Vincent pounded his fist on the table. “I just don’t get it. How could Jack have been killed given the causality paradox?”
“Maybe the person who killed him was historically supposed to kill him. Maybe it’s the universe’s way of correcting what was previously changed. I wish I could go back and see what happened.”
To Vincent’s surprise, Wilson disappeared.
A moment later he was back. “I just traveled! What about you? Does yours work?”
Vincent was happy for Wilson but the discovery did not benefit him. “I can’t do what you can. I’ve never been able to. I came back to this time but I don’t know how it happened.”
Wilson looked at Vincent. “You’re sure that you’ve never traveled through time before coming here?”
“I’m sure. Other than an occasional sense of déjà vu, I ‘ve always lived in the same line of history.”
Wilson looked at Vincent and smiled. “I’ll be right back.” Wilson disappeared. He returned swiftly, almost as if he hadn’t left. “Here,” he said holding out his hand to Vincent, “this is for you.”
“What is it?” Vincent asked looking at the small round object in Wilson’s hand.
“This device is how I travel through time. This one’s for you.” He showed Vincent where to place the device and explained how it worked.
They discussed time travel and how it worked for the next thirty minutes, when Wilson realized what he had forgotten to tell Vincent about Jack. “I saw Jack’s death. I went back to when he was killed and I saw him led away at gunpoint and then shot and thrown into the river.”
“Who was it?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t recognize the man. I have no doubt it was someone who Jack had come across throughout his travels. I’m sure the death was warranted.”
“Why don’t we go back to that moment in time and stop it from happening?” Vincent suggested, not believing what he was saying.
“Do you realize what you’re asking? We’re better off with Jack dead. The world is better with him dead.”
“I know that. He murdered my wife. I know it as well as anyone. But I don’t see a way out of this for us, do you?”
Wilson considered Vincent’s idea. “I think we should continue to look at our options.”
“I know what you’re feeling. Finding out that Jack was dead was a kind of closure for me in the death of my wife. Every day I looked at him and all I could think of was my wife suffering at his hands. I’ve wanted to kill him every day since I found out he is the one who did it.
“Believe me, if there was any other way, I would say let’s take it. I’m not willing to start running. The main reason is that history would remember me as a murderer and I’m not willing to let Libby’s place in history be darkened by what others thought I had done.”
“So what you’re suggesting,” Wilson returned, “is that we go back and save Jack from being killed. And how would we do this? Kill the man who killed Jack before he actually kills him?”
Vincent nodded.
Wilson continued, “And what if the universe won’t let us kill him?”
“Then I guess we’ll know.”
Wilson considered Vincent’s comments for several moments. Finally he spoke. “I don’t like it but I agree with you. We need to at least try this.”
Over the next two weeks (which only amounted to a matter of seconds in their original timeframe), they made preparations. Vincent learned how to travel and became very proficient at arriving at exact times and destinations.
Over that two week time, he also learned how he had come back in time originally. He traveled to that day in Belgium multiple times and observed a man bumping into him and him going into a coma. He knew the man had to be the one who caused him to go back in time. He just didn’t know how.
He did some research on why the man would be there in the first place. His first thought was that the man was there for Jack. It turned out he was right. History showed the man to be Bagster Phillips who was involved with the Jack the Ripper investigation.
Vincent returned to Belgium again and watched Libby speak on stage. Seeing her alive again brought him to tears.
He watched as Jack shot Libby (something he hadn’t known and that inflamed his rage again). He cried out helplessly. Jack was taken to the ground, beaten and then taken to a car. He watched as Jack disappeared in front of a group of stunned Secret Service agents. Then, he watched Phillips disappear.
Vincent went back several times to try to save Libby but each time the causality paradox stopped him. At first, he was deeply depressed. But then, he decided to redirect his feelings and use the anger to drive him to determine what he could do about the man who had sent him back in time. If he could stop him, then perhaps he could keep Libby from going back as well. Then she would live.
He couldn’t clarify how Phillips had brought him back in time but he did know that the coma had to be part of the process that caused his time travel. There was no other explanation.
He observed the scene over and over and detailed all to Wilson. He was hoping he would be able to shed light on how the coma had actually been induced and how it sent him back into time. He had a theory but no concrete evidence on how something like that would occur based on his experiences.
After much talk on the subject, they decided to leave it where it was.
“We’ll deal with all of that later,” Wilson decided. “At the present, we
