TW03 The Pimpernel Plot NEW Read Online Free PDF Page B

simple ‘yes, sir’ would have been sufficient.”
    “Yes, sir!”
    “Sit down and shut up, Delaney. And try not to shake like a monkey on a stick. It’s most distracting.” Delaney sat back down, holding the arms of his chair with a death grip. He tried to control the flow of energy, but he still continued to vibrate like an epileptic.
    Forrester glanced at Andre and smiled. “Glad you’ve joined us, Private Cross. Congratulations.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Think you’re ready for a mission?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Good, I’m glad to hear it. This one should provide a decent shakedown for you. I shouldn’t think you’d have much trouble, after the Timekeeper affair. This one should be quite simple compared to that.”
    “I’ll do my very best, sir.”
    Fob nodded. “Priest, you all right?”
    “Just a bit hung over, sir.”
    “That must have been some celebration last night,” said Forrester. “I’m sorry I missed it.”
    “We’ll give you a rain check on another one as soon as we get back, sir,” Lucas said. “I’d sort of like to see you and Private Cross hoist a few together. She drinks Red Eye as if it were iced tea.”
    “Really? Well, it’s nice to know that there’s at least one person in this unit who can hold her liquor. How much did you lose?”
    “I’d rather not say, sir.”
    “That bad?” Forrester chuckled. “You and I will have to sit down to some serious elbow-bending, Cross. I don’t think that these two amateurs are in our class “
    “Anytime, sir,” said Andre. “It will be my pleasure.”
    “Good, it’s a date. Now let’s get down to business, shall we?” Forrester went up to the podium console and leaned against it. “You people will be happy to know that you’ll be fairly autonomous on this mission,” he said, “meaning that you won’t have the Temporal Intelligence Agency to contend with.”
    “Goddamn spooks,” Delaney said, his shaking beginning to subside a little.
    “Keep your opinions to yourself, Delaney,” Forrester said.
    “In any case, you might be interested to know that after that last mission, the Referee Corps has seen fit to grant the army eminent domain regarding temporal adjustment missions, which means that the TIA is back to its intelligence-gathering role under the aegis of the Observer Corps. That didn’t sit very well with Darrow, so he resigned and there’s a new agency director now, brought in from the Observer Corps. I hope this will end the rivalry between our two branches of the service. I also checked on agent Mongoose, in case you should be curious how things turned out with him He was critical for while, but he’s recovered nicely and his features have been reconstructed.
    He’s also been demoted from field operations director to intelligence evaluation and it’s my guess that it will be a long time before he’s trusted with another field assignment.
    Considering how badly he botched that mission, it’s nothing but a slap on the wrist, if you ask me, but that’s none of my concern. By the way, Delaney, I am given to understand that the two of you had some differences of opinion that you had intended to resolve privately, between yourselves. Needless to say, I don’t want to hear about any breach of regulations, but I would not be displeased to learn that agent Mongoose had been temporarily removed from the TIA active-duty roster for the purposes of further medical attention. In this regard, I trust that any ‘discussions’ between the two of you will be handled with discretion.”
    “I’ll see to it, sir,” Delaney said. He was only twitching now.
    “You can see to it on your own time,” said Forrester. “Right now, there’s more pressing business requiring our attention.
    We have an adjustment on our hands and you’ll be clocking out immediately following this briefing.” He pressed a button on the console, activating the computer. “Forrester, code 321-G, clearance blue,” he said.
    “Clearance