Wednesday 14 August 2013

Story: The Disappearance (VIII)

(Part VII , IX)

I had a heat at the back of my head that just wouldn't quit. It was as if a troop of penguins were setting a bonfire back there and getting ready to party. As we shifted through the time rip, the heat moved down my body until it passed my feet and then I was the normal fridge temperature once again. I guess that's what happens when your atoms get tuned up for life in a whole new time period.

The other end of the time rift was disappointing. It was just a room housing the machinery that had lifted us out of the warehouse. There was no sign of the time travel generator. Not even a flashing light above a small control panel. That must all take place elsewhere.

A note for the unwary: Time travel is a notoriously tricky business and the worst part of it is that even if you travel in time the world is still going to move on in its stately orbit around the sun, the wiggle in the planet's axis will continue to wobble, and anything but the most deliberate of jumps is going to see the time traveller land deep in space, wondering where that old planet of theirs has gotten to as they suffocate. Yes, time travel is hard, but all it took was for one successful jumper to put down a beacon in a target period and everything became so much easier. Apparently, that had happened here. It had to happen eventually.

You might ask how I know all this about a technology that hasn't happened yet? Ask away, people who tell their secrets rarely get to use them later, do they?

We hung from the hook as the time rift closed beneath us, revealing a bare concrete floor and leaving us to the plain electric lighting of the future. To be honest it didn't look very futuristic. Agnes opened her eyes and let go her hold. When a woman like that lets go of you you miss it for a few seconds. I let go too and dropped to the floor. It was solid.

"Any ideas, McGonagle? They're your people, after all."

"They're not my people at all." Agnes trembled, maybe a little from self-pity, and maybe a little from anger. "As soon as I found out about all this, I contacted you and here we are. All I know is that my parents couldn't resist the profit margin of free biscuits from the future, even with unknown strings attached."

"Yeah... I'm sorry, Agnes. Ack, do people call you anything over than Agnes? McGonagle is actually preferable."

"Agnes will do, Agent." She was back in control. "What on Earth was your plan? Did you mean to get us stuck in the future?"

"We may be stuck in the future but all our problems originate here, the only chance we have of stopping any of them is here, the man who disappeared and started this all is here or nowhere, and as a deputised agent of the law my job is here. I didn't ask you to come and sacrifice your life."

Agnes just looked thoughtful. And then, "So your plan is to find the people responsible and arrest them?"

"My plan is to find the people responsible and deal with them. And to keep you safe." I put one hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes as I had so many times before, with people in the deepest of unknown dangers, the knight whose reluctant sword protected more than himself. "There is a plan, but we really need to know where we are first. We're going to go. Pay attention to our surroundings. If we get separated, try to come back here. We have no idea where we are on Earth, or when. Ready?"

"Yes. Remember this, Agent. I'm a certified genius, so maybe you need me more than I need you." With that, Agnes slid open one of the double doors a little, peaked out and then slinked into the corridor. I cursed silently and followed. It was going to be one of THOSE adventures.


More shall follow...

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