It sounded paranoiac; I doubted that Man saw us as a threat worth disposing of, and if indeed they did, there were less elaborate ways to go about doing it. But then Man often did things in elaborate and unlikely ways. Comes from hanging around with Taurans all the time, I guess.
Our timing had to be precise, and a lot of machines had to work. The sheriff’s weapons would get us the fighting suit; the fighting suit would get us the shuttle, and the shuttle would take us to the ultimate weapon.
But the plan would stop dead if, for instance, the sheriff’s weapons were programmed to work only for him–they had that technology more than a millennium ago–or if the fighting suit wouldn’t crank, or if the shuttle or the Time Warp had an override that could be controlled from the ground. In our ALSC training as pilots, me for the shuttle and Marygay for the starship, there was nothing about that; both vehicles were autonomous systems. It was possible they had withheld a few details from our training, though.
We were careful not to arrive at the town hall all at once. It did simplify our operation that the floater was picking us up right at the sheriff’s door, and we probably could have all come down as a group. But the plan was for Marygay and me to come early and distract the sheriff, and be there to help Max, if necessary.
Bill and Sara drove us down at eleven o’clock with our small bag–toiletries and a few changes of clothing and two long knives. We hadn’t told them anything. Bill was in a good mood, negotiating the icy streets with smooth speed. Sara was subdued, maybe holding back tears. She really had wanted to come, and probably thought we hadn’t worked hard enough to get her added to the list.
“We should tell them,” Marygay said as we pulled up to the police station.
“Tell what?” Sara said.
“You’re not missing any trip to Earth,” I said. “We’re not going to Earth. We’ve gone back to the original plan.”
“We’ll all be on the Time Warp in a couple of weeks,” Marygay said, “headed for the future, not the past.”
“I hadn’t heard,” Bill said slowly. “You’d think they would’ve said something about it.”
“They don’t know about it yet. The sheriff’s about to find out.”
Bill set the brake and turned around in the driver’s seat. “You’re going to take it by force?”
“In a way,” Marygay said. “If things go according to plan, nobody will be hurt.”
“Can I help? I’m bigger than you.”
“Not now.” Glad he asked, though. “It has to look like things are going according to their plan, until we get to Centrus. ”
“Just act as if nothing were different, darlings. Keep an eye on the news.”
“Don’t…” Sara said. “Don’t get…don’t do, don’t take any chances?”
“We’ll be careful,” Marygay said. Sara was probably trying to say Don’t do anything foolish, but I’m afraid we’d moved beyond that stage.
I kissed them both and opened the door. Marygay kissed them and held on to Bill for an extra second. “See you soon.”
“Good luck,” Bill said urgently. Sara nodded, biting her lower lip. I closed the door behind Marygay and they were gone.
“Well,” I said pointlessly, “here we go.” She nodded and we picked our way up the icy steps and pushed through the double doors.
The sheriff wasn’t in his office; he was straightening up the reception hall. He checked his watch. “You’re early.”
“Bill dropped us off,” Marygay said. “He had to go on to school.”
He nodded. “Tea in the office.”
Marygay went for tea and I went down the corridor to the toilet, mainly to check the cells. Both were open, and could be locked on the outside with a simple mechanical bolt. We’d want to take the keyboard out before we locked him in. It hadn’t worked for me, but maybe I hadn’t had the right combination.
I joined Marygay for tea. She glanced toward the empty peg behind the sheriff’s desk. He was probably wearing the pistol under his vest, as he had the night he came to arrest us.