Dangerous Dimension

by Pippa Le Quesne

  ‘I can’t do this any more,’ Connor said, his eyes blurring with tears.

  ‘We need you,’ Cutter replied simply, placing a strong hand on his shoulder.

  ‘If I hadn’t been involved, Tom would still be alive…’ Connor shook his head in desperation.

  ‘No,’ said Cutter firmly. ‘There’re only a handful of people in the world who have any idea what we’re grappling with… And you’re one of them.’ His smile was full of warmth. ‘That would have made Tom’s day. He would have loved it.’

  Silently, Connor let the tears fall down his face. He knew Cutter was right. This – all of this that he had become involved in – belonged to a world that Tom had spent his whole life fantasizing about.

  ‘OK?’ Cutter said.

  ‘OK,’ Connor replied through gritted teeth. He had to be strong. For Tom.

  He smiled gratefully as the professor pulled him in for a hug.

  Connor rested his chin on Cutter’s shoulder and let out a huge sigh of relief. He could let go now. It was over.

  For now, anyway.

  Connor Temple smiled satisfactorily at the breakfast laid out on the tray before him. A ripe plum, a freshly brewed pot of coffee, a fluffy croissant… yes – this was the life! Standing in the kitchen in his dressing gown, Connor couldn’t have been happier.

  He’d been staying at his friend Abby Maitland’s place in London for a month now, and he loved it. He was sleeping on the sofa – after he’d been kicked out of student digs for not being able to keep up with the rent.

  But Abby loved animals and had a job as a keeper at Wellington Zoo, which meant that her home decorating reflected her lifestyle. It really was something else.

  Connor loved the cactus plants lined up beside the radiators. He loved the lizard posters and kooky creature ornaments that hung along the walls. He even loved all the reptile pets that lived in glass boxes at various points around the main living room.

  But most of all, Connor loved the fact he got to see Abby every day. He’d had a massive crush on her since the moment they’d met. Connor was convinced that the longer he stuck around, the sooner Abby was going to realize how much she liked him too!

  Connor took the breakfast tray in both hands, just as Abby came walking through the door, rubbing her eyes. As always, she was wearing the skimpy clothes she’d been sleeping in.

  ‘Morning!’ she smiled sleepily, eyeing the breakfast tray. ‘Aw… you shouldn’t have!’

  ‘Shouldn’t have what?’ Connor said, oblivious to her hint. He inched around her. ‘Excuse me!’

  Abby put her hands on her hips as she watched him leave the kitchen. The cheek of him! Abby thought back to when Connor had turned up uninvited on her doorstep, begging for a place to stay for a few days. And now he’d been here a month and couldn’t even be bothered to make her breakfast!

  Abby followed Connor into the living room, intending to ask him how much longer he’d be staying. But something was wrong – the room felt so hot! Abby looked at the thermostat on the wall.

  ‘Thirty-four degrees?’ she cried.

  Connor averted his eyes and scuttled nervously over to sit at the dinner table in the middle of the room.

  ‘Yep,’ he replied breezily, as he began to wolf down his breakfast. ‘Rex was looking a wee bit chilly.’

  Connor began to feel a little sheepish as Abby glared at him. Even though they both knew the temperature of the flat needed to be warm for Abby’s reptile collection, she obviously didn’t believe him.

  ‘The way I see it,’ he added cheekily, ‘if we get too hot, we can just take a bit more kit off, can’t we?’

  Abby sighed as she looked over at her pet dinosaur Rex. He was thirstily slurping at a water bowl on top of the glass box that doubled as his home. The small reptile looked too hot, if anything – the thin, lime-coloured crest on his head opening and closing like a Chinese fan, his long green body swaying from side to side as his transparent wings stuck firmly by his sides. The flying Coelurosauravus returned Abby’s gaze and happily licked its lips. Connor noticed Abby’s expression softening and decided to try again.

  ‘If that little fellow gets too cold, well…’ he said, casually pouring himself a coffee. ‘I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to him, Abby…’

  Connor snuck a glance at his friend and was relieved to see she was having second thoughts. He was the only other person that knew Abby had kept the little dinosaur that she’d found in the Forest of Dean when she’d been called out to investigate a strange lizard sighting. There was no way she’d sacrifice Rex’s welfare for anything.

  ‘Yeah, right,’ she said, heading off to the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast.

  Connor smiled. Did he have Abby sussed or what? If she could see how much he cared about Rex, then surely she was going to see how much he cared about her too. It wouldn’t be too long now before she realized he was perfect boyfriend material!

  Back at the golf course, Andy and Jeff had finally met up. Andy was driving his buggy along the fairway and feeling superior – in more ways than one.

  ‘Jeff,’ Andy was saying in a condescending tone. ‘You could have got your own buggy. You didn’t have to be such a tightwad, did you?’

  ‘Oh, come on,’ said Jeff, pulling his golf bag wearily behind him in the hot sun. ‘Give us a lift.’

  Andy gave his golfing partner a pitying look. ‘Come on, then,’ he said, with a glint in his eye. ‘Hurry up.’

  But just as Jeff went to pull his golf bag up on to the cart, Andy put his foot to the accelerator and took off. Laughing, he watched as the figure of a clearly irate Jeff grew smaller in his rear-view mirror.

  A few minutes later Andy wasn’t in such a good mood. Once again, he was having trouble with his golf swing. This time, the ball had veered off into a patch of trees, way off the side of the green.

  Andy walked into the undergrowth and started searching through shrubs. Ouch! He pulled his hand back in shock when a thorn ripped into his finger. Andy shook his hand in pain as drops of blood flew from the wound and landed on a nearby tree. How annoying! Now he had no ball and a bad golf hand. How was he going to beat Jeff back to the club house now?

  Andy trudged out of the trees and back on to the green. He looked across the course for his friend, but there was no one in sight. Andy started walking towards his tee, only to be distracted by a noise that seemed to be coming up fast behind him. Andy turned round but there was no one on the ground. Instead, he was horrified to see a large shadow descending rapidly from the sky towards him. What on earth was that?

  Whatever it was, it was coming straight for him. A petrified Andy dropped his club and started pelting down the fairway.

  Seconds later, as he lined up a shot further up the green through the trees, Jeff stopped mid-swing as a blood-curdling scream split the air. He ran through the shrubs and back on to the fairway, only to be confronted by the most horrific thing he’d ever seen. There, lying on the edge of the undergrowth, was a body. It was clear from the bloody wounds that the person was dead.

  Jeff inched closer. A wave of nausea came over him as he noticed the body’s golf shoes. They looked horribly familiar.

  They were Andy’s.

  OUT NOW!

  The team were on the trail of another anomaly.

  Connor and Abby froze, their eyes following the sea monster’s every move.

  Connor rammed an oar right into the Mosasaur’s gaping mouth.

  Stephen was glad Abby was all right.

  ‘Whatever his secret is, we’ll soon know,’ Duncan said.

  Helen led the way into the empty football stadium.

  The new anomaly was behind the freezer door.

  Stephen used Ryan’s knife to cut through the chains.

  Despite being flightless, the dodos were surprisingly nimble.

  Rounding up the dodos was a lot of fun.

  Tom and Duncan were amazed to see the dodo appear in the car park.

  ‘I can show you whe
re this thing really came from…’ said Abby.

  ‘Connor…?’ Tom said in a small voice, releasing Abby.

  ‘Move away! He will kill you,’ Ryan shouted at Connor.