Mandelovia, Malvan-X Headquarters:

"His very presence is a disturbance to the time continuum."

"The old paradox problem, huh?" grinned Dr. Quantos as he rubbed his beard in thought. "Well, I'll consider what you've told me."

"Something must be done, Doctor. If you do not do it, I may have to take more drastic measures. I cannot allow this time paradox to grow into a full-fledged chronal vortex, for such a thing has the power to not only destroy your reality but thousands of others as well. And I am not sure that even I have the power to stop such a thing once it has become a vortex."

"No, I'll... I guess I'll have to do something about it myself, then." Dr. Henry Quantos sighed.

"Are you all right, Doctor?"

Quantos looked up at the glowing being before him, idly wondering for the umpteenth time whether any of that chronal radiation he irradiated could give him cancer. "It's... it's nothing. Well, a young acquaintance of mine from Sweden was supposed to call me as soon as he got off the plane at the airport, and he's gone missing. I have a sick feeling in my stomach that something's happened to the poor fellow."

"If you wish, I can check..."

"No, no, that'll be all right. I have several employees at my disposal anyways; I'll send one of them out to search for him." Dr. Quantos looked again at the glowing being and began to ask him a question he had never really received the answer to each time he had asked it. "Say, TTT -- you don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

"Not at all... Doc."

Quantos thought he detected a glimmer of amusement in that unearthly voice of his, but ignored it. "Why have you been so interested in my career all these years since you first visited me all those years ago. Back then I was just another promising young medical student, no different from a hundred other young men. What got you interested in me enough to help me along as you have all these years?"

"Let us just say that you remind me of someone."

That's what you always say, Quantos thought inwardly. "Maybe someday you can tell me about him, okay?"

"You have my word on that... Henry."

Quantos breathed a sigh of relief when the chronal being he knew only as a representative of The Time Trust disappeared, taking his chronal radiations with him. But just as he left Quantos could have sworn he had seen the thing smile at him...