Suddenly it came to him - he was now a natural linguist. He applied for and got a job talking to tourists on a tour bus. He got lots of tips from people from strange countries who were surprised he spoke their language. He really enjoyed it and made enough money to fund his trip to Italy and make a few mortgage payments.
He had no idea what he was going to do to get Altran to tell him where the diamond was - but he had to try.
Chapter 17
Coming out of the airport outside Rome, Nigel wondered for a while about what his cover story would be. He decided to tell the authorities that he was writing a book about Mafia leaders and wanted to interview Altran Del Frisco. He had no idea if they would let him talk to the guy, but he could only try.
He got a taxi into the city - he loved Rome because of its fantastic history. As the taxi trundled along the Appian Way, Nigel looked back on his recent past. While he had gone through hell he felt he was now a much stronger person. He had freed the galaxy from oppression, escaped death multiple times and had escaped the Russian Mafia. Now he just had to deal with the Italian Mafia.
Nigel checked-in to a small hotel just next to the prison where Altran was being held. He staggered with his heavy bags into the hotel room, really missing having the storage diamond - he had no idea how it worked, but it had a capacity of several tonnes and gave a whole new dimension to the phrase “travelling light”. He was thankful it was locked by his finger-print. He had no idea what the Mafia would do with such a device if they could use it - the possibilities for drug smuggling were both awesome and dreadful.
After settling in Nigel steeled himself and wandered over to the prison and asked if he could arrange an appointment to see Altran Del Frisco. The man behind the counter laughed at Nigel. There was a strict policy that no one apart from his lawyer could see him. Nigel despaired. He even attempted to offer a bribe but was rebutted and found himself thrown outside.
As Nigel was standing outside the prison he noticed three men talking. He recognised one of the men as one of the people who had mugged him. Thankfully the man did not recognise Nigel. One of the other men was smartly dressed. Nigel guessed he was Del Frisco’s lawyer.
A much better idea occurred to Nigel - if he followed the men he might be able to find Del Frisco’s family and hopefully the storage diamond. He really hoped they still had it.
Being careful not to be seen, Nigel tailed the men to the local Metro station. Hastily he bought a day pass ticket and pursued the men onto a train. The train went several stations before the men got off. Nigel followed them up the stairs out of the station and then tracked them until they went into an apartment block. Nigel felt frustrated that he didn’t know what flat they were in.
After waiting for a while, he noticed the men in the window on the 4th floor of the building. He also saw several women move by the window in the same flat who he guessed were Del Frisco’s family.
Nigel considered adding burglary to his list of recent new experiences. He saw the men he had been following leave the apartment block - he considered his options. If the other people in the flat never left he was looking more at a robbery than burglary.
The chances of a Mafia family not having armed protection were zero. He reconsidered. He needed a much better plan.
Nigel saw one of the women he had seen leave the block. She was a young fresh-faced girl with dyed red hair - Nigel guessed she was Del Frisco’s daughter. She was escorted by a burly Italian man who Nigel guessed was her bodyguard. Her body language showed she did not like being escorted by him and she looked over longingly in Nigel’s direction.
Nigel then decided that ingratiating himself with the daughter was a better option. He smiled back at her and then proceeded to follow them. They went to the local cinema and sat watching an obscure French Art film. The cinema was mostly empty, but Nigel purposelessly went to sit next to the Del Frisco daughter. He sat deliberately on the opposite side of her to the bodyguard, who did not look too happy about his choice of seat. The woman was ecstatic with Nigel’s interest.
Nigel slipped her a hand-written note saying “The guy - your boyfriend?” She read the note and shook her head. The bodyguard was distracted for a moment by some full-frontal nudity in the film and Nigel took the opportunity to give the daughter another note - “See you outside in 10 minutes - alone”. After that he walked out of the cinema and hung around the foyer. He really hoped this plan would work.
After 15 minutes, Nigel was getting ready to leave when the woman came out with a triumphant look on her face. Nigel went into full charm mode.
“You are so beautiful, young lady. I am so happy to get you alone.”
“I am Christina - so nice to be with you.”
“We’d better get out of here. Is there somewhere we could go?”, Nigel asked.
“Let’s go.” Christina then took Nigel’s hand and led him to a local cafe. He was vainly hoping he might get taken back to the flat straight away.
Nigel and Christina talked for about half an hour. Nigel actually began to feel bad about his subterfuge - she seemed like a really nice woman who just happened to be the daughter of a Mafia boss.
He told her that he was an English tourist looking to see the real Rome. She complimented him of his fluent Italian. Nigel smiled. He continued to flatter her, despite feeling extremely sleazy and insincere. She became totally smitten by the romantic Englishman she was with.
Nigel lied and said he was sharing a hotel room with another male friend. He wanted to get back to her flat and having a single hotel room meant she would probably want to go back there. He didn’t really want to have to sleep with her, only get the storage diamond and get out.
Christina told him her mother and sister would be out at 3pm in the afternoon. She would deal with her bodyguard - she got a bottle of chloroform out of her bag and then laughed.
Christina went back to the cinema and crept past an anxious bodyguard looking for her outside. When the bodyguard returned to the cinema Christina claimed she was having severe stomach problems and wanted to go back to the flat.
Nigel turned up to the flat at 3pm to find an unconscious bodyguard and Christina in only her underwear. He furtively looked around the flat. Where was the storage diamond? Christina beckoned him to the bedroom. Nigel reluctantly followed her. She undressed completely. Nigel pretended to be shy and old-fashioned, saying that he wanted to talk. He just wanted to get into the flat and he wasn’t expecting to have to spurn Christina.
She thrust her naked body at Nigel and kissed him. Nigel drew himself back. Nigel then noticed the storage diamond on the bedside table.
He made a half-hearted effort to kiss Christina and then saw the bottle of chloroform and some tissues on another table. Nigel manoeuvred himself and Christina closer to the table and frantically grabbed the bottle behind his back and poured far too much chloroform over the tissues. Clasping the chloroform-drenched tissues he thrust them into Christina’s face. She fell unconscious on the floor and Nigel grabbed the storage diamond and rushed for the exit of the block.
He was now on the run from the Italian Mafia. But Nigel wanted to get back to England so he could build another time machine for Natalie. But he worried about what he had told Christina. She knew he was called Nigel and that he was staying in Hotel Napoli. He had to get out of Italy fast before they could catch up with him.
Chapter 18
After rushing to his hotel, Nigel stowed all his luggage and everything except his wallet and passport in the storage diamond. He then checked-out and grabbed a taxi towards the airport. When he got there he discovered that the next flight to London was time-tabled another four hours away and was delayed another hour.
Nigel panicked a little - he glanced at the indicator boards and saw a flight to Paris leaving in two hours. He booked himself onto that flight and rushed through security. He was safe - for now.
The flight landed in Paris and Nigel rushed to the Gare Du Nord and booked a Eurostar ticket to take him to Lon
don. On the train, Nigel realised that his original plan was doomed.
There was no way he was going to be able to build another time machine for Natalie in haste. Then he thought - you have a time machine. He could just go back to before he went to Italy and he would be safe. He felt such an idiot for not thinking of it before. He just needed to find somewhere to go back in time. It probably wouldn’t be safe returning to his flat - the Mafia might be waiting there.
Almost immediately after leaving the train at St Pancras, Nigel headed for the toilets - he found a large cubicle and got the time machine out and activated it to go back 6 days.
This journey took virtually no time at all.
Nigel had forgotten one of the lessons about choosing locations to time travel. He found himself in a cubicle with a very old man using the toilet. The man screamed.
In a total panic Nigel stowed the time machine and the old man in the storage diamond and fled out of the toilet. Remembering the old man, he found a deserted men’s toilet at nearby bar and released the mortified pensioner.
Nigel took the tube back to his flat and then he remembered another important fact about time travel he had forgotten - sitting on the sofa in the flat was another Nigel. It was himself from 6 days ago.
For about a minute there was silence. Then eventually Nigel explained to his twin what had happened. His twin understood why he had done what he had done, but pointed out that there were now more Nigels than Natalies in this reality.
As the time travelled was so little, this Nigel was virtually identical in terms of mood and outlook to his twin. They discussed the situation and came to a conclusion. The twin would build two new time machines based on the plans of the current one, which were also in the storage diamond. Nigel would travel even further back and take the place of the Nigel who had originally built the time machine, arriving back just after he had jumped back in time.
The only issue was that neither twin knew the exact date when that Nigel went back in time. Nigel went over to Raymond and Natalie’s house to see if they could remember the date the original Nigel went back in time.
After ringing the doorbell Nigel waited for a while. Eventually the door opened and Nigel saw Raymond shaking. He was holding a knife - covered in blood.
“What on earth happened?” asked Nigel.
“I..I…I’ve killed Natalie.” Raymond started sobbing.
“What!?! Where is she?”
“In the kitchen. She said that she had a lover and was leaving. I lost control. I am so sorry.”
Nigel rushed to the kitchen and saw Natalie’s lifeless body lying on the floor. She had been stabbed multiple times.
Nigel fell to his knees and wept. Looked like this Nigel was doomed for tragedy as well. Then he remembered. He had a time machine. But this time he would think things through before rushing off.
He asked Raymond what had happened. Raymond said he had been suspecting Natalie was having an affair for a while, though he ignored it. Then she had foolishly decided to tell him after they had had an enormous row.
Nigel told Raymond he needed to ring the police and confess. Raymond naturally did not seem keen on the idea. Nigel thought for a second. He was going to fix this with the time machine, so it didn’t matter what happened here. So he decided to say to Raymond he would help him cover it up.
This relaxed Raymond considerably. Nigel used it as an excuse to pump Raymond for information.
“What date was it that I travelled to the past again - I was trying to remember but my memory is all hazy.”
“It was the 4th June two years ago. You know if you had come back as you promised I would have taken you up on your offer to use the machine. I’d so loved to have saved my sister. I still can’t believe she is gone.”
“Well, believe me time travel is over-rated. Who do you think Natalie was having an affair with?”
“Pepe, her personal trainer.”
“Oh I didn’t know she had a personal trainer.”
“Yes, they train together here every Saturday afternoon when I go to watch the football.” Then Raymond remembered what he had done and started crying.
“Don’t worry, I will fix this,” Nigel said concealing the fact he wouldn’t fix it for this Raymond but himself.
Nigel made his excuses and left the house. He rang the police anonymously and reported Raymond. He then went to a local park and set the time machine to go back to last Saturday afternoon as he knew Raymond would be out.
Travelling back those few days took virtually no perceived time to Nigel. He returned to Raymond and Natalie’s house and he rung the doorbell. There was no response so Nigel went around the back.
To his horror he saw Natalie making love to a muscle-bound Hispanic man who he guessed was Pepe her personal trainer. They were too busy to notice Nigel staring at them. He quickly left.
Clearly she had been having multiple affairs. Nigel sat in a local park for about half an hour crying and then went back to the house to confront Natalie.
Again he rung the bell. Nigel was shaking. Natalie answered the door.
“How could you?” demanded Nigel.
“What?” Natalie seemed confused.
“I saw you sleeping with someone through the window!”
“What? You’ve been spying on me!”
“I tried the door but you didn’t answer so went around the back.”
“Oh. Well it just kind of happened when you were away. I was going to end it with Pepe,” said Natalie who held her head low in shame.
“To think I thought you loved me.”
“But you abandoned me when you went back in time.”
“That was the other Nigel.”
“But it was him I loved. We were never lovers, he never would.”
“What?”
“Until Nigel left I never cheated on Raymond - and we weren’t even married then.”
“Oh” said Nigel.
“You, err.. I mean ..err.. the other Nigel deserted me, and Raymond seemed disappointed as he wanted to go back in time as well. How do you think I took it - both men in my life wanted to go back in time and abandon me.”
Trash“So you ended up having an affair with Pepe?”
“Yes. Raymond married me to secure our relationship and as a fool I accepted - we should never have married.”
Nigel knew what to do. He gave Natalie the plans to the time machine and told her to give them to him the next time they met. He said that he wouldn’t remember this meeting. Natalie looked very confused.
“He won’t know that you cheated with Pepe,” said Nigel.
“What? You know. What - are you yet another Nigel?!?”
“Yes, it’s very hard to explain. Give him the plans and tell him another Nigel came from the future and gave them to you. And don’t tell him about Pepe!”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Can you promise to ditch Pepe and be faithful to him?”
“Well I was going to dump Pepe anyway,” said Natalie in a tone that sounded honest if not exactly certain.
“Do not under any circumstances tell Raymond you are having an affair. In the future he kills you because you do.”
“Oh my god - is that why you came back?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
With that Nigel left the house and went back to a local park again. He set the machine to go back to the 4th June 2012. Nigel for once had a trouble-free appearance in the new time period.
Chapter 19
It was nice to feel sun on his face for a change, Nigel thought. He realised he had no idea where his other self had actually travelled back in time from. It was unlikely it was from his flat - it was too small. He didn’t seem to rent any business space, so it wasn’t from there.
Surely Nigel would try a test first. A small journey into the past to see if the machine worked. Where would he do that? Think. Think. Both Natalie and Raymond knew about the machine - maybe he had left from their house?
&nb
sp; Nigel raced over to Raymond and Natalie’s house. He saw the Nigel from this time wheeling a machine with a platform out of a van and into the house.
Nigel’s master-plan had a flaw. His time machine didn’t look anything like Nigel’s original machine. He would have to wing it and build a new machine if he could get his hands on Nigel’s original plans.
He crept behind a small wall outside the house and tried to look in. A cat from the local neighbourhood was taking an unusual interest in him. He pushed it away and looked in to see that Raymond and Natalie seemed slightly bemused by the machine. There was much laughing and joking between the three of them.
Timeshock - I Want My Life Back Page 7
