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Prologue

Reese Hunter had never seen a nation being born before, though he had seen more than his share of nations die He had seen Rooths and he rode with Alexander as the Macedonian had carved his way across the ancient world He ith Cortez when the Spanish conquistadores had descended on the unsuspecting Incas and he had watched from the cockpit of a bomber while Dresden was reduced to rubble and the Third Reich burned He had seen governments fall and empires cru born

The English colonies in North America were about to be reborn as a new nation, and in a sense Hunter was about to be reborn, as well He was about to start a new life in a new universe, one that was ale of his own In his own universe, he had been a captain in the CIS, the elite Counter Insurgency Section of the Special Operations Group Agents of the TIA had captured hih a confluence point into their timeline anxious to question him about the operations of his unit and, in particular, to find out how the CIS had broken into their top secret Archives Section data banks But the TIA never had a chance to question him, because Hunter had stolen one of their warp discs and escaped into their past Now there was no way back

In many ways, this universe was a faave hie of this timeline’s history He knew, for example, that in this universe, unlike his own, the Americans would win their war for independence, not lose and later have it granted to them by the British in the e of this tiet back hoht hih the confluence, a point where their two ti how to find it once again He was trapped here now and he would simply have to make the best of it

He had carefully considered all his options Though he would now be on his oithout any logistical support, he could continue to function as a covert agent of the CIS and work to disrupt this timeline’s continuity Or he could simply quit, leave the war behind and start a brand-new life A simpler life, unco option Hunter had grown tired of fighting The temporal physicists back home believed that the way to overcome the confluence pheno universe They believed that a tiruent timelines, but that was no more than a theory It was also possible that a timestream split in either universe would onlystill more parallel timelines that would intersect with one another, a temporal disaster that could ultimately lead to entropy Hunter did not want that on his conscience

He did not knohat the ansas No one in his timeline had even suspected that a parallel universe existed until that parallel universe attacked The agents of the TIA had claimed that it was all a terrible mistake Their explanation had sounded very plausible, but Hunter wasn’t sure what the truth was anymore He had been told that in this universe, a scientist na weapon known as the warp grenade, a combination nuclear device and time machine It operated on the same principle as warp discs The device was hellish, a nuclear weapon capable of pinpoint adjustability, designed to use all of its terribly destructive energy or only a small fraction of it It could be set to destroy a city, or a block within that city, or a building on that block, or just a roo At the instant of the detonation, the surplus energy of the explosion would be transported by the weapon’s chronocircuitry through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge-a warp in spacetime to a point in outer space where it could do no harm Or so the scientists had believed

In practice, what had happened was that such incredible ah warps in spacetin harmlessly in outer space the nuclear explosions had been clocked through space warps directly into Hunter’s timeline, where they had caused untold destruction Hunter’s universe and this one had been forced into congruence, so that a confluence pheno and two parallel ti like a double helix strand of DNA At various points in space and tiether, so that it was possible to cross over from one universe into another The two timelines were at war and Hunter now believed it was a war no one could win Nor was he the only one who felt that way

In his own universe, as in this one, there were people who had fatalistically accepted the inevitability of an irreversible temporal disaster, so they had chosen to escape into the past They had opted out of their society and gone over to the Underground, a loosely organized confederation of teitives froroup at work throughout the past It was called the Network, an offshoot of the TIA-a secret agency within a secret agency Only this group had its own agenda, independent of any governents, profiteers conducting the coround trans-temporal econoanization in his own universe, as well It was insanity There was no way of knowing how many people in the past were really froile the timestream had become-in either universe

In such a chaotic situation, the actions of one man seemed very small indeed But Hunter knew that the actions of one man could often make all the difference in the world And on the day that he arrived in Boston, the actions of one ration that would burn like hellfire as it spread throughout the thirteen English colonies

Hunter had arrived in Boston unsuitably attired He had hidden in an alley by the waterfront until an inebriated seaman of a convenient size had stumbled by whereupon Hunter had rolled him and stolen all his money and his clothes He then found a tavern called the Harp and Crohere he had an inexpensive meal called an “ordinary” a set meal served at a fixed price, and picked up a copy of the Boston Gazette The date was August 14 1765, and according to the paper, it was the birthday of the Prince of Wales But the most neorthy event of the day had occurred too recently to make the paper and it was the topic on the lips of everybody in the tavern

That ing from the elm trees in the Co out of it, a play on the nae’s favorite advisor the Earl of Bute The other was an effigy of Andrew Oliver a local reater joy did New England see than a staure was a placard with the warning “He that takes this down is an enemy to his country!”

It wasn’t difficult for Hunter to get into a conversation with a group or citizens engaged in a spirited discussion about the day’s events He approached their table and politely inquired what the fuss was all about They stared at him with disbelief

“Why, where’ve you been, man?” one of the men asked him