Chapter 3

The 100 a discovery of time travellers

Time is not a straight line, it doesn't move from left to right so to think of it in those terms would be a mistake. Time passes as if it were water trickling down a crack in a rock or as if it were water bubbling upwards within a well, that is how time moves so to travel that is how you must think of time.

The book of travellers (first edition) (p. 12)

One month ago

New York

USA

With two large books tucked under his arm Bellamy walked down the packed street and passed all manner of people deliberately walking in a relaxed manner, it made him smile the curious looks people shot him when he did this sort of thing. In many ways it made the long walk between where he was able to park his car and the rare book shop where he worked worth it, it was just Bellamy knew those who took note of what he was carrying would be thinking about books all day and he liked that.

Getting to a corner in the street now that lead on to a smaller and less packed side street Bellamy turned walking down this street now and a moment latter he came to the shop. From the outside the shop just looked like an ordinary book shop with displays of books in the windows, light green painted services and a big sign over ahead that said Kane books but appearances could be miss leading. There were actually four Kane books across the world two in the states two in Europe and in rare book circle Kane books were known as the place to go if one had an especially difficult request so the shop was more than it appeared to be for sure.

Getting inside the shop now Bellamy paused briefly to shift to books he had in his arms upwards slightly but then he kept walking. Moving down the narrow path that wound through the stacks of book shelves he came to the shop counter which had a slim brunet girl sitting behind it fiddling on her phone and laid the books down on the counter. Bellamy did this in a deliberately meaningful way in order to get his sisters attention, she had to have heard the door and if he'd been a customer it would have been Octavia's job to handle them something she wouldn't be able to do if she was here playing on her phone.

'Something wrong Bell,' Octavia asked looking up at him seemingly oblivious to his disapproval.

'I could have been a customer O,' Bellamy said through pursed lips 'and if I had been they would have seen you just playing on your phone rather than helping them.'

'If they had needed help I would have helped them,' Octavia defended frowning now moving in her seat so she could glair at him.

'Seeing you like how I just saw you I doubt they would have,' Bellamy countered unwilling to let this point drop 'this good job O, I know you need the money so you should take this seriously.'

'I do take it seriously,' Octavia began but before she could say anything else a voice started calling from above the head asking if it was Bellamy who had just come in effectively ending Bellamy's little conversation with his sister.

Looking away from Octavia who was still glaring at him Bellamy looked at the sealing 'yeah it's me Kane,' he shouted back. Kane was actually his bosses last name not his first but Marcos Kane insisted that people call him Kane while in the office the idea being it connected things back to the name of the shop better so that was Bellamy used Kane in this moment.

'Good,' Kane shouted 'come up here I've got to talk to you.'

Doing as he was asked Bellamy picked up the books from the counter and ignoring Octavia who was still glaring at him moved in the direction of the spiral staircase that was around the corner that was on the other side of the shops counter. Walking up the metallic twisted steps he saw Kane right away once he got to the top of the steps, he was sitting at one of the desks up here that was closest to the stairs with a series of books pilled around him.

'OK,' Bellamy said politely putting the books down on another desk close to Kane that was unlike most of the desks up here empty 'what's up?'

'I got a call,' Kane responded not looking up from the book he was studying 'someone wants to higher you for a job, apparently there looking to buy a book and they want you to do the actually buying of the said book.'

'Really,' Bellamy smiled feeling rather flattered to be requested by someone; at this point in his carrier he didn't have much of a reputation so this sort of thing didn't happen to him too often. 'Who's the client,' Bellamy asked still smiling, wondering if it was someone he had worked for in the past who had pleased with his service and wanted and wanted him to work for them again.

'Do you remember Dante Wallace,' Kane asked looking up now sending him an approving smile 'we sold him that Tessellar journal last year.'

'Yeah,' Bellamy said nodding as he spoke 'wasn't that the young guy who's family owns a whole load of mines who's also a big writer.' A lot of the people Bellamy came into contact through his work here had been born into money he might not be as judgmental of people like that as he had once been but that didn't mean Bellamy didn't bring it up.

'Yeah, that's him' Kane sighed rolling eyes looking back down at the book he was working on 'he said that he wanted it to be you for some reason Bellamy, he'll be expecting you today as well so I suggest you go over to his offices and get the run down on what exactly he wants you to buy.'

'He didn't tell you,' Bellamy asked grinning now enjoying this new mysterious angle to the job he was about to be put onto.

'Yeah,' Kane nodded 'he was rather insistent about that part, said he'd pay extra if you were the only one who would know what he's paying for you to get for him.'

With his curiosity about this job now an added incentive to get going with things Bellamy started moving fast now. He sorted things out with Kane eg the books he had just bought in, said his goodbye's to Octavia and then he was heading out of the shop again not even caring that he had only been in the shop for like ten minutes before being sent out again. To a large extent Bellamy was a really curious guy, when a mystery presented itself to him he wanted to know the answer whatever it might be so this plus the fact he was excited at actually being requested for a job really made spired Bellamy on.

Heading over to what he knew was Dante's offices Bellamy thought about what exactly it could be that Dante wanted Bellamy to buy for him, Dante had written a lot of books about the historical occult and that kind of stuff so maybe the book he wanted him to get for him would be something like that. He hoped that was the case Dante's books were actually really good and he'd used them a lot during his research into the book of travellers with the 100 online, so if he did want Bellamy to get some kind of occult manuscript it would be an opportunity to read something he normally wouldn't get a chance to read.

The mystery of what he was going to hired to do really began to play on Bellamy's mind as he moved across the city to the point he was still thinking it over as he walked into the sky scraper that held Dante's offices. He stopped breathily at reception to make sure he knew where he was going but once he had done that Bellamy head straight for his destination, getting in the lift he went up the right floor and getting there he started talking to a different receptionist. As it turned out Dante was in one of the conference rooms on this floor which was entirely his finishing up giving a lecture, the concept of that sounded reasonably interesting to Bellamy so he elected to slip in the back.

Moving in through a back door of the mid-sized room Bellamy discreetly as he could sat down in the back where there were a few empty seats, he was sure Dante who was standing at the head of the room in front of a projected picture of some kind of sea monster saw him but he didn't say anything. Dante continued with his lecture without any break in fact acting like the room hadn't changed in any way talking about his theories about the root interpretations about certain monster that were talked about in folk tales and depicted in old manuscripts.

To begin with Bellamy found what was being talked about interesting and did listen as Dante talked about his theories but as time wore on he kind of zoned to the point when he heard his named called in a rather abrupt fashion it made him jump. Looking up shocked he saw that the room was now empty and Dante was standing next to where Bellamy was sitting towering over him with a rather sure expression on his face. 'Sorry,' Bellamy spluttered embarrassed standing up quickly 'I understand you have a job for me.'

'I do indeed,' Dante nodded 'if you follow me I'll explain,' he added begging to move towards one of the rooms doors and gesturing for Bellamy to follow him.

Nodding himself Bellamy followed Dante as he lead him across the floor of the building that was his offices, he lead them through several door and down a few corridors but eventually he stopped them in front of a door that had a key pad next to it. 'If you don't mind,' Dante said turning around and gesturing for Bellamy to step back so he could in put the code.

'Of course,' Bellamy smiled stepping back so Dante could put in the code without him looking, Bellamy had an idea what he might well be about to be shown and if he was right he didn't have a problem with any paranoia on the part of Dante. As it turned out Bellamy was right because the moment Dante typed in the code and lead him inside the large room he saw a glass panelled inner room that took up half the room's space which was completely full of shelfs and shelfs of books. 'Wow,' he whispered amazed by what he was seeing, Bellamy had heard about the collection of books Dante had amassed but seeing it was something else entirely, Bellamy had always been a bit of a nerd when it came to books so seeing this was a dream for him.'

'Impressed,' Dante smiled moving to stand next to Bellamy briefly before he starting moving in the direction of the doors that lead in to the inner room.

'Yes,' Bellamy nodded a little breathlessly trying his best not to nerd out to much right now he really didn't want to come across as someone who couldn't manage them self's 'believe me when I say the story's don't do this room justice.'

'Good to know,' Dante nodded his smile widening reaching the door and beginning to type a code into another key pad gesturing for Bellamy to follow after him. 'I'm glad you appreciate this Bellamy,' he said opening the door and walking in 'very few people have ever gotten in here to see this room, this is one of the largest private collections of occult manuscripts and books in existence.'

'Believe me I really appreciate you letting me see all this,' Bellamy nodded following Dante into the room and moving slightly down one of the ills in order to examine some of the names on the books neatly arranged on the shelfs. Inspecting the books that were of all shapes and sizes Bellamy saw some names that were hard to believe, he would give a lot to get just an afternoon in here so he get a real look at just a few of these. His efforts to understand the book of travellers would probably expand immensely if he was able to do that and then he would be able to go to Clarke and all the others and they might well be able to start really doing stuff as far as the visions were concerned.

'If you come over here Bellamy,' Dante called after giving Bellamy a few minutes to look at the names on the books beaconing him to the other side of the room 'I'll tell you about the job I've got for you, it's one I think you will be really interested in by the way.'

That last bit got Bellamy attention so his curiosity peeked he tore himself away from examining the books of the ill he was in and moved to the other side of the room where Dante was calling from. Getting there Bellamy saw Dante standing with a rather satisfied expression on his face in a part of the room that was different from the rest. Instead of the fictional shelfs that filled the rest of the room there was what could best be described as a waste high display cabinet in the middle of the narrow bit of space that was left in the room after the shelfs ended.

Even more curios now Bellamy moved to stand next to Dante who was standing beside the display cabinet and looked down in to it, the cabinet had two parts where books were displayed one in the top which allowed you to look down at the several books that were there and one in the side which allowed you to see several more books. Examining the top part of the cabinet Bellamy saw two closed books one large and fine one smaller but flicker both looked really old though bound in peeling black leather but these books were what drew Bellamy's attention it was the empty space for a third books between the two. 'I take it you want be to get the book that's going to fill that space,' Bellamy remarked looking back up taping the glass that was directly above the empty cradle with his knuckle as he spoke.

'Yes I do Dante,' nodded still smiling that satisfied smile 'and the book I want you to go buy for me is one I think you will be very interested in Bellamy plus I think you will be very interested in the deal I'm prepared to offer you if you are able to get this book.'

Present day

Clarke Griffin

'Is this it,' Clarke's mum asked in a rather disapproving way as she pulled her car up to the front of the hotel where the convention was being held and more importantly the auction was going to take place.

'Yes, this is it,' Clarke nodded suppressing an eye role, her mum made no secret of the fact she didn't approve of her little hobby as she called it but she had needed a ride so Clarke wanted to be as nice as she could today. Pulling her bag into her lap Clarke looked outside of the car and she couldn't help but frown the hotel the convention was being held at was nice enough but it was clearly an on budget kind of place. Also the people Clarke could see in costumes hanging around the entrance to her mind did not look like the kind of people who would really understand what all this was really about, in truth she had kind of expected this but it was still disappointing to see.

'So how is this going to work exactly,' her mum asked in a not terribly interested tone but she was clearly trying to act like she was interested 'you and your friends all bid, then what?'

'Then we hopefully have a first edition of the book to examine,' Clarke sighed looking away from the disappointing site outside the car and back at her mum 'and with some look we will be able to save the world.'

The moment she said this Clarke saw her mum purse her lips tightly a sure sign she was doing her best not to say the things she actually want to say. It took her a minute but eventually her nodded in response, 'ok,' she said breathing out a big breath 'I wish you the best of look with all this Clarke and I trust you will call me when you have solid plans for this evening.'

Usually Clarke would have remarked on her mum's barley contained disapproval of what she was choosing to try and do today but she could see she was trying to be nice so she decided against it. 'Thanks,' she said nodding and forcing a smile while putting her hand on the door handle 'and I'll call you when I know if I'll want picking up.' With that said Clarke opened the car and stepped out but not before her called after her as she went saying she hoped things went well with Bellamy, feel herself blush at this Clarke turned around the counter this but her mum had already pulled the door to and was driving off.

'She did that deliberately,' Clarke whispered to herself as she watched her mum go shaking her head slightly, her mums position on Bellamy was really wired she clearly disapproved of everything she did around the book online or over wise but for some reason Bellamy was the exception. Ever since she had told her mum a few things about his as an online friend she had been pushing and pushing this point Clarke did admit to having a small crush on Bellamy but the amount her mum pushed her support of it was somewhat disconcerting. It was probably the fact that Bellamy was well a man, her mum always said she was ok with Clarke being bi but really Clarke had always suspected her mum was secretly holding out hope she would still end up finding a nice a guy anyway.

Letting out a sigh in response to this suspicion Clarke turned on her foot and started heading inside walking past several people dressed as various spacy looking creatures, the stand out being the one dressed like some kind of giant squid. She didn't pay them much attention though walking straight past them and heading towards the lift, Clarke was on a mission and that was where all her focus was right now in this moment.

Pressing the button for the lift Clarke pushed thoughts of her mum aside and tried to focus on the plan that had been agreed upon to make sure the group had the best possible chance of getting the first addition of the book. A lot of different ideas had been talked about online but in the end everyone had decided to go with Ravens idea of them all coming in and make a bunch of different bids, the idea being that if they did that they would be able to increase their chances of being able to get the winning bid.

As Clarke finished going over the plan for what must have been the hundredth time the doors to the lift opened so letting out a large nervous breath she stepped inside its shiny brass interior pressed the correct button and started ridding it upwards alone. After what felt like a strangely long the lift doors opened again and Clarke stepped out of the lift into the floor of the hotel that the auction was apparently on which was decorated in various shades of red. After that she began moving around going down various corridors looking for where she was going which didn't take too long because she soon spotted the small cue of people hanging around one hotel room door.

Walking up to the cue of three people Clarke parked herself at the end making herself the fourth examining her fellow bidders as she did so. The first two seemed to be friends judging from the way they were chatting and Clarke guessed from the monster costumes they were wearing they weren't anyone she needed to worry about the guy who was just in front of was a different story. The man who was black was tall, bald and dressed in some kind of grey business suit which strangely seemed to be one uniform colour, which meant he did not look like the person one would expect to see waiting in line for an action like this which in turn meant he was probably someone who was capable of making a big bid for the book.

As the door opened and the two in front where let in and a girl who looked to be dressed like some kind of human tiger hybrid was let out Clarke continued to assess the man in front of her, he really was very tall which made him look very imposing. Maybe he was a lawyer Clarke thought someone who was here the try and get the book for a client or maybe he was just someone who had money who wanted the book for himself. Clarke wanted to stick up a conversation with the man so she could ask these questions but her nerves around doing that got the better of her so she remained quit letting the mystery of this man remain answered.

After about five minutes the two friends where let out of the room and the strange man was invited in by a and a sandy haired guy which meant Clarke was left waiting outside the room alone. She didn't need to wait too long though because after another five minutes or so the door opened again and the strange man was let out who had a concerned expression on his face for some reason and after that it was Clarkes turn to be let in.

Getting inside Clarke was immediately led over to a rather poufy looking sofa and sitting down she noticed a cloth covering something on the table that was in front of her. 'Is that it,' she began grinning looking at the brunet girl sitting in front of her on the over side of the tale not bothering the hide her excitement.

'Yeah it is,' the girl who Clarke now guessed was Rebecca said smiling a reassuring smile as the guy sat down next to her. 'Now how this is going to work,' she continued 'is to start with we will show you one page of the book, that way you can see we have the real thing but that's it.' Rebecca paused here for Clarke to nod showing she understood but then she carried on 'after that, you'll place you're bid, give us your contact information, then we'll get back to you at a later date.'

'OK,' Clarke smiled 'let's see this page you're going to show me then,' she had been waiting this moment for years so Clarke's mind was full of all kinds of things she might be able to see which meant she couldn't think about anything else in this moment. As it was though the page was revealed to her was somewhat of a disappointment, it was just a page of text there weren't any illustrations on it like she had been hoping. It was in Arabic and clearly old so seeing this was confirmation enough for Clarke to see that these two really had the first edition she and the 100 were looking for but it wasn't much to look at in of its self so after a minutes silence she nodded her thanks to Rebecca.

Getting on with things Clarke took the bid sheet when it was offered wrote her bid down which was everything she had in her bank account along with her phone number and handed it back. After that she stood up said her good byes while trying to come across as the kind of person they would want to sell their book to while fighting the urge to try and convince these two how important. Clarke knew she wasn't crazy but she knew what she could come across like when she talked about her theories around time travel so she just politely said her goodbyes and got ready to leave.

Doing just that she moved towards the door with the guy who remained in lock step with her and once he opened the door and invited the next person in she moved through it leaving the room however much she might wish she was taking the book with her. These wishful thoughts were soon moved to one side though because as Clarke moved through the door she caught site of whom the next bidder was and that gave her pause.

The man standing waiting there somehow looked old and young at the same time, his dark skin wasn't wrinkled but it looked warn, the beard the man had was grey but uniformly so and he was defiantly really fine but he held himself with strength. So looking at the man was confusing in a way, his appearance didn't make sense to Clarke, he almost didn't look real. Also in addition to his strange features the man was wearing a rather generic looking light blue business suit and a fedora which really added to the man's strange appearance, he looked, in fact Clarke didn't know what the man looked like she knew there was something unusual here.

Clarke didn't stop moving though, she was still thinking about sending a good impression to the people she had just placed a bid with so the last thing she wanted was for them to see her ask unusual questions of the next person in line. When Clarke had first started studying the ideas within the book of travellers and the exercises around time travel she had started to pick up a sense of things when she was around certain places or close to particular people. In the early days she had gone with these senses she had now asking questions of certain people and she unusually still did, more often her senses lead her to things but she knew how she could come across so in the name of leave a good impression she made the choice to let this one go.

Instead walking past the strange man and heading back the way she had come, it probably wasn't anything important she was sensing there anyway and besides she was about to meet Bellamy for the first time now. This first meeting was something she was going to want to be on her a game for so Clarke pushed all thoughts of that strange man and everything else to one side instead choosing to concentrate on how she was going to handle this first meeting.

Simon

'You ok,' Simon asked the old looking man as he remained standing where he was watching the blond girl who had just placed her bid walk away from them down the corridor for some reason the man had a strangely pained expression on his face.

'I'm fine,' the man sighed turning back around to face Simon a determined look on his face now picking up the old style doctors bag at his feet as he did so 'let's do this.'

'OK then,' Simon nodded trying to smile a polite smile moving to one side so the unusually dressed man could step in to their room.

Moving past him at brisk walk the man moved into the room and immediately made for where Rebecca was sitting taking his place on the sofa and showing himself to be ready to make his bid. Simon was a little taken aback by this brisk nature but he decided to ignore it the man was probably just egger so he closed the door went back over to his seat and sitting down he started explaining everything about how they were handling the auction.

'Ok,' the man nodded once Simone had finished explaining things everything taking his hat off as he did so 'but I'd like to see two pages please and I'd like to request which those two pages are.'

'Why,' Simon asked at the same moment Rebecca did as well both of them sounding as confused as the other by this oddly pacific request.

'That's how I'll be able to tell the book is really the first edition I'm looking for,' the man said in a rather matter of fact tone 'if you let me see page 75 and the last page and there how they should be I'll make you an offer I think you'll be really happy with.'

Unsure what to say or do here Simon looked over at Rebecca who gave a small nod singling that this request was ok by her so shrugging slightly he pulled the cloth of the book turned it around to face him and then started flicking pages in order to get to page 75. Getting to the page that he counted out as 75 which was split down the middle with one half being text and the other being an illustration of some kind of shadowy figure Simon turned it back around to face the man.

'Thank you,' the man nodded politely 'this page looks how it should, can I see the last page now.'

'Ok,' Simone nodded turning the book around and beginning to turn pages again, as he did so he noted the man looked a little like the shadowy illustration he had just seen on page 75 but he decided it was probably just a coincidence so he didn't bare that anymore thought. Getting to the end of the book Simone paused the moment he laid eyes on the final page, the page was blank apart from an illustration right in the middle of the page and that's what gave Simon pause.

It was strange how breath taking it was Simon thought as he stared down at the illustration, it was reasonably simple there was hill and then a whole load of towering spires and building on top of that hill but it was more to than that. The illustration of the city Simon assumed was being depicted here was small but really detailed somehow there were all kinds of little elements he could pick out and on top of that there was the colour. The city was a mass of all kind of different hugs of colour to the point it almost shimmered on the page as Simon looked at the illustration, it was a shining city, a city of light.

Simon would have kept staring down at the city but the man who he was trying to possibly sell this book to spoke distracting him. 'Draws you in doesn't it,' the man remarked sounding strangely please. Seeing the looking Simon began to mumble an apology for getting distracted but he quickly razed a hand stopping him 'it's fine,' he nodded 'your reaction to that page tells me all I need to know, I'm prepared to make a bid.'

'OK,' Simon nodded pleased moving away from the book now, picking up the sheet they were getting people to write stuff down on he explained everything to the man.

'OK,' the man sighed leaning down and reaching for where he had put his bag, opening it he pulled out what looked to be a blue ziggurat case and placed it down on the table so they could see. 'I'll offer you a traded,' the man said pointing at the case 'that for the book and that case was made by Faberge by the way so if you sell that on you will get a lot I dare say.'

'As in the egg guy,' Rebecca asked sounding shocked.

'Yeah seriously,' Simon added looking down at the case that he saw now had a silver snake design twisting across its blue service 'really the egg guy?'

'Yes,' the man nodded smiling a slight smile picking the case back up now that they had seen it 'and it's yours if you sell me the book.'

For a moment Simon considered just selling the book to this man right here and now a trade for something by the egg guy mad sense but then he decided against because there was always a chance someone else would offer more. So Simon thanked the man said they would remember his bid gave him the papers and asked him to write down his contact information saying that they would be in touch. Smiling back the man did just that taking the paper and writing down a phone number which Simon was begin to notice several people had done instead of giving a room number in the hotel.

After that with everything done they all stood up and Simon thanked the man who was really strange but who apparently must have money if he was willing to trade something made by the egg guy for his and Rebeca's little book. Adding to the strangeness Simon noticed the man was humming an unfamiliar tune as he walked him to the door ready the invite the next bidder in but he excepted it as one more strange aspect of this man choosing instead to just go with the motions of they as it has so far gone.

sorry it took me so long to post this