A low-tone alarm sounded three times, Andrea glanced up from her work. Carthage Meyer loped into the central area of the secure unit, gasping for breath. Andrea looked skeptically at him as he attempted to get his excited breathing under control.
"Well, what is going on? What is the alarm about?"
"There has been a change... in the timeline... The monitoring Manager... must have seen something... We have a repair operation!" he spit out, gasping for breath.
"Do you have any idea what changed?"
"It's another of those stolen coins!" he said, finally getting his wind back. "Look sharp! They will be coming back here, a Manager and an Enforcer. Don't be surprised if the Mistress shows up, either!"
Andrea's eyes popped wide at the mention of the Mistress. She tugged on the bottom hem of her uniform jacket as a Manager strode into the unit. A tall Enforcer in a black suit followed. Soon after, an assembly of Supervisors including Caisoni and the Manager named Silvan entered. The group convened in the central area.
"We have detected a change in the timeline," Manager Silvan said.
Andrea remembered her clearly from the day she was tested and given further access to the secrets of the department. Manager Lacosa Silvan was taking charge now, just as she had then. There was no hesitation; only confidence in the direction she steered the ship. Andrea didn't know if she would ever have the personality of a Manager
"There is a youth who has paid with currency that is outside of the current time. The event is echoing up the timeline as we speak. The early 21st century American government will soon begin speculating on the real possibility of time travel. When I initiated the alert, the boy was placed on a watch list by government police and will undoubtedly divulge information about his travel device. Projections place his capture short into his own future. In accordance with the Hopper rules and the Time Keeper's special policies, the young male is an unauthorized traveler and will be captured. He shall be brought to the present for interrogation, where we can extract the information in a controlled environment."
Andrea's heartbeat was hitting hard as the judgment was passed on the unauthorized traveler. As soon as the Manager finished her speech, the Mistress floated into the room. She was older, but had a subtle look of youth, which masked her true age. She wore a long one-piece dress, out of fashion in the advanced age, as well as an odd look in the room full of uniformed Keepers.
She looks just like her profile on the tourist coins, Andrea thought.
The Mistress wore a permanent half smile as she regarded the room that had gone silent.
The Enforcer bent its knees and hunched over in a bow and watched as the Mistress reached the group in the center of the room.
The Mistress walked up to the hunched lizard-man and scratched the top of his head with motherly affection. The lizard stood upright after his bow, and the Mistress took her time scanning each of the faces in the room. Finally she spoke, "The capture of a second misplaced time device is an important achievement. You all do a wonderful job, and I am sure this will be handled in the same professional manner you display in your every day work. I will not give a long speech, as I understand the damage spreads with every second I waste. So, I will let you all proceed and hope any information we retrieve will lead to the further recovery of the other stolen coins. Go now, my children."
"Thank you for your words, Mistress." Supervisor Caisoni said. He turned to the Enforcer and added, "The insertion point is programmed to place you in an unobserved field of fruit trees. You will appear one second and two feet behind the most likely insertion point. Your target is a sixteen-year-old white male. Hit your return for the preset jump back to our same location in the present. Understood?"
The Enforcer gave a slight nod and crossed to the center of the room.