By the time she returned to Satoshi's home everything was in an uproar. The programming was going badly, (his friend, Hal, had detected a serious bug), and he was upset at how much time it had taken for Danielle to purchase the groceries. "I am not paying you to waste time!" insisted Satoshi, manic with his project. Mr. Nakamoto then continued, almost in the same breath. "I am going to need you to work for at least one more day, possibly two. I can expect you to be here at 8:00 am tomorrow morning?"

  Danielle did not even know how to answer that, but realised she was required to complete this mission, no matter how long it took. 'Maybe I will get a bigger bonus,' thought Danielle, grimly. After a moment to consider her options, Danielle agreed to the extra work time.

  The rest of the afternoon was very tough, and Danielle did her best to set Mr. Nakamoto up for a productive evening. His favourite snacks and drinks were ready for him in the fridge, and everything was as clean and organised as possible. She knew that by the next morning, everything would be all messed up again. Danielle accepted Satoshi's cash as she left for the evening, even managing a slightly sarcastic, "Happy New Year, Mr. Nakamoto," as she exited the front door. It was 4:00 pm, and she closed the front gate, then started walking towards her hotel. She was wearing her glasses.

  As she walked, Danielle considered the tricky question of what to do about Kenji. In a perfect world, Danielle would already have been there, to see Mr. Nakamoto complete his programming, and collect her last pay packet. Right this moment she could be headed back to the hotel to pack up her belongings, and blow this popsicle stand. However, her return to her own time line would have to be delayed for a day or two. Which provided Danielle with an opportunity to take Kenji up on his offer. She could have another chat with the good looking Dragon agent and his 'Tiger' girlfriend. How could that go wrong?

  The offer was tempting. Kenji did seem to know the answers to some of the time travel questions which had been troubling her lately. The prospect of meeting another agent from yet another faction was piquing her curiosity. It was also raising red flag danger warnings. What to do?

  Danielle arrived at her hotel and changed into another outfit, one a bit more appropriate for New Years Eve. It consisted of a dress shirt and pants, that had not seemed conservative enough to wear in the presence of Mr. Nakamoto. She had a look at herself in the hotel mirror, and said, "Why not?" Danielle took off her AI glasses, and looked into the lens from the front. She still hadn't seen a message displayed on them since she had arrived in 2008. "Hey, AI glasses! If you are still there, I am going out to celebrate New Years, and I am leaving you in the hotel room. Happy New Year in 2428!"

  She wrapped the glasses up in her blackest shirt and stuffed them into the back of the dresser drawer. 'I guess that I am going to meet Kenji,' thought Danielle.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  It was starting to get a bit dark already, when Danielle entered the area of the trail bench, where she had spoken with Kenji. He was there, and true to his words, a young woman of African descent was with him. They were both chatting, but instantly took note of Danielle, when she first appeared around the corner of the trees.

  "Sharon! You made it! I wasn't sure that I would see you again." exclaimed Kenji. "Sharon, I would like you to meet Malaika. Malaika, this is the woman I have been telling you about."

  "Pleased to meet you!" said Malaika with genuine enthusiasm. She had beautifully braided hair, and was dressed in a remarkably colourful multi-panelled leather jacket. Her large eyes and infectious grin set Danielle at ease. "If it is all right with you, Kenji and I figure that the best place to go is the party at the city hall park. There's an outdoor New Years celebration. It won't be too noisy, except when it gets near midnight, and it will be dark enough to make sure that our conversation is private. What do you think?"

  "Sounds fine to me," replied Danielle and they made their way down the streets towards the New Years party.

  All three bought some food from a street vendor and found a spot to sit on the grass. It was cooling off with the approaching darkness, but still pretty comfortable, for the end of December. Malaika began, "Arachnid doesn't have a tremendous amount of influence in 2008, Sharon. We don't have too much to worry about, just so long as you ditched those glasses of yours. When is your home time line?"

  Now there was a question that Danielle never thought she would be answering. "2027," responded Danielle, reluctantly.

  "Ya, that is about where we guessed you were from," said Malaika, with Kenji nodding in agreement. "From what I understand, Arachnid is much more powerful in 2027. Nothing compared to 2050, of course. AIs really take off by then."

  "How do you know this? Have you two been forward?" Danielle was still feeling really awkward about this conversation, but her curiosity was definitely getting the best of her.

  "No! No! Nothing like that, Sharon. Neither Kenji nor I are full-fledged agents. If we were, we wouldn't be here in North America, anyway. There is no way for any of the other factions to run a machine here. By 2428 this whole continent is wrapped up, tight as a bug, by Arachnid. Arachnid has some limited ability to deploy portable machines around the world, but all our agents can only be deployed in our homelands. Both Kenji and I are sleeper agents. We both live in this time line, and we've been sent to live in America to provide surveillance information. We are time war spies, I guess you could say. Except we both have seen enough to reconsider our positions," explained Malaika.

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  "As for, how do we know this?" she continued, "We are not the only disgruntled time agents, believe me. We have both been living in LA for years, and this place is an absolute hotbed. Dragons, Serpents and Tigers, all over the region. Arachnids too, of course. Most are just gathering information, like us, but we do run into travellers, like you, from time to time And we talk. We all talk. Some just want to keep their heads down and take home a paycheck, and they won't say much. Which I understand. But lots want to know what is really going on, and everyone knows something worth sharing."

  "Does anyone ever try to turn you in?" asked Danielle, genuinely concerned.

  "It happens. There have been some sleepers recalled, especially Serpents, and maybe that was because their cover was blown?" answered Mailaika. "So we try to be as careful as possible."

  "How far into the future do you know things about?" asked Danielle.

  "Right to 2428! Believe me, everyone knows something seriously goes wrong by then. My guess is the warring AIs have created a perpetual time loop that stops the progression of time and ends all history, but maybe those bastards just finally blow everything up in their never ending wars. One thing that all the agents agree on is that it's bad." Malaika and Kenji both grimaced.

  "What about between now and then?"

  Kenji answered, "AIs are just now getting going. As I understand things, 2015 is the year that the major factions of AI begin to establish themselves, and by your year, 2027, just about everyone is familiar with the concept and has probably done some work, either commercially or privately, with AI. By 2030 jobs are being taken over and by 2050 politics and defence is being taken over by AI. Most countries'populations level off, and begin to decline, between 2050 and 2100. By 2200, populations are well down and life for people is radically changed. It gets hazy after that. Mostly speculation, but the gist of it is this: Australia, North America, Africa and Asia all develop their own AI systems. Almost all energy is diverted towards those entities. They start fighting with one another, and keep fighting. Not nuclear war, or anything like that. AIs are way too selfish to blow everything up, before 2428. But they do everything they can to hoard energy and keep it from going to their competitors."

  "What about Europe?" asked Danielle. "Why don't they have their own AI faction?"

  "Good question!" responded Kenji. "Europe just can never get the energy together to form a powerful enough AI system. And there is another thing. Everyone exerts some influence into Europe. By 2200, Europe becomes the neutral area of the world. Agents from all factions are tolerated, and there is a lot of babysitting. Everyone seems to want the status quo time line to continue in Europe. I am not even sure why. That is something that we are working on."

  "You two?" responded Danielle, double entendre intended.

  "No! No!" replied Malaika, picking up on the vibe, "We're not a couple, we're just working together on this. And there's a bunch of us. Arachnid runs a pretty tight ship, even back here in 2008, but the other three factions, especially mine, tolerate dissent just so long as we keep quiet about it. So there are a number of us who work together. I can't tell you everything that is going on, but I can say that not everyone is happy with being lab animals in a 400 year experiment run by future AIs.

  "Do you know when time travel becomes possible?" asked Danielle.

  Kenji interjected, "Now there is a closely guarded secret, if ever there was one. I believe that the answer might just be 2428. I think that those bastard AIs fight for centuries with conventional weapons, then turn the whole thing into a time war in 2428. But I don't really know for sure. Everything I know comes from 21st century agents who I've met, from 2080 at the latest. And they are going by videos and texts they've seen presented to them in training. I do know one thing, though. All time travel is powered and controlled by time machines, and energy sources, located in 2428. They never send machines back. They just reach back and pluck you from one moment, and place you into another moment in time, in the exact same geographical location. Whatever machinery you have seen is just there to help line up the 2428 time machine with the year they are trying to send you to."

  "Do you ever take advantage of some piece of information you learn about, from the future? Maybe make some money with insider information?" asked Danielle.

  "Ha!" replied Kenji. "You are missing a fundamental point here, Sharon. There is no, locked in future! I've met a dozen agents from 2020 through 2040. Their stories are all different! The flow of time is always changing, especially here in North America, because of your employer! Be prepared! One of these days, you are going to get back to your home time line and things will be changed! Because of something you did while you were away! I met an agent, once, who said he got home to find that he had a different wife! Arachnid gave him a $30,000 extra bonus and told him to adjust!

  That story blew Danielle away. when she got her mind around it she asked, "What about Covid?"

  "Ha! Ha!" laughed Malaika. "We've heard that story, from a few guys. Some say millions were killed. Some say it never happened. I think Dragon AI pulls the strings on that timeline."

  Danielle's head was starting to swim at this point in the conversation. Everything she thought she knew was getting a little blurry. "What do you want from me?"

  Malaika answered, "Oh, just this conversation is quite sufficient. However, you are young, and you might be making it back this way in your future. We would appreciate it, if you would look us up. Just contact me on Facebook. Facebook always seems to survive time alterations and I will give you my page name. Kenji too. Just put in a reference to dragons or tigers in the friend request, and we will know it is you. Sharon, right."

  "Actually, my name is Danielle Wilson." Danielle was starting to feel that she needed to get to know some more people like these two. Her future might depend on it.

  "If you wouldn't mind too much, Danielle, would you feel comfortable telling me where you live in 2027?" asked Kenji.

  "Pahrump, Nevada," replied Danielle. "Right outside of Las Vegas."