Timeline - Michael Crichton [190]
Gordon shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think that’s just random fluctuations.”
“I thought it might be getting stronger,” Kramer said.
But Stern could see it wasn’t true. Gordon was right; the change was just random. The ripples on the screen remained intermittent, unstable.
“Whatever the problem is back there,” Gordon said, “they still have it.”
00:05:30
Through the flames that leapt up in the central courtyard of La Roque, Kate saw the Professor and the others come out of a far doorway. She ran to join them. They all seemed to be okay. The Professor nodded to her. They were all moving fast.
Kate said to Chris, “Do you have the ceramic?”
“Yes. I have it.” He brought it out of his pocket, turned it to press the button.
“There’s not enough space.”
“There’s space . . .,” Chris said.
“No. You need two meters on all sides, remember?”
They were surrounded by fire. “You won’t find that anywhere in this courtyard,” Marek said.
“That’s right,” the Professor said. “We have to go to the next courtyard.”
Kate looked ahead. The gatehouse leading to the outer courtyard was forty yards away. But within the gatehouse, the portcullis was up. In fact, it didn’t look as if the gate was guarded at all; the soldiers had all abandoned it, to fight the intruders.
“How much time?”
“Five minutes.”
“Okay,” the Professor said. “Let’s get moving.”
:
They moved at a trot through the fiery courtyard, sidestepping flames and battling soldiers. The Professor and Kate were in the lead. Marek, wincing with the pain in his leg, followed behind. And Chris, worried about Marek, brought up the rear.
Kate reached the first gate. There were no guards at all. They ran through the gate, passing beneath the spikes of the raised portcullis. They entered the middle courtyard. “Oh no,” Kate said.
All of Oliver’s soldiers were garrisoned in the middle court, and there seemed to be hundreds of knights and pages running back and forth, shouting to the men on the battlements, carrying weapons and provisions.
“No room here,” the Professor said. “We’ll have to go through the next gate. Outside the castle.”
“Outside?” Kate said. “We’ll never even get across this courtyard.”
Marek came hobbling up, panting. He took one look at the courtyard and said, “Hoarding.”
“Yes,” the Professor said, nodding. He pointed up at the walls. “The hoarding.”
The hoarding was the enclosed wooden passageway built along the outside rim of the walls. It was a covered fighting platform that enabled soldiers to shoot down at attacking troops. They might be able to move along the hoarding and make their way to the far side of the courtyard, and the far gatehouse.
Marek said, “Where’s Chris?”
They looked back into the central courtyard.
They didn’t see him anywhere.
:
Chris had been following Marek, thinking that perhaps he would have to carry Marek and wondering whether he could, when suddenly he was shoved to one side, slammed bodily against a wall. He heard a voice behind him say in perfect English, “Not you, pal. You stay here.” And he felt the point of a sword jabbed in his back.
He turned to see Robert de Kere standing in front of him, holding his sword. De Kere grabbed him roughly by the collar, shoved him against another wall. Chris saw with alarm that they were just outside the arsenal. With the courtyard in flames, this was not the place to be.
De Kere didn’t seem to care. He smiled. “In fact,” he said, “none of you bastards are going anywhere.”
“Why is that?” Chris said, keeping his eye on the sword.
“Because you have their marker, pal.”
“No I don’t.”
“I can hear your transmissions, remember?” De Kere held out his hand. “Come on, give it to me.”
He grabbed Chris again, and shoved him through the door. Chris stumbled into the arsenal. It was empty now, the soldiers having fled. All around him were stacked bags of gunpowder. The basins where the soldiers had been grinding still lay on the floor.
“Your fucking Professor,” de Kere said, seeing the bowls. “Think you know so much. Give it to me.”