Chapter 5

Kate's car jolted to a halt next to the van. They had driven through the small village of Kimmeridge in Dorset to a remote farm house and buildings surrounded by fields where they had been met by a rather plum, bespectacled young woman with a back pack who got into a battered old Volkswagen and led them down a series of farm tracks. They were now poised atop a cliff looking out into the Channel and across to Portland Bill.

"It's just down here," the plump woman called, gathering a hiking stick out of the can and shouldering her back pack once more before heading off down a footpath that led down the top of the cliff.

Glaring at the back of Becker's head as he ordered his men to follow the woman, Kate gradually became aware of a repeated knocking coming from the vicinity of her car. The boot of her car to be precise. Kate glanced over at Becker. He was starting to follow his men down the path but then, almost as if he felt her eyes on him, he turned and looked over his shoulder. Kate inclined her head in the direction of the car boot and saw Becker frown. He turned and shouted an order to his men. They stopped. Becker walked back up the hill towards a slightly sheepish Kate.

"Problem?" Becker asked, stopping less than a foot in front of Kate, considerably closer than she would have liked.

"S-Something in the boot," Kate stuttered, making a point of looking at the boot in question, rather than Becker. Technically, she decided, she still wasn't talking to him, she was just stating a fact to the world in general.

"Not investigating yourself this time?" Becker quipped.

That was it! All trace of fear, discomfort and whatever else was going on in Kate's head was immediately replaced by indignation.

"You're the security expert," she snapped. "It's your job to deal with stuff like this, not mine!"

"Technically, it's your car, therefore your responsibility," Becker replied smoothly. "Perhaps a cat crawled in and fell asleep."

"Just check the thing!" Kate yelled, waving a hand in the direction of the boot and stepping out of Becker's way.

Becker folded his arms and turn to follow Kate's movement. Kate huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Please," she added, sighing.

Becker smiled politely, nodded and turned back to the car boot. Holding his handgun ready, he eased off the catch of the boot and stepped back. For a moment, the lid of the boot remained hovering just above its catch point, then, slowly, it began to rise.

Kate held her breath, her attention torn between the car and Becker. What if it really was a deadly creature in there? What if her strop had sent Becker to his death? What if they were unleashing a deadly new predator on the world that could wipe out the whole of humanity?

Okay, maybe she was being a tiny bit melodramatic...

She frowned at the sight of Becker lowering the handgun and realised with a start that she hadn't looked at the car for a while. She remedied the situation immediately and felt her jaw drop. It wasn't a ferocious predator climbing out of the back of her car, nor was it some man-eating triffid or even, indeed, a stray cat. It was a stray child instead.

"Hi, Uncle Pete," the boy said, then, his eyes flicking quickly over to Kate and back: "I mean James. The light's really bright after being in there so long. I think my eyes need time to adjust."

"John, what are you doing here?" Becker groaned. "Your father will kill me if I don't get you back to him in one piece!"

"His father?" Kate asked, folding her arms and glaring at the two males.

"He's Lester's son," Becker explained, leaning past John and closing the boot again. "I'll have to call it in. The, er, 'incident' is going to have to wait."

Kate watched as Becker walked a short distance away and made the call to the ARC. Once she was sure his attention was otherwise engaged, she sidled over to John.

"So, John," she said, smiling sweetly. "Who's Uncle Pete?"

"Oh, ah," John laughed nervously. "The sun must have been in my eyes. I got my uncles mixed up. You know it's really dark in that boot and really bright out here..."

"Uh-huh," Kate nodded, raising an eyebrow. "Nice try, kiddo, but firstly, you're facing north. Secondly, it's cloudy. And thirdly, I know exactly how much light gets into that boot when you're hiding inside it!"

"Why would you hide in your own car boot?" John asked, bemused.

"Long story, probably better not to ask," Kate shrugged.

"Sounds like Uncle James!" John muttered.

Before Kate had a chance to interrogate the boy further, Becker turned back round and was met by two smiles of obviously fake innocence. He paused, looked from Kate to John, frowned, then continued walking over.

"Do I have to go back?" John whined, tilting his head to one side and looking up at Becker angelically in the manner of manipulative eight-year-olds everywhere.

"Hmm," Becker replied. "It does seem that you might be in luck, John. There appears to be an outbreak of some sort of flu virus in the ARC and your father wants me to keep an eye on you for the time being."

"Cool!"

"Is that safe?" Kate cut in. "Children are hardly noted for their safety skills. Especially not in situations like this!"

"We don't know what the 'situation' is yet," Becker reminded her. "Our job is to assess the 'situation' and monitor things until Cutter's team can get some back-up down here or the 'situation' disappears. Trust me, I've had more troublesome bystanders to worry about. You should know: you were one!"

"Hey! I'm a professional!"

"The only thing that makes you a professional in this job is the pay check! None of us have enough training to deal with every possibility. We just have to do the best we can. Right now, the best we can involves taking John with us and keeping him out of trouble. Since you're such an expert in causing it, you can have that job!"

John stood looking up at the two adults, his gaze moving from one to the other like an observer at a tennis match. As their argument had progressed, they had closed in on each other until they were almost nose to nose. Now they were frozen, neither willing to be the first to back down and both oblivious to their audience. Feeling vaguely intrusive, the boy coughed politely and grinned up as two faces looked down at him.

"So where are we going?" John asked.

XXXX

Connor sat on the side of the bed, reading through the report that Peta had brought to him. It certainly was just as well that they hadn't sent a manned vehicle through instead of a remote one: anyone who had spent an hour or so through there without protective clothing would be seriously regretting it by now.

"And this is everything we could get from the samples we took?" Connor asked, rubbing a hand over his still tired eyes.

"There are one or two other tests Sam wants to do, but they take time," Peta replied. "This is everything we have so far."

Connor nodded and stared at the page, blinking. Everything was slightly blurry. The two or three hours of sleep that he had managed to grab had done little to make up for the two or three days worth that he hadn't.

"I need a coffee," he groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "And I suppose somebody ought to let Lester know."

"I can do that, if you like," Peta offered.

"Nah, don't worry about it. It's better coming from me, anyway. Just try and make sure I don't walk into anything on the way to the door, right."

XXXX

Helen watched as her army of clones preceded her through the anomaly. It was an anomaly she had created, with the help of this lovely future technology that Cai had been so willing to part with, and she knew there would be no surprises waiting on the other side of it. Not like the one that had been waiting on the other side of the anomaly her ex-husband had recently investigated. She looked over to the younger version of Nick Cutter double checking his rucksack a meter or so away from her. The time in the caves had done its work. Not only was he as devoted to her as he had ever been, but even Connor hadn't spotted the lack of a few years in her new partner's face.

So far, so good. The boy wonder had finally worked out that his pet anomaly was more than he had bargained for. Soon, if Helen's calculations and new knowledge of the future was correct, Connor would have to make use of his changeable new toy. It wasn't her doing. She hadn't caused the crisis that was now fast approaching. She had merely ready the signs and given a key player a nudge in the right direction.

After all, she thought, these things were never the end. Only a new beginning.