"Simon Hawke - Time Wars 01 - The Ivanhoe Gambit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

soldier got off easy. He'll never know what he missed. Do you believe in fate, Mr. Priest?"
"Yes, sir, I think I do."
"Well, in that case, meet yours." He rested his hand on the edge of the cryogen. "Sir Wilfred of
Ivanhoe."
 2
Priest's suspicions about part of the implant programming having been subliminally inhibited were
confirmed when they were dropped off on the mainland with their gear. He also saw that the ref was not
without an ironic sense of humor when he faced them all and spoke the words, "Sir Walter Scott," and
they instantly "remembered" things they never knew.
They stood upon the beach, watching the much-modified LCA making headway back toward the
tiny, windswept island off the coast. Its engines were muffled to the point where they were barely audible
and Lucas wondered what some passing Saxon would have made of the spectacle of their landing. But
there were no passing Saxons, or Normans for that matter. The coastline was quiet and deserted.
Nothing marred the stillness of the night save for the 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.