You Mixed-Up Siciliano

Marisol's Assignment

One night a wild young cowboy came in,

wild as the West Texas wind.

Dashing and daring,

A drink he was sharing

With wicked Felina,

the girl that I loved.

-- Marty Robbins (El Paso)

=/\=

There was nothing difficult about it. They were so careless! Information flowed like a rushing river. The double agents – for there was more than one of them – could easily pick up information from the Human Unit at the Temporal Integrity Commission.

The double agents would, for the most part, stay away from each other. No sense in creating a situation wherein some nosy employee would, by chance, put two and two together.

Therefore, even though they were on the same ship, unless, by chance, they ran into each other in the halls or at the cafeteria or in a meeting or elsewhere, the double agents only conversed when on a call with the remainder of the Perfectionists.

Whereas most of the Perfectionists knew nothing of each other's names, genders, backgrounds or locations, the double agents did have something of a need to know.

It wasn't always easy to walk by without a knowing glance, but they were well-trained, so they found it possible to exchange banalities when needed. They could make it look good.

They paid attention to all manner of details, effectively keeping their eyes and ears open, at nearly all times. They transmitted information about the state of time ship repairs, the training of new temporal operatives and, naturally, the times and places where the Human Unit was sending its employees.

There were plans to go after all of the units, of all of the species, but the Human Unit was seen as particularly interesting, and that was because of the mirror.

Except for the Calafans, the humans were the only species with an appreciable, measurable physical difference from one side of the pond versus the other. It was felt that, if they could fall, then the remainder of the Temporal Integrity Commission's member species would fold like a toppled house of cards.

The Perfectionists were counting on that, so they took great pains to get the information they needed, and to keep their double agents as well-hidden as possible. And the best way to do this was to have one of their double agents do things that were counter to the Perfectionists' stated mission. That person would help with decrypting the Manifesto, if necessary – even though that person was fully aware of exactly what the Manifesto said. That person would even, if the need arose, go on missions, and even act to undo any changes wrought by the Perfectionists. It was all in the name of keeping that double agent hidden, and trusted and, perhaps, above suspicion for far longer than anyone would have a right to expect.

And what better person to be trusted, than a doctor?

=/\=

The engineers worked together, banging away on the newest time ship, the Audrey II. Whereas all of the other time ships had been named, by Deirdre Katzman, after something to do with old time travel literature, the Audrey II's moniker was different – an outlier, if you will.

The original Audrey was, in full, known as the Audrey Niffenegger. It had been designed by Levi Cavendish, and it ran on chronitons. These chronometric particles could be streamed either forward or backward, hence, time travel was achieved. The original Audrey Niffenegger – the woman – had been the author of The Time Traveler's Wife.