Thanks for those who have been reading my story. Here is another chapter a bit longer than my last one.
Avery sat beside her dad, drinking a glass of water. Nick was looking at a picture of Helen in his wallet when a dark red haired women came over.
"Excuse me." She said catching the professor's attention. Nick turned towards her and when he did the woman kissed him. Avery stared opened mouthed at the woman before steadying herself.
"Don't panic." The woman explained. "I just told that slime ball over there you were my boyfriend. One more sleazy chat-up line and I was going to have to kill him."
"I know how that feels." Avery said giving her a warm smile. She turned her head and glared at the man the woman had just left. He was still staring at Claudia. His gaze turned towards Avery then he quickly looked away.
Nick gave his daughter a look, sending her a silent message that they would talk later. "Well, I'm very glad I was here to help. Uh, I'm Nick and this is my daughter Avery." He said turning towards the woman.
"Actually, I know who both of you are. Claudia brown, Home office." Claudia said her tone suddenly turning professional but with a tone that suggested you could talk to her. Oh she is good Avery thought giving Claudia a knowing smirk.
"I saw you at the Hotel. I'm hoping you can do me a favor Professor." She said more as a statement than a question.
"Another one?"
"I suspect this is why we're here?" Claudia takes a white envelop out of her bag and shows the duo the picture that had been in the newspaper.
"We get dozens of rogue animal sightings every year. You'd be doing me a great favor if you could just confirm all this nonsense." Claudia continued slightly hoping her statement was true.
Her hope was short lived however when Nick said "I can't dismiss the evidence out of hand."
"Surely you're not giving this whole monster story credibility?"
"We're just trying to keep an open mind." Avery interjected. She did not want to believe in monster stories as well but like she said she could not dismiss the evidence.
"People always say that as though it's such a good thing." Claudia said looking over at Avery.
Nick tried to explain their views on the sighting. "Well, you see, that depends on how you define 'monster'. A wild panther might look pretty terrifying on a dark night."
"Is that what we're dealing with?" Claudia said.
"My best guess, if it exists at all. The last sighting was somewhere near the forest. Would you care to join the search?"
"I suppose I owe it to the Taxpayer to do more than sit in my room and suck the mini bar dry." Claudia said seeing that the two were not just a couple of people trying to prove a conspiracy. They were the worst to deal with at it took a lot to stop them going to the press if something was indeed found.
Claudia got up and led the way outside.
"Let's get going." Nick said turning towards his daughter.
"What?" He said noticing the smirk on her face.
"Oh, nothing. You're right let's go." Avery said finishing her drink in one go. They got up and headed towards the car.
Stephen and Connor waited at the 4x4 outside the hotel for the Professor. Connor was on his laptop showing Stephen his database.
"This database contains constantly updated information on all extinct creatures. I've been building it every spare second since I was 14." Connor told him scrolling through a number of pictures.
"It's impressive." Stephen agreed. He also wondered what this boy did during his spare time.
"It's pretty cool, huh." Connor was happy Stephen liked it.
"And slightly sad." Stephen added.
Connor looked up from his laptop ignoring Stephen's last statement. "You know we're not talking about a wild cat, don't you?"
Nick and Claudia arrived before Stephen could respond. "This is Claudia Brown from the Home Office. She'll be coming with us." Nick introduced.
"I knew it. It's a cover-up." Connor said to Stephen.
Claudia apparently heard the statement. "What's he talking about?"
"Connor never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like." Nick smiled when Claudia sent him an exasperated look.
Stephen, Avery, Claudia, Nick and Connor are travelling towards the forest were the creature was sighted last. Stephen had a map while Connor looked at his compass.
"If there really were some creature around here, wouldn't the journalists have found it by now?" Claudia asked still skeptical about the case.
"They wouldn't know what they were looking for." Nick said as they ducked under some low hanging branches. Avery walked next to them listening attentively. She often liked hiking but the forest of dean would not have been on her most wanted list.
"But you do?" Avery could hear the disbelief in her voice.
"Hmm. I've seen Stephen track a wounded animal through the rainforest for up to 10 days at a time." Nick told her taking pride in his friend's skill.
"Not to mention wrestle an anaconda and save a whale." Connor added lightheartedly Connor moved forward until he was walking with Stephen. Avery smiled, she started to like the student more and more.
"Maybe there is something here, and maybe there isn't. Frankly, I doubt it." Nick said telling the facts for what they were. He didn't believe in lying to make something seem more real.
"Cutter!" Stephen called out stopping underneath a tree.
Avery rushed over, her father and Claudia following. She saw a large tree, its branches surprisingly bare. A Cow hung upon a couple of its branches like a present to whoever stumbled upon it. She knew some types of big cats liked to drag their prey up into trees but the cow was too large to be dragged up by any type of species.
"Okay, now I'm getting interested." Nick said looking around.
He looked towards Connor when he said the compass was going haywire. Connor passed the compass to Nick, who saw that the compass needle was spinning around madly.
"Rex!" The group heard a woman scream.
They ran towards the noise and saw a white-haired woman standing in front of some large creature.
"Don't move." Nick said coming to a stop next to her.
"Is it real?" The girl asked him.
"Some kind of experiment, maybe. Hybrid, throwback." He said throwing ideas out seeing if one of them could explain what he saw in front of him.
"Who are you?" He asks the girl briefly looking away from the creature.
"Abby Maitland. I'm a keeper at Wellington Zoo." She told him meeting his gaze. She looked around at the others he had with him wondering what they were doing here.
Nick and Avery approached the animal, shining their torches on him.
Nick looked at the creature and tried to explain what he saw. "It's a reptile. Five or six tonnes at least. Large supratemporal bosses. Huge oesteoderms on its back."
Stephen and Connor started to approach as well being careful to stay behind the professor.
"It must be some kind of anapsid." Avery added. This creature was massive and she had a feeling she had seen something similar before.
"A tortoise?" Abby was skeptical as she had never seen a tortoise as big as this before. In fact there were hardly any reptiles that could reach this stature.
The reptile roars startling the group. As the creature shifted around Nick backs up, as do Stephen, Connor and Claudia.
"Stay in his field of vision, you're making him nervous." Abby told them her reptile training kicking in. It may be big but reptiles tended to act the same.
"I was right. It was a dinosaur in that warehouse." Connor said.
He took a picture but the phone was quickly taken by Claudia. "Whatever it is, it's classified until I figure out what the hell to do about it."
Nick looks around and notices a small shape coming out of the brush. He shines his torch on it as he and Stephen crouch down to get a better look.
"Bloody hell, there's two of them." Stephen exclaimed looking towards the others behind them.
"Where did that come from?" Nick asked turning towards Stephen. This was turning out to be very interesting.