They walked slowly, down a long, grey-brown road through what might have been a picturesque village, had not the buildings been so functional. The place seemed deserted, and only something that looked like it might have been a duck - one could never be sure, on colonial planets, what was an Earth animal and what was not - disturbed the silence. It quacked at the two men as they walked past its pond, but other than that the place was still. Jack glanced around, a little unnerved by the emptiness.
"It's a working day," explained Leith, clearly realising the direction of his thoughts. "Everybody in the local villages works elsewhere. There are probably a few people here, but you're not likely to see anybody until the early evening at least. It's useful that way. I'm not exactly a celebrity, but the face of the king's magician is hardly unknown - and somebody catching a glimpse of the queen through a window would certainly get us noticed. In entirely the wrong way."
"I'm sure the king's magician can magic himself out of trouble." Jack grinned. "What the hell is that title about, anyway?"
"Oh, it's tradition, like I said. I wasn't going to argue, not since it got me inside the castle. I needed to see how things worked there, and find out who I could get on my side. The job could have been tailor-made for the purpose. Maybe it was, centuries ago. There's something about castles that breeds intrigue."
"Looks that way. I've been around a few castles in my time, and most of them seemed to have more than their share of back-stabbers, traitors and crooks." He smirked. "Kinda like you. And you were going to tell me your plans."
"Yes..." Leith seemed unwilling to talk now, even though he had been the one to precipitate this conversation. "Just how trustworthy are you, Jack?"
"I've never betrayed myself. So maybe I'm not the best person to judge." He shrugged. "You're armed, I'm not. You knifed a guy to death a little while ago because he tried it on. What kind of a fool do you think I am?"
"I have no idea. I just know that I'd rather not have to wind up shooting you when all of this is over. Or even before then." He sighed. "Never mind. We'll worry about that when the time comes. And if it does, Jack... I will kill you without a thought."
"Point taken." Jack looked at him expectantly. "So what's the game?"
"The game?" Leith seemed to like the idea of referring to it all that way. "It's simple, more or less. I'm being paid a great deal of money to see that King Hari loses his throne. A very great deal of money."
"And who's paying you? Bankers? Land developers?"
"Land developers? This isn't about land. This is about..." He frowned suddenly, looking directly at Jack. "Why do you think I need a Time Agent exactly?"
"Time Agents protect the timeline, or so goes the theory." Jack shrugged, unsure where this was going. "They get rid of anachronisms and keep things..." He trailed off. "You're from the future."
"Yes. I work for somebody who runs a very large business here, quite some years from now. A business he's likely to lose. Now his advisors and his financial experts believe that if certain political decisions were altered, and if certain scenarios work out differently this time around, our entire economy would have a different structure. So they came to me, and I said that I'd see what I could do."
"Change history?" Jack was aghast. "You can't go messing around doing stuff like that. It's crazy. You don't know how much you might change. This guy you're working for might not even be born in your new world."
"That's why you're here. You can minimise disruption." Leith frowned, eyeing Jack was growing suspicion. "I was told that you wouldn't argue. No questions, no problems, that's what I was told."
"Maybe Captain Rye wasn't the kind of man I wanted to get chatty with." Jack shook his head. "I don't think you understand what the Time Agency is all about. Sure, we keep an eye on things - but not in that way. I can't shape the past or the future. We're not Time Lords. Far from it."
"That's not what you told Rye. When he hired you, you said you could help me."
"Maybe I needed the money." Jack looked away, down the narrow road. It was just a pedestrian thoroughfare of course - no vehicles used roads nowadays. It looked dusty and oddly archaic, like a road from the long ago days pre-tarmac. "Listen, Leith--"
"If you're going to try to talk me out of this, Jack, don't bother. I cam here for a reason, and I'm not giving up the chance of that kind of money. If you don't want a share in it that's your look out."
"Hey, I'm always interested in making some money. Most of the time I don't give a damn about how I get it. But this is crazy. You don't mess with history. You could wipe yourself out of existence. Create a paradox. I'll mess with this and I'll screw with that, but I'd never be fool enough to risk changing something like this."
"I suppose we must have different priorities then." Leith lapsed into silence, strolling along for a while just staring at the ground. "Look, I like you. Or I think I do. Something tells me that's probably a mistake."
"Thanks. Your point being?"
"That I don't especially want to kill you. It's not a great end to any relationship, especially one that's hardly had a chance to get off the ground. I will do it, though. Get in my way, try to stop me - and you're a dead man."
"I make a point of never interfering in anything that might cost me my life." At least intentionally. Most of the time. Jack did his best to look innocent, though it was hardly an expression that came easily to him. "I'm not going to get in your way. Not when you have a gun and I don't. But you've got to see that this is nuts, Leith. You don't know what you're messing with."
"Then help me! You're a Time Agent. You know Time."
"I travel in it. I use it. I exploit it nowadays. I cheat people with it, I guess. But I can't shape a new history, or help you to create some new world order. Just what kind of mandate do you think the Agency has!"
"Maybe it's you that's got the Agency wrong. " Leith sighed. "It doesn't matter. Just don't get in my way. I mean that, Jack."
"I never plan on getting in anybody's way." He smiled faintly. "It just happens. Leith..."
"I'm not changing my mind! You can't begin to imagine the money I'll be making out of this. Say the word, and you're in on it. I'd rather have you with me than against me."
"Hey, who said anything about against! I might not be with you on this, but that doesn't mean I'm going to try to stop you. A man with his eye on a fortune isn't the kind of guy to get on the wrong side of. I'm no fool."
"I hope not." Leith nodded slowly. "If it's all the same with you, I'd like you to stay somewhere where I can keep an eye on you. Just until I'm sure that my plan is going the way it's supposed to."
"Out of one prison and into another." Jack shook his head. "Come on, Leith. I thought you liked me? I thought you wanted to trust me? I have a ship somewhere on this planet. It's been impounded. If I can get to it, I'll leave and you'll never see me again. Believe me, I'd rather be a long, long way away from here if you're going to start messing with history."
"It's not history. It hasn't happened yet." Leith sounded stubborn. Jack flashed him a sad stare.
"For you it has. It's your history that you're planning to change, and that's why it's dangerous. Now if you're going to shoot me, or lock me up, go ahead. Otherwise I'm clearing out. I don't need this kind of hassle."
"Yeah." Leith looked away. "Yeah, fine. Sure. Go. Get off the planet, and go back to whatever it was you were doing before. Being a good little Time Agent, earning that company credit, never really knowing what the organisation you work for is up to behind your back. Believe me, Jack. The Agency isn't what you think it is."
"That I can believe." Two years, gone from his memory - who knew what deeds, what events, what people had gone as well? He was glad that he had left the service. He was even more glad now. "I'll see you around, maybe. Somewhere."
"Somewhere." Leith didn't offer to shake hands. Neither did Jack. Instead he merely turned and walked away. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew that he had to find his ship. That was the only way off this planet. The only way to safety. What the hell did Leith think that he was doing, come back through time with a plan to change history? It was the stupidest thing... He pictured Idira, sitting in the castle, doing whatever the hell it was that ladies-in-waiting did when they weren't brawling with guards in bars. She was waiting for him, wondering what he was doing, what he had found out. She already suspected that Leith was up to his eyeballs in treachery, so she could well have searched his apartments by now, and found Acton's body. How long before she found out something else? Traced him here? Found out what he was doing? She might be in time... but the chances were that she would not. Leith had clearly been working hard for some time now, setting up the means to get in and out of the castle; finding a member of the royal family to aid him in his revolution; choosing guards to bribe. He was an expert at going undiscovered, and if he was having regular meetings outside the castle with the queen; if he was recruiting local dignitaries and celebrities like Charnaby; then he must be close to making some decisive move. Idira might never find out in time what he was up to, and where. Jack swore, and quickened his pace. He had to find his ship. He had to get off this blasted planet. Leave Idira to face the music alone - after all, she had more or less blackmailed him into helping her, so it wasn't as if she were some blameless person herself. Leave her to watch her planet's future changing, with no way of knowing what effect it might have upon the fabric of space-time... Jack swore again. Quickened his pace again. Any other planet. If it was any other planet... but there were things in Arosa's future that couldn't be changed. That mustn't be changed. Except that it wasn't his problem. What did he care? His thoughts drifted back to Idira, and he tried to think of something else - and failed, dismally. He came to a halt, and looked back the way that he had come. There was no sign of Leith. No sign of anybody. He needed to do something. Some small thing that might help without putting him in danger. Sneak back to the room where the transmat device was, and return to the castle? Except that then he would be right back in custody, and likely unable to slip back out to resume the search for his ship. Besides which, he had a definite suspicion that Toby Mendosa was the Time Agent that had been supposed to rendezvous with Leith. Even if he wasn't, he had missed at least one hourly check-in. The castle was not a safe place to be right now. That left Leith's associates. If he could persuade them how foolish this was - warn them that Leith was from the future, and was planning to change their planet's history - maybe they would listen, and this would all be over before it began. Jack nodded to himself. He hated the plan. He would much rather be getting away from here. Something made him start back, though, and head once more for Charnaby's jumbled little house. He just didn't have a clue what it was. He didn't especially want to. All he cared was that, whatever it was, it didn't go making a habit of getting in his way.
The house seemed quiet when he got back there. He made as much of a circuit of it as the surrounding buildings would allow, then easily gained entry through the door by which he and Leith had left. Of the supposed magician there was no sign - either he had disappeared off somewhere into the building's interior, or he had chosen to continue with his walk. Once inside, with the door closed behind him, Jack was better placed to think about what to do next. Charnaby had been friendly, and might be disposed to listen to him - but he was hardly a decisive character. Even if he had been prepared to listen, he wasn't likely to do much afterwards. By the time he had finished bumbling about in his confused manner, Leith might well be on to the pair of them. That left a teenager with her head in a book, and a rebel queen of highly questionable morality. Hardly a great list of potential allies. Still - the queen had obviously liked him, and had made it clear that she wanted him to return. She would listen to him, he was sure of that. She might have no love for her husband, but if she wanted to be president of the new republic, there was a chance that she had some loyalty to her people. Surely if she knew what Leith was doing - if she knew of the far-reaching effects that his plan could have on a thousand other worlds - surely she would be ready to help stop him? Withdrawing her support would be a big step in stopping Leith in his tracks. It seemed to be the only option - so, slipping quietly back along the corridor, he listened carefully outside her door, knocked, and went in.
She was alone, as he had guessed, though he could not have guessed what occupied her. By the look of things she was reading economics reports - lines and lines of figures that scrolled up the screen of her computer. She didn't look up for several moments, until there was a break in the data - then she turned away from the screen and smiled up at Jack.
"Captain Harkness. I'm glad you came back. What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping to have a word, your majesty." He was never entirely sure how to address royals, but if there was one thing that he was good at, it was flattering people. He knew the right tone to take, and she appreciated it. That much showed in every sparkle of her eyes, and every square millimetre of her smile.
"Have several words, Captain. I don't tax them." Her smile broadened. "Yet. Sit down, please."
"Thankyou, your majesty." He didn't sit. She had told him to refer to her as President Jena earlier, he remembered - had claimed that royal titles were too grand. She wasn't complaining at his use of one now, though. Apparently she wasn't nearly as simple in her tastes as she might like people to think. "I need to listen to me. It's important."
"Really?" She affected fatigue. "Everything's 'important' these days, Captain. People are forever wanting to give me important reports, or tell me of important events. Everything that Leith says to me seems to have the word 'important' in it. What is it that you want to tell me?"
"It's about Leith." Well, he was here. He might as well spit it out. Either she would listen to him or she wouldn't, and he might as well find out which it was going to be. "He's dangerous. Really dangerous. I don't know if he realises what he's getting mixed up in, or what he might be unleashing, but the truth is, he could be threatening the future of the galaxy. He's from the future. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it's not like time travel is unheard of nowadays. You must know that some races have it, right? That certain organisations have access to it? Well he's come back to change certain things here, and a part of that is this revolution. You see how dangerous this is? You see why you've got to stop helping him?"
"I see." She frowned up at him, and for the first time her smiling demeanour held frosty undertones. "Captain... can I ask why you don't think that I know all of this already?"
"Know it?" He frowned at her. "He's told you the truth?"
"He's told me everything. Do you think that I would take part in a coup for just any reason? He's told me the future, Captain - and for me it's very bright indeed. So long as I make certain decisions in the coming years - certain foreign policy and economic decisions - my future is the best that it can be. I think you've come to tell your tales to the wrong oerson, Captain Harkness." She tapped a key on her computer. "Leith?"
"I heard." The voice came, not from some communications link on the computer, but from the door. Jack whirled. For the second time that day he reached for a gun that he no longer had, and for the second time he cursed the circumstances that had left him unarmed. Leith smiled coldly.
"I'll never understand you, Jack. You reach for a gun that's been taken away. Did someone offer you something, to make you come to me? Like maybe your gun back? Your ship back? Are you even a Time Agent?"
"I was. Once." He smiled nervously. "So, er... talking round the hired help is out. Okay. Nice job on winning her over. Now what?"
"I told you what would happen if you tried something like this." Leith was holding a gun, but it wasn't yet pointing at Jack. It was casual in his grip, almost as though he had forgotten it was there. "I really am sorry."
"No last requests? No stirring final speeches? No kiss for the dying man?"
"No." The gun in Leith's hand whirred as it charged, as he raised it up to point at the man before him. "You should have left."
"Yeah." That much Jack wasn't going to argue with. "Just do me a favour, Leith. Don't do it with the kid watching, okay?"
"The kid?" The word didn't seem to mean anything to Leith at first - then it clicked and he turned around. There was nobody in the doorway; nobody in the corridor. With an oath he spun back around, just in time to see Jack breaking into a run. There was nowhere in the room to run to - it was too small really to run at all. For a second there was a blur of man and furniture - Leith aimed his gun at a target that dodged with an expert's flair - but his shot did nothing save obliterate a picture hanging on the far wall. Jack ducked at the sound, vaulted a footstool without really knowing what he was doing or what the hell he was going to do next - then all of a sudden there was nowhere else to go, and a wall was looming before him. Short of diving behind a chair there was only one course left open to him; and he could only hope that the glass in the window ahead was just that. He had tried jumping through a window once before that had turned out to be made of toughened acrylic. If that happened this time, he wouldn't be waking up half a day later in the hospital wing. Gathering his strength, throwing up an arm to protect his eyes, he hurled himself out through the window. Behind him somebody shouted, but there was no time to catch what was said. A second later he was crashing into a fortunately prickle-free bush, rolling over in a tangle of twigs and big green leaves, fighting his way out onto a dusty road. A laser blast incinerated a branch beside his head, showering him with burning wood. He ducked aside, threw himself behind a low wall, and ran pell-mell at a half-crouch. Other shots slammed into the wall, and he dodged chunks of stone as he ran. Damn it, why did nice conversations so often seem to end in him leaping out of windows and running for his life? And why were guns always involved? Even when he was trying to play at being the good guy, he still wound up escaping angry gunmen. Skidding around a corner, finally out of immediate danger, he looked up and down the road. It was empty. No locals were moving about - nobody was looking out of their windows to see what was going on. Vaulting a fence, he cut across a small garden, wary of pursuit from Leith. Everything remained quiet, though. There were no more gunshots. Deciding that the coast must be clear, he jumped the far fence onto another road. It wasn't hard to decide what to do next. He was out of the castle, away from Toby Mendosa, and away from all the guards trying to keep him in custody. It was a shame to lose the little remote unit, but he could get another. Make another, perhaps, or get one made. It wasn't the end of the world. All he had to do now was find where his ship had been stored, and he was off this blasted planet, out of this confounded timezone, and away to somewhere where nobody was likely to rope him into power games and royal intrigues. It would be good to be back in space. Sod the timeline. Smiling to himself, he started off down the road. Maybe he could appropriate a hover-car. An onboard map might give him some idea of where to look for his ship. He quickened his pace, plans already forming in his mind. Everything was looking so bright that he wasn't really all that surprised when he turned another corner and came face to face with a group of castle guards. He froze.
"Don't move!" One of them was already raising his rifle. Jack smiled nervously.
"Hi. Hey look, I know I'm not supposed to leave the castle, but--"
"Put your hands in the air and walk slowly forward." The lead guard had his rifle levelled. "We know who you are. You're under arrest."
"Oh come on. I haven't done anything." Jack looked from the rifle to its owner, then along the line of other guards. "There's nothing to arrest me for."
"You're wanted for involvement in a plot to harm the king." The lead guard's voice was like ice. His rifle whirred. Jack took a step back. Great. Idira certainly hadn't been slack in making him seem genuine. He forced a smile onto his face and slowly raised his hands.
"I don't suppose you want to listen to my side of the story? Have a coffee? Dinner? No?" His grin wavered ever so slightly. "Okay, you win." He hesitated, then began to walk forwards, obeying the instructions carefully, and keeping eye contact all the while. The guard saw a man doing as he was told, submitting to authority, ceasing to be so direct a threat, and he relaxed just a fraction in response. The instant before he did so, Jack saw the change in his eyes, and hurled himself to one side. The rifle blasted a lethal charge of heat and power into the air just beside him, and he fought to regain his balance. Ran half backwards, half turning, heard another rifle raging - then he was back around the corner and running for his life. He didn't need to look to know that they were coming after him - all of them, their boots pounding on the dusty road, their rifles charging and whirring, blasting and echoing. He crashed through a hedge, threw himself over a wall, forced his way between two houses and stumbled through a ditch. Bushes caught at his clothing and tangled in his hair, and he struggled all the while to stay on his feet, to maintain his lead, ducking and dodging every time one of the rifles made the air around him burn. So random was his choice of direction, so hectic his flight, that he barely noticed when the terrain suddenly became familiar. Somehow he had blundered back to the place where Leith and his associates had their headquarters. He swore, chose another direction, and redoubled his speed. There was no time to think anymore, no time to consider anything. He couldn't wonder about the guards - had they split up, fanned out, gained on him, fallen back? It was all just running, slipping, jumping, hoping that his instincts would see him through. Headlong flights from trouble were hardly a new experience for him, but his heart pounded in his chest as though he were in far from good shape. He wondered for the first time how long he had been running then, but there certainly wasn't time to stop now. Rifle fire still made the air crackle, still made his skin tingle from the heat and the charge in the air. He stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself just in time, and all but fell over a low wall. He thought that he saw somebody watching him then, through one of the windows in one of the houses, but it was nothing more than a vague impression in the back of his mind, and there was no chance to look again and find out. Not that it mattered. Putting it out of his mind, crashing through a tangle of some tough shrubbery, he found himself all at once in an alley. Walls closed in around him, he heard shouts behind, ran blindly along hard paving. A dead end. Damn it, if it wasn't one thing it was another. The whole damned universe seemed against him some days.
"Where did he go?" It was a distant shout. For the first time he risked a look behind him, and saw nobody else in the alley. He was just far enough ahead. Just far enough to find something - anything - to get him out of here before the soldiers caught up. He shook the nearest door, but it was locked. Shook another. Did he have enough time to break in? Probably not. He grabbed another door, and with a burst of relief, found that it was loose. He threw it open, stumbled over the threshold - and saw a very familiar room. A horribly familiar room. He groaned.
"Oh great." The girl had gone. Only Leith and Jena were in the room now. Leith was expressionless; Jena actually looked concerned.
"You look terrible," she told him. Jack sank onto the settee.
"It hasn't been a great day. You might have noticed that." He glanced back up at Leith. "You might want to get moving. The place is crawling with castle guards. It wouldn't be a great idea to get found here with the queen, or I'm betting we'll all be getting a far closer look at the dungeons than either of us wants."
"Castle guards?" Leith glanced towards the doorway, then back to Jack. "And you're warning us?"
"Yeah. Turns out they're as anxious to shoot me as they are to shoot real rebels." Recovering his breath, he leaned back on the settee, managing to look relaxed and almost languorous. "So could be we need each other."
"Could be." Leith frowned. "But probably not. Just whose side are you on?"
"The one that gets me away from angry soldiers with guns pointed in my direction." Jack smiled provocatively. "Gonna give me a gun?"
"No." Leith looked over at the queen. "You'd better get back to the castle. Use the transmat. I can't go back until I find out what those guards know."
"I'll try to find out for you." She turned towards the wall, sliding aside a panel to reveal the controls of the transmat beam, then hesitated and glanced back at the two men. "You won't kill him, Leith. Will you?"
"Not if he can be any use helping me to get away." Leith looked carefully out of the nearest window. "Damn. They're all over the place."
"Told you." Jack joined him at the window, barely noticing when a faint buzz signalled the departure of the queen. "Think they know you're it? They sure seemed to think I was."
"If they suspect you then who knows what they might have found out." Leith swore softly under his breath. "Somebody must have betrayed me. Acton perhaps. I was right to kill him."
"If he's been found, he could be betraying you a whole lot more. Hiding him in your room might not have been such a great idea." Jack went over to the door he had used, and locked it as quietly as he could. He didn't want any soldiers finding it open, as he had done. "Are there any other ways out of here?"
"Yes. I wouldn't use a headquarters that didn't allow me at least one escape route." Leith hesitated, seemingly caught in indecision, then gestured to the door that led to Charnaby's muddled study. "That way. And if you try anything..."
"Yeah, sure. Look, I had a damn good reason for running away earlier. Don't take it so personally."
"I had a damn good reason for trying to kill you." Leith frowned suddenly. "Actually, I still have a damn good reason for trying to kill you."
"I'm hardly going to turn you in when every soldier in the province is looking to blow my head off with an oversized laser cannon." Deciding that there had been enough talk, Jack pushed open the door that led to the study. "I can be of use. Trust me. I'm on your side."
"Like hell you are."
"Hey - your side, their side. Whichever isn't trying to kill me works from where I'm standing. And right now, you're not trying to kill me. Which makes me on your side. Now we've had this argument already. You want to move onto the next one?"
"What we're going to do next?"
"That's the one." Nodding at Charnaby as though this were an ordinary day, and he were in the habit of bursting into other people's studies in a decidedly battered state, Jack headed for the room's other door. "If your cover is blown, you're as screwed as I am. What's your contingency plan?"
Leith hesitated. "What's yours?"
"Usually?" Jack shrugged. "Last time I found myself on the run from an entire army, I hid in the defence minister's summer residence. Got real friendly with his wife. Lovely lady. Unfortunate taste in husbands. Or there was that one time when I got cornered by a pair of young soldiers, and we found we had a mutual distaste for executing me." He smiled at a happy memory. "Now they had some interesting ideas for DIY entertainment."
"So your plan for escaping is to seduce the enemy." Leith sighed. "Maybe we should be going for something a little more decisive?"
"We can't have a fire-fight in a house with a kid in it. Besides, you're the only one with a gun, so it would hardly be decisive in our favour, would it. Trust me, Leith."
"Jack, I doubt even you trust you. Why the hell should I? Half an hour ago you were trying to persuade one of my allies to turn me over to the authorities. Now you swear that you're my best friend just because you've found that the castle guards like you less than I do."
"Hey, intergalactic alliances have been built on rockier ground than that." Jack flashed his companion a winning smile. "Okay, we'll skip smiling sweetly at the soldiers. I'll forget that you're an evil megalomaniac trying to change history, and you forget that I was trying to stop you. Now in about thirty seconds those soldiers are going to start doing a house to house search, and I'd like to be gone by then. Maybe we could leave the arguments until we're somewhere safe?"
"I don't want you found here. Not when my daughter is in the house." Charnaby pointed at the door that Jack was waiting beside. "I'll deal with any soldiers who come through here. I still have some influence where it counts, and I'm still well enough known to make a difference. Get lost."
"We're going, old man." Leith opened the door, herding Jack through it ahead of him. "Down to the far end of the corridor. There's an old drain that runs under the house, and we can use it to get away. It runs for miles."
"Great. Escape by sewer is always such fun." Jack hurried along the corridor, past the room where he had first met Jena, past a room where Charnaby's daughter sat, still absorbed in her book, on down to what appeared to be a bathroom. "Surely Arosa is far too advanced for underground drainage?"
"This village is built on the site of one of the first settlements here. Things aren't usually quite so highly developed on new colonies." Leith pointed to a disinfection unit, and Jack dragged it aside, revealing a suspiciously new-looking hatch built into the wall. "I like to have a back door. Open it."
"Just as long as it's on record that I hate sewer escapes." Jack hauled open the hatch, and stared down into a dark hole. "You've got a torch, right?"
"We don't need one. Just get in." Leith all but pushed him into the hole, and Jack found himself in a steep shaft with sunken handholds. He lowered himself as carefully as he could with Leith hurrying along behind, and saw the murkiness of the tunnel redouble itself when the hatch up above them swung closed. Leith was right, though, and there was no real need of light in the shaft. The handholds were easy to find.
"They'll know where we've gone," he pointed out as they reached level ground at the bottom of the shaft. "With that unit not in front of the hatch anymore--"
"I locked it. By the time they get it open we'll be long gone, and they won't know where we are. That's always supposing they look in the bathroom in the first place." Leith fumbled for something in his pocket, withdrawing a computer that he used to activate a string of light crystals in the ceiling. "Now come on."
"Where to?" Jack followed him without complaint. Leith might have just tried to kill him, but they were both on the run. He had no objection to tagging along for the time being. Leith shrugged.
"Get a hover-car. Get some distance between us and those soldiers."
"And then?"
"Then? We keep out of sight, lie low for a bit, then try again. I still have the queen on my side. I can still make this work even if I have lost my own place in the castle. And don't start lecturing me again."
"I wasn't going to say anything." Jack followed on at his heels, glad of the running. It was something to focus on, besides what Leith was planning. He didn't want to think about that, and the consequences that it could have.
"Good." Leith's pace didn't let up. For a man who had spent who knew how many months closeted in some luxurious castle apartment, pretending to be a magician, he was in excellent shape. Jack wasn't sure how far they ran. Usually he was good at such estimates, but being below ground made it harder to keep track, and his occupied mind was not behaving quite as it should. He couldn't stop thinking of Leith's plans for the planet, and all that they would mean. Some part of his mind couldn't quite categorise the magician as an enemy. Some part of his heart couldn't quite convince himself that what Leith wanted to do was really all that wrong.
"Nearly there." Leith was slowing. Jack did likewise. Another shaft was beside them; some other old access point to a sewer that the rest of the planet had forgotten about. Settlements all over the universe contained such relics, he knew - old sewers, old drains, old river courses, forgotten by most citizens, or never known to them in the first place. Vital concourses for people like him, or for the homeless, the desperate or the depraved. They were often better, more direct routes than the roads above, and he didn't doubt that Leith knew what he was doing, and where they now were.
"Nearly where?" he asked. Leith pointed up the shaft.
"Find out." He pressed a switch on his computer again, and the tunnel descended into darkness. Jack hesitated for a moment. Leith was taking a lot on trust. He could run. Admittedly Leith could have the place lit up again in seconds, but he might have made it out of gun range by then. He could even kick the other man back down the shaft as they climbed. Something made him merely do as he was told, and climb up the shaft using sunken handholds just as before. When he pushed open the hatch at the top, and the pair of them clambered out into bright, warm daylight, he realised that Leith was smirking in obvious delight.
"What's so funny?" They had come up in some sort of alleyway. The buildings seemed different to before - not the houses of a small village, but of a larger town. Leith pushed the hatch back down into place.
"Nothing really. Perhaps I just like escaping."
"Everybody likes escaping." Leith's smile was one that it was hard not to return. He was a cheerful man by nature, it seemed, and his eyes were warm and friendly. Jack couldn't help responding to natural charm like that. "You're the strangest sort of political agitator, Leith. Mostly they're a pretty cheerless sort. All serious and dedicated. You're... not."
"It's just for the money. That's the way you operate yourself, isn't it? You said you were a mercenary. I'm not some political nut. I don't know why my employer thinks that our world - and our economy - would be better this way. I just know that I'm being paid to do what he says. And maybe he's right. I don't know and I don't care. I just want the money."
"Yeah." Jack looked away. "Hover-car, right?"
"You're a strange sort yourself. For a mercenary, you have a very odd notion of wrong and right. I'm not doing anything that you don't do. If you'd been offered the money I'm being paid, you'd be here doing my job now."
"Maybe. Look Leith, your planet's future--"
"Save it. I've heard your arguments." Leith indicated his gun. "Now come on. I'm still not entirely sure why you're still alive, and I'm certainly not going to risk losing you just yet. I don't what side you're on half the time."
"Neither do I." Jack started off down the alley way, reaching the end of it in time to see a number of security men walking past. He ducked down out of sight. "Are those usual patrols?"
"They look like it. A little heavier than usual maybe." Leith scowled. "I suppose they guessed we'd head for the city. They probably assume that I have other allies. None of them can handle the idea that one man working almost alone can bring down a king."
"You haven't brought down the king. From where I'm standing, you don't look like you're going to, either." Jack spotted a second patrol, this time wearing the uniform of the castle guards. "Damn it, that's no ordinary patrol."
"No, it isn't." For a moment Leith looked shaken, as though his faith in himself and his plans was beginning to waver. "Almost like they really knew that we'd be coming here. Charnaby might have told them about the tunnel I guess, but he doesn't know where it leads. He wouldn't have been able to open the hatch and find out."
"Could they have checked its location with some old map?"
"Maybe." Leith swore, and leaned against the wall. "If they catch us, we'll wind up in those dungeons. And twenty-five feet underground isn't where I plan on being tomorrow."
"Yeah. Tell me about it." Jack watched the marching patrols for a moment, then glanced up. "Leith... how did they know that we were in the village to begin with?"
"I don't know. The queen would never have betrayed me. The guards that are on my side don't know about the transmat device, and they certainly don't know about Charnaby. The only person who does is Charnaby himself. And his daughter of course."
"She wouldn't drop her father in it like that. She's too old to go blabbing about the queen to her school friends." Jack closed his eyes. "I am such a jerk."
"What do you mean?" Leith, deciding that the coast was more or less clear, started to leave the alleyway. Jack pulled him back in.
"Hey!" In a second Leith had drawn his gun, but Jack ignored the threat. Pulling the other man further away from the mouth of the alley, to where he should once again be out of sight, he knocked the gun aside. Fury flashed across the magician's face for a moment, and recovering his grip on the gun, he pointed it straight at Jack. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Looking for something." Jack had flipped open the cover on his wrist computer, and was tapping out a series of instructions. "What's the only way they could have known where we were? They were in just the right place when I ran off earlier. Just the right place. And now they're here, too."
"A homing device?" Leith caught on just as the computer started to beep. "Who could have planted that?"
"Somebody who trusts me about as much as you do." The wrist computer seemed preoccupied with a point on Jack's belt, and he unclipped his empty holster. Sure enough, slipped neatly inside it was a tiny piece of metal. Idira. The device proved unwilling to relinquish its grip on the holster, so he threw both back down inside the sewer. That would teach her to try such a trick. She could spend the next three days searching the sewers for all he cared. He was playing this little game strictly upon his own terms.
"Now what?" asked Leith. Jack shrugged.
"Find a hover-car, same as before. They'll give the word that we've gone back underground, but they'll see that we're not moving. They'll probably converge on this point."
"Where we still are," pointed out Leith. Jack grinned.
"But won't be for much longer. I don't know how long a head start this'll give us, though. They'll soon find that holster down there. Some of them will have to assume that it got dropped accidentally and go looking for us down there, but the rest will soon spread out again."
"We'll have to be quicker than that, then, won't we." Leith pointed upwards. "The roof?"
"Always better than the sewer." Using the nearest windowsill as a step, Jack hauled himself up onto the roof of the nearest building. He could see nobody inside, but there was still no reason to assume that nobody could see him. When he bent down to help Leith up, he wondered momentarily why he was doing so. There wasn't time to think about it. He liked the guy, whatever his faults. Leaving him behind just wouldn't be fair.
"Now where?" he asked. Leith shrugged.
"I've mapped out the sewers. I don't know the towns all that well. Only the village where Charnaby lives." He winced. "Charnaby. With that homing device they'll have known which house we were in. They'll have arrested him by now."
"Will he talk?"
"About me? Sure to. About the queen? No. For all his complaining, he likes her. He doesn't think all that much of me, though."
"One thing after another, isn't it." Jack led the way across the flat roof, keeping low all the while. They were on top of some kind of terrace, with a shared roof that stretched apparently for the entire length of the road. The going was easy, though they were only a few storeys above road level, and he could not be sure whether they could be heard down below. Once or twice he caught sight of people in other buildings, watching through windows, but there was nothing that he could do about that. Fortunately Leith didn't seem inclined to shoot any of them. Whether that was through any feelings of basic kindness, or just because it would give their own position away, he wasn't sure. People were pointing, though, by the time they had gone any great distance - more faces were appearing in more windows. One or two people were coming out of the buildings, to stand in doorways and watch from there. Leith growled something indistinct.
"Hey, it's always good to be looked at." Jack made a show of checking his reflection in a puddle, as though to make sure that his hair was alright. Leith pushed him on again, but Jack flashed him as reassuring a grin as he could manage. "Lighten up, okay? There's nothing we can do about it. Get in a panic, and you'll blow this."
"They can see us! How long do you think it'll be before the authorities see us too?"
"We can't make ourselves invisible. Put up with it or give yourself up now." Jack went to the edge of the roof, looking down into the street. "The soldiers are all heading for that drain cover, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember." Leith ducked instinctively as somebody somewhere shouted something that they couldn't hear. "So you've got some great plan, then?"
"Not exactly. But I do have a plan. See that hover-car?"
"Yes." Leith's eyes followed his own. "It's in a crowded street, though. Somebody will see us, and one of them is probably the owner."
"Got any better ideas?"
"No." The magician frowned uncertainly. Now that things were not going so well, his confident and authorative demeanour was starting to crumble. "Jack..."
"Want to end up in those dungeons back at the castle?"
"No." His companion smiled at him, in a manner that Jack found quite delightful. "You're a little unhinged, you know that?"
"Coming from Nutso The Time Warrior, that's quite a compliment. Ever hot-wired one of those babies?"
"Hot-wired? If that means what I think it does, then no. You think we can?"
"I think we've got about sixty seconds to try." Jack let out a deep breath. "Only one way to find out, anyhow. Come on."
"What? Now!" But Jack had already gone, leaping off the roof as though they were no more than one storey up. Leith groaned, following him as quickly as he could. By the time he had gone more than a dozen paces, Jack was already swinging up into the front of the hover-car, and somebody in the street was already shouting in protest. Leith doubled his speed, running awkwardly. His knee hurt. He must have landed badly. People were running to cut him off, and he was sure that there were soldiers amongst them. Up ahead, the engines of the hover-car burst into whirring, rumbling life.
"Come on!" Jack was shouting out of the still open door, gesturing wildly with one hand. Leith dodged somebody's hand and promptly slipped, his knee letting him down at the sudden, jerking motion. The engines of the hover-car growled as they were pressed into sudden speed. Jack was taking off, realised Leith - taking off and making his escape. He tried to run faster, but he was limping now, and there were more people than ever before.
"Are you coming or staying?" With a heavy thrum the hover-car swung down, neatly scattering most of the gathering populace. Leith steadied himself on his good leg, blinking in surprise at the open door of the car. Jack rolled his eyes. "Half the army is coming, and they've got guns that I don't want to be in range of. Now get in!"
"I--" He broke off, scrambling into the car and promptly falling into the back when Jack gunned the engines and sped the car off across town. They were just above the heads of the people, lifting slightly to skim some low buildings and speed away towards the wide open spaces beyond. Leith disentangled himself from a seat, and struggled to look out of a window.
"I can't see any vehicles. The soldiers must be on foot."
"There'll be vehicles. We just have to get enough of a head start for that not to matter." Jack was clearly jubilant. Breakneck escapes were always highly satisfying, at least in his opinion, and he couldn't resist giving the car a little waggle. The controls were simple, which was fortunate, and driving the thing came naturally to him. Such things usually did. Leith shot him an annoyed look as he finally managed to scramble over the seats and into the front.
"Do you have to drive like a madman?"
"Yeah. Usually." Jack grinned at him. "Hi."
"Stop looking so pleased with yourself. My knee hurts from jumping off that roof." Leith flopped into the front passenger seat. "My shoulder hurts from falling over when you took off. My fingers hurt from clinging on for dear life, and I think I banged my head."
"Sorry." Jack, needless to say, did not sound in the least contrite. "Should I kiss it all better?"
"Just get me out of here." Leith frowned suddenly. "And why did you come for me anyway? You could have made a break for it."
"We're a team. In a weird, twisted way."
"You're my prisoner. Or you were. And you want to stop me. I tried to kill you."
"Yeah, but we're still a team. Besides, you're good company. I like your smile, and it's always good to have somebody to talk to." Jack checked for other traffic, then let out a whistle. "We're alone."
"Nobody's following us?"
"Somebody's sure to be. For the time being the coast's clear. That means we can get away, if we make the right choices now."
"You mean if I agree to give up my plans to dethrone the king." Leith shook his head. "No. I won't do that. Maybe you should have left me behind in the town."
"Oh come on... look, you've blown it. They're on to you. Give up now, and you can go back home and forget any of this ever happened. Right now we're home free. We can go anywhere, and nobody is going to be any the wiser."
"No can do." Leith reached inside his jacket, and when Jack looked over at him, he saw that the other man had drawn his gun. "I'm sorry Jack."
"Oh you're kidding. Leith..."
"No. This is no joke. I'm going to be rich, and you're not going to stop me. Head for the castle."
"For the castle! Now you really have to be kidding. They know us there. What the hell can you want from the castle?" Leith merely raised an eyebrow, and Jack groaned. "Oh no. Are you in love with her or something?"
"No. I don't think so." The magician's hand tightened on his gun. "Never mind that. Just get us there quickly, and park this thing out of sight. I'm going to get the queen, and I'm going to put her in her husband's place if it kills me."
"At this rate it'll kill both of us. Look, what good will it do going to get her? She's safe where she is."
"And my cover is blown! How long before the guards that I bribed start talking? How long before people start putting two and two together? When those guards were outside Charnaby's house, I recognised a few of them. They weren't all just guards, they were members of the king's personal staff. You ever hear of a lady-in-waiting called Idira? Well she was one of them, and she's smart. How long before someone like that starts to wonder? I won't leave the queen in that kind of danger."
"There are other possible presidents."
"True. But I want her, and you're going to take me to her." Leith gave the gun a little shake. "I can just as easily shoot you, and drive this thing myself. It'll be easier with the two of us... but not impossible with one. Now drive."
"Yeah, sure." It was never a wonderful idea to argue with a gun. Jack sighed, and turned his attention back to the controls. "Which way? I don't know about you, but I don't have a clue where we are right now."
"Head west for now. I'll tell you when to change direction. And Jack?"
"No funny business, right?"
"That's right." Leith settled himself down to watch the pilot and the terrain, and Jack settled himself down just to drive. That would teach him to try to save somebody. Next time, maybe he wouldn't bother. Some people just didn't deserve sensational rescues.