She could not do it. Before he left Deutz to
rejoin Guntram, Michel had told her not to believe in his death
until she saw his body. She had not seen so much as a
fingernail.
But she could not make the men keep looking.
If she did not stop the search, they would stop it without her
permission. They would tell her it was over. Clothilde would be
sympathetic and weep with her. Guntram would pat her on the
shoulder and say he was deeply sorry and he would mean the words he
spoke. Uland and the other men would look solemn and sad. Not one
of them would understand how uncertainty gnawed at her.
The tears came at last, pouring down her
cheeks. Danise leaned back against the marked tree, unable to stand
without its support. Slowly she slid down the trunk of the tree
until she was crouching at its base, hands over her face, sobbing
aloud.
“ ‘Ere now, what’s this I see?” came a rough,
unfamiliar voice.
Danise looked up to see half a dozen men
watching her. Their clothing was ragged and worn, but their weapons
were in the best of repair and they all looked as if they would use
those weapons at a moment’s provocation. Wiping her damp cheeks,
Danise got to her feet.
“What are you doing here crying, wench?”
asked the man who had spoken to her before. He took a step toward
her. “Isn’t this Autichar’s camp?”
“The camp is that way.” Danise, still wiping
tears away, spoke without thinking. “But Autichar isn’t -”
“Never mind,” said the man. “Well just have
some food and drink while we wait for him. Are you one of his
women?”
“Why do you ask?” A dreadful suspicion
occurred to Danise, making her regret her ready response to this
man’s previous question. “Are you friends of Autichar?”
“That we are,” said the man. “We’re part of
the contingent he took into Saxony and left there while he made a
foray back to Francia. Autichar sent word to us to join him
here.”
“Aren’t there more of you?” Danise asked, as
if she thought there should be many more.
“Those heathen Saxons killed some of us,”
came the answer. “We’re all that’s left. Come along to the
campfire, girl, and let me enjoy your company. I haven’t seen a
pretty wench like you for weeks. Saxon women are too tough for my
taste.”
He caught Danise’s hand, pulling her in the
direction of the camp. Danise hung back, tugging on her hand,
trying to get free. She was afraid of what these men might do when
they discovered that Autichar’s camp was no longer Autichar’s. From
the looks of them, they would protest the change with their
weapons. Danise knew that even if all of Guntram’s men were at the
camp and not out searching for traces of Michel, there would only
be five of them to these six ruffians, each of whom looked as if he
could take on any number of warriors and defeat them. There was
Clothilde to consider, too.
Danise believed if she tried to give the
alarm these men would kill her at once without compunction.
But if Michel were gone and would not return,
what did her own life matter? And what chance would she and
Clothilde have if Guntram and his men went down to defeat?
Danise stood still, refusing to move when
Autichar’s henchman yanked on her hand again. She drew a deep
breath, opened her mouth, and screamed as loud as she could.
“Guntram! Attack! To arms! It’s an
attack!”
“All right! I told you I could do it.”
“You’re going to regret this, Hank.” Alice
scowled at Hank before she turned her attention to Mike. “Put down
that stupid sword. And if you’re planning to be sick, get into the
bathroom first. It’s there, through that door.”
Mike heard her and saw her pointing arm, but
he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing. Nor could he
speak for a couple of minutes. Alice was right, he was choking with
nausea. At least the wound over his eye wasn’t bleeding
anymore.
Slowly his stomach settled down and the back
bedroom of Alice’s little house came into clearer focus. Alice
herself was looking at him as if she expected him to be sick all
over the floor and Hank – Hank was grinning almost literally from
ear to ear.
“What did you do?” Mike said to Hank as soon
as he could speak.
“I just proved my theory for a second time,”
Hank crowed. Mike wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Hank’s
grin became even broader. “I’ve been told over and over that it
couldn’t be done, but I did it!”
“Did what?” Mike demanded.
“I have now sent two people into the past at
different times and brought both of them back safely,” Hank said.
“I want to debrief you right away. Where did I put that notebook?”
He turned aside, riffling through some papers on a nearby
table.
“Hank, look out!”
“You don’t have to yell, Alice,” Mike said
with deadly calm. “Hank knows exactly what kind of danger he is in,
up against the wall with a Frankish broadsword pointed at his
jugular vein. Alice, get over here and stand next to Hank so I can
keep an eye on you, too. If either of you make a wrong move, Hank
is a dead man, and Alice, you’ll be next in line for execution.
Don’t think I can’t do it. My reflexes are a lot faster than they
were when I left here three months ago.”
“Three
hours
ago,” Hank corrected,
then fell silent when the point of Mike’s sword pressed a little
more deeply into his neck.
“You wouldn’t dare hurt us,” Alice began.
“Try me and Hank’s blood will be all over
vour bedroom floor.” Mike threatened.
“Do what he says, Alice,” Hank begged. “Jeez,
Mike, what are you so upset about? You just had a terrific
adventure, and you are part of a world-changing experiment. Why,
when word of this gets out, we’ll all be famous – and rich.”
“You amaze me,” Mike said. “How can anyone
who is a certifiable genius be so appallingly stupid? Don’t you
know what you’ve done? Or how dangerous it is to move people around
in time? Where’s your common sense, man? Or don’t you care? What
are you going to do, Hank, sell tickets and send people back in
time so they can change the past and in changing it, destroy the
world we know?”
“Hey,” Hank broke into this tirade, “the
world we know isn’t so great. Maybe a bit of tinkering with the
past would help to improve the present.”
“Maybe tinkering with the past would prevent
you from being born,” Mike told him. “Ever think about that, boy
genius?” He was sorely tempted to drive the tip of his sword blade
through Hank’s throat. Murder might well be the only way to stop a
lunatic like Hank from continuing his experiments. It took only an
instant’s reflection to make Mike realize he couldn’t kill Hank.
Not yet, anyway. First he needed a favor from Hank, and he knew
just how to convince him to do what he wanted. “Hank, I’m going to
make a bargain with you.”
“What kind of bargain?” Hank looked down the
length of Mike’s sword and gulped. “Do you think you could move
that thing a little to the left? It’s pretty uncomfortable where it
is.”
“I’ll take it away altogether if you agree to
do what I want,” Mike said. “In fact, I know a way to make your
fortune while at the same time proving beyond any dispute that your
theory is true and your experiments are a huge success.”
“How?” asked Hank. “Hey, come on, put the
sword away. I’m willing to listen to any proposition you’ve
got.”
Mike lowered the sword and stepped back one
pace. Hank let out a relieved breath. Alice looked as if she might
faint.
“Okay,” Hank said. “What’s your idea?”
“You are going to send me back to exactly the
time and place from which you just removed me.”
“That’s not going to prove the validity of my
theory to anyone in the twentieth century,” Hank objected. “You
won’t be here to back me up.”
“I will be here,” Mike told him, “because on
my prearranged signal, you are going to retransport me back here
again.”
“I don’t get it.” Alice pushed herself away
from the wall. She was still pale, but the angry intensity Mike had
noticed in her on their first meeting was flaring anew. “Why do you
want to go back and forth like that? What’s the point?”
“The point is,” Mike answered her, “that when
I come back here for the second time, I won’t be alone.”
“You want to bring someone with you, out of
the past?” Hank stared at him. “Jeez, Mike, I don’t know about
this.”
“Well,” Mike responded, shrugging his
shoulders as if it really didn’t matter, “if you think the problem
is beyond your intellectual capabilities, then forget it.”
“I didn’t say that.” Hank chewed his lower
lip, thinking. “You make a good point. Somebody from another time,
swearing that I brought him here, and with firsthand information
about the past to back up his claim, would prove conclusively that
my theory is right. It’s a great idea, Mike, but I’m not sure this
computer can do it. Not without serious modification, I mean.”
“How long would the modifications take?” Mike
asked.
“A couple of days. I’d have to bring in some
more equipment.” Hank walked across the room to stand looking down
at his computer. “You know, it could work, but it would be
dangerous. You could be left there permanently. Or you could get
stuck somewhere between the two times – in transit, so to speak –
and never get out again. You’d die in there.”
“It’s worth the chance.” Mike met Hank’s eyes
squarely, praying that Hank couldn’t see how many lies he was
telling, or how afraid he really was.
“It would mean you’d have to trust me,” Hank
said.
“You got me back once. I’m betting you can do
it again, especially since it would be to your benefit to have two
people claiming to be participants in your experiments.”
“Who is this person you want to bring into
the twentieth century with you?” Alice demanded. “How do we know
it’s not someone dangerous, who’ll go crazy in this time and start
chopping people up with a sword like that one?” She sent a fearful
glance toward the weapon still in Mike’s right hand.
“It’s not a warrior,” Mike said. “It’s my
wife. I can’t live without her, and after all the grief she’s been
through recently, I’m pretty sure she won’t last long without me,
either.”
“Your wife?” exclaimed Hank. “Hey, you really
did have an adventure, didn’t you, old buddy? I’ll have to hear all
about it sometime.” He socked Mike on the arm in a playful way.
Mike nearly did kill him then. He restrained
himself, knowing that without Hank’s help he would never see Danise
again.
“Well?” he said to Hank. “Can you do it, or
not? And if you can, are you willing to risk everything on one
grand experiment?”
“The whole idea is crazy,” Alice said. “Hank,
you know it can’t be done. You barely got Mike back, so how can you
imagine you could retrieve two people at once?”
“It’s a challenge, I admit, but hey, I like a
tough puzzle. Now look, Alice, you are going to have to help
me.”
“I’ll do anything I can,” Mike offered.
“Yeah, sure.” Hank’s attention was on his
computer. “Hey Alice, you know that old computer you stashed in the
dining room closet? Show Mike where it is, will you? And help him
move it in here while I write out a list of stuff for you to buy
over at Electronics Discount Mart. I’ve just had a brainstorm.”
It took them four days to modify the computer
to Hank’s satisfaction. Mike curbed his impatience with the
intricate, tedious work. He wanted everything to be just right
before Hank attempted to move him to the eighth century and back to
the twentieth again. After listening to Hank’s explanation of the
process they were going to try, Mike knew he would only have the
one chance to reach Danise. He also thought the passage of a few
days would mean little to Danise, because if his plan worked out,
to people in the eighth century it would be as though he had never
been absent.
“Don’t be too sure of that,” Hank cautioned
when Mike voiced this belief. “We’re talking about an experimental
effort here. After years of moving people around I may fine-tune
the computer to within a second or two, but not yet. You’ll be
lucky if I can send you back to a week or so after you left.”
“If that’s the best you can do, I’ll have to
live with it,” Mike said. “Just be sure you don’t make me
materialize in thin air or the top of a tree the way you did the
last time. And send me to the right place. I can make my way home
from there and claim I got lost in the woods.”
“Hummph,” said the ever-unpleasant Alice.
“Wandering in the woods for weeks? I’d never believe an excuse like
that.”
“You’ve never seen an eighth century forest,”
Mike responded.
“We’re all set,” Hank said. “Mike, do you
have any last minute details to attend to before you leave on this
trip? Want to eat, drink, go to the bathroom?”
“No, thanks.” Mike would not admit to the
trepidation he felt about the whole enterprise. His feelings didn’t
matter. Danise’s did, and it was worth any risk to have her with
him. “Let’s get on with it.”
“Now, remember, when you’re ready to come
back, press on this gadget I’ve fastened to your belt, and keep
your wife right next to you. Jeez, will you look at this, Alice? An
eighth century Frankish sword and the latest electronic invention,
both hanging from the same belt. Is that a sight, or what?”
“Don’t congratulate yourself yet,” Alice said
in her sourest voice. “It may not work.”
“It has to work,” Mike told her. “I’m betting
my life on it. And my wife’s life, too. Hank, when I give the
signal, get Danise and me back right away. No delay, understand? I
plan to choose exactly the right minute and I don’t want any
foul-ups from this end.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Despite his claim that all was
in readiness, Hank was still fiddling with switches and with the
dial on a mysterious gauge installed only that morning. “Jeez,
Mike, you make me feel like the mad scientist in some way-out
science fiction movie. Give me a break. You said you’d trust
me.”