Agents of Time: Chapter Seventeen; Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

The adrenaline from the mission still hadn’t worn off.

James was sprawled out in the common room chair he’d all but collapsed in. He hadn’t moved a muscle in ages, but simply let his eyes un-focus, feeling his heart in his chest, the beat pulsing through the veins in his arms and neck.

Listening to his heart ever so slowly beat slower, and slower, each beat accompanied by a shaky breath.

The commons room was quiet; the faint buzz of conversation filled his ears from a few tables away. Footsteps echoed here and there. Mission chatter drifted around the room like casual gossip.

His mind kept wandering. Wandering far back in time to Verena. What time would it be there? Was it day or night? He had a rough estimate of how much time she had on the mission before the deadline. Four days. Not the shortest timeline they’d had to complete a mission, but that was together, and without a severe lack of technology.

James lifted his arm, maybe he could dig up some information in the library about this country. He had a much better chance of filling in the gaps of the story here than he did in the past. There was a chance Julians mission may be recorded in some part, unless they had completely wiped it from the system.

Willing his tired legs to stand, he tapped his watch, calibrating it to the library’s coordinates, and pressed it to the nearest anchor point, a wall a few feet behind the chair he’d sat on.

A perimeter lit up, and he stepped through it. The agency’s library was filled with tall grey shelves spanning far as his peripheral vision. The landing point where he stood was the center, with four large halls spitting off to the west, east, north, and south points. The library was largely made up of digital, blue holographic files projected down each shelf by devices planted on each end. It was still categorized under the dewy Decimal System. A separate temperature-controlled room in the back held documents that were too fragile to risk scanning or were simply valuable in their physical form.

Now, where would he find information on the tiny country of Belacruv, which until a few weeks ago, he hadn’t known existed, and according to the Agency, was not supposed to?

Might as well start with the name, Belacruv, and the genre, Historic. He tapped his watch, and four screens projected up from the floor, one in front of each hall, listing the hall's contents.

James ran his finger across the lists,

No.

No.

No, not that one.

There.

History-900-999

He looked up, the west. James stepped off the platform, boots tapping against the black marble floors.

800.

850.

870.

890.

Endless numbers passed in a blur.

900.

There was.

He read the text out loud, voice echoing through the library: “Belacruv, a small independent country landlocked on both sides by the UK and Scotland. Ruled by a monarchy, the current reigning monarchs are King Meisner and Queen Addler. Despite its small and mass of 200 hectares, its vibrant culture dates to…”

His voice trailed off as his thoughts overrode his reading. Clearly, the small country was doing just fine. So why was it considered a threat? Why had they been given so little information regarding the country’s monarchy and general history prior to the mission?

He scrolled back, searching for the date of 1920. Time to see where history went from there. He skimmed over the first part. He already knew about Queen Cordelia, King Aldrick, Prince Benedict, Prince Darko.

What path did history take without them in it? Words passed by in a blur as his eyes raked over the words, looking for “archduke heir”

There.

He read it out loud again

“Heir to the throne, Queen Cordelia's first-born son, Darko, takes the throne after King Aldrick’s death.

So, Darko was the heir.

Not that he could get that information to Verena now. At this point, all may have been resolved.

So far, the country seems to be running smoothly. While the archduke’s son was younger, with his mother as the queen, the duke, his father, still had his pull with the country as the prince came of age and grew in influence.

None of which were history-altering events, just all the money he could want and a seat on the council. Obviously, the country still existed, a quiet being in today’s world.

James’ fingers ached, he flexed them, giving a quick look at his watch. He’d been here for hours, scrolling through years and years of Belacruv history after the reigns of Cordelia and Aldrick. But nothing seemed to stand out. Nothing that would have dramatically affected the world's running, political tensions, or even wars.

James sighed, expressing so much energy from his body, he felt like a deflated balloon. Yet it didn’t disturb the heavy weight that’d settled on his shoulders.

He closed the file. Did the doctor know something? Then again, he had been basically locked in a basement. Who knew how much information he had about this? Either way, the only other person he could talk to about this was Verena, and she was a little hard to contact right now.

While the laboratorys where-bouts were unknown, his watch kept a history of past trips. Meaning he easily teleported there from the landing.

Bright LEDs washed out his vision, struggling to adjust from the calm, dim library filled with soft blue light to what felt like a million lumens.

Shapes rendered into machines, or worktables as his vision filled in. The room still maintained a sterile, eerie feel. But this time it was disrupted by tools cluttered over the tables and around the machines, including the time portal. Open panels, revealing colorful masses of wire mess, tangling around in controlled chaos. Or he assumed it was controlled. It could have been simply chaos.

Dr. Theodore didn’t appear to be anywhere. James did a slow circle, studying the machines and contraptions, some shroud in sheets and some half assembled. There was some strange-looking vehicle that looked like a DeLorean, except it had large metal pipes protruding from the side, windows at the back, and the hood had been removed, revealing an empty bay where the engine should have been. The empty cavity made the car look dead, like some failed zombie experiment.

Metal rang, shooting a firebolt of adrenaline through James, he turned instinctively, shifting into a fighting stance. The worktables far behind him remained empty, a wrench was still vibrating on the floor.

“Hello?” James tentative voice filled the room.

Dr. Theodore's head popped up from behind the worktable. Glasses askew and hair looking like it’d lost a fight with electricity.

“Oh! Hello young James. Theodore adjusted his glasses.

“Hello.” James repeated, lowering his arms.

“Oh. The doctor spotted the wrench on the ground between them.” You found my wrench. Brilliant. I just lost that.”

James glanced towards it. “It just fell off the worktable.”

“Yes, but I lost it, and you saw it first, therefore. You found it.”

James nodded and looked at the wrench again. Either way, it served as some sort of cryptic icebreaker, may as well use it. He quickly picked it up before ethe doctor could find his way out of his maze of worktables.

Gently tossing the cool heavy weight in his hand, he handed it to the doctor. “Well then. Here is your wrench that I found. What were you using it for?” none of the mess on the tables made any sense.

Instead of answering, the Doctor shuffled back the way he'd came, towards the portal.

When it was powered off, it seemed like a large docile machine, like a sleeping beast in hibernation.

"You’re working on the portal?" James eyed the open control panel. “That’s safe to do while it's being…used?"

"Technically, it's not.” Doctor Theodore knelt and examined a bolt within the panel." It's only being used when it's on. Doesn’t matter if someone’s been transported or not."

“I see. So how did I get back? Or taken back, or" James shivered, recalling the way his hands had vanished, “Whatever that was."

A metallic tang sounded as Theodore set the wrench on the bolt. “That's another part of the watches, like the tele-doors."

James looked at his watch, would it be possible for him to contact Verena from here? "So, they are connected through time?"

A grunt. “Something like that. “The doctor's head had disappeared into the control panel, colored wires spilling around his head. James settled himself on the floor, leaning on another sheet-covered invention.

He waited until the doctor emerged from the panel cavity to start the rest of his questioning. "So, how long have you been working on this thing?"

The Doctor closed the panel."I'm not sure." He patted the portal thoughtfully. "She’s definitely improved through. "

"I mean, I’ve never seen a time portal before, but it seems pretty neat. What’s changed since the first time?"

"It's faster."

"Faster?"

"Used to take half an hour to boot up." Theodoor smiled. He dusted his hands off and approached James.

James watched the doctor settle down beside him, his frizzy hair brushing James’s ear. “Has it always been blue then?”

"You know, I think you should leave the questioning to Agent Laufy. Your curiosity shines through too much."

James stifled a sigh; it was one of Verena’s stronger skills. Was she at the ball now? Would he be too late?

"Can’t blame a man for being bored," James covered his tracks.

Theodore considered him, “You must have met Julian."

James flinched at the name, but curiosity and surprise overrode it." How do you know about Julian?"

The doctor hummed." You reminded me of him, I suppose. I knew he'd approach one of you, and I set my money on you, young man."

"Wait, so, you know that he’s still there, why, why he’s-" James fumbled, his thoughts running fast than his tongue. “Why he doesn’t trust the Agency then?"

The doctor chuckled, a funny little amused sound." Why else do you think I’ve been locked up down here building this?"

It didn’t answer his questions, but he could ask that later." Can you get me back?"

Theodore raised his eyebrows. "Eagar, eh? Don’t you want to know?"

James wrestled over a yes and no. He needed to get back to Verena, the urgency to stop her growing by the hour. He still wasn’t sure why.

"I do but,” James swallowed.

The doctor stood with a groan and made his way over to the machine. “But you want to get back.”

He pulled the lever down, promoting the machine to hum. “I’ll tell you this much, Julian is correct. He’s a very passionate man who puts his heart into what he cares about. He'd die to protect that timeline. As it stands, he just might."

A flash of light erupted out of the portal, a blue cast washing over the doctor as James stumbled to a stand.

As the sheet of light stabilized, the doctor waved him through, “Go!"

So he went, leaping through the light, a plan forming in his mind.