TW06 The Khyber Connection NEW Read Free Page A

possessed unusually broad shoulders for a female,her uniform masking her extremely well-developed muscularity. She was more striking than attractive, with the graceful poise of a natural athlete and a calm self-assurance in her bearing.
    By contrast, Finn Delaney had the outward appearance of a lout. The burly, redheaded Irishman had the physique and posture of a bear and a face that seemed constantly on the verge of an insolent grin, even when he was serious. His uniform looked as if he had slept in it—he often did—and the top of his blouse was unfastened, as usual, revealing a massive and thickly corded neck. In any other unit he would have been a walking invitation to be placed on report. He had spent his entire adult life in the service, a testimony more to obstinacy than to aptitude, but after years of serving on the front lines in the regular corps in battles throughout time, he had finally found a commander who understood how to put his unique capabilities to use.
    "What I am about to tell you is classified information,” said Forrester. "You will report to mission programming directly following this briefing and clock out to your assignment from there. There is to be no discussion of this mission with anyone, repeat, anyone outside this room. Clear?"
    "Yes, sir," they said.
    "1 have just concluded a meeting with the director general of the Referee Corps," Forrester said. Even Delaney sat up. "He has personally reviewed your dossiers, which should give you some indication of the gravity of this situation. I'll make it brief. Recently an arbitration action was conducted in Afghanistan in the year 1897, during the Pathan revolt. Background of the conflict between the British Raj and the frontier mountain tribesmen is as follows:
    "The British annexed the Punjab territory to their Indian Empire in the year 1849. The move was predicated upon what Britain referred to as her 'Forward Policy,'
    which entailed a gradual extension and consolidation of British influence into the frontier, chiefly to create a so-called "buffer state" between the British Raj in India and what was considered to be likely Russian expansionism.
    British military campaigns in the Hindu Kush range of Afghanistan resulted partly from concern that Russian control of the area would give them a direct invasion route into India and partly from a desire to pacify the region and curtail invasions into the Punjab of plundering mountain tribesmen. The Pathan tribes recognized no law other than their own and that of the Koran, as imparted to them by tribal holy men who frequently used it to serve their own purposes.
    "In the years following the annexation, the Royal Indian Army conducted over fifty punitive campaigns against the Pathans, a situation complicated by there being some half a dozen major independent Pathan tribes on the frontier and dozens of smaller Pathan groups who either gave their allegiance to one of the larger tribes, or to the British, or fought amongst themselves, depending on what side of the bed they got out of that morning. With so many armed conflicts going on, it was decided that the period made a good scenario for conducting temporal arbitration actions.
    "During one such campaign, Search and Retrieve units clocked in following a battle between soldiers of the Royal Indian Army and Afridi tribesmen. In recovering the bodies of temporal soldiers who had been infiltrated into the British ranks, S & R found the body of one Sergeant Thomas Court. Court had apparently dragged himself up into the rocks to hide from Ghazi tribesmen who were butchering the wounded. Found next to him was the body of an Afridi tribesman. They evidently killed each other. Now here's where it gets interesting.
    "With the exception of clothing and coloring, the two bodies were alike in virtually every respect. As he was dying. Court had assumed a curious posture with the index finger of his right hand pressed up against his temple and his other hand pointing at