The Persistence Of Memory (part two)

The blood began to thunder in Clark's temples. "It can't be," he whispered. "That's impossible," he finally managed in a louder voice.

Lois covered her face with both hands. It was almost as if she wanted to keep her head from splintering into a million pieces. She finally lowered her hands and looked into Clark's stunned face. "This can't be happening," she said, her voice fragile.

She backed out of the bed, her steps unsteady. "This can't be happening," she repeated her mantra.

Clark quickly followed her and grabbed her shoulders firmly. "This *isn't* happening, Lois. It's *impossible*!"

Lois looked into his urgent and assured expression. Clark suddenly seemed so strong. She smiled a smile that did not reach her eyes. "Clark, when you didn't leap to the conclusion that Dan was the father, I was so touched and so relieved, but this--"

Lois shook her head and pulled from his grasp. "You know how I've always felt about Superman, how over the top I was about him. You'd be crazy not to at least *consider* that he could be the father. I mean," she laughed, and like the smile, it was not really a laugh, "I know I did *not* sleep with Superman. Not once. Not even close, but who would believe me?"

"I would," Clark said, the urgency of his conviction undiminished.

"Why?" Lois asked, some frustration entering her voice. "It's not that I don't appreciate this unconditional support from you -- I do, Clark, more than I can say-- but," she sighed, "why disbelieve a *fact*? A medical and scientific fact."

"What about the *truth*, Lois? Isn't that as strong as a fact?" he asked. "You say you didn't sleep with Superman, and I believe you."

Lois shrugged and walked towards the window. "Maybe truth and fact can be the same thing here, Clark."

Clark rubbed the back of his neck. "Lois, I'm having a little trouble following this."

"Think about it," she said, staring through the dark glass. "There's no expert out there on Kryptonian biology. I mean how do we know how Kryptonians ... you know. Maybe it's mental, or some kind of trance thing."

Clark closed his eyes for a moment. "*Trance* thing?"

"I don't know, Clark!" Lois exploded. "He's from another planet! Maybe Kryptonian men and women go into some kind of trance and then they ... well ... they make love, and then snap out of it, and .... and I have *no* idea what I'm talking about!" she wailed. "All I know is I'm carrying Superman's baby, and I don't know why!"

"You are *not* carrying Superman's baby, Lois."

Lois, tiring suddenly of Clark's "confidence" on the subject, felt suspicion creeping in. She folded her arms and approached him slowly. "Okay, Clark, let's have it."

Clark swallowed. "Have it?"

"You know something," she said pointedly. "Nobody is *that* trusting. Especially when a scientist at STAR Labs seems to disagree with you," she continued as she circled for a landing. "Did Superman tell you something?"

"No," was all Clark could manage to say.

"But you *do* know something."

"Lois, remember I had asked you to go to breakfast with me tomorrow morning? I mean," he said, and scratched the side of his head, "I asked you that before all this stuff with the pregnancy ... happened."

Lois shook her head. "What does that have to do with any--"

"I asked you to breakfast," he quickly interrupted. "A little place called Callard's I'd found, because it has a nice quiet garden outside, and I wanted to tell you something very private there."

He gently gripped her shoulders again. "I had to tell you this *one* thing before our relationship went *any* further. If I didn't--" Clark sighed. "If I didn't ... it wouldn't be fair to you."

"What *thing*, Clark!" Lois began to tremble. "This has to do with Superman? Why I'm pregnant? What!?"

Clark looked up at the ceiling, his expression almost prayer-like as he searched the air itself for the right words. He took a deep breath and brought his gaze down level with hers. "It has to do with why Superman can *not* be the father of that baby, Lois. But," he said, regret softening his tone. "I almost wish it were true. You have no idea how much." He removed his glasses. "Because ... *I'm* Superman."

Lois' knees suddenly buckled, and she went reeling into Clark and dangled limply in his arms. "Lois!" He touched her face tenderly, "Lois?"

At first he thought she had fainted, but then a low hissing sound became audible. There was some faint scent filling the room. Clark began to feel light-headed. He placed Lois on the bed with what seemed his last bit of strength.

A man wearing a field protective mask stepped into Lois' bedroom. The mask plate was darkly tinted. "Who are you?" Clark asked, and fell to his knees next to the bed.

The man, unheeding, reached for Lois. There was a tattoo of barbed wire around his wrist.

***


Lois moaned and opened her eyes. Greeted by bright sunlight, she closed them again. She forced herself into a sitting position and was surprised to feel grass under the palms of her hands. She glanced down cautiously and shook her head. Sure enough, she was sitting on a patch of grass.

Lois frowned. "What is this?" she asked as she lifted her gaze and noted several smallish hardwood trees, vines and undergrowth in front of her. She looked to the right. More trees. The left. Ditto. She closed her eyes and rotated her head from shoulder to shoulder. She had a dull, persistent headache.

She decided to stand and get her bearings. There was something vaguely familiar about the setting, but she couldn't remember anything specific. Just a feeling of 'deja vu' and nothing more. She swiveled slightly to the left, pulling her feet under her to stand. However, the new position gave her a downward and slightly rearward view of her surroundings. She froze instantly when she saw a bare leg less than a yard away. The rest of the body, assuming there was one, was obscured by the low drooping foliage of a weeping willow.

Lois gasped and fell backward, scrambling crab-like in the opposite direction until her momentum was stopped by a tree. She placed her hands behind her and crawled them up the bark until she was in a standing position. She panted for breath as her heart pounded. She wanted to admonish herself, to find that scolding voice that always told her to "get a grip," but Lois was in a place she hadn't remembered entering voluntarily and seemed to be outfitted only in her nightgown. Not a good defensive position at all.

She held her breath and moved warily in a sideways direction. She noticed the leg had a companion, and with great relief noticed both were still attached to a body -- or was it a relief? Did the legs belong to her kidnapper? Was she kidnapped? Why couldn't she remember? She took a cautious step forward. Maybe seeing his face would remind her.

"Clark!" she shouted, and ran to him and knelt next to his body.

Clark was only wearing boxer shorts. His glasses were missing. Lois finally felt the fog lifting. She remembered. She was pregnant. She and Clark had been together the night before. He had been in her bed. The phone call.

"Superman," she whispered.

Doctor Klein had told her that Superman was the father of her child, but Clark had told her that was impossible, because *he* was Superman. Lois brushed back Clark's hair gently and held her hand in place. She smiled sheepishly. He was Superman all right, or a long lost twin.

She nudged him. "Clark?" There was no response.

"Superman," she said, and nudged him again. Nothing.

Lois felt panic creeping back. She took her thumb and lifted one of his eyelids and took his pulse. Though alive, he was totally unresponsive. She rose quickly and moved a few paces from Clark hoping to spot something or someone who could help. Unfortunately there was nothing but woods in every direction. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead. It seemed so much hotter than the last time she had been here.

Lois halted abruptly. The *last* time? "What's happening to me," she said and was again overtaken by that feeling of 'deja vu', but it was coupled with the anxiety that reality itself was breaking away.

"It's happening to *all* of us, I'm afraid."

Lois, already bristling with anxiety, executed a swirling roundhouse kick. Fortunately for her intended victim, he was a bit shorter than average and so just his bowler hat was sent sailing. Lois watched the small man retrieve his hat, all the while keeping herself tensed in a combat-ready position.

"I apologize for startling you, Miss Lane," the man said as he dusted off the brim of his hat.

"You know my name?" she asked, but did not budge from her defensive stance.

"I dare say," he smiled. "I've known you and your husband Clark for quite some time."

"My *husband*!? Look, mister, I don't know who you are, but you should have done some research before you pulled this stunt," she said, her defensive posture giving way to her anger. "I lo...I care about Clark, but he is *not* my husband."

The man pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped it across the back of his neck. "Well, no, not in this time era anyway. Not that there really is a distinct time era anymore after I created that time flow ripple," he babbled on. "And I'm so dreadfully sorry I did, Miss Lane."

"Did *what*?" Lois asked, now feeling her adversary was more lunatic than criminal mastermind.

"Well, I did explain the dangers of creating a time flow ripple effect the day you and I met for the first time, which," he considered, "would seem to be a couple of months ago...to your current memory anyway."

"Listen...whoever you are, I don't remember meeting you two months ago or two *days* ago, but I have a feeling you're someone I wouldn't forget," she said, eyeing his antique wardrobe. "But you *are* adding to a headache I've had since I woke up here, and the heat isn't helping."

"Quite right," he agreed. "It is deucedly hot. Then again it's July and the last time we were here it was May, but it does feel a bit more like Pakistan than Kansas, doesn't it?"

"Kansas," Lois whispered. Her mind started to race. Images of Clark, Superman, his parents, all started to flash in her memory. Even the odd little man was there.

"Remembering?"

"No, I...it...doesn't make any sense. Maybe I'm losing my mind. That would at least explain all this."

The man's eyes filled with sympathy. "You're not losing your mind, Miss Lane. You remember me. I'm H.G. Wells."

Lois shook her head and laughed softly at the irony. "You're a dead writer from England just chatting with me in Kansas, and that's supposed to convince me I'm not crazy?"

"I know it's a horrible shock, Miss Lane, but Clark is the issue here. If we can't reverse the time ripple...he might...well, he might cease to exist."

"Clark," Lois said. Her voice and pace sharpened by fear, she hurried back to where she had left him. Though she was relieved he was still there, he was still unconscious.

She knelt down and began to stroke the side of his face. "Clark, please wake up."

Wells, puffing loudly, finally caught up to Lois. "Still unconscious."

"Yes, but alive."

Wells removed his jacket. "When I said he would 'cease to exist' I hadn't meant that as a metaphor for Death, Miss Lane," he said and began scrunching his jacket into a ball. "I meant *literally* Clark would cease to exist. Gone. Vanished without a trace ... as if he never were."

"That's impossible," Lois said, though there was no conviction in her voice.

Wells knelt next to her. "Lift his head. We can make him a bit more comfortable."

Lois hesitated a moment, but then did as instructed. Wells placed his jacket beneath Clark's head and then turned to face Lois. "You're remembering some things, aren't you, my dear?"

"Impossible things," Lois said, but did not take her eyes from Clark. "They *can't* be true."

"I wish that were so," Wells said sadly. "But very shortly now, the effects of the time flow ripple will become apparent, and you'll have to be ready, Miss Lane."

Lois finally turned on him angrily. "Ready for *what*! You know, I'm getting a little sick of hearing about this time ripple flow..."

"Time flow ripple."

"Whatever! The point is, Clark and I have been hijacked and dumped here in the middle of nowhere, and you keep going on and on about this time flow...."

"Oh, my," Wells whispered, and then covered his mouth.

Lois, despite her anger, followed Wells' horrified gaze. "Clark!"

Clark's features were changing. He looked subtly younger. His hair lengthened and his body became slightly thinner. Then, just as abruptly, his hair began to shorten, his boyish features were reclaimed by the more manly face Lois had become accustomed to, yet the changes continued.

"Oh, my God," Lois whispered as she observed the last change. His hair, cropped shorter at the temples and winding it's way to the back of his head, the style Lois had teasingly referred to as 'hat hair', was an unmistakable identifier to her. "He *is* my husband...I remember...I...but the timing is...."

"All wrong," Wells said, finishing her sentence.

Lois grabbed Wells by the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. "What did you do to him?! What did you do to *us*?!"

"Very nearly destroyed you both." Wells lowered his head. "It may yet happen if we can't reverse the effects."

"Because of this time flow ripple?"

"Yes."

"How do we stop it?" she asked, and released her death-grip on his shirt. "Why am I pregnant in my...in *this* body? This is how I looked over two years ago!"

"You were caught outside the ripple effect."

Lois shook her head. "What *is* this...ripple effect?"

"To put it simply, it's a time anomaly caused by a phasic temporal...."

"Hold it," Lois said flatly. "You said *simply*. Just cut to the chase."

"Cut to...."

"Tell me how it happened and how we can stop it and why am I remembering pieces of things that can't *possibly* be true."

Wells took a deep breath. "Do you recall Perry White's surprise birthday party?"

Though Wells' comment sounded like a complete non sequitur, Lois tried to concentrate. "The Planet," she said with uncertainty. Her memory seemed to have all the cohesion of a document sent through a paper shredder. Only flashes of things were clear. "1995."

"Excellent. Yes, Mr. White's birthday."

"You...took us from there... to ... somewhere... but you brought us back.... Why can't I remember this?!" Lois finally blurted in frustration.

"I'm afraid that's my fault too, Miss Lane. I *said* I would take you and Clark back to a point before our adventure took place, but I realistically couldn't do that."

"But I remember that part," Lois insisted. "Well, some of it."

"No," Wells said softly. "I could not return you and Clark in time to a point before the adventure took place for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that you both were kept outside of passing time with me in the time machine. I..." Wells hesitated. A look of guilt was in his eyes.

Lois leveled her most menacing gaze at Wells. "You did what, exactly?"

"I used a device from Tempus' era...."

"Who?" Lois asked. The name was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Lois was mentally and emotionally trapped between two distinctively unique versions of herself -- the Lois she had been two years ago who believed Clark and Superman were two different men, and the Lois of two years later who was married to both men and had learned to "live the impossible."

"You'll remember him in a moment," Wells said, a bit impatient to get to the point. "The upshot of it is, this device shunts recent memory from the forefront of the thought process and also makes the person susceptible to suggestion... well, a bit like hypnosis."

"Men in Black," Lois said, and laughed at the unreality of all of it.

"Men in black?"

"A movie Clark and I went to see...*will* go to see." Lois sighed in exasperation. "A gizmo was flashed at people that made them forget what they'd just seen or done in favor of memories *implanted* by the men in black."

Wells nodded. "That cinematic version sounds quite similar; however, I never took your or Clark's memories away. As I said, it was more like hypnosis. I even gave you both a post-hypnotic suggestion...or rather a trigger word that would permit you to remember in the event it became necessary."

"Wonderful," Lois said sarcastically. "We've left the Men in Black for the Manchurian Candidate."

"Pardon?"

"What was the trigger word?"

"Unspool."

Lois' eyes closed instantly. Images appeared and moved forward in a logical order. Missing time and memory restored themselves. She opened her eyes. "I remember," she said softly. "You...the older you, used that word on me in the alternate Metropolis."

Wells smiled with relief. "Then you understand."

"No, I *remember*, but I *don't* understand," Lois sniped, her restored memory lending confidence to her voice and demeanor as the more mature version of herself became dominant. "What memories did you give me and Clark?"

"Ah," Wells nodded. "You'll recall I said that realistically I couldn't return you to a time before our adventure, but I had to make you *believe* I had."

"And you did this by...?" Lois prompted.

"By making you and Clark believe you'd attended Mr. White's party, left during it, and returned to the beginning of it." He thought a moment. "Instilling a sense of deja vu, you might say."

"But *why*?" Lois asked and glanced back down at Clark, his body still caught in the continuous loop of aging and regressing. "If you wanted us to forget, why make us remember false bits and pieces? That doesn't make sense!"

Wells expression became contemplative, his fingers steepled in front of his chest. "Imagine the reaction if you landed an airplane in ancient Egypt, or screened a motion picture at the first Continental Congress. Miss Lane," Wells sighed, "the world is more fragile than most can comprehend or would care to comprehend. There is order and there is chaos, or on a more human level, sanity and insanity. Sometimes the *only* thing keeping chaos and insanity at bay is the desire of the human spirit to cling to that which is conventional and familiar."

Lois, though tempted to argue the point, found herself agreeing. "Like me," she said, after a long pause. "I thought I was losing my mind when I first woke up here. Everything was familiar and *nothing* was familiar. But," she added quickly. "It was those fragments you implanted in my memory that made me think I was going crazy in the first place."

"Initially perhaps," Wells said with a shrug. "However, those memories have spared me from having to try and convince you that time travel is viable, that we've met before, or that Clark Kent is your husband."

"Fair enough," she said. "But why is this only affecting Clark and not me, or *you* for that matter?"

Wells removed his hat. "Since the adventure in Smallville took place in 1966, you were caught outside the effect because you weren't born until 1967," he said, and ran his handkerchief around the perspiration soaked hatband.

"What does *that* have to do with any of this?"

"Quite frankly, Miss Lane, it has *everything* to do with this," he said matter-of-factly. "Neither you, nor I, or even Tempus for that matter, had another version of ourselves that existed in 1966, but Clark did. And because he did, that set the ripple effect in motion."

Lois pushed an annoying strand of hair behind her ear. She was hot, exhausted, frustrated and completely lost. "If you *knew* that would happen, then why did you deliberately put him through that? Through *this*," she said, pointing down to Clark's ever changing form.

Wells closed his eyes momentarily. "I didn't know this would happen, Miss Lane. I knew the time flow ripple phenomenon was theoretically possible, and I took all precautions to prevent that, but the theory gave no indication that it could be triggered by your husband encountering another version of himself from his own lifetime."

Lois shook her head. "I wish I could feel some kind of sympathy for you, or forgive you for what you're putting Clark though, but I can't," she said, her voice and expression filled with reproach. "All of this could have been avoided if you hadn't believed a lunatic. Hadn't brought him back from the future giving him a chance to kill Clark. Hadn't...."

"...put Tempus in an asylum in 1866 rather than taking him back to his era where he could have been properly restrained and cause no further problems."

Lois turned. Though the voice was unmistakably that of Wells, it was the older Wells who was speaking. The older man, a bit stooped and diminished by the aging process, stepped from a thicket into the clearing. A bewildered Dr. Klein stood at his side and a third man, whom Lois did not know, but who seemed vaguely familiar, joined them.

"Thank goodness," Klein said as he approached Lois. "I was beginning to think I was losing my mind. Not that seeing you precludes that hypothesis, but .... you have your old Prince Valiant hairdo."

"Prince Valiant?" Lois shook her head. "Forget the hairdo, Dr. Klein, I'm still the Lois you know from 1997, but what are *you* doing here in 1966?"

Klein put a hand on the older Wells' shoulder. "This man told me Superman was in trouble, and then this one," he said, looking up at the stranger, "brought us both here in some ... "

"Hold it," Lois interrupted and walked past Klein. "I thought you said the time flow ripple was caused because there was another version of Clark in 1966," she said, addressing the younger Wells. "Dr. Klein would have another version of himself in 1966 too."

Klein nodded. "Definitely. I was a senior in high school in 1966. Our class song was "Last Train to Clarksville" oddly enough." He thought a moment. "What does this have to do with Mr. Kent?"

"He's my husband."

"I know, but..."

"He also happens to be Superman."

"Oh, dear." Klein shook his head. "I hope when I wake up from this, I remember to write everything down," he said as he knelt next to Clark.

"Actually, Miss Lane, I said Clark *encountering* the other version of himself was the suspected catalyst," Wells corrected. "Dr. Klein won't likely meet up with his counterpart in Kansas."

"Then what about you and *your* other self, Mr. Wells? You're both here."

"True," he conceded. "But if you'll forgive the Dickensian waffling, the two of us are more like shadows from the past. Neither he nor I ever existed in this era. But," he said, raising an index finger. "Clark not only existed in 1966, his adult self had physical contact with his infant self. It may have been that very contact that triggered the anomaly."

"However, there still might be a risk to Dr. Klein," the elder Wells added. "But when I explained the situation, he was willing to take that risk to help save your husband."

Lois walked back to Klein and knelt next to him. "Thank you," she said softly.

Klein smiled. "He's my friend," he said as he observed Clark trapped in the loop. "It's hard for me to see him like this. I can imagine how hard it must be for you, Lois."

"Can you stop it?"

"From what Wells told me, and from what I know of temporal theory, Clark encountering himself in 1966 caused the creation of duplicate time lines." Klein straightened with a groan. "Not that I know that much about temporal theory, you understand."

Lois glanced at the older Wells. "Like the alternate Metropolis?"

"Oh, no, my dear. These worlds are identical in every detail. Imagine a stone being cast into still water causing rings to ripple out from the center. The rings are concentric. Since they don't touch each other, they can't overlap and cause an alternate reality. However," he said, his tone a bit darker, "these identical time lines are causing distortions in the true time line, like...."

"Being pregnant at the wrong place in time," Lois finished his sentence.

"Correct. It is a phenomenon that will continue and Clark will remain trapped if this isn't reversed."

"I *know* he's trapped!" Lois erupted as she rose to her feet. "How do we get him back?"

"With this," he said, and handed an object to his younger self. "You remember this device, Lois."

Lois rolled her eyes. "Please, not the Quantum Leap thing again."

"Quantum Leap?" Klein asked.

"That Gameboy from hell gizmo. It made me and Clark leap into versions of ourselves from the past."

"Amazing."

"Although in this case," Wells continued. "You'll only be "leaping", as you put it, into versions of Lois Lane between the years 1993 and 1997. The span of your current relationship history with Clark."

"And that will stop this ... how, exactly?"

"Theoretically," the elder Wells began, "if you "leap" into each of these extraneous time lines and are successful, they'll vanish in favor of the one *true* time line. There will be no more distortion and Clark will be freed from the temporal loop."

Lois took the device warily. "What am I supposed to do? You said if I'm successful. Successful how?"

"By accelerating the time lines," Wells said and tapped the device. "When you go back to each phase of your relationship with Clark, you have to try and speed along the relationship."

"Ah," Lois nodded. "The dawn finally breaks. By speeding up the relationship, the other time lines are brought up to speed with the real one."

"Precisely. Thus merging them back into one."

Lois' jaw worked itself back and forth tensely. "Isn't this all just a little too pat?" she finally asked. "I throw myself at Clark, promise him love everlasting, and suddenly a magic pink bow appears to tie all the time lines together?"

"Not exactly, Lois," Klein said as he brushed dirt from the knees of his trousers. "As I understand this phenomenon, Clark will be as he was in each era you return to."

"And?" Lois shrugged.

"Well," he continued. "If you "throw yourself" at him in a time when Clark would never expect such behavior, it's doubtful you'd get the reaction from him you hoped for, or worse, it could backfire."

Lois half-smiled. "You're right. A chemist created a pheromone compound that made people fall madly in love, or *lust* was more like it. I chased poor Clark all over the place and he ran like a scared rabbit."

Klein sighed. "Only men who look like Clark get chased by women who look like you."

Lois noticed the stranger smiling at Klein's comment. She approached the fiftyish, distinguished-looking man. "I don't know you, but you seem familiar."

"My apologies, Ms. Lane," he said, extending his hand. His sleeve receded to reveal a barbed wire tattoo. "I believe you've only seen my photograph."

"That's where I know you!" Lois said with unhidden disgust and quickly disengaged her hand from his. "The thief from the STAR Labs surveillance photos."

"Yes, ma'am, that would be me."

"The robbery two years ago?" Klein asked.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Klein," the man said and ran a hand through his silver-gray hair. "It was necessary to get the right combination of elements to create a compound that would not only render Ms. Lane unconscious, but Superman as well. Plus making sure it would not harm the unborn child. No small task."

"So you're the one who drugged me and Clark and brought us here?"

"I am, but believe me, Ms. Lane, it was necessary. This is the focal point of the ripple flow effect," he explained. "If we ever hope to break your husband out of this loop, it has to happen here."

Lois narrowed her eyes. She wasn't ready to buy everything just yet. "And just how did you happen to know I was pregnant?"

"I'm from the future, and ..."

"Of course," Lois said and sighed with resignation. "I'm beginning to think I know more people from the past and the future than I do in the present."

"I'm sure that's not true, Miss Lane," the younger Wells said sympathetically.

Lois raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but coming from a man who's dressed a hundred years out of step with current fashion trends that isn't really reassuring."

Wells tugged at his collar. "Point taken."

"Speaking of points," the elder Wells chimed in, facing the gray-haired man. "You have your work to do while Miss Lane does hers."

"On my way," he said with a nod and departed.

Wells turned back to Lois. "There's also another danger," he cautioned. "If you accelerate things too much, you'll start causing any number of bizarre glitches in time."

"Great," she sighed. "How do I work the gizmo?"

Wells took the device and smiled. "I'll operate the "gizmo." It will send you back to the widest ring in the ripple, so to speak," he said, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready?"

Lois glanced longingly at Clark a last time. "Yes," she said, and soon felt her body begin to ... drift.

"Incredible," Klein whispered as Lois vanished. "I would have thought her body would stay here and just her soul, or spirit, or whatever ... would leave. I mean on Quantum Leap ..."

"No," Wells said as he looked up from the transmigrator. "This device creates what might be called an evanescence effect. The body particulates, if you will, become one with the spiritual component. In that aggregate form, they're able to merge with the host body."

Klein loosened his tie. "But what about the host? I mean won't the other Lois feel the ... the ... intrusion? Fight it?"

"There's nothing to "feel" actually. In fact," Wells said as he slipped the device into his pocket. "It's the person migrating who experiences odd sensations. Depending on the circumstances, it can take anywhere from seconds to several minutes before the migrator has total control of the host body."

"I think I need a drink."

Wells nodded. "I dare say Miss Lane will be wanting one in a few short moments as well."

[End of Part 2]