Chapter Nine
The two time travelers and the refugees from the amusement park ran into an area that looked identical to a market from Joan's time. Beneath a sign marked "Butcher", a man was carving a pot roast. At a nearby kiosk, a woman was decorating a cake
As John set to work at a nearby computer monitor, Joan asked, "I demand to know what's going on? What is that head? Is it an alien? Did it set loose that dinosaur? And what are you doing?"
With a sigh, John submitted to Joan's demands, and said, "I suppose I'll never be free from your verbal abuse until I answer your questions. How like your mother! No doubt, the Enemy arranged the destruction of the dinosaur's dome to distract us. The Head isn't alien. It's human. After Work War II, a group of amoral scientists tried to use severed human heads, kept alive artificially, to chanel creatures of enormous power and dimensionality called Macrobes. You'll find these channeled extra-dimensional beings the source of your people's tales about demons. I thwarted them then, but, obviously, the work of the Institute survived. And right now, I'm trying to access this stations library computer. So if you'll excuse me…"
"How did you defeat them?"
"I don't recall. A bit if amnesia on my part. Odd sensation. I used to get it all the time in a previous life. And my confrontation with the Institute happened several lifetimes ago. If I could remember, we'd probably have this nasty business done and finished by now."