Aggy and the Dinos

Chapter 17

The lab was boarded up. John dumped the pig carcass and went to drag away some of the corregated metal, but Dean stopped him.

"What?" Said John

"It's barricaded John. Who do you think did that?"

John nodded, and motioned Glen forward, who stood behind him, gun raised. They only had a couple of bullets left, and if there was someone or something inside then they had to count. The metal was pulled back, and they all filed inside behind Glen; John pulled the barricade back behind them, and they stood in the cool air of I.Q unltd; the birthplace and the cradle of the ancient terror outside. They space they were in was typical institution – metal stairs and blue walls; where they had come in appeared to have been a fire exit (I.Q. unltd was mostly underground) and the only way was down. Glen went first, because they were sure to make a lot of noise on the way day due to the echo-happy environment. He hadn't long been out of sight when he shouted.

"Fuck you, get on the ground. Now!"

"You get on the ground, my gun is bigger." Said a man's voice in reply.

"YES!" Shouted Dean, making them all jump. "Brian! Brian it's Dean!"

He flew down the stairs and past Glen, to where there was a man of Chinese descent holding a sawn off shot gun. When he saw Dean his face melted into emotion and disbelief, he leaned the gun against the wall and took Dean in a firm hug.

"What's up baby?" Said Aggy, barging in the greeting.

"Aggy! Where have you guys been? Geezer! I'm so glad the dog is ok, I'm more glad about the dog than I am about you." Said Brian. He had a very pleasant face and a gentle manner, to the extent that Geezer allowed himself to be picked up and, briefly, cuddled.

"Well if he's brave enough to pick up that dog then I'm on his side." Said John, stepping forward to shake Brian's hand. "I'm John, this is Glen. We picked up with these reprobates, whom you obviously know, in Surrey; we've all been hiding behind the terrier ever since."

"How long have you been here, dude?" Asked Dean. "Are you alone? We have a pig!"

"What?"

"A pig. You know, dinner."

"Man I am so glad to see you. I'm here with Sean and Jordie – we stayed after it went tits up, we've been trying to develop a chemical weapon."

"That's why we've come back – any luck?"

"We could really use you, fresh eyes and all. Not yet, we've been trying to work on the Dino genotype to develop a wide impact explosive that isn't harmful to people – we've been close, but no cigar. All we have is Evergreen's fried computer, we haven't been able to take a sample."

"The sample!"

"We left it at the farm house." Said Aggy. "But we can get more." She pointed at Geezer. "I'm going to see Jordie!"

Jordie was in his happy place. Through the lens of the microscope he channelled the world; multi-complex reality filtered into a point of light in which he could see clearly, a focused, organised space in which he built a small lean-to of order in a wind -swept jungle of chaos. He was aware of someone entering the virtually destroyed lab, and deduced very quickly that they were a person who was not supposed to be there. He did a bit of rough calculating, and came up with an appropriate figure.

"It's probable that the iridium is making my vision distort, because the odds of Aggy Rasmussen walking into the lab are in fact, depending on the variable, of which there are many in our current apocalyptic situation, 20,194,345,103 to 1." He looked over his shoulder though neat but powerful glasses and smiled genuinely.