8 - A Near Discovery

The journey to Mrs. Farnsworth did not go quite so smoothly for Henly.

In an alleyway not far from the Red Rum, he momentarily blacked out (by "momentarily" it is meant a duration of nanoseconds).  The bright blue flicker against the brickface betrayed a static device was used in an attempt to stun him, but Henly knew that there was no point in feigning unconsciousness. He whirled to look the man in the eye.

It wasn't a difficult task, given their size at that moment.  "What are you?!" came a raspy exclamation.  For the briefest of moments, Henly's visage had become semitransparent.

It appeared that the wrong man had been stunned.  While tempting, Henly knew any expression of smugness or bemusement could be construed as malevolence, so he kept calm. "Suffice it to say I'm not from around here."

"You most certainly are not!" The man said shortly; he tugged at his lapels as he composed himself. 

"Then again, neither are most people in this town, are they?"

"Nothing like you..."

"I've met a boy with amphibious traits," said Henly, "nothing should surprise you."

"Are you even really here?" asked the man.  His tone was sincere and not meant as a slight as he squinted at Henly's goggles to find his eyes.

Henly sighed.

"-or did I trigger a time travel device on your person?"

It was easy to deduce from this that the sources of tiny chronoton readings throughout Neo Adapolis were the result of inventions capable of temporal manipulation which had been incorporated into their culture and used widely. Fascinating, he thought.

What had occurred was something else entirely - and far more serious - but Henly enjoyed the sympathy garnered from the incident and used it to his advantage.

"The sphere generated its own time distortion," said Henly, "I'm sticking to a theory that I displaced Mrs. Farnesworth when attempting to enter it, at which time she re-appeared in the harbour."

The man nodded; he was far less haughty now.

"If my theory is correct," he continued, "then there may be residual chronotons - what my people call emissions caused by time distortion and time travel."

"And you can detect this?  Fascinating!"

Henly nodded.  "Now we must see Mrs. Farnesworth while the readings are still strong."

7 - That Farnsworth Woman

Henly managed to get out of a congratulatory pint by explaining that his constitution was still in early morning.  In a way it was true; fortunately the thought of offering him a meal hadn't occurred to them.  From what he gathered, it was still the same day.

They weren't so much in a flurry over having saved him than for Henly having brought back a woman who had gone missing.

"Where is she?" he inquired, but the group appeared too busy enjoying their ales.  Henly slipped out unnoticed from between two chunky men as they knocked back their pints.  He beheld a well-dressed man at a table nursing a green drink.  Henly nodded in greeting as he straightened up.  The man reciprocated.

"Would you know where I could find this woman they mention - Harriet Farnsworth - so that I may ask her some questions?"

The man raised his chin and looked down his nose at Henly.  He appeared well-mannered but with an edge of haughtiness.   His air suggested this entire event was beneath him.  Of course this mood could have been from the absynthe.  Middle aged lines were mostly obscured by a thick mustache and lambchop sideburns, light reddish brown hair with random strands of silver dotted throughout.  "You spent quite a bit of time with Mrs. Farnsworth," he said with a hint of annoyance in his delivery, "and you never asked her any questions?"
"According to my timepiece, I spent no more than twelve minutes away from here," explained Henly, and produced it from a side pocket.

The man raised an eyebrow as he examined the clock face and its deviation from the correct time.  "That's very interesting," he said calmly.

Henly found the man suspicious in his manner, but dismissed the notion; there could have been any number of reasonable explanations for his tone. "I take it you know Mrs. Farnsworth?"

"Somewhat," the man answered with a smirk.

"Do you know if she is well?" asked Henly. He read the man's expression, "I'm a doctor," he added, "if she experienced a radical deviation  in time then there could be  physiological & psychological manifestations. I want to be sure she is well."  No doubt something could be learned from the visit, but Henly did not voice this.

The prospect however was apparent. "Quite right, Mr. Henly," the man responded suddenly.  With a heave he stood up from the comfort of his seat. "Perhaps we should pay the Farnsworths a visit."
Henly nodded. "That was easy,"  he thought.