Interlogue: No Matter Where You Go, There You Are.
Taken from the official diary of Captain Ben MacCaulay, Thande Institute, seconded from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry under the provisions of the Convention of Krakow (2006) establishing the Global Crosstime Commission.
Note that under the conditions of the same treaty, the material contained herein is classified as THANDE MOST SECRET.
08/08/2015
Much chaos at the Institute today thanks to the unfortunate disappearance of Capt. Nuttall and company. Was called to a crisis meeting chaired by the Director himself [Stephen Rogers] and with more brass than I can remember seeing in one place since the war. The scientists ended up in the hot seat though. That French guy Wostyn seemed to be the only one who knew what the hell was going on. Talked about how he’d recovered the last transmission from Nuttall’s group. I had to stand up at one part and confirm what I’d told him about the gunshot. That Belgian general, Thyssen, kept getting awkward over it. I just kept telling them I wasn’t 100% confident but I was pretty certain that wasn’t the characteristic report of any of the weapons Nuttall’s men took with them and it seemed likely that they were from TimeLine L itself.
I noticed actually that Wostyn kept calling it ‘LTTW’ instead of TimeLine L. It was that Australian, Cassimaty, who explained that one though when General Jacobs from the Pentagon asked about it. Apparently that’s what Nuttall’s crew—mostly Lombardi—ended up calling it more often in their reports. I don’t think anyone actually knew what it stood for though. “L-Timeline something something”, I guess?
Speaking of Lom. he seems to be a friend of Wostyn’s and Wos. was very insistent about mounting a rescue mission. Not saying anyone was opposed exactly but there was caution with the others. I think this is the first time one of our teams has, presumably, been found out by locals without us deliberately revealing it? Of course we don’t know exactly what’s happened, Nutt. and crew could have been captured by the authorities—worst case scenario I would say—but it might just have been a bunch of criminals or something. From what I got from Wos. the current situation on the ground in L is fraught enough that either is plausible. Unfortunately Lom. and company seem to have spent more time sending stuff about L’s history than current affairs. Lom. claimed that it would be impossible to appreciate the current situation there without the history which I guess is fair enough but we could have used a bit more info.
Was a bit surprised when SR [Stephen Rogers] asked me to lead the second team. Haven’t had any connection with L aside from helping Wos. out with the firearms report. SR said I’d done good in K to explain to the brass why me. I guess that’s true but the situations were hardly comparable, K wasn’t anything like as dangerous as this. Oh and speaking of other TLs—some people were suggesting Nutt. wasn’t sound, mainly the Russian guy—Petrovich I think his name was? And yeah we had to have the files out and all those weird paranoiac things about Muslims Nutt. came out with sometimes. It was SR himself who had to explain about what happened in J about the business with the Ottoman Caliph and Nutt. being trapped in the dungeons for a month...don’t know the guy well but pretty certain that’d be enough to drive anyone around the bend a bit. Mind you sometimes I think you need to be a bit mad to work at the Institute...but anyway. Jacobs—no I tell a lie it was Lalloch from the Brit. MoD who said it—he suggested Nutt. would be better off than some if they had got captured then. Wos. said that Lom. had been with Nutt. that time around and had bust them out of prison. Lalloch asked Wos. if he thought Lom. could do the same this time. Wos. said he doubted it, Lom.’s method had involved seducing the Caliph’s harem. Don’t see that happening in L’s Kingdom of England.
OK, so we leave in three days. Getting to know the team which includes Wos. and Cassimaty as scientific officers—I suppose they’ve ended up being briefed on this more than anyone and SR doesn’t want too much knowledge about this one to get out in case it embarrasses us. Four soldiers beside me as before, got to work them into a unit as quick as possible in case we need to pull off a rescue. Of course everyone was saying that if the locals in L really have found out who we are...based on the reports from Pylos (the other scientist with Nutt.) Wostyn reckoned that the locals either have the tech to make Portals or are pretty close...the local theories apparently disfavour them finding it out themselves (just as happened here) but if they learn about our Portals they could duplicate them with their own technology...bit worrying to say the least. I think this is the first time since the war that a technologically equal, roughly, timeline stands a chance of being able to intrude into ours on their own terms.
So Jacobs suggested we go from somewhere outside Cambridge and SR agreed. Of course all the treaty paperwork means we can’t go from just anywhere. But the Brit. government is behind us and offered anywhere in the UK...so based on Pylos’ info again Wostyn found somewhere suitable...it’s in the UK in OTL but is part of a separate and rather less nasty government in L so we would be able to find our feet before we try and find out what happened to Nutt. and company.
So, three days and then it’s off to Belfast...