Borrowed Time by Jack Campbell Read Free Book Online Page A

will hear about it." He stood aside, gesturing with a jog of his head out the alley. "Where are you going now?"
    It didn't seem like a good idea to announce I had to return to Richmond for my next jump. "Actually, I have business up North."
    "Good. Since you seem unfamiliar with the city, we'll walk you to the train station."
    "I hate to put you to all that trouble," I protested. Not that I minded being run out of town, but I didn't want these locals watching where I went.
    "No trouble at all," the ferret assured me. I shrugged and walked out beside him, the gorilla following with a disappointed look on his face. At the station, the ferret offered me his 'pencil' so I could pretend to write down some schedules, then I bought a ticket to New York City and palmed the pencil as a bit of petty revenge. As far as I could tell, no other tails followed me onto the train, but just in case I used a doubleback in Baltimore before heading south.
    I'd primed a Northern inventor to build something and the Northern President to want that same thing despite any protests. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the fireworks and hoping I'd timed things right.
    #
    The fireworks were impressive. I had to give Harry and his pals credit. The ironclad ship concept they'd suggested to the Confederates had been simple and suited to current technology. No messy anachronisms this time. So here I was on 8 March, 1862, back at Hampton Roads, watching the old frigate Merrimack , reborn as a hump-backed metal monster and rechristened Virginia , steaming grandly back to port after trashing a couple of wooden warships in the Union blockade fleet. This, as it happened, was the 'win' Harry had boasted to me about. Break the Union blockade, and you opened the door to European recognition of the Confederacy and a steady supply of weapons.
    Harry had been partly right to announce victory, but only partly. Just because his people had managed a win for the South on March 8th didn't mean they'd continue the winning streak the next day, not if the counter-punch I'd set in motion materialized on schedule. Which it should, since I'd primed the North to keep track of the work on the Merrimack . I hadn’t been able to follow events up North since coming South, but Ericsson's ship ought to be on its way here now.
    "Well, well, look what the cat drug in."
    I turned at the familiar voice, seeing Harry two paces behind me smiling as smug as you please. "Harry Dawson. Fancy finding you here-and-now."
    "Long time no see, Citizen."
    "Not long enough, Citizen." We were playing a delicate mental ballet, each trying to determine when we'd last seen the other. Had Harry already threatened me in Richmond months before, or would he go there after this meeting? I was on my third jump, but he might be on his first or his fifth. I tried playing to his not-inconsiderable ego. "Is this your work?"
    His smile widened so far I could examine his dental work. "That's right, Citizen. I hope you weren't hired by somebody who didn't want it to happen, because if you were they wasted their money."
    Bingo. Here-and-now he wasn't sure who'd hired me, which meant this meeting came before the one in Richmond back in 1861. "I never discuss my clients' business in public. It's unprofessional."
    "So is losing, and I bet you just lost. Are you going home now?"
    "No. I think I'll hang around. I'm starting to like this place."
    Harry's eyes narrowed. "Don't get any ideas. We're watching you."
    I started to reprise my last year's remark about him being an emperor, remembered he hadn't heard it yet, and decided to hold it so it'd have full impact when I slung it at him earlier. "You do that, Harry. See you around."
    I left him standing there, looking triumphant, and headed back into Norfolk, looking for a place to spend the night. The next few days might or might not be a foregone conclusion, so I needed to confirm firsthand that I'd done what my clients wanted. The sun set in a