The sound of the two boys’ clumsy staggering slowly receded from him until all he could hear was the occasional snap of a branch echoing off the tall stout trunks of the canopy trees.
‘Come on!’ he whispered again. He was surprised that it wasn’t abject terror he was feeling right now, but anger. Rage. He wanted to grab one of those scrawny things and rip its ridiculous marrow-shaped head off. His throat filled with a dry laugh.
Who do you think you are — Tarzan?
A far cry from his normal life: PR guy, meeting and greeting visitors with his cheesy tanned smile and his nice linen suit and expensive polo shirt. Right now, standing legs apart in trousers ripped off at the knees to make shorts, bare-chested, revealing a pale torso tufted with silver-grey hair and drooping man-boobs that spoke of a lapsed gym membership… right now he felt like that commando character in the film his sons liked, the one with the alien with a crab face and dreadlocks.
Oh yeah, he was ready for them.
‘Come on… you want some of me? Then COME ON!’
As if in answer, in the stillness of the jungle around him, he heard a soft, high-pitched voice.
‘… Come… on…’
Then ahead of him, as if it had appeared like the Cheshire Cat, only yellow eyes first instead of a big grin, there stood one of the creatures, a dozen yards downhill of him, cocking its head and studying him intently.
Kelly took several steps downhill, lunging with the tip of his spear. ‘Yeah? So that’s what you things look like up close.’
It recoiled at the sight of the spear, ducking back into a patch of waxy leaves, only to emerge again a moment later.
‘Oh yeah! I can kill you with this spear,’ muttered Kelly triumphantly. The spear seemed to be warding off the creature, its yellow eyes warily locked on the sharpened tip of bamboo.
The sound of the others moving through the jungle was all but gone now. He couldn’t afford to remain like this much longer. He needed a kill pretty soon, and for the rest of those things to hopefully bolt like rabbits.
‘Come on,’ he said quietly, ‘just you and me. Man versus ugly lizard thing.’
Its jaw snapped open and a dark tongue curled like a serpent inside. ‘… Lizz… arrrrd… ting…’ A surprisingly close approximation of his own voice.
‘So you do impressions, huh?’
The creature cocked its head thoughtfully, and it was then, as the creature was distracted, working out how to replicate what he’d just said, that he decided to make his move. He took a quick step and a short leap forward and thrust the spear hard. It caught something soft and the creature flapped and flailed on the end of the bamboo, howling with a voice that reminded him of the awful noise a dog can make if you step on its tail.
‘YES!’ he snarled.
First blood. He pulled the spear back out, leaving a large puncture wound in the creature’s belly, out of which thick dark blood began to sputter as it flailed in screeching agony on the jungle floor.
He was about to stab the thing again, but he felt the spear yanked roughly out of his hands.
‘Whuh?’
He turned to see a larger hominid, standing fully erect, maybe a foot taller than him. It snarled angrily, a rattling croak in the depth of its throat. He saw others behind it, then became aware of yellow eyes all around him.
The creature held his spear in both of its clawed hands, closely inspecting the long thick shaft, and then finally the sharpened tip, wet with dark blood. It looked at the tip, cocked its head and then looked down at Kelly, who now no longer felt so much like a commando. His knees buckled beneath him and he found himself in a helpless squat on the jungle floor.
Oh God, oh God…
‘Run,’ he whimpered. ‘Why aren’t you r-running? W-why aren’t you running?’ That was what was meant to happen. If this was a film, that’s what would happen, right? The weedy office guy finally finds his inner hero and saves the day?
‘I k-killed one… so why… w-why aren’t you r-running?’
The creature holding the spear took a step forward and once more inspected the bloodied tip of the bamboo before turning it round so that it pointed towards Kelly.
‘Oh… no…’ he found himself whimpering. ‘P-please…’
The normal everyday sounds of a Cretaceous jungle, the distant lowing of large ambling leviathans on the far-off plain, the chatter and squeak of small foraging creatures going about their business, were punctuated by a peculiar sound: the protracted, rattling scream of a human being. It echoed up through the jungle and out through the tops of the canopy trees, startling flocks of small anurognathus from their branches and into the air.
CHAPTER 59
2001, New York
‘I’m not saying another thing to you!’ snapped Sal.
Cartwright shrugged. ‘Well, OK. But then I guess I’m not going to show you what I’ve got.’
It was silent in the small interrogation room, except for the soft hum of an air-conditioner. It was warm and stuffy. He casually loosened his tie.
Sal’s narrowed eyes softened, piqued with curiosity. ‘What? What have you got?’
He smiled. ‘Hmm… now there was me thinking we weren’t going to be talking to each other.’
‘Oh shadd-yah! Please. Just tell me!’
He pursed his lips, giving it some thought. ‘And are you going to tell me the things I want to know?’
She clamped her mouth shut, said nothing.
‘You know? I suspect you probably will,’ Cartwright relented. ‘After all, you, me and Maddy all want the same thing: to bring your friend back home safely.’
‘He’s alive? Liam’s alive?’
‘I believe so.’ He nodded and reached into his breast pocket. ‘He decided to write home.’ He passed her the folded sheet of paper and she quickly began to scan the handwriting.
‘Your colleague Maddy and I were discussing it just a few minutes ago. She’s really rather keen to bring him home too. And you know I’m prepared to help you girls do that. Whatever you want, whatever you need. But…’
She looked up. ‘But?’
He splayed his hands almost apologetically. ‘That technology in the arch. I’m afraid that’s going to be US government property now. And we’re going to need your help in figuring out how it all works.’
‘We can’t do that,’ she started. ‘We can’t just let you have it. It’s too dangerous!’
‘Too dangerous for the government? But apparently not too dangerous for a pair of kids to mess around with?’
‘We were recruited. Specially recruited.’
‘Recruited by?’
Sal hesitated. ‘I can’t really say.’
He shrugged. ‘Well, that can wait until later. It’s not so important. The fact is somebody needs to take charge of what’s in that archway.’ He cocked a questioning eyebrow. ‘I mean, somebody’s got to be in charge, right? Making sure there aren’t loads of other time machines and people running around when and where they shouldn’t be.’
‘And what… that someone’s going to be you, is it?’
‘Me for now, perhaps. In time I’ll brief the current president on what we have. But believe you me, far better you have someone like myself looking after this on behalf of the American people than some terrorist group or some mad dictator looking for a world-beating weapon, a madman like Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. Hmm?’
She shrugged a ‘Whatever’ at him.
‘Now,’ he said, nodding at the paper in her hands. ‘There’s a code there. Maddy seems to think you might
