They were in a thicket of shrubs and brush, snow-laden, the snow
sifting down into Mooney's neck every time he touched a branch, which
was always; he couldn't avoid it. They crossed a path and then a
road--long, curving, broad, white, empty. Down a hill, onto another
path. Mooney paused, glancing around.
"You know where you are. Going?"
"I think so. I'm looking for cops." None in sight. Mooney frowned. What
the devil did the police think they were up to? They passed laws; why
weren't they around to enforce them?
Mooney had his landmarks well in mind. There was the Drive, and there
was the fork he was supposed to be looking for. It wouldn't be hard to
find the path to the Vale. The only thing was, it was kind of important
to Mooney's hope of future prosperity that he find a policeman first.
And time was running out.
He glanced at the luminous dial of his watch--self-winding, shockproof,
non-magnetic; the man in the hotel's jewelry shop had assured him only
yesterday that he could depend on its time-keeping as on the beating
of his heart. It was nearly a quarter of one.
"Come along, come along!" grumbled Harse.
Mooney stalled: "I--I think we'd better go along this way. It _ought_
to be down there--"
He cursed himself. Why hadn't he gone in the main entrance, where there
was sure to be a cop? Harse would never have known the difference. But
there was the artist in him that wanted the thing done perfectly, and
so he had held to the pretense of avoiding police, had skulked and
hidden. And now--
"Look!" he whispered, pointing.
Harse spat soundlessly and turned his eyes where Mooney was pointing.
Yes. Under a distant light, a moving figure, swinging a nightstick.
Mooney took a deep breath and planted a hand between Harse's shoulder
blades.
"Run!" he yelled at the top of his voice, and shoved. He sounded so
real, he almost convinced himself. "We'll have to split up--I'll meet
you there. Now _run_!"
VI
Oh, clever Mooney! He crouched under a snowy tree, watching the man
from the future speed effortlessly away ... in the wrong direction.
The cop was hailing him; clever cop! All it had taken was a couple of
full-throated yells and at once the cop had perceived that someone was
in the park. But cleverer than any cop was Mooney.
Men from the future. Why, thought Mooney contentedly, no Mrs.
Meyerhauser of the suburbs would have let me get away with a trick like
that to sell her a freezer. There's going to be no problem at all. I
don't have to worry about a thing. Mooney can take care of himself!
By then, he had caught his breath--and time was passing, passing.
He heard a distant confused yelling. Harse and the cop? But it didn't
matter. The only thing that mattered was getting to the Nexus Point at
one minute past one.
He took a deep breath and began to trot. Slipping in the snow, panting
heavily, he went down the path, around the little glade, across the
covered bridge.
He found the shallow steps that led down to the Vale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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