The next few jumps for the trio was to get a lot of things in place. In total they spent almost six years in the past getting things ready. The largest chunk was getting various identities and people they would need in place. Bothe James and Amanda got alternate personas for the time periods they would be operating in. They were lucky enough to find deceased persons with their names though. To be fair though they looked specifically for those names so they wouldn’t get confused.

A lot was going on for the trio, or at least the pair. As James and Amanda worked to get their ideas in place, Tommy was traveling around having all the fun. They all got together at least once a month still though. James and Amanda were both going to school to get the credentials they would need to pull off their various schemes. Todd could have just bought the degrees for them, but Tommy was big on them actually knowing what they were doing.

Like he told him, it’s not like time or money is an issue, so just do the work. It was rather easy though compared to their classmates. They had computers to do their work on, where as most of the others didn’t, or they had to get lucky and get into the few computer labs on the campus. UCLA was the school of choice, since Todd had a bit of pull there for some reason. There were no questions asked when they enrolled and they got the exact classes and times they wanted.

Tommy did have their transcripts from “prior” learning forged though so they didn’t have to bother with the general education classes. But the fact was they had done the classes already, just not yet in the timeline. It was a half-truth, but everyone was fine with it. The world moved on and no one took notice of them as the proceeded towards their goals. Once they graduated they moved on to the next part of their plans.

Amanda stayed in California and oversaw the involvement of Orion Pictures. She was excited to be the one that would green light movies like Robocop and Terminator. James made his way to Europe and started to locate people and places to help him with his plan. The energy crisis was in its prime, but Todd had started up a new company to take advantage of it. This was one thing that he foresaw long before bringing in other people.

His agents had setup a “slush fund” for him to use whenever he wanted. Todd planned for it just incase he ever had to come back to a time he had already visited. In case he needed access to funds. His main goal was not to disrupt his main companies from their tasks. It might confuse them or worse mess up things he had planned in a previous visit. This way he could come back as much as he wanted and still have the means to do anything.

It was this kind of planning that impressed both James and Amanda. They were finding that the more they partook in his plan the more they were capable of similar tasks, though not to the extent that Tommy was. It was the kind of thing that one learned when they had too. It was weird in a way. James had always thought he was capable of long term goals and the planning that it took to achieve them. The thing that he lacked though was the motivation.

When he lost interest in Wall Street he longed for simpler things. He had made enough money to not have to work as hard the rest of his life. Not the kind of money that would let him jet set all over the world, but the kind that the job at the Emporium made possible to still live comfortably. He had a house and a nice car, so a part time job would have paid the bills. His friend making him the manager was just the thing he was looking for.

What he found out was that what he really lacked was purpose. The time traveling was fun at first, getting to go back and see all of the things he loved in his youth as an adult was exciting and all. It was the revelation that there was a goal at the end of it all that really turned him into an active participant in the rat race again though. Sure they had massive unfair advantages, but then again they were looking to reshape a part of the world, not just be a part of it.

In the end, no matter what happened, he had Amanda and the environment that the Emporium offered. It wasn’t a lot, at least in the perspective of most people, but it was enough for him. Right now though he had to try and ger an in into the eventual market that would be the fall of Communism. He knew that oligarchs would take over and billions were to be made in the rebuilding of the USSRs economy across new countries and old ones alike. The actual creation of the EU, not just the trade alliance was a potential for a windfall.

This along with the opening of China’s and other Asian countries was just asking to be invested in and amassed by someone. The ones that currently held it in his future were shady players at best. He could enter the markets with all the knowledge and potentially funds that would make it a fish in a barrel scenario. That was his task now and he felt he was up to it.

Amanda on the other had was having the time of her life. He had finished with a degree in political science and business, while James got one in Foreign policy and World languages. She was still in LA meeting and greeting with investors and stars in an effort to get he idea going as well as laying the ground work for political work later as well.

It was all convoluted and a long stretch, but then again when you knew what was going to happen in the future, could go back, you could make adjustments if you mis stepped too badly. The only thing you had to know was when and where you were so as not to cross paths with yourself, which was still a concern, though still unknown what would actually happen. None of them wanted to take that risk though, so they tool their time in planning. Occasionally, after major steps were accomplished they would go back to the present and see what happened and if any adjustments were needed.

When they did return it was usually just to make sure that things were going as planned, though a time or two they had to make major adjustments, overall though it was just a precaution to make sure that the people they had working for them were doing what they were supposed to do. There were a lot of moving parts, so checking on how it all turned out was a good idea, not to mention that it kept them anchored to their true place.

No one wanted to stay in the past, well not out loud to each other anyway, but one could see the allure of the lives they were building in the past. One a movie executive, one a tech billionaire, and the other an international investment banker. It’s not like it was worse than the lives they led in the present as a teacher, a game store owner, and a game store manager. Most people would have chosen to stay in the past. The added bonus of never aging was also a plus, at least in the past.

Each of them had their own little offices and computers they took with them everywhere. The files they kept with them from the future wouldn’t change, just like them. Having that information was key since it was also a point of reference when they went back to see how things changed. None of them could memorize all the information they required, and the devil was in the details.