“You’d be better off not speaking to me,” Vincent said, snapping his head back towards Jack.
“Or what? Isn’t it obvious you can’t kill me? And now that I’ve proven the point, I’ll fight back this time. You won’t like what you face,” Jack replied with a cold undertone.
Vincent turned on Jack and came after him. Jack, who had not always had a clean kill on his victims, had been attacked many times. He had always relied on his instinct to guide him in what to do and survive the encounter (long enough to finish the murder) and he had learned much about of what he was capable.
Jack leveled Vincent with a chop to his throat. Vincent underestimated Jack’s speed and the blade of his hand landed across Vincent’s trachea before Vincent could get his hands up.
Jack backed away and gave Vincent a few moments to recover. Vincent coughed almost uncontrollably as he struggled to get to his feet. After several minutes, the throb in his throat subsided and Vincent was able to stand tall. He looked at Jack with anger but also with a new sense of respect.
“As I was saying,” Jack continued, staring hard at Vincent, “the causality paradox is a natural occurrence, although one that science cannot explain. Neither Willie here or I can explain either, even with our extensive experience with time travel.”
“Time travel?” Vincent rasped.
Jack looked closely at Vincent. “Haven’t you been paying attention? What you are experiencing is real. I know that deep down you still doubt that and hope that this turns out to be some elaborate dream but I’m telling you that’s not the case.”
Vincent turned to Wilson. “What do you know about this?”
“I know quite a bit. I am a time traveler as well. You probably won’t believe this but I was born in the year 2113. I came back in time to become the President of the United States. But you see how that worked out.”
“I don’t understand,” Vincent replied. “How can you be from the future? You were the President of the United States. Or least you should have been.”
“Exactly. I should have been. That was before Libby and you showed up and changed everything.”
The name of his dead wife brought an instant sadness to his heart that Vincent was sure he would never get over. He felt the pain but moved through it. “Well, you’re right we did. But it wasn’t anything we did in the future. I’m still not sure how or why I’m here.”
Wilson looked Jack. “We’re not sure either.”
Vincent turned and looked at Jack as well. He hated the man. “What does he have to do with anything besides being a coward and a murderer?”
“Vincent, let me introduce you to Jack the Ripper.”
The name caught Vincent by surprise. “The Jack the Ripper? But how is that possible?”
“Jack is the one who invented time travel. His original technology, however, had some undesired complications. It changed his personality and turned him into a killer. He originally went back in time to with the idea of stopping Jack the Ripper. Instead, once he got there he found out that he was actually the world’s most notorious serial killer.”
“But I’ve changed,” Jack said.
“You’ve changed?” Vincent mocked. “You killed my wife. I’d say you’re who you’ve always been.”
“No, he’s right,” Wilson answered for Jack. “He has changed. When he killed your wife, everything changed. Including the ability to travel through time.”
Vincent smiled. “It serves you right. If I can’t kill you, at least I can see you stopped. I don’t know how you face yourself. You should kill yourself and make it easier on all of us.”
“I’ve tried,” Jack replied. “The paradox won’t let me.”
Vincent was still in awe of who Jack was. “Tell me again about this paradox. I’m having a hard time taking all this in.”
“The causality paradox does not allow one to go back and change their own timeline,” Wilson explained. “For example, if you went back in time and for whatever reason wanted to kill your great-great grandfather before your great-grandfather was conceived, the universe would stop you because if your great-great grandfather died before starting your line, you would cease to exist. Thus, the universe protects the future.
“Now, if something in the past will affect the future in an unnatural way, then the universe will stop that as well. That’s why you can’t kill Jack – believe me, I’ve tried myself – and Jack can’t kill himself. Jack has some importance in the future that the universe would like to protect. Any attempt to kill him, either through his own efforts, the efforts of someone else or an accident, the universe will not allow it to happen.”
“So what possible use could the universe have for someone like him in the future?” Vincent asked aloud to no one in particular.
Jack started to answer but Wilson interrupted. “I guess we’ll see. In the mean time we should hold tight here.”
Vincent looked at Jack before answering. He wanted to make sure that Jack was listening. “That’s fine. But Jack better hope that the universe doesn’t give up on him. I’ll bide my time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Bourg-en-Bresse, France – December 1898
Bagster Phillips never forgot his encounter with Jack the Ripper at the Golden Goose. When Jack’s body disappeared into the future and was lost to him, he was haunted by that moment and he knew he was never going to be able to disremember it.
In the following months, Phillips obsessed over what else he could have done. He managed to move on only slightly but the obsession was so deep that he began seeing the Ripper’s hand in every new crime he came across.
It was in those months
