The Dark Ill-Doer

The dark ill-doer

They were, Abby supposed, actually quite lucky that the old woman had found them at all.  They had been concerned by the fact that she did not seem to speak any language they could understand, but in despair, she had switched to another language which Danny had recognised, and he was in his element.  As was Sarah.  In fact, much of the time, they forgot to translate to the others standing around the table.
         “I’m sorry”, Danny said impatiently, “But maybe we should get her story, and then we’ll give you the salient points later.”
         “You said she’d seen a dragon.  Is there really another one?”                    
         “It’s not a dragon,” Sarah interjected.  “We asked twice, and whilst she won’t swear it’s not a dragon, she insists that it runs on two legs.  It ‘sees without seeing’.  It’s big, it’s tough and she says we can’t kill it.”
         “Has anyone thought to tell her that maybe we don’t WANT to kill it?” Said Abby. 
         “Let’s try and establish where it is first, and then we can decide what to do with it without…help.”
The woman stopped muttering to herself at that point and looked at the group gathered around her.  Then she took out a small pouch and drew some ancient bones from it.  She threw them in the air, and they bounced around before settling into some obscure patterns which she appeared to consult.  Then she looked up.          
         “Syv krigere er nødvendige for at dræbe Udyret.”
         Danny and Sarah started to look round the room and count.
         “What?  What?”  Asked Connor, getting disturbed. 
         “Hold on, five – six.  Lester makes six.”  He turned to Sarah with a query in his eyes. 
         “And she wants seven.”
         “Seven what?”  Lester was calmly waiting, arms folded as always. 
         “Seven warriors,” Danny said absently.  “Who the heck does she mean?”
         “Us, presumably and one other.” 
                Danny threw him an impatient look.           
              “Hvem er den syvende?”  He asked the old woman.  The woman shook her head.  He shrugged his shoulders in frustration – “We can’t do anything or go anywhere until we know who they all are.”
         “So.  We’re a bit stuck.  I think I need to go back and have a relaxed cup of tea before I try to work out what I can do with a Soothsayer.”  Lester moved towards the door, but was halted in his tracks at the sound of the alarm.  “Just once, just once, I will get a second cup of tea without a crisis.  Yes, what is it?”  He addressed the black suited person who came running in the door.
         “Security breach, sir!”  The man shouted.
         “Where?” And there was an ocean of frustration in Becker’s voice.
         “We’re…not sure, sir.  We’re looking.”
         “That would be me.”  The woman’s voice cut across the siren and the running footsteps of heavy soldiers.  They all looked around and Connor spoke the name they were all thinking, “Helen”.
         “Who were you expecting?”  She asked sardonically and came towards them.  Becker pointed his gun directly into her face.  “One more step!”  He hissed.  Connor was being restrained by Abby.
         “Let me go!  I’ll, I’ll, I’ll….”He lapsed into silence when his feelings made him incoherent.  He remembered holding Cutter’s body in his arms, the blood on his hands, and the last sight of Helen had been before they had both gone into the building, alive and well.  And here she was again, looking no worse for wear, sarcasm worn like makeup on her face.
         “Poor dear”, she purred to Connor.  “I’m so sorry I missed the funeral.  I was too busy recovering from an explosion.”
         “Which you caused,” Said Becker quietly. 
         “Well, indirectly.  I would rather the building hadn’t exploded, but what could I do?”          
         “Not try to steal things?” Said Abby.  Connor had relaxed and she had mostly let him go, but she could feel his hate.  “I’d suggest you start by telling us why you’ve broken in.”’
         “At least you didn’t get away with the artefact.”  Becker smiled triumphantly.
         “Is that what you think I was doing?”  She smiled, reminiscent of a tawny power when something weak wobbles by.    “If I’d been trying for that, be sure you would never have known about it.  No, I wanted to get your attention, since you seem much more preoccupied with…certain individuals.”  Her nose wrinkled as she caught a slight whiff of the old woman. 
         “You have it.  For about…..nine more seconds”, Lester consulted his watch.
         “I want to join.”  Everyone stopped what they were doing.  “Yes, you heard, I want to join the ARC.  I have experience you cannot imagine, and skills to boot.  Plus an army if you need it.”
         “Hmmm.  Interesting proposal.”  Lester could at least be counted on to keep a cool head.  “And what on earth makes you think you simply stroll in and join?  And why would you want to?”
         “Simple.  You have the artefact.  You have good facilities and I would gain more by being here, on site, than I would in my laboratory.  Why go to all the bother of stealing the artefact when I could study it and get paid at the same time?”
         “And….you also can’t steal it otherwise.”  Becker was back to smiling triumphantly.
         “No, I could simply enter the way I did, and send in thousands of my soldiers, slaughtering everything in my path.”  Becker stopped smiling.  “Yes……”  She was staring into his face but he refused to look at her.  She laughed and moved away from him.  “So, what do we think?  Please don’t waste my time, I have a great deal to do and if you’re not going to play ball, I need to get on with it.”
         “How about we just hold you here, and lock you away.  No one would know you were here.” Connor’s eyes were suspiciously red as he glared his hatred at her.
         “Now, now, mummy and daddy are talking,” Helen did not spare him a glance.  “Keep your trained monkey quiet, and tell me what you plan to do, Lester.”
         “Well, I could lock you away, no one knows you are here, after all,” Lester inspected his impeccable nails.  He looked up as Helen’s hand curled around his neck.
         “Don’t be a naughty boy. You know that my army knows where I am, and I would hardly have been stupid enough to come alone.  You’ve got about ten minutes before they head on in here.”
         “So we have ten minutes in which we can torture you then?”  Becker stepped towards her.
         “Or did I mean five minutes?  I lose count you know, maybe we’ve wasted so much time, they’re already on their way.” Her face hardened.  “Well?”
         Danny looked at the others and jerked his head to one side, denoting a conference.
         “We’re not thinking of dealing with this woman?”  Connor asked, when they were all huddled in a corner.  Lester managed to look as though he was not huddled with them.
         “Do I look stupid?”  Said Becker. 
         “I think we’ll have to let her go – this time, but at least we know she’s lost what she wanted.”  Connor looked happy.
         “Are we sure we know what she wanted?” Danny asked.
         They were interrupted by a cry of disgust.
         “Get off me, you old hag!”  They turned to see the old woman attempting to give Helen one of her bones.  “Syvende” She shouted, “Syvende!”
         “My name’s Helen, and when did you last bath?”
         “Hey, careful, she’s only an old woman,” Becker stepped forward to free the old woman from Helen’s furious grasp. 
         “Old woman?  She stinks like a rotted corpse!”
         “Syvende! Syvende!”
         “And who’s this ‘Syvend’ she keeps shouting about?”  Helen almost lost her grip on the struggling woman when she looked up to find the room staring at her.  “What?”
         “You are joking.”  Said Connor.
         “Nope, looks like we’ve found our seventh warrior.”  Becker said.
         “You’ve what?  Tell me what’s going on, or I’ll put this one back in the ground where she came from.”
         “OK!”  It was rare that Lester raised his voice, but he had evidently lost patience.  “Abby, try and calm her down.  Helen.”  He stood for a moment, thinking hard.  “How about a deal?  We need you for a mission. If you agree to undertake it to the best of your abilities, we will consider you joining the ARC project.”
         “No!” came from various mouths, but he held up his hand to silence them.  Helen walked over to him.
         “You’d really say yes?”  She asked, staring into his eyes.
         “On this occasion.  But if you don’t play ball, we’ll shoot you and take our chances.”
         “No tricks.  There are people who will seriously try to take this ARC down if I fail to show up.  I can call them off for now, but I will take precautions.”
         “Of course,” Lester was unruffled.  “Just as I’ll take the precaution of making sure there’s at least one gun trained on you at all times.”  Becker cocked his gun to make a point.
         “Hadn’t you cocked that already?”  Helen smiled at him cruelly.  “I must remember how unprepared you are in any combat situation.  I’ll expect to carry a gun.” And she held out her hand.
         “You can expect to carry a pen knife and like it.” Said Lester.
         “I think you’ll find the old woman said I was a…warrior?  That implies weapons.”
         Lester leaned in.  “Perhaps she meant your mind.”  His sardonic smile told her he didn’t think much of it.  Looking at him, she could see she wasn’t going to win this battle.
         “So where are we going?” She asked.  The others looked sheepish.  “OK, I thought you had some super-duper machine which could pinpoint any anomaly which appeared.”
         “We do,” Connor was quick to defend them.  “It’s just that this one…sort of….didn’t seem to show up.” 
         “So we don’t know where to go yet.”  Danny went over to the old woman.  “Old woman, where can we find this beast?”  The old woman gathered her bones up.  She was going to toss them in the air, but Danny put a hand on her arm.  “Wait.”  He looked over to Becker.  “Map?”
         Becker went over to a desk, and drew out an atlas. 
         “We’ll have to whittle it down somehow.”
         “Let’s start with England and see what she can tell us.”  Sarah took the map off him and laid it out on another desk.  “Please tell us?”  She asked the woman, who shuffled forward and gently threw the bones on the map.  The others could read nothing, but she swept them away and pointed at Worcestershire.
         “Woah!  We’ve not had a creature out that far.”  Connor was looking puzzled.  “Why didn’t it show up?”  He looked over to his machine, still lying dormant.  “Why hasn’t it been spotted before?  I don’t know if we can rely on my machine any more.”
         Lester’s quiet, “Great……” almost went unheard by everyone.
“But only one creature has come through, hopefully, and maybe it’s just the one anomaly.”  Becker tried to help.
         “One creature who sounds remarkably like our future predator,” said Connor gloomily.  “Can we narrow down the search even further?”
         Becker had ferreted out a map of Worcestershire, and now laid it out in front of the old woman.  She threw the bones again and Sarah gasped when she saw where the grimy finger was now pointing.
         “Abbots Marsh!  My god, it can’t be!”
         “Why not?  As good a place as any.”  Said Becker
         “Yes, but this…this….puts into place a missing piece of a puzzle.”  Everyone was still looking bemused.  “There was a place near there called ‘Grendel’s Mere.”  Danny started to look smug again, along with Helen.  Everyone else didn’t.  “The legend of Grendel?  Beowulf?”
         “Ray Winston?”  Connor asked hopefully.
         “Yes, but the film was not as accurate as…”
         “’The Thirteenth Warrior’?”  Connor was being cheered up at the thought that his film knowledge could be put to good use.  “In fact….they had an old woman in that who could predict by using bones…’forste mand’.”  He added speculatively.
         “Forste mand!”  The woman echoed, and gave him one of her bones.
         “First man?”  Lester enquired.
         “Right,”  Connor’s elated grin faded somewhat, when he remembered what had happened to the “Forste Mand” in the film, and he fell to looking at the small bone he held in his hand.  “But that was set in Poland.”  He murmured distractedly.
         “Denmark, I think you’ll find.  But the poem was written in Anglo-Saxon - perhaps the creature was sighted here, and managed to get over to Denmark.  Perhaps they can swim?”
         “Oh good, Sarah, now we have to worry that not only did they wipe out everyone in England in the future, they possibly wiped out the rest of the world.  Perhaps we should consider Helen’s point of view about the ARC after all.”  Lester’s face was unreadable.
         “OK, yep, let’s give up – in fact, let’s not bother with this creature.  Let’s just let it run riot, kill everyone in Worcester, sure no one will miss them, and sit back until they turn up here.”  Becker was getting irate.  “I think the only real hope we have in terms of making sure Helen’s future does not come about is if we work on the problem from here, with the facilities that we have.”
         “YOUR future, let’s not forget.”
         “It’s not set in stone, it’s only guaranteed because you insist that it is.  Who’s to say what will change it?”
         “You changed something, you did something, goodness knows what it was, but I suspect that one of these creatures escaped back in time.”
         “Claudia Brown,” Connor added into the mix.  It did not improve matters.
         “All she proves is that changing the past has an effect on the future”
         “Which I think we worked out by ourselves.  What we need to work out is how to put it back.”
         “Or stop it now.”
         “Or go back, and try and change it near the time it changed before.”
         “My head hurts.”
         “I don’t care, I think –“
         “ENOUGH!”  Lester glared at them all.  “This is like kindergarten.  Let us put our heads together and deal with the predator which is here and now.”
         Ignoring the mulish looks around him, Becker spoke again more quietly.
         “Right, this woman seems to think that all seven of us can defeat this creature, so somehow, we know the answer.”
         “One solution has been staring you in the face – in fact, Cutter thought of it, but you don’t seem to have considered it since.”
         “And what was that?” Becker said after a pause.
         “How do these creatures detect you?”
         “By sound, by radar.” Said Sarah.  “So if we could muffle the sound somehow -  “
         “NO!  You come up with that solution everytime, and you know from experience it doesn’t work.  The only reason you have managed to escape being eaten is because the creature becomes confused when it hears your heartbeat being muffled.  A heartbeat going quieter, suddenly, indicates prey which is dying.  So it hesitates – you confuse it for a moment, but it simply has to re-tune to the quieter noise.  At that moment, sure, it can be distracted by something louder, but then it will simply lock onto that.”
         Onto me, Connor thought, having done ‘decoy duty’ in the past.
         “So what’s your solution?”  Becker was a little peeved at the thought that their efforts had been laughably ineffective.
         “If making too little noise is not working, then how about making too much?”  Helen stared at them challengingly.  “Cutter smashed the glass of the greenhouse, which created a huge amount of noise, and disguised his movements the first time you encountered this creature. Think of the sound being like light – too much, and you can’t see properly.”
         “But we won’t be able to hear ourselves talking, we might miss people being attacked, or falling down lift shafts and whatever other dangers there may be in the future.” 
         Helen tutted in exasperation.  “You don’t need light as in white light, think of it in terms of UV.”
         “Ultra sonic sound, you mean,” Said Sarah.
         “At last.  Some intelligence - from a woman, you’ll note.”
         “I never noticed you being so anti-men before, Helen, you always seemed to think that they had their uses.” Said Lester blandly.  “Stephen, especially.”
         “Uses in certain areas.  Not for general consumption.”  Helen’s voice was low with hatred.  “And I certainly didn’t consider him without his uses – “
         The others were astonished to hear her break off, almost as though she were upset.  She did not give them long, however, she began again.
         “I have a prototype of a sound generator, but I need resources to develop it quickly – plus a few experimental test subjects.”
         “Ah, now I see where our ‘mutual’ arrangement comes in.  We give you the tools, the work space, the canon fodder – running out of toy soldiers, were we? – and you give us?…”  Lester allowed the comment to trail off. 
         “I will give you the plans for the weapon.”  Helen said.  “Look, I’ve already given you a valuable weapon against the predator.”
         Abby became suspicious. “Yes, curious that.  Does your weapon work?” 
         Becker broke in, “How many soldiers DID you lose?”
         Helen searched through her bag, whilst she answered.  “A few.  The weapon works.  I would hardly still be traipsing around the future world if it didn’t.”
         Suddenly, an image slammed into Danny Quinn’s head.  Helen, always being around when they were.  Helen, always turning up on the outskirts, arriving just after everyone had arrived and had engaged the enemy.
         “My god, we were the sacrificial goats even then.”
         Helen smiled at him, “Your guns conveniently made so much noise, the predators never heard us for the most part.  And then we were able to lure them away, or blast them at close range.”  She threw some papers onto the desk, and Connor retrieved them, trying not to look to eager.
         “Hey guys, this might actually work,” he said.
         “I’ve told you, it does,” Helen snapped.
         Becker moved in close to Connor.  “Can you make it work?”  He asked in a low voice.  Connor looked up and nodded.  “Besides, she’s right.  It’s an obvious weapon.  Even if we simply banged pots and pans whilst we were there, it would probably be enough noise to effect a get-away.”
         “So how does it work?”
         “Simple.  The gun emits a sonar click, which interferes with the predator’s sonar.  There are studies done on bats which suggest that moths can do this.”
         Becker looked confused.  “But Connor, the bat still gets to eat the moth.”
         Connor thought for a moment.  “Well, yes, the bat learns to keep the sonar toned down until it nears its prey.  Then its anatomy allows it to distinguish its own click from the moths, and pinpoint it accurately.”
         “And you don’t think that the predator would have learned to do the same thing?”
         Connor licked his lips nervously,  “Well….possibly.”           
         Becker leaned in close.  “Connor, we don’t want to confront one of these creatures, only to find that the gun doesn’t work.”
         “Helen said it did.”
         “Yeah, I also notice that she doesn’t seem to wander around relying on it.  And why give the plans away to us like that?  More than likely, she’s giving square wheels to cavemen.”
         Connor nodded.  “OK, so we need to look at bat sonar and see if the prey’s sonar does interfere with it in any way.  But I still think that loud noises would work.”
         “How about I take lots of shot guns and see if they work?”
         Abbey and Sarah crowded in, looking at the plans.  “Crude but possibly effective.” Was Sarah’s opinion.
         “Won’t work at all,” Was Abby’s.  They looked at her.  “Well, can you imagine?  We blast the creature with a sonar signal which isn’t its own.  Sure, it’ll be confused, for a while.  After that, it’ll simply translate the signal as being the one coming from its prey.  Lo and behold, it’ll lock onto the new signal, and find you that much faster.”  She whirled on Helen in sudden fury. “HOW. MANY. SOLDIERS? Tell me now, or you’ll end up swallowing these.”  She held up the papers in threat.  Helen could not look her in the face, but it became clear Abby wasn’t going to let this one go.
         “It worked at first,” Helen burst out finally.  “The creatures were confused, they couldn’t work out what was happening.  If the men were far enough away, the creature went berserk, it would run around, lashing out at anything in its path.  Sometimes, it would encounter another predator, and would try to rip it apart.  Of course, sometimes it encountered one of the soldiers, who would then be defenceless.  So we’d try and rescue him, blast the predator from all sides using multiple weapons.  But then any other predators in the near vicinity would stop being confused and would close in.  When they got close…it was like you said.  They could work out whose sonar was whose.  And they killed immediately.  The soldiers didn’t understand, they’d keep blasting them, even though we would scream at them to turn the guns off.  That didn’t really help either, once they were that close, they’d hear their heartbeats anyway.  It was a blood bath.  We lost about fifty, if you have to know,” She said bitterly. 
         “Well, OK,”  Said Connor slowly. “If they start to recognise whose signal is whose, then we need to add a moustache.  A false nose.  Plastic glasses….”  He trailed off at Becker’s expression.
         “He means disguise the signal,” Said Sarah patiently.
         “Yeah, we change the frequency, change the pulse rhythm.”  He got up and started walking towards the lab. 
         “And have lots of them.”  Sarah added.  “So it can’t single out one pulse and lock on.”
         “Make the gun barrel wide, have it disperse the sound.”
         “Maybe we can reflect it somehow.  Make our sonar profile different.  Make it bigger, so they are afraid.  Or like a predator’s.”
         “Shall we just stick to one thing at a time?”  Connor looked at her, slightly amused.  Sarah nodded.
         “I’ve heard that there are plants which can break up the sonar pattern – “Abbey’s voice was cut off as the doors closed behind her. 
         “Well, they’re happy for the next few hours.  I suggest we get packed, fed and get some sleep.  I am going to hold the fort, possibly with the aid of a supremely good, very expensive glass of brandy.”  Lester set off towards the door.
         “Not so fast,” Becker spoke without raising his glance from the floor.  “We need seven warriors.  Not six.”
         “I was here for the meeting.  You can’t be seriously thinking..” and he took a step closer to Becker. “You don’t think that I am going to come out on this…this…wild goose chase, do you?”
         “Where the wild geese eat the hunters.”  Supplied Danny.
         “Yes, quite,” Lester actually looked a little flustered.  “I’m sure the old woman meant I was to co-ordinate from here.  Oh look, you don’t have to ask her – “ But Danny had done just that.  And from her answer it was clear : Lester was going with them.
         A few hours later, and he had managed to pack a few things together.  Danny suspected that one of them included a very breakable bottle of exquisite brandy, but he said nothing.  They were now all equipped with an extraordinary device, which Becker wanted to refuse to use, as it didn’t look cool.  The ‘muzzle’ resembled a hair dryer and Connor didn’t help with the instructions on use.
         “You’ll have to move them in circles.  And we have to stick together, so as the different signals come out, there’ll be less chance of the predators locking on.  And be careful with them.  They’re not exactly factory produced.”  He winced as a small piece of plastic fell off Danny’s.  “See what I mean?” 
         “I can just see us getting up good and close with a predator, and the whole thing falling apart in my hand.  I’ve seen more sturdy guns on ‘Blake’s Seven’.”
                Becker looked at his ‘gun’ and shook his head.  Both Danny and he were also carrying shot guns and a large amount of ammunition, and he thought they’d be able to rely on those more than the ‘Vidal Sassoon 2009’. 
                They piled into the cars, and set off on what promised to be a long journey.  The SatNav was confident that it could find Abbots Marsh.  Abby’s expression and the large map she was carrying suggested otherwise.  Connor had mentioned bringing along the old woman, but she had made it clear that not only was she supposed to stay behind, but that she was going to anyway.  Connor had been about to mention her bones, but she had retired into a semi-stupour, muttering to herself in Danish, so he gave up.  The jeep was packed, everyone trying desperately not to squash Lester.  Sarah and Abby, being the lightest, were detailed to sit either side of him.  Helen simply sat in the front, no arguing.
         True to Abby’s precognisence, the SatNav confidently steered them to a dirt road which ended in a big wood.  Or else it took them to the village of Abbott’s Marsh.  They looked hopefully at Sarah, who had been in deep consultation with a book, and she then announced that the place they were looking for did not exist any more.  Lester was unimpressed.
         “So…how exactly are we going to find the anomaly and/or the creature?”  He asked patiently. 
         “Out of the car, search by numbers.”  Becker’s answer was always action above thinking.  Everyone was prepared to argue, but were unable to think of an argument against this idea, and the surrounding wood looked inviting although dirty.  Even the impeccably dressed Lester got out, wincing as his expensive leather boots hit the mud, but he looked a little more at home once he had removed his silk lined jacket.
         “What?” he said in answer to Becker’s look.  “I didn’t dress for this this morning, I don’t have soothsaying abilities.”
         After three hours, they were all hot, tired and discouraged.  After all, Connor’s anomaly machine had not so much even peeped, and they all felt that it would not miss an anomaly at such close range. 
         “I give up!  I say we bring the old woman here, and get her to POINT to the anomaly.”  Connor was toying with the small bone she had, and in disgust, threw it away.
         No one was really clear of the events which happened just after that.  Danny was the one standing furthest back from the anomaly when it opened, so was able to see the creature the moment it appeared, as though it had been waiting.  Everyone else was unprepared for its presence, and so no one thought to use the new gun.  Lester was least able to assist, since he found himself staring up at the beast towering above him.  Fortunately, either the creature was too surprised or it had other things on its mind, since it simply swatted him to one side and bounded off.  The others could hear the crashing noises as it plunged through the foliage getting fainter and fainter and gradually peace returned to the clearing, except for Connor’s machine blasting out an unnecessary warning about an open anomaly.  Becker was the first to move.
         “Lester!” He yelled, and disappeared in the direction of Lester’s body.  There was no reply.  The others quickly followed him and Danny came across a very still form.
         “Lester.”  He bent down and urgently tried to find a pulse.  A groan told him that at least his boss was still alive, if not well.  He looked up to find Abby by his side, who checked Lester over.  He was, on the surface, undamaged, although he was sporting an already darkening bruise on his face.  As he came around a little more, though, it was obvious he had been hurt elsewhere.  He attempted to sit up, but fell back and complained about pain down his side.  Abby tried to ascertain his injuries, but without the proper equipment she could not tell how bad they were.
         “Hospital?” Said Becker.  She nodded.  “Right, we need to get him into the car.  At least we don’t have to carry him far.”
         Abby rescued the neck brace from the first aid equipment they had on board.
         “Yes, I know he’s already moved around, but it still could prevent further injury,” she responded to Connor’s comment about it being unnecessary.  Lester looked uncomfortable wearing it, but whether that was because he felt an idiot, or because his neck hurt, she wasn’t sure.  He forgot about it a moment later when they lifted him up, and his injuries made themselves known again.  Sarah looked her sympathy at him biting his lip to keep from crying out, and she was relieved when they were able to lay him on the back seat of the car. 
         “Right, Sarah, drive him to the nearest hospital, use the SatNav, it should work for this.  Abby, go with her.”
         “Right, get rid of the women folk.  How about Helen helping?”
         “I don’t think Helen’s particularly interested in helping Lester.”  Becker did not even look at Helen, who seemed only vaguely amused by his comments.
         “Hey, at least he was being slightly reasonable about my joining you.”  She said.
         “Yeah, don’t think that that deal stands if he isn’t around.”
         “I can look after myself,” She said in a low tone, for his ears only. 
         “And I can look after the interests of the ARC, and you’re not a part of them.”  He hissed back.  She gave up the argument and went towards the direction the beast had disappeared in.
         “The old woman said – “
         “Hang the old woman!” Becker snapped.  “We need to get Lester to the hospital, he could have internal injuries.  Just do it!”  He cut off further arguments, and Sarah began to turn the jeep around.  Abby had climbed in the back to brace Lester against the movement of the vehicle.
         “Whoah, we need the equipment!”  Connor had been desperately dragging items off the jeep, and Abby braked to allow him to grab the last bag.  “OK, I think that’s everything.”  He broke off at the sound of something big and heavy coming through the trees.  “Oh no….”.
         Sure enough, a large black form came crashing through towards them, but the sound changed as it switched from using the ground to using the trees.  The claws scrabbled a bit to find purchase as it leapt from tree to tree, almost as though it were flying.  Becker pulled out the new gun and pointed it, shouting for the others to do the same.  They all obeyed, even Sarah and Abby who leant out of the jeep, Sarah using Lester’s gun as well.  The creature shrieked, and began to lash out with its talons, falling to the ground, striking trees and bushes whilst getting closer.  Its movements seemed slightly uneven, and eventually Danny realised that its right arm had been injured in a previous encounter with something.  Unfortunately, it had healed enough to allow the creature to be as deadly with that side as it was with the other.  The team was now well spread out, moving the guns in wide circles, and the creature did seem unable to ‘see’ them anymore.  Becker looked over his shoulder at the others.
         “It’s working, bloody great!”
         “Try to get it into the anomaly!”  Shouted Abby.  “It’s getting a bit close!”
         Becker looked over to them, and his heart sank.  The creature was indeed far too close, and even as he watched, its claws connected with the front of the vehicle.  Suddenly having something firm in its claws, it immediately ripped and dug, and the engine went flying.  Sarah was screaming, Abby was getting out of the jeep and the creature smashed at the windscreen.  Abby opened the back door, desperately trying to drag Lester free.  The creature got through the glass finally, and leapt partially into the driver’s seat.  Horrified, Abby realised it had locked onto Lester’s heartbeat, and she grabbed him under his arms and yanked with all her strength.  He came free of the car, crying out with pain as his body hit the ground.  Sarah, white faced, leapt forward and pointed the gun directly at the creature.
         “No Sarah!” Shouted Abby, “It’ll lock onto you!”  But she knew there was no choice.  The creature forced its way through until it was inches away from all three, and Sarah thrust the gun in its face.  The predator roared, and then, for a moment, flinched and backed away.  Unable to believe their luck, Sarah and Abby took advantage of the moment, seized Lester and stumbled a few steps away from the jeep.  The world seemed to explode for a moment, and Sarah felt something hot and sticky spray across her, which turned out to be predator blood when she glanced down.  The creature screamed and they crouched to the ground as it leapt out of the jeep, and landed some yards away from them.  The others ran forward, pointing the guns at it, and it whirled around, unable to locate any of them.  The shot gun blast had injured it, and Becker holstered the sound gun in favour of the superior weapon.  As he cocked it, however, the creature threw itself towards the trees, and quickly vanished.  Everyone stood for a moment, unable to believe it had gone and that they were all still alive.  Danny and Becker ran over to Abby and Sarah, who were again checking on Lester.  He seemed more disgruntled at being hauled around than actually injured, which led Abby to hope that his injuries were not particularly serious. 
         “Yes, yes,” Lester said irritably, as he tried to wipe some predator blood off his once immaculate shirt.  “I’m still alive, no thanks to Connor.”
         Connor looked up at the mention of his name from checking the equipment.  “What?  What now, what have I done?” 
         “I notice that it was your bone which opened the anomaly – ouch!” He glared at Abby who was trying surreptitiously to see if any of his ribs were broken.  “Do you have to do that?  I tell you I’m injured, that my side hurts, and your response is to press down hard on it.  Does that hurt?  Yes.  Did it help?  No.  You still don’t know if it’s broken.  Please stop prodding me and let me sit up.”  He tried struggling up from his prone position on the floor, and failed miserably.  Abby had sat back on her heels to watch.
         “You might give me a hand.”  He said. 
         “Yes, I might do, but you were too busy moaning about the care you were receiving, so I thought I’d leave you to it.”  Abby’s expression held no sympathy. 
         “I apologise,” Lester said eventually, “Please feel free to manipulate my broken bones in any way you wish.” 
         “Nah, I’m good,” And Abby got up to see the damage to the jeep.
         “You were saying?”  Connor was looking challengingly at Lester.          
         “I was saying that as soon as you chucked your bone at the anomaly, it opened.”  Lester lay back with his eyes closed.
         “True, but that has to have been a co-incidence.  You don’t seriously think that that bone opened the anomaly?”          
         “I’m just going on visual evidence.”
         “No, sorry, Lester but that doesn’t make any sense.”  Abby said.
         “Of course it doesn’t,” Helen snapped angrily.  “You know perfectly well the anomaly responds to light variance pulses, directed by…” and she broke off.  Everyone was now staring interestedly at Helen. 
         “Light variance…what?”
         “That’s enough information,” Helen was clearly furious at herself for mentioning as much as she had.  “See, if I were part of your team, you’d know all this.  I’ll tell you this much : that bone had as much hope of opening an anomaly as Connor does.”
         “Hey, I’ll have you know – “
         “Connor, shut up.”  Sarah flapped at him urgently.  “So, if it wasn’t the bone, what opened it?”
         “It was just co-incidence.  Really, you’re an intelligent woman, you can’t be placing any kind of importance on bones.”
         “I don’t know, the old woman was right about everything else.  And she obviously knew the creature was ABOUT to come through, rather than it being here already.  I just hope she’s not right about us not being able to kill the creature.  At this rate, I think we’ll have to.” Danny was disgusted at the state of the jeep.  The engine was no longer part of the picture, and it was evident that they would be hiking out of Abbotts Marsh by foot.
         “Sarah, what happened with the sonic gun?”  Abby asked.
         “I don’t know, I was using it, it changed pitch and the predator flinched away from it.”
         “So a sound on some frequency hurts it.  Pity we have no idea which one it is.”
         “Yeah, I vote you stand in front of it again and see if you can find it.  Boys and girls, we have a predator to find.”  Helen strode off after the creature.
         “Whoah, wait, you don’t have a weapon except your hairdryer.”  Becker was perturbed to find that Helen in fact was now carrying an effective-looking, very large hand gun.  “Hang on, you said you wanted a gun.”
         “Yep, I just wanted to see if I could get a free one and if you’d trust me enough to give me one.  I decided, in retrospect, not to mention this one.”
         Becker was not impressed to find Danny grinning at the exchange.
         “What?  She’s got balls, you have to say that for her.”
         “I don’t remember you being that nice about her when Cutter got killed.  Oh wait, you weren’t around for that.  You’ve just jumped into his place before it got cold.”
         “OK, Becker, calm down.  I know you don’t like me, but let’s not kick off now.”
         Becker leaned in close.  “I’m watching.”
         “You do a lot of that, you know.”
         “A lot of watching?”
         “A lot of muttering threats to people in a low tone of voice.”
         Becker opened his mouth to respond, thought better of it, and walked off after Helen.  There was a clear trail of blood at first, and then, there were signs that the predator had once again taken to the trees.  There were still splashes of blood, but few and far between.  Becker had grown concerned after a few moments, and detailed Connor, Sarah and Abby to wait with Lester.  Connor and Sarah began to attempt to set up the equipment to close the anomaly if necessary and Abby was apparently helping them, but also keeping an eye on Lester.  He seemed to be taking things in his stride, however, resting on a make shift bed they had managed to cobble together from various blankets and damaged car seats.  Abby went over to Connor and Sarah.
         “How’s it going?”
         “Well, it’s mostly undamaged.  But the equipment’s sensitive, so the few jolts it did get might be enough to stop it working.  And the floor’s not exactly level,” Connor said.  “We’ve got part of it up, that’s the last pole now.”  And he smacked it into the ground.  They quickly attached wires and the keyboard, and finally the anomaly performed its characteristic pulse before appearing as a hard glass-like sphere. 
         “That’s got it,” Sarah said with satisfaction.
         “Good.  Can we go home now?”  Lester did not even open his eyes.
         “Sorry, still have a predator to catch.”  And everyone else glanced towards the forest, at where the hunters had disappeared.
         The blood was getting less and less now, and was harder to follow.  Becker was becoming increasingly concerned that they would fail to notice when the creature had stopped, or even if it had crept behind them and was just waiting.  He had kept an eye on their general direction, and was relieved to find that whilst they were not particularly moving in a straight line, they at least were not walking in a circle.  Suddenly, the blood appeared in a large quantity, and looked very fresh.  Becker held up his hand in warning, and everyone froze.  He could hear their breathing quicken as they realised what he was staring at.  He unhooked the sound gun very slowly, and the others followed suit.  There was no suitable tree for the predator, and he was not surprised to see it burst from some thick foliage.  He trained the sonic gun on it, and it froze.  The others took the opportunity to do the same and watched as the creature began to whirl around again.  However, there was something controlled about its behaviour this time, and suddenly it broke off and hurtled towards Helen.  She dropped her sonic gun, took up her gun in both hands and waited.  It leapt whilst it was still some distance from her, but it was obvious its trajectory would end up meeting violently with her head.  There was an endless pause, and then the creature was being hurled backwards, blood pouring from another injury.  Helen’s bullet had succeeded in blasting away part of its head, but it still would not lie down.  It was lashing out weakly with its claws even as the others gathered around to watch its final struggles.
         “So.  The sonic guns work up to a point.  But then they stop working.”  Said Becker.  “I bet you knew that was going to happen, didn’t you?”
         “We didn’t have the variable signals, but it was always a possibility.  I didn’t hide that from you either.”
         Becker considered her words.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  I think we should finish it off, you know.”  He continued, watching the writhing creature.  “It’s only suffering now.”
         “Are you mad?” Asked Helen.  “This is a perfect opportunity to study this creature- we could out what sonic noise works against it – “
         “I’ll tell you which one works, “Interrupted Danny.  He held up the gun, and fired it.  The others covered their ears as the creature screamed out.  “Its physiognomy has been changed by its injuries, it can’t filter out painful sounds or fixate on anything.  Even if it healed, I doubt that its membranes would ever work again properly.”
         “But this is still a golden opportunity, we could – “
         The creature shuddered under the final shot gun blast, and then lay still.  Becker ‘broke’ the gun and then began the walk back to where they had left Lester and the others.  Danny took Helen by the elbow, and guided her away, she looking back only once as they followed Becker.

         Lester was on his way to a full recovery, unsurprisingly since his injuries turned out to be painful bruises and not much else.  The ambulance men had been very quiet about being called out, whereas the taxi company had threatened to charge exorbitant amounts in order to cover possible damage to the axles.
         “You couldn’t tell the difference between a bruise and a broken bone?” was his only comment to Abby, who seemed tempted to make a joke about this.  Helen was looking forward to her first day at the ARC, and everyone was practising their “Happy to be working with you but we don’t trust you, no way, nuh-huh, can’t wait until you leave” faces.  She came in to find them in a long discussion as to what they should do with the old woman.  Having cleaned up the predator and watched the anomaly shut, they were embarrassed to remember that she should have gone too.  Danny was highly suspicious of the fact that they all appeared to have forgotten about her until the anomaly closed, and that she didn’t seem too upset by that fact.  She was uncommunicative about the matter, and so it was left to the team to suggest the next move.  Helen watched them for awhile, and then a smile crossed her face.  It was not a pleasant one.  Becker was holding forth his views, when he noticed that the old woman was searching through her belongings.  He did not notice Helen stalking them from behind.
         “What is it?”  Danny asked, watching the old woman desperately ferreting in her clothes.  She grabbed something from her skirt, and before anyone could stop her, threw it in Helen’s face.  She staggered back, coughing and choking.  Becker started forward, but the old woman held onto his arm.  Helen fell onto the floor and lay there.  Abby ran to her side, and found that she was still breathing.
         “Get rid of this snake in the grass.  First kill the monster, then its mother,” The old woman hissed.  Becker hoped that she was not entirely serious, but as it turned out, her muttered “dræbe” did in fact mean that they should kill Helen.
         “I’m not a murderer” Becker insisted and then grew quiet as the old woman threw him a knowing look.  “I put it out of its misery, you can’t say the same for her!” 
         “I don’t know, you were a bit quick off the mark with killing it.”
Becker seemed upset, and Danny began to realise why.
         “Becker…did you kill it to prove her wrong?  Did you let her make you kill it?”
         Beck seemed as though he were not going to reply, and then he said without looking at anyone, “I needed to know that I could kill it.  Suppose we’d got it back here, and found that we couldn’t?”
         “Going superstitious on us, are you?” Lester remarked. 
         “But I’m not killing her.”  He glared at the old woman.  The old woman could see his resolve, and so she gave him some different orders.  At those, a smile crossed his face.  It was not a pleasant one.
         
                The sun was hot on her face when she woke, which told her it was easily noon or a couple of hours past.  The bright light made her squint as she sat up to find herself in some very beautiful countryside, surrounded by some large grey stones.  Some people were watching her, some openly, some without really looking at her.  She eventually realised she was lying in the middle of Stonehenge, and the main reason for all the attention was because she legally should not have been there.  Confused, she tried to remember how she had got there, but came up with a blank.  In fact, she could not remember the last few hours.  Or was it days?  She desperately tried to come up with the last thing she remembered and realised that she could not account for yesterday or the day before.  She stood up, wincing at her headache, and considered her options.  She could only conclude that she had not yet fully recovered from her injuries generated by the explosion.  She groped for her phone, and then realised that her backpack was missing.  She glared around the crowd of people who quickly moved off, but none of them appeared to have her belongings.  Eventually she realised that she would have to start the long walk towards a pay phone, and hope that she could find some change in her pockets on the way.  As she walked, she remembered the idea she had had a couple of days before.  She could join Lester’s team and get to study the artefact that way.  And get paid for it.  And work on her new weapon to defeat the predators.  She knew the plans for the original weapon had disappeared along with the backpack, but at least they had been the old plans, not the new weapon.  How perfect it would be, to develop the weapon under their very noses, only to then destroy them and the building whilst they were distracted by the information she held.  She couldn’t wait to be captured by them.  Having taken the decision, she set out with her head held high.