Relative Strangers (book 3) Nature VS Nurture

3. Two Bright Sparks

While placing her own technical equipment into her new lab, E had a look through her timeline, and realised that she had an important date coming up.
With everything going on, on her island, she had forgotten about it.
Originally she had planned to deal with this problem alone, but now that she was living in the 21st century, she realised that she didn't have to do everything alone.
So, after lunch E texted Connor and told him to come to her lab, alone. Since she thought he would be the best person to help her sort out her issue.

"Hey Ellie, what's up? Nice lab by the way. But why all the secrecy, why did I have to come alone?" Asked Connor, as he stepped inside E's lab.
"I need your help" revealed E.
"My help? Not Matt's?" Questioned Connor.
"No. This is a delicate matter, and I don't want Matt going in all guns blazing. Which is why we aren't going to tell anyone else about this"
"I really hate keeping secrets from Abby"
"Fine, you can tell her if you really want to. But she can't be involved in our mission"
"And what is our mission exactly?".

E sighed and took a deep breath, "Look, I try and keep tabs on all those who come into contact with anomalies. Not those who see one once, and move on with their lives, I'm talking about those who try researching what they saw. And where possible, I try and steer them away from the truth".
"I thought you loved people finding out about anomalies. That's why you help those who get lost in time" replied Connor.
"People who get lost in an anomaly are different, because they aren't a threat in the same way as someone who thinks they know about anomalies in the present. Most people don't get any answers, and they give up. But sometimes a scientist gets too close to the truth, and those are the people I try to stop" explained E.

"So you want my help to stop a scientist who thinks he knows what the anomalies are?" Questioned Connor.
"Yes" answered E.
"Why me?" Connor quizzed.
"Because you are a scientist, like him and me. And I'm hoping the two of us can convince him to stay away from the anomalies. For once, I want to do this without pointing a gun at him, which is what would happen if Matt, Becker, or Lester knew about this. The old me would just threaten him. But the new me wants to have a rational conversation with this man, scientist to scientist".

"Alright, I'm in" announced Connor.
"Great. The only problem is, that he isn't exactly local. We are going to have to go across the pond to get to him" revealed E.
"He lives in America?" Questioned Connor.
"Yes. Now you see why this mission must be handled delicately. Americans are a very different group of people. And we certainly can't have their government finding out about time travelling anomalies. We should only be gone a few days, if all goes to plan"
"How are we supposed to sneak off to America without anyone at the ARC noticing that we are gone?"
"Don't worry about that, I've got a plan to cover our absence. Since we can't travel secretly, we will make our location known to the others, and even let Lester book our plane tickets, so that they don't get suspicious".

"Why don't we just use the anomalies to get there, instead of using public transport?" Asked Connor.
"I thought you were supposed to be smart. If this guy thinks he knows what anomalies are, the last thing I want to do is prove to him that he's right. No, I plan on leaving almost all of my tech here, since I can't risk this American getting his hands on any of it" admitted E.
"Almost all of it?"
"Well, I have to travel with a few things, since there are some pieces of tech that I never go anywhere without".

"Who is this guy anyway, and how do you know so much about him?" Quizzed Connor.
"I made a note of him a while back, when I saw that he had the potential to do some serious damage" answered E.
"If he's so dangerous, why didn't you stop him earlier?"
"I couldn't stop him before he found out certain things. I can't mess with time that way. Now, if my calculations are correct, he wants to make his own version of the ARC very soon. And that is something we have to stop. You and I both know how dangerous this job is. People get hurt, and people die. So, if he does make his own team, a lot of people are going to end up dead".

"How much does he know exactly?" Asked Connor.
"I'm not sure. His wife was killed by a dinosaur about 6 years ago, and he saw it and the anomaly. Which is what lead him down this path" explained E.
"It's taken him 6 years to work out the truth?"
"He can only do this in his spare time, since he has a company to run. I also don't think he started looking into anomalies right away, as he was very distressed by his wifes death. And let's not forget that he doesn't have government help and funding like the ARC"
"It's a shame the ARC wasn't around back then".

"I know. But even if you guys were, you can't always save everyone. Especially not those in another country... I'm not sure exactly what happened back then, or how this happened, but I do know that this man, Evan Cross, got his hands on one of our detectors" revealed E.
"How is that possible? ARC detectors hadn't been invented then" reminded Connor.
"I know that. Like I said, I don't know how it happened. But we are going to fix this problem. Which is why we need to sneak into his house and get it back. I don't believe that it works right now, but we need to retrieve it before Evan makes his own version of it to track down anomalies".

"So, we've got to go to America. Break into some guys' house, and steal the hand held detector. Before confronting him and telling him to stay away the anomalies" said Connor.
"When you say it like that, you make it sound so easy" mocked E.
"And we've got to do all this without our team mates learning the truth"
"Yep. We've got our work cut out, that's for sure. Which is why we need to get planning, we've no time to lose".