Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
3.7-2 Evening
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Jack took the coelurosauravus from Connor.
"Thanks mate," he told his sister's former flat mate. "I really appreciate this."
"Didn't do it for you," Connor replied quietly, his brown eyes dark. He turned and walked away.
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Connor hurriedly climbed back into the ARC's huge SUV.
"Thanks mates," he told Becker, Hendricks and Stephenson. "I really appreciate your helping me get Rex back for Abby."
Becker started up the SUV, flipped on the headlights, and then in a gesture reminiscent of Lester, he pushed Connor down in the front seat of the SUV.
"What?" squawked Connor.
"If you don't want Abby to see you," replied Becker as he shifted the huge vehicle into drive, "keep your head down."
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Becker drove the SUV away from Abby's flat. He had spent more time behind the wheel today than usual. First it was Abby's demand for dinosaur transportation with the dracorex, then Connor's request for back up with retrieving Rex, and now he was driving Connor away from Abby's flat.
"Didn't you used to be flat mates with Abby?" asked Becker.
"Well, yeah," answered Connor "but her baby brother's in town, and he needed a place to stay…" His voice trailed off, and he turned his head to pretend to look at something in the darkness outside the SUV's window.
"Where do you want me to drop you?" he asked Connor.
The young scientist turned to face him, brown eyes open wide. "Uh, back at the ARC," Connor replied "that would be fine."
Becker turned the vehicle back towards the ARC. "How long is her brother in town for?"
"Don't know really," replied Connor "it was supposed to be for just a few days, but that was nearly two months ago."
Becker snorted. He kept telling himself, your job is to keep them alive. You're not to meddle in their personal affairs. It seemed as if Abby was the only person working at the ARC who didn't know that Connor was staying with Lester. Bad enough thought Becker that he felt like a taxi driver some days; he wasn't going to add agony aunt to his resume.
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Sarah was excited. "It's like Ammut all over again," she exclaimed raising her hands in the air as she paced across the Cutter's living room.
"Calm down," replied Professor Cutter chuckling. "Now tell me all about it."
"There was a dracorex, and a medieval knight," said Sarah "the anomaly has got to fit somewhere into our research model." She turned to face the bent and twisted rods soaring through the Cutter's living room.
Claudia came into the living room carrying a tea tray.
"Oh," exclaimed Sarah with a happy smile "you're showing more now."
Claudia sat the tray down on a low table beside her husband's chair, then straightened up and placed her hand on her baby bump. "You should visit more often, she replied to Sarah with a smile as she twisted the switch, turning on the lamp.
"It gets dark so early now," said Claudia as she sat down next to Nick. "Now, what's got you both so excited?"
"Well," began Nick as he took a biscuit, "we know that ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians have known about anomalies, they built the sun cage to contain one."
"And Connor's locking mechanism is our way to control the anomalies," added Sarah as she sat down and reached for a knife to begin spreading clotted cream across a scone.
"Well, I doubt it is really controlling the anomalies," said Claudia thoughtfully as she picked up the teapot and began to pour, "finding the anomalies, locking them, that's all well and good, but we need to find out why they're happening in the first place."
"We've been trying to figure that out since we started," said Cutter as he picked up one of the large cups and took a sip.
"What if," said Sarah "we're looking at this wrong… and we're not supposed to be locking the anomalies."
"Sarah," asked Nick "what exactly do you mean by that?"
Sarah took a sip of her tea to give herself a moment. "Our research model," she began "seems to be proof that anomalies have been coming and going for millennia."
"Now you sound like Connor," snorted Cutter. "Don't tell me you believe his natural phenomena theory?"
"Well why not?" replied Sarah "It wasn't that long ago that people believed thunder and lightening was caused by Gods arguing in the heavens."
Claudia chuckled. The look on Nick's face was priceless.
"We should have this discussion with the Lester's, your team, and the team from my department," she said.
Sarah looked at Claudia with a confused expression on her face. "What?"
"I thought you knew," said Claudia in surprise "When Nick's team moved to the ARC, the team I work with stayed at the home office. Our department fields the anomaly alerts for human time periods… you return creatures, we return people… and if we can't return them, we've got an in with social services."
"Your department has an anomaly detector?" exclaimed Sarah incredulously.
"Well yes, Connor's built at least a dozen now, we dispersed them throughout the United Kingdom. I hear the Canadian government is requesting one too," answered Claudia "The ADD we have has a filter set to find anything within the last ten thousand years."
The two women looked at each other.
"I really don't understand how you got the anomaly to a medieval era," Claudia added. "The filter on your anomaly detector should have blocked the signal; you really shouldn't have picked it up at all."
Now it was Nick's turn to look confused. He knew his wife worked with Lester's wife in another facility similar to the ARC. And he knew there were more ARCs being established. The anomalies were too frequent and too scattered for only one ARC to be able to handle everything. But this was the first he had heard of a modification to Connor's Anomaly Detection Device.
"What filter?" asked Nick "And who made it?"
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James Lester had been at Whitehall all day. Research at the archives was always full of surprises.
Right now, he was reviewing the ARCs records, and their connection to the military. Professor Morton's work on meteorological test results was classified… still, after all these years. But the diary the team had brought back from the safe house had given Lester some new insight into the direction of the military's research. Lester was looking for anything to keep Christine Johnson out of the ARC.
The phone on his desk buzzed. The voice on the intercom announced Cutter on line one. James picked up the phone. He held the receiver away from his ears until the voice on the other end subsided.
"You know you can't come back to work until the doctor signs off on your medical release" Lester told Cutter. He listened a moment, and sighed. Great. Cutter had found something else to complain about. Lester listened to the professor some more. His eyebrows raised up, momentarily making him look something like an owl.
"Really?" Lester asked "I'll have to get back to you on that."
There was a pause as the voice on the phone went off on another tirade.
"No," replied Lester "I don't know the answers to your questions yet, but you can be sure I'll get to the bottom of this." He slammed the phone down hard. Lester stared at it for a moment, thinking. Then he picked up the receiver and dialed a number.
"Hello Vivian," he said. "I've just had a rather odd conversation with Cutter."
"James," she chuckled "isn't that how you describe all your conversations with Cutter?"
Lester could almost see the smirk on her face. "Well," said Lester "he seems to think that some sort of filter has been placed on the ADD."
"We did have a filter on your anomaly detector," admitted Vivian sounding worried. "It went offline this morning. That wasn't supposed to happen. I think it might have been sabotaged. "
Lester eyes widened. "Vivian," he pleaded "don't you think it's time we talked some more about your reason for being here? Can't you tell me what is supposed to happen, what are we trying to prevent?"
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Danny Quinn had kept an eye out on Christine Johnson when she left the ARC. The woman didn't seem nearly as upset about losing her little power play as Danny would have expected.
She had left the ARC and gone to visit some entrepreneur. They had talked briefly, then Christine Johnson had left the man's offices with a self satisfied smile on her face. Danny didn't like that.
He called a friend who still worked on the police force. "I got a little unofficial request," Danny said. "What can you tell me about a bloke named Philip Burton?"
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Abby thought the SUV turning the corner at the end of the darkening street looked like one of the ARCs, but of course that was ridiculous. Nobody from the ARC would be stopping by her flat this late in the evening.
She twisted the key in the lock, opened the door, then stepped inside the flat.
"Jack," she called "we need to go get Rex back from your mates."
The creature in question chirped from atop the stair railing.
"Rex!" exclaimed Abby in delight. With a leap, Rex soared around the flat, coming to land in Abby's arms. "You're back."
"I told you he'd be back today," said Jack with a cocky grin on his face, as he entered the living room.
"I'm glad your mate came through," replied Abby chuckling. "I was beginning to think we were going to have to go reclaim Rex with an armed guard."
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