Missing Time

As transcribed by Bellatrix S. Bracken from an Edison cylinder found among the effects of Prof. Nareth E. Nishi, presumably recorded on 18 August:

I think yesterday might almost have been the end of me. The end of everything. The end. And there is little of it I can now recall. In the early evening, I was taking the air alone, even though Miss Paine frowns on my going out unescorted. I remember walking along the canal south towards the absinthe house [pause] What do I remember? What can I say now that is not now a lie? [longer pause; loud sigh] I heard a sound like bells. And then the queerest sensation, as though the very ground beneath me were sliding away. [very long pause] Then it was morning, early morning, and I was watching the sunrise from my old balcony above Ruby Flanagan's. Miss Paine and Mr. Commodore were with me. I gather I was the cause of some terrible occurrence in the absinthe house, and that there were several witnesses. I have no recollection of all those hours. She came again, that fraction of her capable of manifesting in this world, asking after the code. I won't say anything more than that. I can't. [pause] I can't. [pause] We left Ruby's and retreated to Mr. Commodore's airship, where I made some attempt at an explanation, as he evidently came to Miss Paine's aid, and I supposed he was owed that much. My secrets are possibly no longer secrets, and I wonder if it would be best if I simply left New Babbage forever. Not that it would save anyone. It wouldn't. Standing on the airship, I remember saying how peaceful the square seemed from that lofty vantage. That, from there, you'd never suspect the truth, that there were monsters in the streets. [long pause] I fear most for Miss Paine. Whatever is coming, I wish she had never crossed my path. I have cost her dearly. [pause] I have begun to think of nothing but revenge, against the memory of Eliot and all his associates. Against this 13 Club, who I guess to be his former financiers, against the Vangreed Society, and most of all, against the Gallifreyan bastard who started this nightmare ages and ages ago. [sound of breaking glass; end of recording]