Chapter 17
"Are you sure I have to wear this?" Owen asked, turning away from the mirror where he had just finished putting on his tie. He yanked at it uncomfortably. He was having flashbacks to the Navy dress uniform he'd had to wear on occasion. Suits really weren't his thing.
He was back on Nublar for the grand opening of the research institute, which had officially happened earlier that day. He hadn't realized when Claire had asked him to attend the event with her that it wasn't an event, but a whole day of non-stop events. While he'd been hoping for some one-on-one time with her, right now, getting ready for the evening gala, was the closest they'd come to it.
"Yes," Claire replied with a roll of her eyes as she stepped up close to him. She reached out and carefully straightened his tie, before her hands brushed across his shoulders and down his arms, coming to a rest lightly gripping his forearms. He couldn't help his wince. While his stitches had been removed almost two weeks ago, his forearm still felt a bit tender and bruised, and he still found himself babying it. Claire immediately made to step back, but he quickly reached for her, his hands lightly grasping her waist and pulling her closer.
"You know, we could just stay in," he whispered, using the opportunity to lean down and place a kiss just behind her ear, before trailing more kisses down her neck. His smile grew when she tilted her head slightly to give him more access.
"You wish," she finally let out on a sigh, stepping back and pushing gently against his chest until he straightened up.
"I do," he agreed, grinning at her when she rolled her eyes again.
She looked away briefly, and he was about to ask her if something was wrong when she looked back, her gaze serious. "Thanks for being here. I've… I've never really had anyone here for things like this. Or, I guess, I've never really had anyone I wanted to be here. So… thanks."
Owen was momentarily speechless, and in the moment it took him to find his voice, her gaze darted away from his, and one of her hands started playing with his tie in a clear signal of her nerves. "Nowhere else I'd rather be," he finally said. When she looked up at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief, he amended. "I mean, sure, I'm not a big fan of wearing a suit and stuffy parties and I wish we could just stay home," he winced as amusement spread across her face, "but, being by your side is where I want to be."
"Nice save," she chuckled, flattening out his tie before stepping back, evading his grasp as he tried to hold on. "We need to get going or we'll be late."
"You're the star of the show," he disagreed. "Therefore it's impossible for you to be late."
"I'm not, actually. But I do need to be there. And you coming is going to make the night a little less unbearable," she replied as she walked over to their bed to grab her phone where she'd tossed it earlier. Turning back to him, she eyed him, and Owen started to feel a bit nervous. "You've got pockets, right?" she asked, walking back towards him.
"I do," he agreed, shoving his hands into them.
"Perfect." Claire smiled and then held out her phone. "Can you hold this? Then I don't have to take a purse."
He accepted the phone and slipped it into his pocket. "So, this is why you really wanted me to come," he joked as he followed her out of the bedroom and towards the door.
"Partly," she agreed with a laugh as they left the condo. "Here, you can hold the keys too," she handed over her keyring.
"Does this mean I get to drive?" Owen asked, as they waited for the elevator. They'd been together for almost a year now, the anniversary was barely two weeks away, and he'd only driven her car a couple of times before. Of course, there hadn't been very many times that either of them had driven together, really. When they were together it wasn't usually needed for whatever they were doing.
"Sure," she said.
"Nice." Owen tossed the keys into the air before catching them. "I love driving it."
"Why haven't you said something before?" Claire asked as they rode the elevator down. "I wouldn't stop you from taking it out."
"Never really thought about it," he admitted as they exited the hotel and walked over to her vehicle. "And I love my motorcycle, and it's nice to take it out when I'm here. But, can't really take that tonight."
"Yeah, not with these outfits," she agreed as she got into the car. "But, think of getting to drive tonight as a bonus for dressing up."
"Not as big a bonus as getting to see you all dressed up," he said, giving her a suggestive up and down look when she glanced over at him, before he broke into a laugh.
She reached across the console and patted his thigh. "Keep those thoughts for later."
Owen just grinned in response.
o-o-o
"It's really a shame that Mr. Lockwood wasn't well enough to come," Claire said to Eli as they stood by one of the small bar-height tables that were sprinkled around the room.
"I know he really wanted to be here," Eli said. "But he came down with a cold and his doctors didn't think it was wise for him to travel."
"Well, be sure to tell him that we missed him and hope that he gets better soon," she replied as she picked up her wine glass and took a sip before setting it back onto the table.
"I will," he agreed. He looked around the room which was swarming with people in suits and fancy dresses, intermixed with servers carrying trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. "I'm really impressed with everything you've been able to pull together for this."
"Oh, I don't deserve the praise for that," Claire laughed. "We have an excellent committee on the island that does all the arrangements for events like this. Most of what they get to do are small weddings, so I know they actually find events like these a bit of a breath of fresh air."
"You call this a breath of fresh air?" Owen scoffed, his arm slipping possessively around her waist as he rejoined her side. "A stuffy gathering like this? At least weddings are fun."
"Hey!" Claire smacked him lightly on the chest, before turning back to Eli. "Please excuse him. I had to drag him here tonight. Eli, this is Owen. Owen, Eli — he runs Mr. Lockwood's foundation."
"Oh, sorry," Owen said, holding out his hand for Eli to shake. Claire could tell from the slight shifting of his posture that he was a little embarrassed over his comments now. Not that he would show that overtly, she knew. He was good at letting stuff roll off. "Not really my kind of pastime," he said. "But, I do have to say, what Claire's told me about the research institute has me impressed. I'm for anything that looks at these dinosaurs as actual beings and not just dollar signs."
Claire barely resisted the urge to slap him again, instead taking another sip of her wine as she willed herself not to react.
"Do you work here?" Eli asked.
"Yeah, well, sort of," Owen said, nodding. "I don't work for Jurassic World. I work for InGen."
Eli's face lit up with curiosity. "Oh, are you a scientist?"
Claire wasn't sure what it was about Eli's expression as he asked, but she was suddenly flashing back to seeing him talking with Hoskins. Did he know what Hoskins did? If he did, he'd almost definitely have heard Owen's name before. Although, she supposed it was possible that Hoskins didn't name him or had referred to him as Mr. Grady.
"Scientist? No," Owen shook his head, laughing a little. "Not the lab geek kind, anyway. I'm an animal behaviourist."
As Owen spoke, Claire watched Eli's reaction, but the man's expression gave nothing away. Instead, he just seemed interested in hearing what Owen had to say, immediately ready with his next question: "Oh, what animals do you work with?"
Before Owen responded, he looked over at Claire, giving her a slight head tilt in question and she knew he was wondering if he should or could share his job details with Eli. However, before she could answer, she heard someone calling out her name.
"Claire! Claire!"
The three of them at the table turned (as did a number of the guests in attendance) to see who was responsible for the commotion. Claire's brow furrowed when she realized it was Lowery pushing his way through the crowd. She was pretty sure he wasn't on the invite list for tonight's event, a thought that was confirmed when she realized he was wearing a pair of converse, jeans and a t-shirt with a button-up shirt hanging open overtop. He skidded to a stop in front of her, bending over and gasping lightly, raising a finger — a silent request for a moment.
Looking behind him, Claire saw one of the security guards from the door had been following after Lowery, and she gave a quick shake of her head, dismissing him. The guard hesitated for a moment, and then retreated back to his spot.
"What's wrong?" she demanded when Lowery straightened back up, grabbing his arm and pulling him with her over to the side of the room, away from the attention. "What happened? Why didn't you call me?"
"I tried," Lowery insisted. "I phoned you multiple times, you didn't answer."
She patted her sides briefly before remembering she'd given Owen her phone to hold onto. Claire turned to look back towards her table only to realize that Owen and Eli had followed after her. Owen was now sheepishly holding out her phone, where she could see a string of notifications about missed calls.
She opened her mouth to say something about it, before snapping it shut and turning back to Lowery and demanding again: "What happened?"
"Something's going on on Sorna," Lowery said.
"What do you mean something's going on on Sorna?" This time it was Owen who spoke, his voice low as he took a step towards Lowery, who hurriedly stepped back, his gaze darting to Claire's.
"Owen," she admonished, reaching for his arm and tugging him back.
"I'm not sure, exactly," Lowery admitted, his expression a little frantic. "But we got a distress call from security, and when we responded, we couldn't get a hold of them. We're still trying to figure out what's going on."
"What have you figured out so far?" Claire asked, her own voice low, trying to keep her body language relaxed. She knew that many of the guests would be watching and she didn't want people to be concerned.
"Not a lot," he admitted. "We're not able to see much on the cameras. The main area looks empty, but we have limited feeds. And we don't have any from inside the buildings, so we don't know what could be happening there."
"What about the raptors?" Owen hissed. "Are they still in their paddock?"
"From what we can tell, yes," Lowery said. "But, like I said, we can't tell much."
"Anything unusual?" Claire asked.
"Well, there's a ship at the dock," Lowery said slowly. "But except for the boat that goes between Sorna and Nublar, I don't know much about what ships should be there or not."
"Do you know anything about that?" Claire turned to Owen, who immediately shook his head.
"But," he added, "I wouldn't, necessarily. I don't know what goes on with all the lab stuff."
"What's going on?" A new voice joined the mix and Claire wasn't surprised to see Simon had come over. Over his shoulder she could see Hoskins was also headed in their direction.
"We think something might be happening on Sorna," Claire told him, waving at Hoskins to hurry up. She'd never thought she'd actually want to be talking to the guy. But, out of everyone there, he was probably their best source for what would or would not be normal for Sorna.
"What's up?" Hoskins asked when he joined the group, his voice booming.
"Shhh," Claire said quickly, looking past him. There were still people looking in their direction, but most had finally gone back to mingling. "Do you know if there's supposed to be a ship docked at Sorna tonight?"
"No, not that I know of," Hoskins said after a brief pause, his smile slipping, a frown creeping onto his face. His gaze darted between Claire and Lowery. "What's going on?"
"Lowery said they sent a distress call and haven't been responding–"
"I need to get back there," Owen interrupted. "If something's going on… I need to be there."
"Me too," Hoskins insisted. He turned to Owen. "We'll take the helicopter. Let's go."
"I'm coming with you," Claire said, before they could even take a step away.
"You?" Hoskins gave her a once over. "In that?"
"I've got a change of clothes in my car," she said. "It'll take me two minutes to change."
"Claire…" Owen's quiet plea had her looking over at him. "We don't know what's going on. It could be dangerous. I think you should stay here."
"I'm coming," she replied firmly in a tone that didn't invite an argument. "If it's safe enough for you, it's safe enough for me."
"That's not–" Owen started, but he cut himself off as she glared at him, her gaze darting pointedly down to his arm, before holding his hands up in surrender.
Claire turned back to Simon who had been quiet. "Simon, I've–"
"No problem," Simon interrupted, reassuring her, though he looked rather concerned. "Go. Let me know what's going on. Lowery, you'll be in the control room?"
"I will," Lowery agreed as he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
"Good, stay in contact," Simon said. Claire was fidgeting as he turned back to her. "Go. Go on. I can manage here. And I've got Eli. We'll be fine."
Right, Eli. She had forgotten that he had been standing there silently during all of this. Part of her wondered what he was thinking, but she also knew she didn't have time to think about that now. Instead, she quickly said "Thanks" to Simon, before turning and following after the others who had already started out of the room, catching curious looks as their group cut through the crowd.
o-o-o
For the first time in his life, Owen kind of wished he'd gone into the Air Force instead of the Navy. Maybe if he had, he'd know how to fly a helicopter and would be able to get them there faster. As it was, he still had to restrain himself from leaping forward and grabbing at the controls. Why was it taking so long?
He could feel Claire's hand resting on his thigh, but tonight it wasn't giving him any comfort. He was too caught up in all the what if's that were flashing through his mind one after the other. Why hadn't Barry answered his call? Or Zia? Were his girls okay? What if they had gotten out?
Owen could feel his knee starting to bounce, and he rested his fist on it, pushing down. He didn't like feeling so out of control. Why couldn't they just get there?
"I can see the boat at the dock," the pilot's voice came through his headset, and Owen's gaze shot forward. While he'd been staring steadily out his window, he couldn't see the dock from his position.
"What's going on? Can you see anyone?" Owen demanded.
"There looks to be some trucks parked down at the docks," the pilot shared. "And I can see some people moving about."
"We've been spotted," Commander Austin who was sitting in the co-pilot chair chimed in. "They all look like they're looking up now."
"Do they look like employees?" Claire asked, concern creeping into her voice. She tried to look down as well, but Owen knew that she couldn't see much of anything either.
"I don't think so. They all look to be wearing all black," Austin replied. "They've started moving again. I think we've spooked them. They're rushing about. It's not easy to make out what's going on, what with the sun setting behind them."
Owen could feel his stomach twisting, as he squirmed in his seat, trying desperately to see something, but he was on the wrong side of the helicopter. As worried as he'd been on the flight over, he'd always held out some hope that they were overreacting. Based on Austin and the pilot's comments, he was now wondering if they were underreacting. Why had he let Claire come?
"Give me a second and I'll swing around a bit so we can all get a better look," the pilot said. "We need to decide if we can land."
"We still can't get a hold of anyone," Lowery's voice came through their headsets. "We've been trying both the radios and also all the phones we know."
Owen had his face practically plastered to the window now, a feeling that reminded him of when he was five years old and took his first plane trip. But this time, he wasn't filled with awe over the fact he was looking down at clouds and the way the farmer's fields looked like a checkerboard. Instead, he was desperately waiting for the island to come into view.
It took half a minute, but then the helicopter veered to the right and started to swing in a wide circle over the encampment. Owen focused on the docks first. Austin was right, people seemed to be in a big hurry now.
"I definitely don't think they're our guys," he said, his frown deepening. "In fact, I think they're getting ready to hightail it out of there."
"Should we inform the coast guard?" Lowery asked. "I mean, it's going to take them a while to get there, but…"
"Yes!" Owen and Claire immediately exclaimed in unison.
"Austin, what about the ACU?" Owen asked. "Should Lowery send more?"
"We're not equipped for situations like this," Austin admitted, sounding a little sheepish. Owen barely resisted the urge to swear. "I imagine we'll be having a meeting about this all once it's over," Austin continued. "But we've always built up our capabilities around having to protect and secure a single island. We've got some small boats, but nothing that makes sense to send here, and they couldn't get here fast, anyway."
Surprised, Owen turned and looked at Claire. He knew that Austin wouldn't be lying, but it still felt incredulous. Claire simply nodded her agreement with Austin's assessment. Owen looked back out the window, focusing again on the docks. There was already a reduction in activity, as most of the people who had been running around were now on the boat. He realized that he didn't actually have any idea how many people had been down there originally, which meant he couldn't know how many may be lying in wait. Scanning the area out from the dock, he could see a couple of the larger ATVs they had on the island parked nearby, but that wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary, as they were mainly used for moving supplies between the buildings and the docks.
As his gaze drifted farther from the docks, he focused on the raptor paddock. In the dimming light as the sun was sinking quickly below the horizon, he could make out the walls of the paddock but he couldn't clearly see within. And, with all the forest cover he knew there was a more than good chance that he'd never catch a glimpse of the raptors if they didn't want to be seen. Although, he'd kind of hoped they'd be visible and staring up at the helicopter as they had taken to doing. Thankfully, at least the paddock gates appeared to still be closed.
"The boat's pulling away," Claire spoke up again.
"Should I land?" the pilot asked.
"Yes!" Owen said emphatically. "We need to get down there to figure out what's going on. If the boat's leaving, they must be all gone. It'd be stupid of them to leave any of their men behind."
"Let's do another circle first," Austin spoke up, his command overriding Owen's. "I want to be sure there's nothing unexpected before we land."
"Lowery, anything yet?" Claire asked.
"Nope, still nothing," Lowery said immediately. "The Coast Guard is on their way, although they're not thrilled about it. I told them they didn't necessarily need to go to Sorna, but that we needed help intercepting the boat. Any chance you picked up the name? Telling them to intercept a boat isn't really all that helpful."
Owen tuned out the discussion between Lowery and Austin as Austin detailed the information he'd gathered about the vessel.
"Should we follow the ship?" Hoskins suddenly asked. "Instead of landing, wouldn't that be more useful?"
Owen was torn. Part of him knew that Hoskins's suggestion was probably a good one. Whatever these guys had done on the island, unless they intercepted the boat, they were probably going to get away with it. He knew it was unlikely the coast guard was going to be able to intercept the boat before it could disappear from sight.
Before anyone could answer Hoskins, Claire spoke up again. "If all the guys have left, why aren't any of our people answering the phones yet? Or the radios? I think we need to get down there. While I don't want them to get away, I'm more concerned about everyone's safety."
No one said anything for a moment, but Owen knew she had a point. "She's right. We need to get down there. And I don't think we should wait. We don't know why people aren't responding. But there should be something like 25-30 people there right now. Something's wrong."
"I agree," Austin said, before turning to look at the pilot. "Take us down." As the pilot started to redirect the helicopter towards the landing area, Austin spoke up again. "While I haven't seen any evidence of any loose dinosaurs, or that the perimeter fence has been breached, we are still going in somewhat blind. So, that said, I'm in command here, and you are all to follow my lead."
"The paddock doors are still closed," Owen pointed out. "I haven't been able to see the raptors, but I don't think they're out. And the younger batch haven't been moved to an outdoor paddock, so they should still be in the nursery."
The nursery was one of the newer buildings that had been erected when it had become clear that they were going to be increasing the population on Sorna and needed more space to deal with the baby dinosaurs before they could place them in the outer paddocks. There was also a new building behind the two housing units that housed a couple of lounges and a small gym.
"I can keep the helicopter running," the pilot suggested. "Until we know for sure, in case we need to make a fast getaway."
"Sure," Austin agreed. He turned in his seat looking towards the rest. "When we land, my team will get off first. The three of you–" he looked specifically at Claire, Owen and Hoskins "–wait for my go ahead before you get off."
Owent wanted to protest. It was not like he didn't know how to handle himself if things went wrong. But before he could open his mouth, he suddenly felt Claire's hand clutching at his. He looked over at her, but she wasn't looking at him, instead focusing on Austin and nodding her agreement to his direction. Owen turned his hand over so he could lace their fingers together and gave it a squeeze.
At that, Claire finally turned to him, and he held her gaze. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped, realizing that whatever he'd say would be transmitted to everyone on the helicopter as well as Lowery back at control. He paused, then chose to mouth the words instead. "It'll be fine. I promise. I love you."
She squeezed his hand back before responding: "I love you, too."
o-o-o
Stepping out of the helicopter, Claire decided that for once, she didn't care what people would think. Ever since they had started their descent, she'd been clutching at Owen's hand, and she wasn't willing to let go yet. They had sat in the helicopter for five minutes after landing while Austin and his team had spread out and done a quick recon of the immediate area.
"Where to first?" she asked. She wished she could whisper — it felt like she should be whispering — but with the helicopter blades still whirling above, it was hard enough to hear each other even as she shouted. "Are we splitting up?"
"That's the only building with lights on," Austin pointed to the center building which housed the cafeteria. "We'll take a look there as a group. As it'll soon be dark, I don't want any of us wandering around alone until we've checked out the whole area. Let's find out what's happened so we can do that."
They had barely started forward when Claire felt Owen pause beside her. She looked over at him, but he had turned and was looking in the direction of the raptor paddock.
"What is it?" she asked, following his gaze but not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
"I don't know," he replied after a moment without turning to her. "I thought I heard something. But, it's hard to tell with the noise of the helicopter."
She thought he was going to maybe head in that direction anyway, and while she wasn't keen on having any of them running around the area on their own, she wasn't sure she'd even try to stop him if he did. But, Owen turned back towards the building and started after the others, his hand still clasped around hers.
As they walked, Claire watched as Austin sent two men ahead to circle the building. When they reached the front doors, Austin held up a hand asking everyone to wait. "Just in case," he told them.
"What do you think they could've done?" Hoskins groaned, moving forward, clearly intent on opening the doors himself.
Austin shifted until he was in front of the doors, blocking Hoskins's path. "I'm in charge until we know the area is safe," he reminded Hoskins. "It won't take them long."
He was right. It was barely a minute later before the two men reappeared, having completed their circuit.
"From what we can tell the kitchen and one of the dining areas looks empty. The other one had the lights off, so it was hard to see, but we shone a light in and there's a bunch of people in there," one of the men quickly reported.
"Are they okay?" Claire asked.
"We think so," the man said, a bit haltingly, like he wasn't quite sure he believed what he was saying. "We knocked on the window. It looks like they're maybe wearing blindfolds and probably have their hands tied, or something. While some reacted to our knock, no one got up or seemed to know where to look."
"Blindfolds?" Owen asked. "Why blindfolds?"
"Maybe whoever was here didn't want to be seen," another ACU member spoke up, giving a shrug when they all turned to look at him. "Would make it harder for us to identify them."
"Can we go in now?" Hoskins demanded. "It doesn't make any sense for us to stand out here wondering when we can go in and ask."
Claire found herself, for probably the first time in her life, agreeing with Hoskins. This was feeling too slow. They needed to get in there. She understood being cautious, but they needed answers.
"Stay behind my men," Austin warned them again, before turning to the door. Opening it, Austin entered the building, most of his men trailing in after him. One held the door open, and brought up the rear behind Claire and Owen.
Austin followed the lead of the two men who'd done the recognizance, who headed straight for the room they'd seen the people in. The door was shut. Reaching it, Austin and his men carefully examined the frame, before knocking on the door. They could hear some muffled noise from within, but the door remained closed. For a moment, Claire thought they were going to end up standing around debating what to do, but Austin simply reached out and opened the door himself. He entered the room first, finding the lightswitch and flooding the room with light.
Now that the door was open, Claire could tell the room had a bunch of people in it. The muffled sound they had heard had actually stopped when they'd opened the door. Claire wanted to push forward, to get into the room faster, but she had to wait for those ahead of her. Before she could even make it to the door, the silence was broken by voices.
"Matt, what happened?" Austin was asking.
"They caught us totally off guard. We were unprepared," Matt replied. Claire couldn't see him yet, but she focused on his voice. "When we saw the boat arriving, I sent a couple men down to the dock to see what was happening. But the crew on the boats already had guns out. We tried to counter, but one of them didn't even hesitate. He shot at Cody. Nicked him in the arm."
"I'm fine," another voice chimed in. "I mean, it hurts, but I'll live."
Claire was finally able to make it into the room. The noise volume was steadily increasing as everyone seemed to realize that they were being rescued and it wasn't that their captors had returned. As she entered the room, Austin was still talking to Matt, but the other ACU men had fanned out around the room, making their way from person to person, helping remove blindfolds and untying their hands.
She turned back to Austin, listening as Matt continued his summary of the events.
"–was watching from the security room. I immediately sent the distress call, but they must have sent some guys ahead, because I'd barely managed to do that before the door opened and one of them was standing behind me with a gun." Matt looked annoyed, shaking his head like he still couldn't believe they'd managed to surprise him. "They rounded us all up, made us put on blindfolds and then tied us up, and we've been stuck here since. To be honest, I'm not even sure how much time has passed."
As Matt and Austin continued to talk, Claire went back to scanning over the room, trying to figure out what her next action should be. She spotted Henry, who looked pissed off, but fine, with some of the other lab scientists. The ACU who had been stationed on the island had all congregated around Matt and Austin, and one of the new arrivals had pulled out a first aid kit and was looking at Cody's arm. And then, as she was watching everyone, she started wondering if everyone was accounted for. It was hard to get an accurate count, as now that people were freed up, they were all moving about.
She turned to ask Owen that question, only to realize he was no longer beside her. Claire hadn't even realized she'd let go of his hand. Continuing her scan, she found him over with Barry and Zia, who both looked none the worse off, the three off to the side. Her impulse was to go and join them, but she knew she needed to focus on her job first.
Claire moved closer to Austin, interrupting his conversation with Matt. "We need a headcount. Are we sure that everyone's here?"
"Right," Austin nodded, turning back to Matt. "Matt, do you have a list of who should be here?"
"I do, but it's back in the security office. Did you guys clear the rest of the area yet?"
"Not yet," Austin shook his head. "The boat left as we arrived, and so we were focused on finding all of you. We've just done a very preliminary look." He looked around for a moment, before finding a chair and pulling it out. Stepping up onto it, he used two fingers to whistle loudly. The room fell silent, everyone turning to look at him. "I know you're probably all eager to be let out of here," he said loudly, addressing the room, "but before we do, I still want my team to do a quick check of the rest of the area. We did see a ship leave as we arrived, so while I do not expect we'll encounter anyone, we still don't know what they were doing here and if they took anything."
"I need to get to the nursery," Zia spoke up the moment Austin paused for a breath.
"I need to get back to my lab. I had experiments running," Henry followed up. "All this time sitting here is going to have thrown a bunch of them off." The scientists around him all nodded their agreement.
"Don't forget about my girls," Owen added. "We need to confirm that they're still in their paddock."
At that, everyone started talking again, some insisting on needing to check on various areas, and others concerned that the raptors were loose, again. Claire was impressed when Austin almost immediately whistled again, taking back control.
"We'll get to all of that, but first up…"
o-o-o
Owen was pissed off that Austin was insisting that he couldn't leave the building yet. He wouldn't even be listening, but Claire was standing right beside him, as if she knew that he was about to take off. Which, to be fair, was the only reason he hadn't, yet. That, and the fact he could still see Austin, who was currently walking across the yard towards the waiting helicopter.
Four other ACU guys had also been allowed to leave, in pairs. Two had been sent over to the security room to track down the list of current on-island personnel, while the other two were going to do a quick walkthrough of the other buildings.
And in the meantime, Owen was stuck inside, waiting. He felt useless. He hated feeling useless. He turned to Barry, trying to distract himself. "What do you think the guys wanted?"
"There's only one thing of value on this island," Zia answered before Barry could. He, Barry and Claire all turned to look at her. "The dinosaurs." Zia wasn't looking at them, her gaze also locked out the front windows towards the raptor paddock. The sun had since set, and in the dying light, it was starting to get harder to even see it clearly. The helicopter was also blocking most of their view. "Think about it. Almost everything anyone could want is right here. Embryos? We've got it. Eggs? Baby dinosaurs? Both of those too."
"And less security," Claire said slowly, nodding in agreement. "Which was not at all helped by our response time." She shook her head, before pulling out her phone, where Owen knew she had been jotting down notes and questions. He was actually sort of surprised that she was willing to openly agree with Zia. He'd actually thought she would jump in and defend Jurassic World and all the precautions they take.
He was about to chime in on the discussion, when the helicopter finally shut down, the blades slowing to a stop. But it wasn't the helicopter that had caught his attention. Well, not exactly the helicopter — it was Austin's body language. Austin had been talking with the pilot, but as the blades had slowed, he had straightened up and cocked his head to the side, like he had heard something. Now, Owen watched as Austin headed around the helicopter and out of view.
There was only one thing on the other side of the helicopter. Which meant there was only one thing that could possibly be getting his attention. Well, make that three things.
Owen hadn't even realized he was moving forward until he heard Claire calling his name. He didn't even pause. The moment he pushed out the front door he heard what must have caught Austin's attention. A raptor was screeching, clearly in distress. Charlie, if he wasn't mistaken.
He didn't turn around to see what the others were doing, he just started running.
Ooh, a cliffhanger. 😯 Any guesses what will happen next?
Thanks to everyone who has left a review or favourited/followed the story. You're why I keep posting.
Stay safe and I'll see you next week.
