Henly grimaced. Yes the field of chronoton particles covered a wider range at the pier, but the center of the disturbance shifted like a roiling cloud. So much for human hunches.
"A pence for your thoughts," said Lord Myron patiently.
Henly managed a smile, not removing his attention from the tricorder. "I'm thinking the sphere isn't everything."
"I agree," Myron said.
"-and I may know its purpose. I hope for everybody's sake that I'm wrong."
On that ominous note Henly and Lord Myron set out for one of the designated spots where a time travel device would be. An odd cabinet or shed stood beside a townehouse in an alley. They went to a second location. A similar cabinet sat in a corner of a carriage house. A third led them to a large wardrobe in a parlor seen through a window from the street.
"They possess a mechanism which camouflages them in various scenarios," Lord Myron explained, "for a society such as this where their use is commonplace, this is more for vanity and a desire to accessorize than to escape detection. Hello what's this then?" A fifth target baffled Myron, who raised his derby to scratch his head. A small tabletop lamp in the same room gave off strong emissions, by Henly's tricorder display stronger than the cabinet.
"I believe," Henly said cautiously, "that the item over there could be one of the articles from the sphere."
The front door was unlocked when they tried it. The two men stepped in and nodded in turn to a man wearing engineer's coveralls as he passed them in the foyer to leave. This had to have been another boarding house. They turned into the day room and stopped at the table where the lamp was set on a macramé doily.
Myron thought to touch the object. It looked perfectly innocuous: a hurricane lamp of blown, frosted glass with a floral pattern etched with soft curves. He thought the better of it and withdrew his hand. "What function does it serve?"
"It could be a phase shift inducer. There were some within the sphere.." Henly looked up. "But why would anyone here need such a device?"
"What can it do?"
Henly's brow could be seen frowning behind his goggles. "Based on what you've said," he whispered, "a series of these could create a net of energy and collectively move the city, only but not spatially. Temporally or transdimensionally."
After a pause, Myron asked: "Could this be why these objects were created? To be set throughout Neo Adapolis undetected to relocat the city by this means?"
"I would say that's a distinct possibility."
"And what of the sphere? Would that be the mechanism with which the city would be removed?"
"Not if my theory is correct. We should return..."
Suddenly lines of static snapped to life in the room. They passed through the lamp, bending as though passed through a prism. Henly took care to keep his distance for fear of deactivation. His tricorder output a cacophony of sounds. Henly and Myron stared at one another.
Suddenly all was normal.
"Blimey... What does the scanner say?"
Henly raised his tricorder and played with some switches. "This is a pattern enhancer in the guise of a hurricane lamp. A network of lamps set within structures around the city's perimeter to encompass everything within for... for... "
"What? For what?"
"This must have been a 'test drive'. And according to readings during those few moments, the source of the emissions did not originate from the sphere."
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