Chapter 14: Nowhere is Safe

Two days passed. Robert Muldoon was having a hard time forgetting the conversation he had with Howard King. Ed Regis was preparing his new office is the Biosyn branch. Ian Malcolm was keeping upon current events. The only person doing something productive was Michelle King.

Michelle had arrived in Denver, Colorado the night before, but it took her until the next day to find the Arnold house, as it was unlisted. Michelle stepped out of the taxi and onto the front lawn of the Arnold house.

She paid the taxi driver, not once taking her eyes off of the beautiful two-story house. Arnold defiantly had money. The house was a bright yellow, recently painted over, along with the latest toys spread on the front lawn as if they were rocks.

Michelle walked up to the front door and knocked lightly. She took a deep breath as the door swung up. Michelle looked down to see a girl, no older than five, staring at her. "Hello," Michelle said nicely. "I'm looking for Sandra Arnold. Is that your mother?"

The girl didn't answer, but she didn't need to. Sandra was standing right behind her. "Yes," Sandra replied for her daughter. "She is. The next question is who are you?"

Michelle chuckled a little bit. "Yes, my name is Michelle King. I work for InGen, the same company that your husband Ray works at. I don't want this to be uncomfortable, so I'll explain why I'm here right now. InGen is currently working on a very secret project on Isla Nublar. Unfortunately, our rival company Biosyn somehow got a hold of some of the information. InGen has sent me, along with hundreds of other employees, to question their families just in case the information may have been accidentally leaked through there."

Sandra stood at the doorway in deep thought for a few second. "Okay," she finally responded. "Come in."

Michelle entered the house, which was just as astounding and beautiful as the outside would lead one to believe. Michelle took a seat across from Sandra at the kitchen table and took out a notepad. Michelle's pen was out of ink, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to write anything down anyways.

"So," Michelle began her mock interview, "How often do you speak to your husband?"

"Ray has only come back from the island once since going there. Usually, I get a call from him at least three times a week, but we don't talk about anything that relates to his job. Usually he wants to know if our neighbor has figured out that his wife is having an affair on him yet. So for, no."

Michelle chuckled before continuing. "You husband came to visit. Did he bring anything from the island with him?"

"No, or at least nothing he showed me."

"Thank you," Michelle said as she put away her notepad. Sandra had a look on face as if she didn't expect the interview to be over so soon. "There's just one more thing I ask of you. I need to take your answering machine. I can replay any conversation you had with your husband to make sure."

"Make sure of what?" Sandra wasn't being as receptive as she was before. "I told you the truth. I hardly think taking my answering machine is necessary. I consider myself to be a trustworthy person."

"Husbands and wives have complex relationships," Michelle explained. "I should know. I have an ex-husband named Howard. He is a complete idiot in every sense of the word. I hate him with every fiber of my being, which is why I feel I have to lie to him to make him stop coming. I tell him that I'm dating a photographer named Richard Sorensen, but in reality he broke up with me months ago."

"What does this have to do with me?" Sandra inquired.

Michelle hadn't realized the digression in her explanation. "What I'm trying to say is that since I hate my ex-husband so much that I automatically lie to get rid of him, you may be subconsciously lying to protect your husband. This is just a precaution."

Sandra couldn't find anything wrong with your logic. She stood up and disconnected the answering machine from the phone and handed it to Michelle. She also handed Michelle her cell phone. "Sometimes Ray calls me on my cell, too."

"Thank you," Michelle replied as she went for the door. "I'll come back personally to return this when I'm done with it." Sandra and her children waved goodbye as Michelle entered her car and drove away.

Meanwhile, Robert Muldoon stood on the balcony that extended from the top of the visitor center. The workmen told him that platform wasn't complete and wasn't safe to stand on, but they had said it in Spanish and Muldoon wasn't the kind of person to pull out his pocket English-Spanish/Spanish-English dictionary just to figure out what they had said.

Muldoon watched as the other employees drove the trucks around the island, disappearing into the trees to install all of Jurassic Park's intricate circuitries. A new shipment of wiring had just been shipped from Japan, which meant Ray Arnold was working in the field to make sure they were integrated properly. John Hammond was in his bungalow preparing for the company summit, which was only two weeks away. That meant the only employee unaccounted for was Jessica Wu.

"Guess who!" came Jessica's high-pitched voice as she covered Muldoon's eyes.

"Cher," Muldoon replied.

Jessica gave Muldoon a playful punch on the arm. "I do not sound like Cher!" Jessica and Muldoon shared a short laugh, but Muldoon cut his laughing short well before Jessica was ready to stop. "Oh, oh," Jessica continued in her playful voice. "Look like something's not right Robbieville. Why don't you tell Alexis Trusdale all about it?"

The name "Alexis Trusdale" rolled so simply off of Jessica's tongue. There was not doubt that Jessica believed one hundred percent that her name was Alexis Trusdale. Muldoon was about to respond, but Jessica took it upon herself to answer for him. "Oh, I know what it is. You're still worried about those raptor thingies." Jessica made claws with her hands to signify raptors. It made Muldoon crack a smile.

"Yeah," Muldoon replied. "It's just the raptor thingies. I haven't gotten used to the idea yet."

"I completely understand," Jessica replied. It was obvious that she didn't. "If you need some time alone in order to get yourself acquainted with the new idea Robbie, then I will let you get to that. I'm just going to go ahead and wander around the island for a bit with the workers. Toodles!" Jessica skipped off as Muldoon returned to the scenery

"Howard King believes she's Jessica Wu, but she believes she's Alexis Trusdale. This has become a rather sticky situation and there is one man who can clear all this up. Dr. Henry Wu."

The rest of the day went by uneventfully over the skies of Isla Nublar. Muldoon paid off some of the workers to get a boat to Isla Sorna ready for the next day without Hammond knowing. Arnold worked in the field for the rest of the day and Jessica remained in her room for most of the day.

John Hammond had just finished his nightly walk around the Visitor Center to make sure everything was in order. Hammond was pleased as always and headed back towards his bungalow. Hammond entered the stairwell and slowly began to creep down the stairs. Hammond made it halfway down until he heard a noise from above him. Hammond was sure that the employees had turned in for the night.

"Is anyone up there?" Hammond asked. There was no response. Hammond shrugged it off and continued walking down. More sounds came and Hammond was sure that he wasn't imagining them this time. Hammond turned around, but it was too late to react. Someone came up from behind him and deliberately shoved him down the stairs.

Hammond tumbled down and screamed in pain as the mysterious figure dashed down the stairs and into the lobby. Hammond's cries for help were inaudible as the other employees had turned in or were in the par. All except Howard King. Hammond's attacker dashed out of the stairwell as Hammond continued to scream in pain. King stood at the door and managed to put two and two together. On instinct, King extended his arm and Hammond's attacker ran right into it, landing on the ground headfirst.

Ray Arnold came upon the incident as it unfolded and immediately ran over. "What the Hell happened!"

"John Hammond's in the stairwell," King explained. "This man attacked him and I stopped him from escaping. I just thought you should know." Arnold didn't respond and left to help Hammond. King decided not to wait around to find out how this all ended up.