In the food storage room of Prehistoric Park, Jack Denham and Aaron Joseph were looking at a large crate, grinning like fools. "After a week, they're finally here!", Jack said, "The apples are finally here." With the fruit supplies starting to run down, Jack had recently asked the supplier for a new shipment, which they got from specialist Novum-run greenhouses. No going to the shops and collecting the unsold fruit and veg for the animals of Prehistoric Park, no siree. And this new crate of apples was only the first to arrive.

Looking at the crate, Aaron held the crowbar, hopping up and down like a child on Christmas morning, "Well, how about we get it opened then?" Jack grinned, "You read my mind, buddy!"

Then they pried open the box… and wished that they hadn't.

The sight that greeted them shocked them – as they opened the crate, a sickly sweet stench wafted from it, an ominous harbinger of the decay within. As they looked inside, the apples' skins were mottled and browned, a couple collapsing inward under the weight of their own decomposition. Juice pooled at the bottom, a testament to the apples' surrender to time and neglect.

Or, to put it less elaborately, the apples were rotten.

At this sight, Aaron rolled his eyes, "Oh my god. How exactly did this happen?" Jack sighed, "I don't know, but I can tell you this… MacFerran is going to lose his shit when he finds out."

. . . . .

And MacFerran did indeed lose his shit. After yelling at Jack simply for being the bearer of bad news, MacFerran had ordered him to call the park supplier and ask what had happened – not wanting to subject the poor bastard on the other end to the ire of MacFerran, Jack had agreed. And now, Jack was fielding the call as his superior stared at him impatiently, barely resisting the urge to grab the phone from Jack's hand and continue the conversation himself… only rather more aggressively, "Yeah, yeah… yeah, he's not gonna like that. Yeah, I know. Bye."

Getting off the call, Jack turned to Conor, "According to them, the apples were 'ciderised.'" At this statement, Conor looked at him, as if he was ready to go ballistic at Jack for, once again, being the bearer of bad news. Fortunately, this didn't happen – instead, he said, his voice crisp with indignation, "Ciderised? Ciderised? Is that what the bastard said?" Jack sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Yeah… but he's probably trying to cover his own arse – from his tone of voice, this was probably some foul-up in the supply chain." At MacFerran's growing anger, Jack sighed and said, "Look, we can just go to Drew and see if we can get a crate of fresh apples transported over… this doesn't need to be escalated."

"You shut up."

Jack stepped back, side-eyeing MacFerran in equal parts shock and anger at this brusque statement. After this, MacFerran sighed, "Look, I like ya, Denham, but I don't appreciate ya stepping outta line. You've had it too good for too long – this isn't your division anymore and if I want your opinion, I'll bloody well ask for it. Get your arse to where you're supposed to be – I'll handle Drew."

Jack sighed – not wanting to argue, having had enough of MacFerran's attempts at dominating him into submission – and left. He somehow didn't want to see what MacFerran had in mind. All he knew was that he pitied Drew for whatever might happen.

. . . .

At the Miocene Amazon building, Jack was helping someone from the aviary team at the granastraopotherium, pinnatono, and phoberomys paddock. Whilst that might have sounded odd, it was the park's way of making the work schedules of the teams less complicated – the reptile and flight divisions could share responsibility for the Miocene Amazon building, whilst the mammal team mostly focused on the La Pampas Plains animals. Each team had a demarcated list of locations, with only minimal overlap, meaning schedules could be more easily co-ordinated.

It was there he'd found out what MacFerran had done – he had stormed into Drew's office when he was in the middle of a call with the Novum finance people and slammed the crate onto his desk. A shocked Drew had narrowly avoided having his fingers crushed, before having to temporarily halt his call to ask what on Earth the issue was. Once MacFerran had explained the problem, Drew quickly called the supplier, and a crate of fresh apples was currently en route and would arrive by the end of the afternoon.

The talk had already spread around the park, apparently from someone walking down the hallway when MacFerran made his grand gesture. At this, Jack sighed – whilst it certainly wasn't how he would have gone about it, he couldn't help but admit the man had a knack for getting his way. He didn't know whether he admired the man for that or hated him for it.

A bit of both, perhaps.

Or perhaps this incident would be the last straw, inducing Drew to pull his head out of his arse, snap out of his self-indulgent funk and give MacFerran a good verbal evisceration. Jack would welcome it – perhaps MacFerran had finally picked a fight with someone he shouldn't have done and finally would be his undoing. Certainly something needed to be done - perhaps this little incident would make Drew realise that.

If this went to the board, Percival would almost certainly argue the issue was not with MacFerran, but with the pre-existing staff… would Theodore listen? Or would another curator be assigned?

Shaking his head, Jack sighed – if wishes were horses, beggars would be winning the Grand National. Better to focus on what was already in front of you.

This was inspired by a real-life incident involving Uwe Peters, a German herpetologist and former head of reptiles at Taronga Zoo. In an incident shared in Terry Boylan's excellent book The Keepers and The Kept, Peters once stormed into Director Ron Strahan's office and slammed a box of rotten apples (which he had been told were "ciderised") on his desk during a phone call, nearly crushing Strahan's fingers.

Now, I really must recommend you read the book – especially the chapter about Uwe Peters, who was a big inspiration for Conor MacFerran – the cowboy dressing style and speech patterns for one – because I thought the guy was such a character, he just had to end up in the story!