As always, thanks to Elise-Collier for all her support and beta help. She's become an integral part of my writing process.

Chapter 13

Claire and Owen darted out of the third building as fast as they could without drawing attention. With a watchful eye on the guard house, they stuck by the three buildings until they were close to Lowery's hiding spot. They then sprinted over, quickly ducking down behind the cover. Claire collapsed onto the ground next to Lowery, while Owen peered over the edges, confirming that no one had spotted them and was now headed their way.

Once he was satisfied that they had managed to stay undetected, he turned around and sat down as well, pulling his backpack towards him and digging around for a bottle of water. He nodded at the radio, "Get Zia."

"Hey," Zia replied quickly to the summons. "The guy is still slowly moving along the paddocks feeding. I might have to go abruptly when he gets closer."

"No problem," Lowery said.

"Any problems getting back out?" Zia asked.

"Nope," Claire answered. "Everyone seems pretty focused on their own jobs and not worried about even the possibility of visitors. My guess is the guard is really there to keep an eye out for any of the loose dinos on the island."

"Yeah, I'd buy that," Lowery nodded. "I've been trying to keep a bit of an eye on him while you guys were in there and he's barely moved. I'm not sure he's even really watching the security feeds."

"Well, that works in our favour," Owen shrugged.

"So?" Zia asked. "What happened? What did you learn?"

"There appears to be two different things going on here," Owen started.

"It's Mills!" Claire interrupted angrily. "It was a lie! It was all a lie!"

Owen just looked at her, raising an eyebrow, before saying calmly, "Well… yeah."

"I can't believe it!" Claire continued. "Okay, I can, but that doesn't make me any less angry."

"Wait, Eli Mills? The guy you had a meeting with at Lockwood's place?" Lowery clarified.

"Yeah, him," Claire spit out. "Wu was on the phone talking to him. They're making a custom dinosaur again."

"Another hybrid?" Lowery was shocked. "But why? Didn't they learn anything from Jurassic World?"

"Oh, they learned," Owen groaned. "Just not the lesson we had hoped for. They've already got a name for it – the Indoraptor."

"Indo– like the Indominus?" Zia questioned.

"Maybe," Owen shrugged. "I think this one is going to be a whole lot more raptor though. Because they were talking about Blue. About this dinosaur needing a genetic link and a mother."

"A mother?" Lowery was confused. "Why?"

"They have my training videos," Owen sighed. "I talk a lot in the videos about the differences between Blue and the others. About how Blue is curious and hyper-intelligent. How she displays empathy. That Blue is the key and that if you have Blue, you can get the raptors to do anything."

"Well, that explains why they weren't all that hard to convince to take me with them," Zia said. "I mean, they don't seem to have anyone here with medical knowledge. The closest is probably Wu, and he's…"

"PhD not MD," Claire agreed.

"DVM, actually," Zia inserted. "But yeah, even an MD would be better."

"I thought you had a PhD?" Lowery jutted in.

"I do," Zia said. "I'm essentially a doctor squared."

Owen interrupted Lowery before he could retort. "That's great and all, but it doesn't help our current situation."

"Well, what do you want me to do? Kill Blue so she can't be a mother?" Zia said.

"Wait, what?" Owen was shocked. "No. No, don't kill her!"

"I wasn't going to," Zia said, and they could all briefly hear Blue chittering through the radio. "It was a joke. Besides, it's not like I have a gun or anything. Blue would kill me before I could even lay a hand on her. But, we do need a plan."

"I thought you said there were two things going on," Lowery inserted. "I mean, not that hybrid dinos aren't bad enough, but, well, do I even want to know what else?"

"Trophy hunting," Claire answered again before Owen could say anything. "The bald guy, Wheatley, looks to be setting up the island to be a very exclusive and expensive trophy hunting locale."

"What!?" Zia's response was loud, and almost immediately after they could hear her talking to someone. They couldn't make out the other's voice, but they could still hear Zia clearly. "What? You don't ever talk to yourself out loud? Hey, and when are you bringing food for Blue. I've been in here all day and you haven't given her anything. Can't you tell she's malnourished?"

The three sat quietly, not wanting to say anything and give away Zia's radio. They could hear what sounded like Zia pacing the cage along with a few trills and chitters from Blue. A minute passed, and then Zia hissed into the radio, "He's gone to get her food. I'm going to need a few minutes. I'll radio when he's gone."

"Okay," Owen agreed quickly, and then he put the radio down. He started digging around in his bag again. "I could eat, too," he said as he pulled out a Power Bar. Claire and Lowery both copied his actions, looking into their own bags for a snack. They sat there quietly munching away, waiting for Zia.

Claire was just putting away her empty wrapper when Zia came back on. "I've got good news," she started. "This guy obviously doesn't seem to get I'm not here of my own free will. He didn't block my view when he put in the code for the outside gate."

"That is good news. And one less problem," Owen nodded. "How's Blue doing?"

"Eating like she hasn't eaten in weeks," Zia replied, there was a slight hesitation before she added. "What are we going to do about her? We can't leave her here. Not to be used as a mother to some hybrid disaster or to be an elusive trophy for someone with more money than brains."

"What are we going to do period?" Lowery stated. "There's only four of us and like 30 of them."

"Not 30," Claire disagreed, rolling her eyes at Lowery's exaggeration. "But yeah, we do need a plan. I don't know how we could take Blue with us. And even if we did, where would we take her?"

"Nublar?" Lowery offered.

"She wasn't thriving there," Owen reminded him. "I don't have an answer about Blue, not yet. But, even though I hate to say it, I don't think she's our first concern. We need to shut this whole thing down. If we can do that, then maybe the DPG can sort out what to do with Blue and the others."

"How do you suggest we stop them? Who do you even call about something like this?" Claire asked, voice starting to quaver from panic. It was supposed to be an in and out mission. They were going to turn on some cameras, hopefully figure out from some snooping around on the computers what was going on, and then go home. They were not supposed to be on a different island dealing with Wu and hybrid dinosaurs again.

"I think we need to focus on two things," Owen answered slowly. "If we can slow them down and buy ourselves time, we can figure out the rest of it. Wu's here. You've been saying ever since he disappeared that he must be still working for InGen, right?" Owen looked at Claire for confirmation.

"Yeah, he's got to have someone funding what he's doing. And I don't think InGen would be protecting him if they weren't getting something out of this still, but–" Claire cut herself off, debating something. She sighed and then finished. "I'm still not quite clear on the Mills connection. I mean, Lockwood and Hammond were partners at one point, but they split years and years ago."

"But Wu's been there from the start," Lowery spoke up. "I mean, I think he's been involved since the first recreated dinosaur. So he would know Lockwood. And Hammond's been dead for almost two decades now. There would be nothing to prevent Wu from reaching out to Lockwood."

"Yeah, but I don't think Lockwood would agree to any of this," Claire shook her head. "It's not just that he's old and doesn't need the money, but when I saw him, he was talking about redemption. Like he was trying to fix old mistakes. And this," Claire gestured around them, "this is not fixing old mistakes. This is making new ones."

"But Mills is in charge of spending his fortune," Zia reminded them. "Wu doesn't need Lockwood. He just needs Mills."

"An 'idealist,'" Claire groaned, shaking her head. "But yeah, that makes sense. And InGen didn't get away scot-free from the fallout. They took a pretty substantial financial hit. They could've been looking for a new investor."

"But why make a hybrid dinosaur?" Lowery asked. "I mean, the trophy hunting I can at least understand. I don't agree with it, but I get it. But I don't understand hybrid dinosaurs. Shouldn't that be a failed experiment relegated to the dregs of history now?"

"I wish," Owen nodded. "But, even back on Jurassic World, IBRIS always had a military connection. And if you're looking at dinosaurs from a military perspective, the Indominus didn't fail. I'm not saying it was a complete success, but they did make something that turned out to be really hard to kill. Exactly what you'd want in a military weapon. Combine that with the IBRIS research, and you've got a clear path to follow to make a militarized dinosaur that can follow directions. I showed them the way." He looked away from the other two briefly, wringing his hands. "This one's all on me."

"That's not true," Claire said softly, laying a hand on his arm, getting his attention as his gaze met hers. "If Jurassic World isn't all on me, you can't take this on." She squeezed lightly, and after a moment he nodded. They both knew that wasn't going to end the guilt, but there wasn't time to focus on it now.

"Backing up," Zia said, breaking the silence that had descended over the group. "You said two things. Slowing them down and what?"

"Slowing them down and gathering evidence," Owen answered. "We can't stop them. Not just the four of us. But we can do some selective sabotage to buy us time to find the right people who can. We'll just need evidence of what's going on here. No one's just going to take our word for it."

"Don't forget everything we're doing right now is also illegal," Lowery muttered.

"Right," Owen agreed. "And since we don't want to just end up in jail ourselves, we need clear and convincing evidence on others so the authorities aren't focused on us."

"Video is probably best," Claire said, her mind already at work. "People can fake anything these days, but video is still the hardest. And if we show ourselves in it too, that will help. If we can get some of the actual docs, not just photos, that would also be good..."

"Sabotage is all well and good, but aren't we stuck here?" Zia asked. "Actually, how did you guys get here?"

"We've got a boat," Owen dismissed her concerns. "If we can get out of this compound, getting off the island won't be a problem."

"We're going to need a distraction," Lowery inserted. "When we're done – something that will get the guard away from the gate so we can get out."

"I know what we should do," Claire said with a quick smile. "We should let Stiggy out."

"Stiggy?" Zia asked. "Who's Stiggy?"

"Well, I suppose it might not be Stiggy they captured but a different Stiglymoch," Claire said. "If they are even slightly agitated, they can be pretty destructive running around, what with that head they have."

"That could work," Owen nodded. "But, that probably means sacrificing the dinosaur. I'm not sure how long they'll stick to non-lethals."

"Oh," Claire's smile dropped. "Let's figure something else out then."

"We could probably set a fire in one of the labs or something," Lowery suggested. "Anywhere really. Smoke always gets people running."

"I think we'll need to play it a bit by ear," Owen tried to move the discussion forward. "See where people are and what we manage to do. We can't do much right now anyway. Not when everyone's up and about. They'll catch on too quickly. And we're really lucky that we haven't been spotted yet. We're probably going to need to wait until it's dark. We need access to both buildings two and three, which is where everyone is right now."

"But, if we want video of the caged dinosaurs we should be getting that now," Claire pointed out, looking around. "We're going to be using phones and we want people to actually be able to tell they're looking at dinosaurs. If we wait until tonight they'll just be dark blobs in a dark space."

"Heads up, the guy is done with feeding," Zia informed them. "He looks like he's heading back around the buildings."

Claire peeked over the edge just as the guy was coming around the building. She immediately dropped back down out of sight and nodded to the other two that she'd seen him. They waited a couple of minutes and when she peeked over the top again she saw him disappearing into the second building.

"Okay, he's inside," Claire let Zia know. "If we're going to get some video, now is probably our time to do so." She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, powering it on. "I can go get it."

"No!" Owen shook his head, reaching for her phone. "I'll do it."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking videos on my phone," Claire pulled the phone from his grasp.

"And what are you going to do if someone sees you?" Owen reached for it again.

"What are you going to do?" Claire shot back. "Either of us get caught and we're screwed."

"I can do it," Zia suggested. "I know the code, I can get out."

"They didn't take your phone?" Claire asked, surprised.

"Ugh, forgot about that," Zia groaned. "Yeah, they took it."

"I'll get it, it won't take long," Claire repeated. She turned to look at Owen, who was ready to argue again. "Besides, it's my phone."

"Well, I could just take Lowery's tablet," Owen said, reaching for it as he spoke. Lowery quickly pulled it in to his chest, hugging it tightly.

"Hey, leave me out of this," Lowery shook his head at the others.

"I'm going," Claire stated firmly, picking up the radio that she and Owen had shared. "We need this video – it can't be like that bear we saw."

"You saw a bear?" Lowery asked, confused. "Here?"

"Not here," Claire rolled her eyes. "Like a year and a half ago on a hike. I'd love to show you. Owen here," she gestured towards him, "said he got it all on video. But, when we went to watch it, what did we find?" She looked at Owen, but he refused to answer, looking away from her gaze. "Oh, that's right. Nothing." She turned to Lowery and shrugged. "We agreed afterwards that I'd be in charge of photos and videos."

"I don't think that agreement extends to here," Owen muttered, annoyed.

"Too late," Claire said, before sprinting to the corner of the nearest building, and then disappearing around it.

She wasn't gone long. She took one continuous video. She started by filming herself, explaining that she was on Isla Sorna after they had discovered Dr. Henry Wu and others were poaching dinosaurs from Nublar. She glossed over how they discovered that. She then went from paddock to paddock, explaining what dinosaur was inside and getting a few seconds of video of it, before moving on. At Blue's paddock, she had Zia talk to the camera about how Blue had been shot and she was helping to take care of her. Zia also mentioned that Blue was malnourished, which was evidence that not all of the dinosaurs were thriving on their own.

After Claire had finished her video, she stopped by to talk to Zia once more, to make sure that her friend really was okay and check on her to see if she needed anything. She'd brought along an extra protein bar with her, in case Zia didn't have food, but they had left her snacks alone. She didn't stay long, knowing that every moment she was out there increased her chances of getting caught. She said a quick goodbye to Zia (and gave a wave at Blue, who had been watching the two) and headed back to the others.

By the time the sun was disappearing below the horizon, Claire, Owen and Lowery were all getting anxious. All of them desperately wanted to stand up and get out of their small hiding spot. They had been trying to figure out when would be the best time for Zia to leave her "cage." She'd been still hanging out there, because they knew that the moment she was out and someone went to check on the animals, people would be looking for them. (Well, not all of them, but they didn't need people looking for anyone.)

They'd been periodically trying to track everyone's whereabouts, but it was difficult as they couldn't keep watch on all three buildings, not without giving themselves away. So far, they had watched as the guard had been swapped out by one of the men who had gone on the supply run. As darkness started to settle over the compound, they started to hear voices, and watched as the scientists started to leave the third building, heading towards the second one, likely sorting out dinner. Most of the men from the supply run seemed to have spent the afternoon in that center building, and about an hour later, they watched as people start trickling towards the first building, likely going to hang out in the lounge.

They waited another hour, until it was after nine and they hadn't seen any movement (and couldn't, from their hiding spot, tell that any lights remained on in buildings two and three), before making their move. They knew they needed to work fast, to minimize the chances that they were discovered. Earlier, they had decided to split into two teams. Zia and Lowery were going to go into building two and take pictures and video of the trophy-hunting, while Claire and Owen were going to go straight to building three to start the sabotage. They hadn't been able to come up with a good plan on how to sabotage the trophy-hunting, except to expose it. But the lab would provide lots of opportunities.

When they were ready, they gathered up their gear, donning their backpacks. They expected they would be leaving in a hurry, and didn't want to have to try and grab stuff on their way out. The men seemed to have forgotten about Zia (that, or they just didn't care), so they had her use the code she had learned earlier and she met them in front of building two. Owen handed over one of the two guns they had taken from the armoury to Zia, keeping the second gun and rifle for himself. Then, after confirming that everyone knew the plan (including how to find the boat if separated), they split off, with Zia and Lowery ducking into the building while Owen and Claire continued onto the next.

The entryway was dark when Zia and Lowery entered, the building silent. They both gave sighs of relief, knowing that they weren't about to walk directly into a confrontation. Each pair had a single headlamp to share (something that Owen and Zia had packed, but neither Lowery or Claire had thought of). Zia pulled hers out, but kept it hand held, to keep the light aimed low and not immediately noticeable through the windows. They headed straight to the first room on the left, as Claire and Owen had instructed.

Once inside the conference room, they coordinated together to take video, with Lowery using his tablet to film and Zia lighting the way with her headlamp. They made sure to get a good view of the map, including a bunch of pictures of the notes as well as a long shot of the whiteboard with the prices. They also took some time to sort through the papers on the desk, trying to find any "smoking guns." There weren't any pamphlets, which they knew would've been too easy, but they did find some documents that included the words trophy and hunting, even if not paired together. The oddest thing they found was a handkerchief laid out on the table with a small collection of teeth resting on top. "Dinosaur teeth," Zia had said with a low whistle when she found it. "Man, this guy is sick." All in all, they spent about 20 minutes going through the room.

As they left, they turned off the headlamp before they headed outside to make their way over to the the third building. They had just closed the door behind them, and were about to move towards the other building, when suddenly lights were turned on, spilling out into the dark night through the buiding's windows. Zia and Lowery shared a nervous look, not sure if they should follow or not. Was this the sort of situation that meant they should head for the boat?

"Should we–?" Lowery nodded towards the gate, but he looked reluctant to even follow his own suggestion.

"Let's see what's happening," Zia pointed to the other building. Lowery nodded, and the two hurried over. Just as they were pulling the door open, they heard Claire yell angrily, "Back off, Henry!"

Only a couple of chapters and an epilogue (yep - I came up with one) left! Can't believe this journey is almost over. Hope you've been enjoying the ride as much as I have.