Place: Portland, OR (Professor Kroll’s lab)
Time: July 25-29, Monday- Friday

Alice put the newly laminated press pass with a fake name around her neck and adjusted her black shoulder-length wig. She tried a few other ones but the dark hair seemed to suit her much better, considering it was just a few shades darker than her natural hair color. She also wore colored contacts and a heavy makeup to make herself look completely different. She doubted that professor Kroll would recognize her, since it’s been some time they last saw each other but she wanted to be careful.

He was an ultimate nerd and other people in his scientific universe existed only as order takers or number crunchers. Anyone outside of his lab didn’t exist or blipped on his radar. Still, better safe than sorry, as Shane told her while helping her to choose the right wig for the mission. Her last conversation with Kroll could be damaging but based on his reaction last time and no additional contact since, she truly believed he thought she was lying to screw with his research.

Alice hung around with other reporters who were there for the conference, but she was mostly hiding on the background. News of the press conference, where Kroll was about to announce major scientific discovery in a field of time travel, were huge and a lot of national news stations sent their crews. So far everyone at the lab was pretty secretive and Alice could only get little bits and pieces from a few conversations she overheard. Ok, she was eavesdropping but there was no difference in Alice’s point of view, if it was done for the good of humankind.

The week passed quickly but Alice was nowhere near getting any answers. The press conference was scheduled for Friday afternoon and Alice was getting frustrated. All she learned was a few gossip bits about professor Kroll’s predictions of the time travel possibility and that he knew of the approximate vicinity of the portal but nothing beyond. From her previous visit to the lab Alice knew that the professor knew the portal was somewhere near Laguna Beach because that’s how she learned of its existence in a first place. How far he got in his research after their last conversation would be just a guess on her part.