Chapter 10

Departure

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Mainland-Costa Rica Docks

GregGanwickstood with his back against the wall of the small ship, his patients waning. Dodgson's contact was suppose to have arrived by now.

He adjusted his glasses again and checked his watch. It was 5:56 but waiting was over!

He had Eddie and his team pack-up and get on board of the boat that would take them to Site B. The captain would not take-off unless the money was given to him, of course.

Eddie, Rita, and Hector stayed inside the cabin to wait for the boat to leave. When they had agreed to join Greg to Site B, they thought it was a chance to earn some real money. Some of it for educational institution and some of it for personal gain. Hector was the one who wanted the money for his own personal gain.

Hector Delgado had it rough the last few summers after school ended. He knew that he was overweight and a bit sloppy and meek, but he was quite intelligent and knew a little about weaponry. Because of his sloppiness in high-school, he was very much disliked by other students. Except for Eddie and Rita who stuck by him whenever they could.

After this trip to Site B, he would have enough money to make to a privet college.

Rita was no different. She had fallen onto hard-times, too. School had not been good this year. The tests were getting harder, the days in the summer were longer, and all that added up on Rita's bad attitude toward her peers, who now thought that she was trouble.

Her mother, who worked as a preschool caretaker, worried that her daughter would never amount to anything. Because of her fiery nature and bad attitude toward her teachers and the principles at Waller Junior High school , she almost failed. That was until Josiah came and bailed her out. He spoke on her behalf and stood up for her, saying that it would never happen again. This act of compassion caused Rita to become romantically involved with him and the two started to date. There was only one problem; Josiah was 23 and Rita was 18. So, it was a semi-relationship. But still, Rita and him had stayed friends and they both cherished it.

And now she had a chance to set things right with her mother. If she could help Greg and this Dodgson guy get what's ever on the Site B island, she would have enough money to get into collage. And since she had been in the cub scouts for girls and summer camp, she could handle the wild.

Eddie was also doing this for money, but not because he wanted to get into collage. He figured that since his ex-friend, Eric Kirby, had become famous, he would be setup for life. Eddie had become jealous of his former friend, even though Eric had sworn not to talk about his eight weeks stay on the island. Eddie knew it was because Eric and his folks had signed a written agreement that profoundly prohibited them from telling anybody about what they saw on the island. But all Eddie thought was that Eric was just being self-centered.

It was true that he and Eric got into trouble sometimes and that he himself ended up in juvenile hall for it, but why did Eric get off so easily? It wasn't fair that he wound up in Juvenile hall and Eric was let-off with a warning from the police.

After his time in juvenile hall, Eddie returned to high-school where his older peers kept their distance away from him. They didn't want to have anything to do with a delinquent. This hurt Eddie a lot and when Eric had returned from his 8 week survival on one of the Jurassic park islands, the thirteen year old had become a junior high school celebrity overnight. Students of every age, be it at lunch or after school, would flock from all around and bombard Eric with questions about his experience and survival on Isla Sorna. Eddie was always shunted to one side whenever people saw Eric in the hallways, and he was able to put up with it for a while, and he never complained about it, but now he was pissed off.

At one time, Eric tried to confront Eddie about his issues about him being jealous in school. Eddie had shot back that Eric only cared about being a celebrity and that he didn't want to be seen with a delinquent who just got out of juvenile hall because it would make him look bad. Eric was hurt by that statement and tried to truthfully argue back that he did not want the fame or glory of being a survivor on Site B, and that he only wanted a normal life. It wasn't his fault that people hounded him in school for autographs and questions. He didn't like it ether.

But Eddie was not convinced. When Eric had been on TV on Oprah and Good Morning America, that only confirmed that he was enjoying the attention. Eddie felt that Eric was milking this new lifestyle of his for all it's worth. Eddie also thought that if Eric ever got a speck of dirt on his pants, people would dry clean him if it would make him look good for the cameras.

Eric had had enough of Eddie's accusations and a fissure had fragmented between the two friends. During that time Eddie had acquired some new friends. Hector Delgado and Rita Clarence.

Now that he was down here in Costa Rica with his friends, it was time to get rich.

Another minute later, the contact had arrived at the docks. Greg, of course, blew up in the guy's face. The argument went on for another minute before Greg was able to finally pay the man for his troubles.

The engines came to life a minute later and the contact, who's name was Eugene Snakely, backed the boat up out of the docks and onto the darkening ocean.

From here, it would be 207 miles to Isla Sorna. An easy departure from the docks to the ocean, and then onto the island. Greg hoped that the security around the island had weakened. If it was possible, they wouldn't be spotted by any of the patrol boats.

It was bad enough that the jeep that was brought along with them took up much of boat's cargo space, but now he had to bring these damned kids with him.

But they were expendable. He would not need them for long.