Egon Rettmer—citizen of neutral Silte, but an agent for the Nord-Deutschland in their war against the Masurians—uses time travel for his communiques and, as he realizes on the eve of the N-D invasion, there’s the potential to use it for more, maybe even to get a good start with that entrancing visitor, Heidi.
She was behaving towards him, literally, as if he had been in two places at once. . . as if, this morning, he had met her and told her of the escape plans he had only half started to form a few minutes ago!

Variants

(1)
  1. “The Agent” by Christopher Priest and David Redd, in Aries, 1, edited by John Grant (David and Charles, 1979).
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Christopher Priest