Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

On the outskirts of Baltimore

“We’re sure that’s his office, aren’t we?” Gabriel asked.

“That’s his office, Gabriel,” Ginny said.

“Because his job details say he’s often away. Maybe he’s never actually...”

“Let’s just have a little patience, eh?” Ginny said.

They had located Dmitry’s office from the published ACME INC company information. Vicky had explained that such details had to be kept up to date for every large registered company.

Then they had requested a rifle that fired a surveillance bolt.

In the early dawn, and with the starship cloaked, they had hovered outside the building, opened the hatchway, fired the bolt onto the plexi-glass office window, then drifted away.

They were now parked on the outskirts of Baltimore, watching and listening to the feed from the surveillance bolt.

“Fancy a coffee?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah, that would be ...” Ginny said.

“Hey, guys?” Vicky said.

“What’s up, Vicky,” Ginny said.

“The feed from your cow friend ... something’s happening,” Vicky said.

On the ship’s hull they could see an image of the rolling Swiss hills.

“It’s about midday over there,” Ginny said.

They could see big ginger cows all around them.

Their cow must have been standing in the middle of a small herd.

“Listen to that noise,” Gabriel said.

“They’re tearing up clumps of grass,” said Ginny. “They’re sweet, aren’t they?”

“So, what have you seen?” Gabriel asked Vicky.

“Over in the distance ... four men coming down the hill. Can you see them?”

“Look, the cows are all starting to move away,” Ginny said.

“All except ours,” Gabriel said. “Maybe it thinks it’s you again, with a clump of fresh grass.”

Ginny smiled at the recollection.

The four men approached their cow. One was holding up some sort of device.

“Looks like a portable tracker ... they must have been using it to follow the STUs,” Vicky said.

“Hey, the guy on the far right. Isn’t that ...?” said Gabriel.

“It’s Dmitry,” Vicky said.

The four men were within twelve feet of their cow.

The one holding the tracker looked to be shaking slightly. The tracking device he held was wobbling in his hands.

The two guys on the left were looking bemused.

Dmitry wasn’t.

“We’ve all come a fucking long way to enjoy this walk in a field full of cows,” Dmitry said to the man holding the tracker.

The man with the tracker gulped. He patently couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You know time is money, don’t you?” Dmitry said to the man with the tracker.

The man nodded.

“But I guess that you don’t think that my time is worth very much at all, eh?”

The man looked around him. He looked to the other two men

They studiously averted their gaze from him.

“If you want a job doing ...,” Dmitry said, pulling a pistol from under his jacket.

Dmitry looked over to the cow.

Then he turned back to the man and shot him in the stomach.

The gun made virtually no sound.

Their cow stood there, continuing to chew grass.

The man slumped to the ground.

He was laying on his side, rolling himself into a tight ball.

Ginny clasped Gabriel’s hand. She squeezed it so hard that Gabriel almost cried out.

Dmitry kicked the man in the face.

The man rolled over and onto his back.

Dmitry shot him in his left shoulder ... then in his right shoulder.

The man was screaming ... and staring at Dmitry wild-eyed.

Dmitry turned to look back at the other two men. They were watching as if they were watching some TV soap.

Dmitry turned back and shot the man through the forehead.

“Do you know,” Dmitry said, “I can never work out whether I hate ineptitude ...”

The two men stood watching him.

They both seemed to know that now was not the time for them to start engaging in conversation.

“Or ... or whether I fucking love it,” Dmitry continued, chuckling to himself.

He flicked the magazine out of his gun, letting it drop to the ground. He pulled another from his jacket pocket. The two men were watching him as if their lives depended on it.

Dmitry turned slowly.

He unloaded his new clip into their ginger cow.

They could hear the sound of the bullets smacking into its body.

They could hear it making a squealing noise.

It sounded almost like a child crying.

The picture swayed as the cow fell to the ground.

They could hear Dmitry laughing.

He must have re-loaded, because they heard the sound of more bullets hitting their cow.

The screen went blank.

“He must have shot the STU,” Vicky said.

Gabriel put his arm around Ginny. She was shaking. If he hadn’t been holding on to her, he suspected she would have collapsed onto the floor.

“Are you alright, Ginny?” Vicky asked.

“Ginny are you alright?” Vicky repeated, when no answer was forthcoming.

“He thinks he’s so fucking hard,” Ginny said, “so fucking hard.”

Gabriel hugged her tightly.