Primeval - A Grave New World

7. Outburst

"So to get things straight, we have multiple overseas anomalies in less than twenty-four hours, one stray creature, and all of this taking place in the middle of a bloody pandemic?!"

Lester leaned back in his worn leather armchair and gazed at the sky as if to curse the gods. "Well it's a good thing I've sent some reinforcements then."

Danny squirmed in place. The four of them packed around one tiny laptop was not ideal but the impromptu meeting called for improvisation. James Lester was joined by another man on another screen named Evan Cross that he did not know, but by what Danny had gathered, this man was heading the leadership over here in Canada.

The hostility in the room seemed to be at its boiling point too. Toby made sure she and Leeds were packed between Danny and Mac to avoid any unnecessary conflict. The one-sided hostility was starting to get to Danny. What exactly had he done to annoy this man? Surely he wasn't still mad at the whole Toby incident in the forest? That was an accident after all. Perhaps it was something else. Maybe he read something in his file that displeased him? Or maybe he just didn't like cops? Danny remembered seeing something on the television the night before about anti-police protests that were starting to pop up around the country. Maybe Mac disliked the organisation as a whole. Nonetheless, it was beginning to get under Danny's skin for sure.

Lester meanwhile, distracting himself from the current situation, glanced over at the calendar on his desk which showed a picture of an idyllic tropical beach.

"Maybe one day, we could just have a nice peaceful week, you know what? I think I might schedule one, one whole week without a bloody anomaly alert, in the Bahamas! You know how many hours I've been sitting in this office? You could write an entire mystery novel in the time I've been here!"

"Noted," replied Leeds, softly.

The hiss of Lester's office door quickly turned his attention away from the paradise calendar as Connor Temple's unmistakable shape burst into the room like a dog to a dinner bell. He immediately threw himself in front of Lester's pristine computer and bent down over it. Lester tensed and clenched his shoulders in his seat as Connor grew ever too close to him.

"I don't believe it," Shook his outstretched hands at the screen as he spoke, "Danny..."

"Connor!" Lester snapped, "does the concept of social distancing mean anything to you?"

Connor brushed this off for a moment and peered around. His eyes sat wide above his black mask as his hands clasped onto the desk. He pushed himself back and stepped into the corner of the room. Lester took a moment to wipe imaginary dust off of his jacket and folded his arms. Who knew what sort of germs Connor had brought with him into the office. He glared back at him, causing him to cement himself in the corner and stay quiet.

"Sorry," he stammered, "it's just good to see you again is all. Abby'll be thrilled! Shame you missed the wedding th...."

"Connor!"

"Sorry," Connor leaned against the glass walls of the office.

Lester considered reprimanding him but quite frankly, he didn't have the energy reserves. No, that would be used up during his call to the Minister.

"I see nothing's changed then," Danny chuckled.

"So," Lester linked his hands together, "anything else happen in the past forty-eight hours that I should be aware of?"

"Two confirmed fatalities not counting Patrick Quinn, and apparently a guard from the hospital went missing through the anomaly."

"And in return, we have this guy," Toby angled the laptop towards the bed that the Dryosaurus was now laying on before bringing it back to face the others again.