TW03 The Pimpernel Plot NEW (21 page)

“Then why aren’t there two of each of us around?” said Finn.

Cobra smiled. “You never know,” he said. “When you get back, maybe there will be.”

“Maybe,” said Lucas. “That might very well depend on what we do about Mongoose.”

“I’ll make a deal with you,” Cobra said. “You open to a proposition?”

“We’ll listen,” Finn said.

“I can’t trust my own people,” Cobra said, “but I can trust the two of you. If the new director is made to back off and covert operations continues being autonomous, the investigation will be called off and my problem will be solved. If it goes the other way, I’m still duty-bound to deliver Mongoose, but there might be people in my team with orders to eliminate him if that happens. In that event, I’ll need help.”

“What’s your proposal?” Finn said.

“I think that I can see a way out of our present predicament,” said Cobra. “You want Mongoose stopped, neutralized before he does something to screw up your mission. I want him alive and I don’t want to interfere with you doing your job as you see it. I think that I may have a line on Mongoose, but my hands are tied right now. As a result, I can’t help you. However, I can misdirect my own people. I’ll be taking a chance, but I think I can pull it off. I also think that I can apprehend Mongoose within a matter of days. I propose to do just that, as soon as possible, and then hand him over to you.”

“There’s only one problem with that idea,” Lucas said. “We can’t protect him for you and continue with this adjustment at the same time. The Scarlet Pimpernel still has work to do. We won’t be able to guarantee his safety.”

“You can if I give you a chronoplate,” said Cobra. “I’ll stay here with Finn and help him to continue doing the Pimpernel’s work. You and Andre can take the chronoplate and, with Mongoose in your custody, you can get lost.”

“You’re asking us to desert,” said Lucas.

“No, just to go A.W.O.L. for a while.”

“Really?” Finn said. “Who gets to explain their sudden disappearance to Fitzroy?”

“Leave that to me,” said Cobra.

“Forget it, we’re leaving nothing to you,” said Finn. “We came here to do a job and all you’ve done since you arrived is complicate things. This would have been a simple adjustment mission, inasmuch as any mission can be simple, if it wasn’t for the TIA. All you guys were ever meant to do was gather historical intelligence to compensate for inaccuracies and omissions in the books and that’s it, period. Somewhere along the line, you decided to become historical policemen. I find the idea that your people might have a Referee or two in their pocket frankly frightening. Next thing you know, the agency is going to start getting involved in arbitration conflicts. Maybe you people should change your initials to CIA or KGB. They did much the same sort of thing before one became a multinational corporation and the other became a monarchy.”

“I can well understand your frustration, Finn, but I don’t set agency policy, you know.”

“You just got through telling us that you’re the only one in a position to do just that on this adjustment,” Finn said. “Do you know what you’re doing or are you just making all this up as you go along?”

“I take it you’re refusing to cooperate, then?” said Cobra.

“You take it wrong, Agent Cobra,” said Delaney. “You’re the one who’s refusing to cooperate. If I wasn’t convinced that there might actually be a real threat to Fitzroy’s life, I’d tell him exactly what you’re doing. I’ll give you one thing, you’ve demonstrated that Mongoose must be taken alive, if for no other reason than that the new Observer-backed administration of your agency needs to learn who’s really been calling the shots all this time.”

“I see no conflict there,” said Cobra.

“Well then, I’ll make a deal with you,” said Finn, “and we can stop all this nonsense. Lucas and I will agree to back off and leave Mongoose to you provided that you stop wasting your time shadowing us, get onto Mongoose, and either arrest him or make certain that he doesn’t sabotage this mission. Tell us who your suspect is. We won’t move against him without any proof, but at least we can watch him and work around him.”

“Or else?” said Cobra.

“Or else we grab him ourselves the moment we have an opportunity and turn him over to Fitzroy, who’ll clock him out before your people have a chance to do much more than widen their eyes in surprise. And that’s my proposition.”

Cobra smiled. “That makes a good deal of sense,” he said. “There’s really only one slight problem with that idea.”

“I somehow had a feeling that there might be,” Finn said.

“I doubt that you know what it is, though,” Cobra said, grinning. “All right, Finn, I’ll play my ace. I’ll play it because I think you’ll have no choice but to fold. I’ll even accept your proposition, conditionally.”

“What’s the condition?” Lucas said

“That you follow my direction from this point on, regardless of what Fitzroy says.”

“Brother, it had better be one hell of an ace you’re going to play,” said Finn. “If you think you can undermine Fitzroy—”

“My suspect is Fitzroy,” said Cobra.

Andrew Ffoulkes and Tony Dewhurst didn’t recognize the young man who had arrived in Dover with Lucas and Percy Blakeney. Dewhurst thought that the young man looked somehow familiar, but he could not place where he had seen him. What puzzled both of them was the fact that this dark-haired, bearded young man whom neither of them knew was suddenly a member of their league, the only one besides themselves, Lucas, and Andre who was allowed to know that Percy Blakeney was the Pimpernel.

“Curious chap, that,” Ffoulkes said to Blakeney as they sat together in The Fisherman’s Rest. “Keeps to himself, all right. He hasn’t said two words to us.”

Finn nodded. “Rico is not the friendly sort, I’ll warrant. Gets along with damn few people.”

“He’s an Italian, then?” said Dewhurst.

“Neapolitano,” Finn said. “Doesn’t speak English very well, but he’s fluent in French.”

“Damn it, Percy,” Ffoulkes said, “who in God’s name is he? I thought we had agreed that we would pass on all members of the league together!”

“Steady, Andrew,” Dewhurst said. “Percy knows what he’s about.”

“No, no, it’s all right,” Finn said, placatingly. “It’s true, we did agree upon that and I apologize for not consulting with you. However, Rico is a rather special case. He is an old friend of mine. I wrote to him some time ago, asking him to come and join us.”

“Didn’t I meet him once in Naples, aboard the Day Dream?” Dewhurst said, frowning.

Finn raised his eyebrows. “Why, I think you might have, Tony. Yes, I do seem to recall your meeting briefly.”

Dewhurst nodded. “I was certain that he looked familiar. That must be it, then. Why all the mystery?”

Finn smiled. “No mystery, really. I simply wasn’t sure if he could come. I meant to discuss it with you, I suppose, but what with one thing and another, it must have slipped my mind.” Dewhurst and Ffoulkes both looked at Rico, who was sitting at a corner table by himself, smoking a pipe.

“What’s so special about him, then?” said Ffoulkes.

“He’s to be our main agent in Paris,” said Finn. “Knows the city well, spent a good part of his childhood there. I wanted to have someone who was not known to be associated with us to keep in close contact with St. Just. In fact, the less we’re seen together with him, the better. That’s why I’ve arranged for separate passage for him to Calais.”

“None of the others knows him, then?” said Dewhurst.

“No, that’s how I wanted it,” said Finn. “The French government is furious with us, you know. They’ve set their spies to watching everyone. I expect they’ll be nosing about in London soon, if they’re not there already. We must take all steps possible to protect ourselves and St. Just, in particular, especially since Marguerite wants me to bring him over for a visit. He’ll be seen with all of us at Richmond and I can’t chance his being seen with any of our group when he returns to Paris.”

“You really believe that the Frenchies will set their dogs on us in London?” Ffoulkes said.

“I have no doubt of it,” said Finn. “Pitt says that they’ll be sending an accredited representative to England. You can be sure that he will be a spy.”

“Well, we’ll be sure to tweak his nose for him,” said Ffoulkes, grinning widely.

“You will do no such thing,” Finn said. “When this representative arrives, I expect you to treat him with all due respect, regardless of your feelings. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll be safe in England. Don’t underestimate the French. A good card player never gives away his hand, Andrew. The French won’t send a fool.” He got up from the table. “I’ll be upstairs. Let me know when Briggs arrives.” He went up the stairs and, a moment later, Rico followed after him.

“Grim-looking fellow,” Dewhurst said.

“When was it that you met him?” Ffoulkes said, watching Rico ascend the stairs.

“I can’t recall, exactly. We must not have spoken long, otherwise I’m sure I would remember.”

“I hear all those Italians carry knives,” said Ffoulkes. “He looks the type.”

“If he is, then he’s our man,” said Dewhurst. “St. Just is a bit too delicate for our sort of work. That chap looks like he might be handy in a pinch. I don’t envy him having to stay in Paris, though.”

“Well, better him than either one of us,” said Ffoulkes. “Paris is a nice place to visit, but I’d hate to have to live there.” He sniffed. “Too many of those French girls never wash.”

Andre entered the room and softly closed the door behind her. She worked her jaw around in an irritated fashion. “I hate this damn beard,” she said. “I don’t see how you men can eat with them. The hairs trap all the food.”

“That’s so you won’t grow hungry later on,” Finn said with a chuckle. “Relax, you’ll be able to take it off as soon as we’re away from Ffoulkes and Dewhurst. We’d better leave your hair dark, though. Fitzroy hasn’t seen you more than once or twice, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I’ll make certain that he won’t see me at all,” said Andre. “I still can’t believe that he might actually be Mongoose.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure,” said Finn, “but if you knew Mongoose, the whole thing would actually make a crazy kind of sense. Fitzroy’s the last person we would have suspected, so of course that makes him the logical candidate.”

“But Fitzroy was the one who clocked back to Plus Time and reported Mongoose. We know he did that because Cobra is here with his team of investigators.”

“And an assassin or two,” added Finn. He nodded. “You’re absolutely right. If Mongoose has assumed Fitzroy’s identity, he could have done so afterward. Even if he didn’t, it would appeal to his sense of sportsmanship to clock back to Plus Time and report himself to the one man who would want to get his hands on him more than anybody else.”

“But the new director of the TIA didn’t even know about the altered records until Fitzroy brought the whole thing to his attention by telling him about the fake Observer, what was his name?”

“Jack Carnehan.”

“That’s it. If Carnehan was Mongoose, then how could Fitzroy—”

“We only have Fitzroy’s word that there was ever such a person as Captain Jack Carnehan. Remember, we never saw him.”

“But that doesn’t mean that there was no Carnehan,” said Andre.

“No, it doesn’t. Which is why you’re going to Paris, to find out for sure. The really funny thing is that Jack Carnehan really does exist. There’s no open file on him as a member of the Observers or the Temporal Corps, which is why the new director drew a blank, but there is a classified dossier on a Lt. Col. Carnehan. Jack Carnehan is Mongoose’s real name.”

Andre looked at him with astonishment. “But that’s impossible! The new agency director would have known that. He had access to Mongoose’s records—”

“Which Mongoose had altered, “ Finn said, pointedly.

Andre frowned. “Yes, all right, it could have worked that way, but then the old director, the one who resigned—”

“Darrow.”

“He would have known because he knew the old dossier. He would have recognized Carnehan’s name!”

Finn nodded. “I’m sure he did.”

“Then, why…?”

“Because Darrow’s title as Director of the TIA was a cover. He really was the administrative director of the agency before he resigned, but he was also the head of covert operations, the agency within the agency.”

Andre sat down, shaking her head. “I yield,” she said. “It’s all too much for me.”

“Lucas and I felt the same way when Cobra laid it out for us,” said Finn. “Consider the fact that Darrow resigned his post as agency director. The official reason for his resignation was that the covert agency’s attempt to take over adjustment jurisdiction from the Temporal Corps failed. He took the fall for it and he also resigned in protest over the Referee Corps assigning control of the TIA to the Observer Corps because the agency had gotten out of hand. However, the fact that he resigned served to protect him from the investigation being conducted by the new administration. The director’s post is primarily an administrative job. When the new administration took over, they found out that the director had been little more than a figurehead for years. If it’s a known fact within the agency that the director doesn’t really run things, where’s the best place to hide the person who really gives the orders?”

Finn spread his hands out. “In the director’s office, naturally.” Andre blinked several times and gave her head several quick, jerky shakes. “So the director who doesn’t really run things is actually the man—”

“Who really does run things, “ said Finn.

“What worries me is that I think I’m beginning to understand all this,” Andre said.

“Cobra realized that Darrow had to be the head man in covert operations, or one of the head men, when he found out that Darrow didn’t say anything when he found out about Jack Carnehan. Carnehan was a code-named agent and the head of field operations to boot. Darrow had to have access to his dossier when he was in the director’s office and he had to know his real name.”

“But then he would know that Cobra would also know—”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Finn said. “Spooks are ultraparanoid. Agents are supposed to know each other only by their designated code-names. Mongoose and Cobra worked very closely together and developed a special relationship. As a gesture of trust, they broke regulations and privately told each other their real names.”