Read Online Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion by Edward Crichton - Free Book Online Page B

force throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, America still would have been discovered by Spain by an Italian explorer, England would have later colonized it, we would have later gained our independence, and I still would have been born in Midwestern Indiana to parents whose grandparents had called Central Europe home.”
    “Right, Hunter,” Archer said.
    “Wrong!!”  I shouted, clapping my hands at him, causing Vincent and Helena around me to jump.  “Don’t you realize what you’re saying?!  You’re telling me that even though Europe went through an extended dark age, didn’t enter a time of medievalism, so no knights and conflict with Islam over Jerusalem, Islamic containment in the Middle East, no rediscovery of Roman and Greek knowledge, probably no invention of firearms until much later, and yet you’re still going to sit there and tell me that, ‘in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,’ and everything else managed to fall into place perfectly?  Tell me, was Washington even the first president and did Lincoln free the slaves?”
    Archer cleared his throat.  “Everything you’ve just said is true, Hunter.  1492, 1776, 1812, 1865... Are these dates important in your history as well?”
    I looked at the ground and pounded a fist on my thigh.  I could not understand what was happening.  None of this made any sense.  I closed my eyes and tried to think, but Archer wouldn’t let me.
    “Well? ”  He demanded.  “Are they?”
    “Yes, yes, ” I said, leaning back and wrapping my arm around Helena’s waist, more for my own piece of mind than anything else.  I looked back at Archer.  “Okay, smart guy.  Say I buy all this.  What do you plan to do about it?”
    “Fix it,” he said, his voice even.
    I pulled my arm from Helena and shook my fist at him.  “Just like that then?  Just… fix the universe?  Without even knowing where to start?  Good luck with that, buddy, I’m sure you’ll do a…”
    “Stop it, Jacob!”  Artie exclaimed, having apparently pulled herself out of her stupor.  “This isn’t all about you, you know.  We’ve lived our entire lives in a world at war, as did our parents.  Don’t ignore wh at he’s saying just because you can’t imagine how horrible our lives were.”
    Her scolding took me by surprise, and left an empty feeling inside my stomach.
    “I guess I’m sorry, Diana,” I said meekly.  “It’s just that it’s been nearly impossible for us here. It’s been hard for me to even remember life outside of this place.”
    “You’d better believe …” Archer started, but Artie cut him off.
    “Shut up, Paul,” Artie said, shooting him a look.  “You read Jacob’s journal too.  You know what they’ve all been through.  You don’t have an excuse for making an ass out of yourself either.”
    Archer looked at her angrily, but then turned away under her scruti nizing gaze.  I almost smiled at Artie, but then remembered that I wasn’t completely innocent in all this either.  Silence befell our group again, but there was still a lot to talk about.
    “I think it’ s time we shift topics,” I said.
    “To what?”  Archer snapped.
    “ The orb,” I answered, “and how it can get us home.  Because I don’t know about you guys, but every time I’ve used it, something different has happened, and I don’t come out of it any more enlightened.”
    Every head immediately turned toward Artie as she sat there, completely oblivious to our attention, still fuming over my interchange with Archer.  After a few seconds, Santino poked her in the arm, and she snapped her head around.
    “What?”  She asked.
    “We need to discuss the orb,” Archer said before I could.
    “Why ar e you looking at me, then?” She asked. “Jacob’s had way more experience with it than I have.”
    I stepped in before Archer could take control of the conversation again.
    “You’re the close st thing to a scientist we have, Artie, and you have a