Introduction 6

Prologue
Dream/Vision
Date and Location Unknown

A man cooking. That is the first modern aspect of this situation. Although, I guess, it doesn't need to be modern. Just like having a wife outrank her husband. That is not typical even in modern times, but that doesn't make it impossible.

Jennifer put down Sergey's id where she found it and looked through his passport. He was born in 1926 in the Voronezh oblast. 1926! He should be as old as my grandparents. But he looks more like he is in his 30s. She flipped back a page to check something. According to this, he is a Soviet citizen. Which may explain why his “state” of birth is unfamiliar. She picked up his id and looked at it again. Why didn't I notice that before? … And why is it in English?

Confused, she continued to look through the passport. Well, he is less than 45. He is certainly married. He served in WWII. Starting before he was 18. Although this was issued later, so he may have lied about his age. Or he worked for the partisans and they counted this service. And 18 is an arbitrary age. Different places may have different ages of majority.

His home is in Moscow. That is probably where we are. I wonder if there is one near home. I guess everything else so far would be consistent for being in Russia. Besides, the government at home would not use the case structure in these documents. Or a cursive font which looks so different from the print. Or ...

Finally she realized at least part of what was so odd. Everything is in Russian! And I understand.

This realization brought the whole language aspect fully into her conscious mind. And it brought another realization. I have skills I shouldn't have! A dream could fake this, but otherwise there is certainly more going on then just a game. And faking a case structure? I don't think a dream could do that. But it could fake the fonts as many people do. Assuming I knew something about Cyrillic cursive. And I don't think I did. …

This as a dream with the details being real would be just as strange as this being real.

Jennifer's mind started to look for other inconsistencies. I have been wandering around trying to gather information without drawing attention to myself instead of being paralyzed by uncertainty. She wondered what other skills she had which she shouldn't. She looked at the passport again. This isn't a passport, it is an id booklet. And how do I know he is less than 45? There is nothing labeling the age for the photos. Her train of thought wandered off.

Am I really so accustomed to these passports that I didn't notice anything odd about it?