CHAPTER FOUR

"Candy, did you lose your father last night?" the Professor asked in a quiet tone.

Candy's eyes got big.

"How did you know? Do you know where he is, is he all right?" she asked all at once.

"Finish your breakfast, we need to find a safer place to talk, do you live near here?" the Professor asked.

"It's not far," Candy replied.

"We need to get some things. Can we meet you at your home?" the Professor asked.

Candy wrote down the address for them.

"Now Ms. Smith, we are not the police, but we do have a stake in what is going on here."

Again, the Professor cut his sentence short. He was not sure, but it appeared to him that their automaton waiter was spending more time at their table than necessary.

After they finished breakfast the two agents made a great show of heading in the opposite direction from Ms. Smith.

It took the two of them a bit to lose the automatons that were poorly disguising the fact that they were following them. However, when they did, they picked up what they needed from the hotel room. One hour later all three were sitting at Candy's dining room table.

Candy was visibly upset from what they had told her about what they had seen go on at the docks.

"You know several of us were suspicious, because of the way the new automaton population was growing, and how new ones would seem to magically show up after the disappearance of some of our older ones. We just could never get any kind of evidence, and even if we could, we felt there was nothing we could do about it. I cannot believe that someone would do that to people."

Candy paused,

"Professor, my father had so much more life in him. He was only sixty-five and still worked everyday," she paused again.

"Candy, we can't do anything to bring your father back, but we can try to see to it that others don't have to go through what you are right now. To do that we are going to need your help," the Professor told her.

"How could I possibly be of any help? I am just a worker at a cigar factory?" Candy said putting her head down on the table.

"The big cigar factory in town?" the Professor asked excitedly.

"Yes,"

"When do you work again?" He asked.

"Tonight."

"Ms. Smith, you just made my day," the Professor said cheerfully.

"I do not understand."

"Tidnab Industries maybe where the crimes are committed, but that Cigar factory of yours houses its power source," the Professor said with a smile.

"Now, we have a lot of work to do before your shift starts tonight."

"Larry, you work on fabricating some fake I.D.'s for the two of us, as well as trying to do some research on what tools they might need to get into the T135's control panel," the Professor instructed,

Candy was fascinated with what Larry was able to do not only in making the fake I.D.'s, but how he was able to repurpose a lot of her kitchen utensils for the tools they were going to need.

"If you are not police, then are you some sort of government agents?" Candy asked Larry.

That was not a question that Larry was prepared for.

"Well, we are not supposed to reveal too much about who we are and what we do, but because you have taken risks to help us, I will tell you that yes, we are agents."

Candy smiled brightly.

"What?" Larry asked.

"When I was a little girl, I used to play secret agent, now that I am in my twenties, I get to be

one."

Larry was about to correct that line of reasoning, but the Professor shook his head to indicate that he should just let it go.

The Professor kept going over and over in his head all the facts that he had learned over the years about blended timelines. None of the agents had much experience with them, the data base was sparse on information as well. He still was not one hundred percent sure that he even knew which timelines George had blended.

"Candy, tell me what a typical workday is like for you."

" Well…"

What Candy told him, was not much help. So, he figured when it came down to it, he would have to do what any good agent would do... guess.

An hour before it was time to go, they loaded everything in two black tool bags that had belonged to Candy's father, and Candy helped Larry and the Professor with their disguises.

"Time to go. Remember Candy, when I give you the signal, get out of the building," Larry warned her.

Candy acknowledged that she understood.

They made the long walk to the workers entrance of the factory and all lined up to enter the building. As the line moved along one of the automatons approached Larry.

"What is your job? You don't look familiar to me." the automaton said, gruffly.

"I am Frank, steam mechanic, Sam was ill tonight," Larry replied.

"Steam mechanic, well since you are here, my reclusive valve has been sticking, can you adjust it?" The automaton asked.

Larry looked at the Professor.

"Here allow me".

The Professor opened a compartment in the automaton's back and made a few adjustments.

"Better?" the Professor asked.

The automaton rolled his neck around several times.

"Yes much," then he just walked off.

"What did you do?" Candy asked in a whisper.

"I don't know for sure, as long as his arm doesn't fall off before we get inside, we should be alright," the Professor whispered back.

Once inside, they waited their turn at the timeclock. They all successfully clocked in.

"Hurtle number two," the Professor mumbled.

The two followed Candy over to her station.

"We will start in thirty minutes, but regardless if Larry signals you before or not, do not stay in the building any longer than two hours, is that clear?" the Professor asked.

"Yes, thank you, and good luck." Candy said.

"Same to you," Larry replied.

The two of them made out as if they were checking steam lines as they made their way toward the room that housed the T135.

"Professor, there are now armed automatons posted outside the door." Larry whispered.

"That does not surprise me. George will not take any chances with us in town, this may work to our advantage."

"How can armed automatons guarding the door, work to our advantage?" Larry asked confused.

"If they are on the outside, and if there are none inside, and if we get in, we will not have to explain everything we are doing to blow the thing up." The Professor said cheerfully as he headed towards the door.

"Oh, that makes perfect sense…not!" Larry grumbled quietly as he followed the Professor

The Professor approached the two automatons that were stationed in front of the door. The one closest to the Professor raised his weapon.

"It is time to do a maintenance check on the T135," the Professor stated calmly.

"It is not on our schedule," the one closest to the door replied as it looked through a clipboard full of papers.

The Professor recognized the automaton that was pointing his weapon at him as the one he did the adjustment on while in line to come in.

"Listen, if this unit goes down and they find out that it was you that didn't let a maintenance crew in, you will need more than your reclusive valve adjusted."

At first the comment seemed to have no effect on the one he spoke to. After a few seconds passed. It asked the one with the clip board.

"Did you remember to get tonight's work orders?"

"Yes…well, I was going to, but…"

"How long will it require to do the maintenance?" the front automaton asked.

"Two hours," the Professor told him.

"That is provided we are not interrupted," he quickly added.

"Very well, you may enter, you will have to knock if, for any reason, you must leave."

They entered and shut the door activating the automatic lock. It did not take the two of them long to open the T135's control panel. However, what was inside was a complete surprise. Neither one of them had ever seen such a mixture of control switches knobs and wires.

"Professor, this is insane. Even if we had a schematic, it would take days to even begin to figure this thing out," Larry said in a bewildered tone.

"There has to be a representation of technology from every time-period starting in the 1700's on through and perhaps even beyond our time," Larry continued as he tried to get some scans done.

"This is awe inspiring and terrifying all at the same time," the Professor stated.

They both carefully worked around what they could tell were alarm system triggers. After about an hour and a half went by, the Professor told Larry that he needed to get Candy to leave.

"Tell the automatons that you need to get another tool and go tell Candy to clear out," the Professor instructed.

"Professor, we are not any closer to figuring this thing out than when we started, what are we going to do?"

The Professor looked Larry square in the eyes.

"Agent Turnbuckle, you are going to do what I instructed!"

"Yes sir,"

Larry headed out, but when he got to the factory floor there was a problem. George was there with a bunch of his automatons.

"What is he doing here?" Larry mumbled.

He made his way over to where a small group of men were talking.

"I do not know, I just heard that Mr. Tidnab was searching all the buildings for a pair of fugitives. Apparently, one of the workers said there were two replacement workers here tonight, they are not allowing anyone to leave and they are questioning all the workers.

Larry watched long enough to see that they were going row by row in the questioning process.

Candy's row was next.

Larry got her attention. She asked one of the nearby automatons if she could go check on something. To her surprise he allowed it but came with her.

"Miss Smith, I appreciate your helping me in the past with my maintenance of the T135. I need your assistance again," Larry said politely.

He then looked at the automaton.

"I will not keep her but a minute, she will be back in plenty of time to answer all Mr. Tidnab's questions."

Both could see the conflict in the automaton. but Candy had never seen that kind of internal conflict in one before.

"This is really important," she said to the automaton, figuring that time was running short.

She then smiled sweetly at it and added,

"I am known to always speak the truth; I will not be long."

Finally, it agreed, then gently pulled on one of Candy's ears.

Candy's face went pale.

Larry pulled her to the door.

"This is not a tool!" The automaton at the door stated.

"Very good! I am glad to see there is nothing wrong with your vision conductors. However, if she does not give us a hand, Mr. Tidnab, who is in the building by the way, will probably take off yours…and a few other pieces," Larry added as he hurried past the automaton with candy and shut the door.

Once inside, Candy collapsed on the floor and Larry rushed back over to the Professor.

"Agent Turnbuckle, I instructed you to get her out of" here, if we cannot correct this thing, we will have no choice but to…

"George is out there, and it won't be long before he is in here," Larry blurted out.

"Alright, get her over here," the Professor instructed.

"Come on, Candy we have to hurry," Larry said tugging her over towards the unit.

"Dad, that was my dad, I know it, he was the only one that pulled on my ear like that…" Candy kept repeating over and over again.

"Larry, I have an idea, it is a long shot, but we have no other choice. Now listen carefully…"

The Professor gave him a series of instructions.

"It is good that you are here miss Smith, we can use your help as well."

"But that was my Dad…"

"Miss Smith, if you do not focus on what I am instructing you, nothing else will matter."

The three of them worked quickly as they heard more and more commotion going on outside the door.

"Out of my way you fool."

George said in a booming voice from just outside the door.

"Back away from that unit!" George shouted as he rushed in with several automatons pointing weapons at the three of them.

"Mr. Tidnab, the unit is due for…"

"I said back up!"

The Professor nodded to Larry and Candy and they slowly stood and the three of them took a few steps back.

"This unit is self-maintaining!" George stated.

The automaton that was holding the clip board began flipping through the papers attached to it in confusion.

"Another new modification?" The Professor asked.

George laughed.

"You cannot stay ahead of the new and improved Emit Tidnab. As soon as you opened that case, we began to protect ourselves." George said with a deep tone to his voice.

"Protect ourselves? It sounds to me George that the control unit of that tube could care less about you and is out to protect its self."

"What are you talking about Professor?"

"Why do you think you came up with the idea to turn humans into automatons?"

"Simple, to keep a balanced population."

"That could have been achieved in a much simpler fashion. Tell me George, over the last few months, what is the ratio of automatons to humans?"

"We are wasting time." The deep voice in George said again.

The expression on George's face changed, then in his normal voice he stated,

"I am in control, the control unit assists me, I know what you are trying to do Professor, it will

not work."

"No George, you will become exactly what you have created. A human looking automaton made, no programed, to serve the desires of the control unit.

"He lies!" The deep voice shouted.

George shook his head and stumbled back.

"Kill them, kill them now!" The deep voice shouted.

No! No killing," George said in a regular voice.

What happened next was an extensive demonstration of an external view of an internal conflict within George's body.

"You should probably get him out of here." The Professor suggested gently, but none of the automatons moved.

Candy went over to the one she was sure had been her father. She touched his arm,

"Please, for me."

That automaton communicated something to the others, and then grabbed, the now out of control Tidnab and took him out of the room.

They just got the door shut when they heard the Deep voice shout,

"I am taking over!"

"Now Professor," Larry shouted as he held on to Candy with one arm and twisted a valve with another.

There was a loud sound of gushing steam, then everything went dark.