Return to Jurassic Park
1: ACQUISITION

August 1989:

While visiting Isla Nublar, an island of dinosaurs also known as Jurassic Park, park owner and wealthy entrepreneur John Hammond is killed. His company InGen goes into limbo with the loss of his resort and the company files for Chapter 11 protection on October 5, 1989. To the public, this is simply just another startup company that went under. After evacuating the survivors, the Costa Rican government sent in military troops to destroy all things living on the island. Among the survivors are Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist, and his companion Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist. They were called by John Hammond from a dig in Montana to check the resort along with John Hammond's grandchildren, Tim and Lex Murphy, and Ian Malcolm, a mathematician specializing in chaos theory who was brought by Donald Gennaro, a lawyer for InGen. For four years after what became known as "The InGen Incident", InGen tried, unsuccessfully, to salvage the park and reopen the resort and fulfill John Hammond's goal of bringing dinosaurs back to the world.

June 1993:

Lewis Dodgson walked into the offices of International Genetics Technology, Inc. The building was a squat five-story building housing the domestic and international offices of InGen. Solid white except for a fat blue stripe circling the top and a large blue InGen logo mounted above the door.

At nine forty-seven at night, the logo was lit, welcoming Dodgson he liked to think. This was a moment Dodgson had dreamed of for more than six years, since he had discovered what his rival John Hammond has been up to since the early eighties.

The inquiries that Hammond had been making into the cloning of reptiles had made some waves in the bioengineering and genetic engineering community. Although cloning was probably ten or fifteen years off, John Hammond seemed to be very adamant about beating everybody else to the punch, and doing it quietly. Just what he was attempting to clone, and why, was a big secret; and everybody that worked for Hammond had signed a nondisclosure agreement. Even people involved in the project, but not directly employed by Hammond or InGen were sworn to secrecy for a period of no less than ten years.

As Dodgson pressed the button and began to wait for the elevator, he remembered what had caught his eye about John Hammond. It was all the super secrecy of the cloning project combined with the fact that it was even being done on an island off the coast of Costa Rica where the old man had supposedly been building a tourist resort.

Dodgson had wondered at the time what cloning reptiles and creating a resort had in common. His first thought was that the resort was a front to cover the research facilities. There were numerous records pertaining to the transfer of computers and other lab equipment to this island. At one point the American government had attempted to intervene on the premise that Hammond was selling the equipment; but as the island was completely owned by InGen, the movement of equipment was classified as a transfer within the company.

It was a little baffling, Dodgson thought as he stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor. Why should any company want to create a resort on a remote island where it would be difficult for people to reach, and make it only a reptile zoo of some sort. So Dodgson began to search for people that worked for InGen, especially ones that might be disgruntled and willing to talk a little about what was going on there.

It was close to two years before InGen finally caught on to Dodgson's plan and threatened legal action against Dodgson and Biosyn if he didn't stay away from InGen employees or if they attempted to access certain records. Hammond's bloodhound lawyers had picked up his trail and had cut him off, but not before he had the one contact he needed.

This contact came in the form of a computer programmer at Cambridge based Integrated Computer Systems. The lead programmer, Dennis Nedry, and Hammond had met for the first time professionally and their dislike for each other stemmed from that moment. Nedry was the best that Hammond could afford and Nedry needed the money, although the prospect of programming for a soon-to-be world-renowned park was a plus for future projects. Nedry had designed the Jurassic Park software from the ground up and knew every in and out.

It was in the spring of '89 that Dodgson had met Nedry for the first time and they had talked about InGen and what was going on at the island. In short, Nedry told Dodgson that what Hammond was really doing was cloning dinosaurs, not reptiles. The resort was built as a tourist attraction so that people could ride through in vehicles and stay overnight, observing the dinos in a somewhat natural habitat.

This information excited Dodgson. Where had Hammond gotten the DNA? And how had he solved the problem of completing the entire DNA strand? Dodgson had to get his hands on the DNA they already had. And then he could build his own theme park. And somewhere more convenient for people to visit. This was every gold mine in the world, and John Hammond had discovered how to tap it. And so, in the summer, Dodgson approached the subject of getting frozen embryos off of the island.

July 1989:

"Absolutely not," was Nedry's reaction. "With all of the security procedures they have in place, it will be impossible. Even if I were to shutdown the entire system and get the embryos out of the lab, the security personnel would catch me before I got out of the building. And then there's the matter of transporting the embryos. I'm no genetic engineer, but I do know they need to remain frozen."

Dodgson smirked at Nedry. "Don't worry about keeping them frozen, I have my guys working on a design. It'll even get past customs agents they tell me."

"Even so, how will I be able to get past security? I can shutdown alarms and deactivate door locks. I can even hide my movements inside the building. But what about the personnel?"

Dodgson was always a quick thinker, and this time was no exception. "Well, if certain major investors got wind that their resort might not be as safe as they are led to believe, they might want to send in people - impartial people, mind you - that would give the resort a fair looking over. Security would be focused on keeping the tourists safe and probably not watching where one of their fellow employees travels to."

Nedry looked impressed. "You can do that?"

"I can do lots of things, my friend."

"I'm not your friend, pal," Nedry said, standing up from the table they were at. "I'll start preparing things on the island. Just make sure you keep your end. And keep supplying me with money."

June 1993:

Dodgson grimaced at the memory of Dennis Nedry. That fat asshole had promised to get him embryos. But the stupid bastard had tried to cut things too close and ended up getting himself killed. Not that it was any great loss, Dodgson thought, but if Nedry had lost the embryos and lived, Dodgson would have killed him.

The elevator made a 'ding' sound and the doors opened to reveal the fifth floor offices, where someone would be waiting for Dodgson. He noted, with some disgust, that it smelled like sex. At a quarter to ten, the building was closed, the secretary's desk now empty. This was the reason that Dodgson and Lee had agreed upon the time. It was perfect for an invisible sale. And the sale of an island didn't exactly go unnoticed in the bureaucratic world of the twentieth century.

Dodgson rapped loudly on the doorframe to an office. The name on the door proclaimed it to be the office of James Lee and below that listed several of his titles within the company.

"Come in."

Dodgson opened the door to the office and saw that Lee was rounding the desk to greet him. Lee was a tall Chinese man with long hair and glasses. As Dodgson looked down to grip the man's hand, his quick eye caught a glimpse of the man's crotch then over at Lee's left hand, checking for the little gold band. His fucking zipper is still half way down, Dodgson thought, and he's married as well. But Dodgson's mind and eyes were so quick that all this happened within a half-second and a blink.

Lee let go and walked over to a minibar. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No, I would just like to get this over with if you don't mind. The sooner I can get out of here, the sooner your secretary can come out of your private bathroom."

Shocked, Lee poured himself a drink then walked over the desk.

"My secretary? What are you talking-?"

"Oh, let's skip the bullshit and get straight to it. I want the island and the sooner you sign it over, the sooner I can leave and the sooner you can get back to fucking your secretary and pretending I didn't arrive early."

------

Ten minutes later, Dodgson walked out of the InGen building with a manila envelope tucked under his arm and a large grin on his face. What would John Hammond say if he knew, Dodgson wondered. The title he now held in his hands assured Dodgson that the entire island of Isla Nublar was his and his alone with all of the property still on the island. Buildings, vehicles, computers, everything. Even the dinosaurs. Now all that remained was to go see what was left. If the reports were true, that wasn't much.