Chapter 11

The house was dark. It had been dark the last time Sarah had walked past, and the time before that. She hadn't stopped those times. Now she did. Making her way up the steps, she pushed the buzzer and waited.

No reply.

She looked through the letterbox and shouted Jenny's name.

No reply.

Hunting around above the ledge, under the flowerpot, under the doormat, Sarah eventually found a key taped to the underside of the windowsill and let herself in.

The door was stiff, partially because of the pile of unanswered mail lying behind it. There were no papers or bottles of sour milk though, so she presumed Jenny's absence was a planned one.

Closing the door quietly behind her, she made her way through the house. Everything was where it ought to be, as far as she could tell, and a fine layer of dust covered each and every surface in the house. The ground floor told her nothing, except that Jenny had emptied her fridge and cupboards of food that might spoil. Another indicator of a planned absence, or just a person who eats out almost all the time. She made her way up the stairs, trying not to reach out to the bannister and disturb the dust there.

In the bedroom, she found Jenny's wardrobe. It was extensive and mostly intact. It was also organised into outfits, and those outfits were organised in decreasing order of formality. It was the hangers at the far end of the wardrobe, the least formal, that were empty. Sarah rubbed a hand over her chin in thought. Without knowing Jenny better, she had no idea what the missing clothes were, or what else was missing. What seemed definite, however, was that she had planned her absence, packed lightly and only taken the barest necessities with her.

XXXX

Danny winced as a bright greenish light suddenly flared into life, illuminating the corridor and stairs. As his eyes got used to the light he looked over at his new companion.

"You speak English," he stated calmly. "Who are you?

"There are a lot of other people trying to figure that one out," said the hooded man, "but you may call me Kiran. It's what I've been called now for over half of my life."

The man pushed his hood back to show sandy brown hair, a jutting chin and light brown eyes. What struck Danny most forcibly, was the fact that those eyes were exactly the same shape and size as his own.

"You're human?" he asked. Then, correcting himself as he remembered the conversation with his translator, he added: "from my time?"

"There or thereabouts," said Kiran. "Late twentieth century London."

"Early twenty first, also London," Danny stretched out a hand to him. "The name's Danny. Danny Quinn."

"Really?" Kiran blinked in amusement. "What a coincidence."

"Why?" Danny frowned.

"Because," Kiran smiled, "Danny Quinn was my big brother's name."

XXXX

The anomaly detector klaxon was getting louder, Sarah decided as she hurried to her office for her jacket.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah blurted out, staring at the tall form of Professor Grant Mackenzie apparently engrossed in her notes.

"Just looking for you, Doctor Page," Mackenzie replied nonchalantly. "This is very interesting work you've been doing here. I do hope you don't mind me taking a look. Nicky often shared his findings with me, God rest him."

"I do mind, actually," said Sarah, picking up the jacket and keeping herself between Mackenzie and the door. "Some of those papers are personal."

"Shouldn't leave them lying around out here then surely," Mackenzie smiled. "You never know who might drop by."

"There's an anomaly to deal with, and Becker's still out of action. We should really get going."

"Of course, Doctor Page. Do lead the way."

XXXX

Please, don't let it be bugs, Sarah thought. Please, don't let it be bugs!

The Hilux, now driven by one of Becker's men, pulled up outside the old quarry. It had been quite a drive to get here, and there was no sign of disturbance, but the hand held was still indicating an anomaly somewhere within.

The teams piled out, Becker's deputy taking charge of the military personnel with practised ease. Trying to keep one eye on Mackenzie, one on Meg and one on the surrounding area, Sarah followed the alpha and beta teams of soldiers into the quarry.

The quarry was eerily quiet, it's high walls closing out the outside world. Behind her, Sarah could see the gamma and delta teams spreading out to form a perimeter around the area. Somehow it made her feel even more enclosed, like a gladiator waiting to face his next opponent.

Something scuttled, yes scuttled, behind her and Sarah froze. Everyone else had done the same and she didn't like the looks on their faces.

"Permission to shoot to kill, ma'am," said Becker's deputy, deferring to Sarah as the recognised authority.

"What time zone are we looking at, Professor?" Sarah said, willing her voice to stay steady.

"Definitely future, Doctor Page," came the reply.

Sarah looked at the waiting soldier and nodded. A round of gunfire rang out, echoing loudly as it bounced from one side of the quarry to the other. Only when the soldier called the all clear did Sarah dare turn round.

It was a cockroach. Sarah hated cockroaches. They were smelly, creepy crawlies that were almost impossible to kill. The big ones were the worst. Even they, however were not a patch on the creature lying in a shattered heap on the ground behind her.

The carapace had to be a meter and a half long at least, maybe two. The antennae were at least twice that. The legs were as thick as a small tree and the jaws... Sarah shuddered when she looked at the jaws.

After that, finding the anomaly was easy. All they had to do was follow the cockroach trail. It was soon locked and the area swept for any other errant insects. The rover was made ready and sent through. After a half hour or so of sample taking and filming, the rover returned and the anomaly was locked again. It was all going so smoothly. Sarah hated it when that happened: there was almost always a catch.

It came when the rover operators were reviewing the film and isotope samples. One of them called Sarah over, excitedly waving a list of figures at her.

"What? What is it?" Meg called, hurrying over.

"I don't know, I don't speak geek!" Sarah shrugged. She was quickly joined by both Meg and Professor Mackenzie.

"It's the readouts," the rover operator explained excitedly. "We've never had two such similar before!"

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked, still confused.

"Look! Look at the screen! Look at the film! It's the same! The same place, but different!"

"The same as what?" Meg and Sarah cried in unison.

"The racetrack anomaly," said the operator. "It's the same time period as the racetrack anomaly. And the same place! Only this time, something's changed!"

XXXX

That should do it, he thought. Only one way to find out, of course, and silly to try it in the middle of a rocky cave, but if he could get it through the waterfall without getting water into it...

"How's it going?" Abby called over. It was only the tenth time she'd asked, so he wasn't too irritated. Plus, this time he actually had something to tell her.

"I think I've got it," he said. "Just need to try it out."

"Well, let's go then!" said Abby, getting to her feet. "We'll pack up everything and take a couple of torches with us, just in case. We'll have to put the fire out here, though..."

"I said we need to try it out! I didn't say it would definitely work!"

"Connor, we're never going to find out if it definitely works unless we test it," Abby explained patiently, "and the only way to test it is to walk through and see what's on the other side."

Connor opened his mouth to argue this point, found he couldn't and closed it again. He helped Abby with the packing up, chased the proto-mammal who had been bold enough to edge gradually closer to the fire and let Abby draw it, and put the fire out. Together they climbed down the small cliff behind the waterfall and made their way through the spray to the bank, oblivious to the small furry form doggedly following them.

When they were far enough out in the open to lessen the risk of opening an anomaly into solid rock or deep water, Connor keyed in a few things on the device, then held it up and pressed a button.

A bright shining anomaly appeared before them.

"Super cool!"

The small furry animal chirruped in agreement as it followed Connor and Abby through the anomaly.

~Fini~