Savage Tales

familiar.
    "Are you related?" said Steve.
    "What?" the woman said.
    "To her," said Steve. "The woman."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "An old woman, my age. She lived here. I think."
    "You mean my grandmother? Grandma Sheila?"
    "Sheila! That's her name. I knew it'd come to me. Is she here?"
    "No, she died."
    Steve went home, examined his off-white teeth, and found an episode of You Bet Your Life on the internet.

DIM ENSIONAL ANTHEM

    DRIVEL
    The agents upon me, I stuttered through the mall hunting the girl. I'd seen her come in, I was sure, a purple blouse and green skirt portending her era, possibly the Eighties, or ancient Egypt. Who could tell with this paranoid delusion serum in my veins.
    A clerk in the clothing shop I was in approached me and I thought he would try to sell me on the local wares, but he approached too fast and grabbed my wrist. I was gonna shake him off and snap him but he pressed a lead zapper against my belly.
    "Come quietly?" he said.
    "All right," I said.
    He lead me into a storage room in back and I thought my story was over, a private style execution, but it turned out he wanted the girl more than he even wanted me dead, and he started in with the questions.
    "I don't know where she's at," I said. "If I did, that's where I'd be."
    He looked like he might get brutal. The storeroom door opened from without and a customer came in. "Can I get this in medium?"
    "I can help you find one," I said, taking the opportunity and hoping the agent wouldn't fire. I didn't make eye contact.
    Out in the store I made a run for it. A gunshot spat behind me and a window exploded. I kept running.
    I finally found her. She was at the food court eating ramen.
    "What do you have?" I said. "Why do they want you?"
    "You're an agent?" she said.
    "No," I said.
    "You're one of us?" she said.
    "Something like that. Let's just say the agents aren't my friends either. They're here, you know. They'll get you."
    "I know. This is my last meal."
    "What're they after?"
    "A short book, excised from a dream."
    "Come off it," I said.
    "Really. It's gonna be inserted into the Bible. It will make a mess of things."
    "Give it to me. I'll see that it happens."
    "Can't you help me?" she said. "I don't want to die."
    "Give me the book. I'll do what I can. No promises. They almost got me just now."
    She slid me a USB stick.
    "Good," I said. "Now come on."
    I took her wrist and dragged her along casually. It didn't matter. They had a bead on us as soon as we were moving. They started firing.
    "Keep moving!" I said, breaking into a run. She fell behind.
    And maybe they were the best assassins and really wanted to take the girl out. Or maybe it was that bright Eighties clothing. She took a few slugs and went down. I looked back to see she was squirming, done for.
    "Sorry, kid," I said, going on.
    They went in for the kill and I did a blend and made my way out, found a taxi.
    I would be years away before the agents searched the girl and realized she didn't have the USB. Years away.

    TACITURN
    "Come in," said Professor Michelson.
    We entered, Samuel and I, and Michelson led us into his dining room where a meal was already in progress, his table full of some twenty other men.
    "Now that we're all here, I can tell you why I've called you all together," said Michelson.
    "Yes, what's it all mean?" said Dr. Richards. "Sending us invitations that sound like orders to be at a certain place at a certain time. We're friends, Michelson, and I am not your lackey!"
    "I apologize for the militant tone of my invitation," said Michelson, "but it was of the utmost importance that I get you all here as soon as possible. I say in all honesty that you are the best and brightest men in England of this generation, and that I have made a discovery that should interest you all. If it doesn't, then I have misjudged you and you are fools!"
    "Does this concern your experiments with time?" I asked, recalling Michelson's interest in the fourth dimension.
    "Indeed, Benjamin, indeed," said Michelson.
    "Then you've cracked it?" I said.
    "Cracked what?" said Mackenzie Hyena. "What are you two getting at?"
    "Forgive me," said Michelson. "Some of you are more aware of my research than others. But my aim was simple: I sought a way to pierce the veil of time itself and move forward and backward through its river at will."
    "A time machine!" said Hyena.
    "Aye, that was my goal," said Michelson, "and so far I have been unsuccessful."
    "Have you brought us here only to