Twisted Time

13 - Diamonds

The contraption room, 00:59

Her eyes closed tight, Dan waits for the stomach twist that she learned to recognise as a side effect of the time transfers. When the fact she still stands upright, held by Ric's strong arms, registers, she blinks and wriggles out of his embrace. His voice carries a hint of laughter. "What's wrong?"

"Shouldn't I have been disappearing right now? I saw the lights flickering. That's always the cue for the next act. Why am I still here?"

"Asks the famous Doctor Lent."

"Right, laugh at me all you want. You are the resident expert on time travel. Enlighten a confused novice, please."

Ric shrugs. "Sorry. I'm not over the fact you are the person I admired as a teen. As for the explanation, I guess our energy fields cross-reacted. In this case, the thirty-per-cent regulation is bound to cause a sort of reciprocating stabilisation, in theory. I doubt there was a field test for this situation."

"Which situation?"

"What we did right now, me holding you while the shift set in."

Something nags Dan. Wasn't there a similar situation before? "Wait, why did your thirty-per-cent rule not apply in the fridge? You held me there, too, and I was transported anyway."

In the stark light, Dan is surprised to see Ric's cheeks darken. "It was not the same. We had no direct skin contact back then. Right now, you pressed your head against my chin."

"Oh." Dan struggles for words. "Excuse me. The impending shift caught me by surprise. I didn't mean to crowd you."

"No worries. I'm glad you did. Well, that came out wrong. I mean, at least now, we know how to prevent you from disappearing. My field is stable enough, but yours flickers like a candle in a draught. That's unusual."

Unusual? What a way to put it. Dan runs a hand through her curls. "So, you imply you hail from another time too? Or what kind of fields are we talking about? Energy fields? Auras?"

Ric shakes his head, a smile forming on his lips. "Nothing as esoteric. But I'm still not sure I'm allowed to share all this information."

Dan presents him with her darkest stare, the one she reserves for her most scatterbrained laboratory assistant.

"Hey, don't kill me with this glare. I'll try to explain as much as I can, believe me. If you are the target of these experiments, I guess you deserve to be informed. But let's check where and when this chamber is aimed, first." With a few quick steps, he approaches a control unit and plugs his little wizard box into an access port.

Over his shoulder, Dan follows how he navigates through several subroutines, his fingers flying over glowing touchpoints in a quick pattern. The layout of the screen confuses her, and she misses the gist of his manipulations. Although she burns with questions, she holds back, hoping Ric will be more accessible when he found what he's looking for.

A few minutes later, he unplugs his recorder or whatever it is, a smile brightening his face. "At least they didn't trust this outdated model with your life." He stows the box in a pocket. "The piece belongs in a museum for ancient technical gadgets. I doubt it's still accurate, if it ever was. As far as I can tell, they use it to collect inanimate samples from different times—rocks, mostly. Can't imagine what they want them for."

"Rocks from different ages? Could be a geological experiment."

"Geology?" He laughs. "We deal with a major criminal organisation. They play dangerous games with forbidden time machines, and I highly doubt their secret motivation is as mundane as geology."

"Hm. What would anyone use rocks for if not for study or to build a house?"

Dan observes him walk around the centrepiece, inspecting it from different angles. Instead of answering her question, he changes the topic. "I'm sure they own at least another of those. The early models never were approved for living organisms. The one they used to bring you into this time must be hidden somewhere else."

While Ric bows over another display, Dan's thoughts still turn around the puzzle of rocks and geology. Guess it won't hurt if I try to help him. When his job is done, my problem might become obsolete too. "Okay, criminals aren't interested in geology. Is it possible the rocks are precious? Diamonds perhaps?"

Ric turns around, mouth agape. Then he hides his teeth, just to flash them in a grin seconds later. "Girl, you're golden! What a perfect way to finance illegal business. They use the TA to steal diamonds from times past. Probably valuable pieces mentioned in historical records."

"But how would they know what to look for? Or how to locate their targets?"

"Oh, they can search the archives. I'm sure exhibition catalogues give them enough clues on where to look, in museums or at auctions. This is ingenious! Now we get near the source of all our troubles. But one thing bothers me. Why did they bring you in?"

"I don't know, and to say it bothers me is an understatement. Plus, you still owe me explanations. I helped you, too."

"True. Well, to make it short, we observed heavy disturbances in the time continuum. Some were a rare category C, meaning they won't be able to repair themselves. The source was easy to identify, spatially and temporally. Chronos sent me to the past to investigate this operation and, if possible, repair the timeline. When I saw what I was up against, I called in Sandrine. She was scheduled as my backup, an experienced field agent. But she never arrived here. Instead, you popped up."

"Not my fault, I swear. And what is Chronos, aside from the Greek god?"

"The organisation I work for, an NGO responsible for the prevention of illegal manipulation of time. And it was founded by a certain Danielle Lent, inventor of the first working time machine."