Chapter 15
I was all packed and ready to go. I had clean clothes set out for tomorrow's departure, and was getting ready to go out to dinner. I was still pissed off with the people who had searched my room, and I was almost a hundred percent sure it had come at lord John Avery-Smythe's orders.
What was that old saying? 'No good deed goes unpunished'? Not once, but twice, I return a piece of their family history to them. Now I am being hounded by intelligence people from England; and the FBI in my own country was on me, for a while.
Well, this time around, I had done nothing even remotely worthy of investigation, if you discount my 'back timing' to collect autographs, and my 1970's trip to the ABBA concert.
As much as I was going to hate doing it, I was going to have to scratch off visiting England for the foreseeable future.
This meant I was going to have to start learning languages. I planned to do some serious 'back time' trips in Europe. Perhaps I could Go to France, 'back time it' and then still get to England, only the England of the past. It was a thought worth considering.
There was a knock on the door. I put my paper down (the one with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's autograph, I was reading the installment of Sherlock Holmes that was in it), and answered the door.
"May I come in," John Avery-Symthe asked me as soon as I opened the door.
I stared for a moment.
"Sure why not. If I don't let you in, most likely a goon squad would arrive in mere moments," I said sardonically, moving aside to let him in.
"I apologize. I in no way wished to offend you. My only defense is the incredible coincidence of that man from the past. You look so much like him, and your ability to discover rare things from the past, well..." he walked over to my paper and picked it up.
"Like this for example. Do you know how hard it is to come up with memorabilia of Doyle? Yet you come, and not only get a signed autograph on a newspaper of the day, but it is like new. I had the signature authenticated. It is his, beyond a doubt.
"You're a mystery to me. I really think you are not only what you appear to be, a genuinely helpful young man, but I think you have access to something that is amazing. Or else you are much, much older than you appear.
"I doubt you are older than you appear, because as one ages, one gets perspective, and also life experience. Everything about you screams you're what you purport to be, age wise. No, you're definitely 22, almost 23, and a very wealthy young man.
"Which leaves me with the only other conclusion. You have a way of traveling in time, my young friend. Tell me I am wrong," he finally finished.
"You're wrong," I said with a panicky feeling.
He snorted, saying, "That wasn't very convincing."
"I am not responsible for your state of mind. If you want to believe in time travel, that's you're problem. Just try not to let it spill over onto me, will you?" I asked with exasperation.
He laughed and said, "There are other reasons for me thinking you can travel in time, and I don't believe your government is responsible for your being able to do it. I think either it is a very private organization; or, it is an ability that you have developed yourself," he said with damnable accuracy.
"If what you say is true, that I can go back in time, how do you know it isn't with the help of my government?" I asked curiously.
"For one, no government would allow you to make the money you did from going back in time. Second, the ability to travel in time is the dream of plenty of people the world over, government representatives included. Also, I doubt they would let you come here to go back in time.
"This newspaper," he said, holding up the 'Holmes paper', "tells me it is YOU, and not some government that is doing this. I would know if your government, or some other government, was trying something in my country. You, are the unknown, Sir.
"While most governments want to present an altruistic face to the public, this capability would be so secret, that I doubt someone like you would be involved in it. No, it has to be a private, or a personal ability.
"I would venture to say, it would take a lot of power to go back in time, and our local power company shows no extraordinary drains, even with you visiting. So it has to be an unknown power source. That leaves the untapped potential of the mind, and that leaves you, as the sole 'heir apparent' to time travel," Sir Avery-Smythe said with finality.
I clapped my hands together loudly. "Bravo! When do you take this act on the road?" I asked with bluff enthusiasm.
In reality I was sick to my stomach. This guy was dead on! He set my paper down gently.
"I am not your enemy, Tom. I did not come with a 'wire', as you Americans say. There are no agents waiting to whisk you off to some secret laboratory. I wanted you to know there are honorable people left in this world, still. I think we are friends."
Having said that, he left!
Well! I pondered my visit with the lord Avery-Smythe. This was a totally unexpected turn of events. The way he played Sherlock; and put clues together to arrive at a conclusion like that, and be so 'dead on' to boot, was frightening!
It was good to be back home. Well, not my real home, but my new home in my gated community outside of Boston. I could see that everything I had wanted modified while I was gone either had been done, or was almost finished. Good. I could now bring all my treasures and items from the past, 'home'. I had a place to store clothing, and guns; and I had a walk in safe that was very strong, and very protected. And is was all in one building: my new house.
It took me a few days, but I got everything transported, and felt pleased to have everything close at hand. I cleaned my old flintlock rifle, and my musket, and the flintlock pistol, then put them in their display cases.
The gold coins I stacked neatly in a metal drawer, that was lined and padded with a non acidic cloth. The gold nuggets, and gold dust, I put together in another drawer. I locked those away as well. Stock certificates and bearer bonds I placed in yet another drawer. I also had a hundred thousand dollars cash, emergency money, which I also put in the vault.
I went back to my office in Boston, and got caught up on what my foundation had been doing. Good things, so far. Since I had gone on my little trip, they had given away three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to worthy causes.
I don't mean 'Catholic relief charities', I mean a few thousand to this or that humane society, which needed extra funding. Several anonymous donations to hospitals, to cover bills for operations.
My research people were responsible for most of the donations, and I congratulated them on their finding and getting the manager and disbursement officers to fund them. We had also donated to the local zoo, which I was a nut about. Zoo's were an important part of a city, and I considered this to be a fine one. We also gave a quarter million to the local art museum, as well as another quarter of a million to the local parks department. This was after my return, of course. I had to sign for that large an amount.
I looked over the list of people we had helped during my absence. Most had been victims of robberies or 'mother nature'. Of course, there was the money for operations and medical treatments; but still, all in all, it was a nice coming home present.
I also donated to the fireman's retirement fund. They were very grateful for the two hundred and fifty thousand I donated, and I was told I would get complimentary tickets to their annual ball from now on. I thanked them, and said 'two, please'.
It was while I was in a nice restaurant in downtown Boston, that I saw a state representative from my home state, being very friendly with a female who was not his wife. I frowned. He was one of the people I was trying to get a handle on from some time ago. He was a back room deal maker, who was not above threatening people to get their votes for his projects and bills.
I made a mental note to call a certain reporter from the Clayton City Bugler, and see what the status of this man was, which I did when I got home. The man I wanted was out, so I left my number for him. He called me back about two hours later.
"Well, well. The young man who inherited everything! How are you?" Robert Simpson asked me.
"Pretty good. Got a question about a certain state representative of ours. Last I heard he was married, and is currently in Boston," I said, and outlined what I had seen in the restaurant.
"He is a senior senator elected to our state senate 5 times now. While some things he has done in the past seem questionable, nothing ever stuck to him that stunk. You say he is carrying on with another woman while he is in Boston?" Robert asked excitedly.
"Well, I don't know for sure, but I am sure that the Psychic could find out," I said solemnly.
We talked a few more minutes, and I told him I would see what I could find out from my end. Which is how I wound up watching one of my senators engaging in extramarital sex. I took pictures of course. I also discovered that he was in town looking at a local defense contractor, who had contacts in Washington that he wanted to use.
That got me thinking of what my elected officials to Washington were doing. If a elected official for my state was doing dirty stuff, and getting away with it, what were the national leaders doing and getting away with?
Damn! There was so much I wanted to do, yet there were a myriad of people to look into if I wanted a certain piece of mind.
Wait a minute! Wasn't I getting ready to do what I despised most? Spying on someone? And I didn't even have the excuse of knowing they committed a crime! They just were in a position of power and authority, and therefore suspect!
I had to rethink my whole idea of how I wanted to look into the government. I was in a position to bring down people. As I pondered this, I remembered that mysterious 'council', also. This did not sound very good to me.
I expressed the photos to Robert, and decided to let him do what he would with them. I was going to take a little trip into the past. I wanted nothing to be on my thoughts except where and what I was going to be doing.
I went to a local costume shop. I had ordered several period costumes and equipment from them in the past (no pun intended). They had several sets ready, but were still putting the finishing touches on other sets for me. Well, that was fine. It was going to be a few days before everything I needed was ready, and I could wait. Time, was something I had plenty of, after all.
I pondered lord Avery-Smythe. What was it about his family that drew me so. Also, why would an otherwise intelligent man assume I could travel in time? This was an impossible thought when you said it out loud, yet he somehow knew I could do it! With just a little coincidence, he had put it all together.
I shook my head. It didn't do any good to dwell on this subject. If he was going to tell someone, he would. So far I had no problems with my government or his, that I knew of. No 'shadows' like I had before. Perhaps he meant what he had said.
Three days later I took delivery of the last of my costumes, which were as authentic as could be made. I had remembered my last foray into the past, getting gold from the Sutter's mill area. I decided I definitely had to have better protection.
I hated to do it, but I was going to have to take a bit of extra firepower with me. My last trip had been an eye opener, to say the least. I really wanted to go 'back diving', in England though. There is a famous story of a king losing a whole lot of the crown jewels, and other treasure, while crossing a river. It would be nice to find some of that!
The only problem is, if I did find some of that treasure, the English would be all over me like stink on shit. There is no way I would be allowed to keep any of it if I did find it. There were documented cases of people finding bits and pieces of it over the years, and bad things had happened to them.
That is, until recently. A farmer who had a farm along that very same river where the king of old lost so much of the treasure, found some gold. He gained fame. If I understood correctly, the government paid him a small finders fee, but took the bits of gold he found. The government still considered it THEIRS.
So here I was, stuck in America, and I wanted to be in England. What to do? I considered my options. Hmm, what if I went back to say, just before they started issuing passports? I could pack my clothing and equipment in old-fashioned steamer trunks, and take a ship to England! It would involve traveling over the ocean in a time when it took weeks to get to England, but still, it would bypass modern customs neatly. I'd had no problem with customs of a hundred years ago or more, checking my belongings. That's what I would do! Now all I needed was to get the right dates, and take an early steamer across. I would need sufficient money of the time, and period clothes, but it should work!
Edited by TeNderLoin