After lying quietly for a moment he realized the ticking was coming from the device he still held in the palm of his hand. He reopened his eyes. With a groan he rolled over on to his back. The throbbing in his head began to recede. He looked at the device in his hand. The red light was blinking and a message scrolled across the devices screen, “Error, time zone exceded ... Error, time zone exceded...”

Puzzled Bepergian tried again to turn the device off.