Timeshock - I Want My Life Back Read Online Free Page B

  He stuck a piece of paper on the machine and scrawled “Out of Order” on it and then proceeded to leave the gym.

    Due to the hastiness of his departure this time, Nigel didn’t entirely know what he was supposed to do.   He’d never ever really been to a bookmakers or bet on anything.   He looked over the sports results he had downloaded before leaving.   He knew you could do accumulator bets on multiple outcomes and get silly odds but he didn’t know the mechanics of doing it.

    It took Nigel some time, but he decided to bet on the FA Cup winners for the next four years.   Chelsea, Manchester City, Chelsea again and Wigan. While unusual to bet on the next four winners, he wanted to seem just like another mad customer with desperate hopes betting on something silly.

    He walked into a bookmakers around the corner from the gym and went up to the counter.   “Sir - can I place a bet on the winner of the FA Cup final for the next four years?”  
    “We can do whatever bet you like, sir. Do you want to bet on each separately or have one accumulator bet?   You realise if you choose an accumulator bet then if one of the teams doesn’t win then you lose the whole amount.”
    “Yes, I understand and I want to place an accumulator bet - what odds will you give me for Chelsea, Manchester City, Chelsea and Wigan winning in that order?”
    “Wigan?!?” exclaimed the assistant behind the counter.   Nigel remembered it was an upset at the time.   The man realised Nigel was serious and then got his calculator out.   He mumbled to himself and then said “1000-1”.

    Nigel smiled.   He still had a thousand pounds of cash on him.   He was glad he had prepared so well for his previous trip.   “A thousand pounds at those odds please.”
    “A thousand pounds?!?”.   The man was staggered. “Are you sure? - you know you almost certainly won’t see that money again!”
    “Umm…a mystic woman told me to bet on those teams and I believe her.   And I am a wealthy man anyway.”   Nigel hoped the silly rich man routine would fool the counter assistant.

    The assistant went to talk to his manager. They agreed that there was no way someone could have any inside information on four years’ winners of a major sporting competition.   The counter assistant came back and accepted Nigel’s bet and took his cash.   Nigel now had a crisp betting slip that he hoped would get him a million pounds very soon.

    He walked back to the gym.   He managed to bluff his way through the turn-styles saying that he had a day pass for the gym but had lost it.   He walked back up to the room where he had left the time machine to find, to his horror, it had disappeared.

    Nigel was distraught.   He had hardly any money left and he had no way to survive.   He asked one of the gym staff what had happened to the machine, saying that it was his favourite.
    “Oh, they have taken it away to have it repaired.”
    “Who?”
    “The company that maintains the machines - Omnicrox, I think they are called.”
    “Where do they fix them?” Nigel tried not to sound too manic.
    “Oh somewhere nearby - but I am not sure where.”

    Nigel thanked the woman but he was in a real bind.   He had to find this Omnicrox company building and the machine before they started examining it.   He didn’t want them to damage it, or even worse go back in time accidentally.   As important, he wanted to claim his winnings without waiting five years.

    He walked out of the gym in despair and saw a Starbucks coffee house opposite. He wondered.   Had they introduced free wi-fi yet?   Only one way to find out, he thought, as he went into the cafe.   Luckily they did have free wi-fi.   Quickly and secretly he got out his smart-phone and looked up where Omnicrox were located.

    Somewhere nearby turned out to be three miles away on an industrial estate.   Nigel took over an hour to walk there and it was getting dark.  

    In a dingy industrial estate he saw