The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 13: The Spying

June 27, 2014. Friday.

Sally sneaked through the field. For her, staying and doing nothing for more than two hours was worse than death. She glimpsed back at the hill behind her and approached the mansion.

George was never going to find out, but there was a reason why she was chosen to save the world and not one of her more experienced colleagues (even if there was no one beside her available at the time).

She had achieved the highest score in physical exercises and socialization. There was no situation she would consider to be dangerous, no obstacle she would perceive as unbeatable. Motivation and optimism were the weapons of mass destruction she wielded.

During the simulated missions, using her unorthodox ways, she always kept civilian casualties at a minimum. Once, she kidnaped the children of the terrorists who kidnaped the world leaders and asked them 'kindly' to give up after showing videos of hard spanking. Other time she brought a bomb to a space station, strapped saboteurs to poles and threatened to bomb them if they did not reveal the locations of their hidden bombs. She even had exploded the White House to explode a nuke inside it before it could explode.

In the cover of tall grass she whispered to herself as she got closer and closer to the wall, So, Alfonso, you sneaky slime, what are you up to? Thugs guarding the large house, scrap metal turned into weapons. Been there, seen it all. No surprise to Sally, no surprise at all.

After reaching the tall wall, through the gaps where bricks were missing she observed what went on inside the garden, then tapped a few barely visible buttons on her left hand.

So lucky I got you. She stroked her suit after its color turned to a mixture of different shades of green, making her blend into the surroundings. Have outwitted you once, you scum,— Her eyes narrowed and focused on the men in suits marching the perimeter,—will outwit you again if needed be.

Sally climbed over the fence and lay down face forward to the house. Figuring that due to the awesome camouflage the uniform provided, she was close to invisible, she bravely crawled through the garden. There was something natural about her movement as she wiggled her way forward no slower and less gracefully than a snake.

At first, she chose to check a wide tent the size of a small house erected in the front yard. There, men in white coats were connecting a long complex chain of wires, and dirty workers welded junk brought from the scrapyard into a round frame going upwards. A smell of melting metal coming from inside the tent filled her nostrils.

The bushes nearby proved to be a perfect hiding place and she used it to get some rest from all the intense crawling.

During the pause, she observed the house in detail: it was decorated with various ornaments of sculpted waves, white fancy columns rammed the second floor and the roof in every possible place, gypsum branches surrounded window frames. The mansion was three stories tall. Vines climbed onto a wide front balcony and stretched round the building covering at least a third of it.

All windows but one on the middle floor had their curtains closed. Sally figured it must be the place where the current owner of the mansion, Alfonso, spent his days. All the guards marched the perimeter at the same pace. One guard passed the same point in around seven minutes and a half. She saw two men on the top of the house circling its roof, pausing to chat whenever one passed another. There were cameras directed to the house entrance and the drive in, there were cameras watching the tent, the scrapyard.

Keeping her distance from the mansion, she crawled to its back, grinning at the guards that passed her tens of meters away and did not notice her presence.