Even behind the amber shimmer, they saw Shizuka' s body tauten, and she bit her lower lip as if stifling a cry of pain. She strained against the curvesof metal holding her to the wall. A crimson trickle ran down her left thigh from beneath a claw.

"I gave the signal to tighten the restraints," Sin-dri announced. "Even if you kill me, you won't be able to breach the stasis field in time to free her- not before she's dismembered."

"We'll take our chances," Grant snapped, but he didn't sound very confident. Still, he lowered Sindri afoot or so.

"The best you could hope for is that only one of her limbs will be amputated." Sindri's voice rose, hitting a shrill note of panic. "For a woman like her, that would be worse than death."

Shizuka squeezed her eyes shut and with mounting horror, Kane and Brigid saw threads of blood inching down her forearms. Grant stared unblink-ingly at the woman, then with a snarl, pulled the little man back over the rail and dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor.

Sindri picked himself up quickly, his cheeks bright red from the blood that had rushed to his head. He stumbled dizzily. "If I'd known the extent to which I was going to be abused by you three, I would've let both b.i.t.c.hes die."

Grant's desire to kill the little man by any means possible was so overwhelming he could barely speak.

He clenched his hands around the top bar of the railing so tightly Kane fancied he heard the metal creak.

"Get her out of there," Kane directed Sindri, "or he'll break your neck, regardless of the consequences."

Sindri said, "All right, Oakshott. Enough." He clapped his hands as if dusting them off. "Done and done.

Now we can be friends again."

Some of the tension went out of Shizuka's body as the pressure of the claws decreased. Her lips moved, but they couldn't hear what she said.

"She'll be fine," Sindri declared curtly. "I'll have her brought around so you can speak with her. She's not hurt. Those restraints weren't designed to perform such unpleasant tasks as dismemberment anyway."

"You mean they don't meet your high standards of instruments of torture," Brigid grated.

Sindri shot her an icy-eyed, searching stare. "They were apparently built to retrieve and hold dangerous items that were trawled from the time stream, much like the mechanical arms used in pre-dark nuclear power plants."

"Fascinating," Kane said with undisguised contempt. "We're always astounded by the uses you find for old predark junk. s.p.a.ce stations, gamma-powered lasers, molecular destabilizers, stealth aircraft-you're the king, Sindri. Of scavengers."

Sindri showed his teeth either in a grimace of outrage or a savage grin of defiance. In a silky soft voice, he said, "Mr. Kane, you don't know the half of it. I've not even begun to astound you."

Kane, Brigid and Grant all realized he wasn't making a promise but issuing a threat.

ONCE THEY WERE out of the stasis chamber, Sindri took off his hood and told his three companionsto do the same. They followed him through a narrow door and went silently along an ill-lit corridor. The dim blue glow of the occasional neon light provided the only illumination.

Grant was still too agitated to speak, fury seething in his eyes. Kane, walking abreast of Sindri, asked, "Are you going to tell us how Shizuka became your prisoner?"

"Certainly, " he answered smoothly. "She and a contingent of samurai came here several tunes over the past couple of months. Apparently, they were searching for you three. I was content to let them prowl around the perimeter of the installation, since they were obviously loath to enter it. Finally, she came in alone."

"So you were here when we tracked the Magistrates down?" Brigid demanded.

Sindri nodded. "I was indeed." He pointed to a vid spy-eye on the ceiling. "I watched it all from a safe remove. When you got into this section of the complex, I decided it was time to go. I used the mat-trans to jump to Redoubt Echo in Chicago. When I returned a few days later, I found a considerable amount of damage had been done to the dilator." He cast a reproachful glance toward Kane. "And you left a body for me to dispose of. That was very uncouth, Mr. Kane."

After several baffling turns, the corridor began to slant downward. "How'd you even find out about this place?" Kane asked.

Sindri smiled slyly. "I had unrestricted access to the database in the Anthill, remember?"

Kane nodded and said nothing more. Since the vast Anthill complex had been intended to be the seat of all Totality Concept divisions, it stood to reason the computer system there contained all the gateway destination codes for redoubts relating to the Concept projects.

"I didn't come here immediately, of course," Sindri went on. "I was injured, as you might recall." His voice became flinty and he glared accusingly over his shoulder at Brigid. She met his glare with one of her own. "I jumped to Parallax Red and stayed there long enough to heal. Then I came here."

"Speaking of Parallax Red," Kane remarked, "where are your helper elves, the transadapts?"

Sindri waved a hand through the air as if the matter was of little importance. "They're waiting for me, never fear."

Grant finally deigned to speak to the little man.

"You don't usually work alone. You need followers and worshipers."

"Like Megaera and her Furies who think you're the smiling G.o.d," Brigid interposed. "Where are they?"

"Not here," Sindri retorted with a studied nonchalance.

"Why not?" Brigid challenged.

"Because like all fanatics, they're too unpredictable to make reliable help.""Where'd they come from?" Kane asked.

"Would you be surprised to learn that I really don't know? During the course of my investigations here, I accidentally brought them through and then transported the whole bunch to Redoubt Echo."

"'Through'?" Kane repeated. "What do you mean by that?"

"Apparently, the dilator's focus-confbrmals were already preset on a target. So when I-"

"Forget the techn.o.babble," Grant snapped impatiently. "Where's Shizuka?"

Sindri turned a corner and paused at an open doorway. He bent at the waist in a mocking bow. "'Hope against hope and ask till you receive,'" he quoted. "But please disabuse yourself of the notion that once you're reunited with her you can make good on your threat to insert my arms down my throat."

Grant grunted as if the comment were of no con- sequence and pushed past him into a wardroom or small galley. It contained several tables, chairs, a stove and refrigerator. Seated at one of the tables, head bowed and hugging herself, was Shizuka.

Her normally glossy black hair was dull and disarrayed. Her face was drawn tight over a smoothly curving bone structure. Her complexion, normally a very pale gold with roses and milk for an accent, was more milk now than gold. The almond-shaped eyes didn't glint with fierce pride. Instead they were mirrors of suffering. Looking at the dispirited warrior, Kane felt a painful clenching in his chest.

She wore a thin cotton shift that left most of her arms and legs bare. Red welts showed starkly against the flesh. Grant started to rush toward her, but then checked the movement. A gigantic man in black loomed over Shizuka. He looked to be seven feet tall if he were an inch, and probably tipped the scales at three hundred pounds. His round moon face was dead-white, like that of a bled-out corpse. His tiny baby's mouth glistened with saliva. Bushy sideburns adorned both jaws, and his dark hair, gleaming with pomade, bore a white part right down the middle.

His thick black suit with its long frock coat, old-fashioned celluloid collar and cravat tie made him look like a store-window mannequin from the late nineteenth century. He regarded the newcomers without a flicker of emotion. In one hand, held close to his belly, he gripped a tiny wooden pistol, carved in the shape of a revolver. Kane saw a transceiver plug nestled in the man's right ear.

Brigid, Kane and Grant all felt a chill a fear when they looked into the giant's l.u.s.terless, pewter-colored eyes. Sindri gave a jaunty little laugh. "This is Oakshott. He's my right-hand man at the moment. Aren't you, Oakshott?"

The man leaned forward a little, peering down at Sindri. His flesh-bagged eyes flicked from the little man to Brigid then to Grant and finally settled on Kane. The expression on his face was not entirely vacuous-there appeared to be a laborious form of thought going on.

When Grant stepped toward Shizuka again, Oakshott shuffled forward as if to block his path. "It's all right, Oakshott," Sindri said soothingly. "He's one of the friends I told you would be visiting. That's a good fellow."Oakshott stared at Grant mistrustfully and grunted. "Yes. Yes. I understand. Yes."

His voice, though thick and deep, carried an unmistakable British accent. He moved stiffly away.

Shizuka rose as Grant reached for her, embracing him tightly. In a voice barely above a whisper, she said, "I feared you were dead. You never returned."

Grant stroked her hair, kissed the top of her head and murmured, "I'm back now, Shizuka."

She said faintly. "Hoi. Yes."

"Yes," Oakshott echoed. "Yes. I understand."

Kane looked the big man over. He saw white puncture scars in the man's eye sockets. Oakshott looked as if he had been stabbed at the corners of each eye with an ice pick. "Where the h.e.l.l did you find him?"

Sindri laughed nervously. "He was already here. Sort of. I retrieved him from the matrix."

Kane wasn't sure what he meant, but before he could ask for clarification, Brigid inquired, "Do you know where he's from at least?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Sindri answered. "He was trawled from the year 1899, s.n.a.t.c.hed from a private mental inst.i.tution in Manchester, England. The dossier I found in the database described Mr.

Sherrinford Oakshott as a stark, raving lunatic. He was cla.s.sed as incurable. The doctors of the day couldn't do a thing with him or for him, and they tried everything in their limited repertoire.

"Poor Mr. Oakshott used to fall victim to periods of what they called 'catatonic excitement,' which from what I gather was a Victorian euphemism for a rampage of killing and raping. In any event, they gave him a prefrontal lobotomy."

Sindri fingered his eye orbits. "In those days the procedure amounted to little more than jamming a knitting needle into his brain."

Nausea surged in Kane's belly. Even Brigid looked a bit sick. He covered his suddenly upset stomach by saying, "He appears to be the perfect servant for you, Sindri. Not as high maintenance as your transadapts."

Sindri did not appear to be offended by the observation. He touched the high collar of the black bodysuit. "You speak very truly. I keep in touch with him through a comm. He obeys simple orders exceptionally well."

"Particularly," Brigid pointed out dryly, "if they involve torturing women."

Sindri chuckled. "Apparently," he went on, "Mr. Oakshott's sudden disappearance from his cell in the asylum didn't receive much publicity. The authorities didn't report it, and were probably relieved when he simply vanished."

"If you found him in the matrix," Brigid said, "that means he was time-trawled. Why would a lunatic be pulled from the nineteenth to the twentieth century?"

Sindri gave her a macabre grin. "Especially when there were so many in that time period. If you care totake seats, I'll explain everything...including why I need your help."

"Why should we believe anything you 'explain'?" Grant demanded angrily, Shizuka still enfolded in his arms. "Why shouldn't we just shoot your slagging a.s.s dead and go on our way?" He nodded toward Oakshott. "Lunatic bodyguard or no lunatic bodyguard."

Sindri sighed like a teacher forced to deal with a rowdy student. "Mr. Grant; I could have just as easily killed your precious Shizuka as imprison her. But I spared her. Nor did I mistreat her while she was here. Ask her if you don't believe me."

Shizuka pushed herself away from Grant and combed nervous fingers through her hair. She seemed to have regained some sparks of her old inner fire, the ferocity that had driven her to put down a rebellion and command the forces that beat back an invasion of New Edo, all in a single night.

"That is true," she stated. "He didn't harm me, but only because I cooperated with him. The zurui chibi tricked me into believing he would destroy New Edo if I tried to escape."

"Zurui chibi?" Kane repeated, stumbling over the p.r.o.nunciation. "What's that mean?"

Brigid smiled coldly. "Sneaky dwarf."

Sindri flushed in anger. "Very droll. But make no mistake, any of you-I wasn't lying to her when I threatened to destroy New Edo. I certainly can do that...and for that matter, destroy anyone or thing I pretty much please."

He took a deep breath and forced a smile to his mobile mouth. "But enough boasting. Let's sit down and discuss matters like civilized people."

Brigid and Kane snorted at the same time.

Chapter 17.

It was almost like a replay of their first meeting with Sindri. As the four people took seats, very aware of the looming, intimidating presence of Oakshott, Sindri rummaged through a refrigerator, murmuring about refreshments. Neither Kane, Grant nor Brigid was fooled-one of Sindri's favorite impostures was that of the congenial host.

He withdrew a carafe of reddish-purple liquid, placed it on the table and busied himself finding gla.s.ses.

Grant eyed the carafe distrustfully. "What's this? The same drugged wine you slipped us on Parallax Red?"

Sindri shook his head mournfully. "As big as an elephant and with the same long memory for wrongs. I apologized for that."

Sindri placed three tumblers on the table. "No, actually, this is a different vintage-plum wine from Miss Shizuka's very own New Edo."

He tipped the carafe, pouring the wine into Shizuka's and Brigid's tumblers first. He served Kane last, who gave the little man a mirthless smile. "Many thanks. Whenever you get tired of being apsychotic a.s.shole, you can always find work waiting tables."

Sindri smiled disarmingly. "I've already pulled my tour of being a servant, Mr. Kane. Those days are gone and will never return, regardless of what the future may bring."

Once again, Sindri's tone held an undercurrent of a threat.

None of the four people touched the wine until they saw Sindri take a long gulp from his own gla.s.s. His face screwed up and a prolonged shudder shook his slight frame. Sounding half-strangled, he husked out, "Smooth."

Kane took an experimental sip and had the impression of drinking a fruit punch mixed with battery acid.

"Let's get down to the business at hand, Sindri. But first of all, don't for one second delude yourself into believing we'll allow you to stay here."

Sindri lifted his eyebrows. "Actually, I'd prefer you stay here with me. Like I said, this was apparently the seat of Operation Chronos, code-named Redoubt Yankee. It was built on one of the Santa Barbara or Channel Islands, disguised as a satellite campus of the University of California."

None of the Cerberus team was particularly surprised to hear that. When they first saw the buildings housing the Chronos technology, Brigid opined it resembled pix she had seen of predark universities.

"This was one of the finest and most secret research establishments in the world," Sindri continued. "Its engineering and computer centers were second to none, and I doubt its accomplishments in the field of physics could have been matched, much less exceeded. It was here the personnel cracked the cosmic code."

Sindri paused expectantly, waiting for the inevitable question about the meaning of his statement. When it was not forthcoming, his upper lip curled in a disdainful sneer. Flicking his gaze over the faces of Brigid, Shizuka, Grant and Kane, he declared, "Don't try to persuade me you know what I'm talking about."

Without hesitation, Brigid stated, "The cosmic code is vernacular for the unified field theory. It refers to the mathematical reconstruction of the first few seconds of the big bang, when the universe was a primal mon.o.bloc without dimensions of s.p.a.ce."

Kane didn't bother suppressing an appreciative laugh when disappointment pa.s.sed over Sindri's face like a cloud. Brigid's eidetic memory made her something of an ambulatory encyclopedia, since she retained just about everything she ever read, particularly during her years as an archivist. A vast amount of predark historical information had survived the nukecaust, particularly doc.u.ments stored in underground vaults. Tons of it, in fact, everything from novels to encyclopedias, to magazines printed on coated stock that survived just about anything. Much more data was digitized, stored on computer diskettes, usually government doc.u.ments.

Although her primary duty as an archivist was not to record predark history, but to revise, rewrite and often completely disguise it, she learned early how to separate fiction from the truth, a cover story from a falsehood and scientific theory from fact.

A little sullenly Sindri said, "Yes, well...do you know how the application relates to the overall objective of this facility?""Time travel," Grant bit out. "We know that already."

"Time manipulation," Sindri corrected smoothly. "The possibility of going back and forward in time had long been discredited by most scientists, but the project overseer of Operation Chronos discovered a means of doing so. A man named Silas Torrance Burr."

"We know," Kane said. "It wouldn't have been possible without Lakesh's breakthroughs with the gateway units."

Sindri regarded him mockingly. "Breakthroughs that of course wouldn't have been possible without his access to the findings of the so-called Philadelphia Experiment."