Work at the Department for Time Control is hard and dangerous! But their regular—and high—honor is to uncover the most puzzling mysteries in history...
“Your taxi stopped, slipping out of the endless stream of moving traffic flowing in the direction that, it seemed, had been set once and for all at the creation of the world. Bright, colorful illumination from the marker and headlights identified the location of a broken-down vehicle—turned into a tiny island of static in the middle of endless motion.
‘We apologize for the inconvenience,’ the passenger was informed by the voice of the auto-dispatcher. ‘Unfortunately, the car you used has malfunctioned. The cause of the failure has not been determined yet. A new vehicle has been sent to you and will arrive on site in three and a half minutes. Since the delay occurred due to our fault, the fare will be reduced by thirty-three and three-tenths percent. Once again, please accept our most sincere apologies. Thank you for using the services of the transportation company “Taxi-Lux”. We truly wish you a happy day.’
Inspector Sheludenkо slumped irritably into the soft seat back. The day had started exceptionally badly.”