TW10 The Hellfire Rebellion NEW (14 page)

Johnny nodded. "I will tell Mr. Revere, exactly as you said. And for whatever it is worth. I will also tell him that I trust you.”

“Thank you. Johnny." Andre said. "Now perhaps you'd best be on your way before—“

The stillness of the night was suddenly shattered by the sound of rapidly approaching hoofbeats. A rider turned into the street, his handsome black stallion galloping at a breakneck pace. The rider was dressed all in black, a long black cloak with a high collar billowed out behind him like a cape. The high collar made it impossible to see his face and it appeared as if he had no head.

"The headless horseman!" Johnny said. "Run. Andre!"

He drew his hunting knife, holding it high, ready to throw, then shoved her away with a hand on her chest. He gasped and his eyes went wide. He had felt the breasts beneath her shirt.

“By God! You're a girl!"

"Johnny, look out!"

There was a hissing sound as the horseman's whip whistled through the air and cracked like pistol shot. Johnny cried out in pain and clutched his wrist as the knife fell from his hand. The horseman was upon them. Andre quickly drew her pistol, cocked the hammer, and fired. The shot had no effect. The horse struck her a glancing blow and she went spinning to the ground. Her pistol clattered to the street. She grunted with pain and Johnny was suddenly beside her, helping her up.

"Get up!" he said. "Get up quickly, or we're done for!"

She looked up and saw the black rider rein in and turn his horse. A figure ran out from the shadows into the street. Andre saw him lift his arm, aiming a gun, and a bright, pencil-thin beam of light shot out and seemed to strike the horseman squarely in the chest . . . and go right through him.

And suddenly the horseman was no longer there. He had simply vanished. "What

. . ." said Johnny, stunned. "Did you see? It's true! The horseman really is a ghost! He vanished into thin air! And that light . . ."

“It was only muzzle flash." said Andre quickly. "Doubtless one of your fellow Sons of Liberty."

"But . . where did he go?" asked Johnny.

“Took his shot and ran, most likely." Andre said.

“And who can blame him?" Johnny said, apparently accepting the explanation of the "muzzle flash." He shook his head with disbelief. "A ghost! A real ghost!

You saw it, didn't you, the way he disappeared?"

There was shouting as people flung open their windows and started to run out into the street. Andre grabbed Johnny by the arm and pulled him along down an alleyway. When they had gone far enough that they were well out of sight, she stopped and turned to face him.

"I'm not certain what I saw," said Andre. "But his horse felt solid enough to me. And you felt his whip."

"Aye, that I did." he said, looking at the bloody welt on his wrist. "But .

. . “ He stared at her. “But . . . you’re a girl! I felt your . . . that is. I—I—

" He looked away, flustered and embarrassed. "Forgive me. I—I never meant to---"

"Johnny. look at me." He met her gaze, his eyes wide.

"You said you trusted me." she said. "Did you really mean it?"

He nodded.

"Then I must trust you to keep my secret and never tell a soul." she said. -

Will you?"

“He nodded.

"Will you swear?"

"I swear it," he said. "I will tell no one if that is what you wish." He grimaced, ruefully. "Anyway, how would it look if they knew that I was bested by a girl? But—but
why
? Why do you pretend to be a boy?"

"Because I am as good a patriot as you are." she said, "and because I want to do my pan as badly as do you. But would they let me if they knew I was a girl?"

"No, naturally not." said Johnny. "That is a man's work."

“And can you deny that I can take care of myself as well as any man?" asked Andre.

Johnny looked down at the ground again and shook his head. "No." he said.

“No, in truth. I cannot. I must admit that you are powerful strong. For a girl.

And you can shoot, too."

"Not well enough, apparently," said Andre. “ I missed the horseman."

"At such close range?" said Johnny. "I do not think so. You had aimed straight at him. The ball must have passed clean through him. And that other man, who fired from across the street . .

"We both missed. Johnny," she insisted. "I was forced to rush my shot, There was no time to take a careful aim. And a fast-moving target is difficult to hit. I do not believe that there is such a thing as ghosts."

"But we both saw him disappear!" said Johnny.

"We only thought we saw him disappear." said Andre. "Sometimes the eyes play tricks. Have you never been hunting in the woods and seen something move out of the corner of your eye, then turned to see that there was nothing there?"

"Yes, truly," Johnny said, "but this was different. We were both looking right at him!”

“And the street was dark." she said. "And there were people shouting from their windows and flinging open their doors. The horseman could have turned quickly into a narrow alleyway and in all the noise, we'd not have heard the stallion's hoofbeats. Now admit it, does that not sound much more likely than the existence of a ghost rider and a ghost horse, who seem to be solid flesh and blood one moment and disappear the next?"

Johnny sighed. "I suppose so." he said. He grimaced. You make me feel like a fool."

"It seems this horseman has fooled a lot of people," she said. "He clearly knows the streets of Boston well, knows all of the back alleys, knows of places to hide. He rides only when the streets are dark and the shadows can conceal him. He is a very clever man, but he is no ghost. And you arc no fool, Johnny Small.

"I have never in my life met a girl like you," he said.

"Nor I a boy like you." said Andre. She smiled and touched his cheek.

Suddenly he darted forward and kissed her quickly on the lips. He seemed as taken aback by his own action as she was. Before she could respond, he turned and quickly ran down the alley and into the next street.

For a moment, Andre was too surprised to move. She slowly brought her fingertips up to her lips.

"Bit young for you, isn't he?"

She spun around and saw Steiger, leaning with his arms folded against the wall.

"Damn it, Creed! Don't go sneaking up on me like that!" She was grateful that in the darkness, he couldn't see her blush. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Officially, I suppose I'm A.W.O.L.." said Steiger. "Un-officially, I've assigned myself to keep an eye on Hunter. Frankly, I don't trust him."

"That was you back there, firing the laser." she said. "That was stupid. The boy saw you."

"Yes, but I think he accepted your explanation about the muzzle flash," said Steiger. "And the ghost rider made a much more lasting impression. As, no doubt, did you." He grinned. "I think that's called contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Lieutenant."

"Forget the wisecracks," she said. “What did you make of the horseman?"

"Well, he wasn't any ghost, that's for sure." said Steiger. "Somebody equipped with a warp disc, programmed for a fugue clocking sequence, so that he keeps clocking in and out faster than the eye can follow. What you see was only there a fraction of a second earlier. It's risky as all hell, a good way to wind up in the dead zone if you're not very careful, but it's certainly effective."

“That's what I figured, too." said Andre. "It's the only possible explanation. You think maybe it was Drakov?"

"Maybe, but I'd guess not," said Steiger. "He's too smart to take those kind of chances. It might well have been a hominoid. Which means that Hunter was right.

Drakov is unquestionably here."

Andre nodded. “Or one of his clone, is,” she said. "Either way, it amounts to the same thing. Big trouble. And thanks to your using a laser, now he'll know we're here, as well."

"That ought to make things interesting," said Steiger.

“That really wasn't very smart, Creed." “You'd rather I'd have let him run you down'? You're lucky I was there. I had Hunter's place staked out from a room across the way. When I saw what was going down. I had to move fast. There wasn't a lot of time for planning something smart.”

"We'd better go see Hunter." she said.

"No, you go see him," Steiger said. "I don't want him to know I'm here."

“But his information has panned out,” she said. “ Drakov is here. A temporal disruption is in progress."

"All the more reason not to alert Hunter to my presence," Steiger said.

"That way I can keep an eye on him, just in he decides to take advantage of the situation. Or have you forgotten that he's on the other side?"

"I haven't forgotten." she said. "But he's been dealing straight with us so far.”

"And I intend to make sure he keeps it that way," Steiger said. "What do you figure Drakov's planning?"

She shook her head. "We don't know, yet. A disruption, obviously, but there's no way of telling exactly what he has in mind. If we're lucky, we may get to find out soon. We're supposed to be infiltrating a secret Tory group that's working against the Sons of Liberty. Sounds as if Drakov might be behind it, because there's no record of any such group in colonial history. The horseman is apparently their leader or at least their symbol. They've all been talking about him. Last night, four Sons of Liberty were hanged from the Liberty Tree.”

"A temporal anomaly," said Steiger.

"Yeah." said Andre. "The Sons of liberty were essentially unopposed during this time period. Sam Adams led them in agitating the colonies against the British. There are Sons of Liberty groups forming in other colonies and Adams will soon be running them all, through dispatch riders like Paul Revere, who will eventually become the core of the Committees of Correspondence between the colonies. The governor of Boston has sent to New York for British troops, but they're not due to arrive for a while yet. If the Sons of Liberty are stopped here, before things really get rolling, it could change the course of history.

Drakov might actually be trying to prevent the American Revolution."

“Interesting." said Steiger.

“What do you mean?"

“In the congruent universe, the American Revolution was won by the British."

"What are you saying?" "I just find it interesting that Hunter put us onto this in the first place and that the disruption appears to be intended to alter our timeline in a way that would match the timeline of the congruent universe.

Don't you find that interesting?" She stood silent for a moment.

"You think there's a C.I.S. team here that's behind all this and Hunter's trying to lure us into a trap'? But if the horseman's one of Drakov's hominoids, then how does that fit with-"

"We don't really know he is a hominoid." said Steiger. "And if he is, we don't know if he's one of Drakov's hominoids, do we'? The hominoids were originally developed in the congruent universe by Dr. Moreau as part of Project Infiltrator, before Drakov hijacked the entire project. The C.I.S. could still have some hominoids left. And there's also another possibility. For all we know.

Hunter could be working with Drakov."

"I don't buy it." Andre said. "Drakov almost had Hunter killed. Hunter wants revenge."

"Or so he says." said Steiger. "Maybe they buried the hatchet. Maybe Drakov promised Hunter a trip back home in exchange for trapping us. Maybe Hunter isn't even Hunter."

“What do you mean?"

"Maybe he's a hominoid." Andre expelled her breath. "Jesus, we never even considered that. How the hell did you manage to come up with that one?"

"You play games with T.I.A. and the Network for as long as I did, you learn to suspect everyone and everything," said Steiger. "Don't forget. I infiltrated Drakov's old organization back when I was undercover as Sgt. Barry Martingale. I know how the man thinks. I wouldn't put it past him to play out a hand like that.

Think about it."

“Andre sighed. "You may be right, that's the scary thing about it," she said. "The trouble is, how would we know?"

"The early hominoids had run numbers tattooed on them somewhere, often high up on the inner thigh." said Steiger. He grinned. "I'll leave it up to you to decide how you can manage to get that close. But if Hunter's got a run number on him somewhere, then he's probably a C.I.S. hominoid left over from Project Infiltrator. If he hasn't got a run number on him anywhere, then he may be one of Drakov's more advanced models. the result of genetic engineering and implant program ming. Which means he's essentially as human as you and I are, only Drakov doesn't think of them that way. Or maybe he's actually who he claims to be. Only that still doesn't tell us whose side he's really on."

Andre shook her head. "I sometimes wonder what it's like inside that mind of yours," she said. "It must get very complicated."

"Not really." Steiger said. "There's a refreshing clarity to knowing that when it gets right down to it, you can depend on one thing and one thing only: Yourself."

"I see," she said. "I wonder, if that's what it comes down to, how can you be sure that
I
am who I say I am?"

Steiger chuckled. "Go see your friend. Hunter," he said. He touched his warp disc and clocked out.

"So," said Drakov, leaning back in the velvet upholstered reading chair, "it appears that we have been discovered."

"It was only by chance that the fugue clocking sequence saved me," Moffat said. removing his black horseman garb. He was visibly shaken. “How? How could they
possibly
have known?"

"What difference does it make?" said Drakov. "There are any number of possible explanations. The man with the laser might have been a Temporal Observer stationed in this time period. Or he might have been a member of the Underground or of the Network. In their fear of temporal interference, the fools have so thoroughly infiltrated the past that they are only making our job easier. However, I think it would be best to proceed on the assumption that a commando adjustment team has been dispatched to this temporal scenario. And if that's the case, then that should make things very interesting. indeed,"