Foreign country

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Note: With no memory of him wielding a miraculous, Gabriel basically had no memory of anything that happened with him since his last visit to Tibet, and that was the moment when Emilie found the miraculous stones. For simplicity, it is assumed that Nathalie's memories were erased to the same time stamp. Perhaps she knew Emilie found the miraculous from the start.

Gabriel gained his consciousness while he was carried out from a building. He was literally carried out through a door when he started to open his eyes. There were several soldiers and a government official standing outside.

"This is the troublemaker?" One person in a uniform asked.

"Yes, and there is the other one." Another person, who he could not see, answered.

He turned his head slightly but could not see much.

"Are they injured?" The first person in the uniform asked and looked at Gabriel sternly with hands behind his back.

"No, even if they were, everything got fixed before we carried them outside." The other person answered.

Gabriel tried to move and discovered his arms and be tied on his back, probably by handcuffs. His feet were connected too.

"Was this necessary?" He groaned as he moved his hands and feet suggesting he thought he was tied up a bit too much.

"Yes, it was necessary." The voice from behind him replied flatly.

He felt he was laid upon a stretcher and tied up to it with few belts.

"This is so you do not fall off." The man in the uniform offered as an explanation without looking at the man's face.

Gabriel wandered why was he obviously arrested by the army. He knew their papers were obtained by stashing some cash in several pockets before he got a permit to wander around Tibet unsupervised. The last thing he remembered was him, Nathalie, Emilie and a few others as they wandered through the high plains. Emilie tended to separate herself from the group as she was taking photos of everything at different times of a day. She was a model in his company and this was supposed to be an exotic photo shoot combined with his inspiration quest and packed up as a company team building and a vacation. And yet, his leading model was more interested in her hobby.

The memories seemed distant and yet these were the last he could remember and should have felt more fresh. Maybe he hit his head. Maybe someone else hit his head.

When they turned the stretcher, he could see the entrance to the temple. He was not sure what the building was but it definitely looked like an entrance to the temple.

"I have a permit in the pocket of my jacket." Gabriel complained as he looked over himself. He did not remember ever wearing such a jacket, nor the trousers. It looked adventurous, it looked futuristic, perhaps he should remember those lines, the novel solution for the position of the stitches, the innovative positions for the pockets. Although he despised the colour of the outfit. He did not remember he ever designed anything like that. He must have hit his head hard. Because he would never wear anything that he did not design himself.

One of the soldiers reached into his pocket and produced a sheet of paper. The soldier opened it and gave to the man who was issuing orders and asking questions. The man had more decorations on the uniform than the others, he must be something like a commanding officer, Gabriel concluded.

As he waited for the commanding officer to approve his paperwork he looked to his side. There on the stretcher next to his they laid down a body of a woman. He recognized Nathalie. This journey must have been hard on her. Perhaps she was severely ill. Because she looked at least fifteen years older than he remembered. He sighed. His dear assistant always worked long hours and worked her ass out to organize everything he ever needed. This job had to be too much for her. He made a mental note to find more capable replacement for her or a second assistant to share the duties because the job was obviously too much for Nathalie.

The woman was unconscious and breathed heavily, her lungs produced a wheezing noise, as if she was having coughing fits while she was awake. She was probably ill, that was why she looked so much older than she actually was, Gabriel concluded.

"This is a forgery, there are no records of this permit in Lhasa nor Beijing." The commanding officer concluded as he put something that looked like a mobile phone in his pocket. "Store this." He ordered the younger soldier who took it in the first place.

"They, have, you can check once we get there." Gabriel tried to sound authoritative which was not very effective considering he was tied up on a stretcher.

"I already have." The commanding officer ordered for the two of them to be carried away.

They have the mobile phone signal in this middle of nowhere? Since when? Why he did not have the phones for the whole crew but just one Iridium satellite phone for all of them? He will scold Nathalie for missing on that once she was awake. Well that and not getting a better permit. He had a proper permit but it was not for wandering free wherever they wanted, it was for Lhasa and organized tours. The whole group had the same. Well, that was not actually her fault, it was him who obtained those papers.

"Do we have to carry him if he is able to walk?" One of the soldiers who carried him complained.

"He is very violent and dangerous, we want to keep him tied up." Another person answered.

He was violent and dangerous? When was that? Of course, he was not known for being a gentle and sensitive person. He would never get that far in the fashion industry if he was. He was authoritative, stern, decisive, he heard people called him stiff and cruel. He did not care. That was the way business was done, if you did not understand that you had no place in his crew. Sometimes he shouted at people, that was true, he was know to slam his fist on the desk when he wanted to make a point, he was know to snarl and glare at people. He was actually proud of it. He knew what his goal was and he did whatever was needed to do to achieve it. He did not care about any collateral damage, especially if the damage was not to be suffered by him, or his business.

"I demand to know why am I being tied up and handled like this." Gabriel demanded from the commanding officer.

"You will be treated by the prosecutor. We are handling you over tonight." the commanding officer informed him coldly.

He was put in a terrain vehicle and he noticed that the content of one container was loaded in the back of the same vehicle. They loaded Nathalie only when they were ready to go. He had a coughing fit but her eyes remained closed.

He glared at his surroundings. He was asked if he needed water or to go to the toilet, he refused both.

"You better make yourself comfortable. You are going for a long ride." A woman in the uniform told him before she closed the door.

The vehicle started driving on the rugged terrain. As it lulled from side to side he managed to find a position that he would describe as bearable. But then he started to feel immensely tired and fell asleep.

Nathalie woke up as she swayed back and forth. The first thing she was aware of was that her hands were tied up. Then she opened her eyes to see her hands in front of her wearing – were those handcuffs? She knew that Gabriel did not get a proper permit for filming and whatever they were doing. She just knew. There was a procedure, long and cumbersome, done for each individual that wanted to visit Tibet. It was paperwork, but she was able to do that. But if you wanted to do business in Tibet, it was a different story. Gabriel snarled at her and called her incompetent. Then he left and returned with a piece of paper after a day. He claimed everything was resolved. Well, either that, or Emilie sneaked out and took some photos she was not supposed to. Like that military base. Judging form the uniforms of the two people in the front seats, it was the army. Why would a famous model and perspective actress want to take a hobby like photography and then sneak away from her group and take photos of a military base in the distance.

There was her and that obnoxious twin sister of her, Amelie. Everyone knew she was a witch, save Emilie, because Amelie was nice to her. Nathalie thought of both of them as spoiled brats. They came from a known family of artists. And they could name their ancestors for centuries backwards. Even the name, Graham de Vanily, sounded pretentious. They were artistic and stylish, that was Gabriel searched for, they were also twins, which had certain appeal in the fashion industry. But Amelie refused to sigh an exclusive contract like Emilie did.

She entertained herself with those thought not to think how she was handcuffed and sat on the back seat of a Chinese car. Then her eyes fell on a person who was sharing the same back seat. She turned around and saw Gabriel Agreste. Well he looked at least fifteen years older than she remembered seeing him, but he was definitely her boss. Perhaps it was the sun and the cold wind that aged him so much so quickly. Perhaps it was the weak light of the end of the day.

She noticed his clothes was something he never wore and then she noticed her own clothes were also not something she remembered wearing. Well, this was some kind of all weather gear, perhaps they had to get something like that.

She had another coughing fit.

The persons in the front noticed she was awake.

"Do you need some water?" The person in the front passenger seat offered a plastic bottle with water and Nathalie took it. She drank some water and felt better. She glanced over towards Gabriel. He was asleep. If only he noticed her. If only he noticed how hard she tried to impress the man. If only he appreciated how valuable she was for his business and his life. Not that he had much of a personal life anyway. He was practically married for his business. As his assistant, she already spent most of her wake hours by his side tending to any of his requests. It is not like anything would have changed if they got married. Except her name. And she would feel batter, And then they would spend the nights together too. Well, technically they spent many nights together already, just not sleeping. No it was not what anyone would think, they were working. But if they got married then they would … stop thinking like that. You are in trouble in a foreign country, probably arrested.

But it was not as if she had anything better to do than to entertain herself by her own imagination so she did, until she fell asleep again.

Gabriel stirred when someone opened the car door next to him. He was pulled out. His feet were free to walk and he was taken to a nondescript grey building. He assumed it was some kind of a back door to a police station as he judged from the men and women in uniforms that he noticed in the hallways.

Nathalie was taken behind Gabriel. She sighed. She had a personal permit for Tibet. It was no her signature on that other paperwork. But she was not to let Gabriel stay to answer alone. Besides, it was probably something Emilie did. Or Amelie. Whatever. They were not about to take the fall for them. Except, they could not do that photo shoot without the two of them. And Gabriel wanted snow. And they still had no snow, so there was no photo shoot. She could have organized anything, but not the snow. Perhaps if they were in the studio, yes. Even if they were outside in civilisation, yes. But in Tibet they did not make artificial snow, they had plenty of natural one. Except just when they needed it for the photo shoot.

Gabriel stared at the policeman who was handling his paperwork. He expected some cash in his pocket would be sufficient to get them out of this predicament. And some more to a few more persons in the station. He tried to remember how much cash he had on him. He could not. His hands were in handcuffs in front of him. He could sneak a hand into his pocket. But the room was crowded, too many people, his means might not be sufficient for everyone. He needed more alone time. One to one, he would prefer.

Nathalie stood on his side and waited to hear what was awaiting her.

"You are being charged multiple physical assaults, disturbance of government lead operation and trespassing government placed restrictions on movement." The official raised his eyes from the paperwork tiredly. "As foreign citizens, we have contacted you embassy, but apparently you are wanted criminals in your own country."

Gabriel stared at the man. Nathalie wandered what she got herself into.

"The two of you can get rest. You will be transported back to your unit with the next group of students." A government official took the two soldiers away.

Two policemen took Gabriel to one corridor and another two policewomen took Nathalie away. She listed the crimes in her head. They were even provided a translated version of their charges and she stared at the piece of paper in her hands.

She got food and ate it. She looked around the cell and wandered where the others from their group were. She expected to be locked up with other women. Then an officer approached her and entered her cell.

"These are some of your things that have been approved for you to keep." The woman spoke quietly. "We have cloned the content of your tablet as requested by the authorities from your country."

Nathalie thanked and took her things. Gabriel was not going to be happy if the content of her tablet was known. There were plenty of the things related to the business there, the things he considered confidential. But then another thought occurred. That meant the content of his laptop and tablet would be cloned.

Then she looked at the tablet. This was not her tablet. Gabriel got her almost the first one that was ever sold to the public because he wanted to show the image of his company as following the technological trends, but this one looked far more advanced than she remembered. Was she using the same password on this tablet? Perhaps they mixed up the stuff from their camping site and this was not her tablet but someone else's? But who would have such tablet? Even Gabriel did not have such advanced piece of technology.

She switched it on and there was a sign in the shape of a fingerprint. She touched the designated spot with the index finger on her right hand and it unlocked. Her eyes went wide. She unlocked the device using the fingerprint of her own finger. Then the device must have been hers.

She looked at the screen and fell from the chair. The date. That is like … fifteen years in the future. What happened? She quickly opened her notes and began to read. The date was right, but the text, the notes she had made there, that was something to read.

Gabriel stared at the tablet in his hands. It looked stylish, the style was … decent, he would approve of a device like that to be used in his company. Except, he had no memory of ever using it. Well he just unlocked it using his own fingerprint so it was his. Perhaps he did hit his head and had slight memory loss. He did feel rather dazed and tired and dizzy. He checked the date and snarled an unrecognizable animalistic sound. A guard ran over.

"Which day it is today?" Gabriel requested.

The guard eyed him carefully before he recited the answer, including the year.

Gabriel's eyes went wide, he was left speechless. The guard turned around and left.

Fifteen years? How had had he hit his head?

And then he opened his applications. There were plenty of unread emails. Well, he was paying Nathalie to deal with that, what was that woman doing for the last fifteen years?

Then he noticed one email marked with an asterisk.

Who is Lila Rossi? The man wondered as he opened the email.

And then his eyes went even wider.