always picture him as Patrick Stewart from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, anyway. Maybe I can just visit him sometime instead. You ever see that movie?”
Jettison shakes his head. “No. But I’ve seen the one called Prince of Thieves. We watched it in film studies class.”
“A Kevin Costner movie makes it to the twenty-second century? Good for him.” I turn back to the task at hand. “So what’s our play here? You have any ideas on how to get over those walls?”
Viznir holds up his tablet. “We could go under. The French are tunneling under the outer wall. Depending on how far they’ve gotten, we might make it through.”
“If you can convince the French to let you through and avoid the cave-ins,” Jettison says. “The English are apparently counter-tunneling and collapsing tunnels all over the place.”
“You sure know your history. I’m impressed,” I say.
Jettison taps his jacket pocket, where the corner of an electronic tablet is peeking out. “I cheat. Just like everyone else past the middle of the twenty-first century.” He gestures toward the woods. “I don’t know about you guys, but there’s my way over.”
Genesis and Mayra are emerging from the trees. Viznir looks even more annoyed as our group expands, but I welcome Genesis with a high five. “Hey. How’s it going?”
Genesis is breathing heavily but she smiles. “Not bad. Gonna be a tough level though.”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Storming a castle. Fun for the whole family.” I nod to Genesis’ guide, Mayra.
“Well, not the whole family,” Genesis says. “The Ivans came through right behind me. They were after an objective in the French camp.”
“The alien went that way, too,” Mayra adds.
Jettison points to Genesis’ pack. “You have the ascension gun?”
Genesis nods. “Can we get to the wall?”
“Let’s find out.” Jettison takes another look over the berm, then clambers over and sprints toward a pile of timber fifty feet ahead. Cliff pulls a pistol from his belt and follows him.
Genesis looks to me. “You guys coming?”
I turn to Viznir and shrug. He looks unhappy, but he doesn’t say anything. “Yeah. I guess so.”
We climb over the berm and try to catch up to Jettison, who is dodging from one hiding place to another and working his way closer to the castle’s wooden perimeter. By heading east we’re able to steer clear of the main attack on the castle. To our side, the walls are smooth and the rock cliff below offers little coverage from the battlements. The attackers have chosen to assault the other side, where they’ve filled in a portion of the dry moat and constructed a covered bridge that allows them to access the base of the wall.
I watch the castle’s arrow slits and wonder if at any moment we’ll be getting fired upon. I hope that the fact that we’re not carrying ladders or anything remotely offensive might make defenders think twice about wasting their arrows on us. We reach an a
rea that’s protected by a rise in terrain about twenty yards from the wall. Jonah’s dog is still trotting back and forth along the base of the wall, stopping to occasionally look up at the battlements and whine. I hear a periodic beeping coming from somewhere in his doggie saddlebags.
“You think Jonah already made it up somehow?” I ask.
“I can’t imagine how,” Viznir says.
“Maybe he has an ascension gun, too.” Jettison says. “But he’d need help using it.”
“Is it like a grappling hook?” I ask.
Jettison smiles and begins unloading something from the back of Gen’s pack. “Better. Time travelers scoff at grappling hooks.”
The device he pulls out sets up like a tripod. He arranges a rail along the top that has a scope attached to it and a grip like a rifle. He crouches and aims the rail toward the top of the battlements, using the scope to make minor adjustments. Genesis opens a gray box from her pack and extracts a lightweight ball with what looks like little wings sticking out the sides.
“What is that thing?” I ask.
“Flying anchor,” Genesis replies. She flips a switch on the bottom and tosses it to me. I cup my hands to catch it, but instead of falling, when it reaches the top of its arc, the little wings deploy and spin around like helicopter blades, making the ball stop its descent in mid-air.
“Wow. That’s awesome!” I watch it hovering a few inches from my face.
Genesis reaches up and taps a button on the bottom and it falls into her hand. She smiles at me. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Jettison takes one last look through the scope and stands up. “You ready, Gen?”
Genesis tightens the straps on her pack and pulls her taser from her hip. “Any defenders up there waiting for me?”
“Not that I saw, but be ready.” Jettison takes the winged ball from her, and folding the wings out of the way, holds it up for her. Genesis configures her Temprovibe and something she does makes the flying ball and her Temprovibe beep at the same time.
“Okay, I’m synched.” She reaches out and touches the top of the ball. The next moment she disappears.
I stand there with my mouth open as Jettison sets the ball on the rail of the ascension gun and presses its activation switch. He squats and puts his hand to the gun grip, then after one last check of the scope, squeezes the trigger. The ball launches through the air, wings tucked behind it as it arcs its way up and over the wall. The arc of the trajectory tops out just at the apex of the wall and I see the ball deploy its wings and hover. To my astonishment, Genesis reappears next to it, her hand still touching the top, and drops to her feet onto one of the battlements. She immediately hops down behind the wall and disappears.
I let out a low whistle and turn to Viznir. “Now these guys are good!”
Viznir has been watching with rapt attention and only nods silently, but I can tell from his wide eyes that he’s impressed, too.
Jettison has kept his eyes fixed on the battlements. He’s watching, but doesn’t seem concerned when Genesis doesn’t immediately reappear. He merely mutters to himself, “She must have had to take care of a few guards.”
I look up to the wall and watch as Genesis pokes her head back up. She takes a quick glance at the ground, then opens one of the hatches that overhang the wall that are used to drop things on attackers. Instead of rocks or boiling oil, she lets a nylon rope ladder tumble out.
“Ah, there we go.” Jettison quickly disassembles the ascension gun and begins trotting toward the wall. Cliff and Mayra follow.
Viznir slowly moves toward them also. He pauses to look back at me. “You coming?”
My awe has changed to dread at the sight of the rope ladder. “I’m starting to think we should have used the tunnels.”
As I walk toward the ladder, Barley the Labrador comes trotting over. He’s still letting out periodic whines and is searching the top of the wall apprehensively. Seeing Jettison scaling the ladder, he lets out a bark.
“Hey, buddy. You all right?” I move toward the dog, but he backs away and growls at me. I stop moving. He goes back to whining and looking at the wall. I can still hear the beeping coming from his collar. The beeps are getting closer together.
Jettison has rapidly gained the wall. Mayra and Cliff are on the ladder next. I marvel at the fact that the synthetic ropes can support both of them simultaneously. Viznir starts climbing once Mayra reaches the top. I step over to the base of the ladder and gaze apprehensively up the height of the wall. Why do I get myself into these things? I touch the jagged stone in my pocket through my jeans. My pack vanished, so I must survive long enough to go back and get it. That must mean I don’t die falling off a wall. The thought gives me some relief, but I’m still leery of setting foot on the ladder. I look up and see that Viznir is almost to the top. Cliff and Jettison reach through the hatch to help him climb through to the battlements. Jettison gestures for me to follow.
The dog’s whining distracts me. Barley is pacing back and forth and the beeping from his collar is getting faster. Is it some kind of bomb? I’m suddenly worried. Who would fix a bomb to a dog? I look up the ladder and my companions have all disappeared. I hear shouting. Shit! I wonder if more guards showed up. I need to get up there. I’m beginning to regret not bringing my gun. The beeping suddenly turns into a solid tone, and I look back at the dog. Barley straightens up and stands rigidly still. For a moment he looks like he could be a taxidermy specimen. Not even his eyes move. The next moment Jonah appears next to him, gripping the handle of the dog’s saddlebags. He slowly looks up from where he’s landed and finds me staring at him. His face falls.
“Did you see me?” he asks.
“I see you now,” I reply. It’s slowly dawning on me how he’s been getting places so fast. “I think your dog was having trouble with the wall.”
Jonah considers the battlements and frowns. “Will you help me get him up there? I can’t lift him.”
I consider the Labrador and his saddlebags. I was already dreading the climb. I’m not sure it would even be possible toting a dog. He’s got to weigh a good sixty pounds.
“What if we tie him to the bottom of the ladder and pull him up once we get to the top? Do you think he would tolerate that?”
“Yeah. I think so. He’s really good.”
The dog has calmed down completely now that the beeping has stopped. It pads over and nuzzles me in the hand. Jonah roots through the saddlebags and removes two carabineer clips and attaches them to the dog’s harness. I help him check the tension of the harness and clip the carabineers to the slack at the bottom of the ladder. I point to the rungs. “You first.”
I glance up the ladder in time to see Jettison poke his head over the wall. He stares at us and then shouts. “Where did he come from?”
I shrug. Jonah starts up the first few rungs. I climb onto the ladder after him. Something about having a nine-year old bravely scaling the wall ahead of me makes me get over my fear. Even so, I make a point to not look down as I climb. When I finally reach the top, Jettison helps pull me over. The interior of the battlements is a mess. The bodies of five defenders are lying unconscious on the stones. Myra and Genesis are guarding the approach from one tower, while Cliff is watching the other.
I tap Jettison on the shoulder. “Help me pull the ladder up. We’ve gotta haul up the dog.”
Jettison looks over the wall at the dog and then back to me, but doesn’t ask questions. He merely starts hoisting one side of the ladder while I take the other. Other than the dog’s saddlebags scraping the wall a bit as we pull, the dog gets up without incident. Barley licks me in the face as I pull him over the battlements. He immediately begins sniffing the unconscious soldiers. I look around at the bodies, then turn to Jettison.
“So who are we pulling for in this battle? The English or the French?”
Jettison finishes coiling the ladder and stuffs it back into Genesis’s pack. “Well, King Phillip II of France was a rabid anti-Semite who robbed Jewi
sh synagogues and eventually expelled all Jewish people from France. King John of England was a usurper who murdered his own cousin to secure his claim to the throne. You can choose your poison.”
I pick up a sword from one of the fallen soldiers. “Okay, I guess I’m rooting for team us.”
Genesis pushes through the door to the tower on her side and gestures for us to follow. I hear a couple of zapping noises and climb over more bodies once I get inside the door. Mayra and Genesis are resetting the charges on their Tasers before pushing through the next door. Genesis looks up at me. “Where are you headed, Travers?”
“I have to find the chapel.”
“Okay. Jet and I have to make it inside the main keep. We’ll have to split up soon. You good?”
“Yeah. I’m good.” I take a tighter grip on my sword as she gets ready to push the door open. Cliff is behind me holding his shotgun. Viznir has his pistol out. Even Jonah has something in his hand, though it doesn’t look like any weapon I’ve ever seen. It looks like a miniature satellite dish attached to a power pack at his waist. I nudge him with my elbow. “What does that do?”
He looks up at me from under his snail helmet and smiles. “You’ll see.”
Genesis shoves the door open and sunlight floods through the doorway. She steps forward and a gray-feathered arrow strikes her in the neck.
“Free-jumping is making a jump without prior knowledge of the time and space you’re arriving. It can be employed using walls, floors, or other stable objects as anchors. It should be used only in emergencies. Unfortunately, emergencies tend to happen quite often with time travel.”–Journal of Dr. Harold Quickly, 1868
Chapter 14
“Get her back inside!” Cliff yells, as Jettison and Mayra reach for Genesis. The arrow is still quivering in the door and Genesis has her fingers to her neck in shock. She teeters sideways and Jettison and Mayra catch her and drag her back inside. Cliff lunges for the door handle and yanks it closed before more arrows can find their mark.
In Times Like These: eBook Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 64
