TW09 The Lilliput Legion NEW (19 page)

"Yeah, I hope so, too," said Finn.

"Then perhaps we can reach an understanding," the Lilliputian said. "If you transport us off this island, somewhere safe, we'll let you go and you'll never see or hear from us again. Otherwise, we'll have no choice but to kill you and use your body to transport us, taking a chance on trying to program your warp disc without really knowing what we're doing."

"That could land you in one hell of a lot of trouble," Finn said.

"We're already in a hell of a lot of trouble," the lieutenant said. "We've been abandoned here. We're too small to build and sail a seaworthy boat or even a raft. Stuck here on this island, we're sitting ducks. There's no place we can run. We'll just have to take our chances."

"If I agreed to help you, how do you know I wouldn't turn on you the moment you set me free?" said Finn.

"Before we cut your ropes, most of us would get inside your clothing, along with our weapons, of course. That would make things very uncomfortable for you if you tried to cross us."

"Yes, I'm sure it would," said Finn, visualizing dozens of tiny lasers going off inside his clothes. He shuddered and the Lilliputians swayed to keep their balance on his chest.

"I see I've made my point," the lieutenant said.

"Yes, indeed you have," said Finn. "But what guarantee do you have that I wouldn't come after you with reinforcements? After all, if I transported you somewhere, then I'd know where you were, wouldn't I?"

"True, but that wouldn't help you find us. On a deserted island like this, we're vulnerable. But in a crowded city, with lots of nooks and crannies for us to hide in, you could search for years and never find us."

"Makes sense," Delaney said. "Only what guarantee do I have that you'll let me live once I've taken you wherever you want to go?"

"None," said the Lilliputian. "You've only got two options. Refuse to help us and we'll kill you, take our chances trying to work your disc ourselves and use your body as an escape vehicle. Or cooperate and we might let you go. It's up to you."

"That doesn't leave me much choice, does it?" said Delaney.

"We weren't given much choice ourselves," said the Lilliputian.

"All right, you win," Delaney said, stalling for time. "Cut me loose."

"Not just yet," the Lilliputian said. He raised two fingers to his mouth and gave two sharp, piercingly high-pitched whistles.

There was a bustle of activity on either side of Finn and the next thing he knew, little wooden rung ladders crudely lashed together from twigs were put up against his sides and a score of grubby little miniature jungle commandos with tiny rifles slung across their shoulders started to climb the ladders up to his chest. They swarmed across him and crawled into his trouser pockets and down inside his shirt. They fastened ropes to his belt and lowered themselves down inside his trouser legs. Finn struggled hard to suppress his instinct to shudder.

It felt like rats going down his clothes.

"All right," said the little lieutenant after his men had "boarded" Finn.

"We're going to cut you loose now. But I'm warning you . . . don't make any sudden movements. In fact, don't move at all unless I tell you, otherwise my men will open fire."

Finn felt as if his skin were crawling. He suppressed another shudder, swallowed hard and nodded. "Right, you got it."

The Lilliputian nodded to the two men who stood on either side of him on Finn's chest and they brought up their rifles and fired, using the beams to slice the little ropes holding Finn down. Delaney could see that the laser rifles they were using were, in fact highly modified surgical scalpels. He didn't
even
want to think about what they could do if the Lilliputians down inside his clothes cut loose.

After a few moments, they were done and Finn lay motionless as they climbed into his breast pockets. Then their leader moved up across his neck and climbed down inside his collar, at the shoulder. He unholstered his pistol and held it up against Finn's ear.

"All right, very slowly now . . sit up."

Finn did as he was told.

The Lilliputian commander straddled his shoulder with his legs down inside his shirt, hanging onto his collar with one hand and holding the pistol ready with the other.

"Okay. so far so good. Now very slowly, stand up." Finn stood awkwardly.

"Tell those little bastards to stop squirming around," he said.

"They'll stop. They're just as nervous as you are, believe me. Remember, you don't want to make them too nervous, right?"

"Right." said Finn, gulping as he felt a tiny gun barrel poke his groin.

"Okay. you're calling the shots. Where do you want to go?"

"Program your disc for New York City, the month of September. 19—"

"Finn!"

"Lucas!"

Lucas Priest had suddenly appeared standing across the clearing from him.

"Who the hell is that?"
the Lilliputian leader said in Delaney's ear.

"Friend of mine." Delaney said, under his breath.

"Tell him to stay where he is!"

"Finn, for God's sake, where the hell have you—"

"Stay where you are!" Delaney shouted as Lucas started to come toward him.

"What . . ." Lucas stopped where he was. "Finn, what is it?"

"Just don't move!"

Lucas frowned. "All right, I won't move." He shut his eyes and fought back a wave of vertigo. 'Finn, what's the matter?"

"I've got Lilliputians down my pants."

"You've got
what?"

"Lilliputians," said Delaney. "They're all over me. In my pockets. Inside my clothes. And they've got lasers."

Lucas looked closer and saw that Delaney's clothes did, indeed, look a little lumpy. And some of the lumps seemed to be moving. He couldn't help himself. He started chuckling.

"What the hell's so goddamned funny?" said Delaney.

Lucas burst out laughing.

"Stop that!" showed Delaney.

"Don't shout!"
said the Lilliputian. "You want to burst my eardrums?"

Lucas found it impossible to keep a straight face.

"Clock out, damn you!" shouted the Lilliputian.

"I don't think so," Finn said.

"You don't think what?" said Lucas

"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the little pipsqueak sitting on my shoulder—Ow!"

The Lilliputian had slugged him in the
ear
with his tiny pistol. "Now!"
he
said. "Clock out now or you're dead!"

"You kill me now and none of you will ever make it out of this clearing." said Delaney. "The situation' s changed, my little friend. Right now. I'm the only thing keeping you and your men alive. Kill me and you've all had it. My buddy there will burn you the minute my body hits the ground. You'd better give it up."

"Surrender?" said the Lilliputian commander. "And wind up being dissected in one of your research labs? Not on your life. So long as we've got you, your friend won't dare to make a move."

"Looks like it's a standoff then," Finn said.

"I don't think so," said the Lilliputian. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave a long, piercing, high-pitched whistle.

Finn felt movement inside his trouser legs. Several of the Lilliputians hiding there had let go of the ropes and dropped down onto his boots. Lucas stared wide eyed as several Lilliputians came bounding out from the bottoms of Finn's trousers, tiny laser rifles aimed straight at him.

"That was not a good move," said Finn.

Lucas disappeared.

The Lilliput commandos on the ground glanced around, confused, then suddenly, one by one, they were snatched up into the air, crying out briefly before they vanished from sight, their tiny rifles falling to the ground.

"What the—where did they go?" their commander said. "What--
ahhh
!"

Lucas suddenly materialized at Finn's side, and with a deft motion, he plucked the Lilliputian leader out from under Finn's shirt collar. His other arm was held tightly across his body, holding squirming Lilliputians trapped between his forearm and his chest.

"Now then," said Lucas, holding the struggling Lilliputian leader up between his thumb and forefinger, "I suggest you drop your weapon and order the rest of your people to evacuate Captain Delaney's clothes and fall in right down there, or I'll drop these men to the ground and stomp on them. And that goes for you, too."

"Never mind us!" shouted the commander to his other men. "We've had it! Shoot! Shoot! Save yourselves!"

Finn had a bad moment, but the scorching fire never came. Instead, the men inside his breast pockets threw out some rope and rappelled down the length of his body to the ground. The others came out of his trouser pockets and the inside of his shirt, sliding down tiny ropes to the ground as Finn stood there, feeling like the north face of the Eiger.

"Nobody's ever going to believe this," he said, shaking his head as the Lilliputians dropped their weapons in a pile and fell into platoon formation at his feet.

"What I can't figure out is how the hell they got into your clothes in the first place," Lucas said, gazing down with wonder at the three ranks of Lilliputians down below him, standing in formation with their hands clasped atop their heads.

Delaney sighed and grimaced ruefully. "Don't ask, okay?"

"Dear Lord,
now
where are we?" Gulliver asked, with exasperation.

"I don't know, Lem," said Andre, turning around slowly and examining their surroundings.

Both of them were handcuffed. The man in the tailored mauve suit had made Gulliver cuff Andre's hands behind her back, then he'd cuffed Gulliver himself and fastened his own warp discs around their wrists, slightly above the steel bracelets. Then he clocked them through one at a time to . . . where?

They had materialized in the center of a large room, beneath a skylight.

They seemed to be standing in some sort of empty warehouse or abandoned loft.

Above them, the hangar like ceiling was a crisscrossing web work of supporting girders and steel beams on which small klieg lights were mounted. Andre turned and saw a row of large rectangular casement windows in the wall behind her at about eye level. They were the kind that opened outwards from the bottom. A warm, humid breeze wafting in carried the sounds of traffic and the stifling smell of air pollution. Through the windows, she could see the West Side Highway and the Hudson River, with New Jersey on the other side. It was starting to get dark.

"We're in New York City," she said. "The 20th century, I think, but I'm not sure about the exact time—"

"Never mind the time," said a voice from behind them. "Get back away from the windows."

The man in the mauve suit had materialized behind them and as they turned around, he beckoned them away from the windows with his gun. It was a big, black semiautomatic pistol, Andre noticed, and it was cocked. It was a 10-mm Springfield. That, along with the style of the man's suit and her brief glimpse of the city outside, confirmed her guess about the time period. Late 20th century, early to mid 90's. The dark-haired man watched them from behind tinted, aviator style glasses. His manner was calm, self-assured, and thoroughly professional.

"You're with the Network, aren't you?" Andre said.

"That's right," the man said.

"Who are you? Are you with the agency or did they bring you in from the outside?"

"What's the difference?" he said, flatly.

"One of degree, I suppose," said Andre. "One merely makes you a criminal. The other makes you an agent who's gone bad. In my book, that's about ten times worse."

"Really?" he said, still in that same flat, world-weary voice. "And how long have you been with the agency?"

"A couple of years," she said.

"A couple of years," he said, amused. "A whole couple, huh?"

"Before that I served with the First Division."

"Ah. One of Moses Forrester's legendary Time Commandos, eh? Saved the world a few times, did you?"

"I did my part."

"How commendable. Excuse me if I don't share your zealous sense of duty. You see, unlike you privileged elite, I was never sent out on glamorous short-term missions to return to luxurious quarters at Pendleton Base, where I could live in a style normally reserved for command staff officers. See, we 'spooks' spend years on the minus side, living in primitive squalor, gathering the intelligence that enables you glory hounds to function and only getting brought in from the cold when our chemically increased life spans threaten to become an inconvenience. And then we're only brought back long enough to be briefed for a new assignment in the field. More years on the minus side that inexorably grind on into decades. And always there's the struggle for funding to maintain field operations—"

"Oh, bull," said Andre. "The T.I.A. has the largest budget of any government agency—service branches included!"

"We do a bigger job than any government agency, service branches included," the Network man said. "You have any idea what it takes to maintain a field office? No, of course not. What the hell do you care? They expect a section head to set up a field office and maintain it with just a small staff of agents, as if all we had to do was read newspapers and monitor the electronic media, never mind that many of the places we're sent to haven't even heard of electricity, much less mass media. We're expected to feed intelligence to the Observers, investigate and report all anomalies to Temporal Army Command, monitor all activity within a temporal zone that a regiment couldn't adequately cover. And with the parallel universe involved now, we're supposed to handle all those added complications, as well."

He snorted derisively. "You tell me," he continued, "how are we supposed to do that without recruiting additional personnel from the temporal zones we're assigned to'? And those people have to be paid somehow out of a budget that doesn't allow for them. Elaborate, costly procedures must be followed to keep them from suspecting what we're really doing. Special, painstaking precautions, also very costly, must be taken to avoid causing any temporal disruptions of our own, because supposedly that's what we're here to prevent. And somehow we're supposed to keep our sanity while trying to do a job that simply can't be done."