Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.31 A chase

The next time I saw her was two days later.

It was late afternoon. Ms Mallet had organized a small bus that had brought us to the Quartier Latin where we were free to spend a couple of hours as we pleased.

Natty and I were browsing dusty tomes in a small second-hand bookstore when I noticed the stranger who had been watching me in the Louvre. She was standing outside, looking through the shop-window.

"Over there, at the window," I told Natty in a whisper. "It's her again. You know, the one I told you about. She is watching me. Or us."

"Seriously?" Natty risked a cautious glance. "Oh my god, you are right. What do you think we should do?"

I scowled. "You are not going to do anything. Stay where you are and pretend that we did not notice her. I am going to confront her, right now."

"Alright. But be careful," Natty breathed, as I turned around and made for the exit of the store.

The stranger reacted in the same manner as last time when she had realized I had become aware of her: she turned on her heels and started to rapidly walk away.

Oh no, you are not going to escape so easily this time.

I was lucky that she was not running. But then, the plaza was crowded with tourists so it was almost impossible to run. She was pushing through the crowd and I followed as well as I could.
There were a few angry remarks in French, from people I had inadvertently jostled or bumped into.

"Pardon," I summarily told them, as I tried to keep up with the strange girl ahead of me.

With a bit of alarm I realized that she was purposefully approaching a Metro station. I did not have a ticket, but when I saw her nonchalantly jump the barrier I followed suit. She entered a train that was waiting at the platform, and I followed without checking where the train might be headed.

At the next station she left the train and immediately boarded another train that was waiting on the adjoining platform. I almost lost her at that point, but somehow I managed to hang on as she kept jumping trains seemingly at random.

In my training to become a temporal explorer I had been required to do physical exercises of that kind. We had called it the jump-and-run challenge. I had not exactly excelled at that kind of thing, but I had not been bad at it either. Nevertheless it took everything I had just to keep up with the mysterious stranger who was trying to escape from me.

Eventually she left the Metro again, weaving her way across another plaza filled with restaurants and small cafes and crowded with tourists.

Suddenly, without warning, she changed direction to enter an alleyway. I thought I had lost her then, but when I turned around the corner I found her placidly sitting at an outside table of a small cafe, looking for all the world as if she had been waiting there for me.

I raised an eyebrow. She motioned for me join her, so I sat down on a chair next to her.

"Would you like coffee and a croissant?" she asked me in English.

"Thank you, just coffee, please," I replied,  a bit nonplussed.

She waved for the garcon and ordered coffee for both of us in fluent French. She waited until we had been served, then focused on me.

"I expect you have questions," she said.

"Indeed I do," I told her. "For starters, I would like to know why you have been following me."

She sighed. "Alas, I am not free to tell you that."

"Alright. Who are you, then?"

"I am not allowed to tell you that either. But you may call me Hannah, if that helps."

I was slowly getting mad. "Is that so? Well I am not at liberty to tell you my name either, but you may call me Croissant if you like."

She laughed at that. A carefree, delighted laugh.

"As it happens, I know that your name is Catherine Hart. But I can address you as Croissant if you prefer that."

Without meaning to, I grinned. "Let's stop playing games, shall we?"

She shrugged. "I am not playing any game."

"In that case, can you at least tell me what you are trying to achieve by following me through Paris the way you do?"

"We watch and observe," she replied. "We do not wish to interfere with whatever you are doing here. The question is, what is it that you want?"

What was it that I wanted? To successfully complete my First Temporal Assignment. And to save Natty, of course. Save her from all those odd people that appeared to intend to harm her, and maybe also save her from herself.

But I would be damned if I was going to tell any of that to the mysterious woman who faced me.

"Alas, I am not free to tell you that," I informed her, not without a touch of malice.

"That's a pity," she observed. "I have a feeling that it would benefit both sides if we could exchange information at this point."

"That may be so," I countered. "But why should I trust you if you do not trust me?"

"Personally, I am inclined to trust you, Catherine," she told me. "Nevertheless, I am not authorized to share any information about us with you. I was kind of hoping that you might turn out to be less constrained in this regard."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." I shrugged. "But it was nice meeting you. And, thanks for the coffee."

"You are welcome. It was a pleasure to talk to you." She smiled wistfully as I got up from my chair. "Oh, there is one more thing."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Take care, Catherine," she advised.

"I fully intend to do that, Hannah," I told her.

Tracing my way back to the Metro station was not an easy task, and finding out where I was turned out to be a nontrivial exercise as well. It took the better part of an hour to return to the little bookstore at the Quartier Latin.

"So what happened?" Natty asked. "Did you catch her? Did you find out anything about her?"

"Yes, I did. And no, not really. I am going to tell you all about that on the bus on the way back to the hostel."

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A / N : At least Cathy got a bit of physical exercise ...

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