Primeval WIP: Raging Madness 25/...)
Title: Raging Madness 25/...)
Author: TalliW
Pairings: Lester/Cutter
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Primeval are the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Lyle, Finn and Ditzy belong to Fredbassett.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading. I couldn't have done it without you.
Warning: Mentions of violence!
Stephen was watching Connor's odd behaviour and getting more worried by the minute. The moment the boy had come into the ARC, he had started to run madly around the building. Currently, he was looking in every open room and pounding against the doors of the closed ones.
Connor ignored Jenny Lewis' greeting and dashed down the ramp. The moment he saw Abby's back moving into the direction of the locker room he raced after her with a desperate cry.
Stephen followed him in concern and was greeted by a shocking sight: Abby, with a swollen lip and with a strap of her top ripped, was paralysed by fear. She was gaping at Connor who lay on the ground with a broken nose smeared with blood. The boy was scrabbling at the tiles with his hands and was about to stand up again.
Stephen immediately called for help and moved in front of Abby. The whole time he talked soothingly to Connor and tried to calm him down but the guy did not seem to hear a word he was saying.
He was surprised when Connor grasped him by the shoulders and threw him aside like a rag doll. He wouldn't ever have guessed the computer geek was so strong. Before Connor could pounce on Abby again he was tackled by Jetrow, Finn and Lyle.
But even the three thoroughly fit soldiers had problems to getting a hold on the enraged young man.
With a combined effort they finally managed to restrain Connor Temple.
Abby watched with tears in her eyes as the soldiers dragged Connor away to one of the cells in the ARC.
Dave Owen, known as Ditzy, the Special Forces medic in charge of the infirmary in the ARC, arrived, and he and Stephen observed the occupant of the cell pacing around like a caged animal.
Every few minutes, Connor stopped his pacing and instead hurled himself against the bars, pounding on the wall and crying for Abby. Blood was now running down his fists and nose. Ditzy didn't want to risk another attempt at inject the guy with a sedative. The boy was so out of control that he had hurt several men already.
With a nod to Stephen, Ditzy finally gave his consent to shooting him with a tranquilizer. It took two heavily dosed darts to put Connor down.
"Christ, what's that stuff? I've never seen anything like it before," Ditzy declared to the team. "His adrenalin level is over top and he's producing testosterone in alarming proportions. There are strange components in his bloodstream. And at the moment I can't identify any of them. It could be a new designer drug or something he came in contact with through one of the creatures. We'll have to wait for the detailed analysis from the lab before I can tell you anything more."
"What exactly is happening with Connor right now?" Jenny asked.
Ditzy glanced briefly at Abby, who had showered and changed her clothes, and said finally: "He's like a animal in heat. Only interested in mating, completely irrational, beyond control."
Abby bit her lip. "And it's this drug in his bloodstream which triggered that? Connor isn't responsible for his actions right now, is he?"
"That's what we believe," Ditzy confirmed.
Stephen looked puzzled. "But he didn't react to Jenny earlier. Why Abby? If he's only interested in mating it shouldn't matter which woman it is."
Ditzy sighed. "I wished I knew. Perhaps he's only focused on the person he's spent most time with. That would be Abby. They live together, right?"
"Or he goes after the person he fancies most," Lyle tossed in.
Stephen rubbed a hand over his eyes in frustration and redialed on his mobile.
"Damn it, I can't reach Cutter."
"He called this morning and told me he didn't feel well. He wanted to spend the day at home," Jenny explained.
"Connor also didn't feel well this morning," Abby voiced.
"Oh God, he could be infected too," Jenny whispered.
Stephen, Jenny and Ditzy exchanged alarmed glances.
When Jetrow commented,: "But you just said someone who's infected only goes for his mate or someone he knows and has feelings for, right?" all the others focused on him.
"It looks like it,." Ditzy answered slowly, still not sure where the soldier was going with this.
"Jenny is with us. Miss Maitland too. And Helen Cutter isn't here. Only Lester knows where she lives right now. There shouldn't be much danger to her.
All we have to do is to find Cutter and arrest him until our doctors here have found an counter-agent. Or is there another woman in his life we don't know about?"
A thought occurred to Abby. "It this mating desire really connected with the reproductive drive or would someone who's infected also go for someone of the same gender?"
Ditzy couldn't answer that and shook his head helplessly.
Lyle's eyes grew wide as he looked at Abby. "You think...?"
At Abby's nod he cursed. "Fuck!"
"Has anyone seen Lester?" Stephen asked, looking around.
"Two hours ago he was still in his office but he must have left in the meantime." was the only information he got from Jenny.
But apparently the man hadn't shown any sign of sudden indisposition until then.
Stephen pulled out his mobile and pushed speed dial again but nobody answered the call.
"Where could he be right now? I wish we could trace his mobile. Fuck, we need Connor."
"Sorry, but he's out for a while," Ditzy apologised.
Stephen started to get frantic. He and Jenny dialed several numbers and inquired into Lester's whereabouts, all without results.
"I'm sure Geronimo could scent him," Abby volunteered.
"Geronimo isn't a tracker dog, Abby!"
"Elephants have a fine sense of smell. And Geronimo likes Lester," Abby reasoned.
"We can't run around the countryside with a mammoth!" Jon Lyle cut in.
Stephen frowned. "Why not? I'm sure Jenny will come up with a cover story."
Next to him Jenny rolled her eyes but didn't raise any objection.
Abby was glad she could finally do something. "We need an item of clothing with his sweat on it so that Geronimo will know who he's looking for."
"Lester's too neat. We 'll find nothing here. But there could still be some of his shirts at Cutter's house. It'll just take too long to get them."
"Wait," Lieutenant Lyle called. "If Cutter is after Lester then we could use some clothes from him. The professor was training in the gym yesterday. Maybe the dirty clothes are still in his locker."
Six minutes later Abby held a sweaty tee-shirt under Geronimo's trunk. Carefully the animal palpated the material and smelled the perspiration.
"Where is Lester, where is Nick?. Find them, Geronimo, and I'll give you a whole bunch of bananas," Abby said to the mammoth, urgently.
Jenny, Lyle and Nick grimaced. Apparently it wasn't working. Geronimo was still inspecting the shirt.
Suddently the mammoth began to move directly to the exit. The big mammal got there faster than the rest of the team members who had to run to catch up with him. 80 metres away, in the bushes next to the parking area, Geronimo stopped abruptly. Stephen who was first there looked on horrified at the scene in front of him on the grass.
"Lyle, keep Abby and Jenny back," he commanded as the soldier ran up to him.
Stephen slowly stepped closer to the pathetic sight of James Lester lying, nearly naked, on his belly, unmoving, scratches and bites marring his skin. Coagulated blood staining his body.
Nick Cutter slept next to him, a contented smile on his face.
Stephen felt bile rising up in his throat.
When Geronimo softly touched Lester's head with his trunk, the man on the ground groaned.
Concerned, Stephen crouched down beside James Lester. "It's all right. You're safe. I'll call an ambulance," he soothed.
"No!" Lester's voice sounded coarse but still forceful. "No hospitals."
"Then we'll get Lieutenant Owen."
Lester didn't reply.
Stephen walked quickly back to Lyle, who had stopped the two worried women from pressing forwards.
He took the Lieutenant aside and spoke quietly: "I need Ditzy, some blankets and two stretchers. And take the mammoth back inside." Then he hurried back to Lester.
It nearly broke Stephen's heart when Lester tried to move onto his side, his legs drawing closer to his body, desperate to cover his nakedness.
Quickly he pulled his sweatshirt over the head and laid it down over Lester's lower body.
"The medic will be here soon. It's going to be OK," Stephen whispered, feeling completely inadequate for a situation like this.
Some minutes later, Abby and Jenny watched in shock as Ditzy arranged the evacuation of the two men on stretchers, covered with blankets, back to the ARC.