Salute! The penultimate chapter (I think). Anyone who's read my profile will understand the delay in this one. Sorry! Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval. Or take part in any episode. Not even a cameo.
Jenny was a little put out. She'd left the hiring of the new Captain a short while, partly out of respect and partly because it was becoming an all-too regular chore. However, she'd been ill the past two days and had come back to find that someone had gone and found a Captain. The excuse that had filtered through was that it had become paramount that a man took over to reduce the risk of the top scientist being lost. Jenny wasn't fully pacified, but they were in need of a Captain, so she let the matter lie.
And so it was that Howard was welcoming in another man into the office that he stole to do the paperwork. At the current going rate, he was tempted to start decorating the barren room and place pictures of his mother and brother in there. Hopefully, though, this one would be better. He was still feeling the after-effects of Colshaw, although Sanders had provided him with a more positive outlook on the situation, as he did with everything. To be fair, Howard cheered up at just the sound of Sanders as he picked the phone and shouted 'Don't point that gun this way!' It reminded Howard of Sanders with Connor.
Anyway, the new Captain seemed pleasant, and eager to learn about his place of work. After a few questions concerning the locations of the captured animals and the ADD, Howard decided to take Captain Meaden on a tour of the building.
"So, you don't keep many animals, then?" he asked Abby, as Howard was talking with Connor.
"Not really. We try to get them back through the anomalies where possible and the ones we don't are usually too dangerous so have to be put down. It's a pity really," sighed Abby.
"I hear you have a pet though," soothed Meaden. Abby nodded.
"Yeah. Rex stays at my house. He helps me keep Connor in check. On the subject of Connor..."
"Don't let him near guns, creatures or... tin openers?" Abby giggled as she remembered why this particular piece of advice was handed down to all new recruits.
"Been talking to Lester?" Meaden nodded. "Yeah, by the end of the week, you'll have probably added to that list." Smiling, Abby made to walk off, but Meaden grabbed her arm, a gentle smile displayed on his face as Abby frowned.
"Just out of interest, does Cutter deal with the creatures that stay much?" Abby glanced down at the firm hold he had on her, and then back up to the Captain's eyes, which juxtaposed his hand's intentions.
"A little. He has an interest in them, obviously." Meaden relaxed his grip and thanked Abby, before saving Howard from one of Connor's lectures to go and meet Stephen. Connor strolled over to Abby, who was staring after Meaden.
"Do you think he'll stay?" he casually asked, overlooking Abby's defensive position and facial expression. There was a pause.
"I hope not," said Abby absently. Connor gave her a perplexed look. "I dunno. Something doesn't seem right about him."
"Let's go and find Cutter. He may be able to out his finger on it," suggested Connor and Abby nodded.
The pair eventually caught up with Cutter in his lab-room, writing up an equation that even Connor wasn't clear about. He listened to the explanation given, but it was short.
"We can't raise any issues now. Remember Howard was complaining about Colshaw after the first meeting, and the second, but he reconsidered and identified the problem."
"You mean we just have to leave it!" exclaimed Abby, leaning forward over the desk. Her gaze held the determination that secured her place in the ARC.
"No, I mean if we protest now, we'd have no evidence and be creating an ill-feeling in the ARC." The Scot stood up and gently picked up a pen. "Today, we do nothing. If the feeling persists, we take action."
"Should we tell the others?" asked Connor. Cutter pondered the question for a few seconds. He was tempted, but equally he felt unlikely that Meaden was working alone and they didn't want to let on that they were investigating him.
"Maybe we should let Jenny look into his past a little closer..."
"Do I hear my name?" cut in Jenny, as she entered the room. "Just to let you know, Lester's after you." She glanced around. "Well? What about me? Or was this just school gossip?" She smiled and Cutter reciprocated.
"I'll be right along. But, in the meantime, I need you to do a little background digging on Meaden." He walked out swiftly, leaving Jenny staring at the gap he had just vacated.
"I take it he didn't mean officially," she said, staring sideways at Connor and Abby who merely grinned. Jenny sighed. The number of things she had to do for the job were mounting up, though most were things she couldn't claim overtime for. "Right, well, I'd best get a spade. A virtual one, Connor," she said, as Connor opened his mouth to question. She clipped out, her heels contrasting the hush-hush assignment she'd just been handed.
Howard watched Meaden with intrigue. Currently, the man was standing around, leisurely chatting to the men, which was very nice and all, but they were meant to be reviewing the ammo stocks. A pleasant five minute break would be usual, but this Captain had been speaking for almost an hour. Even the other men were beginning to look bored.
The man had been around for five days and very little work had been done in that time. At first, it was amusing, but now it was frustrating, especially as Howard knew that when he tried to use some of his authority as a Sergeant, he would be undermined by his Captain.
Banks sidled up and started whispering. "Gas box, isn't he? He's making out that he cares loads about us and our welfare, but I feel it's only bravado."
"So overly done that you're cynical," guessed Howard.
"That's right. I like a friendly Captain, but not one who is so blatantly endangering lies." Howard looked at him curiously. "This ammo check should have been done days ago, but he stopped it then too. What if we run out? We're always using them in target practice and it's not like that's stopped, what with him not being able to speak over gunfire."
Howard turned back to Meaden, who was at present making some wild hand gestures. The picture was of absolute engrossment in his subject and being completely oblivious to the fact his viewers were practically nodding off. Eventually, the lecture was finished and Meaden left the men... with half an hour that day. Typical.
Howard was so consumed in his own thought that he didn't hear the other person approaching, even with their clipping heels, until Jenny grabbed his arm. Banks tactically removed himself.
"Easy, Jenny. People talk you know."
She sighed. "Shut up. I need to speak with you urgently. In private." Howard raised his eyebrows in surprise. Her annoyed frown stopped any running joke, though.
"Come on," The Sergeant loosened her hand from his arm and glanced around. The Captain was nowhere to be seen, so he picked Banks to be in charge.
"I don't believe this! I'm going to have to throw all these clothes away," complained Abby, as she swept down the corridor, closely followed by Connor. Both were covered from head to toe in a slimy kind of black oil that trickled down their necks, along their backs and legs and dripped onto the floor, leaving a pool of darkness.
"I said not to touch it!"
"AFTER I had touched it!" cried Abby stopping so suddenly Connor crashed into her. "Honestly sometimes..."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," interrupted Stephen, as he rushed from a side room to investigate the argument. Cutter came out at a more sedate pace. Stephen looked the pair up and down. "What happened to you!"
"His container exploded!"
"She fiddled with it!"
Cutter attempted to stop a laugh, but it sneaked out as a faint snort, which caused Stephen to start smirking. The older duo exchanged knowing looks, while Abby stood there feeling positively humiliated and Connor pulled back out of sheer embarrassment. It was the alarm that saved them, blaring through Stephen's next sentence. Cutter headed straight off, but Stephen waited to place a hand on Abby's shoulder.
"Perhaps, you two should skip this one." Abby let out a growl of frustration, before heading to the showers.
The low rumble of noise was almost below Lester's hearing range, but the way it echoed through the emptiness of the ADD room and reverberated in the glass windows caught the civil servant's attention. Mystified, he stood up from his computer and crept, in an orderly way, out into the vacant space. The fact his secretary was gone was no surprise; it was her birthday and her and a few colleagues were out having a meal. Still, he was surprised that Leek had apparently left with them.
The rumble came again and Lester was immediately on his guard. Something was not right. He slowly turned around to face the dark-haired form. He barely felt the punch.
"There's nothing here!" declared Stephen in irritation. "Not even any evidence of an anomaly and with all this stuff around, something would have been disturbed and it hasn't." He gestured to the shelves of the supermarket stock. "There never was any anomaly."
"Could it be a technical fault?" asked Jenny, willing to voice her views clearly with no Connor present.
Cutter shook his head. "No, Connor dotes over that ADD. He would have made sure nothing was wrong with it at least three times today." "Is something wrong, Sergeant?" he enquired, as Howard looked around, his confusion evident on his face.
"He's not here," he stated.
"Who isn't?"
"Meaden," put in Jenny. "I was going through his file earlier today. Turned out it hadn't been properly entered into the computer and, as a result, certain things had been overlooked. Some of the dates didn't match up, so I phoned up the MOD. The file was cut short, but they convinced me this was due to a technical error; said that there were traces of a format clash. Now, I'm not so sure." She sighed. "We've got to get back to the ARC."
The team jumped in the SUV, leaving everyone else to pack up.
When Lester came to, his first sensation was of heat on his face. The sharp intake of breath around his ear tugged him sharply into the real world. Without moving any other muscle, he opened his eyes and saw the Lycaenops move around to his back, investigating him. Rotating his eyes, he noted Cutter's stool just outside of arm's grasp. Realising he'd only have one opportunity, and that now was as good a time as any, he rolled sharply and pulled the stool down onto the lunging creature. It yowled, but Lester was hard pushed to care. Instead, he scrambled to his feet and hurried to the wide open door; he knew it had been purposely left open for this creature to hunt him down more easily.
Turing right, he hurried towards the armoury, only to round the bend and literally run into Abby and Connor, the latter of who seemed to be sporting a huge bite on his leg. The civil servant grabbed the pair and dragged them into a side room, slamming the door shut just in time to hear the Lycaenops collide with the door.
Then, he straightened his suit jacket and tie.
"Right. Which of you would care to explain why exactly we're cornered in our own base? Hmm? No takers?" He looked expectantly at the young duo.
"We haven't a clue," answered Abby. "It should be in the menagerie."
"Well, I hardly thought you'd willingly allowed it to take my job as boss of this madhouse!" cried Lester. "The question is: What are we going to do now?"
"But, that wasn't your question," stuttered Connor, before gulping at the look Lester was attempting to kill him with. He backed down. Again. The world was beginning to become muddled.
"We need to get to the armoury. It needs to be subdued, but Connor can't be running about the place; he's losing enough blood as it is and is starting to become confused. It came at us as we were getting dressed." Lester raised his eyebrows. "We'd had a shower. Separately. Just... don't ask." Lester nodded, then jumped back as the Lycaenops hit the door again.
"Right, well, we'll need a plan."
"Go faster!"
"I can't," asserted Howard to Hart. "I'm doing twenty over the limit and I really don't want to crash at this particular moment."
"There's still no answer from Lester. He's just not picking up," said Jenny. "Nor Abby or Connor. Hurry up!"
Howard refrained from speaking.
As soon as Connor opened the door, Abby and Lester charged, using a chair as a battering ram to bowl over the Synapsid. Connor closed the door and blocked it, sitting down heavily. He could feel the blood loss start to make him light-headed.
Abby chucked the chair at the creature, then ran after Lester, who was already making good progress to the armoury. She cornered and the Lycaenops just missed her leg. Speeding up, she overtook the less-fit civil servant and ran into the exercise area. Waiting for Lester, she pulled out a weight pole, ready to swing if her boss needed her to.
Lester came through a couple of seconds later, with the Lycaenops hot on his heels. Abby swung and there was a crack as she made contact with the creature's nose. The howl echoed down the empty corridors and made Connor shiver with a mixture of fear and joy; something had upset the creature.
T here was a clatter, causing Abby to turn around and see Lester wrestle another box open to reveal its bare insides. He looked at her in anger.
"There's no ammo," guessed Abby and the civil servant nodded in confirmation. "Right, well, we need another plan."
"Oh, brilliant. And I suppose you have one handy?" asked Lester. "LOOK OUT!" Abby whipped round, catching the creature a second blow.
"Grab the weights," she ordered.
"What?"
"Just grab them and climb onto the counter," she repeated, waving the pole at her foe menacingly. Not wishing to argue at a time like this, Lester clambered up in as dignified a manner as he could muster, heaving the weights up. Now, safely out of the way, his brain began to settle down and he realised the aim of Abby's actions.
Abby dodged around the Lycaenops' jaws, blocking its exit. Bringing the pole full circle made it step back. Its roar partially deafened her, but she stood her ground. It lunged and she parried it.
Noting Lester was in place, Abby strode out to attack. The pole whirled through the air in a figure of eight and the creature, wary of the danger this posed, backed up.
Abby trust the pole forward and it backed up further.
She slashed it sideways and it backed up again.
And was crushed by 200 kilos of iron. Lester hastily picked up another one, in case it wasn't enough, but Abby shook her head. The creature was dead.
Connor, meanwhile, was bored. It sounded stupid, but, as it was, he was stuck, alone and with little to do, bar pressing the wound. After a few minutes of nothing, he tugged out his phone and found it off. Funny, he didn't remember switching it off before he went under the shower and he certainly didn't have time afterwards.
When it lit up, it dinged with eleven missed calls, but there was no time to check them as it rang again.
"Connor? Thank goodness. What's happening there" rushed a stressed Jenny.
"Abby and Lester are struggling with the Lycaenops. Where are you?"
"Close," she replied. "Look Connor, we think it's Meaden. If you see..." The sentence trailed away as the phone was removed from Connor's ear. He stared up at Abby, who met his gaze as she spoke.
"The Lycaenops is down, but we need a medic for Connor. NOW!"
Ten minutes later found Connor in the care of medics and Abby and Lester being examined for any damage.
"Well?" asked Howard, as he surveyed the scene, arms folded. Jenny held out a picture of Meaden. The real Tony Angus Meaden. He was ginger and young.
"An engineer. Died in a car crash two months back. Never had been posted anywhere." She screwed up the page. "That Captain is nowhere to be found, but the fact he was heartless enough to take the identity and forge the papers... he was up to no good."
Howard let out a sour laugh. "You don't say. Who handled his hiring?"
Jenny sighed. "Leek. Rushed it through and cut a few corners in the checks. Said he felt we needed a new Captain after Nick and Stephen were stuck with that girl. Lester isn't half going to give him an earful." She turned as Cutter came up, thrust the paper in his hand and walked off. The scientist studied Howard carefully, before taking in the scene too.
"We've got a traitor in our midst," he suddenly stated. Howard glanced at him dubiously. "These papers, they were forged internally. Any corruption on the MOD system would be seen, but ours aren't protected as much, especially not against someone on the inside." He met Howard's eyes. "You believe me?"
Howard pondered the implications and the past few months carefully.
"Yes, I think I do," he whispered. "Still, three people are out of the picture." He nodded towards Abby, Connor and Lester. Utter hummed in thought.
"Maybe not. That creature couldn't have eaten all three. Someone would have survived." Howard agreed, then breathed out sharply.
"Well, you create your theories. Just so long as they don't make more paperwork for me. I've got enough and I don't need any as an early birthday present."
He strode out and Cutter smiled.
Review sil-vous-plait.