Patrolman Keith Denison uses some sketchy tactics (sketchy to the Patrol, that is) to track down his partner Keith Denison, who’s disappeared in the time of the Persian King Cyrus the Great,
Michael Main
In the case of a missing man, you were not required to search for him just because a record somewhere said you had done so. But how else would you stand a chance of finding him? You might possibly go back and thereby change events so that you did find him after all—in which case the report you filed would “always” have recorded your success, and you alone would know the “former” truth.

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  1. “Brave to Be a King” by Poul Anderson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1959.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Poul Anderson