"So what's your theory about the beast?" Sam asked after they had shared a large loaf of tender bread. Sam's stomach felt so full, she wondered if she'd want to eat anything else all day. Not that everything at the market place looked or smelled appealing. As much as she liked to defend the eighteenth century way of life, she knew better than to try the foul-smelling fish across the street from the bakery.

Now they sat on top of a stone wall near the bridge which overlooked the gorge. Their feet dangled over the edge, hers swinging back and forth, JB's tapping the wall nervously with his heel. He sat with his brow furrowed and his chin in his hand, deeply concentrated on something Sam couldn't see. She repeated her question. "You have any theories about all the beast sightings?"

JB blinked away whatever was on his mind and returned Sam's gaze. "I have a few theories, but none seem to fit perfectly."

"Yeah, me too," Sam admitted. "Last night I found your elucidator and used it to do some research—Don't worry, I didn't ask it to reveal anything about the future," she assured him when she saw him tense. "But it wasn't a ton of help. The elucidator seems to have footage of almost every event in history, but for some reason it won't show me any footage of this region at this particular time. I ended up just doing a regular series of Google searches. Call me old fashioned, but I find the twenty-first century phone mode a lot easier to navigate."

JB nodded, but remained silent for a few moments, as though choosing his words very carefully. Finally he said, "I sort of…simplified matters when I told you that some mysteries remain unsolved even in the future. It's true, but not because we lack the resources or time to solve them. It's because those mysteries weren't there in original time."

"Sorry?" said Sam.

JB groaned quietly. "I'm really not supposed to tell you this…"

"Okay, well now you have to tell me!" she pleaded. It wasn't fair to leave her in the dark now.

JB must have agreed because he continued. "There was never supposed to be a beast of Gévaudan in original time. The footage used to be pretty mundane and average for eighteenth century France. The Seven Years' War was over and the French Revolution wouldn't happen for almost thirty years. Then suddenly, the footage is blocked and records of vicious beast attacks in the Gévaudan area pop up in the historical record."

Suddenly Sam regretted eating so much bread as it threatened to rise back up her throat. She swallowed and hoped she didn't look as sick as she felt. "So you're saying you think this beast is from the future?" Previously she'd assumed it was just a strange hybrid creature or an oversized wolf—nothing a time agent couldn't handle. But if the beast was from the future too…

"Possibly," said JB. "Maybe an irresponsible time traveler just made a mistake and caused a crazy domino effect. Either way, there's likely some illegal time travel going on and we need to find out who's behind it. History has hardly had a chance to heal since I helped Jonah and Kath—" Instantly, he cut himself off and looked away.

Sam was having none of it. "Those kids who wrote you those letters, right? Why can't you talk about them?"

JB answered without looking back at her. "I failed them." She thought she heard his voice break as he said it. "I promised them a stable life, but that can't happen now. Not as long as people keep interfering with history. And this beast stuff isn't the only thing I need to fix. There are several spots throughout history that seem to have changed and can no longer be accessed for viewing."

Instinctively, Sam reached for his hand and squeezed it. She still wasn't sure who exactly these kids were or why they were so important to JB, but she knew he was troubled. She asked no further questions, just let the sounds of distant hooves and birdsong fill the quiet. Her mind drifted to the warmth of his palm against hers and how safe it made her feel. It spread up her arm like an electric current and soon she felt it bloom in her chest and face. She ignored the feeling, figuring it must be some leftover symptom of timesickness.

Finally, it was JB who brought the subject back to the kids. "I guess I might as well explain what my mission was before this. I doubt it will ruin time anymore than it's been ruined already. Though I warn you, it's a very long story."

Sam thought this sounded encouraging. "I like long stories."

He faced her again and she noticed some redness in the corners of his eyes. This, she kept to herself as he began, "It started with a shady company called Interchronological Rescue—IR for short. It was a company that claimed to rescue doomed children from the past and bring them to the future to start fresh with happier lives. It was a great idea in theory, but things got bad when IR decided to 'rescue' major historical figures then turn them into babies to sell to rich families who could brag about their adopted trophy children from history."

"Sorry, did you say turn them into babies?" That sounded like a nightmare and a half.

JB nodded. "Yes. You remember when I told you that time travel helped solve the mystery of the Ronoake colony?"

Sam felt her heartbeat intensify with a sense of thrill. "Yes!"

"Well, Virginia Dare was one of those 'rescued' children. So were Anastasia and Alexi Romanov, Prince Richard, Duke of York with King Edward V, Lieserl Einstein—"

"Holy crap, how many kids were there?"

"Thirty seven originally."

"Originally?"

"I told you it's a long story."

Sam listened and did her best not to interrupt as he recounted his long and complicated mission. JB explained how Jonah was one of the missing kids from history and that he and his adoptive sister Katherine became heavily involved in saving the other kids from having to return to their dangerous lives in the past. To Sam's horror, JB admitted that he had originally intended to return the kids to their past fates in an effort to save history, but that Jonah, Katherine, and some of the other kids managed to convince JB there was another way. Sam could hardly keep up with all the details, like how Jonah had somehow opened up another dimension which gave him a twin brother named Jordan, how JB's former employee/former enemy eventually saved the world and unaged himself to become Jonah and Katherine's adopted little brother, how some of the Romanov children were saved by Katherine and that DNA evidence of their deaths had just been fuged by time travelers, how JB himself was somehow Albert Einstein's son and that the person everyone thought was Tete Einstein was actually some guy rescued from the middle ages, that this meant JB had a sister named Emily now living in the twenty-first century who was actually Lieserl Einstein…Sam's comprehension was wobbly at best and there was no way she could possibly remember all the details. However, she thought she understood the important part: Jonah, Katherine, Jordan, and all the other rescued kids meant everything to JB, and it pained him to think that they still might not be safe. Sam decided right then that she would do everything in her power to help JB rescue his friends.