the brain trust

so i needed to mingle with people who dealt in all things dinosaurs, in case they'd heard anything about the pack of the primordial feather's activities in calgary. even the smallest bit of information might give my friend mike the librarian the lead we needed to locate them. once we did that, then i would have to figure out some way to steal one particular crate away from the pack...

fortunately it was just one thing at a time, so i didn't have to worry about that last part till we found the feather in a haystack... er city stack... ummm scape? the pack was going to be hard to find okay!

the good news is i happen to know several dinosaur centric people who work in calgary. at the university to be specific.

these were my old tyrrell buddies caleb and kirsten. back in those days they were both seasonal technicians in the summer, but went to skool the rest of the year to study palaeo. not a lot has changed with them, other then the uni palaeontology thing has become their whole life... all the time! sound grim i know, but not when you realize this is the final stage in their growing up to finally be palaeontologists, it will probably be worth it!

not only had i been meaning to catch up with these two old friends, but as palaeo PHD students, all they did was work on dinosaurs and fossils. if there was any gossip about the pack around these two were bound to have heard it.

of course they were really surprised when i just showed up at their office this afternoon... right, need to tell people i'm going to show up.

both were well... surprised. fortunately happiness followed, which i've learned is not always the case (at least when surprise and me are in combination). we had a quick catch up on our lives. all involved in the chat thought their activities were boring to the others, but yet the other side was eager to hear all about it.

`

i of course had been in new zealand, and or otherwise revisiting canada. the two of them had been up to new research in the field of dinosaur palaeontology. they wanted to hear about my trip, and i wanted to hear about their studies. so it worked out to a good visit. so good we booked a proper catch up lunch for later in the week. as they both had to get back to work (due to my not calling ahead).

`

before i left i made sure to check. "there was one quick reason i popped by to see you both today."

`

they both looked at me inquisitively. "i was wondering if you'd heard anything about the pack of the primordial feather."

man, did the room go sour in no time flat! kirsten just glared at me with a fiery disgust. "i should have known."

"huh?" was my only response to that.

`

"get out!!!" she yelled at me.

`

"what? i just wanted..." i tried to explain, but kirsten cut me off.

`

"i don't care what you want. i will not be helping that gang of theropod thugs recruit anymore members. even if they are dumb enough to seek them out!" she declared glaring at me.

`

oh boy. that didn't look good. all because i didn't think first (sadly not unusual for me). of course, these guys had no idea i'd turned down the pack's offer of membership already. kirsten assumed i wanted to join my coelurosaur kin in their stupid club, and get up to all sorts of mischief and evil with them.

`

just as she was about to rise out of her chair to shoo me out of the room i yelled. "i'm not trying to join the pack. i'm trying to stop them!"

`

that stopped kirsten dead in her tracks. not because of what i said, but rather the fact i'd yelled it. i normally try not to yell, and i certainly never had had the guts or bravery to do it in my museum days.

`

kirsten was nice enough to let me explain everything from larry's visit. the raptor attack, and to my current mission to find the crate.

`

she was a little dubious about the crate part, but trusted me on the other stuff. kirsten had always been a big advocate of how honest and earnest i was about everything, on account of my brain size (but that's not true entirely. i do try to be as good a dinosaur as i can be!).

`

"well sadly traumador, i haven't heard anything about the pack here in cowtown. they are crawling all over drumheller and several other places, but not here to my knowledge," she stated, but then she turned to caleb, and i followed suit. "how about you?" she asked him.

`

caleb suddenly dove back into the book he'd been reading when i arrived. "what? oh sorry, i wasn't listening guys," he pretended.

`

"yes you were," i countered.

`

"no i wasn't," caleb tried to sincerely tell me.

`

"yes, you were!" i stated.

`

"i was not," caleb said again.

`

this continued for a good minute... i should have realized the circular nature of that argument...

`

anyways, before kirsten interjected. "caleb! just tell him."

"tell me what?" i echoed kirsten, though not on purpose. i just wanted to know why caleb was acting so weird.

`

"when i was first trying to decide where to study my PHD, i wanted to stay at the tyrrell," caleb explained. "that was when i learned about the pack."

"they approached me, and told me they could make my studies go smoothly if i were to look into some of the issues surrounding vivus-theropod. in particular how to easily discover more," he stated matter of faculty. "when i refused, they warned me that i might experience certain 'set backs' with my research."

"and?!?" i asked in suspense, despite knowing that caleb got out okay.

`

"i had a few accidents, that forced me to leave the museum," he said rather vaguely.

`

before i could ask for more details, kirsten interjected. "a few 'accidents'?!? you call pushing a field jacket to try and crush you, and killing your vivus specimen accidents!!!"

`

caleb visibly got upset at this reminder. "we never could prove it was them though! what else am i supposed to call them?!?!?"

`

kirsten toned down her confrontational stance, and suddenly took on a look of defeat. why shouldn't she, i was feeling it too. i'd known for a while that the tyrrell had been claimed by the pack, but i'd just thought it was favourite hang out spot or something. i didn't realize it was threatening the people there. that alone people i knew!

`

"so when i left drumheller to get away from the 'accidents', i swore i'd never have anything to do with the pack again," caleb told me in a very cold determined voice. "so, no traumador, i have no idea if the pack is here or not."

`

the room remained quiet a minute as we all sat digesting the pack's latest impact.

`

not only was i depressed by the pack having taken over my childhood home, but i felt even more hopeless. i was beginning to see why ruffled feather had said stopping the pack was so urgent. they were having a negative impact. a really negative one. i shuddered to think of how many more of my friends, or someone else's friends this crate could help them hurt...

`

yet there was nothing i could do about it here. as i made ready to leave, kirsten was the first to cut the silence with words. "we could go and ask the rats."

`

rats?

`

"they won't know anything," caleb dismissed the suggestion, whatever it meant.

`

kirsten shook off the suggestion with her hand. "bull! theodore is such a gossip, if there are any rumours floating about he'll know. helma is so paranoid if there was even a mention of the pack she'd remember what it was, and who said it down to the second."

caleb looked like he wanted to protest, but couldn't quite counter kirsten's line of logic. not that i understood it. however before i knew it, kirsten was herding us out the door to go look for these "rats", which she thought might have heard something...

somehow suddenly it was me who was now dumbfounded with surprise...

to be continued... would the rats rat out the pack?