Alex Scarrow - Day of the Predator

Maddy’s jaw dropped open. ‘Whuh?’

‘He alone knows where they all are. Locations, time-stamps.’ She turned to Maddy. ‘I’m sorry… I was going to tell you, but… but Foster swore me to secrecy.’

Cartwright studied her silently. ‘There are others, then? Other places like this?’

Her face hardened and her dark eyes narrowed. ‘I’m not telling you any more. I don’t know any more, but… like I say, Liam knows.’

‘Hmm.’ He thumbed his chin thoughtfully.

‘Bob,’ said Maddy, ‘how many days would it take to do those density scans?’

› Calculating… just a moment… just a moment…

‘Nice try, young lady,’ said Cartwright eventually. ‘You know, that was almost convincing. But it’s the sort of nonsense that only happens in movies.’ His croaky voice raised in pitch to that of some damsel in distress. ‘ Oh, please don’t shoot, mister… If you let me live, I’ll show you where the loot is hidden.’

Cartwright laughed, pleased with his impression.

Sal shook her head. ‘Oh, I’m not lying. Where do you think the time machine came from?’ she replied. ‘What? You think me and Maddy put it all together by ourselves?’

He had no answer for that.

Maddy could see where Sal was going with this. A good bluff. ‘She’s right, Cartwright. Where do you think we get spare parts from? When the displacement system breaks down, who do you think we call to come and fix it? Some spotty kid from PC World?’

Sal nodded. ‘You think our people are going to let you walk away with one of their time machines?’

There were questions there that the old man needed time to consider carefully. The room remained a motionless tableau, while from somewhere overhead came the faint muted sound of a circling helicopter.

The blink of the cursor running across the dialogue box suddenly caught everyone’s attention.

› Information: running at 11 scans a second, 365,250 scans will take approximately nine hours.

‘Nine hours,’ said Maddy. ‘See that? Nine hours.’ She looked at her watch. ‘By three this afternoon, we’ll have an idea exactly when he is and we’ll be able to bring him back.’ She smiled sarcastically at him. ‘Then you’ll have three lab rats to play around with instead of two.’

‘Yes.’ Cartwright nodded appreciatively. ‘I suppose there is that.’

‘Please,’ whispered Sal, her hard-bargaining face softened to that of a begging puppy.

‘All right. But if either of you tries anything silly, like dialling for help with one of these signals — ’ he reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun — ‘in fact, if you do anything that isn’t explained clearly to me first, I will shoot you dead. Do you understand?’

They both nodded quickly.

‘There’ll be no shouted warnings, girls. I will simply pick up my gun and I will blow your brains across that messy desk of yours.’ He offered them that cold lifeless smile. ‘And, believe me, you’d be in very good company. It won’t be the first time I’ve blown a person’s brains right out of his head.’

Maddy swallowed and puffed out a fluttering breath, her eyes resolutely on the wavering muzzle of Cartwright’s gun.

‘Sure. Uh… O-OK. Nothing silly, then… I totally promise you that.’

65 million years BC, jungle

Liam heard the roar of the water through the trees ahead of them.

‘Becks? Are we close?’

‘Affirmative. The river is a hundred and twenty-six yards ahead of us.’

He grinned a mixture of relief and bravado. ‘Jay-zus-’n’-Mary, am I glad to be back!’

By the look on the faces of the others they couldn’t agree more with that. The thick canopy of leaves above them began to thin out as they approached the jungle’s edge, lances of late-afternoon sunlight stabbing down past loops of vine and dappling the ground with pools of mottled light.

With a final glance back at the forbidding darkness behind them, and an almost complete certainty that those things were still somewhere back there watching them from a distance, they hurried forward into the light.

Up ahead the river frothed and tumbled like some endlessly enraged beast. On the far side, he could see their bridge, dangling like a crane’s arm above the water. He was relieved to see it was raised; the four they’d left behind had maintained a wary caution.

Liam stood on the bank and cupped his hands. ‘Hello-o-o-o-o!’

The others gathered beside him. They’d lost three of their number, Ranjit, Franklyn and, earlier this morning, Kelly. All of them had heard his cry, and it had hastened their efforts down into the jungle valley, knowing those things were somewhere behind. And they’d grouped together more cautiously, realizing now the creatures were looking for stragglers.

Being bunched together seemed to have paid off. There’d been no sign of them throughout the morning, midday and now into the afternoon. Not even when they’d cleared the bare peak. Liam had looked back quickly in the hope of catching their pursuers unawares. But he saw nothing.

Now they were back. Job was done.

Liam craned his neck to look into the thin veil of jungle on the far side of the river. He could see some slivers of light through the dark tree trunks, the clearing beyond. But no sign of anyone coming their way to lower the bridge yet.

‘Try again,’ said Laura.

‘H-E-L–L-O-O-O-O-O!’

Liam’s voice echoed above the roar of the river, and startled a flock of miniature pterodactyls from a nearby tree. They waited with growing anticipation for a few minutes.

‘They’d have heard that surely?’ said Whitmore.

Edward stood on tiptoes to get a look through the jungle opposite. ‘Unless they’re all sleeping.’

‘There’ll be hell to pay if they are,’ muttered Liam. He cupped his hands again. ‘WE’RE BACK!’

Still nothing.

‘Maybe they gone huntin’?’ said Juan.

‘I gave instructions that someone always has to keep an eye on the windmill,’ replied Liam irritably.

Laura nodded at the bridge. ‘Someone would have to stay behind anyway, to lift that for them and lower it.’

He nodded. ‘True.’

‘So someone must be home.’

‘This is not good,’ he muttered under his breath.

Becks had been examining the fast-flowing water. ‘I am able to cross this,’ she said.

‘The current’s too strong,’ said Liam.

‘I do not need to swim across all of it, Liam.’ She pointed along the bank on which they were standing. Fifty yards down, it rose to a moss-covered hump that was well on its way to being undercut by the river. ‘Information: I calculate I will be able to jump across between thirty and forty per cent of the river’s width from that point.’

He looked at her. ‘And you know how to swim?’

‘Affirmative. I also know how to walk, run, jump… talk.’

He cocked a sideways glance at her. Was that actually sarcasm? Was that another example of Becks’s emerging sense of humour? She returned a smile.

‘Oh, you’re so funny, Becks.’

‘I am developing several files on humour traits.’ She nodded towards the mossy hump, changing subject. ‘I will not be long,’ she said, turning to walk down the bank towards it.

‘Where’s she going?’ asked Whitmore, unhappy to see their robot bodyguard leaving them alone.

‘She’s going to do her superhero thing,’ said Liam.

They watched in silence as she examined the river for a moment then turned to regard the height of the hump. After a few seconds she walked away from the river’s edge and came to a halt just as she was about to enter the shadowy fringe of the jungle. She turned round and without a second’s hesitation broke into a sprint towards the river.