“Lets assume, just for the sake of argument that time travel is possible.

Anyway, the Earth spins at over 1,000 miles per hour. It revolves around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour. The Sun orbits the Milky Way at a speed I don’t know off the top of my head, but its HUGE. The Milky Way hurtles through intergalactic space even faster then that.

If you travelled just ONE second through time, you might still be within the circumferance of Pluto’s orbit when you die in the cold vacuum of space…”

“Each of you will be assigned a con,” Halliwell said. “And we’ll keep sending agents to others, trying to build a list, until we close the case or the con angle proves to be a bust.” He paused and frowned then shook his head. “Donahue, Griffith, you got any suggestions on how to go undercover to a con?”

“Yeah,” Laidlaw said, grinning. “Where do we get our Klingon outfits?”

“What you wear doesn’t really matter,” Donahue said, frowning. “But you have to have a reason to be there, other than to laugh at the geeks. Or you’re going to stand out like a God damned sore thumb and blow the investigation. Just the FBI look is going to make you stand out. The clean-cut, short-hair, erect-bearing is going to peg you as a military guy, maybe cop, right away. You’d be amazed how many of both go to the cons—about half the guys who were Storm Trooper armor are local cops for example—but they generally try to keep a low profile in that area. And if you’re going to be going around asking questions, you’re going to have to have a reason for it. Depending upon the con, and who is going, I’d suggest an intensive reading course in one of the author guests. Or if it’s a media con, get familiar with one of the TV shows or movies that one of the guests was in. Get a book or a picture signed. Go to a couple of the panels. If you’re gothing, get to know some of the bands and understand the attitude, even if you don’t have it. If it’s a gaming con, you’re going to have to be able to game and that’s a skill I don’t know if any of you have. Don’t laugh at the geeks. Don’t go around with the ‘get a life’ attitude or, again, you’re going to blow the investigation. Laidlaw, you golf, right?”

“Sure,” the agent said, frowning.

“Can you explain why you go out to chase a little white ball around a course?” Donahue asked. “You get paid money to do that? No. You do it for fun. Your friends do it. When you’re done you get to hang out at the nineteenth hole and drink beer and lie about your game. That’s all that cons are. It’s where people with similar interests come together. They’re not your kind of people, they’re their kind of people. And they’re just as … disparaging of golfers as you are of them. And since most of them have a better vocabulary than you do, they can be disparaging better, trust me. Get that in your head, get some background, and you’ll be fine. Dress casual, really casual, and take good walking shoes.”