To his credit, he didn’t argue or delay.
‘Miss Barclay, upload these tapes immediately and advise me when you have done so. Now, please!’
Back on the outside, Polly Perkins arrived with a forklift truck. The plan was to use the prongs to ram open the cracked and weakened screen and get us out that way.
Back inside, I sniffed. ‘We’ve wrecked the head. Can’t you smell it?’
‘Ah, no, sorry. That would be me.’
Polly lined up carefully, revved the engine and hit the pod with a crash. It took her four goes before they could batter their way in. Shouts of ‘Cover your eyes in there!’ would possibly have been more helpful if they had been uttered before impact. Still, let’s not be picky.
The Chief clambered in first, went straight to the trip switch, and pushed it up, ignoring my warning whimpers.
‘We’ve got the data,’ he said. ‘Relax and we’ll get you out.’
They got Dieter out first, manhandling him through the shattered screen. He reached out to me and I grasped his hand.
‘So, Mr Dieter, apart from that, how was it for you?’
‘Awesome, Max; the earth moved.’ They took him away.
The Boss waited quietly. As they stretchered me away, I grasped his sleeve and croaked, ‘The tapes?’
‘Safe and sound, Miss Maxwell, I shall be reviewing them in a few minutes.’
Satisfied, I closed my eyes and let go for a bit.
I woke up in Sick Bay. Actually that happens so often I’m going to put it on a hotkey. I was asked to prepare a briefing. I spent two days getting down as much as I could and preparing a large-scale map of the area, including the previous site where Sussman and I had worked before. I took my time because I wanted to get it right. That’s the beauty of this game; we could take whatever time needed and still go back to about ten minutes after we left.
Guilt-stricken, I persuaded them to let me visit Dieter who lay heavily bruised in the next room.
‘What’s the damage? I said, trying not to wince in sympathy.
‘Broken arm, broken wrist, sprained ankle, cuts, bruises, in-growing toenail, and mild concussion.’
He moved his arm fractionally and caught my sleeve. I gently patted his hand.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘We’ll get the bastards. And the pods they came in on.’
He nodded, yawned, and when I looked again he was fast asleep. Typical techie.
The day after I was able to start hobbling around again, Chief Farrell came and collected me from Sick Bay and we walked to the Boss’s office.
As I limped down the Long Corridor he said, ‘We got it wrong. Well, I got it wrong. We assumed the point of killing you was to bring back a body that would lead to mission shutdown. However, I think their plans were further advanced than we thought. The point may have been to keep you away from the northern end of the valley where Ronan and his team were carrying out their very illegal, but highly lucrative temporal tourism. Sussman’s bank account shows a rather large recent deposit.’
I looked at him.
‘He was always jealous of you, Max. Didn’t you know?’
I shook my head.
He didn’t mention this could be the reason for Sussman’s behaviour as well; a quick bit of rough sex before tossing me to the raptors. I looked up to find him watching me. He’d followed my thought processes. He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘The bastard deserved what he got. Don’t think about it. How’s your leg?’
‘A bit bruised. Twisted knee and a banged-up shoulder. A few cuts and bruises but everything’s fine.’
I limped thoughtfully down the corridor. With all the vastness of the Cretaceous period, what were the odds two expeditions would end up within a few miles of each other and at the same time? Did they use our co-ordinates? Did we somehow use theirs? Was it just coincidence?
I asked him, ‘Who did the co-ordinates?’
‘IT provided them and we laid them in.’
Barclay. Barclay and Sussman. No, I was just allowing my prejudice to get the better of me.
The Boss sat at the head of his briefing table. Mrs Partridge sat behind him. The Chief took a seat at his right hand and Major Guthrie was opposite him. I sat at the end.
‘Miss Maxwell, it’s good to see you up and about. We’ve spent some time reviewing the tapes made by you and Mr Dieter. Have you seen them?’
I shook my head and he brought them up. We watched in silence. It seemed worse the second time around. I dragged out my scratchpad from my knee pocket and made one or two notes.