Free Time Agency by Aaron Frale Page B

were in various stages of restoration. There was a framed news article on the wall. There was something familiar about it. It was an article about the bookseller. He donated all sorts of money to restore a train station. The station was over two hundred years old and needed serious work. Many people were at the ceremony to commemorate the station. The murdered bookseller was shaking hands with some city official, and one of the people in the front of the gathered crowd in the background was me. I was at this event. I knew this bookseller. There were also lockers in the background. They were barely perceptible, but I could see them. I touched the key in my pocket. I memorized the name of the train station and went out the back.
    The smell of crisp water and old building hit my nose as I dashed out into the open air. There was a garden full of fruits and vegetables in what was a mostly deserted courtyard. Several buildings with various doors leading back inside were my only options. Some doors were chained shut. I didn't have time to try all of them. A sweet smell of roasting peppers hit my nose. The garden was probably a restaurant's, which meant that there was an unlocked door somewhere in this courtyard, and it had to be near the garden.
    I went to the door where the smell was the strongest. The door opened easily enough. I came right from the courtyard into the kitchen. The normal hustle of the kitchen halted as the employees looked at me. “I just had to see for myself. All the vegetables are fresh and organic! Fantastic!”
    One of the staff stepped forward. She looked like a manager, but I couldn’t tell. “Oh yes, we grow it all ourselves. There is another garden on the roof, but I'm going to have to take you back to the dining hall. Health code standards. You know.”
    I certainly knew. In fact, I was counting on it. She escorted me out of the kitchen area and luckily enough didn’t escort me to my seat. I made for the exit. I had evaded the police for the time being, but I was pretty sure my cover was blown. There had to be some camera footage somewhere of me. I couldn't disappear in the crowds like at the giant bookstore. It was only a matter of time before the police would go over the footage from security cameras in the store or on the street. They would figure out that there were three people who never left the bookstore. I had some time but not much. I had to visit the train station.

Event 6 - J
     
    Jerry was covered in blood and running through a sewer system. He wasn't so well-dressed anymore unless disheveled bloody suits were the height of fashion. His body ached, and his head pounded. He had taken a serious beating. He was vaguely aware of how he got into the sewers, but most of his memory was blank. His first memory was when he woke in a storeroom of a bookstore with a dead body at his feet and a gun in his hand. He panicked and knocked over some boxes. Then there was a knock at the door. The only course of action that seemed logical was to make the person leave and sneak out the back. The person turned out to be some sort of ninja or secret agent because the unknown assailant took Jerry down. Luckily, there had been a sewer entrance in the courtyard because the police were hot on his heels. He heard footfalls and saw flashlights down the tunnel. He ran harder.
    He was faster than the flashlights and well ahead of them. For reasons he did not know, his eyes adapted to low light very quickly. As soon as he was far enough away from the flashlights to be in pitch black, he could see. It was like he had the infrared light spectrum built into his eyes. When the flashlights faded, everything seemed to have a green tinge. He couldn't quite explain it, but he was thankful because he didn't see how he would be able to elude his pursuers without the enhancement to his eyes.
    He also noticed his body had more endurance than the people holding the flashlights. He was able to outdistance them without exerting much