Dr. Snip

Their faces if indeed they had faces, were hidden in the shadow of their hoods. A voice like glaciers moving said 'You disappoint me Errol, it looks as if we are not to meet again after all, I was so looking forward to getting to know you better.'

The smaller of the figures bent down and placed something on the floor between them; upon straightening again the figures turned to one another and in front of his eyes vanished in a cloud of sulpherus smoke.

Where they had been standing a butcher's knife lay incongruously on the carpet. Errol was suffused with a wave of Gods Love and fell to his knees in rapture.

God had forgiven him, and Errol reaffirmed his total devotion to Him and His good works. When the storm of joyful emotions had eased enough for him to get off his knees, he realized he was late for his interview. He put on a fresh shirt and with a heart full of Gods Love he ran out of the room, he had sinners to rescue

Steve and Angel sat at his breakfast table as had become their routine when debriefing, sharing a pot of tea. 'Well I must say I'm impressed,' said Angel, looking at Steve seriously, 'If I had done it my way Evie would be scarred by now, instead of being a happy mother of three. Not to mention Errol running around without any balls,'

'Thank you Angel I appreciate that coming from a professional like you,' he replied 'it's a shame they all can't be settled so nicely.' 'The special effects were very convincing, although to be fair I did supply them from the Twenty Sixth century.' She said.

'However it still seems wrong to me that you are changing past events' Angel admitted, 'but I must admit to feeling good about that particular one.' 'I understand your point of view and I feel a little concerned about changing the way things were.' He replied,

'But when you consider that there are billions of people on this planet, millions of those dying and being born every day, surely the few we save can't disrupt the scheme of things that much.'

'Perhaps not, but I can tell you that no Time Agent could possibly do what you have done so far, including me. It's difficult enough for me to help you, and I can only do that because of my faith in the World Brain; I have to believe it knows what it's doing.'

Implant

Angel decided it was time she started to train Steve properly, and to do that she needed him to have the proper tools. She sat him down and made her pitch.

'Steve it's time I did my job and helped you use the QT efficiently, watching you banging away at your computer and working out GPS locations before you jump anywhere is giving me frustration headaches.

You have realized the enormous difficulty of getting to the exact location you want at the exact time you want to arrive, it's time you had an implant like me.' 'You mean having a machine put into my brain? I don't think so, oh no, no way José.'

'Don't be a wuss Steve, you already have fillings in your teeth and a plate holding your arm together, this is just like having your own personal computer and communications system always on tap.'

'I've done OK so far, you said so yourself, so there.' 'I was being diplomatic, it hurts me to see you struggling with Twentieth century equipment when what we can give you is so much better, besides if you don't like it you can have it taken out again.'

'Oh, that's OK then, lets do it.' He said with a smile. 'What do you mean OK, I thought you were scared to have an implant.' She yelled at him. 'Nah, I just like to hear you beg,' he said, ' anyway if a girlie like you can have one, so can I right?'

'Girlie, what's a girlie?' She asked belligerently. 'Never mind, how are we going to do this.' 'Feed these figures into your QT,' Angel reeled off a Thirty Digit number, while Steve punched it into his Device. 'Whew, where did you get that number from?' he asked.

'Out of my head of course, same as you will be able to do soon; now you will have noticed I haven't fed any numbers into my QT by hand, my implant has already programmed it for me. I only have to think clearly where and when I want to be, press the button and I go there, clever eh.' 'We'll see, ladies first' Angel smiled at him encouragingly and vanished. Steve took a look around his place, took a deep breath, and pressed the button.

He was in a rustic paved clearing in a green and verdant forest, above him the sun shone down through the branches giving a dappled light to the forest floor. Looking around he saw Angel leaning against a nearby tree, like a wood nymph in her cat suit.

'Where are we, and when?' He said. 'Don't you recognize the old place? This is London 2525,' she announced with a twirl. Steve didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn't this, he could hear birds singing, and he could swear he saw the flash of a deer through the trees.

'Where has London gone?' She took pity on him and explained that what was left of his city was now underground, to allow for the re-forestation of Britain. Steve took a deep breath of clean fresh air and smiled at her.

'So far so good, but how do we get down to the city, elevators?' 'No, although there are some dotted about in case of emergency, we will use a Portal to get to where we want to be.' 'Why didn't you just take me straight into the city?'

'I could have taken you straight to my apartment if I had chosen to, but I thought you would appreciate this first.' 'You are getting to know me better every day, thank you for thinking of it.' He said sincerely.

'What's a Portal and where is it?' he asked looking around the clearing. 'It's over there, can you see the rose covered bower?' 'Yes I see that, but where's the Portal?' 'That is the Portal, we have just let roses grow around it.' 'Why?' 'Why not?'

'Why not indeed,' Steve murmured as he walked toward the Portal. 'Wait for me,' said Angel, 'I have to dial our destination before we go through it.' Steve stood and watched as Angel accessed a hidden control panel and punched in a set of numbers.

'Right, we can go when you are ready Steve.' 'Ladies first.' Angel smiled at his courtesy and entering the upright circle of rose covered metal disappeared from his sight. Steve took one last look around and followed her.

The feeling was identical to using a QT he was suddenly standing in a room that appeared to be on the top floor of a skyscraper, large picture windows gave a view of London very different from the city that he remembered.

The buildings were made predominantly of a glasslike substance that spread the sunlight into corners that would otherwise be prone to shadows. They acted as prisms to split the light into its inherent colours giving the whole a fairy like look.

'What do you think of it?' Angel asked quietly. 'It is beautiful, is it real?' He asked. 'Partly real, partly illusion, we are after all almost one mile beneath the surface,' she answered, 'what do you think of my apartment?'

He looked around and was somewhat surprised at its Spartan simplicity; the only form of decoration was a collection of Hologramatic photos on the walls depicting various historical figures doing everyday things.

Steve couldn't recognize them all, but in pride of place was an image of Bill Clinton walking a dog. 'Clinton?' He queried. 'What can I say, I had such a crush on him' she smiled fondly at a memory of her travels in time. 'What now?'

'Now I'm going to have a long hot shower and wash the dust of the Twentieth century off me, you are welcome to join me?' she said as she walked into an adjoining room. Steve was determined not to act like a primitive, and affecting an air of sophistication followed her into the room.

He again had expected a futuristic shower room with perhaps a sonic shower or something of the sort, what he saw was a hedonist's idea of what a bathroom should look like

There was a large pool with rose petals floating on the surface, and from a rocky ledge apparently twenty odd feet above, fell a small waterfall. It splashed enticingly amongst the petals with a cool welcoming tinkle, competing with the birds singing in the trees overhanging the pool.

The banks of the pool were covered in grass and flowers and there was no sign of Angel. 'Hello, where are you?' He asked looking around. 'In here' answered Angel, and stuck her head out of the waterfall, where she had been hiding, 'come on in it's lovely and warm.'

Steve bent down and waggled his fingers in the pool, it was indeed warm, and when he lifted his hand to his face he could smell the roses, permeating the water. 'Where do I change?'

'What? Oh I'm sorry I forgot your clothes are permanent; you can take them off next door and put them in the pink bin by the window, by the time you finish your shower they will be washed and pressed.'

She waded out of the waterfall and he was amazed that she was still wearing her cat suit. 'Hey, no fair, your still dressed' he admonished. 'Not for long' she giggled, ' watch if you like.'

She started to rub the scented water over her body, the friction of her hands combined with a harmless chemical in the water, began to affect the material of her cat-suit. Before Steve's eyes the suit simply melted off her body, leaving her as naked as the water nymph she resembled so well.

Thankfully the pool was deep enough for modesty so he went into the next room and followed her instructions. To save his blushes he ran from the room and jumped straight into the pool, which would have worked perfectly if he hadn't landed directly on top of Angel.

The impact knocked the breath out of her and she disappeared under the water. Although coughing up water, Steve was relatively unharmed by the impact and looked around vainly for her.

Fortunately the water was so clean and clear that he could see her still body on the bottom of the pool. 'Oh my God' he exclaimed in panic, 'she'll drown.'

He dived down and managed to haul her limp body out of the pool and onto one of the grassy banks. She didn't appear to be breathing, so he went into the CPR routine all police officers were trained in.

One deep breath mouth to mouth, then three presses of the diaphragm to encourage the patient to breath on their own. He persevered with this until during a mouth-to-mouth session he felt her tongue move in his mouth in a very sensual way for a drowning person. Then he had been spun onto his back and she was sitting astride him, with a big grin on her face.

'My hero, you saved my life, how can I repay you?' She exclaimed breathily and began to cover his face in kisses. He looked up at her grinning face that he could just see between the twin distractions of her naked breasts and suggested that she could go and make love to herself, or words along those lines.

In reply she just giggled, and wriggled her bottom further down his naked body until she was straddling his hips. 'Do you really want me to get off?' she asked mischievously, 'my lie detector tells me otherwise.' 'Don't tell me in amongst all that electronic gear in your head there's a lie detector as well.' He said despairingly.

'No my hero, at this moment my lie detector is my naked bottom, and it's telling me quite clearly the truth of this situation.' She said smugly. 'That's just not fair' he protested, 'I'm just a man you know and I haven't exactly been up to my ears in women recently.'

Angel immediately wriggled her way back up his body until her bare knees were touching his ears. 'Well now you are, aren't you' she said triumphantly and very unfairly rubbed herself against his stubbly chin. 'Right, you asked for it,' he said, and proceeded to show her how primitive a Twentieth century man could be when teased to the breaking point.

Afterwards Steve felt like he had been riding an unbroken mustang in some Calgary Rodeo, he ached all over and his back was tender from her nails. 'Did I really knock you out?' He had to ask.

She was lying on her back on the grassy bank chewing on a stalk and humming to herself, her breasts were still defying gravity, and sticking firmly up towards the ceiling. At least he had fully satisfied himself that they were definitely real and unenhanced.

'You could have done,' she mused to herself, ' perhaps I'm still drowning and this is just a near death fantasy.' 'I'm not that good' he admitted honestly, 'it's been so long since I've been with a woman I probably was as clumsy as a schoolboy, you must have had more experienced lovers than me.'

She was suddenly laying on top of him and looking down into his eyes. 'Listen to me Steve,' she said seriously, 'in these past years I've paid good money to have professional gigolos service me when the loneliness got too bad. But I have never enjoyed myself as much with them as I just did with you.' She bent her lovely face down to his and kissed him passionately. Both their motors restarted with a vengeance, but Angel jumped quickly to her feet and dragged him into her bedroom.

She had enough grass stains on her bottom as it was, and she wanted to relax and enjoy the next installment in the comfort of her once lonely bed. Steve woke up feeling warm and content for the first time in years, he had thought he was happy when he was using the QT Device to right wrongs, but he now realized what being happy really felt like.

His life had changed from being in black and white, to full colour with all-surround stereo. He had told himself he was a natural loner, but he had been fooling himself, he was a human being and he needed someone to, dare he think it? Love.

He turned on his side and looked at her, still fast asleep, she was bloody gorgeous, and she had let him make love to her, he couldn't believe he was so lucky. She had been totally uninhibited, so much so that she had to persuade him at times when he would have held back.

Angel was a child of her times, and sex was for fun and pleasure and she made sure she got both from him. If she ever got tired of being an Agent she could work in a Hong Kong whorehouse and fit right in.

He had sometimes wondered what the far future would be like, but this was a drug addicts dream as far as careful old Steven Steele was concerned.

He had one serpent in his Eden however and that was the fact that Angel did regard sex as just fun, and she may very well laugh at him if he tried to make more of it than she intended.

Oh shit, he realized I do love her. Who could fail to love a six-foot tall beautiful blonde killing machine with big tits? Well according to her, he was the only man she had made love to recently that she hadn't had to pay to do it.

Steve found that almost impossible to believe, although perhaps the men of this era were all a load of Jessie's and couldn't appreciate a find like Angel,

Yes he thought that must be it, she's been surrounded by a load of Jessie's, and now she's got a real primitive man by god. He felt a lot better in his mind, and leaned over and kissed her beautiful lips gently, so as not to wake her.

He got up quietly and walking into the shower room jumped into the pool, where he splashed around like a kid, washing off the smell of sex, but keeping the warm glow of love in his romantic old heart.

When she finally awoke Angel felt different, she felt tender in various places. Her implant did a quick diagnostic check of her enhancements and found all were in order, so she couldn't think what it was that had changed.

Then she remembered Steve and a smile lifted the corners of her mouth, of course, she had finally taken the risk of seducing him. Although she had studied his era she was well aware that primitive peoples could be easily offended if you said or did anything that they considered taboo.

However he had such an affect on her that she thought of him all the time, and from experience she had learned it was best to grasp the thistle and see what happened, rather than do nothing and never know what could have been.

Well she had certainly done it, in fact she was still tender from doing it so often in such a short space of time, but it was a comforting ache and she just hoped she wouldn't regret it.

She wasn't sure what to do next so decided to take her cue from Steve; he could be heard splashing about in the shower room, so she walked through to join him.

Steve was determined not to embarrass her so had decided to act cool and urbane when they next spoke, much like a man of this century might act, and see what happened. 'Hi' he greeted happily, as she walked in, 'come and join me.'

Angel smiled back at him and lost no time in jumping in the pool, 'How are you this morning?' She asked. 'Absolutely fine thanks, thank you for last night it was lovely,' he dived under the water and swam to the waterfall to give her time to reply.

Part of her was relieved that he wasn't crowding her and being all possessive, while at the same time she was slightly disappointed that he didn't try to continue making love to her. 'Your welcome,' she said lightly, 'I needed a bit of relief after the last few days.' And she began to wash herself all over.

While she was occupied Steve got out of the pool and going next door retrieved his clothes from the pink bin and got dressed. As promised they had been cleaned and pressed and smelt nice and fresh.

He concluded that she had indeed acted as if last night was a pleasant diversion and meant nothing special to her. Although expecting it he was surprised to feel such a sense of disappointment that he hadn't made a stronger impression on her.

Angel walked into the room clean and still naked, 'what should I wear today partner?' Steve looked around her bedroom and couldn't see any wardrobes or clothes anywhere, 'Where are your clothes then?'

'Well they are only Virtual at the moment of course, but I can show you a selection if you like,' she answered beckoning him towards a full-length mirror on the wall. At the wave of her hand her image in the mirror appeared to be wearing a black cat suit. 'This is what I usually wear to work, it's a bit humdrum but suits all occasions.'

Steve privately thought it made her look like a naked black girl with a white face and blonde hair. 'Do all women in this era wear cat suits like this?' he asked. 'Only if their bodies allow them to get away with it' she replied proudly. She flicked through the variations of cat suit, until she came to a pink one.

'I wore this one once to a retirement party for a colleague of mine a few years ago, his wife hasn't spoken to me since' Steve could understand why, in this colour she looked like a naked Barbie doll.

'How on earth do you get into these suits?' he asked. 'I'll show you', she grinned, and walked into a cylindrical booth in the corner of her room. 'What design did you like best?' She asked putting her long blonde hair into a type of shower cap.

'It depends on where we are going I suppose' 'True, it had better be boring black then,' she punched a set of instructions into a keypad inside the booth and was going to hit the activate key when she suddenly remembered something.

'Woops, I almost forgot,' she ran to a bin by her bed and selecting a black thong put it on, ' If I don't wear one of these, I'll have cat suit in places that weren't designed to have cat suit in them.'

Running back to the booth she hit the activate button and stood in the center naked but for her thong with her arms and legs spread wide. With a subdued hissing sound, nozzles in the booth began to rotate around her whilst spraying a black substance onto her body.

The machine was obviously programmed to leave her face, hands and feet bare, but the rest of her soon seemed to be wearing a black cat suit. Angel stepped out of the booth and let her hair loose to fall down her back like a golden waterfall.

After donning a pair of black pumps, and a sort of utility belt she did a quick twirl for Steve. 'What do you think then?' 'I think you are stunningly beautiful' he said sincerely.