Jurassic Island
Chapter 13 – Never Had Control
Kate followed Muldoon through the door. She squinted and glanced around at all the activity. Computer technicians, all in need of a good shower, were rushing about, hunched over keyboards, or crawling underneath the tables to attempt to rewire the system. The frenetic energy was almost oppressive. She had to heave in a deep breath to avoid getting swept up in it. Kate narrowed her eyes, and marched on behind Muldoon as the Game Warden stalked down the ramp towards the center platform that overlooked the entire control room.
An elderly man with a white beard turned at their approach. He leaned heavily on his cane as he shifted around on his feet to face them.
"Robert… have you seen Dennis?"
Muldoon stopped short and frowned. "No. I haven't seen him."
"Damn," grumbled the older man. He stamped his cane against the floor. He looked down in frustration before looking back up and catching sight of Kate. "And who's this?" he inquired, quirking up an eyebrow.
"Ah," Muldoon stepped aside and gestured towards her. "Mr. Hammond, this is NYPD Detective Kate Beckett."
"Pleasure to meet you," Hammond smiled politely and gripped her hand in a weak handshake. "You're lovely, my dear."
"She and her husband were on the park tour, sir," Muldoon interrupted.
"Oh, my… was anyone hurt?" Hammond asked.
Kate narrowed her eyes, unsure whether the man was genuine in his concern or not. "Yes," she snapped, crossing her arms under her breasts before Muldoon could answer. "One man was killed by your pet T-Rex, another—Todd DiLaurentis—was severely injured, and two young children, along with my husband are now missing."
"Dear me, that is most distressing!" he responded, moving back and collapsing in a nearby chair. He scrubbed his hand up and down his face.
"Distressing!" Kate sneered, close to seething, stalking towards him, tired of this billionaire's bullshit. Muldoon followed behind her, watching her cautiously, but not intervening. "I'd say it is a lot more than distressing, Mr. Hammond."
Hammond glared up at her, clearly offended by her attitude. "What do you expect me to do? As you can see, we're in a crisis."
"You have jeeps and security personnel, lend me some so I can go out and get my husband and those kids back safely."
"I'm sorry," Hammond said, waving off her request. He gripped the amber head of his cane and heaved himself back up to his feet. "But that's out of the question. We need all the security we've got to manage the evacuation. We don't have the men to spare."
"That's bullshit!" Kate growled.
Muldoon took a step forward and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Easy lass," he said. "I hate to say it, but Mr. Hammond's right." Hammond smiled at the support, and Kate's glare intensified. "However," the game warden continued, hardening his voice. "I'm not busy. Once we get the jeep fueled, I'll go with you."
Kate swallowed, glancing between the two men. She could tell she wouldn't get anywhere with Hammond, so she decided to accept Muldoon's offer. She released a breath and inclined her head in the game warden's direction. "Thank you."
Hammond shook his head, clearly unhappy with the bargain, but remained silent, letting it stand. He huffed out a breath and spun around, hobbling down a small set of steps to the lower control room. Muldoon gestured to Kate to follow, and she did.
She stepped down into the corner of the room, seeing a black man hunched over a work terminal with several computers arrayed along the desktop. He had glasses and a thin mustache. A cigarette bobbed in his lips as he mumbled to himself while his fingers punched furiously along the keyboard in front of him. There was an annoying musical taunt coming from one of the computers to the left.
"Ray, will you please switch that off," Hammond grumbled, scowling down at the monitor with a cartoon image of a man dressed in a white Elvis costume waving his finger at them.
The black man rolled his chair over to that computer monitor and punched in a series of buttons along the top of the keyboard. Within moments the control room was returned to silence, saved for the buzz of the bustling staff attempting to regain control of the system. Hammond sighed with a relief, and limped over to another chair, plopping down into it. He pulled a cloth hanky out of his breast pocket and wiped his sweaty brow. Kate ignored the irritating businessman and focused on the computer tech.
"Kate Beckett, this is Ray Arnold," Muldoon introduced them. "He's Chief of Operations."
"Pleasure," Arnold said, nodding in her direction. "Though, I feel more like chief of a shit storm right now than anything else."
"Don't let me interrupt you," Kate said, staring past Arnold and at the mass of incomprehensible commands that scrolled by quickly on the screen. "You're busy enough as it is."
"Don't I know it," mumbled Arnold as he punched in more keystrokes, but nothing changed on the screen, at least from what Kate could tell.
"How you doing?" Muldoon asked. "Are we getting anywhere with these procedures of yours? I mean… what's hanging us up?"
Arnold sighed and ran a hand down his face. He reached around and rubbed the back of his neck as he stretched his back. "I ran a key check on every stroke Nedry entered today. It's all pretty standard stuff, until this one—"
Kate stepped forward, glaring down at the screen, falling back into detective mode. "What one?"
He pointed to the computer monitor, and she narrowed her eyes, examining the specific series of commands Arnold indicated. Kate couldn't really read computer coding, but she'd seen Tory work enough magic to trust Mr. Arnold's assertion that something was wrong. Hammond huffed and pulled himself up from his seat, staggering over to join them. The line of coding read: Keycheck/space -o keycheck off safety -o.
Arnold tapped the screen with his finger, and translated for them. "You see, right here, he's turning the safety systems off," he said. "He doesn't want anybody to see what he's about to do. Now look at this next entry, it's the kicker." Arnold moved his finger to the next series of commands. It read: wht . rbt . obj. "White rabbit object. Whatever it did, it did it all. But with the Keycheck off, the computer didn't file the keystrokes. Only way to find them now is to search the computer's lines of code, one by one."
Kate furrowed her brow, absorbing the information. On their way up to the control room, Muldoon had told her about Dennis Nedry, and how they suspected him of sabotage. Clearly this man was a skilled and highly talented computer programmer. She wasn't surprised he'd then been able to mask his work. Curious, she arched her neck to glance at Arnold, and asked, "How many lines of code are there?"
Arnold took a long puff of his cigarette, before blowing the smoke out against the screen. "Um… about two million."
Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. "Two million!"
Arnold nodded in confirmation. He ran his fingers over his closely cut hair, and turned to look at Hammond. "John. John."
Hammond startled, and pulled his gaze away from the screen to look at Arnold. "Yes, what?"
"I can't get Jurassic Park back online without Dennis Nedry."
Kate watched as Hammond sighed, his shoulders, whole body, sagging with defeat. "Then that's it, then," he said, turning to look at Muldoon. "Robert—perhaps you should escort Miss Beckett to the ferry docks and see that she safely gets on a—"
"It's Detective Beckett," Kate interrupted, glaring at the old man. "And I'm not going anywhere without my husband."
Hammond returned her glare for a long moment before answering. "So be it."
XXX
Castle stood on the concrete platform surrounding the maintenance shed, staring up at the heavens, watching as the clouds slowly parted to reveal the stars above. The moon was large, glowing bright, untouched by the horrors he and the children had witnessed in the last few hours. After finding the raft, it had been decided it would be best to hunker down for the night. Riding down a strong flowing river at night was dangerous at best, foolhardy at worst.
He tried not to think of Beckett, but as with everything that came with his wife, he couldn't help himself. Closing his eyes, he gently brushed his fingers along his lips. It seemed almost impossible, yet they still tingled from their farewell kiss. He could still feel the phantom touch of her fingers caressing his face. Oh, how he wished it could be real and not his imagination. Pursing his lips, Castle made a silent vow to whatever high power that was out there and watching that he would make it back to Kate… no matter what.
The sound of the children bickering pulled him out of his ruminations, and Castle sighed, carding his fingers through his disheveled hair as he returned to the present and turned to walk back inside the concrete bunker. When he stepped through the doorway, he reached up and pulled down the corrugated metal door behind him. He looked for an interior lock, but couldn't find one. He would just have to hope it would have to do. It wasn't like dinosaurs could open doors.
"Dorkatops!" hissed Zoe from deeper in the bunker.
"Straight-A brainiac!" snarled Charlie hollered back.
"Hey now," Castle said, stepping over to their little makeshift camp out. Earlier, he and Zoe had pulled out some tarps and laid them down across the floor, hoping that by layering them they could create a kind of bedding, of sorts. One of the battery power lanterns was sitting off to the side, illuminating the small corner they'd tucked themselves in. Castle dropped down to his knees, and gently nudged the squabbling siblings apart as he turned around and settled down between them. He let out a breath, and leaned back against the cold wall.
"This isn't really comfortable," Charlie complained, sticking out his lower lip on a pout.
Castle grinned, immune to such pleas, having perfected that look years ago. "It's only for one night," he said, squeezing the kid's shoulder sympathetically. "We'll just have to make do."
"Fine, I guess I can rough it for one night," Charlie conceded, settling in alongside him.
To his surprise, both children nestled against him, whether for warmth or security, he couldn't say… maybe even both. Zoe wrapped an arm around his torso and laid her head against his shoulder. The way she squeezed into his side reminded him of when Alexis was younger and needed some reassurance from her daddy. Oh, how he missed those days when it was so easy to soothe his little girl. He let out a sigh and rested his head back against the cool concrete wall, trying to get comfortable.
"You're a writer, right?" Zoe questioned, her voice soft, almost timid.
"Yeah," he answered. "I have over 30 bestsellers to my name. Why?"
Zoe let out a nervous laugh. "Mind writing us a way out of this mess?" she asked.
"I would if I could," he said. "I really would. But don't worry, Zoe, we'll make it back."
"You really think so?" Charlie asked from the other side.
"Yeah," he said, arching his neck to look down at the boy, putting as much conviction into his voice as he could. "I really think so."
"You're what my mom calls an optimist," Zoe said.
"No argument there," he chuckled. "My wife used to joke that that was one of the reasons she put up with me."
"How'd you two meet?" Zoe asked.
Castle pursed his lips; his eyes sparkled with the memory of their first encounter. "That's a long story."
"Well, we're not going anywhere," Zoe pointed out.
"Yeah," yawned Charlie, shifting against Castle's side. "We need something to distract us."
He knitted his eyebrows together, mulling over the idea. "Mmm… okay," Castle agreed. "You're right." He moved his backside a bit, settling in for the night, Zoe shifted closer and Charlie closed his eyes. Castle wetted his lips with a flick of his tongue, and then proceeded to give them a watered down version of his first case with Detective Kate Beckett.
XXX
She wanted nothing more than to rush out there, heedless of any dangers, and find her husband. It had been a while since she'd gone more than a day without seeing his face. And she didn't like it, especially after the summer of lonely nights, missing him, uncertain whether he'd return, even—in her darkest moments—doubting him, falling into the web of distrust and accusation spun by the FBI and media. And when he had finally come back to her, though still wrought with uncertainty and misgivings, Kate had sworn that she would never let him out of her sight for too long, within reason.
Muldoon had seen her pacing in the control room, frustrated and exhausted. After an hour it had become clear to her that they wouldn't be going out again tonight, even if the jeep were fueled and ready. With such fierce predators as the Tyrannosaurus Rex on the loose, they needed the advantage of sunlight to conduct a proper search without worrying about being stalked by the prehistoric killing machine. Kate's logical mind had been forced to agree with the game warden, but her heart pleaded with her to rebel. In the end, her body had betrayed her, screaming out for sustenance and rest. Kate had been forced to concede defeat.
Now she was aimlessly meandering around the cafeteria, walking past the empty buffet lines, almost oblivious to all the food left after the power went out. There was only a handful of staff members present, all of them scarfing down their late night meals as quickly as possible. A man dressed in a blue security uniform rushed past, his radio squawking. From what little she could make out over the radio chatter, it sounded like the evacuation was well under way.
Kate hoped everything went okay. Just before she came down to the cafeteria, she'd talked with one of the jeep drivers, a man named Wallace, and made him promise to ensure that Todd and Sally got on one of the ferries heading for the mainland. It was hoped that when the three ferries currently docked reached the mainland, the crews would be able to send back help.
Turning with her half-empty tray of food, Kate shuffled into the eating area. The lights were off. The only illumination came from the floodlights from outside, running on emergency generators. The Visitor Center was supposedly on a different power system, but it appeared most of the power was centered in the control room. As Kate surveyed the empty tables, all she could think about was how crowded it had been that morning. Her and Castle had spent nearly twenty minutes wandering around until they'd found an empty table.
Off to the side, away from the rest of the staff, Kate spotted the lone figure of John Hammond. The old man was sitting at the head of the table, an array of ice cream cartons fanning out around him. Knitting her eyebrows together, Kate hesitated for but a moment before weaving her way through the empty sea of tables and chairs, approaching the owner of Jurassic Park with only slight hesitation.
Clearing her throat, Beckett inclined her head towards one of the empty chairs at the table. "May I join you?"
Hammond raised an eyebrow in surprise, yet nodded, and with a little wave of his hand, granted her permission to sit. Kate sat down and placed her tray of food before her. She glanced down, and nearly sneered at it. Nothing against the cuisine, she was sure it was excellent. It was just that her stomach was already in knots with worry for Castle that she didn't know if she'd be able to actually eat any of it. She glanced up at the cartons sitting on the table, watching as Hammond dipped his spoon in one.
"They were all melting," he said as way of explanation, catching her glance. He reached over and grabbed another spoon, offering it to her with a friendly smile.
Kate took it with a nod of thanks, and scrapped out some ice cream from a nearby bucket. She brought the spoon to her mouth and was amazed by the richness of the flavor. Hammond must have read her expression, because his smile widened.
"Ha, spared no expense," he said.
"Yeah… I can tell," Kate responded, putting the spoon down and folding her hands together on the table in front of her, as she would in the interrogation room.
"You don't like me much?"
"I don't know you," she offered with a shrug. "But from what I've seen so far, you seem to care more about preserving the reputation of your resort than the lives of its visitors."
"Hey… now that's unfair," Hammond said, jabbing a finger in the air. "I spent considering time and money ensuring that this park would be safe for visitors. My own grandchildren took part in the trial run of the tour. I wouldn't have let them participate if I hadn't thought it was safe."
"What about park employees?" Kate asked, shifting gears. "Muldoon and Mr. Arnold have filled me in on Dennis Nedry. I took the liberty of speaking with some of your other employees—"
"Always the detective."
Kate gave him a tight smile, but continued. "Were you aware of Mr. Nedry's financial issues?"
Hammond reached up to brush back some wisps of white hair from his forehead. "Yes," he answered cautiously, eyeing her warily. "We had several debates on the matter. But I told him what I always told him."
"And what's that?"
"I don't blame people for their mistakes," Hammond recited, "but I do ask that they pay for them."
Kate nodded, narrowing her eyes. "An interesting sentiment coming from the man who's going to be held responsible for every death on this island."
"I didn't shut the power out… Nedry did," Hammond growled, his eyes aflame with indignation. But almost as fast as it rose, the fire faded from his eyes. He slumped back in his chair, looking defeated. "It doesn't matter, does it?"
"No," Kate answered, sympathetically, and actually feeling it. "It doesn't."
Hammond sighed, taking his glasses off to clean them. He blinked several times, and cocked his head, as if staring off into space. "You know the first attraction I ever built when I came down from the south of Scotland? It was a flea circus. Really quite wonderful." His lips tugged up slightly as he retreated into the memory. "We had a wee trapeze, a roundabout—a merry-go—what do you call it?"
"Carousel?"
"A carousel," he nodded. "And a seesaw." Hammond replaced his glasses and smoothed back the wisps of white hair flopping down over his forehead. "They all moved… motorized, of course, but people would swear they could see the fleas. 'I see the fleas, Mummy! Can't you see the fleas?'" he mimicked a child's voice. "Clown fleas, high wire fleas, fleas on parade…" his voice trailed off and he looked down, shoulders slumping.
Kate shifted in her seat, watching, waiting him out.
"But with this place," Hammond looked back up and Kate was startled to see tears in his eyes. "With this place," he repeated. "I… I wanted to show them something real. Something that wasn't an illusion. Something they could see… and touch. I mean, something not devoid of merit."
Kate sighed, resting her elbows on the table as she leaned forward. "But you can't think through this one, Mr. Hammond. You have to feel it."
Hammond squinted, gazing at her for a long moment, before he struck on what he believed she meant. "You're absolutely right," he jabbed the air with a finger. "Yes, you're right. Hiring Nedry was mistake, that's obvious. We're over-dependent on automation. I can see that now. But that's all correctable."
Shaking her head, Kate waved her hand to halt him. "You're still building onto the flea circus, that illusion," she tried to reason with him.
Undeterred, Hammond went on. "Creation. It's an act of sheer will. When we have control again…"
"Control!?" she snapped, stunning him into silence. "You never had control! That's the illusion." Kate pounded her fist down on the table for emphasis. The plate on her tray rattled, and Hammond flinched. But she had his undivided attention. "I was overwhelmed by the power of this place. But I made a mistake too. I didn't have enough respect for that power, and it's out now. You're sitting here trying to pick up the pieces. Mr. Hammond, there's nothing worth picking up. The only thing that matters now are the people we love. My husband is out there right now where people are dying. I don't know where he is, or how he is doing. But I do know he's trying his hardest to survive, to protect the two children he's with. Because that's who he is… that's the kind of man he is. The man I love. And it's eating me upside that I can't be there by his side, you know?"
Kate sniffled, surprised at how emotional she'd become during that little tirade. She wiped at the water in her eyes with the back of her hand, and then shook her head. Grabbing the spoon, Kate stretched out and scooped out some ice cream from a different carton. She tasted it, and smiled sadly, licking the back curve of the spoon.
"It's good," she said.
Hammond stared at her for a long moment, his face was different, as if the unhappy irony of what he was about to say was finally hitting home.
"Spared no expense."