The mammoth, who had been named Martha, had been sent to the vet offices straight away – her wound had been cleaned, stitched and she had been given a course of antibiotics, in addition to the ones Jack, Alice and Will had already given her in the Pleistocene. Now, she was slowly moving around the vet paddock.
Jack, Alice (holding Raksha), Will, Cynthia, Adrian and Nikolai were standing, watching the mammoth - Nikolai had seemingly formed a strange interest in this mammoth and gave her a look of pained sympathy as she moved around her paddock – her motions slow, and her breathing laboured.
Jack turned to Cynthia and said, "Martha was the only mammoth we could find – we would have found another one, but her herd-mate was killed by Cro-Magnons, we think. I'm guessing Drew and Leon haven't brought back a herd yet…" Cynthia said, "Nope; they've brought back Megaloceros, a bull mammoth and a woolly rhino, but no female herd as of yet. We've also identified another target location – Siberia, 150,000 years ago, so if you want to bring back another herd…"
Jack sighed, "Can I stop you right there, Cynthia? The only place we're going is our trailers – we need some sleep. We spent a whole night keeping Martha safe – we didn't sleep a wink." Cynthia sighed and nodded, "Fine; Adrian and I will go. Let you guys get a nap." She paused and turned to Jack and said, "Before you go… Can I talk to Alice and Will for a second?" Jack shrugged and said, "OK."
Once Jack and Adrian were gone, Cynthia looked around, before saying to Alice and Will conspiratorially, "Whilst you were gone, I did some snooping – I think I know who our infiltrator is…" Alice sighed, "Can we get some sleep first? Whoever they are, they won't be able to do anything in a few hours." Cynthia sighed and said, "Fine."
Watching this some distance away, Duncan Kent slipped off. His mind wracked with worry; this was a bad situation and he had to inform his boss about these developments. It was time to change the plan. As soon as he got to a secluded area, he lifted a satellite phone and spoke into it, "Boss? Change of plan; I think Cynthia, Alice and Will are on to me. I've changed my mind – I want that black-ops team Frank was suggesting to get me out of here… I want them here tonight."
Back with Drew and Leon, they were following the mammoths to the bottom of a hill. A blizzard was starting to blow in from the west – the reduced visibility this would offer would force the mammoths to make a stop. This would mean that Drew and Leon could make camp and get some sleep for the first time in two days. As they hung around outside the overhang where the mammoths would be resting for the night, Leon turned to Drew and asked, "By the way, I need to tell you about something. What would you say if I told you something was up at the park…" Drew turned to his friend and asked, "What? And can you save it until we get back from this mission?" His confidence suddenly evaporated, Leon shrugged and said, "Nothing."
As they watched the mammoths turn into the overhang, they noticed the calf was tiring – this was likely to be his first migration, so that was understandable. His mother was sticking close to him, but the blizzard was rapidly reducing their visibility and they had lagged significantly behind. This was attracting the attention of other creatures.
As the blizzard flurried, a brief bit of movement noted the presence of a predator – Drew and Leon tried to get a look at it, but it was moving so fast it was barely visible. The mother mammoth stamped and bellowed at this new creature; in response, a low, purring growl echoed through the snow.
Suddenly, the movement of grass alerted Drew and Leon to a stalking predator, creeping up towards the mammoth calf. From their perspective, they could see it was a big cat – it looked like a male African lion, only it had paler fur, a sparser mane and was the size of a Siberian tiger.
Leon muttered under his breath, "Cave lion. The most powerful predator here – this could take a mammoth calf if it wanted to and, with the blizzard, it's got the perfect opportunity." The mother mammoth stamped the ground and charged towards the approaching lion – to which he walked back a few steps and snarled. What Drew and Leon noticed was that the lion didn't look surprised at all – if anything, he looked like he had been expecting this…
Suddenly, a quiet movement across the snow alerted them to the presence of another cave lion – this one slightly smaller and without the sparse mane, stalking closer and closer to the terrified calf. The mother turned and bellowed at the female cave lion – however, she was too far away to react. Drew and Leon looked at each other – they had to do something…
Suddenly, Drew grabbed the air horn, handed Leon another one, and began blaring the horn at the female cave lion. She stopped in her advance on the mammoth and snarled at Drew, advancing a few steps closer – as she advanced closer to Drew, Leon began blaring his horn, causing her to veer towards him. For a few minutes, they repeated this, until the lion, angered at the irritation, dived at Leon – as she did, Drew aimed the portal remote behind Leon and silently instructed him to dive out of the way. Leon did and, unable to change her trajectory, the cave lion dived through the portal, into the present.
Whilst they had been occupied with the female cave lion, the male cave lion had taken that opportunity to advance towards the mammoth calf, snarling. As he got closer, he swiped the air with his paw, letting out a low snarl. The mammoth calf took a few steps back and cowered; the big cat advanced closer, tensing his body in readiness to pounce….
Suddenly, both the mammoth calf and the big cat paused to listen to a loud, honking sound. They turned to see Drew, holding the horn high and honking it, running towards the male cave lion. The big cat ignored the mammoth calf and advanced towards Drew. Drew muttered, "That's right, kitty; keep following the sound."
Drew smiled as he saw the cave lion leave the mammoth calf; the big cat had been distracted. However… it was now advancing towards him. Even desperate from hunger, it could easily outrun him and he didn't have anything to defend himself with. Damn. Perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea after all. The snarling big cat advanced towards him; the mammoth calf scurried back to his herd and hid behind his mother, as if in terror of what was going to happen next…
Suddenly, a stone sailed through the air and hit the male cave lion on the head, causing him to stumble. The big cat snarled indignantly; Drew turned to see the Neanderthal from before, standing quietly in the forest, with a smile on his face. He gave Drew a curt nod, before disappearing again. Drew understood what that meant – by sending the mammoth and the rhino through the portal, Drew had saved the Neanderthal's life. Now, the debt had been repaid.
The cave lion shook his head and turned his attention to Drew, who had used the distraction to lift the portal remote. As the big cat pounced forward, Drew rolled out of the way, activating the portal as he did so. Unable to change his trajectory, the cave lion leapt through the portal, into the present.
After the adrenalin of that moment, Drew and Leon looked to see the mammoth calf, reunited with his mother, heading into the overhang. Drew and Leon silently slunk behind them – trying to set up camp where the mammoths could not detect them. However, as they approached the overhang, the matriarch turned to look at them and gave a mild, irritated grunt – they could make camp in the overhang, as long as they kept their distance. Drew and Leon looked at each other and shrugged – this amounted to progress. They got out their sleeping bags and settled down to sleep – the blizzard would probably last another few hours and they needed their sleep. Before they went to sleep, Leon turned to Drew, "This blizzard isn't going to be the last of them – and the terrain's getting hilly. This is going to be pretty risky…" Drew shrugged, "Take the rough with the smooth – you should've learned by now this comes with risks." Leon sighed, "I suppose that's true."
At the portal site, an employee entered the time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Cynthia put the portal remote in her pocket and secured it. She turned to Adrian, who nodded; Cynthia returned the gesture and they went through the gleaming portal.
They emerged from the other side into a large pine forest. Remarkably, the boreal forests of Siberia hadn't changed much in 150 millennia – in fact, Cynthia and Adrian were half expecting to turn a corner and bump into Soviet soldiers. Adrian looked around the forest and said, "There probably aren't any mammoths here; mammoths were grazers. We're going to have to head onto open land…"
Suddenly, they were alerted by a loud, throaty bellow. Cynthia and Adrian looked over to a nearby hillside to see two large animals fighting. They looked like stag fallow deer – only the size of a moose. Unlike a fallow deer, their fur was a solid, light greyish brown colour, like a reindeer. Their most distinctive feature, however, was their antlers – from tip to tip, they were roughly ten feet across. A small harem of slightly smaller females stood, waiting for the victor.
Adrian and Cynthia knew what these were; the giant deer Megaloceros. Cynthia breathed out silently, "This must be their rutting season.", to which Adrian smirked knowingly, "I know we've already got some at the park – however, we've only got one stag. A couple more wouldn't hurt…" Cynthia smiled at him back, "Read my mind. We're going to do this the Drew way."
Suddenly, Cynthia began walking towards the giant deer, slowly and deliberately. As she walked closer, the stags, forgetting their rivalry to notice this approaching creature, flattened their ears, pawed the ground and snorted. Eventually, they had decided that Cynthia had gotten too close and their heads and began to slowly walk towards her, before suddenly throwing their heads back and charging at her. When they had gotten close enough, Cynthia activated the portal and the deer, not changing their course, charged through. The hinds, as if confused, followed the stags through the glowing orb. Cynthia turned to Adrian, grinning, "Now that's out of the way, let's find ourselves some mammoths!"
