Tempus Fugitives

Chuckling to himself he left us to resume our encounter and I got the impression that this was a deliberate ploy on his part to upset the amorous adventures of the clients.

Our first real embrace as 'husband and wife' left all of our cares forgotten. Our hands and lips seldom left each other and our bodies clasped each other, even in sleep. It was the most glorious night both of us had ever spent and I hoped that there was some way that we could make it never end.

End it did. We were lazing in bed after yet another session of love making when there was a knock at the door. I scrambled out of bed and dragging on my trousers went to the door. There was no-one there. I peered around the courtyard to see a woman place a flat metal dish thing on which were several metal containers on the ground outside one of the other doors, tap gently on it and move on, pushing some sort of cart in front of her. I looked down and sure enough there on the path outside our door was a similar tray.

I picked it up and carried it inside. We sat on the bed and explored the contents of the containers. One of them, a silver cylinder with a spout and handle, was filled with a similar brown liquid to that which we had in our time, but this stuff had a pleasant aroma, another had a cold white liquid that we were unfamiliar with, and two boxes with pictures on them depicting the contents in a bowl with the white liquid being poured over it. We emptied the contents of the box into a bowl and poured some of the white liquid into it. The taste was bland but the texture was interesting and it crunched as we bit into it.

Under one of the other dishes was a couple of square shaped pieces of a brownish spongelike substance. On the side of the dish were several small packages, some of which contained a yellowish substance that didn't taste very nice. One of the other package contained this black paste that tasted very salty and not at all pleasant while other packages contained a brightly coloured and sweet paste that tasted quite nice.

We worked our way through each of these items as we discussed our movements for the day. The first task was to find somewhere more permanent to live. We would then have to find a way to earn enough money to support the programme that we were about to put into action.

The receptionist was again on duty when we walked into the foyer. His tone hadn't changed. "Did Mr and Mrs Smith enjoy themselves last night?"

"Mr and Mrs Smith did in fact have a very wonderful time last night. Now we are about to check with the airline to see if our luggage has turned up."

We left him on that note and walked out into the clear crisp morning. The grass of the parklands was green and felt soft under our feet as we walked over it. The birds in the trees seemed oblivious of our presence as they whistled and squawked their songs to the world. We were not used to this sort of thing and, as we strolled, we luxuriated in the experience.

As we walked in the parklands we passed a number of people dressed in abbreviated clothing loping towards the city. The expressions on their faces ranged from relaxed enjoyment to flushed agony. A strange way to behave. Other people propelled themselves along on flimsy two wheeled contraptions, but the vast majority of them sat behind a clear screen in those noisy, smelly, fume belching monstrosities. With fixed expressions they stared at the patch of road immediately in front of them and reacted violently when anyone dared to intrude into their field of vision.

Coupled with this lot were several large vehicles containing dozens of people also staring fixedly, this time at the back of the head of the person in front of them or the pilot as he navigated his way through the streams of vehicles, stopping every now and then to release some of the occupants.

The first obstacle we encountered was that we could not prove that we were the people that we said that we were. We couldn't get an apartment because the agent wouldn't accept our word that we would be model tenants, he insisted that we produce a reference from a previous landlord attesting that we had never missed out on a rent payment or left an apartment in a dirty or untidy state, or had absconded with furniture or fixtures from previous apartments. Even our offer of cash for the first month's rental didn't change his mind. This was a problem that we hadn't foreseen, and one and one that we would have to solve and solve quickly. The less attention that we brought on ourselves at this time, the better.

We decided to return to the time machine and go back further so that we could establish some sort of useable identity. Next problem, the Security Police were keeping a close watch on the machine. Jadixna was quick to formulate a plan of action. "Darling, I want you to use your extensive powers of persuasion and create a diversion that will keep them occupied for at least two minutes. Then I want you to teleport over to the parklands opposite the motel. If we get our timing right we can be there and gone without anyone noticing us."

I wasn't sure about my powers of persuasion but I had a job to do. I walked among the students for several minutes until I heard the right conversation, a group was involved in a heated discussion about the American involvement in Australian politics. I walked over to them. "Do you people realise that, at this very moment there are several members of the CIA on campus?"

"Where?" The response was immediate and encouraging.

"Not far from here, they are hiding in some bushes watching a contraption that has appeared there."

The person I spoke to called for quiet, "Hey people, people," he had their attention, "On campus, right now are some CIA infiltrators, what are we going to do about it?"

"Let's get them!" The vote was almost unanimous and I was getting more and more encouraged.

Just then a small voice from the fringes of the crowd spoke up. "Wait a minute. If we start another fracas we could find ourselves in trouble again." I was now less encouraged.

"But they are here right now."

"But we still can't get involved in any trouble, you remember what the Chancellor said to us the last time, we were given a final warning." My encouragement had just disappeared.

"Wait a minute!" I was getting desperate. "What if they were the ones to get into trouble?"

"How are you going to manage that?"

I looked around until I found a female member who looked as if she could turn the head of any normally virile male. "If one of them was to make an unwanted attack on your person, how would you react?"

"I'd give him what for." She was quick to pick up the train of thought.

I didn't know what she meant exactly, but it seemed close enough. "All right, what I want you to do is to walk past them and then stop, turn around and go over to them and ask directions to anywhere. Make sure that no-one else hears your conversation, he probably won't know where you want to go, but when he replies, I want you to be standing close to him. I want your reaction to be as if he had made an indecent suggestion to you. Leave the rest up to us, do you think you can do it?"

"Is the Pope a Catholic?" I didn't know what her reference to this Pope person had to do with what I had asked her to do, but I got the impression that she was willing and able to do the job.

Off we set, they chatting amongst themselves and me hovering in the background. She was good, no, to give her true credit, she was brilliant. She was walking a few metres ahead of the group as if she wasn't a part of it. She strolled past the guards, stopped, looked around her as if lost, opened a folder that she was carrying, looked again and then turned to the security police. We couldn't hear what was said but the reaction was spectacular. "You filthy bastard! I ask for directions and all you are interested in is getting into my pants. Who do you think you are!"

Needless to say he protested his innocence, "What are you talking about. I made no such suggestion!"

"Bullshit! If you think that you can worm your way out of this one you've got another think coming."

I strolled over to them, "What is going on here?"

"This slimy creep thinks that just because I can't find my way around the campus I'm a helpless female who he can take advantage of. I ask this pig for directions and he suggests that in exchange for his help I should allow him to fuck me!"

Again he protested his innocence. "She's lying. I made no such suggestion, ask my friends here." His friends were about to help him out when she continued her attack.

"What the fuck do you think his friends are going to say? 'Sure we heard him ask her for a fuck!' Of course they'll support him!"

I walked over to the crowd, "I'm a member of the faculty here, what seems to be happening?"

"This pig here wants to fuck me! All I wanted was directions and he puts the hard word on me," She turned to her alleged assailant, "What accent is that? American? You think that you can come to this country and inflict your slimy American chauvinistic WASP attitudes on us. You're definitely not a Mormon are you?"

Both side took up the argument with vigour. I sidled away from the melee and looked to see how Jadixna was getting on with the machine. As the crowd grew in size I noticed that the original group of students had also extracted themselves from it and drifted off, satisfied with their efforts. I walked over to the woman who had stared it all. "That was brilliant to watch, thank you."

"No worries. I enjoy stirring up things like that. Why did you want me to start something, it wasn't because of any patriotic fervour or anti-American attitude and what is that machine over there to you." Indicating the Time Machine.

"The less you know about this the better. All I can tell you is that we are the good guys in this."

"You are definitely not a student. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Would you believe it if I told you that I was doing post graduate work in Temporal Physics and the dynamics of Time and that the machine that you are looking at is a Time Machine."

"Yeah right, pull the other one it has bells on it."

"Believe what you will." Jadixna's head appeared above the console and she gave me the signal that all was ready. "I haven't got time to stand here talking to you, I'm running late for an appointment."

"Maybe I'll see you around. I would like to know more about this Temporal Physics" I could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn't sure what to believe.

"Maybe." I walked away from her and as soon as I was out of sight I teleported to our rendezvous point to find Jadixna waiting. I scrambled into the machine, Jadixna set the controls and once more we were mobile.

The acquisition of ID wasn't as difficult as we had originally thought. First we opened a joint bank account, then armed with the bank details we applied for a Drivers Licence. With the Learners Permit in hand we returned to the motel. We then went out and hired a computer with a modem which we connected to the motel's power and phone lines. Jadixna then proceeded to access the computer records of the bank and Motor Vehicles department. She teleported into the Motor Registry long enough to gain a valid access code so that she could tap into the system without having to search for codes and passwords.

In no time at all we had current Drivers Licences and bank details which showed that we had been affluent customers of several years standing. With this information we approached another rental Agency and had no problems leasing an inner city Town House which was comfortable and unobtrusive and which suited our immediate needs.

With forced and false reluctance on both sides we bade farewell to the motel and its Receptionist.

We now set about acquiring the wherewithal to carry out our plans. Money, and in vast quantities. Our plans required us to obtain as much money as we legally could in the shortest possible time. We also had to make sure that anything we did and any method used would be up front and open to even the most intense scrutiny. If our plan to take control of the World's economies and Governments was to succeed there was not to be one hint of wrong doing on our part, even though evidence had indicated that there seemed to be sympathy for anyone who could get the better of the Government.

Cross Lotto, that maker of instant millionaires was our first venture into the realms of money acquisition. By zipping into the future we were able to get the winning numbers of the following week's draw and submit one or more entries with those numbers thus gaining a lot of money quickly.

We gained some notoriety as the luckiest people in the country when the media picked up the story after we had one the first division prize three weeks in a row. We were interviewed anonymously by the major television networks and by representatives of the Lotteries Commission. We confounded them even more by picking the winning numbers four weeks in a row, something that had been thought to be mathematically impossible and something that caused considerable angst within the halls of the Lotteries Commission. If the general public had known which was our door they would have clamoured to it but luckily for us they were kept in the dark.

The Lotteries Commission could see interest in Cross Lotto dropping off as people got bored with us winning all the time and their own chances of gaining instant wealth being eroded.

We saved them by publicly destroying the computer disk supposedly containing the probability program which enabled us to so accurately pick the numbers. We did receive several very tempting offers from people interested in buying the disk but felt that we couldn't in all honesty sell them something that didn't exist.

Having become instantly wealthy we set about establishing ourselves in legitimate business enterprises. Jadixna, using her assumed identity of Susan Smith, her knowledge of computers and programming, and Résumé that we had concocted, had gained work as a Computer Programmer with a company that had contracts with various Government agencies. By introducing the 8th generation program from our time she was able to write programs well within the contracted time frame that were not only fast and efficient in operation, but had both a self diagnostic element built into them which allowed the program to not only diagnose faults within the operation, and a fuzzy logic program component that allowed it to repair any glitches.

She was so successful with this position that within one month she was offered a Directorship and given a substantial share holding. This position also enabled her to gain access to passwords and access codes which allowed her to gain information that would assist our goals. Not entirely legal but who would find out.

I obtained employment with a Management Consultancy company which specialised in executive appointments. I was able, by using the Time Machine and teleporting around the place to accurately find the right person for the positions for which we had to find people. All the while I was keeping my eyes peeled for people with the necessary credentials in the commercial and legal professions for the company that we were planning to establish. It was a front for the other companies that we would be establishing later.

One of the people who had come to my attention was Micha (short for Michelle which she hated almost as much as 'Shelley') Longmuir, the young Thespian who had given us the valuable breathing space at the University when we needed it.

I hadn't realised at first, when she came into my office for an interview for a legal position that I was handling for the consultancy, that it was her, and it took some deft talking to explain to her how someone who was undertaking Post graduate studies in Temporal Physics would be working as a Management Consultant.

I was pretty certain that I had been successful at covering my tracks, but I wasn't prepared to take any chances. She accepted a temporary position as an Articled Clerk with a Law firm and I took the opportunity to tell her that I was planning to establish my own company and would be in a position to offer her a full time permanent position.

Also filed for future reference was Tony Phillips whose previous position had been with a marginally legal firm of Bullion and Commodity Brokers. He had the expertise in the legal niceties that we would be looking for in that area. Given our resources of time travel we had decided that Commodity Trading would be the area that we would most be able to exploit successfully.

We had given ourselves three months to become established within the business community and that time was now at an end. I left the Consultancy after announcing that I had been offered a position in an investment brokerage. Jadixna left her position, while retaining her directorship, using a similar excuse. What was not immediately obvious, even under the most intense scrutiny, was that the brokerage company for which we were to work was in fact our own. By establishing a confusing system of holding and shelf companies operated by non-existent family trusts, we had distanced ourselves from direct involvement in the ownership of the companies.

Our suite of offices were small but impressively furnished. It was located in a multi-storeyed building close to the commercial centre of the city. We had the necessary computer links, computers, printers and fax modems installed. The reception area was furnished in black leather and chrome. The potted greenery was hired and well maintained. The magazine racks next to the leather lounge chairs contained the latest issues of Rydges, the Bulletin, Time and Newsweek, Business Review Weekly, the Financial Times and folders containing computer printouts of the most important transaction from the international commodities market. On the surface of it a thriving brokerage with a large client group.

One thing that we didn't actually have was a large client group. While we didn't discourage clients, we didn't go out and encourage them either. We had a receptionist who was both decorative and efficient, and whose job it was to make sure that the reception area remained spotless and to fend off enquiries. Margaret Loveridge was in her mid thirties and had been trying unsuccessfully to gain employment after spending the previous fifteen years as firstly one of a pair of parents and then a solo parent. Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for her, was that the previous positions for which she had applied didn't recognise that the skills level that she had maintained, by undertaking voluntary work for school and sporting organisations, made her at least as competent as the other applicants for the position.

The Underhill Corporation, Commodities Brokers, was now in business. Jadixna was working on a method of fund transference by which we could move money around the world at will. She set up a system of electronic fund transference using the fax modem by which money could be debited or credited to and from accounts in any bank or financial institution without us ever having to carry out the transactions personally.

Micha was looking through the various Company Laws for legal loopholes that we could exploit. I was busy flitting around in time researching commodity futures. Tony would follow my instructions and invest long or short as dictated by the information I supplied him. He began to express his amazement that I, a commodities Luddite, was able to predict with uncanny accuracy, the rise and fall of prices. For instance, I told him to sell the equivalent of 10,000 ounces of gold futures at the existing price of $356 per ounce, then in three months buy the whole lot back at market prices. What in fact happened was that I was gambling money that I didn't actually have on the fact that the price of gold would fall over the next three months. On the initial transaction I made the modest profit of $240,000, then, in an effort to recoup some of his losses the broker that I had sold the original parcel of futures to decided to gamble on the price of gold falling even further and offered to buy them back in three months at market price. What he didn't know was that, following the initial fall and due to a weakening of the American Dollar, the price of gold rose sharply and the broker was forced to buy back at $417 per ounce. On the entire transaction covering a period of six months, I had earned $1.09 million that would stand up to scrutiny by the Stock Exchange and anyone else interested.