Chapter 3- secrecy
Thanks for those who are reading my story. I hope I get some good reviews soon so I can improve this story. I don't have a beta tester so any mistakes are my own.
I've reloaded this chapter as a problem came up. Thank you s, who helped me to identify this problem.
Avery sat next to Stephen on the forest floor watching the tortoise like creature. They sat against a tree with rex resting on her lap. Connor was going on about how it would win him a Nobel Prize. Avery didn't put much faith in that statement, Claudia would have been trying to keep this secret under wraps.
"You don't know what we're dealing with yet." Stephen told him.
"Come on. It looks like a dinosaur. It behaves like a dinosaur. It's a dinosaur, it's the missing link to the ancient past. And I discovered it."
"Actually it's not a dinosaur." Avery mumbled browsing through Connor's database. She found it on her own laptop as they waited for her father.
"What?" Connor said turning to look at her.
"Well, it's more like a scutosaurus from the Permian era." Avery shut her laptop and put it in her bag. She got up and approached the large dinosaur. She stretched an arm out ready to pat the Scutosaurus.
"I don't think that's a great idea." Connor said.
"That won't work. If she has her mind set you can hardly change it. She is Nick's daughter after all." Stephen said getting up. He got ready to jump forward if the Scutosaurus got aggressive.
Avery placed her hand on the creatures shoulder only to snatch her hand back as her father called out.
Nick and the girls came running towards them waving torches. The scutosaurus got scared and started to walk forward. Avery scrambled out of its way.
"Where's it going?" Connor said.
"Let him go! It's scared. Let's see where it thinks it's safe." Nick said in a way of explanation.
They followed the Scutosaurus as it ran through some sort of flickering light.
"Where's it gone?" Claudia said.
"Home." Nick replied.
The next morning the area around the strange portal was secured by armed forces. Nick had started to refer to it as an anomaly and the group picked up on the name.
Nick and Connor are watching the anomaly, it was obvious that neither had gone home. Soon more soldiers arrive as scientific equipment was loaded out of the jeeps. Abby sat in a pile of it, she hasn't been home either.
Avery sat on the back of a jeep, taking a different look on the anomaly. Large glowing glass like pieces circled the bright center flickering between bright and dim. No one wanted to touch it, just because the scutosaurus could go through doesn't mean something else could.
Connor was playing with a metal pen which started to pull towards the anomaly. Avery watched as Connor lets go of the pen, and it flies into the anomaly.
"That explains the compass going crazy." Connor said.
"What could cause a magnetic field so powerful?" Nick asked staring intensively.
"Maybe it's an alien spaceship." Connor said hopefully.
Avery snorted, causing Nick and Connor to stare at her. She apologized and they looked away. She silently giggled then walked over to the two taking small sips from her cup. Nick and Connor having sculled theirs to try and stay awake.
Avery was more presentable having gone back to the hotel for a quick shower, they had already paid for a room so why not use it. On the way back she picked up coffee for the others and a hot chocolate for herself. She never liked coffee it always tasted so bitter.
Nick and Claudia talked about the creatures. Though Avery and Nick knew they came from the past, like the sarcopterygian found in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Connor was letting something else through the anomaly with a giggle.
"Brilliant. Just brilliant." He said. Then with a grimace he realized that he let his front door key go through the anomaly.
"Cutter, we have to go now." Claudia said. She was trying to get them to go back to the home office so they could explain to Lester about the anomaly.
Nick tried getting out of it wanting to stay at the anomaly a while longer. He lost however and Claudia walked off.
Stephen approached Nick. "You're thinking about Helen, aren't you?" He said.
"It explains everything." Nick said.
"Except why she didn't come back." Stephen walked away leaving Nick to wonder the same thing. He knew Nick was just grasping at straws.
Avery sat in an office beside her dad signing several papers about secrecy. She looked up towards the glass walls. She saw a man approach Claudia and thought that must be the person in charge of Claudia. She looked away however as he looked towards her and focused on the conversation happening beside her.
A while later they were lead out of the room by the same man, who she now knew was named James Lester. They walked through the home office building through several glass doors.
Avery tuned out the conversation as they walked having already heard Nick's theory on what the anomaly was. She tuned back in as they came to a room where they could view the tests being carried out on Rex.
Nick and Lester stood in front of the glass as Claudia, Abby and Avery stood behind them.
"Suppose this remarkable theory is correct, what are the immediate risks?" Lester said sounding like he didn't think much about Nick. He sounded annoyed by the subject rather than a fascination like the others around him.
"Famine, war, pestilence. The end of the world as we know it. You know, the usual stuff." Nick said sarcastically.
"I think I could do without the facetiousness." Lester defended crossing his arm.
Nick was starting to get annoyed. "Well I could do without standing in some anemic office in Whitehall, talking to a civil service pen pusher, when I should be exploring the most significant phenomenon in the history of science."
"Technically, I'm not actually a civil servant. More a troubleshooter without a portfolio in the PM's office." Lester said. Avery could tell that if you even barked at this man in the wrong way he would bite you back.
"You mean you're a Government hatchet man."
"Colorful, but surprisingly accurate."
"And there's something else you should know. I intend to find out what happened to my wife, whatever the risks, so I'm going through the anomaly, and if you want to stop me, you're going to have to shoot me." Nick said.
"I hope it won't come to that."
Avery turned to look at Rex as they finished talking. He was being examined by a group of people in white suits.
"You really shouldn't handle a lizard like that." Abby told Lester. They were running a scan over Rex who dived under the possible threat.
"Let the experts do their job." Lester said.
"They don't know what they're doing."
One of the scientists started poking Rex with a swab, trying to get a saliva sample, and failing. Rex started to get annoyed, he tried to bat the nuisance away.
"Do they even know he can fly?"
"Fly?" Lester looked at her quizzically.
Rex started to fly around the lab. A scientist accidently opened the door and he zoomed out. Nick looked amused at the situation as Abby and Claudia ran off to catch Rex.
"He can fly." Lester said watching them chase after the lizard.
"Hmm. Pretty well." Nick said. Lester walked back to his office to make a phone call.
Nick and Avery walked after Abby and Claudia to keep an eye on them, Rex flew to the bottom floor and gets in an elevator going up, just as Abby and Claudia arrive on the bottom floor. They race back up the stairs to see Rex exiting the elevator, scaring the people waiting for it.
He then flies through several offices followed by Claudia and Abby.
Avery and her dad were joined by Lester as they saw Rex on a windowsill. Abby tried to coax him down with words and treats. Rex looked at her then back out the window. He dropped his head and closed his eyes as if having made a hard decision. He flew out the window and disappeared.
A moment later he flew back in and landed in Abby's arms. Abby turned and smiled smugly at the people behind her.
Nick turned to Lester. "Oh, those risks you were talking about. There's one I didn't tell you about running down your back."
Lester looks at the green mess made by Rex on his jacket, sighs and leaves.
"It's so perfect." Nick said looking proudly at Rex.