New Tracks, Part 17
"New Tracks" by Aelfgyfu
PARTS: 20 plus epilogue
RATING: FRT (fan-rated teen: violence, occasional bad language)
CATEGORIES: Drama, angst, hurt/discomfort, some humour; AU, fix-it
SUMMARY: Noel Miller tries to find his place on Nick Cutter's team; Stephen Hart tries to find his way back onto the team; and Nick has to deal with them, creatures from the past, and his own stubbornness.
SPOILERS: Everything through 2.07 and my own story "Fresh Scars"
WARNINGS: Some tasteless humour, some medical detail
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to Brilliant Husband (dudethemath), kristen_mara, and lukadreaming, all of whom acted as betas and made many helpful suggestions and corrections. All remaining errors, infelicities, and poor judgement are my own.
DISCLAIMER: Primeval and its characters are owned by Impossible Pictures, ITV Productions, M6 Films, Pro 7, and possibly other entities I couldn't easily find on IMDb. No copyright infringement is intended, and indeed the story probably won't make sense unless you've watched. So watch the show, buy the DVDs, etc. I do not profit from fic except insofar as comments make me happy.
Additional notes and links to all posted parts at this story's launch page
Previous Part: 16
As Noel made his way towards the approaching sound, and especially towards Abby, he thought that his original opinion might have been right. Civilians were too much trouble. They'd seen Hart practically torn apart by creatures, and still they were all for tranquillising them and hoping for the best. These beasts were killers.
There might only be two raptors left, but he wasn't certain of his original count. And if a pack broke into smaller teams, then the five he'd counted might not have been the whole group anyway. At least no others had slipped through into their time since ARC personnel had arrived at the anomaly site. The men there kept in contact over radio: a few raptors had tried to come through, but electric cattle prods convinced them to turn back without injury to the soldiers.
A car pulled up at the side of the road, and Noel recognised it when Jenny Lewis jumped out on the driver's side.
Stephen Hart hopped out of the passenger side and a private emerged from the back with his weapon, already on alert. Hart turned to pull things from the car.
"Delivered as promised," Ms. Lewis said too brightly.
Hart pulled out a tranq gun with a small torch on top, released the strap across the top of the handgun in his thigh holster, and picked up his walking stick from the back seat.
"Take him back," Cutter said, his voice tinged with bitterness.
Hart faced him. "We know there's a man injured and one raptor down."
"Noel just shot two more," Abby said flatly.
"Leaving two?" Stephen asked.
"Doesn't matter if there's thirty," Cutter interrupted. "You're not needed here, Stephen. Jenny, take him back."
Hart persevered. "So you know where the remaining... how many did you say, again?"
Noel didn't want to be in the middle of this, but he'd been asked a direct question. "At least two, I think, but we don't know wh-"
"Stephen!" the professor shouted. "For once in your life, listen!"
Hart's shoulders slumped a little. "I did listen, Cutter. And then I talked to Lester. He's in charge of the operation. He authorised-"
"It's my team, my operation, and you're not on it!"
"I-"
"And unless you get back in that car right now, you won't be on it. Ever again. I have no use for a team member who won't take orders and will go over my head whenever he feels like it."
Noel turned to shine his torch out over the field so that nothing could sneak up on them. They couldn't afford this argument now. They needed Hart, whether he was fit for duty or not, and Noel suspected Cutter's opposition had as much to do with Hart's physical condition as his anger at being overruled.
"Nick. I have never gone over your head before." Hart's tone remained even and low.
"At the canal? When I told you-"
"I was following orders! Orders I didn't ask for. We don't have time for this."
Noel heard a few steps and turned to see Hart staring at the fence. The tracker hesitated only a moment, hooked his walking stick into his tac vest, and climbed awkwardly over. It was obvious his left leg still wasn't at full strength, but no one moved to help him. Noel wasn't sure if they were a little too surprised to move in time, or giving Hart a chance to prove his fitness-or lack of it.
"James says he is needed, Nick, and James does have the authority to add him to the team," Ms. Lewis said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Noel turned back to the field.
"And I have the authority to refuse him," Cutter asserted.
"No, you don't," she told him firmly but not rudely.
Hart walked up to Noel. "So what do we know about the location-?"
"Stephen! I'm not finished with you!" Cutter stalked over, standing far too close to Hart for comfort. Noel wanted to move back from both of them, but he held his ground. Hell, he'd rather be tracking raptors, but he needed Hart for that.
"Look," Cutter said in a low voice. "Apparently you can do this, and I can't stop you. And we haven't got time to argue."
Thank God he knew that, Noel thought, even if he did seem to be the last one to realise it.
"But I can stop you from rejoining the team as a regular member. And I will. You can still get back in that car. You can follow my orders, and you can complete your convalescence, and you can come back when the doctors clear you. Or you can do what you're doing, and I'll never work with you again."
"Cutter!" Abby cried.
In the silence that followed, Noel could hear Hart swallow.
"There's not enough light left to waste," Stephen said, and he turned his back on Cutter. He took a small step away from the professor and towards Noel. "What do we know about the rest?"
"Nothing," Noel admitted. "Price saw three. Those are all dead now. I think there were at least two more, and we have no idea where they are."
***
Nick felt utterly sick. He had honestly that thought Stephen wouldn't.... Wouldn't what? Call his bluff? But he hadn't been bluffing. He couldn't afford a subordinate who wouldn't accept his orders. Damn it, though, he'd given these orders for Stephen's own good! But the reason didn't matter. Having Stephen do whatever the hell he pleased was too dangerous for all of them, both because it put Stephen in danger, and because it set a bad precedent for Abby and Connor. They already disregarded or reinterpreted orders too often as it was; if they thought Nick would tolerate it any longer, they needed to learn otherwise.
Jenny was saying something about Lester staying at the ARC until things were resolved. Nick managed to register barely enough to nod.
She put a hand on his arm and put her face close to his. "Nick, he has to do this. For himself, and for whoever might be out here. Do you know the soldiers have already turned back three cars on various roads? They sent one other through because it was coming out of this area, not going in! But none of them were supposed to be on the roads here. They've also flagged down a cyclist and one person out running and escorted them backk to their homes." She waited a moment. Nick wasn't sure if she was giving him time to respond or letting the information sink in.
Jenny continued, "People are not staying indoors. People miss the announcements, or they disregard them.... Someone's going to get hurt or killed, and it's not going to be just a soldier."
"Just a soldier," Nick repeated, surprised.
She winced and shook her head. "I didn't mean that. I mean-soldiers signed on for this. What if a child is next? Or someone's mother or father?"
"Don't try to manipulate me," he said coldly, angry to see her talents turned against him.
"It's not manipulation. It's the truth." She sounded tired and frustrated. "Work with Stephen. Don't let anyone else get hurt-or killed. That injured soldier is going back in Stephen's helicopter, by the way. Nick, don't make it personal. It's not about defying your authority. It's about doing his damned job, which no one else can, right now. And for God's sake, save the arguments until at least tomorrow. Now you'd better catch up with them."
Nick turned to see Noel and Stephen most of the way back to the hedgerow, with Connor and Abby not far behind them. He hadn't even heard them go; he was still standing by the fence.
He felt a sudden kiss on his cheek, and he turned back to see that Jenny had already turned away to get back in her car.
***
Miller played his torch over the bodies of two raptors. Stephen's heart beat hard in his chest, but that wasn't abnormal. He wasn't panicking. He could do this.
"I had to shoot them. Abby had a-Abby got angry," the lieutenant told Stephen quietly.
Stephen shrugged. "Abby...." He realised he didn't have anything useful to say and gave up. Instead, he bent down for a good look at their teeth and claws. He needed to know what he was up against and how their tracks looked in person.
"No one has seen any sign of the remaining two, or however many there are?" he asked instead, hoping that last bit hadn't come off as denigrating Miller's skills. He was doing a damned good job for someone who'd only been on the team for a few weeks. None of the team had been hurt since he'd been with them, Cutter hadn't kicked Miller off, and several creatures had been sent back to their times.
"No. I'm hard put to work out how many tracks I'm looking at, even when I can find tracks, which I haven't for well over an hour now."
Stephen used the stick to help him stand back up, easing the strain on his leg. He played his torch up and down, walking carefully alongside the hedgerow and shining the light into the bushes and weeds. It made sense for the creatures to seek cover in the unfamiliar landscape. Perhaps the others had gone through here before the ones that Miller had shot came through?
He couldn't help but notice that Cutter was standing some distance away, apart from Abby and Connor, who were practically shoulder to shoulder a few metres behind Stephen.
"D'you think they went this way?" Connor called hopefully.
"Still checking," Stephen replied.
Miller followed close behind Stephen, looking where he was looking, adding his own beam of light.
"I don't see anything on this side, do you?" Stephen asked after a couple of minutes of looking.
"Me? No. Once we get past the blood and feathers from the dead ones, nothing."
Stephen nodded and pushed his way through the hedgerow with some difficulty, praying he wasn't obliterating anything important. Miller followed him through, right in his footprints, Stephen noted approvingly; it had taken Cutter more than one field trip and many verbal reminders to learn that trick. Stephen glanced back, but it was dark enough that he couldn't see Cutter's face clearly. He could tell that his arms were crossed, though.
"Connor! Abby! Cutter! Keep an eye out around, and ears open! Don't let anything creep up on us in the shadows!"
"We could hear these two before we could see them," Connor called back, but Abby slapped him on the arm, and he shut his mouth again.
Stephen and Miller played their torches around the other side. The foliage was too thick for raptors to walk through the hedgerow itself for any distance. Stephen couldn't see any tracks on the clearer ground.
"I don't know that the others even came this way," Miller said quietly after a couple of minutes. "Price only saw the three; they came out of the woods right on top of him. They probably weren't following the others, or Price would have seen them."
There was nothing for it but to go back to some of the tracks Miller had found earlier and hope he could pick up a trail that led to the remaining creatures. They headed back, with Stephen and Miller in the lead, shining their torches on the ground in case there was anything there to find. Stephen would rather have put Miller in the rear, to ensure that nothing could come on them from behind, but he wanted his help tracking. Hardly any daylight remained, and the trees blotted that out when the team entered the woods. He asked Abby to watch the rear: she had good eyes and ears, and more common sense than the remaining two combined. Cutter radiated disapproval, but he walked in Stephen's footprints, or near as made no difference, and he didn't say a word.
Stephen would rather still have had him arguing, but he knew that was selfish. Argument, even simple rebuke, would mean Cutter still felt Stephen was worth talking to, but it could distract him. Stephen needed to focus. He needed to put the personal out of his mind. He'd have plenty of time for regrets later. He'd grown used to them over the years.
From time to time Stephen bent to look at the ground, but he could find no definite sign of raptors after they'd crossed the tracks of the three that had come at Price. Maybe his skills had become too rusty while he'd been recuperating. Maybe it was simply too dark and the ground was wrong for the imprints of the creatures. Maybe the other raptors hadn't come this way. Maybe he should have gone back with Jenny when Cutter offered him the chance. No, Stephen reminded himself: no room for personal worries.
Miller kept pace with him easily; at one point he put a hand under Stephen's elbow to help him stand back up after another fruitless close examination of the ground. The soldier looked grim. He must be thinking of the injured man; he'd said he wasn't certain of the smell of blood. This was his first posting, wasn't it? Miller shouldn't have seen anyone wounded before.
Connor was uncharacteristically quiet. He had his arms wrapped around him, though his layers of clothing should be sufficient for the unseasonably warm evening. Stephen was relieved when Connor finally broke the silence.
"This weather must be colder than they're used to?" It was a question rather than a statement, though Connor surely knew the answer better than the others. "Maybe they've curled up somewhere to wait for daylight and warmth again?"
"If we're lucky," Stephen said, trying to be encouraging, but Cutter spoke at almost the same time.
"We've seen other creatures run wild through colder nights than this. I don't see why we should be particularly lucky."
"We've been lucky before." Abby sounded as if she'd been waiting for an excuse to argue with Cutter, and maybe she had. "We're all here because we've been lucky at least once. We should have been dead from those mer-creatures-Lucien, Connor, me, and even you, Cutter-but for Stephen showing up with weapons."
Oh, God. Why that example?
"If Stephen had just listened-" Cutter started.
"Abby," Stephen interrupted gently, hoping that addressing Abby would prevent Nick from taking offence. "We need to stay focused. And quiet, so we can listen. For raptors," he added.
"Sorry," she said in a voice almost too low to carry to him.
Everyone lapsed back into silence.
***
Noel couldn't fault Hart's thoroughness, but every time he stopped to check the ground more closely, they all had to stop. They hadn't even made it back to the last set of prints he'd found yet, and they'd lost the daylight. Well, people were less likely to leave their homes now, weren't they? If everyone stayed locked up tight, they had hours.
Of course, on a Saturday morning people wouldn't stay in their homes, no matter what story Jenny Lewis circulated. So Hart had better find the creatures before daylight.
Hart showed no desire to argue with Cutter. Perhaps he felt too tired; he still had physio on Fridays, didn't he? He rarely used the walking stick around the ARC anymore, and Noel had begun to wonder why he continued to bring it. Now he knew: Hart brought it in case he needed to go into the field, approval be damned.
Noel hoped it was worth it. Cutter didn't seem the kind to back down from a threat, and he'd made it in front of several people. Noel still didn't know Hart all that well, but he remembered the wistful looks Hart had given the trackways and his expression whenever the ADD went off and he stayed behind. Noel knew what the team meant to him. He also knew they needed him. Of course, Cutter would face a rebellion in the ranks if he carried out his threat. Abby was merely saving her arguments for later, Noel would bet. Connor hated personal conflict, but Noel suspected he cared too much about Stephen to let him go without saying something. Hart's cool professionalism helped keep everyone in line for the moment, Cutter included.
Maybe if Hart found the raptors, Cutter would forgive him. After all, he'd fired him once but taken him back. Of course, Hart had saved Cutter's life that time. He wasn't in any shape to do that now.
Indeed, Hart wasn't lifting his left foot properly, and he was using the walking stick again. They had better find these creatures soon.
***
Nick knew he was too distracted for the work at hand, but he felt so damned useless that he couldn't seem to pull himself out of his own thoughts. He couldn't talk, because that would disturb the trackers, and Abby, and even Connor, who were all listening intently. Nick knew from experience that everyone else would hear something long before he did, so it wasn't worth trying to help. Every so often one of them would start, but the noise would turn out to be a bird or a squirrel.
He did have to think of his authority. He led not only this team but also in some ways the whole ARC. Lester might be head of the project, but Nick made the scientific decisions, and even the military generally followed his judgements. He couldn't be seen to cave in to pressure, or personal friendship, when his orders had been so cavalierly disregarded.
Yet he shouldn't have made it all or nothing, he realised now. He shook his head at himself, then shook it again when Connor paused a moment and threw him a questioning look. Maybe Jenny was right. Maybe he was making it personal. Stephen seemed to be working very hard not to make it personal.
Nick hated admitting he was wrong. He didn't know anyone who liked it, true, but Nick did seem to have particular problems in that area. Maybe this time he needed to apologise, to take back his words. That was leadership too, wasn't it? Admitting mistakes? Plus, there was team morale to consider. Connor huddled, folded miserably in upon himself though it wasn't cold. In the moments when a light caught Connor's face, he looked as though someone had shot Rex. Nick could practically feel Abby's eyes boring into his back. He had no idea what Noel thought.
Nick had never asked to be in charge; the position had simply fallen to him. He'd been content as a lecturer with a few students. (He attracted a lot, but most found other mentors after they'd tried working with him for a little while.) He'd never meant to lead a team. He had never truly learned to be a leader.
A dark forest with raptors in it was a hell of a place to have an epiphany. Or a partial epiphany. Nick knew where he'd gone wrong, but he had little sense of how to correct his mistake.
He was still wrapped in his thoughts when everyone came to a dead halt. Noel was on the radio again; he'd been checking in frequently. Nick was far enough back to pretend that he hadn't quite heard rather than that he hadn't been listening.
"The soldiers just found the body of an animal," Connor filled him in quietly.
"We need to move fast," Noel announced, looking at Stephen.
Stephen hesitated a moment. "You'll be faster without me," he said. "I'll catch up as best I can."
"No!" Nick objected. "We're not leaving you behind!"
"No, sir," said Miller. "You're all staying with him." He nodded, a gesture that seemed to have become his form of a salute to civilians, and ran off at an angle from the direction they'd been walking.
Stephen tucked his stick under an arm and started a sort of limping run after him.
"Stephen!" Nick snapped without even thinking about it.
Stephen stopped and turned at once.
"For God's sake, don't try to run! They found a body, not the raptors themselves. If there's tracks leading away from it, we'll need you to follow. You can't do that if you completely ruin that leg before we get there."
Stephen thought for a moment, then nodded and turned back, starting a fast walk after Noel. Nick moved to catch up and had to jog several steps to do so. Soon Abby and Connor were right behind them, weapons at the ready. Stephen lit the ground in front of him with the light on his tranq rifle now, not the torch. Nick felt a brief pang that now even Connor seemed comfortable with his gun. Time and experience had changed the young man. Nick regretted ever wishing that Connor were more professional or less enthusiastic.
Nick played his torch across their path, joining the brighter, wider beam of light to the one Stephen had.
"Thank you," Abby whispered in his ear, and then she was gone again, out to Stephen's left, keeping an eye on the forest around them.
***
Part 18
***
PARTS: 20 plus epilogue
RATING: FRT (fan-rated teen: violence, occasional bad language)
CATEGORIES: Drama, angst, hurt/discomfort, some humour; AU, fix-it
SUMMARY: Noel Miller tries to find his place on Nick Cutter's team; Stephen Hart tries to find his way back onto the team; and Nick has to deal with them, creatures from the past, and his own stubbornness.
SPOILERS: Everything through 2.07 and my own story "Fresh Scars"
WARNINGS: Some tasteless humour, some medical detail
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Many thanks to Brilliant Husband (dudethemath), kristen_mara, and lukadreaming, all of whom acted as betas and made many helpful suggestions and corrections. All remaining errors, infelicities, and poor judgement are my own.
DISCLAIMER: Primeval and its characters are owned by Impossible Pictures, ITV Productions, M6 Films, Pro 7, and possibly other entities I couldn't easily find on IMDb. No copyright infringement is intended, and indeed the story probably won't make sense unless you've watched. So watch the show, buy the DVDs, etc. I do not profit from fic except insofar as comments make me happy.
Additional notes and links to all posted parts at this story's launch page
Previous Part: 16
As Noel made his way towards the approaching sound, and especially towards Abby, he thought that his original opinion might have been right. Civilians were too much trouble. They'd seen Hart practically torn apart by creatures, and still they were all for tranquillising them and hoping for the best. These beasts were killers.
There might only be two raptors left, but he wasn't certain of his original count. And if a pack broke into smaller teams, then the five he'd counted might not have been the whole group anyway. At least no others had slipped through into their time since ARC personnel had arrived at the anomaly site. The men there kept in contact over radio: a few raptors had tried to come through, but electric cattle prods convinced them to turn back without injury to the soldiers.
A car pulled up at the side of the road, and Noel recognised it when Jenny Lewis jumped out on the driver's side.
Stephen Hart hopped out of the passenger side and a private emerged from the back with his weapon, already on alert. Hart turned to pull things from the car.
"Delivered as promised," Ms. Lewis said too brightly.
Hart pulled out a tranq gun with a small torch on top, released the strap across the top of the handgun in his thigh holster, and picked up his walking stick from the back seat.
"Take him back," Cutter said, his voice tinged with bitterness.
Hart faced him. "We know there's a man injured and one raptor down."
"Noel just shot two more," Abby said flatly.
"Leaving two?" Stephen asked.
"Doesn't matter if there's thirty," Cutter interrupted. "You're not needed here, Stephen. Jenny, take him back."
Hart persevered. "So you know where the remaining... how many did you say, again?"
Noel didn't want to be in the middle of this, but he'd been asked a direct question. "At least two, I think, but we don't know wh-"
"Stephen!" the professor shouted. "For once in your life, listen!"
Hart's shoulders slumped a little. "I did listen, Cutter. And then I talked to Lester. He's in charge of the operation. He authorised-"
"It's my team, my operation, and you're not on it!"
"I-"
"And unless you get back in that car right now, you won't be on it. Ever again. I have no use for a team member who won't take orders and will go over my head whenever he feels like it."
Noel turned to shine his torch out over the field so that nothing could sneak up on them. They couldn't afford this argument now. They needed Hart, whether he was fit for duty or not, and Noel suspected Cutter's opposition had as much to do with Hart's physical condition as his anger at being overruled.
"Nick. I have never gone over your head before." Hart's tone remained even and low.
"At the canal? When I told you-"
"I was following orders! Orders I didn't ask for. We don't have time for this."
Noel heard a few steps and turned to see Hart staring at the fence. The tracker hesitated only a moment, hooked his walking stick into his tac vest, and climbed awkwardly over. It was obvious his left leg still wasn't at full strength, but no one moved to help him. Noel wasn't sure if they were a little too surprised to move in time, or giving Hart a chance to prove his fitness-or lack of it.
"James says he is needed, Nick, and James does have the authority to add him to the team," Ms. Lewis said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Noel turned back to the field.
"And I have the authority to refuse him," Cutter asserted.
"No, you don't," she told him firmly but not rudely.
Hart walked up to Noel. "So what do we know about the location-?"
"Stephen! I'm not finished with you!" Cutter stalked over, standing far too close to Hart for comfort. Noel wanted to move back from both of them, but he held his ground. Hell, he'd rather be tracking raptors, but he needed Hart for that.
"Look," Cutter said in a low voice. "Apparently you can do this, and I can't stop you. And we haven't got time to argue."
Thank God he knew that, Noel thought, even if he did seem to be the last one to realise it.
"But I can stop you from rejoining the team as a regular member. And I will. You can still get back in that car. You can follow my orders, and you can complete your convalescence, and you can come back when the doctors clear you. Or you can do what you're doing, and I'll never work with you again."
"Cutter!" Abby cried.
In the silence that followed, Noel could hear Hart swallow.
"There's not enough light left to waste," Stephen said, and he turned his back on Cutter. He took a small step away from the professor and towards Noel. "What do we know about the rest?"
"Nothing," Noel admitted. "Price saw three. Those are all dead now. I think there were at least two more, and we have no idea where they are."
***
Nick felt utterly sick. He had honestly that thought Stephen wouldn't.... Wouldn't what? Call his bluff? But he hadn't been bluffing. He couldn't afford a subordinate who wouldn't accept his orders. Damn it, though, he'd given these orders for Stephen's own good! But the reason didn't matter. Having Stephen do whatever the hell he pleased was too dangerous for all of them, both because it put Stephen in danger, and because it set a bad precedent for Abby and Connor. They already disregarded or reinterpreted orders too often as it was; if they thought Nick would tolerate it any longer, they needed to learn otherwise.
Jenny was saying something about Lester staying at the ARC until things were resolved. Nick managed to register barely enough to nod.
She put a hand on his arm and put her face close to his. "Nick, he has to do this. For himself, and for whoever might be out here. Do you know the soldiers have already turned back three cars on various roads? They sent one other through because it was coming out of this area, not going in! But none of them were supposed to be on the roads here. They've also flagged down a cyclist and one person out running and escorted them backk to their homes." She waited a moment. Nick wasn't sure if she was giving him time to respond or letting the information sink in.
Jenny continued, "People are not staying indoors. People miss the announcements, or they disregard them.... Someone's going to get hurt or killed, and it's not going to be just a soldier."
"Just a soldier," Nick repeated, surprised.
She winced and shook her head. "I didn't mean that. I mean-soldiers signed on for this. What if a child is next? Or someone's mother or father?"
"Don't try to manipulate me," he said coldly, angry to see her talents turned against him.
"It's not manipulation. It's the truth." She sounded tired and frustrated. "Work with Stephen. Don't let anyone else get hurt-or killed. That injured soldier is going back in Stephen's helicopter, by the way. Nick, don't make it personal. It's not about defying your authority. It's about doing his damned job, which no one else can, right now. And for God's sake, save the arguments until at least tomorrow. Now you'd better catch up with them."
Nick turned to see Noel and Stephen most of the way back to the hedgerow, with Connor and Abby not far behind them. He hadn't even heard them go; he was still standing by the fence.
He felt a sudden kiss on his cheek, and he turned back to see that Jenny had already turned away to get back in her car.
***
Miller played his torch over the bodies of two raptors. Stephen's heart beat hard in his chest, but that wasn't abnormal. He wasn't panicking. He could do this.
"I had to shoot them. Abby had a-Abby got angry," the lieutenant told Stephen quietly.
Stephen shrugged. "Abby...." He realised he didn't have anything useful to say and gave up. Instead, he bent down for a good look at their teeth and claws. He needed to know what he was up against and how their tracks looked in person.
"No one has seen any sign of the remaining two, or however many there are?" he asked instead, hoping that last bit hadn't come off as denigrating Miller's skills. He was doing a damned good job for someone who'd only been on the team for a few weeks. None of the team had been hurt since he'd been with them, Cutter hadn't kicked Miller off, and several creatures had been sent back to their times.
"No. I'm hard put to work out how many tracks I'm looking at, even when I can find tracks, which I haven't for well over an hour now."
Stephen used the stick to help him stand back up, easing the strain on his leg. He played his torch up and down, walking carefully alongside the hedgerow and shining the light into the bushes and weeds. It made sense for the creatures to seek cover in the unfamiliar landscape. Perhaps the others had gone through here before the ones that Miller had shot came through?
He couldn't help but notice that Cutter was standing some distance away, apart from Abby and Connor, who were practically shoulder to shoulder a few metres behind Stephen.
"D'you think they went this way?" Connor called hopefully.
"Still checking," Stephen replied.
Miller followed close behind Stephen, looking where he was looking, adding his own beam of light.
"I don't see anything on this side, do you?" Stephen asked after a couple of minutes of looking.
"Me? No. Once we get past the blood and feathers from the dead ones, nothing."
Stephen nodded and pushed his way through the hedgerow with some difficulty, praying he wasn't obliterating anything important. Miller followed him through, right in his footprints, Stephen noted approvingly; it had taken Cutter more than one field trip and many verbal reminders to learn that trick. Stephen glanced back, but it was dark enough that he couldn't see Cutter's face clearly. He could tell that his arms were crossed, though.
"Connor! Abby! Cutter! Keep an eye out around, and ears open! Don't let anything creep up on us in the shadows!"
"We could hear these two before we could see them," Connor called back, but Abby slapped him on the arm, and he shut his mouth again.
Stephen and Miller played their torches around the other side. The foliage was too thick for raptors to walk through the hedgerow itself for any distance. Stephen couldn't see any tracks on the clearer ground.
"I don't know that the others even came this way," Miller said quietly after a couple of minutes. "Price only saw the three; they came out of the woods right on top of him. They probably weren't following the others, or Price would have seen them."
There was nothing for it but to go back to some of the tracks Miller had found earlier and hope he could pick up a trail that led to the remaining creatures. They headed back, with Stephen and Miller in the lead, shining their torches on the ground in case there was anything there to find. Stephen would rather have put Miller in the rear, to ensure that nothing could come on them from behind, but he wanted his help tracking. Hardly any daylight remained, and the trees blotted that out when the team entered the woods. He asked Abby to watch the rear: she had good eyes and ears, and more common sense than the remaining two combined. Cutter radiated disapproval, but he walked in Stephen's footprints, or near as made no difference, and he didn't say a word.
Stephen would rather still have had him arguing, but he knew that was selfish. Argument, even simple rebuke, would mean Cutter still felt Stephen was worth talking to, but it could distract him. Stephen needed to focus. He needed to put the personal out of his mind. He'd have plenty of time for regrets later. He'd grown used to them over the years.
From time to time Stephen bent to look at the ground, but he could find no definite sign of raptors after they'd crossed the tracks of the three that had come at Price. Maybe his skills had become too rusty while he'd been recuperating. Maybe it was simply too dark and the ground was wrong for the imprints of the creatures. Maybe the other raptors hadn't come this way. Maybe he should have gone back with Jenny when Cutter offered him the chance. No, Stephen reminded himself: no room for personal worries.
Miller kept pace with him easily; at one point he put a hand under Stephen's elbow to help him stand back up after another fruitless close examination of the ground. The soldier looked grim. He must be thinking of the injured man; he'd said he wasn't certain of the smell of blood. This was his first posting, wasn't it? Miller shouldn't have seen anyone wounded before.
Connor was uncharacteristically quiet. He had his arms wrapped around him, though his layers of clothing should be sufficient for the unseasonably warm evening. Stephen was relieved when Connor finally broke the silence.
"This weather must be colder than they're used to?" It was a question rather than a statement, though Connor surely knew the answer better than the others. "Maybe they've curled up somewhere to wait for daylight and warmth again?"
"If we're lucky," Stephen said, trying to be encouraging, but Cutter spoke at almost the same time.
"We've seen other creatures run wild through colder nights than this. I don't see why we should be particularly lucky."
"We've been lucky before." Abby sounded as if she'd been waiting for an excuse to argue with Cutter, and maybe she had. "We're all here because we've been lucky at least once. We should have been dead from those mer-creatures-Lucien, Connor, me, and even you, Cutter-but for Stephen showing up with weapons."
Oh, God. Why that example?
"If Stephen had just listened-" Cutter started.
"Abby," Stephen interrupted gently, hoping that addressing Abby would prevent Nick from taking offence. "We need to stay focused. And quiet, so we can listen. For raptors," he added.
"Sorry," she said in a voice almost too low to carry to him.
Everyone lapsed back into silence.
***
Noel couldn't fault Hart's thoroughness, but every time he stopped to check the ground more closely, they all had to stop. They hadn't even made it back to the last set of prints he'd found yet, and they'd lost the daylight. Well, people were less likely to leave their homes now, weren't they? If everyone stayed locked up tight, they had hours.
Of course, on a Saturday morning people wouldn't stay in their homes, no matter what story Jenny Lewis circulated. So Hart had better find the creatures before daylight.
Hart showed no desire to argue with Cutter. Perhaps he felt too tired; he still had physio on Fridays, didn't he? He rarely used the walking stick around the ARC anymore, and Noel had begun to wonder why he continued to bring it. Now he knew: Hart brought it in case he needed to go into the field, approval be damned.
Noel hoped it was worth it. Cutter didn't seem the kind to back down from a threat, and he'd made it in front of several people. Noel still didn't know Hart all that well, but he remembered the wistful looks Hart had given the trackways and his expression whenever the ADD went off and he stayed behind. Noel knew what the team meant to him. He also knew they needed him. Of course, Cutter would face a rebellion in the ranks if he carried out his threat. Abby was merely saving her arguments for later, Noel would bet. Connor hated personal conflict, but Noel suspected he cared too much about Stephen to let him go without saying something. Hart's cool professionalism helped keep everyone in line for the moment, Cutter included.
Maybe if Hart found the raptors, Cutter would forgive him. After all, he'd fired him once but taken him back. Of course, Hart had saved Cutter's life that time. He wasn't in any shape to do that now.
Indeed, Hart wasn't lifting his left foot properly, and he was using the walking stick again. They had better find these creatures soon.
***
Nick knew he was too distracted for the work at hand, but he felt so damned useless that he couldn't seem to pull himself out of his own thoughts. He couldn't talk, because that would disturb the trackers, and Abby, and even Connor, who were all listening intently. Nick knew from experience that everyone else would hear something long before he did, so it wasn't worth trying to help. Every so often one of them would start, but the noise would turn out to be a bird or a squirrel.
He did have to think of his authority. He led not only this team but also in some ways the whole ARC. Lester might be head of the project, but Nick made the scientific decisions, and even the military generally followed his judgements. He couldn't be seen to cave in to pressure, or personal friendship, when his orders had been so cavalierly disregarded.
Yet he shouldn't have made it all or nothing, he realised now. He shook his head at himself, then shook it again when Connor paused a moment and threw him a questioning look. Maybe Jenny was right. Maybe he was making it personal. Stephen seemed to be working very hard not to make it personal.
Nick hated admitting he was wrong. He didn't know anyone who liked it, true, but Nick did seem to have particular problems in that area. Maybe this time he needed to apologise, to take back his words. That was leadership too, wasn't it? Admitting mistakes? Plus, there was team morale to consider. Connor huddled, folded miserably in upon himself though it wasn't cold. In the moments when a light caught Connor's face, he looked as though someone had shot Rex. Nick could practically feel Abby's eyes boring into his back. He had no idea what Noel thought.
Nick had never asked to be in charge; the position had simply fallen to him. He'd been content as a lecturer with a few students. (He attracted a lot, but most found other mentors after they'd tried working with him for a little while.) He'd never meant to lead a team. He had never truly learned to be a leader.
A dark forest with raptors in it was a hell of a place to have an epiphany. Or a partial epiphany. Nick knew where he'd gone wrong, but he had little sense of how to correct his mistake.
He was still wrapped in his thoughts when everyone came to a dead halt. Noel was on the radio again; he'd been checking in frequently. Nick was far enough back to pretend that he hadn't quite heard rather than that he hadn't been listening.
"The soldiers just found the body of an animal," Connor filled him in quietly.
"We need to move fast," Noel announced, looking at Stephen.
Stephen hesitated a moment. "You'll be faster without me," he said. "I'll catch up as best I can."
"No!" Nick objected. "We're not leaving you behind!"
"No, sir," said Miller. "You're all staying with him." He nodded, a gesture that seemed to have become his form of a salute to civilians, and ran off at an angle from the direction they'd been walking.
Stephen tucked his stick under an arm and started a sort of limping run after him.
"Stephen!" Nick snapped without even thinking about it.
Stephen stopped and turned at once.
"For God's sake, don't try to run! They found a body, not the raptors themselves. If there's tracks leading away from it, we'll need you to follow. You can't do that if you completely ruin that leg before we get there."
Stephen thought for a moment, then nodded and turned back, starting a fast walk after Noel. Nick moved to catch up and had to jog several steps to do so. Soon Abby and Connor were right behind them, weapons at the ready. Stephen lit the ground in front of him with the light on his tranq rifle now, not the torch. Nick felt a brief pang that now even Connor seemed comfortable with his gun. Time and experience had changed the young man. Nick regretted ever wishing that Connor were more professional or less enthusiastic.
Nick played his torch across their path, joining the brighter, wider beam of light to the one Stephen had.
"Thank you," Abby whispered in his ear, and then she was gone again, out to Stephen's left, keeping an eye on the forest around them.
***
Part 18
***