Evolution

James Lester is cool under pressure, detached, analytical with a Masters degree, with honours, in the sarcastic riposte. He can dissect a problem as accurately as a surgeon or, rarely and only in extreme circumstances, obliterate the entire situation and wipe it from the map. He is the man the Government turns to get the nasty jobs done, usually diplomatically, but not always. Professionally he cares for nothing and no-one. He is isolated and alone.

At least that's what he keeps telling himself.

Two years ago this was true. Two years ago he was ice. He couldn't have been more detached from his colleagues if he was on another planet. James Lester was feared and he liked it. A lot had changed in two years.

One day a rag tag bunch of civilians and a very junior civil servant who didn't even have enough clearance to make his coffee wandered into his life – and a dinosaur defecated on him.

The civilians, especially the Professor, were annoying and self-righteous. Nothing he couldn't handle. But they kept coming back, presenting him with problems, but then, somehow, solving them. This made his life easier and maintained his position with the Minister. A few more months of wins like these and he could write his own ticket to any position in the Civil Service. A knighthood began to appear a strong possibility. A few more wins and he could forget dinosaurs and anomalies and that very annoying student with the skateboard.

Diplomatic positions in some of the more prestigious consulates were offered to him, but he turned them down. Just a little more needed to be done to ensure that the anomaly project was ready to be handed over. He couldn't leave it in a mess with the next man in cursing his name and ruining his reputation.

The Professor became a little unhinged after going through an anomaly with that annoying ex-wife of his. Unfortunately the loss of the unit of soldiers and the head of security, Captain Ryan, obviously affected him badly. He kept going on about someone called Claudia Brown. James chalked it up to the neurotic temperament of scientists. The annoying student, Temple, seemed to be able to keep the Professor in check and prevent further unsettling emotional displays.

The new PR consultant, Jennifer Lewis, seemed to upset the Professor for a moment, but Temple defused the situation. Temple had his uses.

A mammoth on the M25. No problem for James Lester and the team. His reputation with the Minister was strengthened even more. James knew he could walk away any time he wanted, but there was always just a little more to be done. The glasses of whisky he drank with the Professor in his office at the end of a long day meant nothing, just two professional men setting the world to rights and discussing minor staffing matters.

Then his obsequious flunky tried to murder him with a future predator. The annoying upstart! At least he was disposed of although they unfortunately lost the civilian Hart, the Professor's right hand man. A good man. It was a blow, but James had lost people before – collateral damage. It meant nothing. The need to have an extra glass of whisky that night, and to have difficulty sleeping were just side effects of a strenuous day.

The new civilian Doctor of Archaeology working on mapping creature sightings through history seemed a practical woman, and the Professor thought she could move the project along. The new Head of Security had an excellent military record and having the SAS back in charge of security made the ARC seem more secure, instead of having civilians running around armed and unsupervised causing mayhem. Captain Becker was a man he could rely on, cold and efficient as himself, although he would have to curtail Becker's tendency to sarcasm.

This annoying ex-policeman who kept climbing through the ventilation shafts and popping up at anomaly sites would need some fairly strong handling, but all in all everything seemed back on track.

Then that damned woman reappeared, with clones. Clones for God sake! Contingency plans for alien invasion were par for the course, but invasion by a psychotic bitch and a clone of your chief scientist was a little outside of the box. That night, as the PR team put together a cover story for Professor Cutter's death and the partial destruction of the ARC (gas leak leading to an explosion), James finished the remaining third of his best single malt whisky in salute to the man he had come to call a friend. James Lester didn't have friends – when did this happen?

Jenny Lewis left next. Being frozen to death after being attacked by a giant mushroom can do that. The annoying policeman was the obvious choice to take over the team. He was enthusiastic, the civilians seemed to like him, as did Captain Becker which was unexpected. James told himself it was a strategic move making the best of available resources in order to prevent Christine Johnson from gaining an unacceptable advantage.

Offering Temple a temporary home was the sensible thing to do for the continued efficient running of the team. If the Maitland girl was stupid enough to throw him out (when it was glaringly obvious that she wanted him badly – since when did the romantic entanglements of his subordinates interest him?) from a good management and health and safety point of view, Temple's sleeping in the locker room with those prehistoric pets of his was not an option. So Temple was a slob and those bloody pets destroyed everything in their path, but it was the most secure option. Putting him up in a B&B just wasn't going to work and James was well aware how almost all of Temple's salary went to look after his mother in her care home in Blackburn.

When he lost the ARC to Christine Johnson he felt desolate. He told her it wasn't over, but he knew that it probably was. His happy little band of civilian scientists had hidden themselves in a remote site not used since World War 2, so they should be secure with the Artefact. Unfortunately Captain Becker was true to type and obeyed orders like a good little soldier boy. Except Captain Becker saved the day. He saved the team, dealt Christine Johnson a major blow, not fatal but damaging, and he rescued James's career. James had a lot to thank Captain Becker for. He did struggle to suppress a smirk when Danny Quinn made the same "soldier boy" crack incurring Becker's ire.

And then the world fell apart. The psychotic bitch came back, stole the Artefact and bragged how she was going to destroy humanity before it had begun. Not something the Minister, or worse, the PM would appreciate. Christine Johnson was dragged through an anomaly, presumably to her death, by a future predator, and Quinn, Temple and Maitland were lost in time. They must have succeeded in stopping Helen Cutter because humanity was still here, but at what cost?

They were not in the future world, and all attempts to locate the ancient era where Helen must have been heading failed. Despite attaching generators to the future ARC equipment, with the Artefact smashed on the floor, it was impossible to identify their destination. And even if they could, how would they get there?

Three trips to the future ARC enabled the installation of the necessary equipment to provide power, but the loss of life to the future predators and other carnivores was substantial. Captain Becker was determined to get the team back, but it was obvious that he had taken the loss of the core team hard, and now the loss of his men was beginning to wear him down. One final mission to the future ARC with Dr Page was arranged. She was probably the only person who might be able to decipher the equipment and get a location and was as determined as Becker to get Quinn, Maitland and Temple back.

The mission was a disaster. The future predators had learned from experience where the team were heading and they merely waited in the shadows before picking them off one by one. Captain Becker reported that he managed to get Dr Page back to the derelict cars near the anomaly, but a surprise attack meant he lost sight of her briefly. He had heard her scream his name. He was crying when he staggered back through the anomaly battered and torn bearing the remains of the Dr such as they were. Her coffin was virtually empty, although her family were never told that.

James Lester had sat in his office, whisky in one hand and Captain Becker's resignation letter in the other. He had recommended that the MOD accept the resignation of Becker's commission at the time. An honourable discharge with full benefits seemed the best option. The man had lost the entire team and many of his best men. He was on the verge of breaking. Even the most strong willed and well trained soldier had a breaking point and Becker had nearly reached his.

For that matter, cold, aloof, measured James Lester wasn't much better. When the Minister had queried his actions, Lester had screamed at him and hurled a chair across the room. When did James Lester become so passionate? Everyone knew James Lester never lost control even in the most pressured of circumstances. Why did the loss of his people hurt so much? When did they become his people and why could he empathise with Becker's pain?

The ARC was suspended and a caretaker team was moved in until such time as its future could be decided. James was given a sabbatical on full pay. He stayed in his country home and tried to reconnect with his wife and children. They didn't understand why their father, usually so distant, kissed them and hugged them tightly every night, or was often found in the garden with tears streaming down his cheeks. Unknown to James, Phillip Burton began to make his move.

Then, two weeks ago a stegosaurus appeared in the House of Commons in the middle Prime Minister's Question Time, on live television.

The PM called the Minister and the Minister called James Lester. James could pick his own team. This was a matter of national security. Whatever he wanted was at his disposal. Phillip Burton had agreed to plough billions of his personal fortune into the ARC in exchange for full access to its research and discoveries, for use for the "greater good". A new building had already been fitted out and the animals moved, at Lester's insistence, to a new menagerie. Burton would have preferred they were dissected for scientific study and personal profit, but had conceded the point for political expediency.

James Lester knew that, apart from the soldiers and the Kevlar vests and the guns and the technology, what he really needed was the one man who knew his pain. James Lester wanted Captain Becker back.

So here they stand, side by side in the menagerie. Each holds a glass of the finest single malt whisky from Lester's personal reserve. They are leaning on the railing looking at the mammoth. James waves his glass in its general direction "He saved my life from a future predator once. I couldn't repay him with dissection or being prodded and poked by Burton's mad scientists."

A few silent sips of whisky later Becker pondered "What are we going to do with their stuff? I know you've kept on Danny and Abby's flats, but you can't maintain them indefinitely."

"I'll arrange for their personal possessions to be packed and put into storage. The ARC lockers have already been moved here to the new ARC. Everything else will be liquidated and I'll have their financial affairs put into trust for when they return. Rex is already here in the menagerie, and I have Sid and Nancy at my flat. Don't look at me like that! Temple was staying with me before he left, so I'll have his clutter washed, fumigated and packed up too. Of course, I'll make arrangements for the continued care of his mother. I think it will be acceptable to store his possessions with Maitland's."

"Yeah, he'd like that. What about Sid and Nancy? The menagerie?"

"No, my children have been pestering me for pets. They'll enjoy the country and their incessant chewing will annoy the hell out of my wife." James allowed himself a little smirk at the thought.

A chirping from the rafters alerted them to Rex's approach. He landed on the rail near Becker, chirped and tipped his head to one side, flicking his tongue in Becker's direction. Becker tickled the lizard's chin and a faint smile touched his lips. "I'm glad you think they're still alive. It's the only way I've held it together. To believe that one day, somehow, they will make it back. It makes the people we've lost feel almost bearable. "

"I agree. You know, this job changes you. When I started I was a cold, arrogant bastard and I relished my reputation as a Government hatchet man. Now, all I want is for an anomaly to open and those three annoying idiots to stumble through full of wonderful tales of adventure and daring do. Oh, and hopefully the long, slow, and intensely painful and permanent demise of Helen bloody Cutter."

Becker raised his glass "I'll drink to that…..Sir."

END