Marauder

22

Steve plunged first through the crowd of buccaneers who were preparing their weapons for the attack on Portobelo. A few of them glanced up, but paid no real attention to him as he passed. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but he had worked with Hunter long enough to know that Hunter preferred to operate with a fixed plan, and they didn’t have one. Steve didn’t want to miss the chance to get MC 2 somehow.

Steve stopped on the edge of the water just in front of the longboat that was being pulled up. He stood with his hands on his hips, striking as belligerent a pose as he could. Roland looked up at him.

“Stay close,” Roland said to MC 2. He left the longboat, followed by MC 2, and waded toward Steve. The rest of the crew stopped struggling with the longboat to watch.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Jane whispered, coming up behind him.

“I’m not sure.” Steve spoke without taking his eyes off Roland. “Just tell Hunter to focus on MC 2.”

“I heard you,” Hunter said quietly, on Steve’s left. “You are not in danger?”

“You’ll be close, if I am,” said Steve. “Just get MC 2, will you? First things first.”

“And what do you gentlemen want?” Roland demanded. He waded out of the surf and stopped a short distance from Steve. Behind him, the rest of the longboat crew remained in the water, watching warily. “Something from me, may hap?”

Steve couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Roland,” said Rita, stepping forward. “We’ve been friends. Let’s talk about this.”

Hunter walked slowly around Roland, toward MC 2, who was still standing in the breaking surf.

“This is between us and your friend, there,” Steve said finally. “We aren’t concerned with you.”

“I happen to like Shorty, here,” said Roland, with a mocking grin. “He’s quite a friend. Very loyal and uncommonly strong for his size. Funny-he just loves doing whatever I tell him. Now what’s your business with him?”

Steve watched as Hunter suddenly leaped into the surf toward MC 2 and took hold of his arm. Roland saw the move belatedly and jumped away, toward Rita. Before Steve could react, Roland slipped an arm around her throat and whipped a dagger out of his sash with his other hand.

“None of you make a move!” Roland backed to one side, so that he could see Hunter as well as Steve.

“Stand back, Hunter.” Steve drew his sword. “The First Law says you can’t risk making him mad.”

Hunter hesitated, studying Roland carefully.

In the same moment, however, the other buccaneers from Roland’s longboat shouted and ran forward, drawing their swords or daggers. Hunter released MC 2, but both flung themselves at the buccaneers; they clearly had to save Steve and Rita from immediate harm, ignoring all other considerations.

“Roland!” Rita struggled to get free. “How can you do this to me?”

“Face me, coward,” Steve yelled. “Stop hiding behind her!” As he had hoped, Roland flung Rita aside, dropped his dagger, and drew his rapier. Behind Roland, Hunter and MC 2 had managed to trip or wrestle the buccaneers into the crashing surf, delaying them all without harming any of them. They had their hands full, however; Steve could not expect any help from them.

“Hah! Avast, then!” Roland sneered angrily, twirling his blade toward Steve.

The buccaneers from the other longboats had stopped their preparations to watch, but did not interfere.

Fighting down panic, Steve raised his own blade. He blocked a couple of feints from Roland, backing up with each stroke. Roland was quick and fluid.

“Stand and fight, yourself.” Roland laughed, feinting and slashing the air playfully.

Steve parried and backed up again. He was nowhere near Roland’s equal at fencing.

“Jane-now!” Rita yelled suddenly. She and Jane ran toward Roland from behind and simply tackled him. All three hit the soft ground.

Steve leaped forward and snatched away Roland’s sword with his free hand. Then, as Rita and Jane sat on his back, Steve placed the point of his sword against Roland’s nose. “Don’t move. Hunter! Can you get back here?”

Hunter rose from the water, holding a buccaneer in each hand by the waistbands of their knee breeches. He tossed them both down onto the rest of the crowd of buccaneers in the water, where they all rolled and tumbled in the breakers. Then he pulled out MC 2 by one arm. “Coming, Steve!” He strode out of the surf, pulling MC 2 after him.

“Let him up,” Steve said to Rita and Jane. They got up quickly. Roland glared at Steve, not moving. Hunter ran up to them with MC 2.

“Into the forest, out of their sight,” Hunter said on the run, passing them.

“Get up and back away,” Steve said to Roland, walking backward. “Don’t follow us.”

Roland hesitated, watching Hunter, clearly more afraid of Hunter than of Steve. The buccaneers who had been thrown into the surf by Hunter were stumbling out to collapse on the ground, sputtering and coughing. They had little fight left in them after being rolled in the breakers repeatedly.

Hunter rushed MC 2 into the dense tropical forest, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure that Steve was still in control of the situation. When Rita and Jane had run after Hunter, Steve finally turned and ran too. The trees and brush were so heavy that, in a few moments, the buccaneers were no longer in sight.

“Remain with us,” Jane said to MC 2, between hard breaths. “Make no attempt to interfere with our plans or escape from us. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged,” said MC 2.

“We have to hurry,” said Steve.

“Jane, Steve, Rita,” said Hunter. “Please drop anything you have that you acquired in this time.” He untied his sash and let it fall with the cutlass it held.

“What about the communicators we lost in the sea?” Steve asked, tossing aside the two swords in his hands. “We certainly can’t retrieve them. Are they going to be a problem?”

“Anything can be,” said Hunter. “However, they are unlikely to cause a problem. They lie off the coast of Jamaica and the salt and water pressure have probably destroyed them already. If they ever wash ashore, they will be nonfunctional debris.”

Steve nodded.

“I hear the others coming through the brush now,” said Hunter. “Roland has regained his courage. Is everyone ready?”

Steve gave him a quick nod. Jane and Rita had discarded their sashes and daggers. Hunter triggered the device that would return them to their own time.

Steve instantly found himself sitting in the same dark, confined sphere from which they had left, huddled against Hunter and Jane. They were back in Room F -12 of the Bohung Institute in Mojave Center. Hunter opened the unit and helped each of them climb out.

MC 2 got out and stood motionless next to Hunter, waiting for further instructions.

Ishihara was still standing in the room. “Welcome back, Hunter. You were successful, I see.”

Yes. Dr. Nystrom is not here?”

“No.”

“You were instructed to stop him.”

“He has not come here during the two minutes since you left,” said Ishihara.

“Really?” Steve looked at Hunter. “Maybe he’s timing his return for quite a while later.”

“He may have guessed I would have someone waiting here now,” said Hunter. “But this could be a problem.”

“Let’s get MC 2 safely joined up with MC 1 in your office,” said Steve. “Then we can worry about Wayne Nystrom.”

“Good idea,” said Hunter.

“We’ll change out of our period costumes first,” said Jane.

As before, they changed clothes in turn in the other room. Hunter called for a Security detail to drive them to MC Governor’s office. The trip was uneventful. Hunter closed the office door behind them and then turned to MC 2.

“You know MC 1 of course,” said Hunter.

“Of course.”

“Jane, please give them Second Law instructions to control them.”

“You will both do as Hunter says,” said Jane.

“Acknowledged,” said MC 2.

“Stand with MC 1.”

MC 2 did so.

“Well, that’s two of them,” said Steve. “Now what?”

“I’d like to say something,” said Rita.

“Go ahead,” said Hunter.

“I apologize for running off and fouling up everything. I wanted to see the sights and I didn’t think I would cause any trouble. But I romanticized my history-as a historian, I should never have done that. I was so excited about being back in that time and place that I…forgot myself. And I fell for Roland, I must admit. But in the end, he reminded me: he was just another cutthroat buccaneer, the product of a nasty, violent life. I guess my history has really come alive. Books can’t really do that. I thought they could, but they can’t.” She sighed, then shrugged helplessly.

“You still helped,” said Jane.

“That is true,” said Hunter. “And we were ultimately successful.”

“You and Jane saved me from Roland’s sword,” said Steve. “Don’t forget about that. Thanks-to both of you.”

“Well-you’re welcome.” Rita smiled awkwardly. “I think my role here is finished, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Hunter. “Thank you. Your fee will be paid in full.”

“Now, wait-I’m not sure I deserve it.”

“I will arrange it,” said Hunter. “If you and Jane had not saved Steve, we might all be back there even now.”

“Well-thanks. Goodbye.” Rita slipped out, closing the door behind her.

“Hunter,” said Jane. “Have you accessed the news again, like you did after our first mission? What happened to the nuclear explosion in Jamaica that occurred shortly before we left?”

“I have been monitoring the news,” said Hunter. “No mention has been made of any such event.”

“Ha! We did it!” Steve grinned.

“We have a new problem, however,” Hunter said soberly.

“What is it?” Jane looked at him in alarm. “Another one?”

“In the fifteen minutes since we returned, I have picked up preliminary reports of a nuclear explosion in Germany.”

“Oh, no,” said Jane.

“I have the coordinates that were used by all the component robots still at large,” said Hunter. “However, I feel we should take the German mission next. Explosions at other sites have not occurred yet.”

“Is this one in Germany more important?” Steve asked skeptically.

“All such explosions are very important, of course,” said Hunter. “However, the trouble may spread very quickly from this one. It has taken place in western Germany, just east of the Rhine, in a heavily populated area with advanced industry. Over the past centuries, a great deal of international animosity developed there, much of it leading to war. Right now, a few news analysts are concerned that terrorists may be attempting to disrupt world peace.”

“And because of the destruction, the First Law is pressuring you to handle this one now,” said Jane.

“Yes,” said Hunter. “As before, however, I must search for a historian familiar with the culture we will visit. In the meantime, I suggest that you two have a good dinner and a good night’s sleep.”

“Good idea,” said Jane. “Back in 1668, it was evening. That’s why I’m ready for dinner.”

“Me, too,” said Steve. “But drop the suspense, Hunter, and tell us-where do we go next? And when?”

“A place called Teutoburger Forest,” said Hunter. “In A.D. 9, during the golden age of the Roman Empire.”