I recognised where we were heading from the journey we'd made back from the caged to the rooms he'd locked us in.

He pushed the button on the wall, there was a sharp buzzing sound before he reached for the door handle, pushed it open, and walked inside.

I followed him.

'Alright,' he announced, as he turned back towards me and stuffed his hands into his pockets. 'how about we play a little game?'

I didn't respond. I tilted my head, eyes narrowed as he pointed to the closest creature enclosure by the door.

'Tell me what that is.' When I still didn't speak, he rolled his eyes. 'Come on, Anna…' he laughed, 'don't be petulant. We both know its childish. What have you got to lose? I'm only asking you to answer a question.'

I waited, gaze firmly locked with his, for as long as I thought it would take for him to get the idea. In truth, it hadn't been my plan to stay silent, but knowing that he wanted me to talk to him gave me some sort of delight, because now he was frustrated that I wasn't responding.

But I figured the time for that had finished. Now I needed to get as much information from him as I could.

'What are you trying to prove?' I finally asked in response.

At the sound of my voice, he grinned. 'Oh,' he said, 'nothing. I just think it'll be entertaining… what is it?'

'Smilodon,' I answered, 'sabretooth. Pleistocene era. Felidae, Machairodontinae, Dinofelis, Nimravides, Machairodus, Homotherium, Xenosmilus, Paramachairodus, Megantereon, Gracilis, Fatalis, Populator.'

'What?'

'That's all the types of Smilodon that could be,' I replied.

He raised an eyebrow, turning on his heel to walk towards the next enclosure. 'And that?'

'Scorpion,' I answered from behind. 'Silurian, probably Llandovery; Aeronian to be precise.' There were 3 extinction level events in the Silurian before that. 'We don't know much about it, really.'

Leek walked around the back of the scorpion's enclosure and pointed to the next cage.

'Arthropleura. Toxic. Burrower. Carboniferous. Probably died out with its food source in the Carboniferous Rainforest collapse, in the Kasimovian– late Pennsylvanian.'

As he turned to the back wall, I felt a flare of anger striking up through my spine. 'This?'

'You've got a Scutosaurus,' I said, somewhat questioningly. I wonder just how many anomalies he managed to find and go through before we'd found out about the spyware. 'And a baby.'

The dinosaur couldn't have been more than a year old; it was only a fraction of the size of its mother beside it. It looked frightened.

'Well, go on…'

'Permian,' I said, as he continued on past it like it wasn't even worth stopping for. 'Pareiasaur, parareptile. Herbivore.'

'Really?' he replied, 'shame. Never mind. Tell me what this is.' As he ducked between two cages and into the centre of the room, he pointed to the creatures in the enclosures either side of him.

'I can't…' I said. He stopped, finally reaching the middle of the room and turned towards me. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing as I came to stop opposite him. 'From the future,' I explained, 'anywhere between five hundred thousand and 2 million years, my guess.' I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to stop my anger from bursting out from me in any physical way. 'Mean, we can give it a name if you want,' I continued as I glared across at him. 'How about Oliver,' I suggested, 'it's got your face after all.'

He narrowed his eyes, unamused. 'You'd control that mouth of yours much better if you knew what was good for you.'

My nose wrinkled somewhat disgustedly. 'What was that about?'

'I had this theory,' he returned, 'you care a lot more about the animals that turn up here than anyone else does. People die every day,' he shrugged, 'so why should we care who gets hurt when the anomalies happen. Surely our first, and indeed only priority should be finding those creatures.'

'And what, bringing them back here?' I asked in outrage. 'Locking them up. Families–' I pointed across to the Scutosaurus enclosure, 'juveniles.'

'That's exactly why we need someone like you, Doctor. You know everything about these creatures. Habitat, diet… you know what's best for them–'

'Leaving them alone, that's what's best for them, making sure they get home.'

Leek rolled his eyes. 'You shouldn't care so much about them. But I know that as a woman you can't help it. That's what makes you the perfect person for the job, not the professor, or his student. I want you to join us here.'

'And I want a cup of coffee,' I replied with a shrug, 'can't always get our way.'

He turned his head to the closest guard and nodded, by way of silent instruction. The guard walked away. After that, he sighed. 'Let me tell you how this is going to work–'

'No!' I snapped, all semblance of resolve dissipating, 'let me tell you, Leek. You ask, I say no, you shoot someone… you lose your incentive, you ask again. Guess what I'll say.'

He exhaled, lips falling naturally in their usual punitive smirk. 'Thing is, Anna,' he replied, 'I don't think you'd let even one person die for you.'

I had him. 'Try me.' I'd done it before. 'You're the one taking that risk.'

He reached back under his suit to pull the gun from his waistline again, before he slowly extended his arm to point it at me. 'Maybe I'll just shoot you then.'

'Genius.' I nodded. 'Then I won't have to listen to you anymore. Good idea.' If he truly wanted me here, he was even more stupid than I thought. He was taking too long. 'Go on then.'

He lifted his chin, sucked a cheek in contemplation before he lowered the gun, just an inch or two, and pointed it at my stomach. 'That's where it hit you before, right?' he asked. 'And you survived, so who's to say you won't again. Physically, you'd probably be fine, you could sew yourself up right here. But mentally…' he whistled, 'who's to say you'd come back from that. I reckon you'd be a broken shell of a woman and do just about anything I say. No more of this attitude… or talking back… or...'

How rivetingly chauvinistic. I just raised an eyebrow at him. If he thought my spirit could ever shatter that way then he was undoubtedly, unequivocally mistaken about me; I didn't have either the privilege or the ability.

I must have been reacting differently to his expectations because a moment later he dropped his arm. He sighed, and shrugged, just once, before he turned away from me.

'Yeah,' he nodded, 'maybe I won't shoot you at all. You're right…' He kept his eyes down and sort of drawn off like I was boring him. And I wasn't expecting him to say anything else; I thought he'd finished, but I was wrong. 'What if I just waited… 7 months first?'

I was completely frozen from shock. How did he even– Caroline. I was too distracted by my initial frustration at her that I didn't even realise he'd started talking again.

'Oh yeah, she told me, out of concern. Didn't want me to do anything that might have inadvertently "hurt the baby,"' he cooed sarcastically. 'Awh–'

'Shh shh,' I responded frankly like he hadn't just threatened the life of a would-be new-born baby , because I was trying to think. What a monster. 'Uh, I'm gonna kill her. I am gonna push her down a well, I–' My head whipped around at the sound of the door opening, and the guard came back in, with Connor, Jensen and Caroline all in tow. Even if Leek hadn't finished with me, I started walking towards them. 'Oh yeah, sure,' I called out to her in pejorative annoyance, 'you won't tell anyone.'

But she hadn't heard me. She was too busy blinking, eyes wide, in fear as she looked around the room and took in the sight of all the creatures. Her mouth opened, her eyes suddenly watering as the fear conformed inside her, and she tried to speak. 'L-let me go please,' she stammered, 'I won't– I won't say anything.'

I stopped in front of them. 'You didn't know?' I questioned.

She shook her head.

Oh…

'There you are,' Leek called out, just as the door swung closed and the guard moved back towards his station. 'Thought you might all like to see this. You're just in time for dinner.'

He pushed a button on the remote in the middle of the room, and over each enclosure a pipe was lowered from the ceiling and food dropped down for each of the creatures.

'Of course,' Leek continued, 'they'd prefer to hunt for their own food but… it's amazing how quickly they can be trained.'

'Rex!'

Connor's voice caught my attention and I watched him press his hand up to a nearby enclosure. Staring past him, I saw Rex swoop down through the air and take a closer look at him. 'Rex is here too?'

I turned my head accusatorily to Leek, and he shrugged back at me. 'All the creatures.'

'He isn't dangerous!'

'And I'm not a woman, so I don't care.'