Free TW10 The Hellfire Rebellion NEW by Simon Hawke

self-interest is concerned," said Lucas as they continued their search. "But he did turn himself in voluntarily. He didn't have to. He could have chosen any time period he wished, set himself up comfortably, and retired. Or he could have gone underground and worked on his own to disrupt our history. Maybe he's playing straight with us."
    "If he's not bluffing about those subliminal triggers," said Andre, "then he took an awful chance by coming in."
    "It could be a bluff." admitted Lucas. "But on the other hand, put yourself in his place. If you were trapped in his universe, what would you do? Especially if you saw a chance to get back home and, at the same time, get even with an old enemy?"
    "I might do the same." said Andre. "But it's an interesting coincidence that he happened to wind up in colonial Boston at the same time as Drakov did, assuming that Drakov's really here."
    "Maybe it's not a coincidence." Delaney said. "You start getting into some serious temporal metaphysics when you try to figure out the Fate Factor. When Mensinger first formulated that theory, he was convinced that it was a sort of nebulous temporal principle, a Zen physics version of for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. But toward the end of his life, he started getting almost spiritual about it."
    "You mean he thought it was God?" said Andre.
    "He never actually came out and said that," Delaney replied. "He always skirted the issue, as if he was afraid of it. He probably was. But when I was studying his work in R.C.S.. I became convinced that toward the end. Mensinger developed a strong belief in predestination, although he never came out and actually called it that. He kept speaking of 'an order to the universe,' that sort of thing. The closest he ever came to admitting the possibility of a guiding intelligence was when he once quoted Einstein as saying that God didn't play dice with the universe, that there was order to all things. Everyone always assumed that he was speaking metaphorically, but what if he was being literal?"
    "It would make the Fundamentalists ecstatic," Andre said.
    "Maybe that's why he never came out and said it." Delaney replied. "He didn't want what he was saying to be reduced to some simplistic dogma for the reassurance of the ignorant. When Einstein made that statement, newspaper headlines all over the world blared 'Einstein believes in God!' Nobody ever really understood Einstein, either. It's a funny thing. Every now and then, someone comes along who gets a brilliant insight into what might be the Ultimate Truth and people either misinterpret them or try to shut them up. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. Galileo was made to recant. By the time Einstein came around, they'd grown more clever. They simply made him into some sort of amiable genius, too complicated for anyone to understand, an stuck him in a university where he could do no harm. Mensinger made it simple for them. He committed suicide."
    "Tea's on." said Hunter, coming in from the kitchen. "You guys find the warp grenade I hid inside the chamberpot?"
    "Very funny," said Lucas.
    "You know, the Lucas Priest I remember had a sense of humor," Hunter said.
    "Maybe that was in my first life." Lucas said.
    "Better," Hunter said. "But still not up to your old standard. Look, you guys have all my weapons, you've got my warp disc. I'm stuck here if I don't play ball with you. And don't forget, trust is a two-way street. I've also got to trust you to live up to your end of the deal when this is over."
    "And do you?" Andre said.
    Hunter shrugged. "What have I got to lose?"
    "Quite a lot, if we decide to call your bluff and put you through interrogation." Lucas said. "You could wind up a vegetable."
    "Maybe," Hunter said, nodding. “And if it was up to your friend Steiger, perhaps that's exactly what would happen. But it’s not his call, it's Forester's. And I think I can trust that man."
    "Why?" said Delaney, curious.
    "Because he looks a man