Chapter 5

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine but belong to Impossible Pictures™.

When James Lester learned that the confrontation in the bathhouse proved to be even worse than an ordinary fiasco, he was, naturally, upset.

"This is worse than the time when Leek had us running around in the circles with his bombs and neutrally clamped future predators," he told the ARC field team at their emergency meeting. "Shaggy, Parker – good thinking regarding those tasers of Anderson; Becker – good to see that your army hype does have some basis in reality; and Merchant – care to share why you got so out of character?"

Emily took a deep breath, looked at Matt for reassurance, and turned back to face Lester.

"Remember when I, and Charlotte, and Ethan came to your time for the first time? Well, the time we had just left – the one with those arboreal raptors you call them – belonged to those creatures, and their mistress, whom they called Iymrith. Before then, our tribe was more than just three people, but much more. Those creatures we just encountered in the bathhouse... they attacked us with no provocation – we meant no harm, we were just passing through!"

"And the knife work?" Lester said gently, realizing for once that this topic was very, very painful for Emily Merchant.

"Oh, that was before." Emily explained, calming down a bit. "When we were travelling through the Ice Age Europe, we rescued a woman who'd been gored in the crux by a prehistoric wild boar. We healed her, and in gratitude, she taught me how to fight with the kukris," Emily's voice grew wistful. "You know, I half-regret that I didn't insist that she comes with us. Maybe, if she had been with us when those monsters attacked, we would have been able to fight them off the first time..."

"Very good," Lester said in his more usual manner, "but we still need to know more about them."

"More? They work in pairs – usually; they are armed with what captain Becker calls repeating rifles, some sort of smaller firearms – pistols of some kind, and those knives. Alexandra... I saw her only distantly, when we were fleeing, so I cannot really tell anything about her; and Ethan-"

"Thank you, Emily, but we know all about Ethan already," Lester said quickly.

"Oh. Right. Well, then I should also add that these creatures can blend into their surroundings, like chameleons or the devilfish that can be eaten for seafood," Emily said primly. "That's why we couldn't see them at first, too."

There was a pause as everyone thought over Emily's last words.

"Okay, that's new," Lester finally broke it.

"Not really. We already had something similar to that – that gremlin from the future, remember?" Connor said quietly.

"Well-"

"Excuse me," Lorraine spoke via intercom, "but April Leonard had recovered consciousness and coherence, and you told me to notify you when she did?"

"Ah, excellent," James said cheerfully. "Shaggy, you're with me. It is time to give Miss Leonard a little chat, and you are invited! Oh, and one more thing. Becker – start working on the security. If we're going to be at war with some colour-changing dinosaur men, I want upgrades!"

"Yes, Mr. Lester," Becker only nodded, and Lester left (taking Connor with him) to talk to April Leonard for real.

End chapter 5