"I'll wait until you taste it first," said Finn.
"All right," said the referee. "Let's begin, shall we?"
"Sir?" said Lucas.
"Captain?"
"Aren't we missing some people? Like, the rest of the team?"
"No, Captain, we're not."
"You mean, we're it?"
"Not exactly, Captain. I don't know how much Major Forrester told you, but this is a TIA affair. You'll be on loan to the agency for the duration. We have an adjustment on our hands, or a potential one, at any rate. It's a unique situation, one in which the functions of the TIA and those of the corps overlap. Frankly, they're more qualified to handle this one, but as the case could develop into an adjustment, they've requested commandos to supplement their effort. Your role in this mission will be defined as you go along, but it will be defined by the agency. Therefore, I am turning this briefing over to Mr. Darrow, of the TIA."
The ref turned to the agency man and nodded. Darrow was a slender man whose hair was graying. He was dressed in a nondescript clingsuit. He was of average height and average weight. A man who would not stand out in a crowd.
"I'll bet it's not even his real name," said Finn, softly.
"No, it isn't," said the man called Darrow. He stretched his lips into a mirthless smile. "I have excellent hearing, Mr. Delaney. And there's nothing wrong with your coffee, by the way. You can drink it safely. If you have any other pertinent comments, I'd like to hear them now, so we may proceed."
Finn cleared his throat uneasily and shook his head. Lucas grinned.
"Very well, then," Darrow said. "Are you gentlemen familiar with a group calling itself the Timekeepers?"
"Terrorist organization," said Lucas.
"Correct, Captain. Specifically, they are the terrorist faction of the Temporal Preservation League."
"Mensinger's group?" Finn frowned. "I had no idea they were in any way connected."
"Supposedly, they're not," said Darrow. "The league has formally disassociated itself from the Timekeepers, condemning their actions and branding them fanatics. A case of the pot calling the kettle black, but be that as it may. We believe that the league is still funneling funds and providing other means of support to the Timekeepers."
"I can't see that as being consistent with Mensinger's aims," said Finn.
"Yes, well, he's dead, isn't he?" said Darrow. "And politics, especially the politics of fanaticism, makes for strange bedfellows. But not so strange, perhaps. The league functions openly, lobbying and agitating, all perfectly legal and above-board. The Timekeepers prefer a rather more extreme means of persuasion, but their goals are still the same. Cessation of temporal warfare and the cessation of time travel. That last is a somewhat more extreme position than the late Dr. Mensinger's, but it's still roughly consistent with his ideas, wouldn't you say, Mr. Delaney? You're the expert."
"All right, so you know I studied Mensinger's research," said Finn. "You probably also know when I spoke out of turn as a kid and when I wiped my ass for the first time. Mensinger was still far from a fanatic. Get to the point."
"Delaney, shut your mouth!" said Forrester.
"That's quite all right, Major," Darrow said. "I'm well aware of the fact that Private Delaney has a rather low opinion of the agency. That's of no consequence, unless it were to interfere with his performance on this mission."
"It won't," said Finn.
"Yes, I know," said Darrow, giving him his mirthless smile. "Your record is particularly impressive. I'm not especially interested in your disciplinary problems. Some of our finest operatives have spent time in military prisons, a singular distinction which you have been spared. So far. But you wanted me to get to the
point.
"We had succeeded in infiltrating the league some years ago. However, it wasn't until recently that we were able to infiltrate the Timekeepers. They've been escalating their terrorist campaigns lately and we had a feeling that they were building up to something big. In point of fact, we underestimated them.
"They're more clever than we thought. They managed to penetrate our agent's cover and eliminate him. However, he managed to leave behind a message. He didn't live long enough to complete it, unfortunately. Pity. As a result, we don't know the full extent of their plans. What we do know doesn't make us very happy.
"Our agent had reported earlier that the Timekeepers had made contact with someone in the underground. One of your old people gone bad. The logical assumption was that, since they made this contact in Plus Time, this deserter was obviously one of those having access to a stolen chronoplate." He glanced at the referee briefly. "It's bothersome to us how those things have a habit of walking away from time to time. At any rate, we assumed that the connection had been made in order to allow them to escape to Minus Time to avoid detection following their terrorist acts, but they evidently have something much more ambitious in mind.
"Terrorists are not the most logical of people. They see their goal as being to tear down an established system and they often don't think much past that point. To date, their activities have been limited to the more traditional methods. Bombing, kidnapping, assassination, etc. They're especially fond of taking hostages to use as leverage for their demands. Well, this time, they've outdone themselves. They've taken time itself hostage.
"They now have a chronoplate in their possession and they're using it to blackmail the Referee Corps. Their demands are that the apparatus for fighting the time wars be dismantled, that the Referee and Observer Corps be disbanded, along with our agency, and that time travel cease. Otherwise, they will create a timestream split."