Story 22

22

“Welcome back again Mitchell. Report.”
“Sir! Special Agent Mitchell is happy to report mission successful.” He produced the rock from 2010 handing it over immediately.
“They do exist in each time frame. Excellent!” He turned to the two still downcast academics. “Now build me another machine, gentlemen. This ‘spare’ rock goes back to its place in the Museum for now.”

Petar recovered from the head swipe first, luckily the thing had not landed square and cracked his skull. Both men were depressed. The military now had two rocks and the machine to use them. They argued over and over about the nightmare, finally quieting when they gazed on the rock they HAD. It had not sent them anywhere - yet - it seemed to be waiting for them to recover.

Dave hedged his bets. He helped the Professors build a second machine. This would necessarily have to be inferior to the original and would take a long time to configure with materials from the time at hand.
And he cultivated the colonel carefully, showing more than polite interest in the military’s intentions whilst being totally truthful about exactly what he remembered and did not. It was easier to gain the man’s trust with the truth, no military man worth the name would not see through lies at this stage.
He visited the ‘vault’ - the museum - frequently, saying he found more inspiration from the original carved stone than the holos on the screen. He also found a flaw in the surveillance network that would help him. He left another enigmatic line barely visible on the base of the thing telling where he intended hiding the ‘spare’ rock.
He even played the two against the colonel, telling them he was going to attempt to replace the rock in the vault and see if the military could tell the difference. Their eyes shone in delight at the proposed deception. They presented Dave with a ‘replica’ rock not long after that certainly was good enough to fool him at least.
It worked! The ‘spare’ was in Dave’s hands and where the two could find it when they wanted. When THIS went missing from the hiding place, Dave put his hands up in apparent despair. HE had not removed it. Of course he HAD, but he was not telling the two that he had been busily digging in the one corner of the dark space that was not covered by the surveillance. The rock was safely ‘in its place’ in Bear Camp - the remains of Bear Camp far, far underneath the space considered old in this time. There were caverns and small spaces galore beneath to hide all signs of disturbance. It had taken long enough, but he had done it.


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