David Golemon - Primeval

"Well, sometimes there are certain things security should overlook; Charlie's labs are one of them."

As the song grew louder, the smell of the corridor changed. Sarah looked at Will and he smiled and made a fake frown. As Niles came to the steel door guarding the domain of the Crypto Department, he turned to face Sarah and Mendenhall.

"I know you work for Jack, but I am giving you a direct order: What you see, and whatever else you may come across, is confidential, Lieutenant, understand?"

"I see nothing, Doctor Compton," Will answered.

Niles continued to stare at him.

"And smell nothing," he finished.

Sarah smiled at Will's dilemma.

"Very well," Niles said as he opened the door.

Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III was sitting at a lab table examining a small skull of an animal that had existed no less than a thousand years before. The dodo bird, once thought to be extinct, was now believed to be alive and well and living in the deep forested areas of northern Germany. Charlie was intrigued and wanted to help out if he could in confirming it. However, the field team freeze Niles had instituted had made his trip to Europe impossible, and he was miffed about it.

"Charlie!" Niles screamed at the door.

Ellenshaw raised his head, his white mane of hair flowing in every direction. His glasses were perched on his forehead and acted as a headband to keep the long hair from getting in his face. The fifty-eight-year-old professor looked around, and when he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he returned to examining the remains of the dodo.

Niles, frustrated, walked over to the stereo against the near wall and shut down the Byrds. Ellenshaw almost fell from the tall chair in which he was sitting. He looked around wildly, then he saw Compton and the others as they stared at him from a few feet away through the blue-tinted light he had glowing from a large light fixture from above.

"Ah, Niles, Sarah, what a surprise," he said looking from Compton and McIntire, and then he finally caught sight of Will. "And Lieutenant Mendenhall," he said through his teeth as he quickly waved away some of the leftover smoke hovering about his head.

"Professor," Mendenhall said, wanting to laugh at Ellenshaw at his attempt to hide his illegal activities.

"Ah, Miss McIntire, there was a rumor you and the lieutenant here, were, ahh, on the run."

"We are, Charlie. How are you?" she asked with her smile broadening; now knowing why Niles insisted Will's security men and colleagues stay behind.

"Alright, Charlie, Colonel Collins has sent these two to ask you a few questions," Niles said.

"Professor, I need you to think on this after I ask you the question, think hard on anything you can remember, okay?"

"Why, I will try my best."

"Professor, where were you in the summer of 1968?"

As Sarah watched, a faraway look came into Ellenshaw's eyes.

Ellenshaw turned to face Niles as a clear memory of another old song, "Incense and Peppermints," swirled through his head.

"The summer of 1968," Charlie said, but didn't continue.

"Doctor, were you in Canada?" Sarah prompted.

Ellenshaw smiled and then looked at Sarah and Mendenhall.

"We all looked at it as a chance to get away from Stanford and the troubling times in the country back then. A summer retreat to study the Tlingit Indians of the northern country. They lived along the Stikine, it's a river that—"

"We know, Professor, please continue."

"We thought it would be nothing more than research during the day, and one big party at night — you know, forget about the war and protests, assassinations. It was also a real chance at doing some significant anthropological work in the daylight hours."

"Tell us what happened up there, Charlie." Niles watched his old friend's eyes. He was looking even paler than usual in the blue light, and he could see that Charlie was not going to a place he liked very much. He slowly sat down in his chair. Ellenshaw then turned and half smiled at Niles.

"Sorry," he looked back down at his hands.

"We have a time issue here, Charlie," Niles prompted once more.

"That summer was dry; animals of all kinds were coming down from the high country north of the Stikine just to find water. One night while we were sitting around the campfire telling stories and generally having a good time, we started hearing the most terrifying sounds emanating from the deep forest around us. It was like fifty men out in the darkness hitting the trees with baseball bats, truly frightening to some, but I was intrigued as this was a way our prehistoric brethren communicated at night a very long time ago. However, it seemed I was the only one that found the disturbance interesting."

Sarah and Will saw that whatever Charlie had witnessed that long ago summer was still with him, and they could tell every word he uttered was the truth.

Ellenshaw related the rest of the story of that summer, starting with his small foray up the Stikine River with their guide, L. T. Lattimer, finding the cave and the wagons, the collected camping gear, and then recounting his encounter with the animal that invaded his dreams every year since that long-ago summer in Canada. The story ended with him paddling down that same river and never seeing Lattimer again.

"What were they?" Mendenhall asked when Charlie paused to wipe his brow.

"Huh?" Ellenshaw asked, not realizing he had stopped talking.

"Those things in the woods?" Mendenhall asked, his eyes never once leaving Ellenshaw.

"I don't know, name them whatever you want, apes, the missing link…" He looked from face to face. "Bigfoot, Sasquatch, whatever, I don't care what they're known by, but they were there."

Sarah, Will, and Niles were silent as Charlie placed his glasses back on. Will and Sarah were watching Charlie with wide eyes that wouldn't move away if a bomb had gone off in the large lab.

"You came across the journal with Lattimer's declaration in it, didn't you?" Ellenshaw asked, his brilliant mind figuring out the reasoning of their questions faster than they could have ever thought.

"Yes, Professor," Sarah answered as she took Charlie's shoulder and smiled at him. "Could you show us precisely on the map where this place was that you and Lattimer found this cave?"

"Oh, my, no. I would have to be there, I just couldn't point it out to you."

"You have to try, Charlie. Jack's sister is up there somewhere, and you're the only one that's been there."

"You know, that summer was the reason I dropped my pursuit of anthropology?"

"I didn't know that, Charlie," Niles said, knowing Ellenshaw was going to say what he had to say no matter what.

"Yes, that animal has been with me for thirty-one years. But yet, I have always refused to allow myself the chance to investigate it. It's like I know it's real and my searching once more for it would only attract attention to a species that seems to be doing very well without us. Besides, that Lattimer character always scared the hell out of me, that man was clearly deranged."

"Charlie, we need…"

Ellenshaw suddenly stood from his chair. He shook his head.

"I need to go. I have to go, for the colonel's sister, and for me. For me," he said, almost as if he were begging.

Sarah looked from Ellenshaw to the face of a worried Niles Compton. He took a deep breath and saw the hope in the professor's eyes.

"Okay, Charlie. But the priority is Jack's sister, nothing else. Find your Bigfoot if you can, but assist the colonel first."

Ellenshaw could only nod his head. He looked thankfully from Compton to Sarah and then to Mendenhall.

"Thank you."

Mendenhall watched the professor for a moment and then turned away and mumbled to himself. "This is great. First, killer Russians, and now another myth that couldn't possibly have existed an hour ago, and they are both going to try and take a bite out of my ass."