Day of the Predator

CHAPTER 37

65 million years BC, jungle

Liam savoured the warmth of the fire on his face and hands. It had turned out to be surprisingly cool up here on the peak once the sun had gone down, and his sweat-damp clothes had begun to feel uncomfortably chilly against his skin.

In the sky above the dark plain spread out before them, the last stain of day spread a warm, rich, amber light along the flat horizon and the night was beginning to fill with the distant haunting chorus of creatures calling to each other across miles of open plain.

He heard the scuff of boots and skittering shale approaching out of the dark. Becks appeared and sat down heavily next to him. ‘Hello, Liam.’

‘Hello,’ he replied, chewing on the rubbery corner of his reheated grilled mudfish. He looked at her eyes, glistening as they reflected the campfire in front of them. He wondered what went on behind them when she wasn’t busy assessing mission priorities or threat factors. He wondered if that tiny organic brain linked to her computer could appreciate how beautiful that amber sky was… or enjoy the pleasing sensation of warmth from the fire.

‘Your AI’s done a bit of growing again, hasn’t it?’ he said presently. ‘Your cluck, cluck thing earlier was… well, about as funny as one of my old Auntie Noreen’s jokes, but… the thing is it sounded almost human.’

‘Thank you.’ She nodded. ‘It has been useful to me observing these younger humans. Their social interactions are more heavily nuanced by emotional indicators and less restricted by expected convention.’

His face creased as he digested that. ‘You mean they’re more likely to blurt out whatever they’re thinking than adults?’

‘Affirmative.’

‘Well now,’ he said, smiling, ‘that’s probably true.’

Laura Whitely, sitting opposite, caught what they were saying over the babble of dinosaur talk going on between Kelly, Whitmore and Franklyn. ‘I don’t blurt,’ she said. ‘Children do that.’

Becks’s gaze shifted to her. ‘Are you not a child?’

She gave Liam an is she for real? look, one eyebrow cocked with incredulity. ‘Excuse me? I’m fifteen. I’m not a child. I’m a teenager.’

‘You still have four years of physical and mental growth to undergo before you are technically an adult human being,’ said Becks. ‘Optimum mental and physical functionality is obtained at nineteen years of age. This makes you still a child.’

‘Yeah? And what about you? What are you, then?’

Becks’s jaw dropped open, a facial expression Liam had not seen her pull before. Nor an expression he could recall Bob ever pulling either, for that matter. Becks’s eyes gazed at the fire for a long, long time, the lids fluttering slightly every now and then.

She’s really giving that some serious thought.

‘I will…’ she began after a while. ‘I will never be a complete human being.’

Laura’s face softened ever so slightly. A second ago she’d looked like she wanted to square up to Becks, now she almost looked sorry for her. ‘You sound sad about that.’

‘Sad?’ Becks considered that word. ‘Sad,’ she said again quietly. ‘My developmental AI routines allow me to learn and replicate human behaviour patterns. But I am unable to directly experience emotions. This would affect my performance as a support unit.’

‘So, let me get this straight,’ said Laura, shuffling round the fire, closer to them so she wasn’t being drowned out by Franklyn’s droning voice. ‘You’re flesh and blood, just like a human being, but your head is, like, all robot?’

‘My body is a genetically enhanced female human body. I have multiple-threaded muscle tissue capable of a five hundred and seventy-six per cent performance response.’

Laura looked at Liam. ‘That means she’s… what? Like, six times stronger than she should be?’

Liam nodded. ‘Aye, that sounds about right.’

‘I also have a high-density calcium-based support chassis — ’

‘Strong bones,’ said Liam.

Laura nodded. It looked like she’d figured that out for herself.

‘I also have a rapid-reaction, high white-cell-count fluid repair system.’ Becks turned to Laura. ‘My blood clots quickly.’

‘Right.’

‘All of this gene technology will be developed by W. G. Systems in the year 2043 for military applications: genetically engineered combat units.’

‘Wow,’ uttered Laura. ‘You mean like super soldiers.’

‘Correct. I was designed for war. Specifically subterfuge and covert operations.’

Liam smiled. ‘But don’t let that put you off her — she’s a sweetie really.’

Becks looked at him curiously. ‘Sweetie?’

Liam put an arm round her shoulders and hugged her clumsily. ‘We go back a bit, Becks and me. Would you believe it, she used to be a man, so she did? Big chap, just like some muscle-man called Schwarzenhoffer or something. Apparently he becomes a president of yours sometime.’

‘Oh my God.’ Laura made a face. ‘You don’t mean Arnold Schwarzenegger?’

‘That’s the fella. Anyway, Becks was called Bob back then. But… well, you had a bit of a scrap, didn’t you? And — ’

‘Caution,’ said Becks. ‘It is inadvisable to reveal details of previous missions.’

Liam hushed. Perhaps they’d revealed more than they ought. ‘Yes, you’re right. Sorry, Laura.’ Liam decided to change the subject. ‘Becks, we should consider what message we want to leave in the ground, you know?’

Becks nodded. ‘Affirmative. This is important.’

Kelly overheard that. ‘You guys discussing the help message?’

And that shut up everyone around the fire, even Franklyn.

‘Yes,’ replied Liam. ‘I’ve been giving it some thought, Becks… We would have to actually reveal the exact date and location of our field office.’

She frowned. ‘Negative. The location and time-stamp must remain known only to agency operatives.’

‘But we have to, do you not see? Because Sal and Maddy aren’t exactly likely to go fossil-hunting in Texas any time soon. It will be someone else who finds it. And the only way it will find its way to them is if we reveal that.’

‘You know,’ said Kelly, ‘that kind of information would be mighty powerful stuff. The fact that time-travel technology exists. The fact that humans have actually been back to dinosaur times… that’s world-changing information, Liam. You understand that, don’t you? You mentioned time contamination and time waves and stuff like that… Won’t it — ?’

‘Oh, for sure,’ said Liam. ‘That’s the kind of nightmare we were recruited to prevent — contamination of the timeline.’

‘And yet you’ll be causing it.’

‘I know… I know. But it’s the only way.’ He looked at Chan, sitting quietly between Leonard and Juan. ‘The timeline is already badly broken. Who knows what state the future is in now? And, yes, by deliberately stamping a big ol’ message into the ground, we’re about to make it a lot worse. But — and it’s taken me some time to see this for myself — time is like, I dunno, like liquid. It’s fluid. What can be changed can be changed right back, so long as you know where to go and what to do. And, of course, as long as you’ve got a time machine.’

Liam nodded at Chan. ‘We need to get Edward back to 2015. That fixes part of the problem. Then, once we’ve done that, Becks and I will come right back here and undo all that contamination.’

‘How?’

‘Very simple,’ said Liam.