The future Rhyme tried to readjust the little dials on the time locket but it was a vain attempt. She still wasn't able to accept that she was stuck there.
The moon came up on the Paris skyline while Rhyme was completely immersed in thoughts of finding a way to return.
After a while, she was convinced that there was no other way. She had to strive there until she dies or some miracle happens to save her.
She still couldn't pass through other materials made up of earthly matter, as she existed in the form of dark matter, even though she could float around in the air.
She decided that she would just sleep, as there wasn't anything else she could do to get back home.
"It isn't like I have not tried..." *huge yawn*
"I'd better go to sleep"
She thought, before she stretched a bit and then lied down on a bench across the road outside her school. After all, she didn't get enough sleep since she landed in New York City few days before.
It wasn't until the time when Rhyme felt a familiar tingling sensation that she woke up. Rhyme, who was able to see herself as a faint outline until now, saw that she wasn't in her dark matter form anymore. She was even visible to the passer-bys, who weren't really pleased at seeing a women with weird clothes sleeping on a bench (she was almost 10 years back in time, so the style of the clothes she was wearing did not match the current trends in this time realm).
To confirm that she was visible to people around her, Rhyme made up a plan. She came in the way of an all suited up guy and waved in front of him.
Surprised by this sudden action of a weirdly dressed and bird's nest hair lady, the guy backed away and then continued on his path after giving a *what have I done wrong to face someone like you early in the morning* look.
Rhyme realised instantly that somehow, her invisibility cloak got off from her body while she was snoring on the bench.
She found her invisibility cloak hooked to a sharp end on the bench and thought that it might have been blown away by wind at night.
She woke up to see a busy morning in Paris. The people were having breakfast at food trucks and little outlets; and were heading to work/ school etc.
Rhyme instantly regretted sleeping in the first place, and was also wondering why nothing happened when the cloak came off from her body.
She then remembered what Mr. Robert told her to do and she was pleased to find out that no harm was caused to her even after removing the cloak.
*An impressive entry of two huge men in formal, all black suits*
"Am I talking to Ms. Rhyme?", one of them with black sunglasses said in a slow but low pitched voice.
'What the heck?? Are these guys confusing me with the Rhyme of this time realm?' Rhyme thought, but she surely couldn't speak it out loud.
"Mmm... Yes. What do you want from me?" , she replied nervously, as she actually was Rhyme, but not the Rhyme of the present time realm( i.e., she wasn't the high school going Rhyme). She thought that she could handle it, that too, better than her younger self.
"Do you know Mr. Jay?" the guy from before asked again.
'Why the hell is this dude asking me about Jay right now? He looks like the right hand of a mafia or an underworld don....' Rhyme thought, but again, didn't speak out loud
"You better answer us faster missy, or you might not know what you can get yourself into....", He said, pulling out a gun so that Rhyme could see his fingers playing around the trigger of that revolver.
"Wha- What do you want?"
"An answer! Don't you understand at once! Believe me, if I have to repeat anything again, you are DEAD! "
"Why would you kill me? What is wrong in knowing Jay? "
"Oh, so you know him. Well. Then tell me if he has been spending a lot of money lately. "
"What do you mean by that? Spending more money? Has he got a lottery or what? And why do you even care if he spends a lot? It's not like he'd be stealing and spending some mafia's mone-"
"It it exactly the case. Do you know him so well that you even knew he stole money from our master?"
Stole money from his master..... What is he saying? The Jay Rhyme knew was an honest man, even though he wanted to be a businessman. Most of the people doing businesses were know to be fraudsters in their land. The people who called themselves 'businessmen' took huge amounts of money as loans from banks and many a times, gangsters. A few lucky ones of them would get caught, but in most of the cases, the person charged with fraud would flee to some other country and hide till the fire is out and even the last bit of smoke is mixed with air.
But Jay wasn't one of them. He could never do such a thing.
After thinking for a while, Rhyme spoke.
"You might be mistaken. This cannot be the person you are looking for."
"We have exact information. Now tell us where can we find him or we are obliged to take you with us."
In Rhyme's thoughts: Take me hostage? Are you kidding me? I'll kick all your a**es before that happens.
" I do not know where you can find him now, I am sure of one thing! ", she said, before inconspicuously pulling out a small laser pistol
She knocked both of the guys unconscious with just a shot of laser beam. There were many weapons in her briefcase, but she liked this one the most and as per the instructions in her tablet, she had to keep a weapon with her all the time, as she might not know what kind of people she would face while traveling through time.
The pistol worked on laser and thus made no noise when Rhyme shot it at them. It didn't even seem like the people around them noticed it, since it was so small, and the laser was of infrared rays(which are not visible to the naked human eye). There were very minute particles of strong anaesthesia along with the laser, which would cause the one at the receiving end to stay unconscious for almost an hour.
Jay and the high schooler Rhyme were walking towards St. Xavier's from a distance while this was all happening.
Rhyme covered herself with the invisibility cloak barely in time so that she might not come face to face to her past self.
She then saw the younger version of her and Jay walking towards the coffee shop behind the bench on which she was sleeping just a couple of minutes ago.
What a narrow escape! she thought, as she saw the other two opening the door of that coffee shop.
But it wasn't time to go and see her own self with her love going on practically a date. Rhyme had to find out what those two men talked about. People like them would not waste their time after a normal high schooler guy like Jay, they surely had some lead, she thought, and this way, she got another mission to do.
"Where do I find them?", Rhyme thought, and wondered what can she do to know the truth.
She didn't even knew how to reset that now damn useless locket to get back in time.
She thought that there was no way but to follow them. As they wouldn't have gone much far, and as Rhyme was dark matter without much weight under her cloak, she decided to make a run for it.
She obviously wasn't going to actually try and catch up to a luxury car just by running, so she hovered on top of another car passing by her and sat on top of it.
"It is gonna be a fun ride", she thought, as she was finally settling with the fact that she was stuck in the past.
She was also getting better at handling everything from her locket, to briefcase, to a pistol in her pocket, but it was very tough for someone like her at the start.
Why would such bouncers of people high up there go on streets to find Jay?