‘Yes, me. Is there a problem?’
‘Just have the kettle on for when we get back like a good little wifey.’ He looked at the pod. ‘You might want to run a Hoover around as well.’
‘Just to be clear; you’re winding up the person who’s in charge of the getaway car? So it is true what they say about Security.’
He refused to rise to that one. A voice in my ear said, ‘Stand by.’ They lined up by the door. The voice said, ‘Jump.’ And the world went white.
It wasn’t as dark as I thought it would be. The light and noise coming from the compound lit up the whole area. These guys were morons. They couldn’t hear over the music and had no night vision built up should anything nasty emerge out of the dark. Like us, for instance.
I set my watch. Barclay set about preparing the EMP. It took her less than four minutes but seemed far longer.
I said, ‘Good luck, guys,’ and opened the door ready for them. I limped to the trip switch, pushed it up, and the console went dark. I heard nothing at all when the pulse fired, but everything went very black very suddenly. For long seconds there was silence. Over in the compound, a few voices were raised, more in exasperation than anger. They still had no idea we were here. And then, very loud in the still night, an unexpected series of metallic clicks and clangs. I stared out of the door. Now what?
And then the screaming started.
Shit, shit, shit. Suddenly, I knew what this was. Bloody Barclay and her high-tech gizmos. The pulse had caused the cages to open, not lock. There was now no question of completing the mission. Everyone’s priority would be to get back to the safety of their pods as quickly as possible. How could things go so wrong so quickly?
I crossed my fingers and pulled the power switch down and just as it had done on my first jump, everything lit up again. I could hear the chatter over the com system. I switched to the night light.
Someone started shooting. Someone else shot back and then trigger-happy tourists were letting off at everything in sight including each other. Voices were raised, shouting to cease fire, but no one listened. Terrified out of their wits, they blasted away wildly into the night. I prayed our people were on their way back, leaving this lot either to shoot themselves, or fall prey to whatever was roaring and bellowing in the darkness around them. It seemed very possible we would all be killed by idiots rather than villains, which would be typical.
Someone shouted an alarm. I suspected we had been discovered, but they still weren’t sure what was happening and in the unexpected darkness they were their own worst enemies. Over the general din I could hear the unmistakable sounds of large animals moving through the night. God help everyone and everything out there.
The shooting had stopped. Everyone was running. Our guys would be trying to get back, but in the confusion I couldn’t work out who was who. I stood in the doorway, armed and ready to repel anyone or anything that wasn’t St Mary’s.
Close by, I could hear heavy breathing. Very heavy breathing. I took a silent step backwards into the pod and whatever it was pounded away into the night.
The screaming redoubled. You put dinosaurs and people together, you always get screaming. For the dinosaurs, of course, it was a feeding frenzy. They roared, pounced, and ripped. Lumps of things that were no longer human being were flung around the landscape. The top half of a man, still screaming, hit the side of the pod and bounced off into the night.
I could see green figures running back towards my pod. As they came closer I opened up the med kits so I could start giving treatment as soon as possible. The roaring and shrieking got closer. Come on guys! Then, finally, I could hear Murdoch shouting and they fell into the pod.
‘Report, ‘I said.
‘All here except Markham. Two casualties but nothing serious. Evans ran into a building in the dark and knocked himself silly, although it’s hard to tell.’
Evans, lowering himself to the floor and clutching a blood soaked dressing over his right eye, grinned at me. ‘Did you see those fuckers run?
‘Any news?’ asked Murdoch.
‘The livestock’s free.’
‘Yeah, we noticed. It’s bloody chaos out there,’ he said, slapping another dressing on top of the blood-stained original. Evans yelped. ‘Wuss! Those things are crazy for blood. It’s going to take more than cabbage spray to keep us safe tonight.’
I went back to the door. ‘We’re missing Markham and we may get stragglers from the other pods. I’ll stand guard. Who’s the other casualty?’
‘Me,’ said Weasel, thickly. His nose was broken and bloody.
‘What happened to you? You fall over your own feet?’