A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon [339]
The official plan of the group had been somewhat less ambitious in scope. The travelers would arrive in the 1760s, and over the course of the next ten years, in the confusion and reshuffling, the movement of tribes and villages attendant upon the end of the French and Indian War, would infiltrate themselves into various Indian groups along the Treaty Line in the Colonies and up into the Canadian territories.
They would then use such persuasive powers as they had gained to sway the Indian nations to fight on the British side in the oncoming Revolution, with the intent of insuring a British victory.
“See, the English, they act like the Indians are sovereign nations,” he explained, with a glibness suggesting this was a theory learned by rote. “They won, they’d go on doing trade and like that, which is okay, but they wouldn’t be trying to push the Indians back and stomp ’em out. The colonists”—he waved scornfully toward the open door—“greedy sons o’ bitches been shoving their way into Indian lands for the last hundred years; they ain’t going to stop.”
Bree raised her brows, but I could see that she found the notion intriguing. Evidently, it wasn’t quite as insane as it sounded.
“How could you think you’d succeed?” I demanded. “Only a few men to—oh, my God,” I said, seeing his face change. “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ—you weren’t the only ones, were you?”
Donner shook his head, wordless.
“How many?” Ian asked. He sounded calm, but I could see that his hands were clenched on his knees.
“I dunno.” Donner sat down abruptly, slumping into himself like a bag of grain. “There were like, two or three hundred in the group. But most of ’em couldn’t hear the stones.” His head lifted a little, and he glanced at Brianna. “Can you?”
She nodded, ruddy brows drawn together.
“But you think there were more . . . travelers . . . than you and your friends?”
Donner shrugged, helpless.
“I got the idea there were, yeah. But Raymond said only five at a time could pass through. So we trained in, like, cells of five. We kept it secret; nobody in the big group knew who could travel and who couldn’t, and Raymond was the only one who knew all of ’em.”
I had to ask.
“What did Raymond look like?” A possibility had been stirring in the back of my mind, ever since I’d heard that name.
Donner blinked, having not expected that question.
“Jeez, I dunno,” he said helplessly “Short dude, I think. White hair. Wore it long, like we all did.” He raked a hand through his knotted locks in illustration, brows furrowed in the search for memory.
“A rather . . . wide . . . forehead?” I knew I oughtn’t to prompt him, but couldn’t help myself, and drew both index fingers across my own brow in illustration.
He stared at me in confusion for a moment.
“Man, I don’t remember,” he said, shaking his head helplessly. “It was a long time ago. How would I remember something like that?”
I sighed.
“Well, tell me what happened, when you came through the stones.”
Donner licked his lips, blinking in the effort of recall. It wasn’t just native stupidity, I saw; he didn’t like thinking about it.
“Yeah. Well, there were five of us, like I said. Me, and Rob, and Jeremy and Atta. Oh, and Jojo. We came through on the island, and—”
“What island?” Brianna, Ian, and I all chorused together.
“Ocracoke,” he said, looking surprised. “It’s the northmost portal in the Bermuda Triangle group. We wanted to be as close as we could get to—”
“The Ber—” Brianna and I began, but broke off, looking at each other.
“You know where a number of these portals are?” I said, striving for calm.
“How many are there?” Brianna chimed in, not waiting for his answer.
The answer, in any event, was confused—no surprise there. Raymond had told them that there were many such places in the world, but that they tended to occur in groups. There was such a group in the Caribbean, another in the Northeast, near the Canadian border. Another in the Southwestern desert—Arizona, he thought, and down through Mexico. Northern Britain and the coast