“Wait a minute. I’ve found something!” Adrienne exclaimed. “It
took some digging, but it’s right here. That senile old hag that sits second
chair on the Tribunal, what’s her name...Agatha Jones. Her ex-husband manages a
travellator station.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m not sure yet, but her son Ted had been making a killing on the stock market. He got rich really fast. I bet he was using the travellator at his father’s station to go back in time to buy stocks in various companies, then coming back and selling the stocks for a substantial profit, just like that guy did in that old 2D movie Time Cop.”
“That’s not possible,” Liam said. “With the exception of the travellators here, all the temporal capacitators have been removed and are stored here in the vault. They’re visually inventoried and accounted for at the beginning and ending of every shift, not to mention the fact that the computer would record any of them being moved so much as an inch without authorization and sound an alarm, locking down the entire facility.”
Adrienne fell back in her chair, crestfallen. “I was so sure I was onto something.”
“I’m not so sure you’re not,” Anne, the records management supervisor chimed in. She dug through a stack of info-discs in front of her. “Here we go. In 2925 Ryan arrested a Ted Walters and Russel Tolberry for temporal stock market swindling. They both got fifty years. Ryan found periodicals in the apartment they shared with Unicorp and Transdimensional Engineering stock information circled on the stock market pages.”
“Wait a minute. Transdimensional as in Transdimensional Temporal Capacitators?” Connor asked hopefully.
“One and the same. Transdimensional Engineering makes the one component that is absolutely essential for time travel, the temporal capacitator. Without it, time travel is impossible. I’m willing to bet that if we were it inspect that travellator, we’ll find a TC installed in it. Ted Walters was the lead engineer on the travellator project.”
“That’s all well and good, but how can we tie all this in to Hagatha Jones?” Connor demanded, combining the word ‘hag’ with ‘Agatha’ to make a play on her name which had everyone snickering.
“I think I can answer that one.” Adrienne shuffled a couple of info-discs in front of her, pulling one out of a stack and scanning it for a moment. “Agatha Jones is using her maiden name. Her married name was Walters. She was married to Fred Walters, manager of travellator station fifteen, mother of Ted Waters who, up until his incarceration, was lead engineer for Trans... dimensional... Engineering!” There’s our connection and motivation!” Everyone grabbed the stacks of info-discs in front of them and threw them in the air, yelling and cheering.
“Who wants to be the one to call Duncan at home and tell him?” Adrienne asked.
“We all will,” Liam replied as he pulled out his comp-com, placed the call and put it on speaker, placing it in the middle of the table.
“What’s up Liam? Don’t tell me you’re still at work.”
“A bunch of us still are. Myself, Adrienne, Connor, and Anne. We were just hanging out shooting the shit then we started brainstorming about Ryan’s situation. One thing that has been bugging me about this whole mess is how did someone go back in time and plant the phony obit without us knowing about it?”
“I wondered about that as well.”
“Does the name Ted Walters ring a bell?”
“Walters... Walters... wait a minute. Doesn’t he work for Transdimensional Engineering?”
"Up until he and a buddy of his got busted for temporal stock market swindling by Ryan back in 2925, he was the lead engineer on the travellators.”
“No shit.”
“It gets better. His father manages travellator station fifteen. We’re going to go check it out, but I bet we’ll find that the travellator has a temporal capacitator installed.”
“It’s finally beginning to make sense now.”
“I’ve saved the best for last. Ted’s mother is Agatha Jones, who in reality is Agatha Walters. Jones is her maiden name.”
“Yes!” Duncan yelled into his comp-com. “We’ve got the bitch now. Awesome work everyone.”
“Thanks. We’re heading over there with Michelle from tech systems repair. Why don’t you meet us there?”
“I’m on my way. Don’t do anything until I get there.” Finally, a gods-be-damned break! I’m gonna see that bitch hung for this! Duncan fumed as he set the coordinates and jumped into his personal travellator. Being in charge of the Timeline Preservation Commission did have its perks. Just as he suspected, he walked into an argument with station security as they were trying to arrest everyone for unauthorized use of the travellator system after hours.
Duncan walked up to the head security guard and showed his ID. “They’re here on official business by my orders. Now, unless you want to end up babysitting teenagers at the retail center, stand down and return to your posts. Immediately!”
Mumbling and grumbling under their breaths, the guards reluctantly left the control room and returned to their posts. The electronics tech removed the rear panel from the travellator support systems console as everyone gathered around to stare inside.
“I was so sure,” Liam said, disbelief showing on his face and in his voice.
“So, what do you want me to do about this?” The technician asked as she pointed to the inside of the console.
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