Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval, I think it's a fantastic show and I just enjoy playing with the characters.
Thank you so so much everyone that has review this or favorited it. It makes me so happy to know that it's not just floating out there in the internet mist, someone likes it!
Chapter 9
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Not so bright and much too early Wednesday morning both their cell phones went off. James snatched his up of the bedside table with one smooth motion and managed to answer as if he was already awake at four in the morning as he listen to the automated message. Meanwhile in his second bedroom, Christine fumbled for her phone, dropped it on the floor and dragged it back up on the bed by the cord. By which time it had already gone to voice mail.
She was still navigating through the voice mail menu and yawning when James urgently knocked on her door. "Christine? There's an anomaly. We have to go." He called through the door before bolting back to his room before she opened the door and saw him in his boxers. No fear of that. It took her a full minute of blinking and rubbing her eyes before she could even toss the blanket off. She climbed out of bed and started to pull clothes out of her closet while she finally got her phone to play the voice mail. It was an automated message, three simple words. "Sunburst. Report in." Whoever thought it was clever to codename the ARC 'Sunburst' should be shot, in her humble opinion. That wasn't in any way influenced by the fact it was 4:13 in the morning.
Her mood didn't get any better as she walked out into the living room with a hairbrush in her hand hoping that James would still be in his room fussing. He wasn't. James was standing by the front door waiting on her. Damn men for not having to deal with bedhead. He was shifting anxiously from foot to foot as he finished knotting his tie. Now he looked completely impeccable, like he had the normal hour to get ready instead of less than ten minutes. At that moment she hated him. Naturally, he didn't notice. "Ready? We've got to go."
"Yes yes," she replied irritably as she grabbed up her purse. "I'm glad you're driving."
For his own personal health and safety he managed to hide his amusement as he watched her struggle to put her long, thick hair to rights in the passenger seat. The tidy coiffed bun she preferred wasn't going to be possible in a moving vehicle unless she had a can of industrial strength hairspray stashed in her purse. She didn't. Finally she gave up and just pulled it back into a high ponytail before she started to apply makeup. She was actually growling in annoyance as she dug around in her purse for a tube of...something...that was eluding her. He made a mental note to steer clear of her when she was rushed in the mornings.
The night shift tech, Johnathan Reilly, called him with an update about fifteen minutes after the automated system made the call that alerted the key staff that there was an anomaly.
"Sir, it's in the country, about three hours north of here. The night team left in the 'chopper when the ADD went off, Becker's gathering the regular team, he's planning on relieving them with the day shift squad as soon as Abby and Connor get here."
"Right. Good. I'll be there in about thirty." James made the very important call that they had time to go through a drive through for breakfast. He whipped his car up in a McDonalds parking lot and got in the drive through lane, neatly cutting off some hippy in a Prius that was taking too long to pull around. His gut protested and he ignored it. Anything was better than a stale muffin from the vending machine. Now his phone was chirping at him again.
"What do you want?" He asked her while reading a text. She leaned over him to look at the menu and he rolled his eyes. "It's McDonalds Christine, the menu hasn't changed in thirty years! Hurry up and pick something." Connor wanted to take some new piece of equipment with them and experiment.
Great. That couldn't possibly go wrong.
She glared at him as she finally decided on what she wanted. "Unlike you, I don't eat here all the time, I have standards." She sneered back at him. Two 4:30's in one day was never shaping up to be a good day, in her opinion.
He ordered for them both and got her the largest coffee they had. Maybe she'd be in a better mood after caffeine. It worried him that she could be just as grumpy as him sometimes. His grumpiness this early in the morning and her grumpiness this early in the morning was bouncing and feeding off each other. Together they were creating a cloud of grumpiness that could, if not destroy the office, at least reduce some weak person to tears before the sun was up properly. He was looking forward to it.
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The operations floor was all abuzz when they finally arrived. It was like an anthill that had been kicked over. The techs were frantically rushing around loading sensitive equipment on the trucks and Becker was actually bouncing on his toes in his eagerness to get on the road. They only had one chopper so he was driving the three hours to relieve his night shift squad.
Speaking of, they reported in. Johnathan spun around at the ADD and waved Lester over. "They've located the anomaly. It's a field, down in a little hollow out in the middle of nowhere." Johnathan passed over one of the extra earpieces Jess kept at the station and Lester hurriedly switched it on so he could listen in, and if necessary give orders. The words, 'back seat driver' did not occur to him. He was a manager. He managed. Christine reached around them both and snagged herself an earpiece out of the drawer just before Johnathan slid it shut.
'We've got it locked and it's out of sight in this hollow as long as we keep people away. The nearest village is about twenty kilometers away, there's just scattered farms here. We don't see any houses.'
'Did you find the creature?' Becker's voice drifted over the line.
'Negative sir. I'm leaving two men to guard the site while the rest of us spread out in a search pattern. We don't see any tracks or anything.'
One of his men waved him over to a soft bit of dirt on one side of the little depression in the field."What do you make of that?" He gestured to the ground. Captain Haverly blinked a few times before he switched his earpiece to send.
'I take it back. There are tracks. Very odd. I'm sending a photo to you.'
Technology was a wonderful thing. He snapped two pictures with his phone, the second one with his pistol next to the tracks to show the scale and sent them on to Johnathon. The tech forwarded them to the ADD system and brought them up on the big screen.
"What the hell makes tracks like that?" Johnathan wondered aloud.
"Dunno." Becker was deadly serious as his brain went over all the possible horrible monsters that could generate a footprint like that. "It can't be good news."
What they were looking at was an oval shaped, long, narrow imprint that was divided into three separate segments, deeply depressed into the soft dirt. Each segment was longer than the pistol that Captain Haverly had helpfully placed beside it. That would mean the foot of this creature was roughly the size and shape of a baseball bat, just a bit wider.
"Some sort of flying insect?" Christine hazarded a guess based on her experience with the future world. "It hasn't got toes. Maybe that's the creatures whole body and not a footprint."
"I surely hope so." Becker grimaced. "I've had enough of giant bugs to last one lifetime. We're about due for some little ones."
Captain Haverly came back on the line. 'We've found another track, almost three meters away. It must have hopped or jumped. I really hope that isn't it's natural stride. We're following it.'
Becker pressed his earpiece. 'Send the chopper back for us. We can't take the time to drive it.'
'Will do.'
Burton arrived while this was going on. He was being appraised on his own earpiece of the team's lack of progress finding the creature. Good. This was shaping up to be a textbook operation. Silently, he walked up to the ADD and tugged on Christine's arm. She glanced around at him and he pulled her a little ways away from the rest, beyond earshot.
She pulled her arm back. "What?"
"You go with them. I've got another mission for you. My team is already there scouting. You go with them and muddle them as best you can to give my team a chance."
She was confused. "What? Of course the team is there, we were just talking to them."
He actually rolled his eyes at her and glanced around to be sure no one was paying attention to them. "My team Christine. My investors team. They're trying to capture creatures. Ring a bell? It's what you did. Go with them and do what you can to give my team more time. Oh, and the bug in Lester's phone isn't working. See if you can fix it before you go."
Christine didn't have much time to process all this before Burton, with his hand on her elbow again, pulled her back over to the ADD. He started talking just loud enough that the crowd around the ADD could hear him. "I want you to see the team in action. Go with them and see if something jumps out at you-" He smirked at the incredibly dark humor, "to improve efficiency."
Smoothly she removed her arm from his hand, "Right. Any other instructions for me?"
Burton thought deeply for a moment. "Don't get eaten?"
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The chopper had to refuel before it could leave again, giving them almost an hour to bite their nails waiting on it to return and refuel. The biting of the nails was metaphorical. Jess arrived and relieved Johnathan, who despite the excitement went on home. He had been on duty from ten pm yesterday and was eager to get some sleep. Burton disappeared back into his office and after it became apparent that they weren't going to find the creature immediately Lester followed his example.
Christine went off to her own office, still keeping the earpiece turned on just in case. She gave it a few minutes then sent a text to James. 'You blasted man, what the hell did you do with that file you were supposed to give me? It's certainly not in my inbox.'
He was certainly on the ball this morning. 'That's because you were supposed to come get it you wretched woman, and I wouldn't touch your ...inbox... for all the tea in China.' She suppressed a smile. He had even managed to include a crude double entendre in his reply. This new playful side of him was...intriguing. She drew her attention back to her problems right now.
He'd be listening to 'blasted' a.k.a. the bug in the wall socket in Burton's office, awaiting the next move in this game. It wouldn't do to keep him waiting then. She got up and waltzed over there. Burton's secretary wasn't in yet so she just knocked on the door jam and walked in, shutting the door behind her. The very first Mishi agent she had positively identified was oh-so-busy playing spider solitaire on his computer.
"Yes?"
She gave a dour smile, "I see you're hard at work then. I need another bug. I'll just swap the one in Lester's phone for a new one. I don't have time to to fiddle with it."
He smirked. "What on earth makes you think I keep extra illegal listening devices here?" At her baleful stare he relented. "Okay, I do. Just in case, you understand." He put his briefcase on the desk and rummaged around in the liner for a second before pulling out a slender case, smaller than box of dental floss. It was just large enough to hold three little listening devices. He selected the top one and jotted the number down, once for her, once for him. "Here, and here's the number to call to listen to it."
Her hand closed around it as he handed it over, "Thank you."
That was the hard part. She sauntered across the building to James's office and trusted that he would have manufactured some reason to leave before she got there. She was right. His door was wide open and his phone was laying on the desk. Exactly on the middle of his desk. With the back cover off.
'Subtle James,' she thought to herself. It was the work of a moment to slide the new bug in place and oh, look at the time. She had to get to the roof or she'd miss her ride and that meant she'd just have to dispose of the broken bug instead of returning it to Burton. Which would be pretty hard considering that James left it on the floor at that club. Her lack of a broken bug would be hard to explain if he asked for it in the next five minutes.
At that moment Burton had his own problems and the location of the bug that had stopped transmitting wasn't even on his mind. His problem was standing right in front of him and looked like a puppy that just couldn't understand why everyone wasn't pleased he had destroyed the new leather couch. Connor actually thought he would be happy about this? The brash young man had darted in to spill the good news just a moment after Christine left.
Burton did not see it as good news. "Explain that to me again Connor!" He snapped, "If the project is secret...that word means that means we don't talk about it...why the hell did you ASK LESTER if you could try out the device? I'm waiting." He was absolutely furious and was struggling to hold it in.
Connor had been in hot water plenty of times before so he refrained from stuttering off into the 'but, but, but,' game and just skipped to the only part he knew Burton would care about. "He doesn't know." Connor tried desperately to dig himself out of this one, "I just said experiment, I didn't say which one, I work on things for him too..." His voice trailed off.
It wasn't working. "But he's going to ask if it worked, right?" Burton snapped back at him, "He's going to want to know what it was supposed to do at some point right? You write reports on what you work on, he's going to notice!"
"Please, I didn't mean to let it slip, it just happened. I was so looking forward to making sure it worked before I said anything and anyway he'd find out eventually. I mean, I can't test it without him knowing!" At Burton's angry glare he kept digging the hole deeper, "We go to every anomaly, he'd find out."
With much dint of effort Burton got a grip on his temper and reminded himself that reducing Connor to a weepy apologetic puddle, while something he'd been longing to do for quite a while, would not be helpful to the current situation. "Fine. He would find out eventually but I'd prefer it if that eventually didn't happen for another few weeks, okay? Can you keep it a secret for a little while longer?"
Connor was so happy he thought he was out of trouble he'd have agreed to anything. "Sure, yeah, whatever you say. Won't say another word, lips are zipped." He even made the ultra annoying gesture of actually zipping his lips.
Burton graced him with a small smile. "Fine. No harm done." A window popped up on is computer. Abby was in the lab a-fucking-gain. He clicked it shut before Connor could see, although from his position cringing at the door he shouldn't be able to. Sheer irritation at her ruining his plans Monday night had him talking before he had fully thought things out.
As if all was forgiven in an ultra smooth voice he asked, "How was the club?"
The other man was thoroughly confused. "What?"
"Monday night? The Typhoon club? I saw Abby there. She said she was meeting someone." Girlfriends was what she had said but did Connor know that for certain? He wasn't there. Abby would keep her mouth shut about Christine wouldn't she? If she didn't it didn't really matter. Connor was becoming unnecessary at this point, and a loudmouthed liability. Hector might be getting a double fee this weekend.
Connor's scatterbrain finally remembered her telling him about picking up a mate. "Yeah. She didn't say much about it." If she had then he had been too engrossed in his World of Warcraft battle to pay attention enough to remember. What had she said anyway? Connor was wracking his brain trying to remember her exact words.
Burton seemingly ignored Connor's confusion and sailed on with his explanation. "Yeah. Who was that big strapping bloke anyway? She seemed very chummy with him."
"Huh?" Connor looked blankly back at him. Burton pressed on.
"That guy she was meeting? Who was it? He looked like a football player to me."
Now Connor's eyes were bulging out of his head. "What?" He screeched. Now it was coming back to him. "She said she was meeting her old girlfriends from the zoo! One of them had been dumped or something."
"Oh sorry Connor," Now he pretended to notice Connor's agitation, "I didn't see any other girls. Just the one man sitting with her at that table in the corner. It was dark though, maybe she didn't see me." He paused. "He seemed very fit. Like a body builder almost. Sure you don't know him? I can't believe she didn't mention seeing me."
"She didn't mention seeing you." Connor echoed as Burton played on all his nerdy, non-athletic, non-body builder insecurities. "She said she was meeting girls, not a man!"
"Sorry Connor. I would say that there could have been some misunderstanding, but as the engineers say, K.I.S.S." He spread his hands wide and looked like he pitied Connor for a brief instant. It was the 'keep it simple stupid' that sealed the deal. He went from disbelief to shock to anger to betrayed hurt in just a few seconds. He burst out, "I can't believe she's cheating on me. She's been a bit weird lately but I didn't really think about why!"
He thought back to that night. Abby walking out of the room when her phone rang, holding the whole conversation where he couldn't hear. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time! How long had this been going on?
Burton talking shook him out of his stupor. "I'm sorry for you Connor, but you'll have to get past it and fight with her later. If you're distracted while you're trying to track down a creature one of you could die." Connor was just where he wanted him. Furious at Abby and absolutely not going to say a word about why. If he was lucky they'd both be so distracted they'd get eaten and save him the money of having them dealt with.
Connor was taking a few deep breaths as his mind frantically tried to think up some other, any other, explanation for her lying to him and meeting some strange man in a club. Nothing was coming to mind. Matt's voice over the intercom broke in.
'The chopper will be lifting off in five minutes. All personal responding to the anomaly go to the roof.'
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The chopper landed them in the field near the anomaly. Christine waited while the team ranged ahead of her. She wanted to get her bearings. The soldiers led by the intrepid Captain Becker were spreading out in a search pattern as they approached the anomaly site. Connor, Abby and Matt were right in the middle, EMD's raised and ready for action.
She herself only had a pistol she'd rather not have everyone know about. "Matt," she called out and cursed herself for not taking a side trip to the armory before getting on the chopper, "got an extra EMD?"
"Yeah." He replied, eyes scanning the terrain, "we'll get you one once we get to the site. We brought a few extra." That would be what those in boxes that some of the squad were carrying with one hand while the other kept the business end of a weapon scanning around.
She felt a sigh of relief and then they were at the site. Captain Haverly was waiting on them. "We found more tracks, heading southwest. I've got most of my men in pairs searching that way. It's either huge and I don't understand why we can't see it or it's several little creatures that are staying together."
"Show me on the map where you've looked." Becker requested. Christine casually got in close enough that she got a good look at the map they were using. "There's roads here and here where there's a good long way that's visible. I put a man here, here and here to watch for them crossing the roads. If they haven't, or it hasn't, then it has to be in this area here."
'This' area was an enormous expanse of pasture, hedgerows, small stands of trees, a few duck ponds and more overgrown pasture. It was going to take them all day to search it. "Any people?"
"No, fortunately. The nearest residence is two kilometers away and I've already send a man over to tell them about the search and rescue exercise were running in this area."
Becker mused it over, "Search and rescue exercise. Good cover."
Captain Haverly preened. "I thought so." His radio going off interrupted them. "Sir, we found something. It's hard to see...oh shit!-" Screaming and gunfire was the only thing being transmitted. "Daniels? Daniels report!" Haverly barked into the comm. There was silence.
"Johnson here, Daniels is dead. It's one big insect creature, it's tall, four meters, mottled green and brown and sir, it blends. It's better camoflagued than we are. I hit it twice and it just shrugged it off. It's heading Southwest towards sector four."
Haverly spun around to the map again and pointed to the right sector. "They're here." He started calling out directions to his men in the field to have them converge on the area that the late Corporal Daniels and his buddy were searching. Becker saw where that area was and with a wave of his hand, all the reinforcements he brought bolted that direction just behind the optimistic medic that was lugging a stretcher, just in case.
There were only the two guards left on the locked anomaly and herself. Christine looked around the empty campsite and came to a decision. She couldn't be a monkey wrench waiting around here under the suspicious eye of Captain Becker's night shift soldiers. Christine flipped the lid open on a few boxes before she found one that had an EMD in it. She grabbed it and headed alone in the same direction everyone else was running. She ran until she was just out of sight of the base camp before she slowed to a walk and pulled out her phone. She texted James first,
"Blasted jerk, why the hell didn't you warn me I might be in the field?" She couldn't even wait for his reply before she was calling Burton.
He answered on the second ring, "Yes?"
"What do you expect me to do again? I don't know how to get in touch with your team. The creature already killed one soldier." Christine kept a wary eye out for anyone, or anything as she walked along looking for the others.
"What's going on?"
"The. Creature. Killed. One. Soldier. Already." She carefully pronounced the words like he was hard of hearing.
Burton sounded...pleased? Eager? "What is it?" He demanded. Definitely eager she decided. That probably wasn't a good sign for her. Alone. In these woods.
"They think it's some sort of insect. They didn't get much of a read off on it. Tell me, how were you planning on getting the creature away from here?"
Burton paused for an instant and she could tell he was debating with himself on if he should tell her the truth before he finally spoke. "The little ones they pack out, they can't grab a bigger one unless they get really lucky."
She was keeping both eyes on her surroundings as she talked on the phone and headed towards where the action was. Still, she nearly missed it. It wasn't much more than arms length from her, pressed perfectly still against a tree. It was looking at her in an exceedingly creepy way. Her brain didn't want to process what exactly she was looking at but to be fair, it was very disconcerting to make eye contact with a giant insect. Christine froze as her eyes roamed over its tall, narrow body. Its legs and feelers were deceptively delicate and a dark, earthy shade of green. Its arms were folded in front of its body like it was peacefully praying.
"I found a little one. It looks like a praying mantis, except this one is as high as my waist." She blocked out Burton's cries of 'excellent!' and slowly pulled up her EMD. The creature didn't move, then it did. In a blur too fast for her to see it suddenly ripped the EMD from her hand. Unfortunately for the creature, as it grabbed the EMD and yanked it, her finger was jerked against the trigger. She was pulled off balance and hit the ground, rolling away from the giant bug that was now towering over her.
The EMD bolt had struck it from point blank range. For just one terrifying second she thought that it was going to shrug the hit off before coming after her when it started to sway.
It collapsed slowly, in a crumpled heap that was still grasping weakly at her.
She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and picked up her phone from where she dropped it. "I got it. What do you want me to do with it?"
"Hide it," Burton snapped, "Shoot it again just to be sure it stays down and hide it." Zapping it again was easy enough for her. At least that stopped the twitching.
Christine didn't bother asking where the hell she was supposed to hide it. There wasn't a conveniently located bush she could shove the damn thing under. Two seconds later it didn't matter. "Gotta go." She whispered and hung up as Matt and Abby barreled over to her. "I was just about to call you. I found a little one." She managed to sound pleased with herself as she suppressed the memory of how incredibly fast the bug was when it finally lashed out at her. Abby reached out and helped pull her off the ground.
"I knew I heard a weapon discharge," Matt said as he called for backup to carry the insect back to the anomaly. "Abby? Are they pack creatures?"
"No. Not if they're like modern ones." Abby rolled it over onto its back and examined it intently, "This is a male. The females are almost always bigger in the mantis family."
"So the one that killed Daniels is female?" Matt was keeping a wary eye scanning the surroundings. "Will that help us figure out where it went?"
"Not really. And I can't be sure but this one might just be immature. They moult you know. I didn't get a good look at the other one."
Matt replied sourly, "Great."
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Christine tagged along when they dragged the little mantis back to the anomaly and she watched curiously as they unlocked it long enough to toss the creature back through. Becker's voice came back on the line. "We've got a visual on the big one. The EMD's aren't affecting it. We're going to need real guns-" He was cut off by screaming, lots of screaming.
Connor came on the circuit, "It's coming back towards the anomaly site! It's fast!" Christine and Abby exchanged a significant look and then they both dove for the dubious cover of the treeline on the opposite side of the clearing from where the Mantis was coming from. The two soldiers that were guarding the site and Matt ranged themselves in a rough line, slightly behind where the anomaly was with the locking device at their backs.
"Abby, if it comes here then open the anomaly, we'll herd it back through." He didn't elaborate on how exactly he was planning on doing that if it was shrugging off the EMD's.
Abby eased her way around the tree she was pressed against and hustled over to the computer that controlled the locking device. Christine stayed right where she was for a moment, then groaned and darted over to stand by Abby with her borrowed and allegedly useless EMD sweeping the treeline along with the men.
Matt spoke, "Becker! Where is it? Do you have a visual?"
"No. It's crazy fast, almost like a predator and when it holds still it's almost invisible in this terrain." They could hear him breathing hard as he jogged while he talked.
The team leader bobbed his head irritably, "So you don't know where it is then?"
"Nope. We lost contact. But it was headed your way."
"I'll put out the welcome mat then." Matt muttered, momentarily forgetting about the radio.
Connor came out with a slightly inappropriate caution for him, "Be careful you don't become the welcome Matt!"
"Connor, now is not the time for bad puns!" Matt snapped and then the time for witty tension killing one liners was past. The creature...appeared. It wasn't there, and then it was. It was enormous. It froze when it saw them and drew itself up to it's full height. It was four meters easily from its deceptively kind heart shaped head to its legs like steel cables. It folded its hands in front of it like it was saying a final prayer and froze.
"It's here Becker." Abby said when no one reported. "I'm opening the anomaly now. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. Christine reflexively noted the password Abby entered while keeping one eye on the creature.
"It's looking right at me Abby." Matt said in an even tone. "Hurry up."
"Don't make eye contact, it might think you're threatening it." Abby replied as she finally clicked on the 'Unlock' button. "Do insects think that way?" Matt replied as the creature's head whipped around to see the anomaly explode into being.
"I don't know, I don't know if anyone has done any research with eye contact and insects."
"It will." Christine broke in, remembering how the little one had reacted, so still and then flying at her. Matt took her advise, "Everyone, we're going to back away slowly and try to herd it into the anomaly. Stay out of the creature's reach."
Together the soldiers and Matt stepped backwards and edged around the sides of the creature. Becker and the rest of the team showed up behind it about then with a loud soldierly crashing sound. Silent stalkers they were not.
The creature slowly spun its head around in a 180 so that it was looking directly behind itself at Becker. It remembered Becker. He had been annoying the creature with the little zappy things for awhile now. If it had been a dog then it would be peeling its lips up and letting out a low rumbling growl that promised violence and bloodshed.
As it was, it merely swung its body around without moving its eyes off of Becker one single millimeter.
"That's really creepy," Connor let a little fear color his voice from his place on the edge of the line. "Didn't know they could do that."
"Don't make eye contact," Matt started to say and then it was too late. The creature snapped its arms open and dove at Becker. He had seen the thing in action and jumped side ways, firing as he went. Everyone else followed his lead, shooting the creature. Finally the EMD's were having an effect. Under the combined onslaught of both teams it staggered a few steps towards Becker and then with the last of its energy it dove at the prey that had eluded it.
Becker jumped straight up in the air just as the creature crashed down next to him and its arms snapped shut with an audible click directly under his boots before it just started uncontrollable twitching and spasming from all the electrical shocks.
Becker landed and jumped a few more times to get away from the flailing limbs before he stopped to get his breath. "Who says white men can't jump?" He gasped out, it wasn't that funny but at the moment it was the most hilarious thing anyone had ever said. "Let's get a line on this beasty and drag him back through." Matt ordered quickly. "I don't know how it's even able to twitch now so let's be quick about it."
They ended up binding its arms together with some rope. "It can chew it off when it wakes up," Abby told them. Personally Becker didn't really care if ever got its arms free. He had lost two good men to the creature and had another four that were mauled by the thing. The chopper had been converted into life flight and was busy taking the wounded back to the ARC. Two of them weren't that badly hurt, just knocked about and maybe some broken ribs.
Jamison and McCormick on the other hand had actually been grabbed by the creature and crushed between its powerful arms. Only their flak vests kept the rough exoskeleton from ripping holes in their chests but that didn't protect against compression injuries. Jamison had a crushed chest and at least one collapsed lung. McCormick was the same, with additional injuries from where the creature had bitten his shoulder, nearly severing his arm. The medic wasn't very hopeful. He was using all the plasma he had brought to try and keep McCormick from bleeding to death. The two medics were working frantically to keep both men alive as the chopper took off.
Abby and Christine watched as the soldiers worked together shove the creature head first towards the anomaly. They shoved from this side, pushing the damned thing back where it came from. Nobody was going through to drag it, and risk getting trapping in a world where those things lived.
Matt, Becker and Haverly were conferring. The night shift had been up since six the day before. "They're tired. We can't risk it."
Haverly argued, but Becker overruled him. "No. You've been on duty almost eighteen hours now. Your team will guard the site in case more of them head back and my team will do another sweep of the area to make sure we've got them all."
Christine was discretely eavesdropping from a short distance away. She was leaning against a tree trunk and acting worn out. It wasn't that hard an act to pull off. That creature diving for her was bring up very bad memories of the future predator that grabbed her. The sounds it made while it was attacking her and Helen laughing in the background before she finally shot it would stay in her nightmares forever. Ruthlessly, Christine shoved the memory away and focused on what was going on now.
Behind her Becker was assigning soldiers to sweep different areas. Ahead of her, standing right on the edge of the clearing where they had a little bit of privacy and yet were in full view of all the others, Connor and Abby seemed to be fighting. It was their body language that was giving it away.
She was leaning in, her hand on his chest and talking earnestly. Connor was holding himself stiffly, leaning a little back from her and he had a frozen, cold expression on his face. Whatever Abby was saying it apparently failed to move him because he roughly pushed her hand away and walked off. Abby stared after him, dejected for a moment before anger took over. She shouted something at his back and it wasn't quite loud enough for Christine to hear but one of the soldiers standing guard on that side evidently did. He looked shocked she said whatever she said before he turned his face back to his sector.
Abby glared at Connor for a minute before stomping over to sit down next to Christine. She didn't say anything. "I'm going to recommend that we bring camp chairs to future anomalies." Christine said to break the tension that was flying off Abby in waves. It worked. The angry blonde gave a short laugh before resuming glaring at Connor.
Christine made a show of following Abby's sight line. "What's with him?"
"He's an ass." Abby snapped, "an absolute ass."
"Well, yes." Christine rolled her eyes. "He's a man. That's his default setting. What's he done now?"
"He thinks I'm cheating on him. He actually asked if I met a man that night I picked you up!" Abby growled out the words. "I couldn't tell him the truth and he could tell I was keeping something from him." Abby scrubbed at her eyes, she wasn't crying damn it, "He won't trust me."
Oh dear. Christine squeezed her hand. "I'm so sorry Abby. You can tell him the truth on Monday. It'll all be over then."
"Are you certain?"
"Positive." Christine replied confidently. Monday was the first of the month. It would all be over one way or the other.
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It was late afternoon before Christine waited with the last team to fly back to the ARC. They hadn't found any other creatures but that didn't mean Burton's people hadn't. She watched as they packed up all the equipment except for the locking device. Based on the comments she heard, this was unusual.
"I've got something I want to try out." Connor finally said when he had to stop someone from dismantling and packing up the locking device a second time.
"Really?" Matt overheard him and walked over. "What is it?"
Connor looked guilty for a second before he spoke. "It's a prototype. It should close the anomaly completely."
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Remember the very first time we met?"
Connor blushed. "That one was broken. This one should work, but just in case it doesn't go as planned I want the locking device still ready."
"Right then. When were you going to tell the rest of us about this?" Becker deftly reached behind Connor and picked up boxy piece of tech that he didn't recognize off the table. "I've definitely seen more ergonomic closing devices." It was almost the size and shape of a classic Nintendo console. Becker examined it intently and ignored Connors immediate demand that he give it back.
"It's just a prototype!" Connor yelped and finally succeeded in yanking it back from Becker. "I just going to try it out really quick and if it worked, lovely, if it didn't then it shouldn't effect the anomaly at all."
Matt read between the lines. "So you were going to just fire it off without mentioning anything to us? What if it didn't work the way you were planning? What if it worked just like the last time you tried to close an anomaly without even warnin' us?" Matt's accent was getting more pronounced as he got more pissed off. "Connor-"
Connor actually interrupted him, "All right! I'm sorry! I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, that's all." Matt didn't seem appeased but he was willing to hold off on the lecture until they got back to the ARC. "Fine then. Try it out."
Becker called for the security detail to focus on the anomaly while Connor aimed his Nintendo-console-lookalike at the sealed ball of energy. He raised it up and pressed a button.
The thing didn't even emit a light. Becker lowered his gun, disappointed. "Was something meant to happen just then?"
Connor hadn't lowered his newest toy. "It's emitting radio waves, on a direct counterpoint from what the anomaly opens on, it's like the different poles of a magnet- Look! It's working." The anomaly started to actually slowly shrink down with little glimmering ripples. "It's all about the beta waves-" His explanation was cut off when his device finally made a noise. Unfortunately it was a loud bang and then smoke started drifting out of it. "Oh damn." Connor cursed and looked as if he was going to toss it down.
"It worked a little." Becker pointed out, "the anomaly is almost half as big as it was earlier." Connor perked up a hair. "Yeah. It worked a little. It must have overloaded the capacitors. Maybe if I reline the tubes with ceramic..." Connor stopped talking as he realized that no one that was listening had the slightest idea what he was talking about. "I can fix this." He said firmly.
The chopper returning for the last group of people drowned out anything else he would have said. "Get the locking device broken down and packed." Matt ordered. Becker had already designated the pair of soldiers that would stay until the anomaly vanished for good, or their shift was up. If it was still there in the evening then another pair would drive out and relieve them. They had learned that leaving an anomaly unattended just invited trouble.
Christine joined Abby waiting by the edge of the field. The younger woman was sitting on a box with her arms crossed, glaring at the world. "Connor's busy pissing everyone off today." Christine said as she joined her.
Abby made a non-committal noise before she finally broke down and asked who else he had offended. Christine relayed Connor's plan to test a secret device without even telling anyone what he was doing. Abby shook her head when Christine finished. "Why's he acting like such a prat?" Abby asked rhetorically, "Normally he'd be jabbering on about something as exciting as a way to close the anomalies for hours. He wouldn't try to do something like that secretly."
"I think he was told to keep it a secret." Christine said unnecessarily, in a low voice so they wouldn't be overheard. "I don't think that it was entirely his own choice."
"Really?" Angry Abby was a sarcastic Abby. "Do you think? I hate that man with a passion. How close are you with your thing? I need to get Connor out from under his thumb before someone gets hurt."
"Monday Abby." Christine said with one eye on the soldiers loading the last of the equipment into the chopper, they moved as their seats were taken away and heaved on board, "Just wait until Monday."
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At the ARC Christine called the bug in Burton's office and didn't hear anything. Then she called the one in James's office and was treated to an earful. He was chewing out Connor, evidently Matt had already found the time to tell him about Connor's experiment. Connor was trying to dimly hid behind the excuse that Lester said he could test it but James very quickly ripped him a new one for not actually mentioning the experimental device to the people that were standing there when he turned it on!
Between Matt and Lester tag teaming him with the guilt and the risk he was taking Christine actually felt bad for the poor man. They didn't go on for very long before Connor swore he'd never do anything so unthinking again and they let him go.
Christine heard Connor leave the office and then Becker spoke up. "That's him sorted then. I've got to go visit some people and tell them that their soldier is never coming home."
"I'm sorry Becker." James sounded truly shook up and remorseful. "Do you want me to do anything beside sign the letters?"
"No. There's nothing you can do." Becker sounded so upset that it took Christine back. She had spent troops like water to explore the future ARC. With a sudden surge of guilt she realized that she didn't even know how many men had been killed under her command.
James spoke up again. "What about the wounded?"
Matt answered him, "They all should live. Even McCormick, but the surgeon isn't certain how much use of his arm he'll have afterwards. Mattox and Renolds only had a few cracked ribs and really bad bruises. Neither one of them needed surgery and they'll be sent home tomorrow. Jamison will be transferred to a regular hospital for follow-up care once he's stable enough to move. McCormick has a chest tube and they'll transfer him also, so that their families can visit.
"It's a damn good thing we have a regular emergency room here." James commented. Burton's deep pockets were useful for one good thing. After the fungus creature adventure happened it had really highlighted the fact that they couldn't just walk into a regular hospital and explain away a dinosaur injury as 'I fell down some stairs. Onto some prehistorically large teeth.'
"Yeah, it would be awkward running to regular doctors for every little prehistoric bit of poisoning or mauling." Matt commented. There was silence for a few seconds before Matt spoke again. "We're stalling Becker. Best be on our way. I've already called Father Dowling, we can pick him up on the way to Daniel's mum's house. We'll tell Jacob's wife second."
A wife. One of the dead had a wife. It gave Christine chills thinking about the families that were ripped apart by the anomalies. Did someone go in person to tell her mum that she was dead? Or did they just do like she had done and send the official Chaplain around to break hearts and devastate lives without a second thought?
Becker commented as they left Lester's office, "I really hate doing this."
"Yeah, mate. So do I."
Christine left her office and got to the ops floor just in time to see Matt and Becker on their way out to break the news to some poor family. She felt an acute pang of guilt that she didn't even know if Captain Wilder went with the Chaplain when someone died. Who had told her mum? She pushed it all out of her mind and latched onto that cold analytical place in her soul that let her do her job and ignore everything else but accomplishing the mission.
Burton had already left for the day and it seems that James was ready to go also. She didn't have the presence of mind to pick a fight with him on the way out, even though he gave her the perfect opening by commenting lewdly on some grass stains she had acquired on her back.
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They stopped at a fish and chip shop for supper. Neither one of them felt like cooking after the day they had. Christine waited while James secured his briefcase and phone before she asked him, "Do you know who told my mum I was dead?"
James looked up from his plate, not expecting that. "Yes." He answered very slowly, "she told me about it."
"Who was it?"
"The minister had the some army chaplain call her. He told her over the phone. She didn't believe him at first and thought it was a sick joke."
Christine felt sick to her stomach. "That's horrible."
"I know." He reached out and rubbed her back companionably, "I thought so. I expect you heard Matt and Becker's conversation?" He tried to ignore the fact that she was leaning into his hand.
"Yes. I realized I don't know how the families of the soldiers I killed found out." She gulped. "They might've just got a phone call also. I was a horrible person."
"Hey," he could see how upset she was and he tried to head it off. "You can't feel guilty about that, you can't change it. It's in the past."
"Was it your idea to have Matt and Becker tell people in person?"
"No. It was Becker's. Believe it or not I was never in a position to think about notifying families before the ARC."
"Yeah. This isn't exactly a normal office job." Christine sighed hugely then went back to picking at her chips. "I've got to get this mess with Burton finished up, then I can start to deal with myself." She went back to picking at her chips and trying to figure out how to bring down Mishi in less than a week.
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After dinner Christine disappeared into her room and James took the chance to catch up on his bills. He was seated in his office balancing his checkbook when Christine came in. She silently took up the briefcase that was next to him and picked up his phone that was on the desk. He watched her while she took the compromised things away.
"Yes?" He asked when she returned empty handed a moment later. Christine sat down in the chair next to his desk. "I just got a call from Burton. He wants to introduce me to some people this weekend to discuss my new...responsibilities."
"You mean after I've been disgraced and arrested? Hauled off to the clinker?" They still didn't have any legal evidence to bust Burton.
"Something like that." She replied cheerfully. While he was glad she seemed to recovered from her earlier bout of self recrimination, something about her perkiness at his scheduled career and life obliteration got under his skin. "Here." He said dourly, "make yourself useful then." James pressed the mess of papers he had been working on into her hand.
Christine kept that little smile on her face while she sorted out what she had. It was the electric bill payment stub, the check and the envelope. She rearranged it together and sealed the envelope. A package of stamps drifted down in front of her along with a stamp that had his address printed on it.
She kept talking while she neatly fixed a stamp on and stamped the return address. "We might possibly push him into doing something rash. I have some plans."
Now he was interested. "What sort of plans? I thought you were going to fiddle with my address book?" He had been rather looking forward to that. He would never say anything now, but he had been hoping she could forge in a direct number to the Queen. Suitably disguised, of course.
She shot that idea down firmly, "We haven't got time for any cleverness with paperwork, I wish I had thought of that weeks ago but I didn't realize what we were dealing with. We've got to go for the more direct approach. If we can get him to monologue in front of the ARC's security cameras then we can use that, but he has to confess to something really bad."
"What could be worse than conspiracy to commit murder and treason?" James asked while he handed her the next wad of papers.
"Being in the pay of Mishi, for one. But we don't have any legally obtained evidence. He's careful. Everything he's told me he could just deny saying. If I record him it's not admissible in court so it's the same as if he never said it. Legally."
If just the MI-6 was involved then the line could get a little...blurry but unfortunately the good ol' chaps in the Home Office were a stickler for the rules. Fair play and all that rot. Christine mentally damned their goody two shoes ways and looked down at the other papers he passed over. This lot was the board bill for Star. The barn had gone up a bit in the last three years. "Do you want me to take this one over?"
"By all means." Then his conscience twinged him. She'd only gotten one check so far and if their plan worked, there wouldn't be another one. "When you like. I've been paying it for so long that it doesn't really matter if I keep it a few more months."
Her lips quirked up at him. "All right then. Thank you." Then she drew her attention back to the matter at hand. "Wiretapping laws only apply if there's an expectation of privacy. That doesn't exist in front of a security camera so if he talks in front of a camera that's visible in a public area we've got him. No matter how many connections he has, I can get that tape into enough different hands he can't squish it. We've got to put him under more stress. Convince him he has to do something rash or it's all going to come crashing down around him."
"How?"
Her face widened into a grin. "I'm so glad you asked that. I'll explain on the way, get your coat."
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A/N: Oh dearie dearie me! What dastardly thing does she have in mind? Then next chapter is nearly all finished and I'm just tweaking it a little before I post it. It should be up reasonably soon.
Please Review. It really inspires me to work on the story!
More A/N: I've done a little personal unintended research on if insects can make eye contact and I can safely say that a nest of wasps eye level and arms length away are completely capable of making direct eye contact and they are completely terrifying when they do it.
