CHAPTER THREE

“They should have been here by now! I know the Director is not one to let a trail go cold!” Nick said as he passed back and forth.

“Sir, we don’t have much…”

“Time? Is that what you were going to say?” Nick asked as his eyes blazed.

He grabbed the poor guy quickly by the shirt collar.

“Listen you fool, time is the least of my concerns. 

Nick shoved the guy backwards over a table and then looked around the room.

“Anyone else have a concern they would like to mention?”

The room was silent.

Nick was a big man, and everyone knew he had a short fuse. All the men that had joined up with him were no slouches in size or temperament either, but they had just been reminded that he could handle anyone of them if necessary.

“I didn’t think so. Now, since our dear Director is slow in taking the bait, you boys go ahead and run down to the pub and give the dance girls the message they are to deliver tonight,” Nick said in a calmer tone.

“Oh yea, make sure you remind them that if they want to see their family alive tonight when they get home, they better make sure they tap out the right code,” Nick added with a smile.

***************

Nick had taken control of most of this sizable Irish town. He had most of those officials under his control, and all the farmers in the countryside, had a great appreciation for Nicks generosity. They had no clue why he would pay such a generous amount to rent a tiny piece of their land to bury a small box that did not seem to interfere with any of their crops. All he asked was that they promptly forget that it was there.

It did not take them long to discover that the agreement they signed was a trick to give Nick complete control of their land. Within a month all their crops failed, and then for next three harvest seasons in a row. All the farms, weather they had boxes buried in them or not were bought up by Nick. He allowed the families to stay in their houses, in exchange for working the fields. As suddenly as the farms failed, they began thriving again.

He placed several additional buildings on each farm that housed many odd looking, steam powered machines. He also had two or three of his hired men to guard these buildings.

With almost all his trans-locators that were buried throughout the farmland country side about ready to be brought on line, the delay of not detecting any TimeLine Agents was really beginning to bug him.

“Have you run a check to make sure that each trans-locator has power and is communicating with the enhancers?” Nick asked gruffly.

“Yes, three times on different channels, just like you asked,” Came the reply in the same gruff tone.

Nick started towards the one who answered then stopped.

“If I did not need you for this part, you would be in worse shape than the last fool that answered me in that tone. As much as I have enjoyed taking over and running this town, my greatest joy will be making a mockery of whatever fool agents the director decides to send. It is time this Agency and it’s Director learn that they scorned the best agent they ever had!”

***************

The men Nick had sent into town burst into the dancers dressing room. These young ladies were mostly the daughters of the farmers who had their land taken from them by Nick. They would perform on the weekends to earn a few extra pounds for their families. 

“What is the big idea? Don’t you know how to knock? Get outta here.” Gilda, the oldest and leader of the dance troupe yelled as she threw a bunch of shoes at the men.

“Easy there Gilda, you damage your tap shoes, and you might send the wrong message. You mess that up, and you and your girls will all be orphans,” one of the men said.

“If you don’t learn to knock before you come in, you men will never be able to have a family!”

 Gilda threw another shoe that hit the man’s leg.

“Watch yourself their lady! Here is tonight’s message.”

The man quickly placed the paper on the table and hurried out and shut the door as a bulrush of shoes hit against the door.

“Get it right Gilda, or what will be coming at you can’t be stopped by a door!”

Gilda stormed over and picked up the paper. Nick had cleverly choreographed the tap steps that the girls used to send a Morse code message to his contacts that would be in the audience. These messages ranged from what banks to rob, to who had to be disposed of that week.

          It was not that Nick did not have better ways of giving out orders. This method was simply more fun. Besides being “cheated” out of the director’s position, he also was slighted as a musical composer in his youth.

          When the girls came out of the dressing room. The man who had the shoes thrown at him stepped out from behind a pole and grabbed Gilda by the arm and gave her a kiss. This promptly got his face slapped. He put her arm behind her back and forced her to the floor. The other men stooped the girls from coming to her aide.

          “You hurt my legs, and your boss ain’t gonna be happy.” Gilda said as she grabbed his shoulder pulling him to the floor as she rolled and stood up.

          “Where did you learn that little move?” The man asked genuinely impressed.

          “I was raised on a farm, city boy. I have had to wrestle bulls over twice your size, and over twice your brains”

          All including the other men laughed at that line.

“Laugh it up Gilda, when the boss is done with you and your lady friends, me and the boys here will show you how we wrestle, and that will be no bull!”

The men strolled away laughing,

Gilda rolled her arm around in a circle.

“Are you okay?” The youngest girl asked,

Gilda put her arm around her,

“Yes, I am fine, tonight after the performance we start to put a plan together to put an end to this mess.” Gilda said with a smile

The local law inforsement had been baffled for months, on how the “invisible man” was directing such a unified, systematic takeover of the Irish countryside. Along with that they were completely confused on how information as well as people were simply showing up in different parts of the country, literally within minutes of being somewhere else a great distance away.

They did have plenty of evidence against a lot of the “lower” thugs in the Invisible Mans stable, but they were much more interested in the top dog.

It took months, but the authorities figured that this pub was a prominent source of operations, but their operatives could not figure out when, or how, things were being played out there. They carefully observed all inner actions between the known criminals that would attend and anyone else. They made sure that no employee, which were the only ones that would interact with these criminals, said, or passed on anything to any of these that was out of the ordinary.

Of course, this was just a big ego trip for Nick, he could have communicated his instructions out to his lackies in any number of simpler more advanced means of communication that this centuries authority did not know existed. Yet, he chose to use one that he could out smart them on what he considered a more level playing field. 

***************

It took a bit for the Professors team to get set up. When they were fully established, they met together in the center of the room.

“The amount of time philandering this Nick character has done is mind boggling. He has disrupted enough Hourglass Icicles to set off every alarm we have back at the agency!” Larry exclaimed

“Look at this stuff, what is he trying to pull?” Candy asked,

“My guess is he has just been stroking his ego. Being a former agent, he appears to be trying out all the things that we are forbidden to do." The Professor stated.

“Peters, see if you can get a closer fix on where those trans-locator power stations are.”

“Right away Professor.”

“Can you narrow it down some more?” the Professor asked as he studied the screen.

“Not without the risk of their G.S.K. sensors detecting it.”

“What if we used a streamgraph?” Candy suggested.

“What good would that do? “Larry asked

“I get it, the steamgraph will act as a dampening filled around our scans, it won’t last long, but it should give us a few good looks!” Peters said excitedly.

“Do it.”

“Good work Smith,” The Professor said with a slight smile.

“Agents Larson and Neilson, we will need some 20^th century explosives ready once we locate those power sources.

“Professor, if we blow those power sources, won’t it be a sure sign to Nick that we are here?” Agent Snow asked.

“Oh yes, but I intend to do more than that!” I think it is about time that we make our way into town to see exactly what kind of trouble Mr. Nick has been causing,” the Professor said with a smile.

The Professor took along with him Agents Snow, Smith, Turnbuckle, and Nelson. “Borrowing”, a couple of horses that were nearby, they rode into town.

As they rode passed the towns people there was fear in their eyes, but it was hard to tell if it was them causing that fear or something else.

As they entered the center of town, they noticed that the local town folks were not the only ones watching them closely.

There instruments had indicated that there were major time distortions emanating from the local pub, so that is where they headed.

The looks that Agent Snow and Smith were getting indicated that the men did not allow outside women to normally enter the pub.

“Gentlemen, we are a traveling entertainment troop, simply passing through. We just wanted to wet our whistles, and we will be on our way.” The Professor said cheerfully.

Most of the men laughed and went back to drinking.

“We have all the entertainment we need in this town old bloke, but your welcome to watch some real performers. They go on in a few minutes.” The bar tender told him.

The Professor’s group took their places at the bar and began noticing a lot of the conversations that were going on around them. There was a lot of talk of all the violence that had been taking place the last couple of nights. Most blamed the British, yet there was other the theories going around as well.

One thing that was agreed on was how the whole place fell silent when a group of muscular men strolled in. no one would make eye contact with them, but all quickly got out of their way.

The men strolled up to the table closest to the stage, before they sat, one called out to the crowd,

“Hey, let’s have a little chatter in here!”

Instantly the noise level raised back to the volume it was before they entered.

The Agents watched intently as to what might happen next. Before the entertainment started four other men that looked slightly out of place walked in and sat at a table near the others that had caused the silence.

The lights went dim and a lively Irish gig started to be played on the piano. Four lovely Irish Lassies came on stage and preformed several well executed tap dance numbers.

All enjoyed the performance. When the dancers were done, the muscle got up and left, and the ones seeming to be trailing them, left also.

“You see folks, what did I tell you? Now that is talent!” The bar tender said with a grin,

“The music that was used, I don’t recall hearing that composition before.” The Professor commented.

“Ah, two points for the traveler. We used to use the old traditional style, but Mr. Biggs thought we should livin it up some, so he wrote the music that the girls use now. Everyone loves it!” The bar tender said excitedly.

“Well yes, I can see this…Mr. Biggs did you say?”

“Yes, I. M. Biggs, to be exact.”

“Well yes then, um, he certainly seems to know his music. Ah, listen we need to be moving on now. It has been a pleasure talking to you.”

Once outside and on their horses, it was obvious that they would not be leaving town alone. While they were still in town the other riders kept their distance. The Professor contacted Larson discretely and let him know their situation and that they might need assistance soon.

Once they were barely out of town, the eight riders over took the five in the Professors group.

“You folks ask a lot of questions to just be traveling performers.” One said in a deep tone,

“We travel the country in search of work, we have to know a little about each town if we ever hope to work there,” The Professor replied.

“In this town, question can get you killed!” Another one said as he pulled out a wicked looking knife.

“Okay, that’s good to know. We will make note of that and not seek work here again.” The Professor replied calmly.

“Well, we are here to make sure of that!”

All eight quickly drew their guns and began firing at the Professors group. Their weapons were firing, the noise and the smoke was there, but it was as if they were firing blanks, the bullets barely left the chambers.

 When all eight had emptied their guns, and the five were still sitting there unharmed, the eight took off in a dead panic back towards town.

“Well, if Nick did not detect that low power inhibitor that Larson used, he will certainly know from the stories those guys will tell him that we are here,” Agent Smith stated.

“That was the point, Agent Smith, now let’s ride.” The Professor said with a half grin.

By time, the five of them got back to the barn, the power detection sensor was all lit up.

“I don’t know what you people did out there, but it is like all of Ireland suddenly come became live!” Agent Peters exclaimed.

“Nick has activated all the translocators,” Agent Snow whispered to the Professor.

“Explain!”  The Professor said through gritted teeth.

“The Director told me that Nick had been working on a system to transport into any time or location without having to use the system back at the agency.

“What? That wasn’t in any of the reports he gave me on him!” The Professor said in an angry tone

Everyone looked at the two of them. The Professor motioned for them to go back to work.

“The reason it was not in the reports was twofold. First, that was T.1S.S. classified. Second, the project was halted due to lack of funding. Nick came to the Director to try to get around the stoppage. The Director refused. It was not until two months after Nick left was it discovered he stiffen off funds anyway to complete his project. Not only that, but he also convinced two other top agents to leave when he did.”

Agent Snow paused.

“Over the many years, there have been several agents that stormed out of the Directors office shouting the words ‘You’ll be sorry!’ This is the first time those words are coming true.” Agent Snow said solemnly.

“That is why the Director hand selected his best team to handle this situation, including you.” The Professor mumbled.

“Professor?”  Agent Reynolds called out.

The Professor looked up at him.

“Sir, you better come take a look at this.”

All the Agents went over to Reynold’s station.

“Oh! That does not look good!” Candy exclaimed

“No, it certainly does not.” The Professor concurred.