Chapter 10

The zoo was deserted. Well, this part of it was, anyway. It was still under construction. There hadn't been any sort of panic, at least not until two van loads of soldiers arrived, fully armed and followed by a beaten up Toyota Hilux. The ARC had already called through to the zoo to warn them of their impending arrival, and passed on some story about a bomb scare. The zoo officials were already quietly herding what few visitors there were off the premises, fixed grins apparent on every face. It was all going smoothly until two dozen armed men showed up.

Now they were up in the top corner of the zoo. It was being refurbished, apparently, for the arrival of a pair of sun bears the zoo was hoping to breed. The anomaly hadn't been too difficult to track down: it was shining out from the back of the carefully carved cave like a beacon.

They had already done one sweep of the area. Apart from the usual residents, there seemed to be nothing unusual. Anything that could have made its way through the anomaly could easily have made its way out of the semi-constructed enclosure, of course, but the only signs of life nearby were the birds flying overhead and the grizzly in the enclosure next door.

It was only once they'd locked the anomaly that Becker realised the enclosure next door was still under construction too.

"So it's just a bear then?" Becker frowned at Professor Mackenzie. "From our own timeline?"

"Not just a bear, no," the professor replied, edging closer to the rim of the unfenced enclosure. "Look at the shape of the head. The domed skull. My guess is it's a bit older than our bears. It looks like a cave bear. Middle to late Pleistocene era. Good at surviving ice ages. Treat it as if it has a permanently sore head."

"Oh good!" Becker raised an eyebrow. "Anything more useful back there, Prof? Like a suggested dose of tranquilliser dart?"

"If it's trying to hibernate, which it looks like it is, this should do the job," said the professor, passing a dart to Becker. "And call me Mack. Everyone else does."

"Okay," said Becker slowly, taking the dart and loading it. "And if its not hibernating?"

"I'll draw up the extra while you're taking aim."

"Thanks!"

The dart went in easily enough. The bear was sleeping when it hit. Very soon after, it was very much awake and very much annoyed. The dart may have gone in, but the thick hide of the bear meant that the tranquilliser had not. Soldiers scattered as the bear made a bee line for the anomaly enclosure.

"Any chance you could have warned me about that?" Becker snapped, pulling Mack out of the way as the bear charged past.

The professor was cut short in his reply by a scream from the direction of the anomaly. The locked anomaly.

"Meg!" Becker shouted, snatching up his gun and the remaining darts and running in the direction of the cry.

The bear was on its hind legs, advancing on the girl, torn between investigating her and trying to work out what was wrong with the light it had walked through. A noise from Becker, landing heavily in the enclosure, brought the bear round to face him. Gathering himself, the captain loaded the dart gun and took aim.

The first dart missed entirely, hitting the cave wall a scant foot above Meg's head as the bear dropped to all fours and charged. Becker felt the dart gun leave his hands before the second dart was fired. The first contact the bear made threw him sideways across the enclosure into the shallow, muddy pond being built there. Rolling left quickly, he avoided the second attack and got to his feet. He'd lost track of the gun and the darts.

"Unlock the anomaly!" he shouted to anyone who was listening. "Any time now would be good!"

Pelting out of the water, he picked up one of the steel fence supports that had been knocked over at some point. Turning, he dodged a paw the size of his head, the razor sharp claws catching on his upper arm and drawing blood. He swung the steel pipe sideways, catching the bear smartly on the side of its head. The vibration rung back through the pipe, knocking it out of his hands, and he scrambled backwards. He met rock wall.

The bear, stunned, paused, shaking its head. With a roar it reared up, it's fangs and claws bared. A sharp noise sliced through the air and the bear teetered. As it turned and lumbered off through the anomaly, now open and nearby, Becker saw the end of a tranquilliser dart hanging from an area of the bear's backside and winced at the exact location. The anomaly locked again, he sank to the ground.

"Remind me never, ever to annoy you," he muttered to Meg as she appeared holding the dart gun.

"It seemed likely to be the most vulnerable spot," Meg shrugged, putting the gun down. "You're hurt, let me take a look. I'm a qualified medic. They made us train at the gun club."

"You're in a gun club?" The disbelief was written all over Becker's face. The tranquilliser dart gun Meg had picked up was almost as big as she was!

"Projectiles was always my favourite area of physics in school!"

"Uh-huh!"

XXXX

Sarah watched the parade of soldiers that returned from the zoo anomaly. Two of them were carrying a stretcher. Becker was on the stretcher, his shirt off, his arm and ribs bandaged. Meg hurried along, trying to keep up with the soldiers. Professor Grant Mackenzie strode along calmly at the back. As Sarah was watching him, the professor looked up, waved, smiled and headed off in another direction out of the atrium.

"If they start singing 'Hail, the conquering hero comes', they're getting a pay cut," Lester drawled lazily from over Sarah's shoulder. "Word from the PM, Doctor Page. The rescue mission, as far as it ever was, has been officially cancelled." Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but Lester silenced her with a raised hand. "Unofficially, however, - and I do hope I do not have to stress that word too much! - what we each choose to do in our own time is our own business. I must add that, anomaly based emergencies not withstanding, therefore, I have issued a memo to the effect that all working hours in the ARC will now follow the conventional nine to five pattern. Do you understand me?"

Sarah closed her mouth and nodded.

"Try not to worry too much, Doctor Page," Lester sighed, turning away. "Connor Temple has been trying to get himself killed for years now. He hasn't succeeded so far, so there's no reason to suppose he will this time. And where there's life..."

Sarah looked back round to the atrium, suppressing a smile. The triumphant stretcher bearers had wound their way through the myriad of desks and out through the door towards the medical wing. Maybe she should go and see how he was. See if he needed anything. A new shirt perhaps...

XXXX

Well, the tour of the ARC had been interesting, Danny thought. For what it was, anyway. He'd only been allowed a brief glimpse of the inner workings and absolutely nothing of the labs. Can't have you taking future ideas back to your own time, Hisham had said: it might create a paradox. Danny wasn't sure what was so bad about those, but he had been assured they were dangerous things to mess with.

Now he had been given a bit of freedom. He didn't doubt he was being followed, but, after two days of the unbroken white walls of the palace and the hospital, he had demanded he be let out. Well, perhaps demanded was a bit strong. He had asked if he could explore the high city a bit and had been told that, if he was not back by dark, the imperial guard would be sent to fetch him. For his own safety of course!

Exploring had been fun though. Once you were out of the sterile hospital and the freakishly white palace, there was a bit more colour around. He was in some kind of pub or restaurant now. Whatever it was, it served food and alcohol. The translator he had been assigned had ordered a variety of city delicacies for him, but hadn't quite explained what was in them. They tasted all right anyway, Danny decided.

In front of him, he suddenly saw the translator's face change. The beneficent smile disappeared and a frown of consternation took its place. Other heads were turning now as well, and a pall of silence had descended over the crowded room.

Behind him, somebody demanded something. There was an answer. Not a meek one. Danny looked round. A tall elegant man was addressing a group of shorter people. These newcomers were closer to Danny's height, their eyes smaller and their noses more pronounced. They were obviously unwelcome.

"They are low citizens," his translator explained. "They live in the low city. They are not allowed in the high city. They are impure."

"Impure?" Danny asked, looking back to the translator.

"I have used the right word, I think. They are not fully human. Not as we are. Their blood is mixed with the sub-humans."

"Sub-humans?"

The disagreement behind Danny was growing in to an argument.

"We are humans," said the translator, indicating himself and the other occupants of the room. "You, in your time, are human. In our time, you are a sub-human. You have not come as far as us. We have travelled further than you."

"You've evolved further you mean?"

"Yes."

"So why..." Danny was cut off by a chair flying across the room and shattering against a wall. Immediately, the room erupted into a brawl. "Can have evolved that far ahead!" Danny muttered, vacating his chair and following the translator to the opposite end of the room.

The fight quickly spread, the crowded room turning into a mob as if someone had flicked a switch. As with so many pub fights Danny had seen, and ended, the room was a mass of writing bodies and utter confusion and it didn't take long before he was separated from the translator in the melee.

"This way, quick!" Danny turned at the new voice, feeling a hand pluck at his shirt sleeve.

Ducking to avoid blows and flying objects, Danny hurried in the direction of the voice. Once or twice, he say a hooded figure stop in the midst of the fighting and look round, it's face shaded by its hood. He followed it. It led him to an almost invisible door in the smooth wall and disappeared through, leaving the door open just a crack. He followed it. On the other side of the door was darkness. Dark walls leading along a dark corridor. He barely had time to register the fact there were stairs at the end of the corridor when the door closed behind him and he found himself in utter darkness.

XXXX

"I think she likes you," Sarah smirked.

From his bed, Becker stared at the ceiling and refused to comment. He had submitted to having his shirt removed and bandages wrapped round him because he was too wrung out by the bear encounter to do otherwise, plus it made sense to do so at the time. He had submitted to Meg standing over him while the ARC doctors checked him out because she had been filling the medical staff in on details he found sketchy at best. He had even submitted to the indignity of being fussed over by Meg once he'd been removed to the individual room because, well frankly he owed her: she'd just saved his life. Wasn't it meant to be the other way round?

Now Sarah had dropped by, granted just to bring him a clean shirt, and Meg had disappeared. And that bothered him.

"You know she thinks we're a couple," he said eventually, carefully keeping his voice even.

"Does she?" Sarah's voice was all innocence with just a hint of smirk.

"Sarah..."

"I know, I know: I'll set her straight."

"You know she saved my life?"

"Aren't you meant to be saving hers?"

"I had noticed that."

"You like her too, don't you?" Sarah's voice seemed a little sad this time.

"You okay?" Becker asked, risking turning his head a little.

"Yeah, yeah, just tired. You know."

"You should try going a round with a cave bear: that's tiring!"

"Really? Little Meg doesn't seem too tired."

"Does this mean you'll stop referring to her as the mouse then?"

"Maybe 'the mouse who roared'," Sarah conceded, getting up and heading for the door. "But just on special occasions."

XXXX

They were back at the camp, protected on one side by the waterfall and on the other by their fire. Abby was trying to sketch the little furry things they had seen as they made their way back through the tunnels. He was trying to angle mirrors to shine a steady light on the anomaly device. It would take some time but, from what he already knew, and from what he could reason out, he was fairly sure he could get it working again. Whether it would take them home, however, or just to another time era, was an entirely different matter. Without the artefact and the computer, there was no way of pre-programming the device.