Danger Dinosaurs! полностью

It was an elementary law. A thing cannot be and not be at the same time. Masterson had either existed or he had not existed. If he had died in the Jurassic, he could not have existed in modern times. And if he had not existed in modern times, then someone else had financed the expedition, someone else had hired Chuck.

Chuck did not know who that someone else could be.

Pete drew up alongside him and shook his head. “Chuck, I got a problem.”

Chuck glanced at his watch again. 1:10. Time was running out. Sifting through his hands like so many tiny particles of sand. At 2:00 p.m. the mechanism of the Time Slip would whir into operation. If they were within the white square, they would be jolted back to their own time. If they were not, the Slip would bring back nothing.

“What is it, Pete?” he asked.

“I keep feeling that somebody is missing from the party. That’s screwy, I know, because we’re all here. But something keeps tickling my mind. It says, ‘Master gone,’ or something like that. You know what I mean? I keep trying to remember clearly, but I can’t. It’s like something is slipping out of my mind and I can’t stop it.”

“I know what you mean, Pete.”

It was already happening. Masterson was sliding out of Pete’s memory, soon to be forgotten completely. And even as Chuck thought of the dead man, he found it difficult to remember what he’d worn, what he’d smoked-pipe, cigarette, cigar? What kind of voice did he have? He vaguely sensed that the man had caused a great deal of trouble, but all he could remember was the incident with Allosaurus. Even that was only an indistinct impression. Masterson in the beast’s jaws, Chuck firing wildly, blood spurting, death.

“I guess it’s nothing to worry about,” Pete said halfheartedly. “But still, it’s a funny feeling. Like I’m maybe losing my marbles.”

“You’re perfectly sane, Pete,” Chuck said. “I’d forget all about it if I were you.”

Pete laughed a little. “Looks like I’m going to forget all about it whether I want to or not. The darnedest part is that I can’t remember what I’m supposed to be forgetting!”

1:15.

1:20.

Time was a living thing. It slithered across the face of Chuck’s watch like a Jurassic reptile. It was just as deadly. It had no regard for Chuck or anyone in the group. It moved swiftly, blindly, oblivious to the torturous pace the party was keeping. It was not easy, this pace. It had never been easy. With time hovering over their heads like a deadly guillotine, it was more difficult.

They did not stop to rest.

They kept moving, the breath raging in their lungs. Their clothes were soaked with perspiration. Their faces were gaunt, their eyes sunken, flickering with doubt.

Chuck spoke to each of them briefly. He did not offer encouragement, did not bother with pep talks. He simply prodded them, kept them moving when they would have stopped, needled them the way a man would shove his cattle along a dusty road. In his brief talks he learned that Masterson had all but faded from their minds. He still did not know how the time stream had adjusted to Masterson’s nonexistence. If Masterson had not financed the expedition, someone had. Someone with a great deal of money. Who?

He didn’t know, and in a little while Masterson became a faint blur in his memory.

By 1:30 he could not remember Masterson at all.

1:30.

There was not much time now. There was not much time at all. He began to worry in earnest. The worry hung around him like a plague of insects nibbling at his mind, gnawing, biting, never letting him rest.

The white square. Where was it?

1:35.

The relay area. When?

1:40.

The rendezvous site. Please, please, please.

1:45.

At first they saw only the stegosaurs. Two of them. The creatures sat in the middle of a wide clearing. Their haunches squatted on the ground, their bony backs jutting up like mountain ranges, their spiked tails curled dangerously behind them.

He was almost ready to lead the party around them. That would be the safest thing to do, considering the fact that there wasn’t much time left. He looked at his watch. 1:50.

Something screamed danger in his mind. They had tangled with stegosaurs once before, he knew. He could not remember the exact incident. He only knew that the stegosaurs had been dangerous.

He was about to turn away when he saw plainly the area in which the stegosaurs were squatting. One of the beasts raised its head, but Chuck wasn’t looking at that. He was looking at the creature’s rump and at what the rump was partially covering.

A thick white line.

Realization came with a jolting shock!

The armor-plated dinosaurs were sitting in the relay area!

“Chuck, for the love of…”

“I know,” Chuck shouted. He looked at his watch. 1:53.

“They’re right inside the white square,” Pete said. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.” He gulped hard. “I… I don’t know. We can’t get inside it as long as they’re in it.”

“What time is it?” Dr. Perry asked.