Sorry guys, I did upload everything as usual; no clue what went wrong.

Cross-examination

Thief? Of what? Was that why we were being chased? I stared at him, trying to gauge his motives. Did he know about the ring? Or would I be in trouble if I said too much now?

He gave the bodyguard, because that's all he could be, a wave, whereupon he closed the door with an audible click and positioned himself in front of it.

Very bad.

Something told me that it was better to come out with it, but I still had to try not to make the impression of a frightened bunny. Easier said than done. "I want to put something on record, haven't you been told?"

He walked with a deliberate step to the desk and sat on its edge. "Otherwise, I don't think you'd be here."

So far, so good, he hadn't broken my neck. For now. "How do I know you won't try to kill me again?"

"You don't." Great, that really helped. "But if you don't tell me what I'm about to ask you, then you already know the end of our conversation."

So now it counted. I crossed my arms in front of my chest to keep my heart from breaking out and fixed the bodyguard at the door. "Is it in your job description to wear sunglasses?"

He didn't respond, I didn't expect him to. Instead, his boss took an audible breath.

All right, I had made my point, now I had to be careful not to go overboard. I had about ten seconds before he ran out of patience. So I turned and asked, "What do you want to know?"

He raised his head and eyed me sharply. I returned his gaze until he pursed his lips and looked away. Oh, so now we understood that threats didn't help. At least I hoped so, because of course I was scared. My breathing was controlled and calm, but inside I was shaking like crazy, and only my crossed arms kept me from showing it openly.

"Let's stop playing games," Ice Eyes began, "tell me what you know about Jack Adams."

About who? "I don't know who you mean."

"Oh come on."

Okay, if I were him, I probably wouldn't believe me either. But how was I going to show him that I had no idea who this guy was? My mind was racing, knotting itself into increasingly nonsensical combinations. Breathe. Think.

Going by what I knew, the guy could either be a freeloader screwing with Ice-Eye, or the thief of the Ring we were looking for. The one for whom Legolas had taken a trip back in time.

The longer I thought about it, the more likely my assumption became. I was just surprised that Jack didn't sound at all like Middle Earth. Maybe he'd gotten himself an alias, or maybe that's what Ice Eye's troop had called him? "I don't know him...really," I took another stab at it. "But I can guess who you mean."

"Fine."

Was that an invitation to keep talking? He could have that. "Why do you think I'm here?"

He seemed surprised that I didn't continue to protest that I was innocent. But before I told him what I had come here for, I had to find out why he was here. He crossed his legs and nodded slightly, as if my behavior only now made sense. "You want to find out what we know."

Hmm, yeah. You could say that. "If you say so."

"Do you think I'm that limited?" When I didn't answer, he continued, "He sacrificed you to find out where we stand. That suits him. Just too bad for you."

Who was he? Jack? Or Legolas? Could it really be that the elf had let me walk into a trap? Deliberately?

I had never wasted a thought on that. Should his whole mysterious fuss really only have served to drive me away from him? The cynical side of me answered with a convinced nod, but the other side could not and would not believe it. How likely was it that Ice Eye knew the elf? "No one sent me. I'm here of my own free will."

"Yes, of course." The irony dripped from his words and I sighed. We skulked around each other like two panthers before a fight. Unless one of us raised his sights, this was going to go on forever. Or only until he got tired of me. And who would then draw the short straw, was clear.

All right, then. "I don't know Jack Adams, but I know you're looking for something - just like we are."

"Go on."

"When your people were shooting at us, we were following clues that should have led us to... the object."

He leaned forward and now there was a spark in his eyes that reminded me a lot of my father when he found out something new. "What do you mean with should have?"

"It... it turns out our informant is dead."

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really?"

I looked past him outside and spotted a lone seagull hovering overhead. "Believe what you will, but we are not thieves."

Silence fell for a moment and I continued to look out the window. The closer it got to winter, the darker it got outside. It could only be close to twelve, but the weather was so dull and gloomy that you almost thought it was evening.

"Then who are you?", Ice Eye snapped me out of my thoughts, and for the first time I thought I heard something else besides the ever-present suspicion in his voice. The spark of curiosity had not only ignited, but had spread.

I tore myself away from the depressing sight of the sky and met his gaze again. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself first?"

I could have sworn he was smirking, but his amusement seemed to evaporate as quickly as it had come. This man was strange. Putting aside the presence of his bodyguard, he didn't seem like a thug or a crime lord. And as the latter, he would probably be prohibited from being in a police station other than in a cell.

I noticed him get up from the table and look down at me. "I think that's fair. My name is Michael Sattler and I'm here on behalf of the Time Travel Agency."