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Episode summary:"When
the fossil of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is found in Nevada with several neat little
holes in its skull, social media and conspiracy sites go wild, proclaiming
Time-Travelers are the cause. Jericho and his team become involved when a
breech in the Time-Line appears some 67 Million Human years ago, originating
from the year 2058. Jericho discovers he has more to worry about than dead
dinosaurs!"
Episode Warnings:
Alcohol – Smoking – Strong language – Violence [including animal killings] – Some mild sexual references – Mild horror.
Author’s notes about this episode:
[1]
This episode is currently one of the author’s favourites!
[2]
The original Title for this episode was: ‘DEAD BLOODY DINOSAURS CAUSE A
CRISIS!’
[3]
This story is based – in part – on a true incident; YES, REALLY! Look up ‘Sue
the T-Rex with holes in her skull’ – really interesting stuff……
[4]
A ‘Jericho Tibbs’ original story.
[5] Illustration is the author’s created sketch of a digitally generated image which was discovered in the Public Domain with NO copyright or artist details. If you know anything about this please contact the author via his website: https://stephenjohnwilliams.blogspot.com
[6] There is NO Alexandra version available.
Episode details:
Concept
date: 7th May 2018
First
published: 25TH May 2022
Status: COMPLETED & PUBLISHED.
Location: BOOK SERIES 5 – EPISODE 7.
Revisions: 2 [Last revised January 2022]
Version:
Final.
Published Episode No. 052
Previous
episode: “The battlefield body
snatchers.”
Next
episode: “The Devil and Reynold
Masters.”
Age
recommendation: 12+
Average
reading time: Approx. 30 Minutes.
Angel-in-charge: Margret
Team
Assigned: Team 74
Human
Time: 2017AD-1448AH
Mission: 3
- 395002 - 5 - 2017
Episode Preview:
Jericho was sprawled on the rear seat reading his mirror; “Our contact there is the senior Palaeontologist professor Edwin Drake from the University of Nevada. He believes we are English Palaeontologist's from London University. Well, I will play that role with you [indicating Own] as my assistant. Alex is the team doctor and Divij is the other Palaeontologist from the University of Delhi. The good professor is expecting us, and our cover profiles have already been uploaded to social media and we appear on our respective Universities websites. All we have to do is wait for Professor Harold Morse to arrive with his assistant and we head north to the fossil site.”
Alex yawned – she couldn’t be bothered to moan, again, about the heat. She was dressed in just a tee-shirt and very short, shorts. “So, basically we leave all the difficult questions about bleeding dead dinosaurs to him and his assistant?” She stretched and stared out the window. Nothing to be seen for miles. Jericho nodded and checked his mirror again. “The media feeding frenzy hasn’t helped our mission, but with a find like this, I’m not surprised it has pulled so much attention. The conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this one.”
Owen chuckled; “Except it’s no bloody theory, is it? That T. Rex was shot three times with a high powered rife. Even a dumb medical student can spot bullet holes when they see them. We know that there was a couple of breaches of the timeline from the year 2058AD, back some sixty-seven million years ago. I guess it’s the same team that tried to steal the bloody Tablet of Creation.” [See episodes: ‘Jericho Tibbs and the Tablet of Creation – Parts 1 & 2’ Series 5 – Episodes 1 & 2.] Jericho nodded and muttered; “Those twats are really becoming a problem and I believe that Angel Margret may order a mission to close down their little time portal for good. It couldn’t come quicker.”
Divij sat arms folded, then turned to Owen; “You did check all the equipment again? Supplies are usually very reliable but regulations state that all equipment issued should be checked by a team member and agreed as correct.” Everyone heard the deep sigh from Alex which spoke volumes about what she thought of the new sergeant assigned to Team 74. Owen managed to restrain a smile and nodded; “All done sarge, logged on my mirror. We have the tents, food rations, plenty of water and two bottles of decent brandy!” It was the sergeant’s turn to sigh.
Jericho pretended to ignore the conversation between his team members and checked his mirror again. He knew full well that both Alex and Owen hadn’t taken to their new sergeant. But Divij was filling big shoes; Sergeant Wilson Franklyn had been promoted to Inspector – and deservedly so – and the pair would probably resent anyone who replaced him. Divij was certainly experienced and knew his job but lacked that little something special; he wasn’t a peoples person, and he really didn’t have a sense of humour. He also didn’t drink alcohol and was – very surprisingly - still a strict vegetarian like he had been when alive.
His insistence that the pair call him sergeant when not actually on missions didn’t help either. The result was that Owen and Alex hardly started a conversation with him when not on a mission. Jericho knew that wouldn’t built an effective, functioning team and could prove a major problem if matters didn’t improve. Then there was the serious problem of Divij’s attitude to Owens’s ‘alter-ego’ Jackie. The sergeant had made his feelings clear on that and they were not pleasant or positive.
Jericho had also made it clear that Owens’s ability to play either sex had greatly improved mission success rates, when such a change was required for operational duties. But the sergeant couldn’t see that and wouldn’t compromise his ‘principles’ on the subject. He thoroughly disapproved of such behaviour and didn’t hide it. But their attention was now drawn to the solitary vehicle approaching from the south on Interstate 95. It was another Range rover – but much older and well used – and it flashed it’s headlamps in greeting. Divij operated the headlamps in reply and said quietly; “Professor Morse I presume.”
The other land rover stopped several yard away and the couple jumped out. The driver was a young woman about Owens’s age and very pretty indeed despite wearing ill fitting dungaree’s and huge boots. The old professor held up a hand and shouted; “Jericho Tibbs as I live and breathe!” Jericho jumped out, followed by the rest of the team, and introduced each in turn with their temporal ranks, which momentarily surprised the team. “Dave Morse is a human agent of mine, as is Cloe, his daughter. You never know when you might need a ruddy good Palaeontologist!” They shook hands all round and it was apparent that Owen and Cloe hit off it: really hit it off!
“Cloe is now my assistant part time, she’s not a Palaeontologist, well, she’s a damn good amateur one. But she’s in her second year of medical school. She will be a surgeon.” The professor smiled with some pride at his own remarks. Jericho jerked a thumb to the smiling Alex. “Well, she’ll get on with our Alex, she’s been a doctor for well over a hundred years.” That made the professor and Cloe laugh. The two women stood chatting as Owen leaned on the land rover with a dopey grin on his face. Professor Morse chuckled; “Well, Jericho, I think your boy likes my girl.” Jericho just smiled and nodded.
The little convoy travelled for about three hours until they saw about twenty vehicles, all scattered about a gateway that declared – on a sign riddled with bullet holes – ‘KING JURGENSENS RANCH: KEEP OUT!’. There was a sheriff’s deputy sitting on the bonnet of his cruiser, manning the gate. Another was sprawled out in the backseat: asleep. The one still awake was fanning himself with his large dark hat and eased off the bonnet as Professor Morse pulled up and shouted over, who he was and who was in the other Land rover. The well overweight patrolman just nodded and consulted the clipboard he had been sitting on. He didn’t smile but waved them through before the press crowd realised what was going on. The two land rovers quickly disappeared down the road and travelled for another twenty minutes before passing under a huge arch decorated with cow horns that also declared: ‘KING JURGENSEN’S RANCH’.
There were three pick-ups and two old army jeeps parked outside the sprawling two story house which boasted a balcony all the way around the house’s font. Alex noticed an elderly woman sitting on a rocker, just over the huge bright green double doors, smoking a cob pipe. Sitting next to her were two Rottweiler dogs with huge black collars on. Owen was to discover they were called; ‘Satan and Old Nick’ and they adored the old lady, who, frankly, was the only one able to actually control them. Owen also noticed a car that stood out amongst the others, a bright red, soft top BMW worth a small fortune. The registration plate said: ‘REPORT 01’ and was registered in Washington State.
Jericho groaned; “For fuck sake, Benny – I’m as bent as a brass dollar – Burchill is here. How the hell did he get past the police roadblock? He would expose his own mother for swearing in her sleep, if there was money or a Booker Prize at stake!” Owen chuckled; “Nice honest reporter, is he?” Jericho shook his head; “Don’t engage him in any sort of conversation and I really mean ANY type of conversation. He’ll twist your words to make a headline story – and money obviously – then hide behind the Journalist code of protecting so called ‘sources’ when it turns out to be bollocks. ‘Oh, I’m not responsible if my sources got it wrong, I just wrote what they told me!’ is he’s usual defence when caught out. In nine cases out of bloody ten: he was his own source! Slippery as a snake-oil salesman dipped in butter. Don’t trust anything he says or promises.”
Divij muttered; “Duly noted.” Jericho turned to Alex and didn’t smile; “He is also a ‘poon hound’ and will relentlessly pursue a woman until she takes out a restraining order against him. He’s a real work of art and I have a feeling that he might be on the Dark Prince’s most wanted to recruit list.” Alex smiled; “Thanks for the heads-up Jericho.” She turned to Owen and slapped his arm: “I hope our Jackie has taken that on board!” Owen just giggled and nodded. They both heard Divij sigh and stare out of the dirty windscreen. It’s not known if he caught the pair sticking up their fingers in the interior mirror. But Jericho noted it and gently shook his head.
A big man in dirty jeans, but clean checked shirt was standing in the doorway of the house, an equally big white hat pushed back. Everyone saw he had a semi-automatic pistol stuck down his belt, which was struggling to hold back his apparently expanding belly. Stuck in his mouth was a cigar the size of someone’s foot. “Now that’s a coronary waiting to happen, if ever I saw one.” Alex offered her immediate medical opinion on King John Jorgensen IV, the owner of this sprawling ranch which contained the ‘dig’ site that the Palaeontologist's were so excited about. He had only allowed them on site after losing a court battle with the State’s Attorney General about access rights for government funded scientific bodies.
He was just as popular with the local Native American’s who called him by an Indian name which had been created to describe ‘smallpox’. He’s great grandfather – the founder of this little dirt empire – was even more unpopular despite being dead and buried. He had, back in late 1910, driven a herd of cattle straight over their sacred burial grounds. That little incident had ended up in four dead and nine wounded. The local papers backed King John Jorgensen I and called it the ‘last battle of the Great Plains War’. What the natives called it wasn’t reported. Now just an uneasy ‘truce’ existed. The Juergensen family and their loyal employee’s didn’t stray onto Indian land and the natives kept off theirs. It seemed to work, so far.
End of Preview.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
“All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.”
CAUTION:
“SOME OF THESE EPISODES CONTAIN VERY STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, HORROR AND SEXUAL REFERENCES. Some are RECOMMENDED suitable for persons aged 15+ years only.”
THE AUTHOR.
Copyright © 2011-2025 Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without permission.