Tack said nothing more, waiting for the inevitable beating, but Coptic was disinclined to take things further and turned to Meelan, who was studying a device she held. After a moment she gabbled something obscure and gestured disgustedly at the forest. Coptic spat a brief reply and pointed out to the sea, whereupon Meelan nodded. More conversation ensued as both of them inspected the instrument, then eventually Coptic turned to Tack.
‘We must rest here and recoup. You will go that way.’ He pointed along the beach. ‘In about three kilometres you will come to an estuary. Walk up it until you find fresh water.’
Coptic took the pack and squatted down to open it. After emptying it of most of its contents, he passed the collapsible water container to Tack. Tack then paused for a moment to observe the big man assembling what, futuristic as it might be, was still identifiable as a fishing rod. He saw no more than this, for Coptic glared at him and gestured him away.
When Tack came to the desiccated shark, he expected the miniature vultures to take off, but the birds ignored him and continued feeding, their pecking beaks making sounds like pencils beating against cardboard. Amid the empty turtle shells he saw the bones and beaked skulls of the armoured reptiles, and noticed that all the shells had been broken into, and bore large teeth marks. Moving closer to the forest, he nervously eyed the sea, wondering what kind of creature out there had the jaw strength to crack open living turtles like sherbet lemons. Perhaps the dinosaurs Traveller had mentioned? This seemed unlikely to Tack, as he did not see how his two captors could cover a distance through time which Traveller had said would need many separate shifts. Most likely this current era was some ten or twenty million years before that of the deinotherium, which meant perhaps forty million years preceding Tack’s own time. He shivered at the thought, despite the warmth.
As the beach curved round, Tack’s two kidnappers were soon out of sight, and he realized that he was turning into the wide mouth of an estuary, its further shore now visible to him. He estimated that he had covered just over a kilometre so far. The forest to his right now included the occasional white-barked deciduous tree, bearing autumnal leaves and translucent fruit. Below one such tree he spotted two large animals resembling cats, but which were squabbling over fallen fruit. He picked up his pace, not wanting to discover if they might turn out to be omnivores. After a few hundred paces, he heard their squabbling grow louder—then suddenly cut off. Glancing back, he witnessed a nightmare stepping out onto the beach, and understood why the cat creatures no longer wanted to attract any attention.
Fear closed its leaden claws around his guts.
7
Traveller Thote:
The attempt to remove the tors from the two Russian hunters, who actually remained together through a number of time-jumps, was a failure that killed both of them and Traveller Zoul when we tried to transplant one tor onto him. It seems these organic time machines genetically encode to their hosts. Zoul was dragged back by the next shift, but the web of temporal energy the tor created in him did not match his physiognomy and what arrived at the shift’s end died, thankfully, very quickly. We need to get to torbearers earlier in their journey, before the jumps accelerate, to give us more time to complete our task. Our chances of doing this are good, as more and more torbearers are being detected every day.
It was leopard-skinned and it was gigantic. Comparing it against the trees it had just emerged from, Tack estimated it to stand nearly two metres at the shoulder, and be five metres long. Though doglike, its movement was feline, its sinuosity only hampered by its huge weight. But this thing was to the family pet dog what a great white was to a goldfish. And no animal should have jaws of that size: they seemed unnaturally out of proportion, like some cartoon depiction of Father Wolf.
Tack considered just keeping on walking, in the hope that the beast wouldn’t notice him; he would, after all, provide only a snack for it. But it swung its huge head in his direction, paused for a moment, then began loping along the strand towards him. Tack turned and ran just as fast as he could.
The sand hampering his progress, he moved to the more compacted ground at the edge of the forest. Glancing into its shadows, he considered heading for one of the fruit trees, which appeared eminently climbable. But the creature behind him looked big enough to stretch its jaws up to the highest branches, and heavy enough to push the trees over. Sweat broke out all over him, soaking his ragged clothing and trickling into his eyes. In this kind of heat he might keep up his pace for a few kilometres only, but wouldn’t have the energy for anything else, least of all defending himself.
The nearby estuary was narrowing now, and Tack thought about taking to the water, until he noticed that those floating seabirds were in fact fins. No escape that way, then. The forest had become mainly deciduous, but still the trees were too small. Glancing again at his pursuer, he saw that it did not seem in any great hurry to catch him. It kept loping along like some great big dog, as if too lazy to put on that last spurt of speed. Nevertheless, its long stride was eating up the distance between them.
Keep running, as you are now, and when I give the word, turn immediately into the forest.
‘Traveller!’
There came no reply, but Tack felt suddenly so very glad. Not only did Traveller have the weaponry to bring down this monster, but he would then once again reclaim his charge, and Tack was sure his chances of survival with Traveller were higher than with his more recent companions.
The creature was now so close that Tack could see a red tongue lolling from its panting mouth between teeth as large as cannon shells, and wide bloodshot eyes dispassionately observing him. The greatest horror, he felt, was that should it catch him he would be one brief crunch then gone; he would be killed with neither anger nor hate and for no more purpose than to assuage an ever-recurring hunger.
Now he could hear the regular tread of its great splayed paws thumping into the sand. Though it did not possess claws, that was more than compensated for by the sheer quantity of ivory in its huge mouth.
Now.
Tack turned instantly, dodging trees as he ran. The beast turned in behind him, clipping a pine and releasing a shower of cones, branches and needles. With its snout raised, there seemed an excitement to its mien—the chase was finally becoming interesting.
Further to your left.
Tack changed course again.
That’s enough. In a moment you’ll see a large tree ahead of you. Climb as fast as you can. I don’t want to have to fire on friend andrewsarchus there, as the umbrathants would detect the energy spike.
Tack soon spotted the tree, and slowed to ascertain his route up it. Then a deep mooing bark behind accelerated him on. He hit the trunk with his right foot, running almost vertically up it for a couple of paces, before grabbing branches at random and hauling himself higher. Under his feet he caught sight of a wide furry back passing like an express train. Pulling even higher, he saw the monster swerve and shoulder into a pine trunk. The tree snapped and went down whip-fast. The creature turned, ploughing up debris from the forest floor. It launched itself towards Tack, its massive paws tearing bark from the tree trunk as its head crashed up through the lower branches. Its mouth opened into a glistening red well, then its huge jaws slammed shut on a bough Tack’s foot had just left. Then the creature slid to the ground, growling in exasperation.
‘It would seem you’re hardly even out of my sight before getting yourself into terminal danger,’ said Traveller.