Dinosaur Blackout

by Judith Silverthorne

  “Sure,” they chorused.

  Pederson turned to Todd. “You staying here or coming with us?”

  Todd looked at Daniel’s dad. “We have the west field to finish harvesting, right?”

  Dad gave Todd an understanding smile. “Yes, though if you wanted to go with them this morning, you could. The crop is so poor, it won’t take long to finish it.”

  “No, that’s fine. I’ll stay here.” But Daniel thought he saw Todd’s disappointment.

  Everyone rose and moved at once, taking their dishes to the sink, then heading for the door and their various tasks. The Lindstrom family would arrive soon and Jed would conduct the first tour and join the quarry group later to work on his special project. His sister Lucy would take the first trail-ride group. As usual, Jed’s dad, Doug Lindstrom, would help Dad at the camp and on the farm, while his mom, Greta, supervised the outdoor kitchen operation with Daniel’s mom. Jed’s other two sisters, Leanne and Lindsay, would help prepare meals and babysit Cheryl.

  Daniel fed leftovers to Dactyl and added some crunchy dog food to his bowl. He refilled his pet’s water dish, and then swung his backpack over his shoulder and joined the others at the edge of the yard. As they headed across the pasture, Daniel walked with Mr. Pederson. Dr. Roost and Craig poked along behind them, chatting. Above them, a hawk swooped down the valley, with a harsh keeer cry. Gophers dashed into holes in front of them with warning squeaks, their stubby tails flipping out of sight.

  Around them, the fading landscape signalled the end of summer. Velvety goldenrod and scarlet paintbrush dotted the thick, yellowing grass and drying scrub. Canada thistle and sage had gone to seed and brown ragweed sprang up here and there. The last sweet smell of clover growing along the ditches filled the crisp air, along with the scents of harvesting in the fields beyond. Geese were beginning to gather for their long journey south, snacking on bits of grain the combines had left behind.

  As they walked across the gently sloping hills to the quarry, Pederson seemed to have a constant tickle in his throat. Each time he coughed, Daniel’s stomach gave a little lurch. Was this what was worrying him – that Mr. Pederson hadn’t been looking well lately?

  “You’re not catching a cold, are you?” Daniel asked, keeping up with the old man’s long strides. He worried that it might turn into something worse.

  Pederson shook his head. “No. It’s just the grain dust from the harvesting.”

  Daniel looked up at the slight haze in the sky. He could hear the distant roar of tractors, combines and grain trucks from several directions. “You’ve never had allergies before, have you?”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” Pederson continued. “Seems to be more dust than usual. Guess it’s because it’s been such a dry year and there’s more chaff than grain in the crops.”

  “Are you sure that’s all it is?” Daniel asked, though he knew crops were so poor that some farmers hadn’t even bothered to harvest.

  Pederson kept his eyes straight ahead. “When a fellow gets as old as I am, the body just acts up sometimes.”

  Daniel protested, “No way! You’re not old.”

  Pederson chuckled. “I’ve been old for a long time.”

  Daniel stared at his friend, recalling when they’d first met, and had to admit that Mr. Pederson had been old even then. But Daniel never really thought about what that meant or that Pederson might be gone someday. He was still so agile and quick-witted. Then Daniel recalled that his Grandfather Bringham had been about the same age when he died several years earlier.

  A chill ran up Daniel’s body as he recalled Pederson’s bout with pneumonia during a snowstorm two winters earlier. Daniel had been terrified, but Ole had recovered with the help of Daniel’s family. Since then, he’d had the occasional attack of bronchitis in the cold spells, but his coughing now was a little disconcerting.

  “Nothing to worry about, lad,” Pederson patted his shoulder.

  Daniel suddenly remembered the question he meant to ask. “Do you think we could go on a prospecting trip after the weekend?”

  Pederson contemplated for a moment. “I don’t see why not.”

  “Craig and Todd want to come too.”

  Pederson smiled. “Yes, I did promise to take them, and Jed too. And Mildred will probably enjoy it. In fact, we should see who else would like to go. The more sharp eyes, the better.”

  “School starts Thursday, though, so could we go before that?” Daniel asked.

  “How about Monday morning, bright and early, seeing as how Sunday is our last official tour day?” Pederson’s eyes twinkled.

  Daniel kicked at a clod of grass and whooped. The thought of what fossils might lie hidden only a few metres below their feet gave him goosebumps. Who knew what they might uncover?

  “Hey, Craig!” he turned back to the pair behind them. “We’re going prospecting on Monday.”

  “Yes!” Craig grinned, before turning excitedly to Dr. Roost to see what she had to say about it.

  “In the meantime, let’s see how much work we can get done over the next few days to secure what we’ve already found,” suggested Pederson.

  Daniel quickened his pace. “Sure thing!”

  Pederson speeded up too, and when they looked back, Dr. Roost and Craig weren’t far behind them. Every time Daniel and Pederson sped up, the others did too, until they were almost running. They could hear the others laughing behind them.

  Moments later and out of breath, Daniel and Pederson cleared the last hilltop before the quarry and made their way down the various cutaways and ledges that took them to the roped-off areas, each a separate work site with its own special finds. Immediately below the next overhang was the Stygimoloch skeleton. Daniel leapt down, then stopped short.

  “No!” he shouted.

  Pederson caught up and let out a shriek of disbelief.

  “What’s wrong?” Craig asked as he and Dr. Roost appeared moments later. They too stood with their mouths wide open, gaping at the empty hole at their feet.

  The Stygimoloch skeleton was gone!

  “Great snakes and blasted lizards!” Mildred Roost yowled.

  Ole Pederson coughed several times, looking ready to collapse. Craig guided him down to a ledge where he sat, his face pinched with shock.

  The night before, several sections of the small dinosaur – which was about the size of an ostrich – had been swathed in heavy field jackets on the edge of the six-metre long by five-metre wide cavity. The pieces were ready for transport to the lab at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum field station at Eastend. Now those, along with every last one of the bones they’d exposed over the last few weeks, had vanished.

  The once carefully dug excavation was now a shambles, with crude gashes where the last of the fossils had lain. Scuffle marks were everywhere and their tools scattered.

  To start the dig, they’d used a backhoe to remove the top chunk of the hill and then shovels to cut steps into the hillside like a huge set of stairs down to the fossil bed. Each step was about a metre square and about thirty centimetres high. Their most recent work had involved digging out the back end of the skeleton, which had been buried in heavy soil. Daniel and Mr. Pederson had spent hours with garden trowels and paint brushes to reveal the intricate tailbone. They’d even found an imprint of the scaly, reptilian dinosaur skin.

  “Who on earth would do such an atrocious thing?” Dr. Roost leaned heavily on her cane. The others shook their heads.

  Daniel knelt and let the earth run through his fingers, searching for bits of fossils of any kind, but came up empty-handed. Someone had trampled and scattered the small mounds of dirt they’d left the day before. They’d planned to sift through them later, but that wasn’t possible now. He swallowed hard, trying to gulp back the bowling ball-sized lump that seemed lodged in his throat. Pederson still sat on his ledge, his face buried in his hands.

  Now Daniel knew why he’d been so on edge. This dig meant everything to him and Pederson, and maybe to the others as
well. He’d worried about leaving it unguarded at night, but it seemed silly to think anything would happen. Now his forebodings had become reality!

  He remembered waking up and thinking he’d heard something strange in the night. Now he knew it was true.

  Chapter Two

  “This ruins everything!” Craig spoke at last.

  Dr. Roost stirred. “No way,” she growled. “We’ll find the bloody culprits.”

  “Maybe,” said Daniel. “Look. Tire tracks.”

  Craig joined him and the two followed the tracks for a few metres. “All-terrain vehicles, I think.”

  Studying the ground, Daniel agreed. He and Craig walked some distance along the quarry, but the atv tracks disappeared into the scrub.

  Pederson rose at last. “Let’s call in the authorities. They’ll have a better chance of following the trail.” He pulled out a cell phone and handed it to Daniel. “Here, you know how to use this contraption. Dial your folks for me.”

  Daniel obliged and Ole Pederson explained the situation to Ed Bringham with a request to contact Corporal Jim Fraser at the Climax rcmp detachment.

  “Use the west roadway when you come,” Pederson suggested. “The thieves seem to have come and gone to the east and we don’t want to mess up the trail.”

  “Tell them to bring my camera too,” Daniel whispered to Pederson.

  “Better yet, they could bring my digital,” suggested Dr. Roost, not bothering to lower her voice. “It’s in my truck. My spare keys are under the rear bumper.”

  Pederson relayed the instructions and then his face dropped again. “Yes, the lot of us are mighty upset,” he said. He listened some more. “Yes, we’ll come up with a contingency plan.”

  Pederson ended the call and turned to Daniel. “Jed left with his group only a few minutes behind us. They gathered early.”

  “Oh, no! They’ll be here any minute,” said Daniel, shaking his head. “What’ll we do?”

  Dr. Roost took charge of the situation. “Do the usual micro and macro displays. Ole, you up for that or shall I do the explanations?”

  “No use whining about what’s happened, I guess,” he said. He massaged his wrinkled forehead with his fingers as if to ease a headache.

  “Good.” She turned and pointed her cane at Craig. “You can explain about the cutting of the steps and layers of earth to get down to the fossils. Daniel, you run and meet Jed and have him direct the group to his own area first.”

  Daniel nodded. Jed would be pleased. Usually his area was off limits to visitors because of the fragility of the find. He’d discovered rare tiny scratching marks of a birdlike creature. They were still trying to figure out its origins.

  Mildred Roost continued. “I’ll watch for Ed and Corporal Fraser and direct them away from the tour group.”

  “Wait a minute,” Daniel stopped in his tracks. “We don’t know what condition the rest of the site is in.”

  “That’s right,” said Dr. Roost. “Craig, run and see if there’s anything left over there. Wave if it’s fine.”

  A shrill whistle pierced the air. The pre-arranged signal warned them of the tour group’s imminent arrival. Daniel rushed off.

  “Watch for Craig’s wave,” Dr. Roost called after him.

  Daniel took off over the rise and met the tour group just on the other side. Jed looked puzzled, but Daniel shook his head slightly so he wouldn’t say anything.

  “Welcome to the quarry,” said Daniel. “As Jed’s probably told you, we’ve made some interesting discoveries here this summer.” He stalled with general comments, watching for Craig. When he spotted the all-clear signal, he continued walking. “This morning we have a special treat for you. You’re going to see a rare find discovered by your guide, Jed.”

  The four adults and two young boys seemed pleased. Jed still looked puzzled.

  “First, if you’d like to step over this way, you’ll get a good view of the valley and quarry before we go down.” He led them to the top of the rise.

  While the group was busy examining the view and snapping pictures, Daniel pulled Jed aside. “I can’t tell you everything right now, but you have to avoid going anywhere near the Stygimoloch site. Keep them busy with the micro and macro sites, and then take them the long way around to your special markings, and back to the farm.”

  “What’s happened?” Jed kept his voice low.

  Daniel pressed Jed’s arm and spoke softly. “The Stygimoloch bones have been stolen.”

  “What?” Jed gasped. “Who could have done such a thing?”

  “I have no idea. We just discovered it.”

  Jed looked shocked.

  “We’ve called Corporal Fraser, but we don’t know when he’ll get here.” Daniel gripped Jed’s arm. “Can you carry on? Pretend everything’s okay?”

  Jed cleared his throat, swallowed hard, and then joined the sightseers. He explained that the different terms used at the site as he led the group towards Craig.

  Who would steal the Stygimoloch and what did they intend on doing with it?

  Daniel stumbled back into the quarry in search of Dr. Roost. She stood guard over the empty Stygimoloch site, looking more upset than ever.

  “Is something else wrong?” Daniel rushed to her side.

  Dr. Roost eyed Daniel for a moment before replying. “No, this is bad enough. I just can’t figure out who would have done it. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Could it be someone trying to get the credit for uncovering something new?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve thought about that, but I can’t see anyone being able to pull it off. You and Ole have documented everything so well, including with photographs, and you’ve shown your findings and pictures to people at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, so it would be exceptionally difficult for anyone to claim the find as theirs. Besides, I don’t think people on the tours realized what they were seeing.”

  “But what other reason could there be?” Daniel heard his voice crack with exasperation.

  “Sabotage!” Dr. Roost looked grim again.

  Daniel gulped.

  Dr. Roost pointed with her cane. “Take a look at those tread marks. No one with any sense or knowledge about paleontology would be so careless with something so valuable.”

  “An ‘outside’ job?” Daniel speculated.

  A smile threatened to crack Dr. Roost’s face.

  “You could say that.”

  “Or maybe it’s an insider, making it look like an outside job.”

  Dr. Roost guffawed at Daniel’s remark. “You’ve been watching too much tv! All this talk about insiders and outside jobs.”

  “Well, it is possible isn’t it?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes, it certainly is!” She pointed to a mound of earth that lay untouched. “But who on the ‘inside’ would do such a thing? We’re all part of the operation. Its success benefits for all of us.”

  “True.” But Daniel’s mind flashed over the trouble he’d had with the Nelwin brothers earlier this summer. They had bullied him and damaged his hideout and the campsite. He shook the thought off. Craig and Todd had worked hard to make things right, and he couldn’t believe either of them would be involved after all his family had done for them.

  Dr. Roost looked at him with curiosity. “You have an idea?”

  Daniel shook his head.

  “And what do you make of that?” Dr. Roost pointed to a section a little farther off where they’d started clearing some debris to expose tiny bones.

  He started to head over to it, but Mildred Roost caught his arm. “Best leave it until after the police have had a chance to look at it and we’ve taken some photographs.”

  Daniel squatted and peered at the mound from a distance. “I think whoever trashed the place just took what was easy. I don’t think they know that they’ll never be able to sell them.”

  “I agree,” said Ole Pederson, coming up behind him. “Even if they eventually found some disreputable group to buy them, it would be years before t
hey could allow them to surface, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Since when did stealing ever make sense?” asked Dr. Roost, snorting. “Is the tour group gone?”

  Pederson nodded. “Thanks for distracting me earlier, Mildred. I’m calmer now.”

  “Action in crisis is always the best,” she answered, lifting her eyebrows. “So how do you think we should proceed once the police have gone?”

  Pederson stood with his hand under his chin, surveying the damage. “Guess that’ll depend on when we get any news about our Stygimoloch. The work on it has been seriously compromised. Who’s to say what condition the bones will be in, when and if we find them?” Pederson sighed and his eyes held a faraway look.

  Everyone stood lost in thought.

  “Well, there’s still Jed’s splendid discovery to finish collecting,” Dr. Roost stated quietly. “Those little markings could be an exceptional find!”

  Pederson gave her a weak smile, but his shoulders drooped and he seemed frailer than Daniel ever remembered him being.

  “We’ll get the fossils back,” Daniel said, patting Mr. Pederson’s hand, but he wasn’t so sure himself.

  Daniel was relieved to hear the sounds of a vehicle coming their way across the pasture. Craig joined them and they all watched in silence as Doug Lindstrom’s old jeep stopped at the top of the hill. Corporal Fraser got out, along with Dad and Doug, and they all came down the steps to the quarry.

  Doug let out a low whistle of disbelief. Dad’s lips clamped tight. Corporal Fraser looked grim as he surveyed the destruction.

  “They were thorough, I will say that for them,” the police officer said.

  Doug shook his head. “Why would anyone...?”

  “Can you think of anyone that might want some kind of revenge?” the corporal asked.

  “Revenge? I can’t imagine why,” Dad said, aghast.

  “Looks like someone doesn’t want to see you succeed,” Corporal Fraser said.

  “But the whole community is supportive. It’s bringing business to the area,” explained Dad.

  “Dr. Roost thinks it’s sabotage too,” Daniel piped up.