The Time Warp: Volume II

Journey to Paris

By Adam Sayed

Table of Contents

Dedication

Contents

Chapter One: A Call for Help

Chapter Two: The TTPAHQ

Chapter Three: Welcome to Paris

Chapter Four: Say What Now?

Chapter Five: The Big Plan

Chapter Six: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Chapter Seven: Return of the Sugar cookies

Chapter Eight: A Short Chapter

Acknowledgements: READ FOR IMPORTANT INFO

Chapter 1

A Call For Help

Dribble, dribble, shoot and score! These were the thoughts of a seemingly ordinary boy playing an ordinary game of basketball against his seemingly ordinary friend on an ordinary spring day in an ordinary school in an ordinary town. I could go on but I’ll save you the time and tell you what wasn’t ordinary about these boys. You see, Carl, who was tall for his age and very athletic, and his friend Bill, who was smaller and a year younger, but kindhearted and brave, had a secret. They had traveled through time. Just a few weeks ago the boys had been abducted into 1962 New York City and had to defeat a time-traveling villain named

Steve who had an army of evil sugar cookies. With the help of a two good time-travelers named Zach and Bob, they cornered Steve. Unfortunately, he then escaped capture by a government agency and fled the country. Well, enough of that story. Let’s go back to basketball. Carl had just won the game by 2 with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer and they left the court. Carl headed to Science and Bill to Math.  After school, while they were walking home, a familiar face appeared.

“Zach!” Carl exclaimed.

“What are you doing here?” Bill asked.

“Come with me, I need your help,” explained Zach.

In a hum and a flash of light, they saw a pitch-black room and then nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Chapter 2

The TTPAHQ

When their vision cleared, they were in a Sequoia forest with abundant trees. All the trees looked similar except for one, which had a blue dot on the trunk. Zach walked over to the dot and touched it. The dot sprung out revealing a keypad. Zach entered a code then put his eye next to the screen on the keypad.

“What are you doing that for?” Bill asked.“Retinal scanner. New feature The Boss added for extra security,” Zach answered.

“Who is The Boss?” Carl asked.

            “He is the head of my agency which is the TTPA. In fact, right now you are standing on top of the TTPAHQ,“ Zach commented. 

“What does all that stand for?” Bill enquired.

“TTPAHQ stands for Time Travel Protection Agency Head Quarters,” Zach answered. “By the way, people in the future’s names may seem very weird to you so we all have code names for your time period. I am taking you to The Boss. You can call him Rick.”

When the retinal scan finished, the tree trunk opened up into an elevator and a calm computer voice said, “Welcome Back Agent 0142. The Boss is expecting you.”

The trunk then closed and the elevator descended down. When they reached the ground, Bill and Carl saw a room like never before with screens and computer-like devices all over the room. In the corner, they saw a room with blurred glass windows, and on the door, big letters read:

THE BOSS

Znago Bjabo

They walked in and a rough voice said, “Hello 0142. I see you have brought the children. Well done, you may go. I will brief them on the situation.” As Zach left, The Boss continued with Bill and Carl. “You are probably wondering why I need you here. And the reason for that is that Steve has returned and is more dangerous than ever. You see, there is a group of people who want to change the past. However, that is illegal in many different ways. They are called the TTT or the Time Travel Terrorists. Apparently, Steve had been working with the TTT from the beginning and they helped him escape from prison. Then they

hacked into our computers and comprised all of our agent’s identities. If we try to stop them, they will know who we are. You are the only people who they don’t know, aren’t in our computers, and know about our organization. Your job is to find Steve and sneak our agents into the TTT headquarters. We will give you a communicator called an Eluper. It is like your 21st century cell phones but it works through time. When you find Steve’s base, you can tell us and we will find a safe place to come in.” “But how will we know when and where Steve is?” Bill asked.

“We have figured that out. He is in 1944 Paris, where war is very near,” he answered. “It seems Steve is trying to disguise himself as someone from the past. Here is some French money and clothes, a food generator and an easily foldable tent. The tent is only a precaution. One of our contacts lives in France part time. You will be living with him. His name

is Sam. If anybody asks, you are the sons of Francois La Roche, the local innkeeper. Your names are Jacques, pointing to Carl and Pierre, pointing to Bill. I will now bring you to him. Are you ready?” “Yes!” Bill and Carl shouted eagerly.

“Oh, wait one more thing. Put this on your throat.” He said pointing to a small plastic rectangle. “It is a translator that will help you speak and understand French.”

       They put them on and when he said “Goodbye!” it sounded like “Au Revoir!”

They had a moment of darkness and then they were on the doorstep of a cottage in a large field. And then a booming voice said, “Who on earth are you!?”

Chapter 3

Welcome To France

They turned around to see a well built American farmer staring at them. “We are Jacques and Pierre,” Carl answered quickly.

“Ah. I was told you would be staying with me. Here we can call each other by 21st century names. I am Sam and I believe you are Bill and Carl?”

“We are, but where are we? I thought we would be in a big city,” Bill asked.

“We are 15 miles from Paris in one of the fields that covers France.

I came here because I wanted a life of peace and quiet so they gave me a permit and an old car to live in this deserted cottage. But back to you. You say you want to go to Paris. It is a one hour drive. I can take you there tomorrow morning. When I heard you were coming, I set up some bunks in the living room for you. I’ll go make some soup.”

“Thanks for your hospitality,” said Bill. 

“You’re welcome. I understand how much this means,” Sam answered warmly.

When the soup was ready, Sam called them to the dinner table. And they had their dinner, which was corn, some warm pea soup, and fresh bread.

“Mm. This is good soup. How do you make it?” Carl asked.        

“I grow peas along the back wall of the house. I take the peas and put them in boiling water, stir in a few spices and voila!”  

"This bread tastes fresh. Do you grow the wheat yourself?”

“Yes, that is what covers most of my field,” Sam answered.

 After dinner, they got into the bunks that Sam had assembled for them. They were tired and got to sleep quickly. The next morning, they had breakfast and got into Sam’s old 34’ Chevy and rode into Paris. When they got there, the clocks read 10:30.

“Bye. I hope you find Steve. I will be back at 6:00 in the same place.” Sam said as he got back into his car.

“See you then,” Bill and Carl answered together as Sam drove away.

“How should we find out who Steve is impersonating?” Carl asked.

“I would think he is impersonating someone important if he is trying to change time,” Bill commented.

“Maybe someone here would know someone important that we don’t remember happening in original time,” Carl said.

  “Then who should we ask?” said Bill.

“Maybe if we split up and ask the locals about how the war is going, we might find out about somebody strange,” said Carl.

 “Good idea, lets meet back here at noon and we can go get some lunch,” responded Bill.

“See you then,” Carl said as both boys walked off.

When they got back, they both had information for the other.

Carl went first.

“I bought a newspaper and flipped through it and saw the section with updates on the war. It said that Hitler had just hired a new general to stop the American advance into France."

“This might be a real general, but I overheard from the locals he was an American traitor working for Hitler. It doesn’t sound right. If only we could get a picture of him, then we would know for sure,” said Bill.

 “Wait a second, I think the newspaper I have has a picture,” Carl said as he remembered the picture.

They opened the page and saw a very familiar face - too familiar.

It was Steve.

Chapter 4

Say What Now?

  “Say what now?!” Carl exclaimed. “Why would Steve be impersonating a general that never even existed?”

“Hmmm,“ thought Bill. “Wait, I have an idea. Maybe he is trying to alter the outcome of World War II. But I don’t know why he would do that.”

“Maybe he planned it so that in the future things would turn out better for him,” said Carl.

“That does sound like a thing Steve would do,” Bill commented.

 “We have to find his base in Paris to stop him and the TTT,“ said Carl.

 “And fast, before he does any damage,” said Bill.

   “But where to look, he could be anywhere,” said Carl.

“Based on what Steve did last time, someplace hidden next to a public place,” said Bill.“Where is a public place in Paris?” Carl asked.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Bill asked his friend.

 “I think I’m thinking what you’re thinking,” Carl replied.

“The Eiffel Tower,” they said together.

“Come on, let’s go get lunch. I’m starving. We can walk over after,” Bill said.

They found a restaurant that was only a five minute walk from the tower. After they ate, they saw a little trail that was a shortcut to get to the tower. At the beginning of the path Bill noticed a ‘no biking’ sign. They walked down the path and when Carl was at the halfway point the of path, Carl was ahead of Bill by a bit. Carl took a rest on a bike rack on

the side of the path.

“Huh, that’s odd,” Bill said when he caught up. “There is a bike rack here but there was a no biking sign at the beginning.”

“The sign must be new. But you are right. This does look suspicious,” said Carl.                 

When he took his hand off, it peeled off the ground for a few seconds revealing a ladder into a dark hole.

  “I think we found the base,” Bill said.

“Let’s go inside!” said Carl eager to find what was inside.      

“Wait,” Bill said. “Rick said to find a place to send the agents in and tell them to come. But where do we send them? We are so close to the tower and there are so many people.”

“Follow me, I have an idea,” announced Carl.

“What is it?” asked Bill.

“Just watch,” Carl responded.

Carl led Bill back down the path all the way back to the beginning, pointed at the bathroom there and stopped.

“Huh,” Bill asked. “Oh! I get it. We send the agents one by one into the bathroom so it doesn’t look suspicious when they meet up at the bike rack.”

“Quick, get out the Eluper and tell them the plan.”

Bill did what Carl told him to do and shortly after, the time agents started popping out of the bathroom in 1940’s clothing. After a bit, all of the 12 agents showed up. The last agent was Zach.                     

“Can we go back now?” Bill asked.

  “I think you ...” a transmission from his tiny radio-like device in his ear interrupted him in mid-sentence. “Wait, what’s that... Are you sure? OK, I’ll send them.”

“What is it?” asked Carl.                       

“Bob scanned the base and found that to stop them from escaping, we have to send you two to crawl through a series of tunnels that only you two can fit through. At one point in the tunnels, there will be a fork. Bill will keep to the right and will have to dodge a spinning laser that will burn you if touched. Then, he will hit a button that will stop them from time traveling. Carl will turn left and have to swing across a pit of lava and hit a button that will stop them from communicating and calling reinforcements. We will wait on the ladder. When we hear the alarms,

we will know it is safe to go down and get them."                 

“Come on, did it really have to be lava!?” said Carl.

“Spinning lasers, really!?” said Bill.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, both buttons set off alarms so you have to press them at the same time to prevent them from shutting you out from the other button.”

“Do we really have to do this?” asked Bill.         

“Yes. And the fate of all time depends on it.”