TW10 The Hellfire Rebellion NEW (11 page)

"There was a time. Jemmy," said Adams. Sadly, "when your fire was the brightest flame among us. But now the time is past for speeches. And the time is long past for talk of reconciliation. English we may be, by law, but when we are denied our rights as Englishmen under England's law, then that law has ceased to serve us. Englishmen we may be. but Americans we must become!"

"Well said, well said!"

"Spoken like a patriot!"

"Enough." said Adams. As I have said, the time is past for speeches. We must free ourselves from England. but England will never willingly let us go. It is our duty, gentlemen, to prepare the populace for what must come. We must gain their sympathy and unite them to our cause. But we cannot hope to do so if we should stoop to murder.
There must be no killing
.'

"There has already been killing," said John Winslow.

"And we must not add to it," said Adams. "Tell that to Macintosh and Swift."

said Edes "They are not men to turn the other check. Sam.”

"No one asks them to turn the other cheek. Ben," Adams said. "The murderers must be found and brought to justice. Aye, let them hang, but let them be tried for murder in a court of law and be brought to their punishment by jury! We must have no lynching by the mob! There are those in England, gentlemen, who are sympathetic to our cause. They will not long remain so if we start to murder our own citizens. Boston sets an example for all the other colonies. Their eyes are all upon us. Already, there are many who decry our methods, who condemn mob violence, as we must openly condemn it. You saw how the people at the town responded when the mob destroyed Hutchinson's house. What will they say of us if we start to murder Tories? Governor Bernard has petitioned General Gage for troops. Would you play into his hands by giving Gage a reason to dispatch them?"

“The troops may well be sent in any case," said Church, sourly.

"Then let them come as a further affront against our liberties." said Adams, not as protection for the citizenry against roving killers in the night. How can we cry out, in indignation, that the Tories murder freedom-loving men if we respond in kind? I say again, the killers must be found and brought to justice.

Our hands must remain clean in this affair.

“But how are we to find the murderers?" asked Cooper.

"Aye, where does a man look to find a ghost?" asked someone else.

"I have never heard of a ghost who was political," said Adams, wryly. "Rest assured, gentlemen, this mysterious so-called 'headless horsemen' we've all heard of is made of flesh and blood.
Tory
flesh and blood. He is someone with the wit to hide his face so that he remains unknown and, doubtless, he has Tory confederates to help him. We must find out who they are so that they may be punished for their crime."

“But how are we to find out who they are, Sam?" Hancock asked. "Of whom can we make our inquiries? I hardly think that the Tories shall share anything they know with us. The sympathies of every man who is present in this room are well known to all of them,"

"Not every man," said Hunter. "They do not know my friends here."

"Nor, for that matter, do we know them.” Paul Revere said. "No offense intended"

“None taken.” said Lucas. "We know that we are strangers here and only present because our friend. Reese Hunter, vouched for us. But we are patriots, the same as you, and there are many in New York who think as we do. We've come to confer with Boston's patriot leaders, to share goodwill and seek advice, but we have also tome to offer help if needed. Now as Mr. Hancock said, if most of you are known to the Tories here in Boston, then you can hardly expect them to help you find whoever killed your friends. However, we three an: not known here. We arrived only yesterday, and except for Reese, you are the first citizens of Boston we have spoken to. We could just as easily be Tories recently arrived in Boston.

We could go where the Tories gather and strike up friendships with them, then pass on anything we learn to you.”

Adams looked thoughtful. "Your idea has merit," he said. "But you realize that you would he taking a great risk if they discovered that you were deceiving them?"

"We have already taken a great risk in coming here and meeting with known radicals," said Delaney. "That's the sort of thing that could tarnish a gentleman's reputation."

His comment provoked laughter. “You may joke, sir," Adams said. “but spying is a very serious business."

"So is murder," said Andre.

“Yes, so it is," Adams replied gravely. "How old are you, lad?"

"Eighteen, sir," Andre said.

"Eighteen." said Adams, with a sigh. “Eighteen is very young."

"I see others here scarcely older than myself." said Andre. "And seventeen is old enough to join the militia."

"True." said Adams. “but drilling with a rifle does not make one a man."

"Nor does plotting in back rooms or smashing windows in the middle of the night," said Andre

Hancock chuckled. “He has you there. Sam."

"A man is one who is willing to stand up for his beliefs, sir." Andre said.

"I came here willing to stand up for mine."

Adams smiled. "Well said, young man. Very well then, I accept the offer of your help. We need all the help that we can get and we could do with a spy or two among the Tories of this town. I would dearly like to find out who this 'headless horseman' is and who his friends are. He could scarcely have accounted for those four men alone. But for this plan to work, you must be careful not to be seen with any of us. We must devise a way for you to secretly report your findings."

"With your permission, sir," said Lucas, we would rather see to that ourselves. The moment we discover anything, we will send Reese to you with the information or one of us will contact you directly, at a time and place of our own choosing. In that manner, if there is to be no set time and place for us to meet, then no one can find out about

Adams stared at him for a moment. "You sound as if you have some experience in such matters. Mr. Priest.”

"As you yourself said. Mr. Adams, these are troubled times," Lucas replied.

"I have merely learned how to be cautious. And now, with your permission, if we are to begin tonight. we'd best be on our way. Good day, gentlemen. You will be hearing from us.”

"Good fortune to you." Adams said. He waited till they'd left the room, then turned to Paul Revere. "Paul, I think it would be best if someone were to keep a weather eye upon those three. That new apprentice of yours you've been telling me about, young Jonathan, who came here with his uncle from the Pennsylvania frontier, you say he is a most resourceful lad?"

"Aye, made friends with the Indians, he did.” Revere said. "I've seen him use his fowling piece to drop a deer at over a hundred paces. Moves through the forest like a cat, he does."

"You said that he was eager to join us." Adams said. "Let us see, then, how resourceful he can be. Follow those three and find out where they go, then send young Jonathan to keep an eye on them discreetly and inform us of their movements."

"I'm on my way." Revere said, picking up his coat and hat.

“You don't trust them?" Edes said. "But Hunter vouched for them."

"Reese Hunter seems like a good man." Adams said. "Macintosh speaks highly of him. But then Mac speaks highly of anyone who will stand him to a drink. We have learned, most tragically, that there exists a group among the Tories who will stop at nothing to oppose us, not even murder. If we send men to spy upon them, then they can just as easily send men to spy on us. I. too, have learned how to be cautious, Ben.”

They had gone about eight blocks when Delaney said. "We're being followed."

“I know," said Hunter. "It’s Revere. I spotted him about two blocks ago.

Adams must've sent him after us."

"Not a very trusting sort, is he?" Lucas said, smiling to himself.

That man was born too late," said Hunter. "He would have made one hell of an intelligence chief."

"Do we shake him?" Andre asked.

"No, what for?" Delaney said. "Let him report hack to Adams that we're doing exactly what we said we'd do."

“This is as far as I'd better go." said Hunter. "The Peacock Tavern is around the corner, at the end of the street. They should be serving the ordinary about now, so there'll be plenty of people there, especially after what happened this morning." He paused. "What'll you do if you run into Drakov? He knows you."

"Well, we don't know for sure he's here yet." Lucas said. "But if we should happen to run into him, we'll try to take him alive." "Knowing Drakov, that's not going to be easy. Especially if he's got friends among the Tories." Hunter said.

“I know." said Lucas "But we have to try to find out how many clones of himself he's made and where he's planted them. We won't take any chances, though.

We can't afford having him cause a temporal disruption."

"Meaning you'll kill him if you have to," Hunter said.

"Only if we have to," Lucas said. "In which case, we may have to clock out in a hurry, so be where we can find you."

Hunter nodded. "I'll be at my place. Either way, you'll be getting back to me tonight?"

"Soon as we get a chance," said Lucas "In the meantime, we'd better see about renting a place of our own somewhere in town. It wouldn't do for three Tories from New York to be seen associating with a Son of Liberty."

"You can probably get rooms upstairs at the tavern." said Hunter, "but its liable to be a little noisy. If you want something more private, ask around. A lot of the merchants usually have property to rent around the waterfront. Don't be afraid to dicker price. it's expected."

"Thanks."

"Good luck. And watch yourselves, okay? You're my only ticket out of here."

The tavern was crowded, as Hunter had predicted. They had to wait a while for a table to be free, so they went up to the bar. There was no sign of Drakov, but they kept their eyes on the door, just in case. They each had a brace of loaded dueling pistols hidden underneath their coats and small lasers tucked away in well-concealed shoulder holsters underneath their shirts. Wearing them that way meant they wouldn't be able to get at them very quickly, but it was a necessary tradeoff for

optimum concealment.

Ordnance Section had experimented with

disguising the laser pistols as more primitive weapons, but none of those experiments had proved terribly successful in terms of being able to wear the weapons hidden. And the plasma weapons were simply too large for any such attempt to be practical. The smallest one was about the size of a 10 mm. semiautomatic with a slightly longer barrel. On covert field missions, it was generally standard practice not to carry them unless absolutely necessary. For added safety, each weapon was failsafed so that if the safety catch wasn't properly released, the weapon would self-destruct. The lasers would simply fuse and become useless lumps of molten nysteel. Anyone holding the weapon when the failsafe mechanism became activated would have a very brief instant of warning as the weapon suddenly started to become extremely hot. If that warning was not heeded and the weapon wasn't immediately dropped, the result would be excruciatingly painful and permanently disabling.

Many temporal agents simply resorted to more primitive, but in proper hands, no less effective tools, such as various martial arts weapons or lead projectile pistols. Steiger, who was a weapons collector, often went armed with a semiautomatic pistol or two. Others carried tiny, flat, plastic dart guns known as

'stingers." small enough to be concealed in the palm of the hand and loaded with slim magazines that held miniature needle darts loaded with powerful tranquilizer drugs or instantaneously lethal poisons. These weapons were almost completely silent in operation, making only a brief, very high- pitched whistling noise when fired. Each of the agents were armed with one of these, snapped butt down into spring-loaded holsters strapped to their forearms and hidden underneath their sleeves. Each of them also carried a slim commando knife in a sheath strapped either to the forearm or carried down the back. None of them carried any weapons in their pockets, the better to avoid the possibility of a skilled pickpocket coming away with an unexpected prize.

Fortunately, the clothing of this period was loose and somewhat bulky, which helped to hide the weapons, but they still only planned to use them as a last resort. If there was a need for any shooting to be done, especially with witnesses about, they would first reach for the dueling pistols, which to all outward appearances, looked no different from any other flintlock pistol of the time. In fact, they had been constructed in the 27th century of superior materials and cleverly designed so that they could be loaded with powder and ball and fired like any other flintlock or a strip of metal in front of the trigger guard could be pushed forward and a narrow, spring-loaded magazine could be inserted, turning the dueling pistol into a semiautomatic that fired specially designed. high-velocity ball ammo. The hammer for the semiautomatic function was machined into the flintlock hammer, so that there were actually two hammers, side by side, with the hammer for the semiauto designed to strike a hidden transfer bar that relayed the impact to the primer. The barrel of the dueling pistol was in reality an ingeniously camouflaged slide and extractor, with the actual barrel concealed inside. Only a close examination would reveal that the pistols were much more than they appeared to be.

While they were waiting for a table to be free. Lucas, Finn, and Andre ordered ale at the bar and took careful stock of their surroundings. Not surprisingly, most of the conversation centered around the four men who had been found hanging front the Liberty Tree.

"If you ask me, they got what they damn well deserved," one man sitting at a table close to them was saying to his friends. "It's time those Sons of Violence were treated to a taste of their own medicine!"

“I’m sorry. John. I don't agree. I say no good will come of it.” said one of his companions. "Say what you will about the Sons of Liberty. they are hooligans and skulkers, to be sure, but they have never murdered anyone."