The Home of Alexander Hartdegen, London - 1899 - Then Beyond
Alexander Hartdegen minded his own business these days. He'd lost contact with most of his friends during the frenzied years while he built his time machine. Making contact again was too hard for most, so he kept to himself and tinkered. Everything paled in comparison to his magnum opus, the pinnacle of his work as a scientist, but it kept him busy
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"Hey, hey; you know how you said you'd get me a belated birthday present for getting you off on that one trial, Jimmy?"
Jimmy arched an eyebrow at Turtle; she was currently spinning around in the chair behind his desk. Turtle Wexler was the only person allowed to do such a thing. Ever. "Didn't I get you that pony?"
"The pony doesn't count," Turtle said, "because I gave it to those kids at that orphanage down over by Miss Greta's place, remember?"
There was a long pause. Jimmy had even forgotten about his cigar for a moment. "...I still think the pony counts. Why are you bringing this up, anyway?"
Turtle coughed exaggeratedly. "I thought you said you were going to stop smoking those, Jimmy. They're awful. But, anyway, I need a favor. I've been saving it up. I got this note a while ago about going to London, but, yeah, right, like I could manage to get to London by myself. So I got to thinking. You know what? Jimmy could help. Jimmy owes me for my birthday and the Baker trial. Jimmy can get me to London. Right, Jimmy?"
"...You can't go to London before the Remington trial, Turtle. We're gonna sink like we was swimmin' with the fishes see? without you there."
"Okay, then." Turtle gave the chair one more swirl and then paused when she was sitting properly at the desk, her arms out a bit on the surface as she leaned forward and implored Jimmy. It was moments like that, where she had a look of pure determination on her face, that got her where she was today. She was serious, she knew what she was doing, and she was damn impressive. It was hard to think that a girl with that much fire in her was only sixteen. "How about this? This Remington trial is in three days, yeah? I will bust my butt on this one for you, Jimmy, and, as compensation, you'll pay for my trip to London, which is going to turn out better for us anyway because, while I'm there on this business, I'll hook you up with a few international connections that might end up serving you even better than if I were to stay here. And I can guarantee you I'll win you that case, and, if I don't, well, then, fine. The pony counts and I'll stay here and you can find yourself a better crackerjack lawyer in this city, but I bet you anything, you'll come up drier than Heinwick's hole after we found out he was getting his gin from the other guys across town instead of your guys."
Needless to say, five days later, on the 20th of May, Turtle was arriving in London for whatever the heck this statis chamber thing was all about. She really didn't have a clue, as it confused her, but, for the most part, it just seemed like yet another adventure and, besides, there could be networking involved, as she'd promised Jimmy.
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