Something was behind her.

  Very slowly, she turned around. She saw nothing. Of course she wouldn’t. Whatever this was had evaded being seen in one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It was stalking its prey. Let’s hope it was stalking the chicken and not the girl in the blue coat.

  Viv took a few big slow steps away from the crate, in whatever direction she guessed was opposite from the clak. She reached her tree, got it between her and the crate. She took out her pepper spray.

  She waited a long minute. Two minutes. The rat inside the crate continued feasting.

  Then something darted inside the crate so fast the crate knocked back a foot.

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  Bingo. Viv ran toward the crate, where something feathered was taking up about as much room as a large dog. It was hunched over the chicken, and probably also the rat. She swung the door closed.

  It banged back open. The latch.

  She swung again, almost closing it this time. She pinched the two small levers in the middle of the latch, placing fingers just by the interior of the crate. That did it: the door locked, and Viv pulled her fingers the hell out of there.

  She backed up a foot or two and looked inside. Couldn’t see much with so little light. Inside was something pheasant-like, not paying attention to the outside world.

  It was … possibly a theropod? Under a lamppost maybe she could tell more. A velociraptor, maybe, or other small species. Most theropods had talons sharp enough to rip out of a plastic crate, but they’d have to be smart enough to hit one section of plastic wall over and over rather than just flail. One advantage of capturing animals with brains the size of Starbursts.

  OK, Viv caught her dinosaur. Or maybe pheasant – it hadn’t been ruled out yet. How this animal got here she didn’t know, might never know.

  New question: how was she getting this animal out of New York?