From down the plain they heard the rattle of gunfire. They poked their heads over the lip of the crater to gaze down on the mine. The Sauroposeidons were charging towards it, the ground shaking beneath their feet. Soldiers had broken ranks to fire at them with rifles and machine guns, but the creatures weren’t going to be stopped.
They smashed into the mine, through the men and machines, and the huge wall of oil barrels quivered under the impact. Then the top line of barrels slowly cascaded backwards. Even from such a distance, Connor was blinded by the brilliant orange light. As he fell back, his face raw with heat, he heard the whumpf of the explosion.
Danny stopped Sarah from getting to her feet, instead gesturing to her to follow as he crawled ahead underneath the smoke that had filled the room. The tiles were thick with dust and debris, hot against their hands and knees. Soldiers ran past and over them, screaming orders.
Danny found Lester lying on his back, eyes closed, and leaned over to check for signs of life. He bent his head over Lester’s face, using the sensitive skin on his cheek to feel if the man was still breathing.
“Get off me,” Lester said, his voice cracked. “I’m not that way inclined.”
In spite of everything, Danny smiled.
“We’re getting out of here. You want to come?” Lester rolled over, propping himself up on his hands and knees.
They crawled unsteadily down the corridor, the smoke burning at their lungs. Soldiers lay dead on the floor just in front of them.
Danny led the way, moving quickly over and around the bodies, Sarah and Lester following behind.
At the turning in the corridor, Danny made to go right — the direction he and Lester had been brought — but smoke filled the corridor, thick and acrid, occasional flames visible deep within it.
“No,” Sarah said hoarsely, tugging at his sleeve, “this way.”
She took the lead, crawling around to the left, and as they continued the air seemed to be clearing.
Either that, Danny mused, or I’m becoming light-headed.
Their hands and knees protested as they continued on. Eventually, Sarah stopped at a half-open door, the space just wide enough for someone to squeeze through. A soldier lay on his back in the doorway, orange light playing over the deep scars on his face.
“There might be a nasty creature in there,” Sarah said, and as Danny looked he could see dents in the half-open door, where something had tried to escape.
“Oh, good,” Lester said. “I can see why you brought us here.”
“There’s also an anomaly, that could take us back to your office in London.”
“Ah.”
“So we run for it?” Danny said. “One of us might get through.”
“But what’s to stop that thing following us?”
“I am not a thing.”
That wasn’t Lester’s voice. Danny turned to see Tom Samuels, on his feet and pointing a gun at them.
“We thought we’d just slip off,” Lester said. “Didn’t want the tearful goodbye.”
Samuels leered at him. The sleeves of his once immaculate suit were torn and he was covered in dust and muck. Blood oozed from grazes on his face.
“It’s over,” he said. “I have a back door to your office: all I have to do is step through and lock the anomaly, so you’ll all be trapped here. That’s revenge enough for me.” He wagged the gun at them. “Step back from the door.”
Danny was about to lunge at the man when a hand reached out to grasp his shoulder.
“No heroics,” Lester said quietly. “Let him go.”
Samuels nodded as they backed away from the door.
“Very wise, James. Where there’s life there’s hope — except when you’re trapped a hundred million years out of time. You can’t survive, you know; it would change history.”
He glanced quickly through the doorway, then backed into it, keeping the gun on them.
“I could shoot you anyway, of course,” he said, and Danny moved forward, putting himself in front of Sarah.
Samuels smiled. “Sweet.” He stepped back again towards the anomaly.
Danny started towards him.
“You’re not going to stop me,” Samuels told him.
Danny kept expecting the creature to appear, but it didn’t materialise. Lucky bastard, he thought.
He decided to stall for time. “One thing before you go: how do you control the anomalies?” he demanded.
With his free hand Tom pulled a small control box from his suit pocket. He held it up. “With this.”
“And where did you get that? You’ve copied everything else from us.”
Tom’s eyes twinkled.
“Not everything. You’re not the only ones researching in this field.”
“Who else?” Lester asked casually, but Danny could see the keen urge to know reflected in his eyes. “Was it one of Leek’s projects? It makes no difference now, after all...”
“That’s true, but won’t it drive you mad not to know?”
He turned and leapt into the anomaly. Danny ran forward, squeezing himself through the gap in the doorway. But the portal flickered and winked out before he could reach it.
Danny heaved himself back out into the corridor, battered and exhausted. The smoke filled his lungs, and made him gag for breath.
Peering at him, Sarah’s eyes filled with concern.
“We’ve got to find another way out,” she said urgently. Danny nodded, unable to speak. Meanwhile, Lester held his ground, gazing in curiously through the half-open door to where the anomaly had been.
“What?” Sarah said, pulling his arm. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Mmm,” Lester murmured, “but a creature, you said?” A smile flickered across his face.
Then he followed Danny and Sarah as they raced away down the corridor.
Tom Samuels stood behind the desk in Lester’s office — former office. Papers were strewn across the floor and the Spartan mask statue lay face down.
Like a king in chess, Samuels thought, signalling surrender.
He put the pistol down on the desk and regarded the remote control in his hand. How best to pass off this gadget to the rest of the ARC’s staff? He’d just slip it into the mess that was Connor’s workbench. Then, while they were mourning his death, they’d go through his effects and find it there. The ARC team would have to recruit a new technical wizard, and their first job would be sussing out what this thing did. And then they could rebuild the computer bank, and give him back his mastery over time. It would all seem legitimate and above board; no awkward questions need bother him.
He leaned over to the phone and clicked the topmost button. After a moment a female voice replied.
“Hello there.” Samuels couldn’t recall the names of the staff who worked the night shift. He’d make sure to learn the names of everyone under his command.
“I wonder if I could prevail upon you to rustle me up some breakfast.”
“Uh, sure, Mr Samuels,” said the female voice at the other end of the line. “Sorry, but where are you at the moment?”
He frowned at the telephone.
“I’m in my office. Lester ’s office. You know what I mean.”
“What?” the voice cried out. “But Mr Samuels, get out of there! I’m calling security now!”
The phone clicked off, and he stared at it. Surely they couldn’t have found him out. No, that just didn’t make sense. He walked around the side of the desk, through the adjoining office and towards the door that led onto the balcony overlooking the operations room.
The door wouldn’t open.
He looked left and right for a door-release button, but couldn’t see one. Soldiers burst through the operations room below him, negotiating the high tables of equipment to get onto the walkway. Samuels sighed. He’d soon get this nonsense sorted out.
He turned to walk back to the desk, ready to look the picture of innocence, but the remote control for the anomalies was still clutched in his ha
nd. He looked around quickly for a good place to hide it. Only then did he catch sight of the blood on the floor.
A heavy trail of it led from his desk out into the secretary’s office, where it curled around behind her desk. His heart beating fast, he followed the trail. Something large and thick-scaled lay motionless on the floor.
Samuels gazed down in horror at the creature he recognised as a Postosuchus. But it didn’t move. He saw the horrific wounds in its soft belly, and let out a sigh of relief.
Behind him, the security men reached the door of the office. They carried G36s and shotguns. One of them struggled to unlock the door, while the other men waved at him urgently.
“It’s perfectly fine,” he told them, tapping the creature’s snout with his foot. “This thing’s dead as a —”
The Postosuchus opened its eyes. The soldiers shouted behind him, but didn’t open the door. The Postosuchus raised itself up on its long legs, its breathing slow and ragged.
Samuels took a step back, stabbing at the remote control in his hand.
An anomaly swirled into existence behind him, and he felt its warmth on his back. He took a step towards it.
The Postosuchus launched itself at him.
He turned to run, but before he could take another step the creature’s enormous jaws wrapped themselves around his body. His fingers twitched on the remote control he still held tight, but it was too late. Long teeth eased through his flesh as the thing carried him into the light.
The anomaly closed neatly behind them.
THIRTY-TWO
The corridor was still clogged with dark smoke. Coughing, eyes streaming, Danny led Sarah and Lester quickly through the chaos, with no idea where he was headed.
They heard explosions blossom behind them, and all around the ominous clank and crunk as incredible heat warped through the building.
Any moment now it would collapse.
Up ahead they heard a squawking. Danny glanced at the others. They had little choice but to carry on. The squawking continued, a terrible mêlée of voices. Danny went first, pushing through the thick and twisting haze.
He emerged into a wide bay full of giant creatures. Grey and yellow striped concrete posts marked the boundaries of the force fields containing each of the different species. Danny recognised a family of Postosuchus, snarling and slashing at their invisible cage as the smoke enveloped them. There were two distinct types of theropod, a number of other creatures he couldn’t name, and an angry-looking Triceratops.
They stopped and stared at the enormous prehistoric menagerie. After a few moments, Lester spoke up.
“It’s just like Leek’s facility, the technology is exactly the same.”
“I’m not sure,” Sarah said, “but I don’t think this is right. They’re all from different periods, aren’t they? And from all around the world.”
Lester nodded. “It looks like he’s been able to pick and chose his specimens. Something for every occasion.”
The animals continued to screech and howl in desperation.
“We’ve got to save them!” Sarah cried. Danny and Lester exchanged glances.
“We can’t help them,” Danny told her gently.
“What?” she responded defiantly. “How can you say that?”
“We’d never be able to control them all — they’d just eat us.”
“But they just want to get away.”
“Yes,” Lester said, “escaping off into whichever period we’re in. A whole collection of creatures from different times. You know what would happen, Sarah.”
“You think they’d breed with other creatures?”
“Or they’d just run amok. We can’t risk the damage to history.”
“But you can’t prove they’ll do any damage! They might be the very reason that some species evolved like they did!”
Danny put his hand on her shoulder.
“Sarah,” he said carefully, “you were the one who told Samuels it doesn’t work like that. He claimed to have scientific proof, just because it supported what he wanted. We can’t allow ourselves to make the same mistake.”
She gazed up into his eyes. Finally, she simply deflated, and he saw her holding back tears.
“I know,” she said.
“We have to go.”
She glanced around at the enormous creatures wailing in their pens and nodded, allowing herself to be led away through the facility, looking for an exit.
The smokestacks split as they tumbled into the fiery mess of the mine, a great cloud of soot hurling up into the already dirty sky. Away up the hill, Connor looked around from trying to fix his anomaly locking mechanism and thought: This is what happens when humans invade the past. The air stank of oil and industry, the great plain blackened by the muck raining down from the sky. Up the hill from them the anomaly remained studiously locked. If Connor couldn’t find some way to reverse the effect, they were all going to be trapped.
Soldiers streamed from the mine, heading up the hill towards them. They had their hands raised as they ran, showing that they’d abandoned their weapons. They were accompanied by a large group of civilian workers, who must have run the facility, looking even more panicked than the soldiers.
“They’re surrendering?” Abby said, relief in her voice.
“They want the anomaly,” Becker pointed out. “It must be the only way home. How are you doing, Connor?”
Connor banged a loose wire back into position. The anomaly still remained a solid sphere hanging in the air; nothing like a doorway through which they could escape.
“Fine,” he told Becker. “With you in a minute.”
Becker patted him on the shoulder. Then he turned.
“I think we need to round everyone up. Wilcock!”
Wilcock hurried over.
“Sir?”
“See if you can gather a squad that will keep those soldiers together — when we get back to our time, we’ll need to place them under arrest. It doesn’t make sense to try anything now, as we don’t have the resources to handle such a large group. We’ll need some of our lot on the other side of the anomaly first, once Connor gets it open, and we’ll need enough transport for them all.
“Get everyone else on their feet, as well. I think we’re done here now.”
Wilcock saluted and rushed off. Becker looked back to Connor.
“Any time now would be good.”
Connor took careful aim at the anomaly. He fired up the locking mechanism and waited, but nothing happened. He smacked it with the palm of his hand and it began to emit a beam of energy that plunged into the floating ball of the anomaly.
But still nothing happened.
“Come on, come on,” Connor told the machine. He reset the mechanism’s programming and the beam of light built in intensity.
“It’s not working,” Becker observed, his voice tinged with anxiety.
“Yeah,” Connor said testily, “I noticed. I think these guys are causing some kind of interference which the locking mechanism doesn’t like. If I can recalibrate it or something...”
He worked as fast as he could, fingers moving frantically.
“Any time you like,” Becker said.
“He’s doing his best,” Abby snapped.
There was a legion of soldiers assembled in front of the anomaly, though since they all wore the same black uniforms, and were equally covered in blood and mud, Connor couldn’t decide who was who.
“The problem’s with the firing piston,” he said, reaching his hand out to grasp it. “It would probably work fine if I just held it here.”
“Then why don’t you?” Becker said.
“Hey,” Abby said. “That thing gets pretty hot.”
“No,” Connor said. “Becker’s right. There’s nothing else we can do.”
And before they could stop him he fired the locking mechanism again, this time with his hand held tight round the firing piston.
He kept his eyes on the anomaly, watching the energy hit the floating
sphere.
The piston began to burn his fingers. He could actually see steam rising from them.
Slowly, one-by-one, shards of light began to spring out from the sphere.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Connor said, grimacing, but he refused to move his hand. Gradually, he began to think the piston might have burnt through to the bone. Tears of agony ran down his face, making it difficult for him to see what was happening. He couldn’t hold onto the locking mechanism much longer.
And then the sphere was gone, opened out into glinting shards of the twisting, glimmering anomaly. Connor dropped the locking mechanism and it fell out of the truck into the soft mud.
Becker ran forward.
“Right, everybody out of here.”
Abby helped Connor up from the ground. They inspected the dark red burns on his palm and fingers.
“Oh, Connor,” she said.
“Nah, it’s all right,” he told her, tears in his eyes. She leant forward and kissed his cheek.
“Come on,” she said, reaching down and grasping the locking mechanism. “Let’s get going.” She handed the mechanism to a passing soldier.
Becker’s men kept the other soldiers under close watch as they filed into the anomaly, two by two.
“Well, don’t thank me,” Connor said to him. “I only saved us all.” He turned to Abby for help.
But Abby ignored him. Instead, she was gazing down the plain at the mine. Her eyes narrowed and she reached over to Becker, who was shouting orders, and plucked the field binoculars from his pocket.
“On the double!” Becker yelled to his men. The soldiers began to run, moving into the portal at increased speed.
“You, too,” he said to Abby and Connor. “Time we got you home.”
“Sure,” Connor said. “Back to the London sunshine.”
“I need a car,” Abby said quietly as she peered through the binoculars.
“What?” Connor tried to find with his naked eye whatever she had seen. Thick smoke still billowed from the ruins of the mine. The herd of Sauroposeidons cantered off in the distance, nursing their wounds and generally displeased with how the afternoon had gone. What had Abby seen?
Fire and Water Page 23