Empire Games Series, Book 1(68)
“If they’re the Clan’s ancestors? Or, or the forerunners? Or their enemies?”
“They might be any of the above, or something else entirely. We don’t know. All we know is that we opened up a new time line recently. This one was accessible via those parts of time line one—the Clan’s former home—that don’t still glow in the dark. Which suggests a Clan connection. We lost three reconnaissance drones in rapid succession when we started trying to map it. But the fourth drone survived and brought back some highly-suggestive photographs.”
“Another dome?”
“Nothing so high-tech. It looks like a big railway freight switchyard, near the site of downtown Allentown on our time line. On the outskirts of Philly. There are buildings and probably a city as well, but it’s not ours.”
“Railway freight—” Rita frowned, puzzling over the drip of data. “But so far all the time lines we’ve found have been uninhabited or Stone Age, haven’t they? Apart from Camp Singularity.”
“Yes.” Smith gave her an encouraging smile. “Pretend you’re a fully trained analyst. What does that tell you?”
“The forerunners built the Gate. They had unimaginable powers. Still, it’s hard to see them building railroads, isn’t it?”
“Carry on.”
“But … a freight yard?” The dust of history classes stirred in her memory. “That means they’re industrialized. They’ve got steam locomotives, at a minimum, and enough factories and stuff to need heavy rail freight? And we still use rail freight for shipping goods around. Hang on. We lost three drones?”
Smith nodded again, seeing the horror dawning in her widening eyes. “Carry on.”
“You found an industrial civilization that can shoot down high-altitude reconnaissance drones? With stealth technology? Oh sh—” She bit her knuckles again to stifle the curse.
“Stealth isn’t a magic invisibility cloak. It’s more like camouflage: it works best from certain angles. And it doesn’t work at all if your opponents are sneaky enough. It’s no good being invisible to radar if you fly through a storm by mistake—the bad guys can look for the hole in the rain that’s moving at six hundred miles per hour. We’ve spent so long snooping on jihadis in the tribal territories on the Afghan border, or rock-bangers with flint hand axes in undeveloped time lines, that we’ve forgotten how to deal with a real threat. So now we’ve got this headache time line and we’re having to relearn old skills fast.
“Now, we might be looking at a Victorian level of technology, given those railways—but it’s highly unlikely that we lost three UAVs by accident. It’s much more likely that we’re looking at, at a minimum, a time line with 1950s technology. That’s radar and surface-to-air missiles. Nuclear weapons are a distinct possibility. Which is why your superiors and mine are quietly screaming for intelligence that simply doesn’t exist. They’re looking in a mirror that’s showing them their own response to first contact with another para-time civilization, and they don’t much like what they see. Especially as there’s a risk that this time line is more developed than we are. Or that they’re being watched by the forerunners. We don’t know.”
“Oh Jesus.” Rita stared at Smith, her mind whirling. “So, um. That’s what you want me for, isn’t it? You think a mid-twenties female with acting skills can sneak in and quietly look around and report back on … everything?” He didn’t need to nod this time. She continued: “It’s not going to be quick. We don’t know what language they speak, do we? Or what they wear? What they look like, whether I’ll stand out because of my appearance?”
Smith nodded again. “If you take it on, it’s not going to be easy. In fact, it’s potentially extremely hazardous. If we had more time, I’d send you on courses in social anthropology and ethnography first. Also for training with field anthropologists. Not to mention more work on personal self-defense and espionage tradecraft, because you’re going to be unarmed except for your JAUNT BLUE ability. On the other hand, if you agree to do this for us, we’ll give you all the support we can provide. Clothing, money, covert recording instruments—”
“Money?”
“Well, assuming they use money and you can get us some samples, we have friends in the Treasury Department who spend all their time examining forgeries. This will be a nice change for them, don’t you think? And you’ve got another huge advantage over a conventional clandestine agent: you can choose your insertion point. It could be virtually anywhere, as long as nobody’s watching.”
“Wow.” It was an enormous picture. Assuming it was true, it also shed a new light on his willingness to manipulate her. And despite having hard evidence that he’d lied to her in the past to railroad her into this position, she couldn’t imagine why he might want to lie to her about this now. “It’s huge, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Rita, it’s an enormous responsibility. It’s the sharp end of a mission that, done right, could save us from a nuclear war. Done wrong—you don’t want to think about that.”
She bit her lip. “When do I start? And where?”
“Tomorrow morning you’re going to an installation outside Philly—as near as we can place it to that railroad yard. The Unit is setting up a forward support site right now, and once you’re checked in we’ll begin drafting an operational checklist and insertion plan. If, that is, you’re volunteering?”