Abby violently shook Connor as Becker reminded her that they had to leave. Connor jerked awake.
"Just watch out for Darth Burton!" he yelled before nervously realising where he was. Abby and Matt chuckled. "What are you guys doing here? If Phillip finds you I'm going to be in – "
"Never mind us, what are you doing here Con?" Abby asked in abruptly serious tones.
"I've been working on the solution."
"Solution to what?" cut in Matt.
"I can't tell you. Phillip doesn't want to alarm – "
"Danny asked me to pass on a message when he left. It was: Phillip is connected to Helen Cutter, he can't be trusted." Matt interrupted again.
The shock on Connor's face was plain to see.
"Phillip and Helen Cutter are nothing alike!" he denied.
"They both have a thirst for knowledge that threatens to destroy them!" argued Matt.
"But Phillip-"
"Tell us what's going on!" Abby demanded.
"Fine! You bullied the answer out of me. Last night I found out that the anomalies are multiplying; soon there will be thousands of them everywhere. I told Phillip, he took me here and – " he trailed off.
"And what?" persisted Matt, he knew more than anyone that every little detail mattered.
"I don't remember anything after that, he told me something important. I was very scared and then I was here and only my invention mattered."
"What invention?"
"It should be – " Connor began proudly. "- oh no."
He started searching the messy room but his contraption was missing. Eventually he emerged with a long metal tube in his hand. It had a jagged edge where it had been broken.
"Charming." Commented Jess as Connor started to swear.
"But it was right here!"
"Let's go Connor."
"But – "
"CONNOR!" shouted Abby, he was testing what little remained of her patience.
"Coming." He responded dutifully.
As the trio left the door Connor's stomach rumbled loudly.
"How long have you been working here for?" wondered Matt.
"Since yesterday evening up till now, must've forgotten to have breakfast." Connor wilted under Abby's glare. "Oops?"
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Despite his short nap Connor still felt drained. Abby noticed the dark circles under his eyes and softened towards him slightly. Only slightly however – he'd still chosen his boss over her.
"What's the best route out?" said Matt.
"I wish I knew." Connor muttered.
"Turn your earpiece on Connor!" Abby lectured.
Connor took it out from his pocket and placed it in his ear. He should've known that Bess and Jecker would be on the receiving end of this all.
"Hi." He greeted.
"Okay if you look to your right you should see an exit." Jess instructed.
Together they all turned to their right but witnessed something else instead. An anomaly glittered in the room next to Connor's and their greatest foe yet had just stepped through it.
"Oh my god!" Connor exclaimed.
"We may have a problem." Added Matt.
"May!"
"What's going on!" demanded Becker in frustration.
He hated being blind to danger.
"In the room to the right of this one Helen just stepped through an anomaly." Abby explained after a moment of stunned silence.
They watched in horror as Phillip strode towards her and handed her a remote. It had split away more cleanly from the rest of Connor's invention compared to the metal tube. There was no jagged edge this time.
"Connor, is that the device you and Abby used to escape the Cretaceous? The one you imploded that dinosaur with?" asked Matt.
It'd been the first time he'd met the pair. It was too impossible a memory to forget.
"Yes." answered Abby.
Connor was lost for words. His boss had stolen and vandalised HIS creation and now as giving it to the woman who murdered Nick Cutter.
"Maybe – maybe he's trying to trick her? Maybe he's trying to make her stay here long enough to be arrested?" Connor questioned, but the words sounded hollow even to his ears.
"No. This is a past version of Helen, he's helping her. Connor you of all people know what that remote allowed her to do!" Abby argued. "Her ability to make her own anomalies was part of what trapped us in the Cretaceous for so long!"
Connor stared at his feet. He'd made that remote. Not only had he misplaced his trust but he'd helped a psychopath and was singlehandedly responsible for trapping Abby in the Cretaceous. It'd been his fault before but only partly. Now he felt the whole incident was his responsibility. Somehow, some way he had to make this right. He wasn't sure which emotion was the most powerful: guilt, shock or hate.