TW01 The Ivanhoe Gambit NEW Read Online Free PDF Page B

sound of wind, the crashing surf, and the cries of a few seagulls. They were on their own. Beached upon the shores of time.
    None of them spoke as they started slowly moving inland, each experiencing unfamiliar memories.
    The four men in the cryogens had been drugged and questioned extensively so that the team might possess the information that would enable them to carry off their impersonations. Yet, there was no guarantee that the information that had been implanted in their minds would allow them to carry off their charade successfully. There were still a thousand things that could go wrong, such was the nature of covert operations. Risk was part of the game.
    The men whose places they had taken had been snatched shortly before their arrival in Minus Time and they had been interrogated around the clock during the time in which the team completed their mission training. With the information extracted from Ivanhoe, Lucas was familiar with his background and with the status quo.
    John Lackland was still controlling the reins of power in England. Richard had not yet returned from captivity. The main thing Lucas had in his favor was that Wilfred of Ivanhoe and Richard had been comrades in arms during the Holy Wars and Irving did not know that he was a bogus Ivanhoe. Perhaps the real Plantagenet would have been able to discern a change in his old friend, but Irving would be too busy playing his part to notice, unless Lucas made some dreadful error. Lucas guessed that Irving, despite the advantages that he possessed, would be as much concerned that his "friend and vassal" of Ivanhoe would not perceive a difference in his king as Lucas would be that he was taken at face value. It was to be a game of double bluff, with both parties striving to maintain a poker face to conceal the cards that they were holding.
    Finn and Bobby, on the other hand, would be in a far more risky situation, since the people they would have to deceive would not be play actors, but the real thing. Robin Hood and Little John were both well known to all the "merry men," which meant that they would have to tread very lightly. As for Hooker, any concern he felt was being hidden beneath a stoic exterior.
    The real Ivanhoe had been away, fighting in the Crusades. There were bound to be certain changes in him, but it was inevitable that sooner or later, Lucas would come across his "father." If anyone could penetrate his disguise, it would be Cedric. Since they were in medieval times, the likelihood of their being discovered for what they really were was virtually nil. Who, in this time period, would even entertain the notion of something like cosmetic surgery? Who would suspect that soldiers from a future time were masquerading as a knight, a squire, and two Saxon outlaws? Yet, these were very superstitious times.
    While no one would guess that Robin Hood was an imposter, they might well come to the conclusion that he had been somehow ensorcelled or that the person who identified himself as Ivanhoe or his squire, Poignard, was really some sort of wizard or warlock bent on evil. In his career as a fighting man, Lucas had many times contemplated the likelihood of death in all the ways that it could come to him, from a sword thrust or a bullet, from an arrow or the decapitating stroke of a headsman's axe. But he had never considered the possibility of being burned at the stake. He considered it now.
    They made camp in the woods, electing to shiver in the night air rather than risking a fire. Lucas felt that they would have enough on their hands once they neared Ashby; there was no point to inviting trouble until they had some time to scout around. They had brought some provisions with them, so they did not go hungry, but they all ate in silence and then retired to sleep among the trees, taking turns at standing watch. It was like the quiet before a battle. The night passed uneventfully, giving Lucas a chance to contemplate his "memories."
    Things had not gone well for