Chapter 21: Introducing Ethan


The morning hours were adding up quickly, as Bodan walked back into the Main Control Room. There were two young men in the control room, typing frantically. He saw that Daniel was hard at work on the far computer.

"What's back online, Daniel?"

Daniel took a slight break from the computer, and looked up at Bodan.

"Well, sir. Most of the fences are operational again, with the exception of the Herbivore Paddock. I needed to reroute some power from there, to the Albertosaurus Paddock, after Ally went through the fence in two places."

Daniel always referred to the Albertosaurus as "Ally". Ally was his favorite, so he had given it a nickname.

"So, the fence in the Albertosaurus Paddock is fixed?"

"Yes, sir. We had the adequate supplies over at the new construction site, where the Mini-Lab is."

"Good. So it's back in its paddock, then?"

"Yes, sir. And so is one of the lost Elasmosaurs. The other one, the infant, was unfortunately found dead, floating in the water."

Bodan was honestly upset about that. Envoy was going to be very, very unhappy with that news. Maybe he would delegate the news update to Jacob.

"Any idea what happened?" Bodan asked.

"No, not yet. Jacob helicoptered the carcass over to the main lab last night. We might know more by the afternoon."

"What about the cameras? Are they working?"

"Not quite yet. I have a few online, right now, but only a small handful. Like seven of them."

"When will they be up?"

"Not until Monday, I'm afraid. Most of the computers used to serve the cameras, were in Control Room 3. There were a few here, in this control room, and that's why we have the seven cameras. The parts that I need won't be here until Monday."

Bodan didn't like that at all. He depended on those cameras quite a bit. He didn't really even realize his dependancy, until this moment. He decided to change the subject, before he grew more angry about it.

"What about the gates? Were members of the crew able to get back to this side without incident?"

"Yes. I had to reprogram the keypad, since the codes were completely wiped out. The men were frantic, though, and couldn't manage to type a correct code in. So I had to reprogram the keypad again, making it so that, no matter what five digit code they put in, the gate would still open."

"So everyone got back safe? And the boat . . . did the boat launch successfully?"

The boat would routinely leave every Friday evening, to take the crew back to the Baja Peninsula. That would leave them with a skeleton crew of about five, including Bodan and Daniel. The Baryonyx, after disabling the southern fences of the park, had delayed everything by about half a day.

"Yes, Mr. Bodan. The boat left the East Dock about an hour ago. All the necessary crew made it aboard."

Bodan walked toward the door.

"I'll be right back, Daniel. I'm going to smoke a cigarette, or two."

"Yes, sir."

Bodan walked outside and began to vent, as he lit up a cigarette. He was beyond angry, with the events that had transpired since yesterday. He still hadn't figured out who was responsible for letting the Baryonyx out. The men were protecting the guilty party, and that enraged him. He would make it a personal mission to figure it all out.

As Daniel was waiting, he began typing again. He was checking on security throughout the island. They were in the Main Control Room, located on the North side of the smaller portion of the island. This control room was only a few steps from the eight fully functional office buildings. The North Bridge was within walking distance, as well.

Daniel had insisted on having three separate computer control rooms. There was Control Room 2, on the same portion, located at the Southern tip. It was very close to the South Bridge, the only existing runway, and Helipad 2. There were also four more office buildings in that area, but they weren't used by anyone at this time. Envoy had hoped to open them for tourists, at a later date. He wanted a place where tourists could book future trips to Isla Norte, after they would hopefully be dazzled by the first trip. He also wanted to use one of the offices for legal work. A place where the tourists would have to sign in writing, that they saw nothing more than a biological preserve. None of that was needed yet, though.

And then there was Control Room 3, that had been located on the larger portion of the park, almost all the way on the West Coast of the island. Control Room 3 was stocked with wireless remote servers. Daniel always carried a laptop computer with him. Using the Secondary Control Room, he was able to operate the park from anywhere on the island.

While Daniel was waiting for orders from Bodan, he noticed a potential problem with one of the undamaged remote servers in Control Room 3. He decided to get some details squared away.

"Ethan?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"I'm not getting a reading on RS33. Could you check into that?" He asked.

"No problem," Ethan said.

Ethan Davis was a 22 year old college graduate that Daniel had hired. After seeing some of Ethan's work on an internet website three years earlier, Daniel felt the need to meet with the man. Ethan was a whiz with computers. He had hacked his way into an online banking website, just to prove that he could. He didn't tamper with anything, besides just loading a few harmless images of his own on every page of the site, just to let them know he was there. That little stunt would have gone unnoticed, if it weren't for the fact that Daniel Nupin was the bank's web master. The fact that someone could penetrate his security, both angered and impressed Daniel. He tracked the hacker down, using his own sophisticated techniques and the mysterious hacker agreed to meet with him. Three years, and countless computer hours later, they were working here, together.

Bodan walked back into the room, as he had just thought of another question.

"With all that's happened, I almost forgot about young Ms. Grant. Are you still able to track her, Daniel?"

Daniel smiled.

"Of course, Mr. Bodan. Jodie Grant hasn't been able to get by me."

Daniel filed a few keystrokes, and a different screen appeared. It was a black screen, with green circles of varying sizes, along with a small red blinking dot. Daniel put his finger up to the monitor, right on the red dot.

"There she is, sir."

Bodan smiled.

"Well, then, let's go get her."