unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 13

On their way out of the hub, Connor spotted the work-in-progress locking device on the table, and his step faltered. Clara caught his look and stopped, turning to see what was keeping him. "Jenny?" Connor called, and the temporary team leader spun on her heel. "It's nearly ready," he begged.

"Next time," Jenny promised. "Let's move."

Clara gave Connor a sympathetic smile as they strode down the main corridor towards the garage, where the silver four-by-fours were held. Becker passed them all earpieces as they walked past him, and Clara grimaced as she placed the small wire in her ear. They had only introduced this recently, after Nick was killed - so everyone knew where the others were at all times.

Connor and Abby climbed in the silver truck at the back with their handheld detector, while Jenny, Clara and Becker got into the one in front, along with a detector of their own. The soldiers tagged along in the cars where they could. They then sped off in the direction of the anomaly, ending up at a large office building that looked relatively modern.

As usual, everyone got out their cars and had their tranquilliser guns handy, whereas Becker and his soldiers preferred to keep their live rounds across their shoulders.

Abby looked at her detector, and then back up at the entrance to the building. "In there," she confirmed.

With Becker in the lead, the team strode into the building, entering the foyer and finding it completely deserted. It was silent, almost spooky, but Clara took that as a good sign: either nothing had come through the anomaly yet, or there was no one here to be harmed if something had.

"Hello?" Clara shouted, only for it to echo around the place, her voice bouncing off the windows that made up the walls.

They spread out, heads scanning the place around them. "It's deserted," Connor noted.

"Could it be in there somewhere?" Abby asked, pointing towards a set of double doors.

Becker handed his gun off to another of his soldiers before approaching the doors and trying to prise them open by hand. He grunted, but to no avail. The doors wouldn't open.

"There must be another way in," Jenny sighed, beginning to glance around the walls. As they moved away from the doors, however, and Becker took back his gun, the doors automatically opened. The team spun around, staring at what had caused it.

Jenny started forward when they couldn't see anything, but Becker laid a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Jenny," he instructed. Holding the gun level to his face in preparation to shoot to kill, Becker entered the corridor the doors had opened to them, followed by the team, only to come face to face with men in a grey military uniform.

"Captain Wilder," Becker frowned, lowering his gun the moment he recognised the man. Captain Wilder, presumably, was older than Becker by quite a few years - his hair was greying and there were numerous lines on his face.

"Becker," he greeted.

"You two know each other?" Clara asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Sandhurst," Becker supplied.

"Top of his class," Wilder smirked. "One of my best cadets."

"If you two are going to hug, can you do it later, because there's an anomaly in here somewhere," Connor piped up.

"Move back into the foyer," Wilder ordered, and more of his men appeared behind them.

"What's going on here?" Jenny demanded. She wasn't answered, and they were forcefully moved back into the foyer by Captain Wilder's men.