Mid-afternoon, Jill finally came back.  It seemed improbable that there would be fighting on that day, though the colonel gave orders in case the enemy tried to come in the night.  As they came close, Ethan broke ranks and ran to Jill. No one made a move to stop him.  The Cherokee warrior was with her, and they seemed to be conversing freely in a language Ethan could not quite grasp.  He recognized that he was getting better at catching languages, even if he did not know how, but he was not there yet.  When he grabbed Jill, he felt surprised by the strength of his feelings.  She looked happy to see it, though, and responded freely, while the native kept still and waited.

General Gordon arrived and surprised everyone with his announcement.  “The Cherokee have agreed to withdraw, over the objections of their Byzantine Masters.  But they say there has been too much bad blood in this world and they plan to make restitution to the Delaware.  Whether or not the Algonquin nation will accept compensation for the dead remains to be seen, but for the present there will be peace, because the Byzantine cannot raise a large enough force by themselves.”

“Praise God.”  That was heard all around the area where the general spoke, and there were prayers of thanksgiving sent up to Mary and any number of saints.

“This remarkable young woman and Chief Peter Alexander were the primary movers in the negotiations.”  General Gordon told the colonel.  “Apparently, they met before.”

“Ethan.”  Jill spoke in that same strange language that Ethan had never heard before, but by then he understood it.  “Let me introduce Peter Alexander.”  She indicated the man in war paint.

“Alexander is sufficient,” the man said. as he shook Ethan’s hand.  Ethan looked close, and despite the fact that Alexander was young and handsome, he could not have been one of Jill’s people.  He looked too Cherokee.

“A native to this world?” he asked his question out loud.

“Yes.”  Alexander answered forthrightly.

“Lela is dead as I feared,” Jill said and took Ethan’s hand for support.  He gave it to her, even if he did not know who Lela was.  “I sent her out, but her communications ended in this world.  I became concerned about her when I got stranded, and I see that I was right to be worried.  The Byzantines beheaded her as a witch, but not before she passed the Guardian nano-chits to Alexander.  He has been waiting here since then for someone to come.  Since his Guardian chits are adjusted to alert him when someone world hops into this place, though he did not know this, he felt us arrive and came to see with his own eyes.  He guessed rightly that I was of Lela’s people.”

“And so now we have another passenger to take with us.”  Ethan finished the thought.  Jill nodded and looked at Alexander with a wide smile.

“I told you he was bright.”  She took Ethan’s hand and kissed his shoulder, and then she introduced Alexander to the others, and in so doing, she said something that Ethan did not expect.  “Alexander has already received his chits and has agreed to guard his world, though he has not yet been trained to the task, so he will be going with us.”  Ali Pasha, Lars and Manomar all nodded as if they understood what she was saying, and Ethan looked at Jill.  He felt suddenly very cold toward her.

Jill touched his arm, gently.  “We need to talk,” she said.

“About what?” he asked.  He did not respond to her touch and did not look at all happy.  “About being another one of your flunkies?”

“No!”  She said the word in a tone which protested that he would even think such a thing, but before she could say anything more, Alexander let out a screech.

“Eeeee!  Quickly.  Everyone get down.”  He turned to the colonel, the general already having taken transport back into town.  “Incoming,” he said.

“Incoming!”  Colonel deMartin shouted without hesitation, and the word echoed down the line as Jill and her men made a rifle shot for the nearest trench.  They no sooner got down, when Ethan heard the last noise he expected.  He looked above his head and saw the flash of baby blue laser light and then he covered his head as a nearby automobile exploded.

“How did they find us?”  Ethan asked.  Jill was already going for the laptop and the transfer unit.

“I don’t know!”  She shouted.  “Maybe they have a dimensional tracer of some kind.”

“Who are they?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered as she began to type and Ethan wired the watch.  Curiously, he knew exactly what to do, but he did not think that odd at the time.  Indeed, he could hardly think at all.

After the first salvo, Ethan heard rifle fire as the men of that world tried to return fire, though they hardly knew what they were firing at.  Then there was another sound, and Ethan braved a peek above the trench rim just to confirm the Neanderthal behind him.

“The other side has arrived,” he told Jill.  She hushed him while she typed frantically.

“Almost out of power,” she said as if thinking aloud.  “I think I know where we can go to scramble any dimensional trace.”

Colonel deMartin jumped into their trench after the return fire slackened off, and just before it became a flame on flame all-out battle.

“What the hell is going on!”  He yelled.  “Who are you people?”

No one answered him because Jill interrupted.  “Everybody hold hands.  Be sure to touch flesh.”  She added that last comment because Alexander wanted to hold her hair.  He touched her neck while everyone else grabbed on.  Jill only waited a moment and looked briefly to be sure before she hit the enter button.  This time, Ethan closed his eyes, but he was holding the transfer unit, and he felt the shock everywhere and temporarily passed out.

It was Colonel deMartin, not Captain deMarcos who collected them for their shopping spree.  The clothes they found were rather plain, but Jill had no trouble finding a dress that fit well.  There was no reason to hide her figure, and the dress certainly did not hide much, but then the matron of the shop made her get an apron to wear over all, and it made her look a bit more dowdy.  This upset the men but that was no doubt the matron’s point.

Ethan, on the other hand, proved a little more difficult.  He willingly gave up his suit pants for plain brown pants and added a white shirt with some ruffle in the front along with a plain brown vest with pockets.  There were also socks for his feet, and a western style hat for his head, which Lars picked out.  All of that was simple enough, but then he needed some sturdy boots.  Finding two boots, a left and a right that actually fit and matched took time, and Ethan saw that Jill spent a lot of that time talking with Lars and Ali Pasha when she was not schmoosing with the colonel.

When they were finally ready, the colonel graciously laid out some coins.  “I think the army can afford to pay for clothes for a couple of refugees, so no arguments.”  Then things got interesting as a soldier came bounding into the shop with a message.  He whispered in the colonel’s ear.  The colonel eyed Jill.

“Bring them,” the colonel ordered sharply, and the entourage encouraged the travelers to follow the colonel who set a wicked pace across the town to the outskirts.  Ethan was glad that he and Lars had made a strap for the briefcase and their all-important equipment, and that he was presently carrying it across his shoulder and on his hip like a woman might carry her purse in a crowded shopping mall.  In fact, he had no intention of letting their means of escape leave his side ever again, if he could help it.

When they approached the front lines that strung out along the edge of town, they found field batteries and what looked like a couple of real, modern artillery pieces.  There were hastily made bunkers of a sort, some being no more than bricked in houses that happened to be on the outskirts of town and so first in the line of fire.  Ethan wondered if the army compensated the people for those houses as easily as they bought his boots.  Somehow, he doubted it, but maybe the people got something.  Further out in the fields, the trenches began, and they could see where trees and other obstacles had been cut down and removed so as not to obstruct the line of fire.  In fact, from what Ethan could see, it looked like a whole warren of trenches had been carefully dug, barbed wire got laid out, and the fields beyond were cleared for some distance.

“The trouble with early nineteen-hundreds warfare is the way it devastates the environment,” Jill said sadly, framing things for Ethan to understand.

“World War I?”  Ethan asked, getting the gist of the time-period clearly in his mind.

“World War III,” Lars corrected, not otherwise following their words.

Colonel deMartin came bounding out of a tent.  “Come,” he said.  “You speak Cherokee.”  He spoke to Jill.  She looked up.  “There is a delegation of the enemy come to talk and as near as we can figure out, the chief has asked for you.”  Jill said nothing and stood, but Ethan and Lars both stepped up beside her, protectively.  Ali Pasha and Manomar kept the rear guard position.  “I could just as easily have you all shot, you know.”  DeMartin was blunt.  Jill patted Ethan’s hand to offer encouragement and followed the colonel.

They found the Cherokee off one section of the front line, within shooting distance of both the trees and trenches.  Two Natives and two soldiers of the Holy Romans had guard positions at the four corners of a square, and held similar weapons at the ready.  There was a native seated on the ground inside the square.  There was also a man who clearly looked like a Byzantine, if one had a guess.  His dress was full of flowery patterns and feathers, his black hair, almost as curly as Manomar’s, suggested a Middle Eastern origin, and he appeared to be seated on a folding chair.  Facing him was a man who had to be a Holy Roman officer of some sort, and he had a guard with him as well, perhaps a lieutenant, but that man stood.

“General Gordon is expecting you.”  DeMartin spoke sharply to identify the officer as he pointed at the gathering in the center of the field.  “If you are a spy or betray the General, your friends will be instantly shot.”  He raised his hand.  Men with rifles surrounded the others, and the bayonets looked very sharp.

“It will be all right,” Jill said to assure everyone.  “Ethan knows what to do.”

“That isn’t the point.”  Ethan spoke quickly before she could add, “If I don’t come back.”  He caught her and kissed her hard, right in front of everyone.

“I’ll be all right,” she insisted when they began to part.  “But don’t lose your place.  We will pick up where we left off, later.”  She turned, rushed into the field, and then slowed to a walk while the others could do nothing but watch.  As she approached the gathering, the native stood.  Then they began to talk, and that left Ethan and the others completely in the dark as to what was happening.

They waited.  The General sent his man back to fetch lunch for everyone.  Ethan felt totally frustrated by then, beyond his ability to hold his tongue, and beyond the ability of the others to comfort him.  “What is taking so long?” he shouted.  Colonel deMartin looked at him and shrugged.

“I feel for you,” he said.  “But I would guess you are not spies or something improper would have happened by now.”

“Unless we are very, very clever,” Lars said, and Ethan and Manomar took Jill’s part and hit him to shut his mouth.