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12:03 am - Stopped Clock: Shakedown

As soon as she came in, I could tell she wasn't a regular. Everyone in the place stiffened noticeably, even Edgar. Especially Edgar. She wasn't in any sort of uniform that I could see, just a slightly edgy streetwear look, but everything about the situation felt like "cop". I'd never felt that sort of tension in the Stopped Clock before.



She took plenty of time to make her way from the door towards the bar, looking over each of us one by one as she did. Did her eyes linger on me a little longer than the others, or was I just feeling paranoia creeping up my spine. I couldn't tell. Her expression was entirely unreadable.



When she finally reached the bar, she slowly turned her head to focus on Edgar. "Hi there, barman," she said. "Am I gonna find any surprises in here, if I turn the place over?" Edgar didn't look nervous, but he was… highly engaged. "Not this time, officer." He put on as sarcastic a grin as he dared. "We're between violations at the moment."



She sniffed dismissively and turned to the rest of the room. "The department has some quota to make up so we're working extra enforcement tonight." She used the word 'tonight' as if it made any sort of sense in our context. Maybe for the travelers it did. "If anyone has anything they want to declare now, you'll at least get to keep it."



The room was silent. Long seconds went by as she scanned the room again. When her eyes lit on me, she pushed away from the bar and, using the same leisurely pace she'd had from the door, started bearing right down on me. I tried to meet her gaze calmly, but there was something slippery and imprecise about her face.



Then, she was standing over me. I wasn't sure if I should get up or stay sitting. "What about it, new guy? Got some bronto steaks tucked away? Make a bundle of cash on abusing the stock market? Adding a new flintlock pistol to your private collection? Nobody can resist souvenirs when they're new, and I can smell the new on you."



"I actually haven't been," I said. She shot me the most open look of contempt I've maybe ever seen. "You think I don't know how the bar works?" she sneered. "You wouldn't even see it if you weren't a traveler." There was a cough from the next table. It was Cadmius: "He's a traveler in the, uh, in his own future."



"Nonsense," the cop said. "The only way he could find the bar before his first travel was if he closed a recursive loop through the…" She stopped, partly as she worked through some thought process and partly because Cadmius was waving his hands as if trying to keep her from talking aloud. "A recursive loop through what?" I asked.



The cop watched me carefully for several seconds before replying. "Nothing. Not for you to know about. Yet." She looked around the bar with a different expression this time. "Good travels, everyone," she finally said. "We'll be pulling all of you over on your way out, just FYI." Then she went briskly to the door and stepped out without another word.



"What the hell was she talking about?" I asked.



"Customs crackdown," Edgar said.



"No, I mean about recursive loops."



Everyone looked at their shoes or their hands or their drinks. Finally Cadmius waved his hands casually, as if swatting away trifles. "It's going to be fine," he said. "It always is. You wouldn't be here if it didn't work. I mean, if it won't work. If it doesn't work. Aw, you know what I mean, verb tense be damned! Let me buy you one."



Every time I start to feel like I understand the place, it just confuses me again.



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For consideration: Forget it, Jake, it's Timetraveltown