‘Why don’t you just open your portal and see for yourself?’
‘Sal just explained that. We could be wasting a full power-up, and we can’t risk doing that.’ Maddy shrugged. ‘Anyway, wouldn’t you want to check first? This is the Cretaceous era, right? That means dinosaurs. I’d want to know the coast is clear of T-rexes first. Don’t you?’
The old man glanced at Forby and the man shook his head quickly. ‘Taking a few photos first sounds like a pretty good move to me, sir.’
Cartwright laughed nervously. ‘Uh, I guess you’re right. OK… we’ll do it your way. Just get a move on before those hunters down the beach find a railway arch in the middle of their jungle.’
CHAPTER 68
65 million years BC, jungle
The three girls had revived the smouldering fire; the dried brittle moss that seemed to carpet every boulder and rock made perfect kindling and already a thick column of smoke was drifting up into the evening sky.
Liam felt a little happier now. Fire had seemed to keep those creatures at bay during the last few nights that they’d been out on their errand. They seemed to have a healthy respect for it — actually, to be more precise, a morbid fear of it.
He looked up across the twilit clearing. It had got dark very quickly. He wondered how the others were doing with Keisha. Surely they must have found her by now? If those pack hunters really had felled that tree and made their way across, then he was surprised they’d allowed her to live.
He was considering that point when he heard two sounds at the same time: one a far-off scream, shrill and terrifying that rattled around the clearing like a gunshot, and the other the sound of approaching trainers slapping the hard ground. He exchanged a hurried glance with the girls, and with Becks as she stopped fiddling with their damaged windmill and snapped erect like a spooked meerkat.
‘Help!’ He heard Edward’s voice through the gathering gloom, and then a moment later picked out of that gloom the dancing outline of his pale T-shirt.
‘Edward! What’s up?’
The boy joined him, gasping and looking anxiously back over his shoulder. ‘They’re h-here! THEY’RE HERE!’
Liam followed his gaze and saw nothing across the clearing, just the dark outline of the apron of jungle. ‘Where are the others?’
The boy ignored his question, his eyes wide with terror. ‘Th-they’re h-here, they’re h-here!’
Liam grasped his arm firmly. ‘EDWARD! What about the others?’
The boy looked at him. ‘Dead,’ he replied. ‘All dead.’
‘Oh God, look!’ gasped Laura.
She was pointing across the clearing. Where a mere second ago he’d seen only jungle, now he saw a line of the creatures approaching them cautiously, spreading out like beaters for a hunting party. He quickly estimated thirty, maybe forty, of them; all sizes.
The whole pack… Jay-zus!
In the middle of the line, he thought he recognized one of them in particular. The one he’d seen in the jungle, barking orders to the others, their leader.
‘Liam,’ said Becks, stepping back from the windmill to join him and the others near the smoking fire, now beginning to take hold and crackle and spark. ‘Do you see the middle one?’
He knew what she was referring to. The one in the middle, the pack leader, was holding one of their spears in its claws. He nodded.
‘Like my adaptive AI,’ she continued, ‘the species has observed our behaviour and learned from it.’
He swallowed nervously. ‘Back to the palisade… we need to go now!’
‘Negative, I must stay.’
‘What?’ He looked at her.
‘This location has been probed in the last twenty-four hours.’ She nodded towards their broken windmill. ‘There are decaying particles in the vicinity of the interference device. They may scan again at any moment.’
She was right, of course. Utterly barking mad, but quite right.
‘All right, all right,’ he uttered, watching the approaching hominids closing the gap slowly. ‘You four,’ he said to the others, ‘get inside the wall and wait there!’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Edward.
He really had no idea just then… some notion of holding out beside the campfire, back to back with Becks until… until… what?
Until they’ve finally worn her down, and jump her. Then turn on me.
But, there was a slight chance, wasn’t there? A slight chance Maddy and Sal were going to sweep this place again at any moment. And, if they did, this might be their last chance to flag the signal, to tell them they were right here. The alternative, hiding inside their flimsy palisade until these creatures finally managed to gnaw their way through the twine, pull aside a couple of the logs from the wall and get in… He shuddered.
‘There’s a return window coming,’ he said. ‘It’s coming soon! Becks and me need to be out here waiting for it. You four will be safer inside. I’ll call for you when it opens. Now just go!’
‘I want to stay,’ said Edward, picking up one of their hatchets from a pile of cut wood beside the fire. The other three nodded. ‘We’ll f-fight them t-together,’ whispered Laura, her teeth chattering noisily.
Jasmine looked across at the palisade, twenty yards away beyond the flickering pool of light from the fire. ‘They’ll find a way in anyway.’
Liam looked at the creatures, now almost entirely encircling them, maintaining their cautious distance. ‘All right. Perhaps you’re right,’ he uttered. ‘Becks, how’re we gonna do this?’
‘Recommendation: I need to be in the vicinity of the interference device in order to detect any precursor particles arriving.’
Liam nodded. ‘Yes… yes. R-right. We should hold the ground over there.’ He reached down towards the fire and pulled out a branch. The end of it flickered with flames. ‘Everyone grab a torch. They don’t like fire!’
The others followed suit. Then moved together in a tight huddle, away from the reassuring glow of the campfire towards their contraption, a dozen yards beyond the growing pall of amber firelight.
The creatures followed them, silently padding across the soft ground, watching them, and ever so subtly closing the distance around them.
‘YOU BACK OFF!’ screamed Laura at them, waving her flaming stick.
The creatures hissed, warbled and mewed at that, one of the smaller ones attempting a copy of her shaking voice.
‘… Yoo… bak… offfff…’
Becks turned to Liam. ‘This location has just been scanned again. There are several hundred new particles.’
Liam felt a surge of hope. ‘Oh, c’mon! Why don’t they just get on with it and open a bleedin’ window?’
Becks cocked her head. She had no answer.
All of a sudden, the creature holding the spear barked in a croaky voice and, as one, the creatures surged forward towards them.
‘Oh my God! Oh my God! screamed Laura.
‘Recommendation: use your spears to — ’
CHAPTER 69
2001, New York
The best part of an hour passed in silence with Maddy, Sal and Cartwright gathered around the monitors
