-Chapter 1-
Danny stared down at his empty hands, his eyes stinging and his throat tightening as he fought against panic. Leaning forward on his knees, he reached out to steady himself on the dusty ground and forced himself to breathe.
His head began to clear after a moment, and he slowly rose to his feet. The sun was hot on the back of his neck and he moved instinctively for the shade of a nearby tree, shrugging off his backpack and fishing out his water bottle as he sat down on a boulder. He stared blankly at the spot where the anomaly had disappeared, his panic slowly fading to lethargy. Well, he thought, at least I don't have to worry about Helen anymore.
"Helen," he said aloud, a hopeful thought suddenly occurring to him.
Helen had an anomaly opening device.
Dropping his pack in the excitement, Danny hurried over the prehistoric terrain to where Helen lay dead at the bottom of a cliff.
He skidded to his knees in front of her body and began searching her pockets for the device. Panic started to seep back in as he searched and re-searched her clothes, turning her over to survey the ground underneath and hunting the surrounding area.
It wasn't there.
"NO!" Danny yelled. It had to be there. He'd seen her with it, he knew she had it! She must have dropped it somewhere. Danny began retracing his steps back up the cliff she had fallen from and through the rocky gorge to where the anomaly was. He traveled slowly, searching the sparse underbrush on either side of his path.
When he reached the site of the anomaly he began to give up, realizing she must have dropped the device on the other side. He searched the area anyway, then branched off in a few other directions in case she had taken a different to route to the place he'd found her. After some minutes of rechecking the anomaly site again, he sat down by his pack and pulled out a couple of energy bars as the sun began to set.
Surveying his surroundings, he noticed an outcropping on a cliff nearby that would provide a decent amount of shelter without blocking his view of the anomaly in case it reopened. Once he finished his scanty meal, he slung the backpack over one shoulder and headed off toward a restless night's sleep on a pile of rocks millions of years from home.
o0o
Abby shifted against the branch she was leaning on, grunting as a sharp piece of bark dug into her side. Connor grunted in reply across from her and rolled over, nearly rolling right out of the tree.
"Connor!" Abby gasped as she saw him out of the corner of her eye.
He jerked upright and away from the edge of the branch. "What, what is it?" He said groggily, looking around for the source of his awakening through squinted eyes.
"I thought you were gonna fall."
"Oh."
Connor yawned and moved to lie back down. Abby sat up and stretched her sore muscles.
"We might as well get up, Connor, it's starting to get light out."
"Mm hmm," he mumbled, half asleep.
"C'mon, we have to look for Danny!"
"I'm up, I'm up!" He protested as she reached over to shake him by the shoulder.
They checked the ground beneath them for Cretaceous predators, and gingerly lowered their aching bodies down the slim trunk of the pine tree.
Connor reached the bottom first, landing a little too hard on both feet. He let out a sharp "Ow!" as he drew up his injured leg.
"That ankle still hurting you?" Abby asked as she jumped the last few feet to the ground.
Connor nodded and picked up the walking stick he'd left at the base of the tree, leaning heavily onto it.
"Can you still walk?"
"I think so," he grunted, a pained grimace on his face.
Abby surveyed the area around them. "Danny and Helen went that way," she said, and took off in the direction she was pointing, shouldering her backpack.
"Abby," Connor moaned after her, "Do ya think we could have something to eat first?"
Abby sighed and turned back. "On the go, then, yeah? If Danny hasn't come back through yet he might be in trouble."
She dug some food out of her backpack and tossed a packet to Connor, who struggled to catch and open it while keeping his grip on the walking stick.
When he finally got it open, Abby was already eating hers and marching toward where their friend had disappeared while chasing Helen the night before.
It was easy enough to follow Danny and Helen's footprints on the pine needle-strewn ground, and they hadn't walked far when they came upon a small clearing. The footprints ended abruptly in the center, and an anomaly opening device was lying nearby, half hidden by a fallen log.
"That must be Helen's," Abby said, picking up the device and handing it to Connor. "Guess she dropped it on her way through here."
Connor examined the gadget closely. "I think it still works." He looked up to meet Abby's eyes and she nodded slightly.
They turned to face the spot where the footprints ended, and Connor activated the device.
o0o
Becker looked at Sarah questioningly. "What idea?" he asked.
Without another word, she turned and headed out of the garage. Becker motioned at his men to keep an eye on the anomaly and turned to follow her.
She climbed into the truck they had come in and waited for Becker to get in through the passenger side. He didn't ask again for her to explain herself, just buckled up and arranged his rifle safely in his lap.
Sarah drove them back to tZhe Arc and headed straight for Lester's office. She walked in without knocking, but waited for him to hang up his phone before speaking. Becker followed silently behind her.
"Yes, Miss Page?" Lester asked with an exasperated expression, "What is so devastatingly important that you felt the need to burst into my office unannounced?"
"Connor, Abby, and Danny still haven't come back through the Future anomaly."
"So I've noticed. You couldn't tell me this over the phone?"
"Listen, I think I know how to help get them back. You speak to the Minister regularly, yeah?"
Lester massaged the bridge of his nose. "I don't think I like where this is going."
"Call him up, and request full armed forces to go through the anomaly and secure the area. If the others are still wandering around the Future after Helen, they're going to need protection from the Predators. They could be waiting just on the other side of the anomaly, but can't reach it without backup. The Arc doesn't have the munitions to launch a rescue mission, but with the full force of Britain's military, they could stand a chance."
"Are you out of your mind?" Lester stared at her incredulously. "You honestly want me to 'call up' my superior and ask him to sanction this little scheme of yours in which the entire British military is sent through an anomaly after your coworkers, who are currently chasing a veritable madwoman through time?"
"Exactly."
Lester glanced at Becker, who shrugged noncommittally.
"Right, then, the plan is foolproof; what could possibly go wrong?"
Sarah rolled her eyes at Lester's sarcasm. "Helen has to be stopped. She took the artifact. She took Christine Johnson and had her killed by a Predator. She murdered Cutter in this very building! She's been sabotaging the Arc's operations for years, and now our top three team members are out there on their own trying to stop her and you don't think it's worth troubling the Minister? Don't you think he'd be the slightest bit interested in putting a stop to Helen Cutter's interference once and for all?"
Lester glared at Sarah, biting back another snide remark. Finally, he grabbed the phone from its cradle and barked into the receiver.
"Get me the Minister."