Chapter 2
The Voyager Within
June 30, 1940. Jason sat in the park looking up at the Eiffel Tower numbly trying to wrap his mind around the idea that he had just traveled through time. Standing up he looked down at himself and decided the first thing to do was to get himself some forties clothes so he didn't look so out of place. And that brought him to another problem, money. Jason Knew that American money from the 21st century wouldn't be worth a hoot in 1940 France. He walked toward the edge of the park. He stepped out of the tree line, and immediately dove back in. He had seen a man in a black S.S. uniform.
"I'd almost forgotten," he said to himself, "in 1940 Paris was under Nazi control!" he watched from the trees until the S.S. officer turned the corner and disappeared. Then he moved and calmly and inconspicuously as clothing would allow. Ducking onto a side street he heard the sounds of several voices talking and money clinking. He moved up to the doorway and peeked around the doorpost. In the room were several men playing roulette.
"This would be a chance to win some money,"he thought, "Ah, but I've got to have money to get in the game." Suddenly a slurred voice above brought him back to reality. He looked up and saw an S.S. officer and a blonde lady up on a 20 foot high balcony across the street. Jason hunkered down in the shadow of the building even though, by the sound of the man's voice and the wooziness in the man's step, he guessed he was in no danger of being seen, so he stayed there and waited for the couple to go back inside. The golden V on the Omni on his belt began to glow faintly, the glow last for a couple of seconds and when it faded Jason suddenly found himself able to understand what was being said.
Jason Guessed that the large wine bottle in the man's hand accounted for his condition.
"Lipson," he said in broken German, "as long as I-I have you I d-don't need anyth-hing else not food, not wine, not even money, see."
To prove his point he pulled out his wallet turned it upside down and dumped a rather large amount of money out of it and into the empty street below. Then the man and the woman walked arm in arm, actually with the woman supporting him most of the way, back into the house.
Once they were out of sight Jason walked over and picked up the money.
"Technically I know who it belongs too," he thought, "but the last thing that guy needs is the means to by more wine."
Sticking the money in his pocket he hurried down the street to a clothes store he had passed earlier. When he showed the man in the store the large amount of money that he had the man was more than happy to help him, and about 30 minutes later he emerged onto the street looking like an ordinary every day Frenchman. He pulled the rest of the money out and looked at it.
"Just about enough left to get in on roulette game," he thought, "I don't usually gamble but that game will probably be my best chance to enlarge this nest egg of mine a little."
He walked back and found the backstreet Casino. He had just enough money to convince the men to let him in on the game.
Jason looked over the numbers on the roulette table, and bet 100 on the number 14 the roulette wheel began to spin. And the ball was dropped almost at that exact moment the Omni's gold V began to glow faintly again and unbeknown to Jason and the rest of the men there it's micro-supercomputer was overriding the machine that was being used to control the crooked machine. The ball bounced around the wheel and landed squarely in the number 14 slot!"
The dealer was startled but regained his composer quickly.
"And the Young man is a winner!!" Jason picked up his winnings and placed another bet on the number 24. Again the ball was dropped. The Omni began to glow and once again the ball dropped straight into the 24.
After a few more spins, Jason walked out of the little casino with every pocket stuffed with money. In the doorway of the casino two big men stood talking in low tones. "How did that guy do that, Maurice," said the first man, "how could he have beaten our roulette wheel?!"
"I don't know, Pierre," Said the other man, "but he's not going to get away with our money come on!!" Jason was almost to the end of the little side street when he was grabbed from behind. Pierre the larger of the two men half-pulled and half dragged Jason back into the alley and turned him to face the other man.
"We'll teach you to cheat us!!" the other man growled. Drawing his fist back aimed a punch straight and Jason's face. The Omni's V began to glow again.
At the last second Jason flicked his head to the side and the punch connected with Pierre's face. Pierre reeled backwards from force of the punch, his grip on Jason loosened. Maurice enraged aimed another punch at Jason. Jason ducked under the punch and kicked Maurice's legs out from under him. Maurice slammed into Pierre and the two landed in a heap on the ground. Jason jumped over them and took off running.
"Why couldn't I do that at home!?" he thought as he ran.
"Come back here you, Runt!" yelled one of the men as they chased him down the street. Jason turned the corner and darted into the opera house with the two crooked gamblers right behind him.
As luck would have it the opera was doing its weekly matinee performance, so the opera house was full of people. Jason raced up the stairs to the third floor, bolted through the first door that he came to and skidded to a halt. He had bolted into an empty private box. Behind him he could here the angry gamblers clambering up the stairs. And in front of him was a thirty foot drop to the stage on which a primadonna was singing an aria. Jason's eye's darted around trying to a way out. Then as the gamblers closed in on him he spotted a glimmer of hope. Stepping back to get a running start he bolted forward and jumped out into space, just a split second before the two crooked gamblers could grab him. As he started to plummet he grabbed hold of one of the long red velvet draperies that ornamented the ceiling of the auditorium above the stage. The drapery held and he swung in a wide arc down in front of the singer who was so startled that she hit a painfully blue note. A chorus of gasps came up from the audience. When Jason reached the top of his swing on the other side he let go of the drape turned a backwards flip and landed gracefully in the private box directly across from the one that he had jumped out of.
The audience broke into thunderous applause. And a shocked Jason realized that they thought it was part of the show and were applauding for him. He turned and bowed to the audience. Then he disappeared out the door into the hallway. He paused in the hallway to catch his breath.
"I can't believe that I just did that!!" he thought. Just as his pulse rate was starting to return to normal the two crooked gamblers came tearing around the corner and the chase was on again. Jason bolted down the hall and into the stairwell. He raced down the stairs to the second floor. Just as he reached the second floor landing he realized that someone was on his way up the stairs, so he darted out of the stairwell and raced down the second floor hallway. At the other end of the hallway was a large window.
Out of options, Jason put his arms up in front of his face and jumped through the window, glass shattering all around him. He dropped straight down into the driver's seat of a Deusenburg (an extremely fancy car of the era first built in the thirties and owned by the very rich) that was sitting there with the top down. He looked back and saw the two gamblers jump about to jump into the car.
"No sense looking a gift horse in the mouth!" he said to himself, "he reached under the dashboard and hotwired the car. It roared into life, he put it into drive and stepped on the gas. The car shot forward and the two gamblers hit the pavement.
"Whew," he said to himself, "the folks back home are never going to beli-," he stopped short when he glanced into the rear view mirror and saw a pair of bright blue eyes looking fearfully at him from the backseat!