Jack looked from Dmitry to Yegor. “Yep, that’s what I thought.”

“So, all over pressure good, point-pressure, bad, huh Yegor?” Greg raised his brows.

“That about sums it up,” Jack said, his expression earnest. “We’ve only been down here a few hours, and already come under attack. We survived through quick action and a lot of luck. But we are about to head into the absolute unknown.” He paused, looking along each of their faces. “What happens when we head into the deep canyons? We could be attacked by something a lot bigger and a lot more powerful. Is everyone ready for that?”

Cate swung back around. She knew Jack was right to lay out all the risks, but still, she couldn’t help feeling betrayed. It was like they were suddenly pulling in opposite directions all over again. If they got back to the entry point, and the engineers above ground said they’d need to haul them up for modifications, it’d be weeks or even months before they got back – if they ever got back. After all the cost, time and effort of even getting to this point – fuck that.

“I disagree. I think we’ve just had the worst of what this place can throw at us… and we survived with nothing more than a few bruises. You heard our engineer – no damage.”

“Wait a minute.” Greg’s eyes went from Cate, back to Jack. “What did you mean by something a lot bigger and a lot more powerful?”

“Don’t you dare, Jack.” Cate felt a tension headache coming on.

Jack clasped his fingers together and sat forward, ignoring her. “Depends on when this place was created and isolated from the outside world’s oceans. The things we’ve seen so far are old, damned old, and it makes me think they’ve been locked away in here a lot longer than we anticipated.” His eyes went to Cate as he spoke. “For all we know this biological pocket was created when the super continent, Pangaea, was around. That existed from about three hundred million years ago, and then pulled apart, just under two hundred million years ago.”

He looked down at his shoes momentarily. “And if that was the case, then it might have captured some of the world’s oldest and most powerful predators.”

“Like… what?” Abby’s lips had tightened into a little ring.

Greg reached across to pat her shoulder. “Well, during the cretaceous, about one hundred and fifty million years ago, we saw the rise of the giant marine reptiles.” He shrugged. “There were huge things, called mosasaurs that grew to fifty feet, easy. They were fast, powerful and very aggressive – think giant streamlined alligator. Let’s hope none of those monsters are in here.”

“Oh great.” Abby turned. “Cate, are we going to be okay?”

“I think it’s extremely unlikely anything like that could still exist in here… and I’m not sure campfire horror stories are what’s needed right now. We’re scientists, remember?” Cate’s jaw set. “Most of the ancient life forms we’ve seen to date are relatively small – even the Placoderm. I think a few people just need to stiffen their spine.”