“All right,” said Steve. “Suppose you chase MC 2 into the trees and catch him. Then we have to catch up before the others do?”

“Yes. If we can accomplish this, then I will take all of us back to our time before the buccaneers come within the range of the belt device.”

“Roland just saw us all,” said Rita, switching on her pin. “He looked over this way.”

Hunter turned to look. Roland and MC 2 were now helping push their longboat through the surf to beach it. They were landing about twenty yards down the shore, on the other end of the growing line of longboats.

“We cannot surprise him now,” said Hunter. “Maybe I can distract Roland,” said Rita. “With your permission, Hunter.”

“Come on, Hunter,” said Steve. “Let’s go confront them.”

22

Steve plunged first through the crowd of buccaneers who were preparing their weapons for the attack on Portobelo. A few of them glanced up, but paid no real attention to him as he passed. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but he had worked with Hunter long enough to know that Hunter preferred to operate with a fixed plan, and they didn’t have one. Steve didn’t want to miss the chance to get MC 2 somehow.

Steve stopped on the edge of the water just in front of the longboat that was being pulled up. He stood with his hands on his hips, striking as belligerent a pose as he could. Roland looked up at him.

“Stay close,” Roland said to MC 2. He left the longboat, followed by MC 2, and waded toward Steve. The rest of the crew stopped struggling with the longboat to watch.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Jane whispered, coming up behind him.

“I’m not sure.” Steve spoke without taking his eyes off Roland. “Just tell Hunter to focus on MC 2.”

“I heard you,” Hunter said quietly, on Steve’s left. “You are not in danger?”

“You’ll be close, if I am,” said Steve. “Just get MC 2, will you? First things first.”

“And what do you gentlemen want?” Roland demanded. He waded out of the surf and stopped a short distance from Steve. Behind him, the rest of the longboat crew remained in the water, watching warily. “Something from me, may hap?”

Steve couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Roland,” said Rita, stepping forward. “We’ve been friends. Let’s talk about this.”

Hunter walked slowly around Roland, toward MC 2, who was still standing in the breaking surf.

“This is between us and your friend, there,” Steve said finally. “We aren’t concerned with you.”

“I happen to like Shorty, here,” said Roland, with a mocking grin. “He’s quite a friend. Very loyal and uncommonly strong for his size. Funny-he just loves doing whatever I tell him. Now what’s your business with him?”

Steve watched as Hunter suddenly leaped into the surf toward MC 2 and took hold of his arm. Roland saw the move belatedly and jumped away, toward Rita. Before Steve could react, Roland slipped an arm around her throat and whipped a dagger out of his sash with his other hand.

“None of you make a move!” Roland backed to one side, so that he could see Hunter as well as Steve.

“Stand back, Hunter.” Steve drew his sword. “The First Law says you can’t risk making him mad.”

Hunter hesitated, studying Roland carefully.

In the same moment, however, the other buccaneers from Roland’s longboat shouted and ran forward, drawing their swords or daggers. Hunter released MC 2, but both flung themselves at the buccaneers; they clearly had to save Steve and Rita from immediate harm, ignoring all other considerations.

“Roland!” Rita struggled to get free. “How can you do this to me?”

“Face me, coward,” Steve yelled. “Stop hiding behind her!” As he had hoped, Roland flung Rita aside, dropped his dagger, and drew his rapier. Behind Roland, Hunter and MC 2 had managed to trip or wrestle the buccaneers into the crashing surf, delaying them all without harming any of them. They had their hands full, however; Steve could not expect any help from them.

“Hah! Avast, then!” Roland sneered angrily, twirling his blade toward Steve.

The buccaneers from the other longboats had stopped their preparations to watch, but did not interfere.

Fighting down panic, Steve raised his own blade. He blocked a couple of feints from Roland, backing up with each stroke. Roland was quick and fluid.

“Stand and fight, yourself.” Roland laughed, feinting and slashing the air playfully.

Steve parried and backed up again. He was nowhere near Roland’s equal at fencing.

“Jane-now!” Rita yelled suddenly. She and Jane ran toward Roland from behind and simply tackled him. All three hit the soft ground.

Steve leaped forward and snatched away Roland’s sword with his free hand. Then, as Rita and Jane sat on his back, Steve placed the point of his sword against Roland’s nose. “Don’t move. Hunter! Can you get back here?”

Hunter rose from the water, holding a buccaneer in each hand by the waistbands of their knee breeches. He tossed them both down onto the rest of the crowd of buccaneers in the water, where they all rolled and tumbled in the breakers. Then he pulled out MC 2 by one arm. “Coming, Steve!” He strode out of the surf, pulling MC 2 after him.

“Let him up,” Steve said to Rita and Jane. They got up quickly. Roland glared at Steve, not moving. Hunter ran up to them with MC 2.

“Into the forest, out of their sight,” Hunter said on the run, passing them.

“Get up and back away,” Steve said to Roland, walking backward. “Don’t follow us.”

Roland hesitated, watching Hunter, clearly more afraid of Hunter than of Steve. The buccaneers who had been thrown into the surf by Hunter were stumbling out to collapse on the ground, sputtering and coughing. They had little fight left in them after being rolled in the breakers repeatedly.

Hunter rushed MC 2 into the dense tropical forest, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure that Steve was still in control of the situation. When Rita and Jane had run after Hunter, Steve finally turned and ran too. The trees and brush were so heavy that, in a few moments, the buccaneers were no longer in sight.

“Remain with us,” Jane said to MC 2, between hard breaths. “Make no attempt to interfere with our plans or escape from us. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged,” said MC 2.

“We have to hurry,” said Steve.

“Jane, Steve, Rita,” said Hunter. “Please drop anything you have that you acquired in this time.” He untied his sash and let it fall with the cutlass it held.

“What about the communicators we lost in the sea?” Steve asked, tossing aside the two swords in his hands. “We certainly can’t retrieve them. Are they going to be a problem?”

“Anything can be,” said Hunter. “However, they are unlikely to cause a problem. They lie off the coast of Jamaica and the salt and water pressure have probably destroyed them already. If they ever wash ashore, they will be nonfunctional debris.”

Steve nodded.

“I hear the others coming through the brush now,” said Hunter. “Roland has regained his courage. Is everyone ready?”

Steve gave him a quick nod. Jane and Rita had discarded their sashes and daggers. Hunter triggered the device that would return them to their own time.

Steve instantly found himself sitting in the same dark, confined sphere from which they had left, huddled against Hunter and Jane. They were back in Room F -12 of the Bohung Institute in Mojave Center. Hunter opened the unit and helped each of them climb out.

MC 2 got out and stood motionless next to Hunter, waiting for further instructions.

Ishihara was still standing in the room. “Welcome back, Hunter. You were successful, I see.”

Yes. Dr. Nystrom is not here?”

“No.”

“You were instructed to stop him.”

“He has not come here during the two minutes since you left,” said Ishihara.