Luckily, Clara managed to sneak out of the house before Michael woke up the next morning, and she left him a note saying she'd gone to work and that she'd call him later. When, in reality, she had driven to the canal and was walking towards the boats with Stephen and Nick.
"Look, there's something about this that doesn't add up," Nick said to Stephen as they reached the boats. Stephen gave him a look that clearly said not to start an argument. "I think we should widen the search to the canal's side."
"This is another one of your hunches, isn't it?" Stephen doubted. "We can't just drop everything. You know, there's a plan in place. A good plan."
"Well, where have I ever been wrong?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "Except about women, generally."
Stephen half-smiled. "Look at the odds. It's got to be in the canal," he stated simply.
"Look, just give me a few minutes," he pleaded. "I just want to look over there."
"What am I going to tell Lester?" Stephen asked.
"Cover for me," Nick shrugged.
"No," Stephen deadpanned. "Because you're wasting time."
"Ten minutes," said Nick, before turning around and walking in the opposite direction to where his colleague wanted to go.
Clara started after him, but Stephen grabbed her arm and spun her back around. "Whoa, where do you think you're going?"
"Uh, with Nick?" She said obviously.
"What, do you think he's right?" His brows furrowed.
"Am I not allowed to think he's right?" Clara challenged. "Just because you two are having a petty fight doesn't make you the boss of me. Nor does it make him the boss of me, either," she added before he could argue.
"Fine, go with him," Stephen huffed, throwing her arm out of his grip. "But don't expect me to cover for you, either." Clara shrugged, sprinting in the direction that Nick had gone.
She was furious with Stephen - how dare he try and control her like that! She was an adult, she could make her own decisions; she thought Nick was right. Stephen just needed to grow up and accept that.
Clara walked past a large, unused building that she supposed used to store boats, and rounded a corner. She came to a small marina, stepping across the floating path so she could reach the boats. She wasn't sure why Cutter had gone this way, but there was only one sure way to find out.
She eventually came to the last boat at the marina, but Nick was nowhere in sight. There was one of Lester's soldiers not far away, talking into a radio. "Hey!" Clara shouted at him. He turned, spotted her face, spun back around and legged it.
Sighing, Clara heard a small groan from inside the boat. Eyes widening, she clambered down inside the boat to find Nick only half-conscious on the floor. "Oh, my God, Nick!" She rushed to his side, helping him up off the floor.
"Clara," he whispered hoarsely.
"What happened?" She asked worriedly as he sat up. He leaned against the side of the boat, breathing heavily. Clara crouched in front of him, carefully placing her hands either side of his face and checking him over for injuries.
"A soldier," he frowned as he remembered. "I'd seen him before. He knocked me out."
"Wait, the one that was up there?" Clara pointed upwards, meaning outside the boat.
"Did you see his face?" Nick asked eagerly, suddenly a lot more alert. "Did you recognise him?"
Clara wracked her brains, visualising the soldier's face in her mind. Her jaw dropped. "No," she breathed. "That's impossible. Abby and Connor said he was injured!"
"Well, not anymore," Cutter grunted as he moved. As they sat in silence, the eerie singing that echoed in the drains travelled from the water into the boat, and both Nick and Clara's ears pricked up.
"Singing," he mumbled softly. He then whispered some more incoherent words before his eyes snapped up to meet Clara's. "We need Abby and Connor."
"Alright," she nodded, heaving him up. They left the boat and got back onto sturdy land before calling Abby and Connor.
——
Just fifteen minutes later, they were perched at the edge of the canal, a recording device being plunged into the water. Connor and Cutter had on headphones so they could hear the underwater singing, while Clara and Abby both stood watching.
Nick had filled Abby and Connor in on what had happened to him in the boat, though he didn't include the face that he and Clara had seen until Connor brought it up.
"You know that guy that hit you?" Connor began. "What if he comes back?"
"He won't," Nick said. "I've seen him before. At the mall. It was the cleaner."
"I've seen that guy, too," Connor revealed. "I saw him at the ARC. He was dressed like a soldier."
"You sure?" Nick pressed.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"Alright, something's going on," Cutter sighed. "We're being watched."
"Lester?" Clara piped up. She had always had an untrusting feeling about that man. Not to mention his creepy little assistant.
"Maybe," Cutter agreed.
"We should get Stephen, yeah?" Abby interrupted.
"Shh!" Nick shushed her. He looked to Connor. "Are you recording this?" The student nodded. "I mean, what does that sound like to you?"
"Dunno," Connor frowned. "Bit like something I once heard at Glastonbury in the chill-out tent." Clara snickered.
"Glastonbury?" Abby repeated incredulously.
"Yeah," Connor bit.
"Like you've ever been to Glastonbury," she scoffed.
"How would you know?" He argued.
"Look, what is going on with the pair of you?" Nick snapped.
"Connor is dating Cruella De Vil!" Abby peered at him.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Connor sighed. "It was an accident! How many times do I have to tell you?"
"Shh!" Nick shushed, more fiercely than last time. "If you can't behave, you give the headphones to Clara, understand?" Connor nodded sheepishly, returning the headphones to his ears.
After a few more minutes, Nick pulled off his headphones. "Right, grab those recordings and let's get back to the boat."
Connor reeled in the microphone from the water and Cutter led them to the boat. Abby steered them out until Cutter told her to stop. "Alright, here will do." She stopped the boat and killed the engine so it just bobbed on the surface. "Play back the recordings."
Connor pushed a lever and the singing played back, through a box that was placed in the water. "Let's see if we can't invite them to come and see us," Nick said. While Connor and Cutter stayed at the front of the boat with headphones on, Clara and Abby each took a side of the boat to scour for the marine mammals: Abby had starboard and Clara took port.
"Guys," Abby called after about half an hour of searching. Everyone turned, but she shook her head. "Nothing." She resumed looking.
Connor stood up, growing bored. "Maybe no one's home, eh?" Nick didn't answer. The boat moved a little. Connor groaned. "No, this is stupid. We should be back with Stephen helping him search the canal, Cutter."
"It's not in the canal," he said simply.
As the three of them stared out the front of the boat, a gasp and a splash from behind them startled them. Abby was nowhere to be seen; her life jacket bobbing uselessly on the surface.
"Abby!" Connor yelled. "Something's taken her! Abby!" He grabbed a gun from the side and aimed it at the water.
"Put that down!" Cutter ordered. "You could kill Abby!"
"I can't see her!" Clara shouted. Nick had already shrugged off his jacket and dived into the water, dunking his head under and searching the water for her.
"Get help!" Nick gasped when he surfaced. "Connor, Clara, get help! Now!"
"Okay, okay!" Clara nodded, taking control of the boat and steering it back to shore.
——
Forty minutes later, divers were searching the area for Abby, and three boats were out as well. Connor was on one of them, while Stephen, Cutter and Clara were on the other. They guided Lester's men on where to look and then got taken back to shore. When they stepped out and began to walk away, Connor stood in front of them.
"No," he shook his head. "No, what are you doing? We have to keep looking! We can't just stop! This is Abby we're talking about, we can't just give up, right?" Tears rolled down his cheeks when Nick didn't answer. His puppy-dog eyes travelled to Stephen and Clara. "Stephen?" He tried. "Clara?" They didn't answer either. "I'm not stopping looking for her!" He tried to storm forward, but Stephen grabbed him by the arms.
"Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor!" He repeated so he would stop struggling. "We're doing everything we can."
More tears streamed down poor Connor's cheeks, so Clara prised the student out of Stephen's grip and she comfortingly wrapped her arms around him. Connor rested his head on her shoulder and cried quietly. She only looked up when Lester, Jenny and Leek had stopped in front of them.
"We told him to get help!" Connor sobbed, his voice slightly muffled from Clara. "Why didn't you get help, Cutter?"
"How did this happen?" Lester asked, casting a glance to Connor.
"I was following up a lead," Nick answered plainly.
"And who did you tell about it?"
Nick gave a sidelong glance to Clara and Stephen, who were still tackling a distraught Connor.
"Did you know about this?" Lester turned to Stephen.
"No," Stephen denied immediately.
"And you?" He addressed Clara.
"No, she didn't know," Cutter defended her before she had a chance.
"And now the girl's dead," Lester tutted.
"She's not dead!" Connor whirled around and glared at Lester. Clara and Stephen gave up on trying to help him. "She's not dead! We could just go out there. We could find her. All we need is to get back in the boats and do something! Why is nobody doing anything?"
Lester looked to Jenny. "Take him home," he ordered softly.
"Please, don't do this," Connor cried as Jenny veered him away. "Cutter!"
"I suppose being a team player for just once in your life is completely beyond you," Lester snapped at Nick.
"I take full responsibility for this," he said.
"How very gracious of you," Lester remarked dryly.
"But it's still out there," Cutter continued. "We are very close and we still have to finish the job."
"Oh, this job's already finished," Lester said. "For you. Go home."
"No, you can't do that!" Clara protested, and she made to get to Lester before Stephen stopped her.
"You're in charge," Lester told Stephen, ignoring Clara's comment. Stephen glanced to Nick. "Oh, don't look at him, look at me! Come on, what do you want?"
"Something better than sonar," Stephen told them. "We have to go over every inch of the canal again. A remote control submarine could do it." Lester nodded to Leek, who set about doing his task.
"You're looking in the wrong place," Nick piped up.
"Do you agree?" Lester raised a brow at Stephen.
"No," he stated. Nick walked away, deliberately brushing past Lester hard on his way past. "Whatever took Abby is still in the canal."
Lester walked away, and Clara glared at Stephen. "You can let go of me now," she snapped.
"And I suppose you're going after Cutter, are you?" He sneered sarcastically. Clara's fury ignited.
"I am," she smirked cruelly. "Have fun searching in the wrong place." She stormed off, following after Nick and feeling rather proud of herself. "Nick, wait!"
He turned. "Clara. I thought you'd be staying with Stephen."
"Nope," she smiled. "He can search the canal as long as he likes. He'll never find anything. I'm going wherever you go."
"Brilliant," Nick muttered fondly, causing Clara to lightly swat his arm in retaliation.
——
Over at the other side of London, Michael Fields had read the fake note Clara had left him, and was now scouring the internet for anything related to mysterious creature sightings or these things called anomalies.
He wasn't too far into the internet when he came across a blog by a student called Duncan, who studied at Central Metropolitan University.
Mike read for a while, scanning articles about mysterious creature sightings that were never solved, and supposedly extinct creatures coming back to life to terrorise civilians. There was a very detailed page all about Dodos, with a link to a memorial page for someone called Tom. This was exactly what Mike was looking for.
Grinning, Michael stood up and threw his jacket around his shoulders. Grabbing his car keys, he set off in the direction of the local university. Maybe he was finally about to shed a little bit of light on what his sister really did every day.