[[Authors Note: Hey! I was so surprised and pleased to see the responses I got on the first chapter that I decided to upload this next one here as soon as I finished writing it. I didn't expect to get any reads within a day of uploading my little work of fiction, so to get reviews already with such positive words on really made my night: so thank you for all of those. This chapter focuses more on a certain two team members, though also delves into the infiltration hinted at in the previous chapter. Hope you like it; please let me know if you do :) ]]
CHAPTER {2} INFILTRATION
"On the twenty eighth of June, last year, a tyrannosaurus rampaged through the busy streets of the centre of London. Eight people were killed. The rest were severely damaged: emotionally and physically. Call this what you like: a military test gone wrong, a public awareness campaign which went out of hand. Whatever you say won't change what it really is — its murder."
Connor Temple and Abby Maitland had been traversing around the jewellery store closest to their apartment on the hunt for wedding rings when Becker had called. The trip had mainly consisted of Connor acting like a child in a sweet shop – muttering "cool" under his breath, and occasionally pointing to a ring he liked, calling over to Abby who was in mid conversation with the saleswoman about how there was some sexy stuff on his side of the store. Despite this, they had been inches away from deciding on a pair that they both liked, when Connor's phone began to buzz; three minutes after excusing himself to take the call, he entered the store once more, grabbing Abby's hand, telling her they were needed as he half pulled her, half walked with her back to the car park.
"Anomaly?" Abby asked as they got into the car, waiting for Connor to tell her where exactly she was supposed to drive to.
"One opened not far from here; no creature incursion, but they need new locking mechanism." Connor corrected as Abby started up the car, immediately making their way to the ARC. It wasn't the couple's day off, so to speak; when jobs were as unpredictable as theirs were, it was hard to schedule days where not even a gateway to the past could get them out of bed. Members of the team — though not including Jess, who, being the hub of the operation, was needed constantly — had taken to choosing their own days off, on the conditions that they could return to the ARC at a moment's notice, if need be. Perhaps it was this tightly, yet blurry, packed schedule that was responsible for Abby and Connor, despite it being a year since their initial engagement, not yet being able to call each other the titles of 'wife' or 'husband'.
If you were to walk up to a randomly selected bystander on the street, and explained that, for a living, you used equipment that you designed to close temporal intersections by sending out an electromagnetic pulse that reversed their polarity, the person would either think you're utterly mad, or madly intelligent. But for Connor, all the things previously stated were now just in his nature. It was his life, and there was nothing crazy about it to him. Six years of dealing with the anomalies (one of which consisted of surviving living in the cretaceous) altered your view upon things. It had taken some persuasion from the team to get back into researching the anomalies; the fear of falling into an abyss that leaded to the same outcome of his work with Philip Burton was always present. Fear of failing Nick Cutter, Abby and the rest of the team was more prominent. Yet eventually, the knowledge that he could be spending time saving and helping people, and advancing on Cutter's work, outweighed the darker thoughts.
They handed the new mechanism to Matt within thirteen minutes of leaving the jewellery store (it would have been slightly less, but the pair had decided picking up a black box and communication ear piece each wouldn't be too bad an idea.) Within another four minutes, the anomaly was sealed and the faulty locking device was packed away and put into Abby and Connor's car, ready for Connor to analyse and fix back at the ARC. Fast forward another thirty minutes and the unfamiliar alarm would sound throughout the whole government research facility.
Once returning back at the ARC, the team dispersed. Connor took the defective apparatus downstairs, where he could hopefully grasp an understanding as to why it failed. Emily and Matt walked over to Jess in the control room, informing her that the anomaly site would need to be cornered off until it closed (which was retorted to with an eye roll, a "you're hilarious" and a grin from Jess, along with Matt and Emily's realisation that, of course, Jess had already made sure of that.) Becker was in the weapons room, reloading his EMD (newer versions of the original ones Matt had designed, now with enough charge to — hopefully — take down a giganotosaurus), and Abby made the decision to visit the menagerie; where she was immediately greeted by Rex, the coelurosauravus that may be losing his colour, but certainly not his enthusiasm.
The alarm that sounded when an anomaly had been detected was well known to the herpetologist's ears- the fire alarm too (due to government fire safety protocols.) But the long, blaring bleeps that sounded, causing her to pour too much of the sand mix she had been making for Sid and Nancy, was alien. It was as unsettling as it was unfamiliar.
The noise was the parade music for the man and the woman, dressed in completely black attire, who entered the menagerie as if it were no big deal. One, male, held a tranquilizer dart gun, and the other, female, a camera. One item they supported was intended to be used on the creatures they knew were beyond the door that Abby Maitland had firmly positioned herself in front of. The other item was for anyone that doubted they could get the proof they had been yearning for.