Time Agent | ONC2024

16. Confab

(This chapter is dedicated to TheGoodShip, an ONC stalwart who is having a break this year. A great supporter of other people's stories!)

The three Millennials were sitting in their usual places. Sophie on the edge of her bed, Marcel in the single chair and Jean cross-legged on the floor. Given the lateness of the hour, Sophie had made them all a cup of hot chocolate instead of opening some wine.

Jean had just finished telling them what had happened earlier that evening. It hadn't taken long, despite the occasional interruptions.

"That's so weird. What do you think? How did he find out about us? And how did he know where you lived?" Sophie went straight to the heart of the matter.

Jean shrugged in a helpless fashion. "I have no idea. Though he wasn't looking for me, specifically, when he arrived. He said he was looking for a laboratory of some description."

"And time travel? He actually said time travel?" Marcel spoke for the first time.

"Well, first he said 'temporal displacement', but then he called it time travel."

"That must have given you a heart attack!" Sophie sympathised.

"Not quite that bad," Jean laughed, "but it gave me a shock, I can tell you."

"But why is he looking for a laboratory?" Sophie was puzzled.

"That's obvious," said Marcel, with a touch of impatience. "He doesn't really know about us, what we can do. He's searching for something physical. He's looking for a time machine."

"But why? Why now? And how the hell did he find where I live?"

"Something we've done must have triggered something, set off an alarm somewhere." Marcel was thinking aloud.

"Do you think Jacques was right? Could that man, Sven, be a government agent? Are they spying on us?" Sophie was getting more alarmed by the moment. She looked anxiously around the room, as if she was expecting to see a tiny camera pointing at them. Or a microphone sticking to the desk lamp.

"I doubt it," answered Marcel, thoughtfully. "No. We don't have that level of technology... yet. There's only one thing that really makes sense."

"What?"

"Sven is from the future. He's a time traveller."

Jean and Sophie stared at him with their mouths open.

"You're right!" Jean said. "That has to be the answer."

Sophie's brain raced ahead, ideas popping like corn in a pan. "But he's not like us, is he? He can't travel under his own power. He must use a device, or a machine. That's why he's looking for a laboratory of some sort here." Her eyes shone. "How absolutely amazing. The things he could tell us about the future. The technology! I wonder if they've stopped global warming yet? What if-"

"Hold on!" Marcel put up a hand as if he was stopping traffic. "Didn't you hear what Jean said? They have rules. They don't want just anybody going back in time. They want to control who goes back and what they do. They're searching for us, so they can control us."

"Do you think so?" Sophie was doubtful. "How would they do that?"

"I suppose if they found a time machine, they'd take it over, or confiscate it. But we're different. How are they going to control what we do?" Jean was indignant.

"We could just stop," Sophie suggested. "Then they wouldn't have anything to control."

"And if they tried to lock us up, we'd just disappear. Right? Marcel?"

Marcel blinked, as if he had just returned from somewhere else, deep inside his head.

"I suppose so," he answered vaguely, as if he hadn't really been paying attention. He shook his head, suddenly decisive. "I should go home. There's a lot to think about."

He got to his feet. He was almost at the door when he turned back.

"Take care, you two," he said, giving Sophie a hug. Sophie put both hands on his shoulders and squeezed. "We'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Sure."

He hauled Jean up from the floor and gave him a hug as well.

"You take care, too, Marcel," said Jean, hugging him back. "Cheer up. I'm sure we'll work something out."

"I hope he's okay," said Sophie in worried tones, as the door closed behind Marcel.

"He'll be fine. He just needs some time. You know how seriously he takes everything."

Jean drained the last mouthful from his cup and grinned at her.

"Sven is rather gorgeous and I know he fancies me. Maybe I can work my wiles on him, and get him to tell us what's going on."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Just be careful, okay?"

~~

Marcel hurried down the street on his way to the Metro, desperate to get home. He had to think. Tonight's revelations had shaken him badly. There was so much to consider.

Politics was Marcel's passion, and as part of his studies, he had spent hours researching history, to discover how things had gone so wrong for his people.

Every school child knew that in 1910, a small group stormed the Parliament in London and overthrew the government of the day. Gerard Pardieu, the then Prime Minister, had been one of the fatal casualties.

Depending on the school one attended, this was described as either a violent act by a group of insurgents attacking the lawfully elected government, or a successful counter revolution by loyalists. Pardieu's death, called either murder or an unfortunate accident. In any event, the result was that the English took tight control again of the country.

In Marcel's opinion, it was that event which led to the gradual subjugation of the Norman part of the population.

Discrimination was unstated but it was insidious. When it came to employment options, funding for schools and hospitals, Normans lost out to the English every time.

And now the demonstrations were getting even uglier. Shouts of 'Go back where you came from!' infuriated Marcel. This was where he came from. He had been born here. And so had his parents and grandparents before him.

Enough was enough.