Dinosaur Thunder (31 page)

“I have a model that may explain it,” Emmett said. “I think I found the anchor for the event. It’s sixty-five million years in the making.”

It took Carrollee a few seconds to grasp what Emmett was saying. “That strikes me as odd,” Carrollee said.

“Exactly,” Emmett said.

“Come home,” Carrollee said.

“Can’t. I’m working on something that might help.”

“I’ll come to you,” Carrollee said.

“Make it a family reunion on the mainland,” Emmett said.

“That bad?” Carrollee asked.

“Potentially,” Emmett said. “Better safe than sorry.” A buzzer went off behind Emmett. “Just a minute,” Emmett said to Carrollee, and put the receiver down.

Emmett called the video feed from the moon and fed it to the big monitor. Shocked, he ran the recording back and then watched it happen from the beginning. The recording began with the writhing juvenile tyrannosaur, in its endless struggle. After a few seconds, the tyrannosaur began moving faster and faster, jerking violently from side to side, and then suddenly it stumbled across the moon’s surface. Now free from the quasi-time that trapped it, it felt the effects of vacuum. While the dinosaur was staggering a few steps toward the camera, its eyes bulged and its chest heaved, swelling, but without air pressure to fill the lungs, the chest eventually collapsed, a spray of blood erupting from the open jaws, droplets spattering the camera. Next, one eye exploded, then the other, then the dinosaur collapsed, twitching, kicking up moon dust. Then it died. Emmett hurried back to his desk and the phone.

“Changed my mind,” Emmett said. “Don’t fly.”

There was a long silence.

“Is it too late?” Carrollee asked finally.

“It’s too close to call,” Emmett said. “You’re probably fine. I’m sure you’re fine. Hawaii is a long way from Florida.”

“I see,” Carrollee said.

“I love you,” Emmett said.

“I love you too,” Carrollee said.

“Tell Emma and Lee I love them,” Emmett said.

“I will,” Carrollee said. “What about Grandma Chen?”

“I love you,” Emmett said.

37

Safari

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western explorers wandered the globe and brought back fantastic tales of people living off the land, like animals.… At first, those people were considered ignorant savages … less than human. But philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, great thinkers who had not actually ever seen one of these “primitive people,” took the opposite view. The “savages,” they contended, were regular humans with souls, but they were more innocent, more natural, more what nature intended than citizens of the modern world.

—Meredith F. Small, Cornell University

Sixty-five Million Years Ago
Unknown Place

Walking through a primeval forest, wearing sunglasses, and dressed all in black, Reverend looked like Johnny Cash on safari. Despite wearing a suit in brutally hot weather, the reverend kept up even at the Inhumans’ brisk pace, and did it without sweating. Moving easily, Reverend walked next to Nick, Carson Wills following, keeping close to Nick and the reverend and as far from the Inhumans as possible.

“I admit you surprised me,” Nick said. “I thought you would put more pressure on people to stay.”

“Conversion by the sword never worked,” Reverend said. “Come freely to God, or do not come at all. Give joyfully, or keep your grudging gifts. Serve with all your heart, or serve yourself alone.”

“That sounds like a sermon,” Nick said.

“I preached it last month,” Reverend said, chuckling.

Nick laughed. Despite their vast differences, Nick liked Reverend. His tunnel vision was going to kill half his congregation, but the man was sincere in believing he was saving the ones he had talked into staying behind, and unlike other messianic leaders, Reverend was ready to make the same bet with his own life.

“Why did you come with me?” Nick asked. “You could have stayed at the church with your wives.”

“Because I am on a mission for God,” Reverend said. “Those Inhumans did not come for you; they came for me. They could not know you were with us, so they must have been coming to find me. I think God has been working on their hearts, opening them to his word. I will preach that word.”

“But you don’t speak their language,” Nick pointed out.

“On the day of Pentecost, the disciples of Christ were given the gift of tongues. God will make it possible for me to preach the good news.”

“If the Inhumans came for you, why did they bring that patch?”

Reverend shrugged. “To entice me? It does not matter. All will be revealed.”

“Anybody notice anything strange?” Carson asked suddenly.

Nick looked back, and then around. Something was different, but he could not put his finger on it.

“There aren’t as many of them as there used to be,” Carson said.

Nick realized Carson was right. At least half their troop was gone. Not knowing their customs, Nick was unsure if the behavior was unusual.

The strange safari kept up its quick pace for over two hours, Nick finding himself on a narrow trail leading through a dense copse. Once through, they came to a large meadow, a village three hundred yards from the tree line, protected by sharpened poles. Older children ran from the village, staring, pointing, following along, their large eyes blinking rapidly as if a sign of excitement. As they passed through the poles, smaller children and women with babies crowded close. The women pointed at Reverend, huddling and whispering sounds like someone playing a child’s xylophone.

Fascinated, Nick studied their clothes—minimal—their construction, the arrangement of the huts, the large structure they were being led to, and their tools and weapons, some of which were made out of the black orgonic-collecting material. Curiosity overcoming him, Nick stopped, Reverend stopping next to him, Carson right behind. The crowd hushed, the xylophone sound fading away. Now Nick stepped toward a woman with an orgonic blade in her hand. Warriors rushed Nick, brandishing spears, one of which had an orgonic spearhead.

Reverend pulled Nick back. “Dr. Paulson, that is not a good idea,” Reverend said.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Carson asked.

“Do you see that black knife she is holding?” Nick said. “That material came from the future.”

“Excuse me, but didn’t we just leave a wreck of a city full of modern crap?” Carson asked.

“Yes, but that substance came from a classified project developed after the Time Quilt that sent Portland to this time period. It shouldn’t be here.”

“Who cares?” Carson asked. “Let’s get Jeanette and get out of here.”

“What kind of project?” Reverend asked.

Still surrounded by warriors, the Inhumans let them talk, seemingly interested.

“It’s classified,” Nick said.

“Classified,” Reverend repeated. “How many of our leaders have used that to cover a multitude of sins.”

“All I can say is that that material lined the inside of a special structure,” Nick said. “That structure was destroyed.”

“So how did it get here?” Reverend asked.

“Jeanette, remember,” Carson said. “We’re here to find Jeanette.”

The Inhuman with the pouch full of pebbles came close, listening.

Nick then pointed at the knife on his belt. “Where did you get that?” Nick asked.

The large eyes stared at Nick, and then followed his point to the knife. Looking back at Nick for a second, the Inhuman then took the knife from his belt and handed it to Nick. Warriors stiffened, pointing their spears at Nick. Nick felt the flat of the black blade. It was firmer than the original material, and holding up the knife, Nick pointed it in all directions, saying “Where? Where? Where?” Finishing, he carefully handed the knife back.

“It looked like you were blessing the knife,” Reverend said.

“It’s the best I could do,” Nick said.

“Did you forget about the asteroid?” Carson asked, pointing up.

Even in the bright sunlight, the onrushing asteroid could be clearly seen. The Inhuman stared at Nick, his expressionless face revealing nothing. Then he said something to the other Inhumans, and motioned Nick and the others to follow. Turning away from the building they were approaching, the Inhuman led them between two huts, to a path leading up a hill. Well worn, the path was easy to walk, and they climbed quickly, until they were breathing hard.

“Why are we doing this?” Carson complained, but kept close.

At the top they found a depression filled with debris. Large and small stones lay everywhere, grass growing from cracks in the rocks. They walked among waist-high stones.

“These were quarried,” Reverend said, touching the grooved surface of a stone. “It’s too rough for power equipment. Someone cut this with hand tools.”

“Mayans,” Nick said. “It’s possible these came from a Mayan pyramid.”

“Then how did they get here?” Reverend asked. “Like we did?”

“Not exactly,” Nick said.

Walking farther, Nick came to circular depression twenty feet across filled with sandy material. Nick dragged a foot, seeing the gray sand turn dark. Scooping up a handful, Nick sifted it through his fingers, finding small chips of the orgonic material.

“What happened?” Reverend asked.

“The Time Quilt that brought you here was caused by a convergence of time waves created by nuclear testing. That convergence not only threw you into the past, but it also dragged pieces of the Cretaceous period into the present. After that catastrophe, we built a mathematical model to simulate and track the time waves, and found they were dissipating. With a freeze on nuclear testing, our predictions were that time and space would return to stability. Then, a decade after the catastrophe, a group of terrorists discovered a way to manipulate time waves using orgonic collectors. It’s complicated, but these black fragments are part of what’s left of a kind of capacitor that stored the energy. We used a nuclear weapon to destroy the structures used to manipulate time. It looks like some of it blew out here and showered their village. Now I’m convinced that the Time Quilt did more damage to time and space than we realized. It seems to have left cracks and weak spots that have been ripped open by the impact of that asteroid.”

“But the asteroid hasn’t hit yet,” Carson said.

“When it hits, it will condense matter, creating a transient black hole. That dark matter sends out time ripples through time, both forward and back.”

“My explanation is so much simpler,” Reverend said. “God wrought all this.”

“And this?” Nick said, holding up a chunk of orgonic material the size of his thumbnail.

“If that is the tool God used to accomplish his purpose, that does not make God any less the workman,” Reverend said.

“I just love all this science crapology, but let’s get Jeanette and get the hell out of here,” Carson said.

“Carson’s right,” Nick said. “We don’t have much time.”

Sensing they were finished, the Inhuman led them back down the hill into the village. Even more villagers had gathered, and again Reverend took most of the attention. Faces expressionless, the Inhumans’ body language screamed fear and loathing of Reverend.

Six Inhumans waited shoulder to shoulder at the entrance of a large hut built up against the side of the hill. All of them stared malevolently at the reverend. Even Carson noticed.

“Reverend, you’re as popular as the plague around here,” Carson said.

“For every one of my flock they took, we took ten of theirs,” Reverend said.

“Were they ever friendly?” Nick asked.

“Perhaps,” Reverend said, “but I never knew them then. The war was going on before I saw my first Inhuman, and that one was being roasted on a spit.”

“You ate one?” Carson asked. “That’s cannibalism.”

“They’re animals,” Reverend said, “and no, I never ate one. They are unclean.”

“They build villages,” Nick said.

“We didn’t know that,” Reverend said, looking past the people at the structures and the tame dinosaurs. “We saw only demons throwing spears. Look at them. You can see why humans feared them.”

“So you ate them?” Carson asked again, incredulous.

“They ate our people too,” Reverend said. “I’ve held services when all there was to bury were gnawed bones.”

“They may see us as animals too,” Nick said.

“But we’re not,” Reverend said. “We were created in God’s image by God for this world, the world created by God.”

“They may believe the same thing,” Nick said.

“Then they are deluded,” Reverend said.

“Then why are you here?” Nick asked.

Reverend frowned, momentarily lost about what to say. Then he smiled, took off his sunglasses, and said, “I don’t know why God brought me here, but he will give me a sign and then I will know.”

The musical background that was their speech was rising. Nick realized the crowd was agitated, surging. A warrior jabbed at Reverend, who held his ground, not flinching. Seemingly unperturbed, Reverend put his sunglasses back on. Another large-eyed creature jumped forward, poking Reverend with his spear, this time stinging Reverend in the side, but not hard enough to pierce. Again, Reverend held his ground, acting as if nothing had happened. As that warrior danced backwards, another stepped forward and lunged with his spear. Suddenly, Carson grabbed the spear, yanking it forward and sideways past Reverend, the warrior stumbling. Carson ripped it from the creature’s grip and then broke the spear over his knee, throwing the pieces to the side.

“Knock it off!” Carson yelled. “Is everyone crazy but me? Where the hell is Jeanette?”

“Easy, Carson,” Nick said, afraid the anxiety had pushed Carson over the edge.

The musical speech died, the Inhumans now intent on Carson.

“Why did I do that?” Carson said, stricken. “Crap. Do you think that was bad?”

The Inhuman whose spear was broken got up slowly, big eyes on Carson, and then backed into the crowd. Surrounded by others, he was the center of attention, other warriors crowding around. Now the Inhumans standing in front of the building conferred, alternating between huddled conversation and glances at the humans. Finally, they parted, revealing a door covered with a flap, and motioned the humans inside.