FOURTH FRACTION
Isla Nublar...Site A
"Are you sure?" Asked Ellie uncertainly. Grant nodded slowly, his face ashen with worry.
"Something is going on here," Grant said under his breath. "I don't like it." Ellie looked at Henderson and Malcolm's jeep, parked just a little further ahead. Then she turned back to Grant.
"Do you think Malcolm knows?" Grant thought about this for a few seconds then shook his head.
"He would have said something-"
"This is Ian Malcolm we're talking about," Ellie cut across. "Who knows what goes on inside his head!" Grant's lips curled into a small smile. "What about Henderson," Ellie pressed on, lowering her voice as they drew closer to the other jeep. "Do you trust him?" Grant brought the jeep to a stop, the wheels squelching in the damp mud. He checked over his shoulder, making sure that Henderson was out of earshot.
"He's up to something. I don't know what but I'm curious."
"I don't trust him," Ellie murmured fiercely.
"I never said I did," Grant replied with a piercing stare at Henderson who was ushering them to join him. "I suppose we'd better go," Grant said looking up in mild awe at the impressive building Henderson was standing in front of. The building was huge and spacious and the white marble sparkled and glittered in the sunlight.
"Well, that wasn't there last time," muttered Ellie. Grant stifled a laugh.
Henderson seemed beside himself with glee as he threw open the doors to the huge marble complex. As they stepped inside, the atrium became illuminated by rows and rows of fluorescent lighting. Malcolm whistled in mock appreciation as he stared around at the circular walls, each complimented by a gigantic plaque engraved with a different dinosaur skeleton. Henderson strode across quickly to stand in the centre of the room. He threw out his arms magnificently and took a sharp intake of breath.
"Dr. Malcolm, Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler it is with great pleasure and pride that I welcome you all to MutaGen Industries...Nublar." Grant and Ellie studied Malcolm closely to see his reaction to Henderson's revelation of their true location. They realised the moment they looked that he hadn't known at all. Henderson was eyeing them carefully, looking from one to the other. It was Malcolm who spoke first.
"This is Isla Nublar?" Henderson nodded. "The Isla Nublar? The one the Costa Rican government napalmed?" Malcolm made a noise that sounded like a cross between a whistle and a whoop. "I've got to hand it to you, you've really done it now!" Henderson shot him a warning look that Grant saw.
"What do you mean?" Grant said sharply at Malcolm.
"Haven't you worked it out yet Alan?" Malcolm said with an eager glint in his dark eyes.
"Worked out what?" replied Ellie, her eyes fixed upon Henderson who looked increasingly more anxious with every word that Malcolm uttered. He was desperately trying to get Malcolm to stop talking but the more he protested the more suspicious Grant and Ellie were becoming.
"Remember the last time a genetics company came here?" Comprehension was beginning to dawn inside Grant's mind.
"You're kidding me!" He growled.
"Bingo," said Malcolm. Henderson was at that moment saved by a timely buzz on his mobile phone.
MutaGen Industries Island Control Room
Daniel Peterson sat at his desk silently overseeing the events in the atrium below. He was a tall, muscular and stern looking man; forty-six years of age with a short military style haircut. A former US Army Sergeant, Peterson had been approached by Henderson three years ago with a lucrative offer to head security on a small Costa Rican island. Peterson had leapt at the opportunity and for the last three years he had been overseeing the security of the island whilst Henderson's scientists got on with their business. At first, he had had little idea of what Henderson was really trying to achieve and to tell the truth he had seldom cared. But as more and more time passed, Peterson found himself questioning the public face of the company until one day he confronted Henderson.
One Year Ago
"What's really going on here Henderson?" Peterson shouted through gritted teeth as his eyes scanned through a list of the company's expenditure. Several items had jumped out of him as being particularly strange and he wondered why a biotech company could possibly need such things. "Electric fences to cover every perimeter of the island, that I can understand but 20,000 volts? Who needs that kind of power?" Henderson surveyed the apoplectic man with curious fascination. He admired Peterson's tenacity and attention to detail; it had been one of the main reasons he'd sought him out.
"Peterson...Daniel. Have I ever lied to you about what I'm doing here?" Henderson asked, smiling sweetly. Peterson thought about this for a second, it was true that Henderson had never lied to him but at the same time he'd never said anything either.
"Why can't you tell me then?"
"Can you promise not to tell anyone, not even your family?" Henderson asked softly. In truth, he had decided a week ago that it was time for Peterson to know the truth as progress steadily rattled on to stage three of the process. Peterson nodded. "You ask me why we need 20,000 volt electric fences, correct?"
"Yes."
"The answer is simple. Dinosaurs." Peterson's eyes widened in shock and confusion.
"D...dino...whatsits?"
"We're cloning dinosaurs," Henderson said with glee. "Properly," he added as an afterthought. He saw that Peterson was still perplexed by the whole situation. "Do you remember a biotech company called InGen?" Peterson shook his head. Henderson laughed. "Not many people do, the Costa Rican government kept it all hush hush," he turned to gaze out of the control room window in to the bright sunshine of the island. "Such a beautiful place," he murmured distractedly. "InGen was owned by a bizarre little man, John Hammond. He had a dream and in the late 80s his dream was realised."
"What dream?" Peterson asked.
"They successfully cloned a dinosaur back from extinction. It was the greatest scientific advancement in human history."
"What happened then?"
"Oh Hammond envisaged a glorious theme park on this island, invited some experts over for a weekend to check it out and the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster. The dinosaurs escaped, half the workers were killed and the Costa Rican government took the decision to napalm the whole lot. InGen went into administration and poor old John Hammond was ousted from the company." Peterson nodded blindly at Henderson's ramblings.
"So why are you cloning dinosaurs?"
"To save the world."
Present Day
Peterson thought back to that day and over the year that followed, Henderson had indeed seemed preoccupied by a desire to save the world. The dinosaurs were just a tiny part of his grand plans. He couldn't help feeling uneasy though. The pay was good and it had allowed his family to live comfortably but Peterson had read up on the 'InGen Disaster.' That in turn had led him to the 'San Diego Accident.' It seemed that wherever these dinosaurs had been concerned, death and destruction had followed in their wake. He sighed. Perhaps he was over thinking it all, in any case he trusted Henderson. He took a deep sip of coffee and returned to the monitors. Henderson and his guests had left the atrium now and were making their way to the laboratory.
MutaGen Industries Island Laboratory
Henderson felt apprehensive as he pushed open the door to the laboratory. But then, he thought to himself, Grant had worked out the truth and he was still complying...maybe there wasn't anything to worry about? He glanced up at Grant but the palaeontologist's face was impossible to read. Malcolm had returned to his usual self and Ellie was deliberately avoiding his gaze. Henderson shrugged and ushered them into the lab. Ellie, Grant and Malcolm gazed around the impressive glass room with looks of amazement etched across their faces. They all remembered the groundbreaking technology of InGen but this was something else. This was without precedence; utterly unbelievable. Their awestruck looks went unnoticed by the twenty or so scientists and assistants that busied themselves around the lab, from incubating dinosaur eggs to nursing the recently hatched babies. Grant's eye fell upon a scientist injecting one of the eggs with a peculiar kind of glowing liquid.
"What's he doing?" he asked Henderson slowly, watching as the scientist removed the needle and discarded it into the bin.
"He's altering the chemical makeup of the dinosaur," Malcolm murmured.
"To what end?" Grant replied slowly, his eyes still fixed upon the scientist.
"This is what we're doing here Dr. Grant," Henderson said. "We're trying to save the human race."
"Does it hurt the dinosaurs in any way?" Ellie asked concernedly. Henderson laughed.
"Oh no not at all! If it did, I assure you I wouldn't allow it. No, all it does is allow the compound to incubate with the embryo and after the dinosaur itself hatches. We then monitor its progress in the reserve and once it reaches full grown adulthood, we send a team out into the wild to take a sample of its blood." They all watched Henderson curiously as he finally explained the true purpose of what was going on. "The blood sample is then taken back to the lab where we test it to see if the compound has successfully reacted in the way we hope."
"Have you been successful yet?" Malcolm asked curiously.
"Just the once," Henderson admitted solemnly. "But it wasn't enough to get excited about." Grant looked pensively at the rows and rows of dinosaur eggs. He felt reminded of a life he thought he'd left behind years ago. To be suddenly thrust into the centre of it all again scared him, it really did. He thought he recognised some of the eggs and it made him feel particularly uneasy.
"Show me the list of dinosaurs you've created," Grant said suddenly. "I need to see."
"We'll have to go to the control room then," Henderson said resignedly. He had hoped to remain in the laboratory a little while longer but his main priority right now was keeping those three happy, especially Dr. Grant. "Follow me."
MutaGen Industries Island Control Room
They traipsed into the control room led by Henderson who was greeted with much enthusiasm by Peterson and the other employees. Henderson's mood was lifted by the jovial attitude of his colleagues.
"Timothy, I need you to punch up a list of all the dinosaurs we've got on the island," Henderson said to Timothy Smith, a tiny young man no more than twenty-five with long scraggly hair. Smith clicked his fingers roughly and began to tap a list of codes into the touch screen monitor. Moments later the screen flashed and a table appeared in bold letters.
Species Expected Quantity Found QuantityBrachiosaurus
8
8
Apatosaurus
6
6
Stegosaurus
10
10
Triceratops
15
15
Pterodactyl
24
24
Velociraptor
4
4
Tyrannosaurus
1
1
Spinosaurus
1
1
Procompsognathus
34
34
Diplodocus
7
7
Maiasaura
3
3
Hadrosaurus
46
46
Unknown Species
1
1
Total
160
160
Grant looked at the table and dismay fell across his face as he read the names of the species.
"You bred raptors? Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus?" Henderson shrugged. "Are they allowed to roam free and intermingle?"
"Of course not!" Smith interrupted. "We have enclosures for each of the twelve species on this island."
"Twelve?" Asked Ellie. "This table shows thirteen. What's that one?" She pointed towards the last name on the list, Unknown Species. Smith wasn't quick enough to disguise his look of confusion.
"Probably just a system malfunction," he said with little conviction in his voice. Malcolm laughed.
"So I've been wondering," Malcolm said without warning. "InGen used frog DNA to complete the code, how did you manage it?" Henderson didn't answer.
"Tell me you didn't," Grant said with an unmistakeable tone of exasperation. "Please tell me you didn't do what I think you have." Malcolm's eyes fell upon an unmanned monitor in the corner of the room; the screen just bright enough for him to make out a few details.
"They did." He said softly. Grant smacked his right hand down on the desk agitatedly.
"Damn!"
TO BE CONTINUED
"The instability of the science will become evidenced through the unexplained alterations in the natural ecosystem..." - Ian Malcolm
