Help with the Actions of an NPC

[tanksoldier]

. A spy won't necessarily have the gear, but a "Special Ops" sabotage group might.

Nope. Operating on foreign soil outside a declared war? That would be an act of war. Sanitization and deniability were as well known then as now.

That’s one reason all his labels and such would be noteworthy. No attempt at all to sanitize himself, but labels for companies that don’t exist and dates in the future. What would be the point? Just take all the labels off and save the trouble... so why are they there?

At the time, wristwatches were uncommon on men, so a thief missing one won't be too much of a surprise.

Totality of the circumstances. Missing a wristwatch, maybe. Missing everything except the wallet? Unlikely. This particular individual allowing himself to be a victim of robbery? Unlikely.

ETA: Also, a thief from that period would have looked for cuff links and probably found the watch.

can see people talking themselves out of that kind of answer, because if they told other about "future man", they will be thought insane

Not with that ballistic vest... especially if they test it.

An expert examining the equipment would find batteries far more efficient than could possibly be produced with current technology, an examination of the laser once they figure out what it is advances in materials science and physics that haven’t been discovered yet.... shoot the laser thru a prism and discover virtually no diffraction? The beam maintains coherence farther that even a full blown spotlight can illuminate? ....all powered for an hour or more by a battery the size of a thumbnail?

. It isn't clear when "CSI Scotland Yard" becomes a formal thing.

They had physicians and other experts as consultants. Dr Watson does that sort of work for Scotland Yard after Sherlock’s “death”.

That is on the inside right? So the doctor taking it off might not notice (he is focused on taking it off, not reading things written on it), but anyone coming back and taking a look would see it.

It’s on the ballistic panel, which is inside a fabric carrier... usually nylon. The carrier itsel often will have labeling or logos that might imply what it is... but anyone taking it apart would find it.

ETA: The Velcro would be noteworthy, as would any zippers. The first zipper was demonstrated at the 1896 worlds fair, but the patent on the modern zipper wasn’t issued until 1917. I imagine finding them on an article of clothing in 1914 would be rare.

[RogerBW]

In consideration of life of the mind: although we've had The Time Machine and The Sleeper Awakes (1910), they're basically about travel into the exciting world of the future. The Connecticut Yankee has a modern man going into the past, but I'm not at all sure when the idea of a traveller from the future to the modern day gained currency.

So I'd argue it might be a bit of a stretch, but a policeman not afraid to use his imagination and perhaps primed by scientific romances might well come up with the answer.

[Curmudgeon]

It isn't clear that the wristwatch with its glowing dials is digital. Assuming it is arranged as a 12-hour analog clock face, it won't immediately be obvious whether the watch is 6 hours slow (I'm assuming that's what you meant by late) or 6 hours fast, unless it's later than 6 p.m. Greenwich or earlier than 6 a.m. Greenwich, in which case the date will give the direction away. The chief inspector probably has a rough idea of where the time zones are, so assuming the gent is from the northern hemisphere he is from the Canadian prairies, the central U.S. (Great Lakes in the NE through Texas in the SW) or Mexico (except for the northern part of the west coast), if it's running 6 hours slow. If it's running 6 hours fast, that puts it around Calcutta, which is a bit further East than the Russians usually operate, but not impossibly so, so the gent may well be Russian. A visit to MI-5/MI-6 is probably indicated.

If the Chief Inspector should open the back of the wristwatch, he'll probably be surprised at the lack of "works". He might take it as working somewhat like a crystal radio.

The biggest oddity is that the watch has not only not been put up to Greenwich time, it hasn't been adjusted for any intervening time zone, either. This might indicate travel so rapid that making the hourly adjustments would be inconvenient (which would have to be very rapid indeed) or it would indicate that the gent was unable to make the adjustments (which implies possibly being bound, almost certainly not being able to observe the exterior of the vehicle as sunrise and sunset would at least have alerted the gent to the possibility of having travelled a long distance, [A time zone is about 900 miles at the equator if the zone follows the longitudinal boundaries, which is admittedly not all that often.] or the gent was rendered unconscious, possibly drugged, for the duration, which seems unlikely, at least for a single dose, and administering repeated doses would probably have offered the opportunity for escape. Possibly, it did and London, or even the U.K., isn't the final destination.)

Clothing tags from Malaysia will very likely suggest the Malay peninsula, and Pakistan and Bangladesh might suggest India to someone with service in the area, but the care symbols being uniform on all the different garments is puzzling, as is the use of metric sizes on the garments.

The ballpoint pen is going to be one of the surest signs that the gent isn't from around here temporally. Nobody makes disposable pens in 1914 and , if the pen isn't disposable, nobody makes retractable pens in 1914, either. All of which is beside the point because ballpoint pens leak! (Sometimes the problem is that they clog, but by 1960, the usual problem was leakage, and modern [post-1970] ballpoint pens don't leak significantly enough to say so.) There's also the fact that the ink in modern ballpoint pens is indelible, which would have been a specialty ink for a fountain pen in 1914. [By specialty, you could almost certainly buy indelible ink for it, but you wouldn't automatically assume that was what you were dealing with.)

Almost certainly, the shirt collar will be interesting as it is attached to the shirt, but the gent obviously isn't a child. Detached collars were preferred up until about the 1930s.

In brief, assuming the watch time indicates probable place of origin, the gent speaks, English, Spanish or Russian (not necessarily a pure form) and may speak one or more languages from the subcontinent. [He might be a Slavic immigrant to Canada who has been recruited/planted by Russia but that's really stretching things.] Peculiarly, he doesn't seem to have any indicator of religion, no turban/purgee, no cross/crucifix, no pocket Bible/Book of Common Prayer, nothing. Possibly the man is an anarchist. If he isn't from the future he's very well-funded, either privately or by an organization.

One thing that is certain is that if he is American/Canadian and speaks for any length of time, his accent will give him away as not being from the "educated" class of either country [said accents having vanished about the 1960s]. In that case, if the content of his speech indicates a member of the "educated" class, he'll be pegged as being from a different time.

Two other points. He's certainly equipped as someone "looking for trouble" and the possession of lockpicks without obviously being a locksmith on a job is going to be enough for the Chief Inspector to hold him for a while, "to help the police with their inquiry", if nothing else. Absent a passport, this is a gent who can easily be disappeared and, if someone does inquire about him, answers may be forthcoming.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DAT

Yes, another vote for becoming a guest of MI-5.

Keep in mind that what would come to be known as MI5 was founded in 1909, separated from the SIS in 1910 and had a total staff of less than fifty people in 1914. It's entirely valid to assume that many senior policemen hadn't even heard of it and would consider them bumbling amateurs even if they had.

By the time the Metropolitan Police realises the true significance of the advanced gear, a man from Vernon Kell's new office would probably arrive to discreetly take a look at the stranger. But the initial investigation would almost certainly have involved Special Branch specialists from the Met as the lead rather than a new and small service that only grew to importance during the war years.

[tanksoldier]

He may not have heard of MI-5 but he will know about Special Branch, and SB will know about MI-5.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

He may not have heard of MI-5 but he will know about Special Branch, and SB will know about MI-5.

Indeed. Melville, the former head of the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch, was at the time running an independent office under Kell and he or one of his men would of necessity handle any actual investigation which the new organisation might do, as it's doubtful anyone else connected to the fledgling MI5 had the faintest idea what investigative work would entail.

The point is, however, that Special Branch was at this time a veteran, well-conected and powerful institution, a part of the massive Metropolitan Police. What would become MI5 was a fairly small, unimportant and inexperienced office whose only claim to expertise was through a tiny number of former SB personnel.

From our, future, perspective, what would become MI5 might seem significant. From the perspective of a Scotland Yard man who has a generation of institutional memory of Special Branch as the experts concerned with this sort of thing, it's unlikely he'll consider the future MI5 as anything other than Army dilettantes trying to horn in on police duties.

[tanksoldier]

it's unlikely he'll consider the future MI5 as anything other than Army dilettantes trying to horn in on police duties.

Possibly true but a distinction without a difference. The Chief Inspector is going to want to get this off his own plate.

Military intelligence isn’t really a civilian police function. The focus of the respective agencies, counterintelligence for MI-5 and foreign intelligence for MI-6, grew out of the intelligence demands of their parent services... Army and Navy respectively. Both services had been conducting intelligence and counter intelligence operations for hundreds of years before the launch of their joint venture.

Regardless, Mr. Unconcious Man is going to end up in the hands of serious people asking serious questions before he wakes up. What they call themselves won’t really matter to him....

...and it’s likely there are levels and personnel we still don’t know about today. In fact if time travel is actually what happened here Mr Unconcious Man may not be the first British officers and agents have encountered. It may not be something widely known, but somebody in Special Branch would know who to contact.

[Dalillama]

The labels on the clothing and body armor I hadn't considered. The made in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan would add some confusion.

Particularly the latter two, since there are no such places.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Clothing tags from Malaysia will very likely suggest the Malay peninsula, and Pakistan and Bangladesh might suggest India to someone with service in the area, .

Of course Pakistan and Bangladesh don't exist in 1914 and Malaysia, whilst recognisable as a name was more of a geographical term, which may add a further wrinkle.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Of course Pakistan and Bangladesh don't exist in 1914 and Malaysia, whilst recognisable as a name was more of a geographical term, which may add a further wrinkle.

Agreed that they didn't exist as countries in 1914, but Bangladesh does originate in the Bengali language and means "land of the Bengali", so someone with service in Bengal may well make an association with then-India (which included Pakistan, Bangladesh and, I think, Burma/Myanmar). Pakistan may be more unlikely as it's etymology is mixed Persian (-stan, meaning "place of") and Urdu (pak, meaning "pure") [literally, place (or land) of the pure"] but, as Urdu is a major group of languages in India, I wouldn't rule the possibility out. In fairness, I did say service in India would probably be necessary to make the connection, refining exactly where in India it was necessary to have served to make the connection doesn't completely invalidate the observation.