CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 13 - INTERPOL

10:28 (Paris Time)

Saturday, May 17, 1947 ‘B’

Time Patrol Paris outpost

Le Bourget Airport, Paris

France

The couple which had just stepped out of a taxi in front of the main entrance of the Time Patrol outpost at Le Bourget Airport stared for a moment at the transparent sliding doors, a mix of hope and anxiety on their faces. The woman, in her thirties like her husband, finally spoke in a strangled voice as their taxi was driving away.

‘’You really think that they will be able to help us, Jean?’’

Jean Demaersk swallowed hard before answering her, tears in his eyes.

‘’They must, Paulette: they are our last hope. Come!’’

Wrapping an arm around the shoulders of his wife, Jean walked with her to the transparent sliding doors, which opened automatically at their approach. Hesitating for a short moment, the couple finally entered what turned out to be a large security airlock, with a second pair of sliding doors opening once the external doors closed, giving them access to a vast reception lounge. The couple went to the reception desk along the left side of the lounge, behind which sat a young giant bald woman. The giant, visibly a person from the 34th Century, smiled to them and spoke in excellent French.

‘’Welcome to the Le Bourget Time Patrol outpost. How may I help you?’’ Jean Demaersk, a bit intimidated by the futuristic décor of the lounge, took on him to answer her.

‘’We…we have come, me and my wife, to ask for the help of the Time Patrol to find our little daughter, miss. She disappeared three months ago and the police is telling us that they can’t do anything more to help us find her.’’

The smile of the receptionist faded as Jean spoke, to be replaced by a sober expression as she activated her videophone screen.

‘’I will immediately contact the duty Time Patrol agent, so that he could speak with you. Are you French, sir?’’

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‘’No! We are Belgians. We come from Florennes, near Charleroi. I am Jean Demaersk and this is my wife, Paulette.’’

The receptionist nodded her head before looking at her screen, on which had appeared the head and torso of the Time Patrol agent on duty in Paris at this time.

‘’Agent Bigras, I have here a Belgian couple, the Demaersk, which is asking for the help of the Time Patrol to find their daughter, which disappeared three months ago.’’ Jean Bigras, sitting at his control station, raised an eyebrow on hearing that: the official mandate of the Time Patrol was to prevent illegal time travel and to help regulate the temporal traffic between the 34th Century of Timeline ‘A’ and the 20th Century of Timeline ‘B’. The Time Patrol, despite its relatively small size as an organization, enjoyed tremendous influence in this century, the result of its intervention in 1942 ‘B’, which had put a quick end to the Second World War. However, it had in theory no judicial power in this century, except on matters concerning time travel.

‘’Very well, Vana: I will receive them. Have them come up to the third level.’’

‘’Right away, Agent Bigras.’’ answered the receptionist before looking up from her videophone screen and looking at the Demaersk. ‘’Agent Jean Bigras will receive you right away. Please take one of the elevator cabins to your right and go up to the third level. Agent Bigras will be waiting for you there.’’

‘’Thank you very much, miss.’’ replied Jean Demaersk before going with his wife towards the three elevators visible in one corner of the lounge. The trip to the third level was short and smooth and the couple stepped out of their elevator cabin to be met at once by a young man of modest size wearing a form-fitting dark gray uniform.

‘’Welcome to our outpost, Mister and Misses Demaersk.’’ said the agent while smiling and offering his hand for a shake. ‘’I am Agent Jean Bigras. Please follow me to my office.’’

The couple followed him after shaking hands with him and soon entered an office where what looked like a large, flat electronic horizontal screen seemed to act as a work desk. Jean Bigras offered the couple two comfortable swivel chairs and went to sit behind his control station. He took a moment to examine his visitors, whose sadness was too evident.

‘’Mister and Misses Demaersk, I must first tell you that the Time Patrol doesn’t normally implicates itself in the judicial and criminal affairs of this century, unless some kind of time travel is involved. This said, however, the Time Patrol is always ready to

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help people in distress as much as possible. Can I have first your names and place of residence?’’

‘’We are Jean and Paulette Demaersk. We live in Florennes, in Belgium. It is about fourteen kilometers to the southeast of Charleroi. Our address is 17, Beaudry Street.’’

‘’Thank you!’’ said Bigras while finishing to type that information in his computer. ‘’Now, describe to me when, where and how your daughter disappeared.’’

‘’Our daughter’s name is Marie and she had just turned nine years old.’’ answered Jean Demaersk while taking out his wallet and extracting from it a small picture that he gave to Bigras. ‘’This is a recent picture of Marie. You can keep if. Marie disappeared on the morning of February the Thirteenth of this year, while she was on her way to school. Our house is about 600 meters from the school Marie frequented, by the way. She left our house at about ten past seven in the morning that day, so that she could have time to play with her friends in the schoolyard before the classes started. At about ten on that same morning, the school principal called us to ask if Marie was sick. That was when we realized that she had disappeared. My wife immediately made a few phone calls, to make sure that Marie had not gone to the home of one of her friends, but came up empty. That evening, when I came back from work, I learned that Marie was still missing and I called at once the local police station to signal her disappearance. Unfortunately, the gendarme on duty decided that this was a simple case of Marie running temporarily away and did nothing, apart from telling me to wait until the next day to see if my daughter would show up. I did try to convince that idiot that Marie was in danger, but to no avail. The next day, with Marie still missing, I called back the police station. This time, the head of the local detachment listened to me and accepted to launch a search for my young daughter. Unfortunately, despite an intensive search which went on for three days, no trace of Marie was found. Inspectors from Brussels then took over the case, but they closed it after a month, having found nothing about Marie. Since then, the police is considering her case as a closed one and refuse to do more to find our daughter. We are now desperate, Mister Bigras, and we have no one else left to turn to in order to find Marie, or at the least find what happened to her.’’ The plea by Jean Demaersk shook Jean Bigras by its evident sincerity and deep despair. He already had suspicions about how Marie could have disappeared, but the judicial implications of this case didn’t allow him to take a decision himself.

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‘’Mister Demaersk, please understand first that our eventual intervention will have to be approved in advance by the Belgian authorities, since the Time Patrol has no jurisdiction on criminal affairs in your country. Unfortunately, as you may already know, the relations between the Time Patrol and the Belgian government are rather, uh, tense.’’

Jean Demaersk threw him a frustrated look.

‘’Is it because of your declarations about the nature of Jesus Christ?’’

‘’That and also because we have publicly denounced the racist exploitation system in place in the Belgian Congo.’’ answered Bigras, equally frustrated. Many European governments, on top of the Vatican, have lashed out at the Time Patrol in general and at Nancy Laplante in particular following the publication of the documentary filmed during the 1st Century about the life and death of Yeshua, better known as Jesus Christ, calling the documentary a blasphemy. On top of that, the anti-colonial and anti-racist views of the Time Patrol have grated on many European capitals, as well as in Washington. Jean Demaersk, from frustrated, then became irritated and raised his voice.

‘’Are you telling us that you can’t help us find our daughter, Mister Bigras?’’ The Time Patrol agent looked at him calmly, understanding his pain.

‘’No, I didn’t say that, Mister Demaersk. We will find a way to justify our intervention. As for finding Marie or learn what happened to her, that will actually be the easy part for us. The problem is to whether the Belgian justice system will accept the proofs which we will find or will refuse to accept them and will then let go any suspect implicated in the disappearance of your daughter.’’

Paulette Demaersk then opened her mouth for the first time since she entered the office.

‘’Mister Bigras, what will happen to any suspect is not important for me. What is important is to find my little daughter.’’

‘’In that case, I believe that we could start our search very soon, Misses Demaersk. I now have on the screen of my computer an aerial view of your village. Please show me where your house is, as well as where Marie’s school is and which streets she follows to get to school.’’

Paulette, helped by her husband, did so, with Bigras carefully noting the points designated by her on the satellite view. The Time Patrol agent then hesitated for a moment before speaking again, suspecting that what he was about to say could infuriate the Demaersk.

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‘’Mister and Misses Demaersk, I must warn you about one thing: whatever we find, what happened during the last three months cannot be changed, on pain of changing history again and creating a new split in the timelines. This means that, if we find your daughter alive, she will still have to stay missing until today, in order to avoid creating a causality loop. Also, if we witness her death, we won’t be allowed to go back in time to save her, on pain of again possibly creating a causality loop. Playing with History is a very risky business and our mandate is actually to preserve History from irresponsible manipulations. While I sympathize with you, we will not be allowed to break those rules.’’

What he didn’t have the heart to tell them was what kind of horrors could have happened during those three months of disappearance. The Demaersk looked at each other, hesitant, before facing again Bigras.

‘’We understand, Mister Bigras.’’ said Jean Demaersk, his voice shaky. ‘’The important thing is to find our daughter.’’

‘’Thank you for your confidence in us. I will now have to leave for a short time, in order to warn my headquarters of this. Would you like in the meantime to have something to eat or drink? A coffee, maybe?’’

‘’A coffee will be appreciated, Mister Bigras.’’ answered Paulette Demaersk, imitated by her husband. Bigras nodded to that as he got up from his chair.

‘’In that case, I will leave you in the care of my assistant while I go speak with my superiors. I should be back in less than twenty minutes.’’

Calling in his personal assistant in Paris, a young woman from the 34th Century, Jean Bigras left the Demaersk in her care and left his office. Taking an elevator reserved for the personnel of the Time Patrol, he then walked hurriedly to the Scooter Hall of the outpost, the data chip containing the information given by the Belgian couple in one pocket of his uniform. Sitting inside one of the small three-seat time machines parked in the Scooter Hall, he noted carefully the actual time before powering the time scooter: he now had a sixteen minute play to return here to his office. Rising silently from the ground thanks to its anti-gravity field, the scooter then disappeared from the hall in a brief flash of white light.

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08:00 (New Zealand Time)

Saturday, February 15, 2998 Before the Common Era (BCE) Secret Time Patrol main base

Future site of the city of Auckland, New Zealand

The time scooter and Jean Bigras reappeared in a hall similar to that of the Paris outpost, but slightly bigger. The external view via the large panoramic windows of the hall however showed the sea nearby, along with the beaches to the east and west of the secret base of the Time Patrol. There were two main reasons for having chosen this location and time period for the base: first, no contemporary man was going to land in New Zealand before another millennium; second, the local climate was nearly perfect, being mild and moderate year long. Only the occasional earthquakes darkened this picture, but the base was built to easily resist such cataclysms. In fact the base was not a fixed structure, but rather a giant ship able to travel through time and space at will. If some kind of emergency or threat made it necessary, the base could thus take off and disappear towards the safety of another time period. Fortunately, such an emergency had never happened, the location and time period of the base being carefully kept secret.

Opening the sliding canopy of his time scooter, Jean Bigras stepped off the machine and went to the small duty station situated near the entrance to the hall, where a member of the Time Patrol was in charge of recording the departure and arrival of time scooters. Jean saluted with one hand the giant sitting at the station.

‘’Hi, Greg! I left Le Bourget at 10:44 local time, on May 17 of 1947 ‘B’. I need to discuss a delicate matter with Farah. Keep my scooter for my sole use until I come back here.’’

‘’Got it!’’ said the giant, who was bald and had six fingers per hand, like all the humans from the 34th Century. ‘’What kind of delicate matter, if I may ask?’’

‘’Child kidnapping.’’

Greg Thorgal made a disgusted grimace at that: the citizens of the Global Council generally abhorred violence and abusing a child was a concept as repugnant to them as it was incomprehensible.

‘’I hope that you will be able to find that child…in good health.’’

‘’I hope so. The main question is however if I will be allowed to search for that child. I will keep you posted about that, Greg.’’

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Jean then left the Scooter Hall, taking an elevator to go up three levels, where the executive offices of the Time Patrol were. He was confident to find in her office at this hour Farah Tolkonen, the scientist from the 34th Century who had co-founded the Time Patrol with Nancy Laplante and who was now its Chief Administrator. He was arriving near the door of Farah’s office when a young girl of seven years of age came out of the office. She was tall for her age and was also very athletic, while her black hair fell to her shoulder blades. Her green eyes sparkled on seeing Jean.

‘’Hi, Jean! How are you doing?’’

‘’I’m good! And you, Nancy?’’

Nancy Laplante ‘B’ smiled to him while answering.

‘’Very well, thank you! I am going to swim a bit at the beach. Will you go there this morning?’’

‘’Uh, I’m afraid that I am here only shortly, to take care of some business. Next time maybe, Nancy.’’

Jean shook his head in amusement as he entered Farah’s office: despite her young age, Nancy’s timeline twin already promised to become as much of a teaser as her big sister. Jean found Farah Tolkonen sitting behind her work desk, typing something on her computer. The scientist, who measured a good 220 centimeters but was of slim built, looked up at him with her yellow eyes.

‘’Jean? I don’t believe that you have completed your tour in Paris yet, no?’’

‘’Not for another two months, Farah. I came here to ask your authorization to take care of an unusual case.’’

‘’What kind of case?’’

‘’The disappearance of a young girl in Belgium.’’

Jean then told Farah about the plea from the Demaersk, also giving her the data chip with the information on Marie, concluding in a sober tone.

‘’I hope that we will be able to help this little girl, Farah. I don’t think that I will be able to look at myself in the mirror if I do nothing for Marie Demaersk. In fact, I think that it is high time that we offer our services in the 20th Century to help solve the worst crimes there.’’

‘’I would also like to do the same thing, Jean, but the problem is with those stupid politicians in the 20th Century, not with us.’’

‘’Then, let’s ignore those politicians and let’s act by ourselves for the public good, Farah.’’

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The scientist sat back in her chair, thinking about this problem for a long moment before taking a decision and then activating her videophone, switching it to the public announcement system of the base.

‘’Your attention, please! This is Farah! I want the crew of the scout ship ANGEL OF MERCY, as well as Mike Crawford and Assault Section Charlie to report to my office on the double for a new mission.’’

She then looked at Jean Bigras, who was now smiling with satisfaction.

‘’I am sorry, Jean, but you won’t be able to go with them: you cannot coexist with yourself during a specific time period and I need you at our Paris outpost. Once the others will be briefed by you and get instructions from me, you will return to Le Bourget to inform the Demaersk that we are starting the search for their daughter.’’

‘’Thank you, Farah. You won’t regret that decision.’’

‘’Oh yes, I will, Jean! I can already see the diplomatic hotlines between the 20th Century and the Global Council heat up.’’

11:03 (Paris Time)

Saturday, May 17, 1947 ‘B’

Dinant Justice palace

Namur Province, Belgium

Marc Labrecque, King’s Attorney for the judicial district of Dinant, was reviewing a case file when excited shouts from adjacent offices made him look outside through his window. To his astonishment, he saw a small, futuristic machine which was landing silently in one of the parking spots in front of the justice palace. A man and a woman wearing body-fitting dark gray uniforms then stepped out of the vehicle, which was the size of an ultra-compact car, to then enter the justice palace. Having recognized the newcomers as being members of the famous Time Patrol and being curious about their reasons to come here, Labrecque left his office and walked towards the main central staircase. He was however preempted by the appearance of the two visitors, who were climbing the stairs while being led by a gendarme. The latter, seeing Labrecque approach, immediately came to him and stopped in front of him, saluting him.

‘’Sir, these two people from the Time Patrol are asking to speak with you.’’ Labrecque eyed quickly the newcomers: the man was a colossus with an impressive physique but also with a frank and

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sympathetic look, while the young woman, also tall by average standards, was slender and beautiful, with blond hair cut at the neck. The man presented himself first, speaking a good French and presenting his right hand.

‘’Let me present myself, mister: Mike Crawford, Deputy Chief of Operations of the Time Patrol. My colleague is Agent Angie Wells, pilot of the scout ship ANGEL OF MERCY.’’

‘’And I am Marc Labrecque, King’s Attorney for the district of Dinant. To what do I owe a visit from the Time Patrol, Mister Crawford?’’

‘’To a tragic affair concerning a little Belgian girl who disappeared three months ago. Could we discuss this in private?’’

‘’But of course, Mister Crawford! Please follow me.’’

Leading his two visitors to his office, Labrecque made them sit in a sofa before sitting himself behind his work desk.

‘’So, what are we talking about exactly? I am surprised that the Time Patrol would be concerned by a simple disappearance case, especially in Belgium.’’ Mike Crawford didn’t challenge the tone used by Labrecque, instead nodding simply his head.

‘’Normally, criminal cases which do not imply time travel are effectively none of our concern, Mister Labrecque. However, a Belgian couple who lost their little daughter three months ago came to our outpost in Le Bourget to ask for our help in finding her. It appears that your office officially closed the case concerning Marie Demaersk, from Florennes, two months ago, for lack of leads. Is that correct?’’ Labrecque thought over for a moment before nodding his head himself.

‘’I remember that case. Unfortunately, no witnesses came forward and no evidence was found to help our investigation. The judge that I put on that case was finally forced to close the file as a cold case. I understand that the Demaersk asked you, but why would the Time Patrol want to imply itself in this file now?’’

‘’Because we have the means to find what happened to the little Marie Demaersk, by going back in time and observing the events on the day of her disappearance. However, this raises the question of the legality of any proof or evidence we would then collect. To find and save that little girl is the most important thing for us and for her parents, but we don’t want to see legal disputes concerning our investigation methods let

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a potential suspect escape punishment. We thus came here to see you in order to obtain the legal support of the Belgian justice ministry in this affair.’’

‘’I see!’’ said calmly Labrecque, who now understood perfectly what this implied. A good lawyer could probably throw out of court as inadmissible evidence any proof found by the Time Patrol via unconventional methods. He was also conscious of the cold relations between the government in Brussels and the Time Patrol. On the other hand, the life of a little Belgian girl was at stake here.

‘’And if you go back in the past and find Marie Demaersk, what do you intend to do?’’

‘’That is actually one of the delicate and also tragic points about this affair, Mister Labrecque. Even if we find Marie while she is in the process of being abused, or if she is already dead, we would technically be unable to change history. The only way we could do something would be to save Marie then and put in temporary detention any suspect, to transport them back to today. In any case, Marie would not be able to officially reappear before today and we may be forced to let the suspect or suspects continue their activities in the meantime, in order not to change history. Even in the worst case, you will then know who to target for your investigation and we will provide you video recordings proving to you what happened to Marie Demaersk. So, Mister Labrecque, are you ready to accept our help in this case?’’

‘’Personally, yes, but I will have at a minimum to inform Brussels about this, to obtain the support of the justice minister and to…’’

Mike Crawford then raised his hand to cut him off.

‘’Please understand this, Mister Labrecque. If Marie Demaersk is still alive today, the probabilities are that she has been abused regularly since her disappearance, maybe even raped by a depraved pervert…or worse. Any time wasted consulting your superiors, unless done very quickly, will mean more suffering and abuse for that little girl. If you really want to consult your superiors in Brussels, do it, but tell them at the same time that our ship will depart for the past this afternoon at three O’clock. Also, if you intend to have one of your judges to accompany us, that judge will have to be ready to leave at three, with a suitcase for a long trip.’’

‘’But, making the judicial machine move so fast is nearly impossible! Do you have any idea of the number of administrative levels between me and the justice minister?’’

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‘’If this could help convince your superiors, you can tell them that the Time Patrol is ready from now on to help the Belgian justice system resolve any problematic case of kidnapping, disappearance, murder or other serious violent crime. This is of course dependent on Brussels approving and supporting our investigation methods. Tell them as well that, irrespective of what we will find in the past, we will be back here this evening at six O’clock, and that even if we have to spend three months in the past.’’ Labrecque was left speechless for a moment, overwhelmed by all this. He finally got over it and grabbed the handset of this telephone, composing an internal number.

‘’Hello, Régis? There is something new in the disappearance of the little Marie Demaersk three months ago in Florennes. You will need to go home right now and pack a suitcase for a prolonged trip… I know that Florennes is only 25 kilometers away, but I don’t have the time to explain in detail now. Just go home, pack up and come back here for no later than three O’clock this afternoon. I will see you then.’’ Labrecque then cut the line and looked at Mike Crawford.

‘’Jacques Régis is the examining judge who was in charge of the initial investigation on the disappearance of Marie Demaersk in February. He is both competent and dedicated and I can assure you of his complete collaboration. I will now contact my superiors in Brussels.’’

‘’Thank you, Mister Labrecque. Your comprehension is most appreciated, believe me.’’

‘’You can best thank me by bringing us back that little girl, Mister Crawford.’’ replied in a sober tone the King’s attorney.

06:58 (Paris Time)

Thursday, February 13, 1947 ‘B’

Scout ship ANGEL OF MERCY

5,000 meters above Florennes

Belgium

Jacques Régis, examining judge for the district of Namur, still couldn’t believe the speed at which things were happening since the call received from Labrecque. The moment that he showed up at the justice palace with a suitcase of clothes and a briefcase containing crime scene analysis equipment, he was put inside a time scooter and brought aboard a ship of the Time Patrol. That ship, the ANGEL OF MERCY,

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measured a good thirty meters in length and, with its ovoid shape, represented an impressive flying mass. Despite of that, Mike Crawford had told him that it was part of the smallest class of combat ships the Time Patrol possessed. Small or not, the ANGEL OF MERCY had proved to be extraordinarily well equipped for their actual mission. Designed for armed patrols and reconnaissance missions, it had on top of a very respectable armament a number of extremely sophisticated surveillance and observation equipment, apart from being able to become invisible to both the naked eye and to radar. It now had been floating over Florennes for nearly a half hour, and this without anyone noticing its presence.

Sitting at one of the sensors monitoring stations in the ground surveillance compartment, situated just forward of the large belly cargo bay of the ship, Jacques Régis could see on a giant flat screen facing him a view of the house of the Demaersk, as seen from a spy probe floating less than thirty meters away and above the house. Apart from Régis, Mike Crawford and three other members of the Time Patrol were in the compartment. Two of them were women who controlled the spy probes deployed around the Demaersk house, while the third member was a young and athletic man wearing an impressive combat armor and armed to the teeth. The man, George Townsend, had been presented to Régis as being the leader of one of the assault sections of the Time Patrol, with the task of leading any armed intervention if it became necessary. One of the two women suddenly pointed at a small car visible on the main screen. It had just stopped along one side of the snow-covered street, less than fifty meters away from the Demaersk house.

‘’Mike, look at that car: the driver is letting the engine turning but doesn’t seem to want to come out.’’

‘’I see it! Gertrud, reposition your probe to the rear of that car, with a field of view which will include the Demaersk house.’’

‘’Understood, Mike!’’

Régis felt tension rise in him as he examined the scene on the giant screen. Everything appeared set for a typical child kidnapping scenario.

‘’Mister Crawford, would it be possible to print a photo of this scene on the screen?’’

‘’Certainly, Mister Régis.’’ answered Mike while approaching the station. He then pointed one of the buttons on the control panel in front of the Belgian judge. ‘’Each time

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that you will press this button marked ‘Print Screen’, the image you see on the screen will be printed in color and with the date-time and coordinates references in the lower right corner of the image. The pictures will then come out of that printer to your right. What our probes are filming is anyway recorded in our databanks, so we could even produce a video film of the events of today, if you need that as well.’’ Pushing the said button, Régis then looked at the nearby printer, in time to see a large format, high definition color picture come out of it. It fell into a reception bin, where Régis picked it up and admired it, impressed by its clarity and detail.

‘’My God, I wish that I had such equipment to work with every day. No criminal would then escape me.’’

‘’Here is Marie Demaersk!’’ suddenly said one of the probe operators, making Régis look up at the screen. Young Marie was effectively coming out of her family house, wearing a winter coat and a pair of mittens, plus her school backpack. Régis immediately printed that image, noting the hour: 07:04. Followed without knowing it by five anxious pairs of eyes, little Marie started walking along the street, heading towards her school. The car noted before started rolling slowly forward in the poor light of dawn after Marie was over a hundred meters from her house, then followed her from a respectful distance. When Marie started passing through a section of street where the houses were distant from one another, the car accelerated and caught up with her, then slowed down once level with her. One of the spy probes immediately got close and Régis was able to see and hear the driver as he spoke in a friendly tone to Marie.

‘’Hey, little girl! It is quite cold to walk outside like this. You are going to school? I can give you a lift if you want.’’

‘’Oh, thank you, sir!’’ replied the girl, who then got in the car, sitting in the front with the driver. Régis printed that image as well, while Mike Crawford whispered an information into his ear.

‘’Our video recordings include the ambient sound track, so you will have an audiovisual record of this kidnapping.’’

‘’Excellent! I really can’t ask for better. Let’s see now what that bastard will do next.’’

The answer came quickly, with the driver stopping beside a nearby park and then applying and holding a tampon soaked with chloroform under the nose of Marie while forcefully holding her, until she passed out. The driver then started rolling again but

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changed direction, going South instead of West. He continued to roll for a few more minutes, leaving the village by the Rue de la Tannerie before turning on a small private dirt road leading to an isolated house. Régis printed more pictures as the man, his face now clearly visible to the camera, carried the inert body of Marie inside.

‘’Damn! That bastard will now escape our surveillance.’’

‘’Not true, Mister Régis.’’ said one of the young female operators, a woman with exotic features but with a name that was nearly impossible to pronounce. ‘’I just had my spy probe jump inside the house via space-time. Here is your suspect, with Marie still in his arms.’’

‘’Well done, Lakshmi.’’ said Mike Crawford while keeping his eyes on the screen. ‘’Mister Régis, can you tell me if you would have right now enough evidence to charge this man with child kidnapping and to have him condemned?’’

‘’For kidnapping, yes.’’ replied Régis after a short hesitation. ‘’However, know that the Belgian Police has been actively searching for months for the origins of a child pornography ring that often deals in sadistic acts. If that man is connected to that traffic or is the main source of it and if we could charge him for those offenses, the jail term which we could then inflict on this bastard would be much more severe.’’ Mike Crawford stared gravely at Régis, not liking the implications of what he had said.

‘’Are you telling me that other young girls in this region also disappeared in the past, and that you found their faces in pornographic films?’’

‘’As for disappeared girls, two of them were effectively declared missing in the provinces of Namur and Hainaut during the past twelve months. As for the child pornography movies we confiscated, the girls forced to perform in it were masked and gagged and could not be positively identified. I am not saying that I am ready to simply watch and let that man abuse Marie without doing a thing, but you said yourself that you were not allowed to change the past.’’

‘’Not in a way evident in history, Mister Régis. However, with enough information on that man, we could possibly arrange some kind of setup that would take him out of the circuit without visibly changing history. The space-time continuum is fragile, but not completely inflexible.’’

‘’Uh, Mike, I am not sure that I like what seems to be coming up.’’ said Gertrud Schwarz ‘B’, making Mike and Jacques turn their heads towards the screen. Mike swore when he was able to detail the sinister décor of the basement in which the suspect had carried Marie. One corner of the concrete basement, with a mattress put directly on the

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concrete floor and with a long chain and manacle fixed to a wall hook, evidently served as a place of detention. The rest of the basement, separated from the detention corner by bed sheets hung up from the ceiling, looked like a cross between a love nest and a torture chamber, with powerful arc light reflectors and a tripod-mounted camera in one corner.

‘’And that, Mister Régis? Is it enough to condemn that bastard for child pornography?’’

‘’Unfortunately not. Those are circumstantial evidence only and this man could pretend that he only finds the girls and that someone else produces the pornographic films. We must continue to simply observe for the moment.’’

Dropping roughly Marie Demaersk on the mattress, the suspect then methodically undressed her, leaving her totally naked, before chaining one of her hands to the wall. To the disgust of Régis and of the members of the Time Patrol watching, the man next proceeded to rape Marie while she was still unconscious.

‘’The bastard!’’ grumbled Gertrud, attracting a nod from Jacques Régis.

‘’He is effectively one of the worst kinds, miss. We can now add the charge of rape of a minor to the list of charges. I just hope that he will not go further for now.’’ To the relief of all, the man then simply sat on a chair near the mattress and waited for Marie to regain consciousness. The girl screamed with fear when she saw that she was naked and that she was chained, with a stranger looking down at her. She then rolled in a ball to hide her nudity and shouted in panic.

‘’WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHAT DO YOU WANT?’’

The man answered her with a mean smile.

‘’Listen to me, girl, and listen well. If you stay quiet and do as I say, you will be well treated. If not, I will flog you until you understand you lesson. There is a chamber pot in the corner behind you and I will leave some bread and water with you. I have to leave for a few hours, but don’t think that you will be able to escape. Others before you tried, without success. It won’t matter as well if you scream: nobody will hear you from the bottom of this basement. This said, I will see you again this afternoon, kid.’’ The man put down a jug of water and a loaf of bread near the mattress, then climbed the stairs and left the basement, locking behind him what appeared to be a steel door at the top of the stairs. Going out of the house, he took place in his car and started its engine,

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to then roll down the private dirt road. That was the moment that Jacques Régis was hoping for.

‘’Mister Crawford, could you follow this man and find where he is going? In the meantime, I would like to search that house for extra evidence.’’

‘’And Marie?’’

‘’We will not show ourselves to her yet. I still have too many unconnected pieces to put together before I can put this man under arrest. Besides, you said yourself that you still had to find a way to arrest him without changing history.’’

‘’Unfortunately, you are right. This bastard still has it coming, though. Lakshmi, follow that man with your spy probe and don’t lose him, please. Gertrud, watch the approaches to the house and warn us if someone comes. I will go with Mister Régis and George inside the house.’’

17:16 (Paris Time)

11 Rue du Cheslé, Florennes

Pierre Gallien was smiling with anticipated pleasure as he stepped out of his car, now parked along one side of his house: he was going to offer himself a few delightful days of pleasures, on top of producing a new series of pictures which he was going to be able to sell for very good prices to his usual customers in Brussels and Charleroi. Walking on the thin coat of snow to the entrance door of his house, Gallien took out of a pocket of his trench coat his key ring and opened the door, then closing it quickly behind him and pushing the safety bolt: he certainly didn’t want to be disturbed during the few hours he was going to spend with the little girl held in his basement. Turning around to take out his coat, Gallien suddenly froze, while his heart jumped in his chest: three men had come out of his lounge and were now staring at him with eyes full of hatred. Two of the men, wearing some sort of gray uniforms, were pointing pistols at him, while the third man, dressed in a brown suit, raised his right hand to show him a police badge.

‘’Mister Pierre Gallien, I am Jacques Régis, examining judge for the judicial district of Dinant, and I am arresting you for child kidnapping, rape of a minor, production and traffic of child pornography and for two premeditated murders.’’

‘’But but who are these people? How…’’

‘’Agents Crawford and Townsend belong to the Time Patrol, Mister Gallien. They followed you and filmed you since just before you kidnapped little Marie Demaersk this

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morning. Their sensors also found on the grounds of your property the hidden tombs of the two young girls you abused and then killed during the last months. Mister Crawford, you can now cuff him.’’

‘’With pleasure, Mister Régis.’’ said the colossus in the group, taking out a pair of handcuffs from his equipment belt and then advancing on Gallien while careful not to block the line of fire of his partner. Gallien, a lot less massive and at least fifteen centimeters shorter that the colossus, didn’t dare resist him and was brutally turned around and pushed face first against the wall. Once handcuffed, he was turned around again, which allowed him to see little Marie Demaersk, now dressed and escorted by a young woman in gray uniform, who had come out of the kitchen and was now looking at him with a mix of disgust and hatred. Jacques Régis then spoke again.

‘’Know that we found the list of your customers and distributors, as well as copies of the past photos and films you produced, hidden in your bedroom. You will not be the only one to fall from high up, Mister Gallien. Mister Crawford, I believe that we can now leave…discreetly.’’

‘’What do you mean, leaving discreetly?’’ said Gallien, surprised. ‘’Are you really with the police?’’

Régis had a mean smile then.

‘’Yes, we are, Mister Gallien. Know that we came from May the Fifteenth of this year, traveling back in time to find the trail of Marie, who was then still missing. We will now return to the Fifteenth of May, where you will be officially charged and jailed before you are put on trial. In the meantime, your house will sit empty and will not be disturbed, to preserve the evidence inside and to avoid disturbing the course of History. Once back to May, your house will be searched in detail and the bodies of your two young victims will be dug out of your yard. You will then pay for your despicable crimes, Mister Gallien.’’

A brief flash of white light coming from the lounge then made Gallien turn his head. The colossus holding him by one arm pushed him towards the lounge, allowing him to see a small, futuristic vehicle which was now parked on the carpet. Its large canopy slid backward, showing a man in the gray uniform of the Time Patrol sitting at the controls of the machine. Gallien was made to sit on one of the three seats, with the colossus sitting inside as well while facing him. The canopy closed again and the machine rose silently from the carpet, floating briefly in midair before disappearing in a flash. Marie Demaersk watched that scene with big eyes, making Lakshmi Saduranidrasekar smile.

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‘’You will soon travel through time with us, to be reunited with your parents, Marie. Understand however that your parents will have suffered your disappearance during three long months. Going back in time was in fact the only way to find you. We will explain that to you in more detail once we will be on our ship.’’

18:04 (Paris Time)

Saturday, May 17, 1947 ‘B’

Dinant Justice Palace

Province of Namur, Belgium

‘’MOM! DAD!’’

‘’MARIE!’’

The happy reunion of Marie with her parents attracted a grin on the face of Jean Bigras, who had escorted the Demaersk couple to Dinant in an air car. Attorney Marc Labrecque and examining judge Jacques Régis also were looking at that scene with contentment. Labrecque finally turned to face Jean Bigras and Mike Crawford and shook hands with them.

‘’Gentlemen, working with you was a pleasure. We could not unfortunately save Réjeanne Lacroix and Claudette Vermillion, but that Gallien bastard and his associates will not hurt children anymore. I will personally insist on the death penalty for Gallien and, with the evidence you collected, I believe that my case is solid. Know that I will push Brussels to ask again for your services in any unresolved cases of murdered or missing children.’’

‘’The Time Patrol will be happy to help in such cases.’’ replied Mike Crawford.

‘’May I suggest that the services of INTERPOL23 be used to centralize all future requests for assistance, and this for all the member countries of INTERPOL, and not only Belgium. We would be ready to assign on a standby basis one ship and a team of temporal agents to answer the requests for assistance in criminal cases. Who knows? Maybe the fact that we are now available to investigate murders and kidnappings in the past will convince a few criminals to stay quiet.’’

23 INTERPOL : Acronym for ‘International Criminal Police Organization’. The organization helps coordinate the fight against crime around the World. Its headquarters in 1947 were in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, but moved in 1989 to Lyon, France.

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‘’That would definitely be a very positive result, Mister Crawford.’’ Mike then looked again at little Marie, happy in the arms of her parents, and told himself that the extra workload that such criminal cases would bring to the Time Patrol was going to be more than compensated by the satisfaction it would bring to his agents.