Jenna didn't know it but she was about to die.

If she had known it she almost certainly wouldn't have ordered the skinny capuccino. She would have gone full-fat, probably a mocha, with a slice of lemon cake on the side.

Jenna didn't have the slightest inkling that she was minutes away from being mashed like scrap metal. She did have an uncomfortable feeling, a sort of self-consciousness, as if someone invisible was staring at her intently.

Someone invisible had been following her for days.

Dexter knew she was going to die. Horribly. And soon. He didn't quite know what would happen though. After all he was an excellent librarian, but even the best of librarians have limitations. Factual limitations. The fact of Jenna's death was undeniable. That was why Dexter was here. He had to find it, and soon, before it was gone.

Dexter was also limited by The Rules.

Rule one - he had to remain invisible. That was easy enough, once you got to the Third Line invisibility was pretty easy to maintain, and Dexter was a Second Line Esoteric Librarian. Invisibility was easy as drinking tea.

Rule two - he could do nothing to influence the past. Again Dexter had no problem with this one. After all how much influence could an unseen, unheard observer have?

There were lots more rules (127 in total) but most of them covered situations that, frankly, never came up, such as who has right of way when encountering another Librarian in a narrow time-band.

However in the current situation Rule Two meant that Dexter could do nothing to warn Jenna of her impending death. Not even something subtle like "Go on, have the lemon cake, you wont even have time to digest it, so consider it calorie-free".

This was frustrating. After all he had spent nearly 1000 years searching for it, had crossed 3 continents during 12 decades. And to cap it all he'd had to travel Economy. He'd eventually traced the story - actually it was a film script. Jenna Noakes - otherwise unknown jobbing journalist - was about to write it. Only she would never get to. It would never be written.

She left the coffee shop and walked straight under the 74 from Burnleigh to Cranham high street.

Damn.