Chapter 8

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

The zoo of London – Abby's old haunt – was quiet, maybe even too quiet, as the ARC's field team arrived in it, the visiting crowds having already fled in panic.

Normally, one would expect the team to have come alone, but this time they were not. This time, Becker took a small number of his men as backup. In the past, perhaps some of his former teammates would have objected quite passionately about that, but by now there was only Connor left, and he was currently busy with Lester and April Leonard, dealing with the none-field team business of the ARC and Prospero™.

Of course, Connor had been quite reluctant to stay behind – the memories of him almost breaking away from the team due to Philip's manipulations in past were still raw – but this time the situation was different, with Abby's absence being the most noticeable one. (The absence of Philip was a close second, though.)

Still, Connor (and Lester, and April, one supposed) did leave their mark on the ARC's field team, by supplying the team with video cameras to provide the feedback, in case of a similarly-related emergency like the one that occurred in the bathhouse – another new development that gone with minimum fuss, especially by the ARC's standards.

"Don't get your expectations too high," Emily muttered crossly when Jess had explained to her how video cameras worked. "Ethan is too cunning to repeat himself so quickly – you underestimate him!"

"No we don't, it's just that we can't successfully foresee what he and his new friends will do next, and besides – we still have to deal with the time anomalies, it is still our duty," Becker replied, then saw everyone else looking at him at a certain way and amended himself. "Fine, it's still our job – happy now?"

"Deliriously," Emily muttered in reply, and that was the end of it. Well, actually, the end of it happened after Becker gave Jess one of his stingball grenades "in case of an emergency", and since it wasn't an actually explosive grenade and with Ethan around any sort of weaponry – even non-lethal one – was never amiss, not even Matt could truly object to it, and so the notion passed, and the now the ARC field team was here, at the London Zoo, complete with reinforcements.

And it was still too quiet.

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"I don't like it," muttered Jess, as she subtly came closer to Becker, "this place is too quiet for a zoo. That the people are gone is one thing, but for all of the animals to be quiet? Something is too wrong."

"Yes, Jess," Becker nodded in agreement, doing his best to bite on one of his more typical answers: "yes young padawan, master of the bleeping obvious you are."

"I think I see something out of place," Emily called out silently, pointing to a piece of paper nailed to a nearest tree with some sort of a penknife. "I'll go and check it out."

"Emily, wait!" Matt called out, but Emily was already there, taking off the paper. "Dear ARC," she read aloud, "were you really expecting us to do the same thing twice? No! Ethan and Co."

"It's a trap!" Jess yelled shrilly and flung her missile at building to Emily's right. She failed to hit her intended target, and hit a wall instead, causing the grenade to explode and to send pellets everywhere, but for the future predator, who perhaps for the first time in its life had missed its lunge, it was enough.

"Oh!" Emily swore, as several more of the future predators appeared on the scene, ready to lunge at the people. "What are these things?"

"Future predators!" yelled Matt and Becker at the same time, just as the Zoo's speakers sprung to life. A sudden outburst of sound was perhaps the only thing that could stun a future predator, or even several of them, and that what happened now: the monsters froze long enough for Becker's men (and of course Becker and Matt themselves) to bring them down with the EMPs.

"You know," Connor's voice sounded through the comm.-links, "this was actually kind of cool, all of this remote-control rescuing, you know?"

The mystery of the zoo's conveniently activating sound system was explained.

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"Yes, the cameras began to send information as soon as you attached them to the EMP barrels," Connor explained patiently, "and no, it was Lester's idea, but yes, I thought that you'd figure it out before anything had happened, so I'm sorry if there are some misunderstandings-"

"Connor," Becker said patiently, "you're babbling. Please, stop channelling Jess at her lowest, and be yourself!"

"Okay, let's try this again," Connor took a deep breath. "Guys, I'm sorry for being so sneaky – it was Lester's idea of keeping an eye on the team."

"Makes sense, though before the control center was doing just fine without being so in control," Jess commented, perhaps a bit snidely.

"This is Lester's version of dealing with survivor's guilt," Becker mused. "Got to admit, I never thought that he would have any guilt ever. Guess I was wrong." (Jess slapped him slightly on the shoulder.) "So, what now?"

"Now we deal we just accept that things have changed around here and move on?" Emily suggested and her suggestion was accepted with more or less good graces.

End chapter 8