Fight for Survival Page 5

  ‘I’m not really in the mood for horror tonight,’ she continued, running a perfectly manicured finger along the top of the rack. ‘I feel like something a bit more…’

  ‘Romantic?’ Connor said, pre-empting the remainder of her sentence.

  ‘Fantasy,’ the girl corrected, smiling wistfully. ‘Sci-fi. Something like that. You couldn’t recommend anything, could you?’

  Connor was unable to hide a stupid grin from spreading across his face. Could he recommend a film to the most gorgeous woman in the world? Could he ever! Abby momentarily forgotten, he scuttled around to Sci-fi.

  Cutter was at the ARC, trying to explain to Lester and Leek the discovery he and Connor had made at the department store. They were in Lester’s glass-walled office, overlooking the operations centre. As always, Lester was less than enthusiastic.

  ‘It’s like tracking down a pirate radio station,’ Cutter explained. ‘All we need is access to the AMS network and a map and we can triangulate the interference to within 30 metres or so. We can also design a hand-held anomaly detector for use over short distances.’

  ‘So we’ll be able to spot the anomalies as soon as they open?’ Leek frowned.

  ‘That’s the idea,’ Cutter nodded.

  ‘Will it be expensive?’ Lester scowled. He didn’t understand anything about AMS networks and odd-shaped interference hoosy-whatsits. This was just another hare-brained Nick Cutter idea to add to the list, as far as he was concerned.

  ‘Only if we do it properly,’ Cutter shot back.

  ‘I think this is something we should consider, sir,’ Leek cut in suddenly. ‘It would be our most significant breakthrough to date.’

  Lester looked at his younger charge, intrigued. There was something about the way he suggested the discovery would be attributed to ARC and not this raving Scotsman that he liked. A lot.

  ‘Fine,’ Lester finally huffed. ‘Tell Leek what you need and he’ll see to it.’

  ‘I want Connor to supervise the work,’ Cutter added cautiously, suspecting they were up to something.

  ‘All right!’ groaned Lester, wanting to get the professor off his back. ‘But he reports to Leek.’ The government man expected Cutter to reply but the palaeontologist seemed to be lost in thought, looking out of the glass window into the main office. Lester followed his line of sight to see Jenny typing a report at the main desk. He rolled his eyes. Cutter was really so predictable these days.

  Knowing how much it would annoy the professor, Lester closed the meeting and headed over to chat to the pretty PR recruit.

  Cutter watched them flirting with annoyance. Lester was married – a fact the government man often seemed to forget. But as Cutter walked over to try and talk to them, Leek came running into the office, waving something in his hand.

  ‘Reports coming in from the city,’ he said breathlessly. ‘Looks like a new anomaly!’

  Lester ran an eye over the words in front of him, scowling.

  ‘It’s a fire,’ he said, annoyed his lively repertoire with Jenny had been interrupted. ‘Nothing to do with us.’

  ‘We’ve intercepted mobile calls from inside the building,’ Leek replied. ‘There’s a lot of chatter about foul-smelling gas and a possible creature sighting.’

  ‘C-creature?’ Jenny stuttered, her voice rising. She was still convinced the whole dinosaur thing had been a joke. She quickly scanned the ceiling for a camera, wondering if she was being set up for a TV comedy show.

  Flicking her hair over her shoulders, Jenny fixed the three men with a gorgeous smile. She’d have to play along with them for now. It wouldn’t look good on national telly if she came across as a killjoy.

  Across the river, Abby was having some fun with a creature of her own. Her pet dinosaur, Rex, was skipping excitedly around the dinner table of her flat, his bright green crest rising and falling as he fluttered his long, transparent wings. Abby was feeding him mashed-up chicken guts, and this was his favourite part of the day.

  They both looked up as the front door of the apartment flew open. Abby frowned as Connor stumbled in, followed by an elegantly dressed woman. In high heels and with her back straight as a pin, there was something about her that Abby disliked immediately.

  ‘Abby, this is Caroline,’ Connor babbled, looking like an excited schoolboy.

  ‘Hi,’ said Abby, open-mouthed. She’d only left Connor at the video store half an hour ago. And he’d managed to meet a girl?

  ‘Nice place,’ Caroline said in return, casting a critical eye over the lizard tanks and cactus plants dotted around the room. She let out a frightened squeal when she spotted the bright green Coelurosauravus staring solemnly at her from the table. Rex chirped at her.

  ‘What is that thing?’ Caroline said hysterically, levelling a long, pointy finger at the little dinosaur.

  ‘That thing is a lizard,’ Abby replied curtly, disliking the woman more by the minute.

  ‘It’s just Rex,’ smiled Connor, desperate to please. ‘He’s harmless. Touch him. Go on.’

  Caroline cringed as she put a manicured finger out to stroke Rex on the head. But before she could, the tiny creature flicked out his long, brown tongue and hissed at her. Caroline jumped and backed away, startled.

  ‘Sorry,’ laughed Connor nervously. Rex had never done that before, to anyone. ‘Bad Rex! Bad lizard!’

  ‘He’s just doing what his instinct dictates,’ said Abby defensively. She picked up the dinosaur and popped him back in the tank that doubled as his home.

  Caroline pulled a face as Rex licked Abby’s hand.

  ‘I invited Caroline round to watch a DVD,’ said Connor, trying to change the subject and pulling out a film with robots on the cover. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘Umm… no problem,’ Abby lied, a bit put out. There was something strange about this woman. Abby couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  ‘Connor and I were having such a good time,’ Caroline added, flashing Abby a big smile. ‘He’s so funny, isn’t he?’

  ‘Oh, hilarious,’ said Abby sarcastically. ‘I’m going to put on some tea.’

  ‘Earl Grey for me!’ Caroline called out after Abby as she headed towards the kitchen. ‘No sugar!’

  Unfortunately for Caroline, she never got her tea. Minutes later, Abby and Connor had received news of a new anomaly and were driving furiously towards the ARC on the outskirts of London. Cutter instructed them to pick up some weaponry and come to the location of the new anomaly immediately. Connor was delighted. Caroline had been a bit put out that they’d been called to work, but at least she’d scribbled her phone number on his hand. Result!

  Abby, on the other hand, was fuming. She revved the engine on her Mini Cooper until Connor’s knuckles turned white as he clutched his seat. As far as she was concerned, the girl Connor had met in the video store was horrible! And there was something about the way Caroline looked at Rex that really irked her too. She fervently hoped Connor wouldn’t ask her round again.

  Abby’s irritation continued once they’d arrived at the ARC and began picking through the equipment storeroom.

  ‘None of this stuff is any use,’ Connor grumbled.

  ‘This is the very latest in high-tech weaponry,’ Leek huffed. He had no idea what any of it was for, but it had certainly been very expensive. ‘We’ve got equipment here that would make James Bond cry with envy.’

  ‘So what?’ Connor scowled, picking up a pair of handcuffs. The reports had said there was a possible creature sighting and a noxious gas creeping through the building. What was Leek expecting them to do, lock the gas to a fax machine?

  Reading his thoughts, Abby suddenly had a bright idea.

  ‘The garden centre!’ she said excitedly. If they could get leaf blowers, they’d be able to lift the smog in a second!

  The two of them ran out of the storeroom and headed for the lift. All around them, ARC personnel hurried around the operations centre, preparing reports and keeping an eye on the massive electronic map dominating the lower floor.

  But as they sprinted out into the car park, Connor stopped dead in his tracks.

  ‘Hey!’ he shouted, calling after a man in an SAS uniform and hat who had just walked past them. The tense soldier turned round. His cap was pulled down low over his eyes as Connor studied him curiously. ‘We’ve met, haven’t we?’

  ‘I work here,’ the man replied gruffly, pulling his cap down further and shrugging his shoulders. ‘You’ve probably seen me around.’

  Connor took a step forward, trying to get a better look. The man backed away, keeping his head lowered and folding up the collar of his jacket. Connor could see ugly, red scars on his neck and jaw. It looked like he’d just gone ten rounds with an angry Raptor or something.

  ‘We haven’t got time for this,’ Abby said firmly, smiling at the man apologetically and dragging Connor towards the Mini. The soldier walked away briskly, visibly relieved. As they reached the car, Connor stopped, his eyes wide with surprise.

  ‘The scars!’ he whispered urgently, pointing back to where the soldier had been standing moments before. ‘He was in the mall. The cleaner. That was him!’ Abby stared at him blankly as Connor continued. ‘He disappeared after the Raptor attack. You must remember him.’

  ‘I never really looked at him,’ Abby replied, getting into the car. ‘And why would one of Lester’s soldiers pretend to be a cleaner in a shopping mall?’

  Abby had a point. Connor shrugged off his concerns and jumped in the car. Soon, they were too wrapped up in flipping through the A-Z to find the nearest garden centre to notice the soldier watching them from a distance.

  That was close. First day back on the job after the dinosaur attack and his cover had nearly been blown. He’d have to be more careful next time.

&nb
sp; Stephen hurried up the paved walkway towards the multi-storey office block near Tottenham Court Road. Cutter and Jenny were both talking to a fire chief. He’d given the all-clear – there wasn’t a fire in the building after all and Jenny had just told him to withdraw the rest of his fighters. But there seemed to be some sort of fog inside the block. And they didn’t know where it was coming from.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Stephen, as the fire chief left. The younger man was out of breath and looked flustered. ‘Got here as soon as I could.’

  But Cutter could sense that something was wrong. ‘Everything OK?’ he asked.

  Stephen had to think quickly as he weighed up whether or not to tell the truth. This morning, he’d found Helen, bruised and bleeding, slumped on the steps to his apartment block. He’d brought her inside and helped clean her up. She was still at his place now, recovering from her injuries. But as he’d left the flat, Stephen had told Helen he wanted her gone by the time he got home.

  As far as Stephen was concerned, the professor still wasn’t back to his normal self. His mind would probably start imagining all sorts of things if he told him what had just happened. He had to make a decision.

  ‘Fine,’ the lab technician bluffed. ‘Everything’s fine.’

  Thinking nothing more of it, Cutter shrugged and the two men headed into the front entrance of the building, leaving Jenny outside. It wasn’t until they trekked up many flights of stairs that Stephen realized they were doing it the hard way.

  ‘If it’s not a fire the lifts will be safe,’ he pointed out, panting as he leant against the railing. Cutter nodded. But as they turned to the fire exit ahead, thin trails of mist wafted out from underneath the door. Cutter braced himself as he cautiously opened it.

  ‘What’s that?’ Stephen shouted, as a dense yellow fog engulfed the stairwell. It definitely wasn’t smoke, but the smell was disgusting. ‘It’s like something’s rotting!’

  ‘My guess is it’s an ancient version of the Earth’s atmosphere,’ Cutter yelled, almost unable to see through the thick cloud. ‘Probably Pre-Cambrian, high in sulphur and carbon dioxide.’

  Coughing, the two of them made their way into the office.

  It wasn’t long before Cutter was proved right. An anomaly had opened in the server room on the fifteenth floor, letting through several gargantuan, Pre-Cambrian worms. The carnivorous creatures were thousands of millions of years old, and they were far from friendly. In fact, the worms were over two metres long. And with powerful pink suckers in the place of teeth, they were easily able to attack and kill a grown man.

  Once Abby and Connor arrived with the leaf blowers, the slimy monsters didn’t stand a chance. The faceless creatures needed the ancient yellow fog to breathe and the air in the present Earth’s atmosphere was like poison to them. They were unable to survive once the haze was blasted away.

  It was all over in a matter of hours. But the team were all mentally and physically exhausted – and with the added stress of Helen’s games, Stephen felt particularly fed up. After fighting Raptors and huge worms, he’d really had enough. How long could they keep on doing this?

  ‘Do you ever wonder if we’re doing the right thing here?’ Stephen asked his boss, as they’d caught their breath after a run-in with one of the blood-thirsty invertebrates. ‘Maybe the anomalies have a purpose. Maybe we should stop fighting and face it.’

  ‘You mean stand by and do nothing?’ Cutter was astounded by Stephen’s question. It wasn’t like Stephen to give up.

  ‘People should know what’s happening,’ Stephen said, clearly torn. After all this time, he didn’t like to think that the team might be doing things the wrong way. ‘They need to prepare for what comes next.’

  ‘How do you prepare for a world where evolution has gone mad?’ Cutter pointed out. ‘We have to keep fighting to preserve some kind of natural order.’

  As Cutter drove home from the wrap-up at the ARC that evening, he reflected on the conversation with his lab technician. Stephen’s behaviour had been a little strange today, especially when he’d arrived at the office block this morning. But maybe it was just the stress of having a new member on the team that was getting to him. He’d come round.

  Once again, the professor found himself thinking about the pretty PR representative. Today he’d seen that Jenny could be just as determined about things as Claudia.

  Late in the afternoon, at the height of the office block invasion, Jenny had got in on the action. Just like the old Claudia, she demanded to know what was going on and against Cutter’s advice, entered the building. Striding out of the lift on the twelfth floor, she’d expected a light mist, but instead ended up helping Cutter kill one of the giant worms!

  The professor chuckled as he remembered Jenny’s reaction. The horrified look on her face had been priceless – she’d never killed anything, let alone a creature like that, in her life. But at least she finally believed the dinosaur part of her job description!

  Afterwards, Cutter had been impressed with how well Jenny had handled the fire chief and some office workers who’d seen the giant worm as they escaped the building. She’d convinced them to keep the story out of the press. Claudia couldn’t have done it better.

  Now, as he drove home, Cutter decided to pay Jenny a visit. He wanted to congratulate her on successfully finishing her first assignment. Driving up an unfamiliar street, Cutter got out of his car as he reached a neat block of flats. It was ARC protocol that all members of the team should have contact details for each other, so Jenny’s apartment wasn’t so hard to find.

  But as Jenny answered the door, Cutter couldn’t hide his amazement. She looked so much like his Claudia, standing in the doorway, that everything he’d planned to say went right out of the window.

  ‘Suppose there was another world once,’ he blurted out before he could stop himself. ‘A world where you were another person; suppose there was an accident in the past and that whole world evolved differently. People who once lived were never born, and other people grew up with different lives. What if all that was possible?’

  Cutter paused, realizing he’d hardly stopped for breath. He knew it all sounded crazy, but if he could just get her to believe him…

  ‘Who is it, Jen?’ a voice said, coming down the hallway.

  Cutter’s heart sank as a good-looking man came to the door and wrapped his arms protectively round Jenny.

  ‘You’re busy,’ Cutter apologized and turned to leave. He didn’t need to hear the reply.

  Jenny closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a deep breath. She’d caught Cutter staring at her across the office a couple of times, but coming to her flat? It was just a bit too weird. Still, he was vital to the anomaly operation and she didn’t want to be responsible for him being thrown off the team. He was obviously troubled. She didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or not.

  Confused, Jenny told her boyfriend it was just someone from work, as Cutter slowly walked back down the steps. Behind him, the door clicked shut.

  Lost in thought, Cutter headed back to his car. He didn’t notice that Helen was in a vehicle on the opposite side of the street, watching him as he drove away.

  Helen looked through the windscreen blankly. She’d left Stephen’s flat as requested. But that didn’t mean she was ready to go back into the Permian era just yet.

  Abby shouted from the car window as Connor jumped out of the passenger seat.

  ‘We’re going to be late!’

  Connor ignored her as he spotted Caroline sitting outside the pavement cafe. He’d promised to meet for coffee, but Cutter had just scheduled the anomaly detector presentation at the ARC. Connor couldn’t believe his bad luck.

  ‘Look, I’m really sorry,’ he said, tumbling over the guttering and almost landing at Caroline’s expensively shod feet. ‘I can’t stay.’

  ‘That’s a pity,’ Caroline purred, holding her cheek out as Connor leant in to kiss it. ‘Work again?’

  Connor looked desperately over at Abby, waving impatiently from the Mini. Why did Cutter need them now? Why not in a couple of hours’ time? Why, why, why? He turned back to Caroline, grimacing.

  ‘I think you must be the busiest student I’ve ever met,’ Caroline continued, her steely eyes looking at him intently.