Читать книгу City Out of Time - William Robison III - Страница 4

Mt. Charleston, Nevada

April 7th, 1996

Celeste leaned against a tree and watched the local boy scouts lower the flag. Even before the flag reached half mast, she began to pace the still frozen ground in agitation.

Colonel Buck did not waver in his solid salute until the young bugler had played taps. Then he snapped a crisp salute and slowly turned to face her.

“Will you stop pacing?” Colonel Buck asked; irritated in her motion.

Celeste stopped momentarily and then started to pace again.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” Celeste muttered for the hundredth time.

“You didn’t really have a choice, did you?” Colonel Buck asked. “You’re damned either way, as I understand it.”

She stopped then, frowned, and then looked at the ceremony below.

“What a waste,” she said. “If they knew him like I do…”

“They’d still be flying the flag high,” Colonel Buck finished for her. “I have a great deal of respect for that flag, but sometimes a lie is necessary to protect a greater truth.”

Celeste looked away from the flag and then, as if making up her mind on the spot, started to walk away from Colonel Buck.

“Where are you going now?” Colonel Buck asked.

“I can’t be here,” she said. “I can’t see this.”

Colonel Buck didn’t feel like contradicting her, nor did he feel like bringing her back. He turned back to watch the ceremony unfolding.

An honor guard escorted a man to the flagpole where all the other scouts were gathered. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, in fairly good physical shape, with a shock of thick black hair, kind blue eyes, and an expression of dismay on his face. But there was something more about the man – something off-putting that Colonel Buck couldn’t quite name.

The man stood in front of the scout master, as they saluted one another and then shook hands. Then the man handed over a sash to the scout master. The scout master took it gently from the man and then turned to the rest of the troop and said a few choice words. Both the scout master and the man let the tears flow from their eyes and the boy scouts all bowed their heads in sorrow.

“That’s him, isn’t it?” Celeste said from near Colonel Buck’s shoulder.

“I thought you didn’t want to see this,” Colonel Buck replied.

“Curiosity… the cat killer…” Celeste countered.

“Yes,” Colonel Buck said, “That’s him.”

Celeste looked long and hard at the man and then turned to look Buck in the eye.

“He looks bored,” Celeste noted. “Are you sure this will work?”

Colonel Buck looked again at the man and realized what it was that he didn’t like about the way the man looked.

“No,” Colonel Buck replied. “Not bored. He looks lost – like his whole world is crumbling around him and he doesn’t know which way to turn.”

“Lost? Bored? At least your job ought to be easy then,” Celeste said.

“That doesn’t make it any less dangerous,” Colonel Buck noted.

As a chaplain came forward, the boy scouts escorted the young man to a chair next to the grave. The hundreds of onlookers looked up attentively as the chaplain stood tall and began to speak.

Colonel Buck turned away from the funeral and started walking into the thin woods on the side of the hill. Celeste had to walk quickly to keep pace.

“Do you still have the gun?” Colonel Buck asked.

“Of course,” Celeste answered.

“Then I think we both know what we have to do, Celeste,” Colonel Buck replied. “While you take care of that gun, I’ll go introduce myself to young Mr. Franco.”

Celeste hesitated. Colonel Buck stopped and turned back to face her. Without a word, he reached out and took her hands in his.

“The time for reluctance ended when you joined us,” Colonel Buck noted. “You knew that this day would come. You knew that one day that gun would come to you. I don’t know what fate has in store for you, Celeste, but I do know what the first step must be.”

“The beginning of the end,” she said, trying to sound like a joke, but the sadness choked the sound of humor from her voice.

“The end of the beginning…” Colonel Buck countered.

“Damn,” she muttered, as the tears filled her eyes, “I really hate time travel sometimes.”