“Not all of those in this future world are black and evil,” he mused to himself one night, wishing for a journal to keep his thoughts and impressions in, yet knowing such documentation would never be truly private. “Many of those here seem to be as much prisoners as I, held captive by their insecurities and fears over the highly classified nature of the project they are involved in. I can only hope my studies in philosophy give solace to those who speak to me in hushed tones as they debate the humanity and the morality of what they continue to try to accomplish.”
Months passed in this fashion, with the time approaching when Doc would have to allow the hypnotic orders and suggestions to be implanted in his brain, orders he knew in his heart he would never be able to accept, thereby tipping his hand that he had no intention of aiding these madmen in their schemes to alter the fabric of time and space.
Before that day arrived, he knew he would have to escape.
Dr. Theophilus Algernon Tanner made two attempts to flee his keepers.
The first came after a year and a half of his participation in the various machinations of Project Chronos. By this time, Doc was a familiar staple among the staff. His natural charm had won over many of them to his side, on a private one-to-one basis. None of the scientists or engineers felt secure enough in their positions to publicly take Doc’s side in his continuing debate to be allowed to return home a free man, but he knew he had many allies.
And there were so many other projects in various stages of completion within the redoubt.
One of these involved genetics. Doc was prevented from seeing much of the work in this sector, but as was his wont, he listened and he learned.
Among the scientists on this project was an individual who seemed impossibly old and seemed to be suspended in a perpetual case of what Doc used to call “the shakes.” The man, whose name was Pennyworth, spoke with a thick English accent that the years he’d spent among his fellows, all of whom appeared to be American or Japanese, hadn’t blunted. His day over, Pennyworth would fold his white lab coat, look back at the sealed sec door of his laboratory and announce to his fellows, “And that, gentlemen, concludes the entertainment for today.”
Doc agreed. He’d seen enough, and was no longer entertained in the slightest.
“WHY ME?” he asked after being captured outside the redoubt’s gateway mat-trans chamber. Doc hadn’t even made it into the control room before his attempt to leave was foiled. He had been betrayed by one of his fellow scientists, but by who Doc could not be sure. “The truth, this time, if you please.”
Welles placed both of his hands on his paunch and gave Doc a pitying look. “You weren’t the first choice. We tried trawling a noted judge from the United States Supreme Court, but after the judge was picked up in the temporal annex, he didn’t survive the retrieval process. How can I put this? Judge Crater arrived here in 1997, yes, but he arrived… incomplete. We might have saved his life, but he wouldn’t acquiesce.”
“Which explains his disappearance-a mystery never solved.”
“Oh, Operation Chronos has been responsible for a deluge of urban legends and unexplained cases, Dr. Tanner. There are entire books written on the subject of strange disappearances and miraculous reappearances. Some, like our good judge, have been famous. Others, less so. Take, for instance, the case of Dr. Geraldo Vidal. On June 3, 1968, Vidal and his wife were traveling in Argentina late one night when they drove right into what they later described as a cloud of swirling mists. Sound familiar?”
“I imagine this was the same sort of mist or fog I encountered during my own time trawl,” Doc said.
“Correct. Upon entering the mists, the Vidals were rendered unconscious. When they awoke the very next morning, they discovered their car was in Mexico. The time trawl failed, but at the same time, succeeded! We didn’t bring them into the future, but we did manage a successful mat-trans jump on two living subjects thirty years in the past. Can you comprehend the implications of such a weapon?”