Fumbling Toward Ecstasy

Chapter 3 - The Assignment

In the month that followed Brynne's initial exposure to COSI, her life changed in more ways than she would have ever imagined. She left her new job as an architect before she even began, and she embarked on an accelerated COSI training program. Normally, the program took six months, at the least, to complete. Because of the upcoming mission that Payton had planned for Brynne, she was forced to pack six months of training into only a month.

Now, Brynne sat in Payton's office, waiting anxiously to hear what he had in store for her.

"Now that you've completed your training, it's time to give you an assignment," Payton said in his customary casual manner. He walked around and sat down in the chair behind his desk. "The Titanic," he said.

"The Titanic," Brynne repeated.

"Yes," Payton said. "Your objective is to gain access to the ship so that you can recover a document."

"What kind of document?" Brynne asked.

"It's a notebook that contains information about the sinking of the ship," Payton explained. "We had some agents on board making observations, and one of their notebooks contained information from the present about the disaster. If anyone from 1912 finds that information, it could pollute the timeline. Your job is to recover the document before it falls into the wrong hands. If anyone gets off the boat with that notebook, it could take us forever to track it."

"You think that there could be someone else on board with temporal technology?" Brynne asked.

"Possibly," Payton admitted. "But if you get in there and get the document right away, we won't have to worry about that."

"I understand."

"Now, I'm sending you to Belfast, Ireland, May 1911."

"1911?" Brynne said. "Wait, the Titanic –"

"I know. The objective date is April 1912, but in order to gain access to that notebook, you'll have to go in as a naval architect at Harland and Wolff," Payton explained. He grinned. "Remember when I first told you about becoming an agent, and you said you didn't know how you could be useful? When I found out you were an architect, it was like gold. We've needed someone to complete this mission for months now, but we didn't have anyone qualified enough."

"You've got a whole organization full of specialists, agents, and scientists," Brynne said. "You're telling me you couldn't find anyone to go back in time to get a little document?"

"No," Payton answered honestly. "This is one of those missions that you can't fake your way through. We needed someone with actual architectural skill. And fortunately, you're that person."

Brynne sighed. "I don't understand why we have to go through all this. Can't I just get in, get the notebook, and get out? That's what you said recover was like anyway, isn't it? Get in, get the goods, get out. What happened to that?"

"It doesn't work like that in this case, Brynne. The more people you're dealing with, the higher the risk you run of being spotted as out of place. If you get spotted in a place you're not supposed to be in, we're in trouble. It's just too risky. So, we have to remedy that by establishing that you're supposed to be there." Payton watched for Brynne's reaction. He knew that she hadn't contemplated being on a mission for a whole year. He probably should have mentioned the prospect to her earlier.

"We're talking about a whole year, Payton," Brynne said. "If I get sick, or something happens to me –"

"We'll know," Payton insisted. "If you don't step back out of the link after a few minutes, we'll know something went wrong. We'll send someone in for you. Don't worry; we've never lost an agent."