"Where are the Carthaginians at this point?" Andre said.
"On their way through the pass," said Curtis. "We shouldn't be encountering them if we keep to the mission timetable. We don't want
to hang around in this area very much beyond that point. That would be risking contact with either the Carthaginians or the Romans, maybe even both."
They came to a river and Curtis pointed out the picket emplacements where the Rangers had set up their perimeter watch. "We've already been through and back," he said. "The confluence is located directly in front of you, approximately fifteen feet away from the riverbank. We've staked it out." He pointed to the marking stakes planted in the ground. "Crude, but effective. Five feet beyond those stakes takes you through into ancient Greece in the congruent universe. You'll be crossing over into a heavily forested area approximately three miles from the foot of Mount Pelion."
He gave them a hand-drawn map. "I'm not the world's best cartographer, but this should serve you. It'll get you to the Anaurus River and from there to Iolchos. According to the centaur's debriefing, your arrival in Iolchos should coincide roughly with the arrival of Jason, allowing for the time it would take a man traveling on foot from Mount Pelion. The centaur couldn't provide further information, since obviously it could only tell us what it knew up to the time Jason departed from Mount Pelion. The centaur's been returned to its own timestream, so the situation has been normalized at that end. That's if you can call any situation involving a centaur normal." Curtis grimaced. "I don't envy you this trip. It's bound to be peculiar."
"That's putting it mildly, Major," said Delaney. Curtis nodded. "I guess it is, at that. Okay, synchronize coordinates. Mission clock in effect as of now. Remember, if you don't come through by tomorrow night, P.R.T., we're gone."
"And so are we," said Steiger. "Right. I'm logging crossover. Good luck." They stripped out of their coveralls and removed their boots to strap on their sandals. Then they picked up their ordnance, which consisted of spears, shields, short swords and bows and arrows. They shook hands with Major Curtis, then set off single file toward the confluence point. As Curtis watched, they went between the marking stakes and disappeared from view, into another universe.
2
There was no physical sensation associated with the crossover, no tangible evidence of the confluence point itself other than a complete change of scenery from one step to the next. From the verdant valley at the foot of the Italian Alps, they stepped through a rupture in timespace and came out in ancient Greece, centuries displaced from their last footsteps and a universe away.
It was suddenly much warmer. They could feel the balmy breezes coming in off the Aegean Sea. They were in a wooded area several miles from the base of Mount Pelion. The scene was beautiful, peaceful and bucolic, every color seemed painted in its most vivid shade. The sky overhead was an almost cloudless, turquoise blue and the green hues of the forest were sharp and bright. Even the earth tones seemed to have a greater depth to them, a warmer substance. There was no question but that they were elsewhere.
The first thing they did was orient themselves by taking their bearings and checking their position with the map. It was imperative to program the new timespace coordinates so they could clock back to the exact same time and place. It was necessary for them to have selected a precise "window of opportunity" for crossover, because no one knew yet how temporal paradox might affect a confluence point. Temporal paradox was to be avoided in any case, but especially in an area of timestream instability. It wouldn't do for them to run into Major Curtis and his Rangers while they had been conducting their scouting expedition. Careful timing was essential, especially in such a narrow chronological band.
They double-checked their transition coordinates and double-checked again the synchronization of their warp discs, then quickly left the confluence area, heading in a westerly direction. They made their way toward the Anaurus River, following the exact route laid out for them by Major Curtis, one designed to make certain they did not encounter the Ranger scouting party while it had been conducting its crossover reconnaissance.
"According to this map," said Andre, "we're about three miles from the river at this point. Curtis marked out the ford, but we'll probably have to do some walking up and down the bank to find it. It's not exactly the best map in the world."
"He didn't exactly have a hell of a lot of time," said Steiger. He glanced up at the sky. "I figure we've probably got about three or four hours of daylight left." It had been morning when they left, about half an hour ago. "I suggest we make straight for the river, get across it before dark and then make camp," Steiger said. "I'd like to put as much distance between us and the confluence point as possible."
Delaney nodded. "You're thinking about the possibility of hostile Observers?"
"It's something we can't afford to overlook," said Steiger. "So far as we know, they haven't discovered this confluence yet and chances are they may not find it at all, but I'd feel a lot safer a good distance from the site."
"I'd feel a lot safer if we knew how they can track our warp discs," Andre said.
During their last mission in the 19th century, on the northwest frontier of the British Raj, they had been captured by soldiers from the congruent universe. They discovered their counterparts in the other timeline possessed the ability to scan for warp discs, most likely tracing them through their energy fields. It was a technology the Temporal Corps scientists had not yet been able to defeat or duplicate.
"Well, there's not much we can do about that," said Delaney. "We can't get around carrying the discs. There's no way back without them. At least the odds are in our favor. For the hostiles to track our discs, they'd have to be in the area and they'd have to be scanning. Remember when they traced us in Afghanistan that time, they couldn't do it right away. They knew we were operating in the area, but it still took some time for them to find us."
"If they had an Observer outpost back here, they'd probably have known about us by now," said Steiger. "Still, I think we should refrain from using the discs unless it's absolutely necessary. No point in giving them a stronger signal to lock onto. If we start teleporting to decrease our travel time, we just might register on somebody's scanner and then they'll be out here in force, sweeping the area."
"I agree," Delaney said.
"There is one other thing we never got around to discussing," Andre said. She looked at Steiger. "You're the ranking officer. Are you taking command of this operation?"
Steiger thought a moment. "I will if you want me to, but I'm not used to working that way. I don't really think a team of three needs a chain of command. Besides, I may have more experience with covert temporal operations, but you two have more experience adjusting temporal disruptions."
"Only none of us has any experience with creating temporal disruptions," Andre said.
"I guess that makes us even," Steiger said. "If it's all the same with you, I'm not going to start off our partnership by leaning on my rank. I couldn't care less about chain of command. You two have worked together before and I'm a Johnny-come-lately. Better I should work on fitting in with your methods of operation than take charge and mess up something that works. How did you function with Priest?"
"Lucas was technically in command," said Finn, "but we never played it strictly by the book. We worked best by improvising, even if it meant bending a few rules."
Steiger nodded. "Sounds good to me. Rules sometimes get in the way. Besides, I was never very good at taking orders, so I'm not too fond of giving them myself. I've always been an undercover man. I still haven't gotten used to people saluting me, much less addressing me as Colonel."
Delaney grinned. "I think we'll get along."
"I was wondering about our symbiotracers," Andre said. She looked at Steiger. "You think Dr. Darkness will be able to find us here?"
"I haven't got the faintest idea how the damn things work," said Steiger, "but then neither does anybody else. Darkness is light-years ahead of the scientists in R & D. They can't even figure out how he managed to make particle level chronocircuitry. The fact that it's molecular bonding drives them nuts. If they could figure out how to do it, they'd do it with warp discs."