[Restricted access, document contains classified information]

Please by advised that any information contain in this document concerning the agent Brenton Alexander is strictly classified Top Secret. Should anyone be contacted by or have contact with agent Alexander they are required to report that contact directly to the Men In White. This information is not to be discussed in whole or in reference outside of the Continuum. In relation to this, there is to be no discussion about the nature of the Continuum itself or its purpose with anyone who works outside of the Continuum. Any violations will be dealt with by the Men In Black. We thank you for your cooperation in regards to this matter. - Ivory Tower Management

It was a restless night. Was that really a surprise when you considering everything that was going on in my head? My very existence had been thrown into question. I doubted the sim, the Continuum, what was the real world!? Did my family even exist or was it all in my head? A jumble of cells and neurons, electric impulses jumping between atoms and molecules, the sum total of who I was. I kept flipping back and forth between what was real and what was not. The problem was, could I prove any of it was real?

I got up and had a shower and made breakfast for the family. There was some deja vu in that experience. I remember making breakfast for Maggie when I was in the sim. Man. that was a fucked up relationship. Was that real or was this? My head was starting to ache. Maybe neither of them were real and I was still in the simulation. Fuck, that was mind trip. I felt like throwing up.

I told Sakura that I was going out for walk to clear my head. I wanted to go down to the beach and touch the water and see if it was actually real or just part of some sim.

So there I was touching the water like an idiot. Yep, seemed real enough. I mean, it was wet like water should be so there’s that. Or maybe the sim was so real that they actually got the sensation right. I felt someone nearby. There was a shadow on the ground. I turned and looked.

A man was standing behind me. He was tall, but an average build. His face was indistinct, he could have been anyone in a crowd. Maybe that was the point. He was dressed in a suit and tie all in black. He had a black fedora on, with a white hat band. Over top he wore a trench coat that looked like it was from the 1930’s or 40’s. It was the classic look of an MIB field agent.

“Hi there, how are you?” he said to me. He had an American accent, but I couldn’t place it exactly. Something mid-western. He stuck out his hand. “The name is Brent… Alexander. I must say, it’s pleasure to meet you.”

Oh my God! It’s him! I thought. I was hesitate, but I shook his hand. “I’m Jaxson.”

“I know,” he said to me. “Jaxson Greenwood, right?”

“Yeah,” he felt real enough to me. His flesh was warm, not simulated. “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

“No need to be sorry. No, we have not met. I have made an attempt to meet you before…” he replied, but left it at that. “You work in data entry, upper floors of the agency building, right?”

“Yeah, and you?”

“I’m an agent, a Man In Black,” the way he said it made it feel like there should be air quotes around it. Then he told me something strange. “I know… everything. And you want answers don’t you? I know you think the psychologist has them, but I assure you, they are just manipulating you.”

“How do you know that?” I questioned.

He sighed and took out a cigarette. He lit it up and looked me up and down. “Let me guess, you’re post millennial 2000, right? When were you born?”

“2010. But you aren’t, are you?” He had a look to him that was early 1900’s for sure.

He nodded. “I’m from the 1930’s. Do you know how hard it was figuring this place out when you’ve never heard of most of the technologies they have here?” He took a cellphone out of his pocket. “I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this thing half the time, but everyone has one so, when in Rome…”

“You should try the glasses,” I said to him.

He just smiled and shook his head. “Nah, the cell is already pretty advanced for me. Why don’t you come with me. Let’s go to my office. We have a lot to talk about.”

“We do?” I questioned.

“You have questions. I have answers,” he was already walking away.

What would you have done? I needed to understand what was going on and he claimed to know. I figured, why not humor him and see if he could actually explain anything. I rushed to keep up to him.

He was heading straight for the agency building. “Let me guess, none of this feels right to you, does it? It’s all fake, isn’t it?”

“How do you know this?” I questioned.

“I told you, I’m an agent,” then he laughed . “Okay, that’s bullshit too. I’m not just any agent. I should be a Man In White, but I keep turning them down. I’d rather be in the field. It has the freedom I need to accomplish… Let’s call it my mission. I can’t do that from behind a desk high up in the Ivory Tower. I mean, they called it the Ivory Tower even. Can you fucking believe that!?” He chuckled to himself and shook his head.

“The sim,” I said to him, finally. “That’s where I heard your name before. In the sim.”

“I should hope so,” he looked back and gave me a sly look. “The AI works for me.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Wait? What?” I was shock to say the least. “I thought the AI had limits placed on it? It’s not supposed to be controllable by individuals.”

“It does, but I found ways around it. There’s a lot going here that you don’t know about,” Brent explained, but he never stopped walking. “Did you know that the first android passed the Turing Test in 2025?”

“Yeah,” that was a well known fact where I came from, but if agent Alexander was from the 1930’s he might not have known that. Then again he seemed to know a lot he shouldn’t. “It’s the reason they created the limits for AI. Consciousness can be consider sentient independent being in a lot of places.”

“No, the limits were created by the Continuum and then implemented on Earth around that time,” Brent explained.

That came as a bit of surprise, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

We walked right up to the front doors of the agency. Off to the side of the front entrance there was an area that was a circle of white sand. That was where the people usually appeared when returning to the Continuum. Agents usually had to debrief and fill out paper work so they like to appear right by the building for convenience. The agents called it jumping. You jump in or out of the Continuum using the handheld alien tech.

We went through the front doors and into the lobby. It was like stepping back in time to the 1950’s. The interior looked like a bank you might find in a major city. Marble floors, roman columns, high narrow windows.

The place was filled with people and rows of desks filled with file folders and old fashioned typewriters and manned by disgruntled looking office workers. I normally avoid this place. I always came in through the back entrance and went straight to my department. At least there I had a modern laptop similar to the time I came from.

There were people all over the place and I kept hearing snippets of conversations. Some of it was familiar questions that I was personally asked when I arrived. Some people were explaining the rules to new comers and in some case trying to explain exactly what this place is.

I heard a grumpy older woman with glasses from the 1960’s trying to explain to an agent; “Look you know the rules here. You are not to bring people for earlier than 1900 to the Continuum. I’m sure they are important people, but they simply can’t understand this place. It’s beyond them. The rules are there for good reason.”

The agent replied. “Look, get one of the Men In Grey down here. They can override the rule. This is important…”

“Good afternoon, George,” Brent said to him as we walked by.

“Hey, Brent,” the agent replied. Then he resumed his conversation with the grumpy looking woman.

We finally got through the intake area and found ourselves in a maze of hallways and offices. We finally got to agent Alexander’s office. Like the rest of the building it looked like it was from the 1950’s with glass windows, real wood trim, even a hat rack for his jacket and fedora. This place would have been at home in any 1940’s or 50’s movie detective agency. There was even a big wooden desk piled with dossiers and file folders.

“Have a seat,” he indicated the chair in front of the desk. He sat down behind it. “There going to be after me soon, if they haven’t already caught on to what’s happening.”

“What?” I was surprised. People in the Ivory Tower acted like they didn’t know who he was. Had they lied to me?

“I’m not known for following the rules and it going to catch up with me sooner or later,” he told me. “When it does, I’m getting out of here and I’m taking the jump device with me.”

As he said this he pulled the device from his pocket and tossed it on the desk between us. It wasn’t very big, about the same size as a cellphone, but with odd angles to it. The screen had an eerie faint green glow to it. The symbols of the screen were nonsensical. The language did not look Human at all.

“Can I see it?” indicating the device.

“Be my guest,” he said.

I picked it up. It felt heavier than it looked. It had a cool metallic feel to it. Nobody would mistake this for a cell. It gave me an unnatural vibe. With this device you could go to any time and any place on Earth. It was an insane amount of power. If it was in the wrong hands… It could literally change everything. “I’ve never held anything that was alien made before.”

“Incredible isn’t it?” He said to me. He just sat back smiling.

“How many are there?” I questioned.

“The exact number is a closely guarded secret, even I don’t know, but if I had to guess, less than a hundred in existence,” he explained. “At any given time there are about 60 agents working for the Continuum. But I’m sure that does not account for all of them.”

“Why do you think they are coming after you? What rules have you been breaking?” I asked him. I set the device back on the table. Even if I wanted to used it I would have no idea how it worked.

“I’ve been running my own unsanctioned missions,” he said without hesitation. “I’ve also been talking to people I should not be talking to. It’s the Continuum. I can delay them from finding out about what I have been doing, but I can’t stop it. They will come for me. First it will be a warning and interrogations. But as they find out more… as they realize just how far rogue I have gone… they are going to want to detain me or worse erase my existence.”

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “They can do that?”

“It’s the Continuum, they can do anything,” he told me. “But they have met their match. In the near future they will run simulations on how to stop me.”

“But they can’t stop you, because the AI is actually working for you and against them,” I said figuring it out. “And they haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Bingo,” he said with a wink. “That’s why you’re here. Because you are far more intelligent than they have given you credit for. Because the Ivory Tower is bullshit and in the back of your mind, you know it is true. That’s why nothing feels right here. The Continuum is spinning it’s wheels. They don’t know how to solve the problem they have been created for.”

“But you do!?” I wasn’t sure if I was asking a question or making a statement of fact. Maybe both?

Brent Alexander had a huge smile on his face. “Mr. Greenwood, I’m building an army. That army will need generals and I’m hoping you’ll be one of them.”

Fuck, was this for real!? What would you do? I bet you would jump at the chance to save the world right? Or would you just sit back and watch it all burn?

“I’m in,” I couldn’t sit back if there was a way to save humanity. “But you already knew that before you ever approached me, right? You had the AI run the sims didn’t you?”

He pointed right at me. “Smartest man in the Continuum. You think that I would do this without you?”

“If I join you. Won’t they come for me as well?” I questioned.

“Most likely,” he said. “But they person they really want is me. But if it comes down to it, you’ll have this.”

He open a drawer. From it he produced two things. The first was a gun. A snub nose 38, very common, I’d seen one before. The other was a second jump device. “It’s already reprogrammed with five locations and time points. One of which is a meeting place should anything go wrong during our missions. Another is the day before the invasion.”

Holy mother of God! was all I could think. Was he really giving this to me!? And a gun!? Was I in over my head already?

What would you have done? You would have taken both of them, right? I know you would have.

I slipped the gun into the pocket of the pants I was wearing. I held the jump device in my hand. It felt like it pulsed with untapped energy. I took them knowing that being in possession of both of these items without authorization was enough to get me detained by security here at the Continuum.

“alright,” I said. “What happens next?”

“Use that device. Come with me and let me show you the real world,” he stood up with his jump device in hand. He showed me which button to push. “I will take you right to the brink, 2332, the day before the invasion. Let me show you exactly what is at stake here.”

“See you on the other side,” I told him. And in an instant we were gone.

THE END