Free Ides of March (Time Patrol) by Bob Mayer Page A

someone you meet in the past. By doing so you can change the future.”
    “The first rule of Fight Club,” Mac said. “And the second.”
    Scout indicated the Naga staff again. “Why do I have it? And where did you get it?”
    “It’s the one from the Valkyrie your team killed underneath the Met,” Dane said.
    “You think I’m going to run into a Valkyrie?”
    “Hey, I ran into one on my mission,” Roland complained, “and I didn’t get the staffy thing.”
    “We don’t know what you’re going to run into,” Dane said, “but if Earhart is concerned, then the Space Between is very close to this mission. Best to be prepared. And—” Dane paused.
    “What?” Scout said. “Give me the bad news. I mean the bad news beyond the bad news you’ve already given me.”
    “Sin Fen said you had to be the one that went on this particular mission,” Dane said, referring to the mystical woman they’d met in the Space Between and during the last debrief.
    “Because I have the sight,” Scout said.
    “That would be most likely,” Dane agreed.
    “Where is she?” Scout asked.
    “She’s with Earhart,” Dane said. “In the Space Between. Trying to figure out what’s going on.”
    “And if she figures it out,” Scout said, “will anyone tell me?”
    “Once you go back, we can’t reach you.” Dane put the piece of chalk down. “I know all of you have an infinite number of questions, but that’s it. Time to get your downloads, then go.”
    “You know,” Roland said, “I just realized something.”
    Mac opened his mouth to say something, but Scout gave him a look that stopped it before it made air.
    “My download from Black Tuesday,” Roland said. “It’s gone.”
    The other members, minus Doc, who’d gone on Black Tuesday missions were suddenly aware that theirs was too.
    “That’s weird,” Eagle said. “I didn’t even realize it.”
    “You didn’t,” Dane said, “because any information you didn’t have before the download was time-coded for just a little over twenty-four hours. Don’t ask me how it works, but be grateful. You don’t have unlimited data storage in your brains.”
    Mac glanced at Scout, and then slumped back in the chair, not uttering another zinger at Roland.
    “Where’s Ivar?” Eagle asked.
    “He’s staying behind for this one,” Dane said. “He’s going to do some work here, pursuing a line of investigation that Doc initiated.”
    “Is there something wrong with him?” Moms asked. “He was pretty shaken up after what happened to him.”
    “He’s fine,” Dane said, a bit too quickly, causing Moms and Eagle to share another concerned look. “Everybody ready?”
    “We need a moment,” Moms said.
    Dane understood. He departed, leaving the six of them alone.
    Moms stood up and the rest followed suit. “We have to keep some of our traditions from the Nightstalker’ days. Even though we go on these missions alone, we’re still a team. We have to hold on to that. It’s the base we need to stay grounded, especially given how crazy this whole thing is. Makes a Firefly in a killer rabbit look pretty normal.”
    That elicited a few chuckles from who’d participated in the Fun Outside Tucson .
    Moms looked around the table, meeting each member of the team’s gaze for a few seconds before moving to the next.
    “All right,” she said. “Why are we here? Because someone has to man the walls in the middle of the night. Someone has to man the walls between our world and other worlds that mean us harm. The walls between the innocents who go to sleep each night with only the troubles they see in their lives. Normal troubles. Not about Kings and Emperor’s and Valkyries. But about their families. Their little piece of the world.
    “The regular, ordinary people who know little of the dangers, the nightmares, surrounding our world. Who need people like us to stand watch over them. To protect them from the Shadow and the forces it sends against our timeline, trying