Steve was sharpening his sword Excaliber; the sound of the fine whetstone gliding over it relaxed him. He could see the reflection of his eyes in the shining blade. They were no longer the innocent eyes, that he had before he had discovered the QT device.
He had seen too many horrible things since then, and committed horrible things in return. His eyes were now shadowed and dark, it had been bad enough when he had been a policeman. Policemen always looked at ordinary people with automatic suspicion.
No one was innocent, everyone had something to hide, the only true innocents were young children. He now knew that they would be lucky to keep their innocence, in this cruel and dark world.
He had decided in his own naivety, to protect the children of the world from the consequences of evil men's greed. What a fool he had been then, he saved a few, but there were thousands more being hurt.
He had attacked Organised Crime, and thrown a major spanner in its works. He now was studying the trade in young people from third world countries. He had asked his friend Merlin to examine the historical records of his century. The purpose was to find the most prolific exporters to the slave markets of the world.
Merlin had come up with the name of Kota Baharu, a town on the border between Thailand and Malaysia. It was about 300 k from Kuala Lumpur, and that city was very close to the port of Kelang.
It had been reported that young people were being shipped out of Thailand on a regular basis. Through Kota Baharu to Kuala Lumpur, and then sent by sea to the buyers from the port of Kelang.
It was a smooth professional operation and no body knew about it. Until a customs inspector had smelt something odd, as he walked past a container in the dock area of Chicago. They opened it up expecting to find a consignment of rotting meat. Instead they discovered one hundred dead bodies.
The container had apparently become lost in transit, and the food and water provided had run out weeks ago. This was what Dr. Snip liked, some very bad guys to punish, and innocent people to rescue.
No one but Dr. Snip, could track this particular container back across the oceans to its source. He looked down at his utility belt, to check that his QT was safe in its pocket. After having it stolen from his bedside cabinet he now wore it constantly, even in the shower.
'Fool me once, Shame on you, Fool me twice, Shame on me.' He muttered to himself.
'Talking to yourself Steve old friend,' asked the white bearded old man sitting opposite.
'Just a bit paranoid, I was lost without it. I hadn't realised how much it meant to me until it was stolen.'
'What is your plan?' asked Merlin.
'Follow container downtime, jump in, kill the bad guys, rescue the kids, jump out.'
'Sounds like a plan to me,' chuckled the old man.
'What's this? The World Brain, laughing? You'll be telling me jokes next,' said Steve with a smile.
'I'll have you know young man that I know every joke ever written.' Tell me old friend, do you have a sense of humour?' asked Steve. The incarnation of the World Brain thought for a moment.
'Yes.' Steve was amazed ' You the all knowing AI that runs your world of the Twenty sixth Century, has a sense of humour?'
'No, I was only joking,' replied the old man enigmatically.
Steve burst into laughter as he discerned the humour in Merlin's answer.
'I much prefer talking to you like this, it brings home the sad fact that I have no friends at all apart from you and Angel,' Steve admitted quietly.
'Where is my darling girl?' Steve asked. The image of Merlin closed its eyes for a second and then said "Atlantis."
The British Temporal Organisation had been asked to rescue some important scientific data, from the land mass that had been labelled Atlantis by modern day seekers of the truth. They couldn't spare any of their regular Time Agents but as Angel was freelance they asked her.
'Oh well no time like the present I suppose,' said Steve standing up. He slid his broadsword into the hidden sheath; that ran down the spine of his Kevlar greatcoat and saluted the old man.
'See you later Alligator,'
'In a while Crocodile,' answered Merlin.
Steve jumped to the dock, he had already programmed his QT with all the spatial and temporal data required. The container stood there empty, the small bodies had been removed the previous day. There were no marks on the outside, to indicate its source or destination.
There was in fact no way at all, that it could be traced back to its port of origin. At least no way known to man at this time in history. Steve stood looking at the innocent seeming steel box, reading himself for the efforts ahead.
He looked menacing in his persona of Dr. Snip, standing there silently studying the instrument of so much death.
'Excuse me, are you with the police?' asked a female voice close to his elbow. Steve was brought out of his reverie, and turned to look at the owner of the voice.
She was a small woman with bright intelligent eyes. He noticed with his policeman's eye for detail, that she was wearing surgical gloves.
'Forensic pathology I presume,' he said by way of greeting. The woman was visibly surprised at being identified so quickly, but rallied just as quickly.
'Yes, I'm Dr. Armstrong, and you are?'
'Dr. Snip,' he replied,
'Are you on our team? What branch do you specialise in may I ask?'
'Intervention and Recovery,' he replied. As she tried to work out her next question to this enigmatic man, she saw him walk into the container.
'Hey that is a crime scene you can't just walk in there,' she shouted. Dr. Amanda Armstrong was a very strong person; she had to be to do her job. There was no room in her universe for superstition or magic. However she suddenly had the feeling that she was alone.
With uncharacteristic trepidation she walked up to the container and looked inside. It was empty. 'Fuck this,' she whispered to herself and walked quickly back to her car.
