[Primeval/Spooks] Fic: Shadows Falling, Team, Gen, PG-13, (11 of 13)
Fandom: Primeval/Spooks
Title: Shadows Falling (11 of 13)
Author: cordeliadelayne
Characters: From Primeval: Cutter, Stephen, Jenny, Connor, Abby, Danny, Sarah, Lester, Lorraine, Becker, and others From Spooks: Lucas, Harry, Ruth and Tariq
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Warning: Character deaths (not of anyone you've met before)
Word Count: 2,659 (Total: 32,315)
Summary: Forced to split up in order to deal with a series of anomalies at home and abroad, the ARC team soon find themselves facing their toughest challenge yet - one that will send shockwaves through time and across continents, and will ultimately threaten their very existence.
Notes: Part of my Man-Made Series which can be read here. It's not necessary to read all of that before this, though here's a handy, spoiler-rific cheat-sheet if you so desire. All you need to know about Spooks is that it's about MI5 operatives. With thanks to red_2 for help with Russian naming conventions.
Masterlist
Chapter Eleven
Lester very calmly removed a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the blood from his face and then folded the bloodied fabric and placed it neatly on to the nearest desk. He stared down his nose at the dead soldier at his feet and then across at the man who had shot him, raising an imperious eyebrow.
“And who may you be?”
“Captain Wilder,” the man said. “I'm in charge.”
“And is this how you usually maintain discipline or are you following Ms Johnson's orders?”
If Lester wasn't very much mistaken, Wilder flushed at Lester's tone before putting his weapon away. The other soldiers in the room were all standing on alert, but none of them had raised any objections or alarm at their commanding office shooting one of their own. Say want you want about Christine, Lester thought to himself, but she certainly instilled those below her with an impressive degree of obedience.
“It doesn't matter,” Wilder said. “He's not from around here.”
Lester frowned and was about to ask the obvious question when Wilder saved him the trouble.
“Very few of them are real boys or girls.”
Lester turned around on the spot then, his eyes focusing on all of the soldiers. They looked perfectly ordinary, perfectly nondescript, exactly as a good soldier ought. His eyes met Wilder's as he stopped.
“Clones? Of course. How long have you known about the anomalies?”
Wilder's lips upturned in an almost smile. “Long enough.”
“That's not an answer.”
Wilder shrugged. “Something's gone wrong. Ms Johnson should be here by now. That was the plan.”
“And what exactly were you going to do here?”
Wilder regarded Lester for a moment. “She was opening an anomaly, the same one she's always opened. She's been visiting the future. Putting things in motion.”
Lester's blood ran cold. This all seemed horribly familiar. “Putting what in motion?”
“She wants to be the next Prime Minister. Or President. Or anything that will give her the most power, unlimited control of the anomalies and their endless possibilities.”
“And how does the ARC, right here, right now, play into her grubby little hands?”
Wilder motioned to two soldiers behind him that were assembling some sort of machine in the spot where the ADD was normally kept. Lester had no idea what it was.
“The anomalies are all linked. Corridors through time.” Lester gave a perfunctory nod, but he was only half-listening, moving instead to stand closer to the dead soldier on the floor. “One was to open at the warehouse. A team was to go through and secure it, followed by the extraction team. They would head to the Russian anomaly, remove all the data about the future they've been collecting and then destroy the facility.”
Lester winced. “Destroy it?”
“It's served its purpose. They'll return through this anomaly, and the ARC will be at the centre of everything.”
Lester leaned down towards the dead soldier. “And this poor boy, just one of the unfortunate casualties of Christine's mad scheme?” he sneered.
Wilder looked down at the boy impassively. “Just as you are,” he said, “though I have strict orders not to have you killed just yet.”
“How reassuring,” Lester drawled as Wilder started to turn away, Lester already dismissed in his mind. So he had his back to Lester as Lester pocketed the soldier's gun.
The AAU - Russia
“Your maker?” Anatoly asked. “What does that mean?”
“The experiments,” Stephen whispered, though it was if he was talking to himself. “The experiments, here and now, the ones that you’ve been doing. It was him. He was refining what he was doing in the future. They thought,” he laughed, a hollow sound that made the hairs on the back of Anatoly's arms stand on end, “they thought it was his wife who was the real power but always, always it was him, pulling the strings. We're all just his puppets you know, as he weaves the future to his own pattern.”
Anatoly frowned and would have moved away from Stephen if the space had been there for him to do so. “I don't understand...”
“He's a genius, did you know that? Not the way that people say it, so offhand, like it's no more rare than rain in England. No, he's the real deal, intelligent beyond everything. It makes him cold. It makes them all cold. The geniuses that pick and prod and tear at flesh.”
“Mr Hart,” Anatoly said, “we need to get moving. If you want to stop this.”
Stephen’s eyes flashed and Anatoly winced; the man before him could never be mistaken as human.
Stephen stared down the corridor where Banyon had gone and then at Anatoly. “You knew?”
“I - what, no, I -”
“Maybe not specifics., but you knew that this wasn't right. That something about him wasn't right?”
Anatoly swallowed hard before he could speak. “I - I suspected something but not, I never thought. The meetings he had with the Representative from the future, he always had them with her alone. Was there, was there actually a representative?”
Stephen shook his head. “No, I don't imagine there was.”
“So he played me. Played all of us. For what, who is he...” Anatoly stopped. The phone call he'd been attempting to make earlier to the British team came back to him now, echoing down the corridor. When he'd done his research on them he had also learned a lot of information about someone else who was conducting the same sort of investigation. Someone less able to cover her tracks than he had been. “He's working with Christine Johnson.”
Now it was Stephen’s turn to look confused, though Anatoly only had a moment to savour the idea that for once he knew more than the other man.
“Christine who?”
“Johnson. She works in your...the British government. I used to be FSB. I have contacts that informed me that she was asking about the project, before we had any idea of what the anomalies were. That's how I first discovered we were not the only country with the problem. She had a lot of knowledge about the new government and its science projects. The agent was following her and gathering information and suddenly, as we began to receive more future technology, she also seemed to be in possession of more information.” Anatoly paused, remembering, his voice going quiet. “He was killed before he could tell me much more. I don't think anyone else was assigned to her.”
Stephen frowned. “Then this is far more serious than I thought.”
“Why were you really sent here?” Anatoly asked.
“To plant a bomb,” Stephen said. Anatoly's eyes widened. “Which I did. Before I let your guards capture me.”
“Then we have to evacuate the building.” Anatoly tried to move past Stephen but Stephen's grip upon his arm was like a vice, refusing to yield.
“No. The reasons for the AAU's destruction still stand. No one in the present should have this kind of technology. The more that gets destroyed, the better.”
“But there are people here. Innocent people...”
“Innocent?” Stephen snarled. “No. They don't concern me. We need to get back to the anomaly.”
Anatoly tugged uselessly at his arm. “The other Stephen would not sacrifice people like this.”
Stephen's face morphed into a hideous sneer. “No, I'm sure he wouldn't.” He whistled and a future predator appeared next to him. “Don't make this any more difficult than it already is, Doctor.”
Anatoly knew he had no choice so he nodded and slowly Stephen released his grip on Anatoly's arm. Anatoly rubbed at it, sure that if he survived this day there would be deep finger shaped grooves marring his skin.
Not that he believed it would matter, he thought to himself, as he began to lead the way to the future anomaly once again. There was no way he was going to be allowed to survive.
Somewhere in the AAU
Abby settled closer to the bars of the cage. The air was starting to get cooler, something she imagined had to do with the anomaly that was still open in front of her. Thankfully nothing else had come through, other than that man.
“Who was he?” she muttered to herself. She knew that she had seen him before. Seen him quite recently in fact. But where?
She was momentarily distracted when one of the future predators sidled up her. She froze, heart pounding, which she knew was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to happen but there really was no hope for it, and oh god she was going to die...
...but after a few moments it became evident that the predator was just sharing its body heat with her. Two others did the same until she was feeling much better physically, if not mentally. She even found the strength to gently pat the arm of one. It felt warm to the touch.
“That's odd,” she murmured to herself. “They shouldn't be giving off heat like that at all.”
Before she had time to ponder what that meant though, she heard voices out in the corridor.
“It's this way,” an accented voice said.
“Wait,” another voice replied. “Are there predators down here?”
“No, there shouldn’t be. Why?”
“I can sense them,” the other voice said.
Abby leapt up. “Stephen? Stephen is that you?”
Two men entered the room.
“S-stephen?” Abby asked again, more hesitantly this time. The man who looked like Stephen stepped closer to the cage and all the predators laid down, their heads resting on their front legs like dogs waiting for a treat from their master. “Not Stephen?” she whispered.
The man tilted his head and Abby could see it more clearly now, the puckered greyness of his face, where predator met human. The one eye that didn't look quite right, darker and blanker than a human eye. This was the Stephen that could have been, that they came too close to having.
“She's one of the Others?” the man asked, turning his head.
“Yes,” said Anatoly, who'd been hanging back by the door, eyes darting between the cage and the anomaly. Everything he thought he knew was a lie. It was taking a little getting used to. “Her name is Abigail Maitland,” he added.
“Abby,” Abby said, softly, “my name is Abby.”
The man nodded. “Stephen.”
“In your time, we didn't meet?”
Stephen shook his head. “Helen plucked me out of the university to experiment on me.” Abby gasped and took an involuntary step backwards. “She took me to the future. I thought she was showing me the world.” He shook his head and Abby could see it then, the hurt bristling underneath his wounds. He'd become a hollow man, just like Stephen would have been if he hadn't had them. If he'd been left all alone.
“I'm sorry,” Abby said.
Stephen shrugged. “Is he happy? The other me?”
Abby swallowed the impulsive need to reply straight away, she wanted to give the question due thought. “Yes,” she said finally, “I think he is.”
“Good.” He looked at the predators and then at the cage. “So lets get you out of here and get you back where you're supposed to be.”
Warehouse, The Midlands
“This is a travesty. Against the Geneva Convention!” Christine Johnson was shouting. Everyone was ignoring her.
She was currently trussed up like a turkey, her legs and hands tied together and made to sit on the floor which, she had already pointed out, was probably covered in dinosaur faeces. No one had seemed to take that into consideration either.
“I still can't get hold of anyone at the ARC,” Sarah said. She approached the small conference that Danny and Donovan were having. “What next?”
Donovan shook his head. “We don't know how to open the anomalies, and if what Walters has told us is true, then the equipment Johnson had to open it is damaged beyond repair. I don't see what else we can do here.”
Danny kicked absently at the ground. As much as he hated to admit it, Donovan was right. Abby was gone and there was no way of getting her back.
The three of them stayed silent for a beat. Then the Triceratops shifted its feet.
“And what about that?” Sarah asked.
Danny turned to look at it. “Take it back to the ARC?”
“But we can't tell them we're coming,” Sarah pointed out. “They won't be ready for a dinosaur.”
“No,” Danny started to say, “no, they won't, will they?”
Sarah wasn't sure what the look on Danny's face meant. She was just very glad it wasn't directed at her.
Outside The AAU
Connor was sitting, bundled up under so many layers than he'd lost count. It wasn't quite Siberia but it was bad enough. He was looking around him in muted wonder. It didn’t really feel right, being here without Abby. He hadn't liked it before and he certainly didn't like it now. Knowing that Abby was trapped somewhere, that she needed him and he wasn't able to help. He'd been through that once and that had been hard enough. This, this was so much worse.
“Abby's a tough cookie,” Stephen said, sitting down next to Connor. “She can look after herself pretty well.” He patted Connor on the arm. “She saved me, after all, didn't she?”
Connor looked up at Stephen, and nodded. “I guess you're right.”
“Everybody ready?” Jenny asked. She patted her gloved hands together and stomped her feet.
“Yeah, we're good,” Stephen said. He stood up and helped Connor to his feet.
They turned to see Lucas and Becker, with their guns ready and the team of ARC soldiers behind them. Their faces were deadly serious and they were whispering together, a hushed monotone from which the others were excluded.
Cutter glared at them as he passed and went to stand next to Jenny. “What do you think they're talking about?”
“I'm sure it's nothing we need to worry about,” Jenny said. Cutter shot her an incredulous look.
“Are you ready?” Becker asked.
“What were you talking about with Lucas?” Cutter asked instead of answering Becker's question.
Becker schooled his face into as nonchalant expression as he could. “Just finalising a few details. Connor, here's your laptop. We have twenty minutes to move around to the anomaly. Do you need any more time than that?”
“No, that's fine. It ought to take only a few minutes to create a false anomaly alarm. Then Lucas' team can get themselves captured. Then we can go check out the real anomaly. It'll be just like taking out the Death Star.”
“Star Wars,” Stephen mouthed over Connor's head at Jenny's puzzled expression.
“Oh, right, good,” she said.
Becker turned and gave Lucas an assessing look before turning back to his team. “I've plotted the quickest route, we can follow these pipes the whole way round.”
“What do we think is in them?” Cutter asked.
“Water infiltration system, I think,” Connor said, his fingers flying across his keyboard. “Nothing dangerous, or anything.”
Cutter nodded. “Let's just hope you don't end up eating those words.”
Connor bit his bottom lip and stared at the plans again. “Nope, definitely water.”
“Come on then,” Stephen said, stepping aside so that Becker could take point, “the sooner we do this, the sooner we get to go home.”
Cutter fervently prayed it would be that simple.
Chapter Twelve
Title: Shadows Falling (11 of 13)
Author: cordeliadelayne
Characters: From Primeval: Cutter, Stephen, Jenny, Connor, Abby, Danny, Sarah, Lester, Lorraine, Becker, and others From Spooks: Lucas, Harry, Ruth and Tariq
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Warning: Character deaths (not of anyone you've met before)
Word Count: 2,659 (Total: 32,315)
Summary: Forced to split up in order to deal with a series of anomalies at home and abroad, the ARC team soon find themselves facing their toughest challenge yet - one that will send shockwaves through time and across continents, and will ultimately threaten their very existence.
Notes: Part of my Man-Made Series which can be read here. It's not necessary to read all of that before this, though here's a handy, spoiler-rific cheat-sheet if you so desire. All you need to know about Spooks is that it's about MI5 operatives. With thanks to red_2 for help with Russian naming conventions.
Masterlist
Chapter Eleven
Lester very calmly removed a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the blood from his face and then folded the bloodied fabric and placed it neatly on to the nearest desk. He stared down his nose at the dead soldier at his feet and then across at the man who had shot him, raising an imperious eyebrow.
“And who may you be?”
“Captain Wilder,” the man said. “I'm in charge.”
“And is this how you usually maintain discipline or are you following Ms Johnson's orders?”
If Lester wasn't very much mistaken, Wilder flushed at Lester's tone before putting his weapon away. The other soldiers in the room were all standing on alert, but none of them had raised any objections or alarm at their commanding office shooting one of their own. Say want you want about Christine, Lester thought to himself, but she certainly instilled those below her with an impressive degree of obedience.
“It doesn't matter,” Wilder said. “He's not from around here.”
Lester frowned and was about to ask the obvious question when Wilder saved him the trouble.
“Very few of them are real boys or girls.”
Lester turned around on the spot then, his eyes focusing on all of the soldiers. They looked perfectly ordinary, perfectly nondescript, exactly as a good soldier ought. His eyes met Wilder's as he stopped.
“Clones? Of course. How long have you known about the anomalies?”
Wilder's lips upturned in an almost smile. “Long enough.”
“That's not an answer.”
Wilder shrugged. “Something's gone wrong. Ms Johnson should be here by now. That was the plan.”
“And what exactly were you going to do here?”
Wilder regarded Lester for a moment. “She was opening an anomaly, the same one she's always opened. She's been visiting the future. Putting things in motion.”
Lester's blood ran cold. This all seemed horribly familiar. “Putting what in motion?”
“She wants to be the next Prime Minister. Or President. Or anything that will give her the most power, unlimited control of the anomalies and their endless possibilities.”
“And how does the ARC, right here, right now, play into her grubby little hands?”
Wilder motioned to two soldiers behind him that were assembling some sort of machine in the spot where the ADD was normally kept. Lester had no idea what it was.
“The anomalies are all linked. Corridors through time.” Lester gave a perfunctory nod, but he was only half-listening, moving instead to stand closer to the dead soldier on the floor. “One was to open at the warehouse. A team was to go through and secure it, followed by the extraction team. They would head to the Russian anomaly, remove all the data about the future they've been collecting and then destroy the facility.”
Lester winced. “Destroy it?”
“It's served its purpose. They'll return through this anomaly, and the ARC will be at the centre of everything.”
Lester leaned down towards the dead soldier. “And this poor boy, just one of the unfortunate casualties of Christine's mad scheme?” he sneered.
Wilder looked down at the boy impassively. “Just as you are,” he said, “though I have strict orders not to have you killed just yet.”
“How reassuring,” Lester drawled as Wilder started to turn away, Lester already dismissed in his mind. So he had his back to Lester as Lester pocketed the soldier's gun.
The AAU - Russia
“Your maker?” Anatoly asked. “What does that mean?”
“The experiments,” Stephen whispered, though it was if he was talking to himself. “The experiments, here and now, the ones that you’ve been doing. It was him. He was refining what he was doing in the future. They thought,” he laughed, a hollow sound that made the hairs on the back of Anatoly's arms stand on end, “they thought it was his wife who was the real power but always, always it was him, pulling the strings. We're all just his puppets you know, as he weaves the future to his own pattern.”
Anatoly frowned and would have moved away from Stephen if the space had been there for him to do so. “I don't understand...”
“He's a genius, did you know that? Not the way that people say it, so offhand, like it's no more rare than rain in England. No, he's the real deal, intelligent beyond everything. It makes him cold. It makes them all cold. The geniuses that pick and prod and tear at flesh.”
“Mr Hart,” Anatoly said, “we need to get moving. If you want to stop this.”
Stephen’s eyes flashed and Anatoly winced; the man before him could never be mistaken as human.
Stephen stared down the corridor where Banyon had gone and then at Anatoly. “You knew?”
“I - what, no, I -”
“Maybe not specifics., but you knew that this wasn't right. That something about him wasn't right?”
Anatoly swallowed hard before he could speak. “I - I suspected something but not, I never thought. The meetings he had with the Representative from the future, he always had them with her alone. Was there, was there actually a representative?”
Stephen shook his head. “No, I don't imagine there was.”
“So he played me. Played all of us. For what, who is he...” Anatoly stopped. The phone call he'd been attempting to make earlier to the British team came back to him now, echoing down the corridor. When he'd done his research on them he had also learned a lot of information about someone else who was conducting the same sort of investigation. Someone less able to cover her tracks than he had been. “He's working with Christine Johnson.”
Now it was Stephen’s turn to look confused, though Anatoly only had a moment to savour the idea that for once he knew more than the other man.
“Christine who?”
“Johnson. She works in your...the British government. I used to be FSB. I have contacts that informed me that she was asking about the project, before we had any idea of what the anomalies were. That's how I first discovered we were not the only country with the problem. She had a lot of knowledge about the new government and its science projects. The agent was following her and gathering information and suddenly, as we began to receive more future technology, she also seemed to be in possession of more information.” Anatoly paused, remembering, his voice going quiet. “He was killed before he could tell me much more. I don't think anyone else was assigned to her.”
Stephen frowned. “Then this is far more serious than I thought.”
“Why were you really sent here?” Anatoly asked.
“To plant a bomb,” Stephen said. Anatoly's eyes widened. “Which I did. Before I let your guards capture me.”
“Then we have to evacuate the building.” Anatoly tried to move past Stephen but Stephen's grip upon his arm was like a vice, refusing to yield.
“No. The reasons for the AAU's destruction still stand. No one in the present should have this kind of technology. The more that gets destroyed, the better.”
“But there are people here. Innocent people...”
“Innocent?” Stephen snarled. “No. They don't concern me. We need to get back to the anomaly.”
Anatoly tugged uselessly at his arm. “The other Stephen would not sacrifice people like this.”
Stephen's face morphed into a hideous sneer. “No, I'm sure he wouldn't.” He whistled and a future predator appeared next to him. “Don't make this any more difficult than it already is, Doctor.”
Anatoly knew he had no choice so he nodded and slowly Stephen released his grip on Anatoly's arm. Anatoly rubbed at it, sure that if he survived this day there would be deep finger shaped grooves marring his skin.
Not that he believed it would matter, he thought to himself, as he began to lead the way to the future anomaly once again. There was no way he was going to be allowed to survive.
Somewhere in the AAU
Abby settled closer to the bars of the cage. The air was starting to get cooler, something she imagined had to do with the anomaly that was still open in front of her. Thankfully nothing else had come through, other than that man.
“Who was he?” she muttered to herself. She knew that she had seen him before. Seen him quite recently in fact. But where?
She was momentarily distracted when one of the future predators sidled up her. She froze, heart pounding, which she knew was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to happen but there really was no hope for it, and oh god she was going to die...
...but after a few moments it became evident that the predator was just sharing its body heat with her. Two others did the same until she was feeling much better physically, if not mentally. She even found the strength to gently pat the arm of one. It felt warm to the touch.
“That's odd,” she murmured to herself. “They shouldn't be giving off heat like that at all.”
Before she had time to ponder what that meant though, she heard voices out in the corridor.
“It's this way,” an accented voice said.
“Wait,” another voice replied. “Are there predators down here?”
“No, there shouldn’t be. Why?”
“I can sense them,” the other voice said.
Abby leapt up. “Stephen? Stephen is that you?”
Two men entered the room.
“S-stephen?” Abby asked again, more hesitantly this time. The man who looked like Stephen stepped closer to the cage and all the predators laid down, their heads resting on their front legs like dogs waiting for a treat from their master. “Not Stephen?” she whispered.
The man tilted his head and Abby could see it more clearly now, the puckered greyness of his face, where predator met human. The one eye that didn't look quite right, darker and blanker than a human eye. This was the Stephen that could have been, that they came too close to having.
“She's one of the Others?” the man asked, turning his head.
“Yes,” said Anatoly, who'd been hanging back by the door, eyes darting between the cage and the anomaly. Everything he thought he knew was a lie. It was taking a little getting used to. “Her name is Abigail Maitland,” he added.
“Abby,” Abby said, softly, “my name is Abby.”
The man nodded. “Stephen.”
“In your time, we didn't meet?”
Stephen shook his head. “Helen plucked me out of the university to experiment on me.” Abby gasped and took an involuntary step backwards. “She took me to the future. I thought she was showing me the world.” He shook his head and Abby could see it then, the hurt bristling underneath his wounds. He'd become a hollow man, just like Stephen would have been if he hadn't had them. If he'd been left all alone.
“I'm sorry,” Abby said.
Stephen shrugged. “Is he happy? The other me?”
Abby swallowed the impulsive need to reply straight away, she wanted to give the question due thought. “Yes,” she said finally, “I think he is.”
“Good.” He looked at the predators and then at the cage. “So lets get you out of here and get you back where you're supposed to be.”
Warehouse, The Midlands
“This is a travesty. Against the Geneva Convention!” Christine Johnson was shouting. Everyone was ignoring her.
She was currently trussed up like a turkey, her legs and hands tied together and made to sit on the floor which, she had already pointed out, was probably covered in dinosaur faeces. No one had seemed to take that into consideration either.
“I still can't get hold of anyone at the ARC,” Sarah said. She approached the small conference that Danny and Donovan were having. “What next?”
Donovan shook his head. “We don't know how to open the anomalies, and if what Walters has told us is true, then the equipment Johnson had to open it is damaged beyond repair. I don't see what else we can do here.”
Danny kicked absently at the ground. As much as he hated to admit it, Donovan was right. Abby was gone and there was no way of getting her back.
The three of them stayed silent for a beat. Then the Triceratops shifted its feet.
“And what about that?” Sarah asked.
Danny turned to look at it. “Take it back to the ARC?”
“But we can't tell them we're coming,” Sarah pointed out. “They won't be ready for a dinosaur.”
“No,” Danny started to say, “no, they won't, will they?”
Sarah wasn't sure what the look on Danny's face meant. She was just very glad it wasn't directed at her.
Outside The AAU
Connor was sitting, bundled up under so many layers than he'd lost count. It wasn't quite Siberia but it was bad enough. He was looking around him in muted wonder. It didn’t really feel right, being here without Abby. He hadn't liked it before and he certainly didn't like it now. Knowing that Abby was trapped somewhere, that she needed him and he wasn't able to help. He'd been through that once and that had been hard enough. This, this was so much worse.
“Abby's a tough cookie,” Stephen said, sitting down next to Connor. “She can look after herself pretty well.” He patted Connor on the arm. “She saved me, after all, didn't she?”
Connor looked up at Stephen, and nodded. “I guess you're right.”
“Everybody ready?” Jenny asked. She patted her gloved hands together and stomped her feet.
“Yeah, we're good,” Stephen said. He stood up and helped Connor to his feet.
They turned to see Lucas and Becker, with their guns ready and the team of ARC soldiers behind them. Their faces were deadly serious and they were whispering together, a hushed monotone from which the others were excluded.
Cutter glared at them as he passed and went to stand next to Jenny. “What do you think they're talking about?”
“I'm sure it's nothing we need to worry about,” Jenny said. Cutter shot her an incredulous look.
“Are you ready?” Becker asked.
“What were you talking about with Lucas?” Cutter asked instead of answering Becker's question.
Becker schooled his face into as nonchalant expression as he could. “Just finalising a few details. Connor, here's your laptop. We have twenty minutes to move around to the anomaly. Do you need any more time than that?”
“No, that's fine. It ought to take only a few minutes to create a false anomaly alarm. Then Lucas' team can get themselves captured. Then we can go check out the real anomaly. It'll be just like taking out the Death Star.”
“Star Wars,” Stephen mouthed over Connor's head at Jenny's puzzled expression.
“Oh, right, good,” she said.
Becker turned and gave Lucas an assessing look before turning back to his team. “I've plotted the quickest route, we can follow these pipes the whole way round.”
“What do we think is in them?” Cutter asked.
“Water infiltration system, I think,” Connor said, his fingers flying across his keyboard. “Nothing dangerous, or anything.”
Cutter nodded. “Let's just hope you don't end up eating those words.”
Connor bit his bottom lip and stared at the plans again. “Nope, definitely water.”
“Come on then,” Stephen said, stepping aside so that Becker could take point, “the sooner we do this, the sooner we get to go home.”
Cutter fervently prayed it would be that simple.
Chapter Twelve