Chapter 14

Guest from the future

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Impossible Pictures, not to me.

Chapter fourteen

Sarah realized that she was impressed. When she first met Jenny Lewis, the other woman had been rather dominated by the late Nick Cutter, and generally seemed to be a light-weight champion of the team, doing the less important or vital things, including spin doctoring and trying to defy the obvious. Now, however, Jenny Lewis was someone else, someone who was clearly intending to be the leader disregarding the others' opinion, as well as many other factors, and clearly succeeding in it as well – a figure worthy being treated with a cautious respect if anything.

Unfortunately, that also opened the topic as to where did she, Sarah Page, fit into this whole thing. Before, obviously, she sort of did the research, assisting Connor and Abby, while Danny, pretty much led them in the field. With Jenny, however, being back in action at least for now, and clearly in charge, this could create some sort of tension, and-

Sarah couldn't help but remember that it was interest in Jenny Lewis that brought Danny Quinn back to the ARC after Nick Cutter had died and Danny's own brother had been avenged, not in her. This meant, that should Danny and Jenny meet, she might be the one on the out, unless, of course, whatever tension between her and Caroline was sexual and not something else...

"Hey Sarah, are you all right?" Becker asked, concernedly, seeing that their team's back-up re-searcher seemed to be unusually quiet at this moment.

"What?" Sarah looked at the head of their armed forces, startled, "what?"

"You look kind of withdrawn," Becker repeated his question slash statement.

"Oh! Oh, well, I- I was just missing Danny and others," Sarah said quietly. "Connor, in particular, wouldn't have mixed up theropods, therapsids and therocephalians, now would he?"

"Sarah, come on – you heard Mr. Glasses – Professor Alexander tended to get himself confused when dealing with scientific terms whenever he would get excited," Becker said firmly. "Stop beating yourself and try look on the bright side: we're alive and unharmed, while several other people are not."

"When you put it like that," Sarah said, involuntarily grinning back at the man, "then yes, I feel better already," she paused. "But where did the dogs come from?"

"Initially, Lester made a business deal with Caroline Steele," Becker shrugged. "I'm not too sure of the reasons, but she began to provide us with trained dogs if it was necessary. Because usually it was not so – we tended to deal with creatures that didn't require tracking, or that Johnson woman was in the way, or something else – I guess the two of you just never had time or oppor-tunity to meet," he paused. "Of course, now that we'll be dealing with a very different situation, one that is located in the wilderness, plus one that takes place overseas, Lester decided that sending us with trained dogs is a must, and so, here they are, despite Caroline's protests that they are city dogs and wouldn't do well in a forest."

"So, is she here as the dog manager or trainer or whatever?" Sarah pressed on.

"No, as I was saying, she didn't want to go with us, or to send her dogs," Becker shook his head. "That Mountie colonel actually backed her up, saying that the RCMP already has dogs, and even more importantly, dogs specifically trained and adapted to the Canadian wilderness. Lester how-ever told everybody that Steele is coming with us as the modern animal expert – in other words, doing Abby's job, while you're doing Connor's..."

"Oh, I didn't think of that... Where was I when Lester was saying it?"

"Talking with Jenny about something or other," Becker shrugged, "and speaking of talking with Jenny, we better get ready to both talk and listen, because the second round of brainstorming is about to begin!"

Sarah shivered.

* * *

This time, the conversation took place not in a proper lab per se, but rather in something resembling an anatomical theatre, albeit one built on a smaller, more private scale. Sarah and Becker could see most of the already familiar faces there, including the two museum works and Lazrev, the apparent chief of their security. Conversely, though, colonel Winters was still absent, al-though the Mountie officer, who had been talking to the leader of the Torontonian city police, was there, apparently in his stead. The OPP officer Muirkirk was there in person, though, and so were a few other unknown people, apparently members of the ROM or a similar institution.

For a while, as Sarah and Becker quietly took their seats in the ARC's area of the theatre, there was no official babble of excitement: various groups of people just arranged themselves by their social allegiance or belonging, and kept to themselves, keeping the noise level down. Sarah and Becker, naturally, found themselves sitting to Jenny and Caroline, who were clearly waiting for them.

"Sarah, are you alright? You're looking kind of pale," Caroline asked quietly.

"Oh, I'm fine, just wondering if you've ever met my uncle," Sarah said quickly. "He also breeds dogs, you see-"

"Oh, let's see," Caroline produced a small phone booklet from a tummy pouch and began to leaf through it. "Ah, there was go – a tall, well-built, bearded chap who breeds such dogs as the sa-luki and the Afghan hound, right?"

"Yes," Sarah nodded. "So have you met him?"

"Only by hearsay – we don't have too many points to interconnect, so... no," Caroline shook her head.

"Shush now, we're about to begin!" Jenny interrupted the two in a stern tone of voice.

Sarah blushed.

* * *

"All right!" the woman whom Sarah and others had met during the encounter with the therocephalians, "let's start the meeting. If colonel Winters would be so kind-"

"I am afraid that colonel Winters is currently incapacitated to be here, so I am speaking for him," another man got up from the Mountie area of the theatre. "I am lieutenant-colonel Culver, for the record."

"Acknowledged, do go on."

"Thank you, professor Bradshaw. Now, I assume that you want to recap the previous events?"

"Briefly, if you wouldn't mind."

"Right. About a month and a half ago from today, we began to receive messages that something or other was or is or has been harassing wild and domestic animals on the Mackenzie Mountain range, so colonel Winters sent Hill and Brook to investigate the going-ons," he paused. "I guess I should also mention the rumours of werewolves and Wendigos that came intermixed with the reports about the harassed animals, but anyways... The point is that Winters has sent Brook and Hill, his best men, on a mission, and they failed to report within 24 hours of their arrival, as they had to. So, a second team was sent to investigate, and discovered their remains as well as the massive trap that had killed at least one of them. The following investigation has failed to satis-factorily establish the perpetrator's... species, and also there were some questions about the bone component of the track, so our labs sent the required material here, and also the OPP and the other local law-enforcement got involved, seeing as it was their territory."

Ancona Muirkirk loudly clearly her throat.

"Right," Culver gave the OPP officer a look, "also, because of several suggestions from the OPP officer Muirkirk, colonel Winters went – in company of the aforementioned OPP officer and the late ROM professor Alexander Ellenton – to England to require the assistance of the so-called Anomaly Research Center because the problem on the Mackenzie Mountains might have been within their area of experience. Currently, apparently, the secondary clues seem to incident that it is so."

"Thank you, lieutenant-colonel," professor Bradshaw nodded solemnly. "Now, unless anyone wants to add to the more recent events-" there were none "-we can now begin to talk about the evidence. To wit, it initially consisted of a gargantuan bone, carved in an unusual shape, and a human corpse, burnt beyond recognition yet bearing a very unusual bite pattern. The investigation by the museum's palaeontologists and biologists, led by me and the late professor Alexander Ellenton failed to establish the species of the biter, yet managed to realize that the bone belonged to a species of indricothere, a long extinct animal, a realization that inspired him to contact the Anomaly Research Center in England for consultations and support, as agreed by the leaders of the RSMP and OPP." There was a pause as professor Bradshaw drank down some water, and then continued:

"Now, a new piece of evidence had become available to us due to the recent events," she continued, "namely a corpse of a humanoid that showed significant differences from the human spe-cies, starting on the genetic level and onwards. To wit," she paused, "his DNA is a mix of human and non-human DNA."

"What?" Culver exclaimed, his sentiment echoed by many other people in the theatre. Surprisingly, or maybe not so, Bradshaw shot Jenny a look, who returned it calmly and blankly.

"Now, in lieu of the experience with the altered bone, we have included fossilized animals into our search and comparison, and have come to a conclusion, that the non-human DNA has the most similarity with a species of a creodont mammal, called hyeanodon. Now," she raised her hand, "I want to ask something of Ms. Jenny Lewis – has her Center ever found evidence that this sort of DNA combination is possible?"

"I regret to admit," Jenny got of her seat, "that while the ARC has encountered several samples of futuristic technology during its' missions, including some indirect evidence of more advanced cloning procedures, it has never encountered anything like what professor Bradshaw has just told us, so the answer is negative." She blushed slightly and sat down.

"Thank you," professor Bradshaw nodded back, "now if anyone else doesn't have anything else to add-"

"I do," officer Muirkirk sat as she got off her seat as well. "I just want to add that the perpetrator has used a gun that was the same one originally issued to the RCMP officer Clark Hill – a fact that had been withheld by the RCMP, and could've led to further complications than this one-"

"I object!" Culver snapped. "This has nothing to do-"

"Enough!" professor Bradshaw snapped. "I agree that the interactions between your branches of law enforcement are less of scientific, and more of criminological nature, but I must admit, lieutenant-colonel, that this withholding could've been problematic, to you including. However, see-ing how we are almost through with matter scientific, I just want to add that ROM will be sending its' representatives alongside the representatives of ARC and OPP back to the Mackenzie Mountains later during this week."

"Now that," lieutenant-colonel Culver snapped, "will have to be discussed by colonel Winters and his superiors."

"Don't worry," professor Bradshaw smiled with a rather frosty smile, "it will be."

Oh great, Sarah silently thought, more politics. When will we get to the Canadian wilderness already?

To be continued...