In the office deep inside of the building (A Gigantic sheet-iron-and-brick Warehouse) at 132613 Chaise-a-Geuse Road, among the depths of the Waterfront District of a steam-and-diesel-driven alternate version of Chicago Illinois of the 1940s, Another greenish flash showed in a line of booths; over 125 booths were in that line, and there were 25 lines of booths, all of them intermittently flashing green either after someone entered or just before someone exited. It was not generally known to anyone outside of the organization, but it this was the only way to enter the True Administrative and R & D sections of the Aunt Sally Condiments Division of the Kemmermann Shipping Company; A dummy set of such offices existed in roughly the same space, in a different dimension that coincided with the Real-Time physical occurrence that was known as the warehouse at 132613 Chaise-a-Guese Road.
It was also not generally known that this was the Earth Portal headquarters of the temporal-regulatory organization called A.U.N.T.S.A.L.L.I. As such, it was not actually inside the warehouse that housed the temporal anomaly ion which it did reside. In a complicated bit of temporal physics, it existed both in and not in regular space, but rather in a huge bubble of 'anti-time' or, as some have put it before, a 'state of temporal grace.' It was a zone in which normal mundane physics did not wholly rule the Real.
Eddie Beltane stepped out of the Booth Complex, heading for the office of Sally Kemmermann, (generally and customarily addressed as 'Miss Sally'), Head of AUNTSALLI and The Committee.
He stopped at the Dispatcher's Window, turned in his chit, and asked if Miss Sally were in. "I'll Check, Officer Beltane," the pretty brunette at the window's counter said. Just then, the intercom buzzer at her elbow sounded, and she pressed a telephone handpiece to her ear. "Yes, Miss Shirley, he's right here, he just arrived....Yes Ma'am. Understood. She typed up a new chit on the Underwood typewriter before her, and handed it to Beltane, saying, "You are ordered back to Relevant Time 1942, the Extended Steam Salon, Mr. Beltane. Our apologies for the abrupt turnaround, but the party you were sent to find will be there when you arrive, and the situation you are to work to rectify will have begun to develop. We're so sorry for the SNAFU." The brunette smiled and gestured back toward the Booth Complex. "Use Booth 35, and punch in your number, and transport authorization sequence five."
Eddie Turned around, muttered, "wish they'd make up their damn minds, or call me before I come back or something," but marched straight back to the Booth Complex, entered Booth 35 and did as instructed. Minutes later, he was back in the Steam salon, strolling toward the bar, and looking around at the rest of the establishment in a casual sort of way. He sat at the bar, and Mac turned around from the drink-dispensing fountain, saying, "Mr Beltane! So good to see you again. What'll you be having?".
"Howdy Mac," Eddie said, digging in his pants pocket and pulling out a Finn and handing it ove rto Mac. I'll have a Mug of that ale I had last time."
"Good Choice, sir, we've just laid in a new shipment this afternoon." Mac Said as he held teh mug under teh tap and filled it with teh requested beverage.
"Say, Mac, uh, anybody , you know, odd-like, come in while I was gone?" Eddie murmured in a low voice to the Brass Bartender.
"No, Sir," Mac said in an equally low voice,, slowly and metallically, "But that blonde gentleman, the one who looks like a seaman, over at that table, there, is new."
