Moving forward at a steady pace, Vincent and I worked through the crowd of people until we stood before the ticketing booth, wherein Vincent went ahead and bought our train tickets to London with some money I slipped into his pocket.
Meanwhile, my head stayed on a swivel as I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something horribly wrong with this entire situation.
Normally, I wouldn’t be so paranoid about an increased police presence, but a response as quick as what I was seeing shouldn’t be possible in the late 90s.
That’s not me docking on the police of the era, but facts have proven that over time, the response of law enforcement has gotten incrementally swifter, yet it took time to get to that point.
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Had this been after 9/11, when the whole world was constantly on watch for any terror plot, I would have been less concerned; however, as it stands, here, in 1997, the higher-ups shouldn’t be so worried about something as small as a few medical centers getting set ablaze.
Sure, the heist may add to that, but the ends don’t justify the means. For the people of this period, it would have been a big deal to send out a police presence several miles away from the scene of the crime to check for any potential suspects, as time was money. Such an open-ended chase would have been a waste of cash… …unless the one running the whole operation was someone who had extensive knowledge of the future.
That is the only plausible answer I could formulate in such a short amount of time. There was a Returner, one who was exceptionally smart and knew his history well enough to be able to spot something small like my actions as out of place.
’Shit, if there is a returner behind this whole ploy, then they would have passed word down the line to verify the identity of any children that seemed out of place or too intelligent for their age.’ Gritting my teeth, I followed behind Vincent as he made his way to a small café within Piccadilly station since we had about an hour before our train left.
’I need to draw in my particle fluctuations as much as possible; there is a high likelihood that there is another returner here, and they are on the lookout for someone like themselves.’ Taking a cookie and a small juice box, I sat at the table and kept up the outward appearance of being a happy-go-lucky five-year-old child munching on sweets.
’That’s to say they are even here in the first place; there’s a strong possibility they stayed at the crime scene to try and pick up on any trace evidence I may have left behind, which in itself is a fruitless endeavor to normal police, but to someone from the Origin Timeline, who is accustomed to tracking the particle radiations of others, they may get something…’
Although my thought process may seem frantic, it was anything but, no, I was actually extremely calm, and if push came to shove, I had no doubt I’d be able to hold my own. It was only that I didn’t want to be inconvenienced right now, and dealing with another returner would be bothersome at the most.
’There’s also a chance that this person is a member of a Law Enforcement Guild from the Origin Timeline, that would lend some cadence to them spotting the massive difference between now and the future in respect to Harlow Sheffield.’
’If they too were keeping watch of the known serial killers that hadn’t been caught, then it would make sense they would react when all of a sudden, Harlow is found dead, and a chaotic blaze is left in the wake of his death.’
’Even so, someone from the Origin Timeline should have taken into account that I’d be able to move way quicker on foot by relying on my stats or Talent than doing something as mundane as traveling by train or even plane. So why would they blockade the nearest large train station…hm….’
’Something fucky wucky is definitely going on here; that much is obvious,’ I thought while casually taking in my surroundings by way of my peripheral vision.
No child would be inherently aware of their surroundings, so if I suddenly started looking around aimlessly and observing everything, that could end up being a dead giveaway for anyone on the lookout for suspicious children.
And that was when I felt it; it was nothing more than a faint breeze like what you’d experience on an early spring morning, but as the seconds ticked by, I picked up on more and more of this wind, which in turn forced me to expand my perception to the most I could withstand.
’Air Elemental Skill, Aero-Scan…there’s someone here…,’ as far as skills go, it was neither weak nor strong, somewhere directly in the middle. Its primary use was for reconnaissance, but it was one of those rare skills that were used by nearly every Aero-Mancer or Kinetic I had ever met, as it was basically the swiss-army knife of Air Element skills.
Depending on the user’s proficiency, it could be used to "See" everything in your surroundings, like a second sense or a stronger version of my perception technique.
Since it utilizes particles and oxygen in the air, it can touch and sense literally everything, allowing the user to get a mental image of every fine detail that their eyes can’t perceive.
’It’s at the Major-Plus attainment too…that means they will be able to pick up even the faintest sign of Particle Radiation.’
Although particles have an EXTREMELY small physical footprint, they can be perceived by this skill.
"Mm, Vincent, I’d like another two cookies, please, one for the trip and one for now," I said aloud, to which the man immediately got up while still in his butler role and went to purchase some more snacks.
Meanwhile, I continued acting the part of a young child by reaching into my backpack and pulling out some crayons and a coloring book. Right now, the best thing I could do was hold onto my ploy of being an ACTUAL five-year-old, as I had drawn every ounce of particle radiation into my body so as not to alert the brisk wind floating around the station.