OK, Mission 8 is up. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

The next mission was pretty good. I didn't have to walk too far, and my Good Guide wasn't Polly, the former point immediately putting it above the last case.

"You're moving on to Germany in the fourteen-hundreds," the Chief explained. "Birthplace of mechanical printing. The first edition of a very important book should be on the shelves by now, but it's nowhere to be found. Time for a title search, Time Trooper Saffron!"
My Good Guide hovered beside me. It was Ivan, this time, which was good. He grinned at me.

"Good luck," said the Chief, "And don't forget to read the fine print."

We emerged in the corner of a printing shop, where a man in inky purple robes stood, looking gloomy.

"Time travelling sure beats taking the bus, huh, Saffron?" Ivan joked.

"Especially since the bus goes the wrong way – forward!" I answered. "So this is the world's first printing shop?"

"Uh-huh. That's Johann Gutenberg, over there."

At that moment, Gutenberg said in a tearful tone "My master work has been stolen! Gone before the ink was dry, and look at this mess. There's ink and printing type everywhere! I'll be the laughing stock of Mainz."

Ivan addressed him. "Johann, my man, your troubles are over. Me and Saffy are on the case."

"Oh, so I'm Saffy now?" I said with a smile.

"Hey, can't a guy give a faux kid sister a nickname?" Ivan said, matching my smile.

"Faux sister, sure." I teased. "But I'm real enough, so of course you're OK to. OK, guess we better get the facts of the case." Then my eyes caught some paper hanging on the wire where trying parchment hung. "Look, isn't that-"

"A piece of the C-Note!" Ivan exclaimed. "At this rate, it'll be Carmen who's hanging out to dry before long!"

This one said "Before I come to bring you home, you'll snatch the world's first typed-up tome!"

Before I talked to Gutenberg, I had a look around. Ivan knew tons about the printing press, so he told me some of it when I asked questions. Gutenberg added in some stuff too, so I thought I better start talking to him.

He explained that his Bible – the first printed book in Europe – was stolen, and that he needed to make a poster to warn people about the thief. He needed lampblack to make the ink, though. So the two of us went out to search for it. It was quite literally soot from a burned-out oil lamp we needed. The shopkeeper who owned it said we could have it. We also found a piece of the Carmen Note, reading "Make your V.I.L.E swipe when the time is ripe."

We gave the sooty lamp to Gutenberg. He decided we should be the ones to make the notice. He'd done some of it, but he needed to mix the ink up while we continued to put the letters in.

I had to read the mirror-imaged letters. "So far he's got 'Notice, on the loose. _b_ _s_n, If found return to J Gutenberg, beware.' Obviously the first word with blanks is thief."

"By the way, the next bit is 'Bible stolen'." Ivan said. "We better find the right letters." We slotted the right letters into the place, and made the notice.

"Well done!" exclaimed Gutenberg. "Let's have a look at the notice." It was perfect, and Gutenberg was thrilled.

"This notice is quite perfect!" he exclaimed. "Just give me a minute to print up a tall stack." He was out to put the notices wherever they could be, well, noticed. And behind him, he left-

"It's the third piece of the C-Note!" exclaimed Ivan. "Let's decode this baby."

I read the whole note. "The last piece says 'Then hide by the major metal in Johann's printing type'."

"Before you work out what that is, I'll activate the Time Cuffs." Ivan said. "Have you worked it out yet?"

"For your information, chemistry is not my strong point!" I said, unable to work it out.

Ivan laughed. "Saffy, it's not rocket science. The answer's lead, anyway."

"That shopkeeper had lead, didn't he?" I said, the answer dawning on me. "That's where they are."

"Elemental!" Ivan said. "That's completely right." We easily cuffed the crook, and Ivan cheered. "We busted Jane Reaction!"

Then we were swirled back into the time portal.

"Your runaway reaction days are over, Jane!" Ivan informed the redhead. "You're going on ice, at ACME."

"Dream on, you two." Jane said coldly. "You've got me under control for now, but there's a meltdown coming soon and her name is Carmen Sandiego!"

"I'm SO scared." I said sarcastically, although Carmen did actually frighten me. Her quiet confidence was intimidating, and I was scared of her because her air was mysteriously dark.

"And I'm pretty sure she'll want to speak to you." Jane snapped, glaring at me.

I knew it. Carmen had some kind of obsession that was something to do with me chasing her. I couldn't tell why, but I tried to push it to the back of my mind. I couldn't lose my nerve, otherwise I couldn't leave the game!

Ivan grinned quickly at me and whispered "See you not too much later, sis." with a laugh before flying off to jail Jane. I giggled too.

The Chief enthusiastically congratulated me for helping Gutenberg and cuffing Jane. "Way to go! Work like that deserves a reward. Hey, can you handle a promotion?"
"Really?" I exclaimed. "I'd just gotten used to my last promotion, being a Trooper. But wow, yes I can."

"Good!" the Chief said. "Because now you're a Time Detective!" Then she frowned. "You've gotten all of Carmen's crooks that were causing trouble, but there's still Carmen herself to catch. Also, she was seen with Dee Cryption, who hasn't been caught. There's something strange going on. I'll look into it. For now, you can finish work for today, if you want."

I'd worked three cases, and walking through China and Mali was tiring. OK, my last case was a walk in the park, but I was tired, so I eagerly took the chance, although I didn't show my happiness at finishing for the day.

It was odd, I thought. All the time periods felt different. You could tell that China was a more tourist-friendly place back in the Juan dynasty than it was today. People didn't stare at me. My friend Amy had told me that they were more wary of Europeans and Americans like her when she visited Beijing. Mali was actually quite friendly, considering their emperor was pretty nice. Germany was not as friendly and very serious, but not bad. Whatever, anyway, I was too tired to think about it for long, and it was getting late, so I went to sleep.

The jailbreak is next, but I'm putting a bit of a Saffron spin on it. Review, please!