A PE truck drove quietly through the night; despite looking like an ordinary animal transport truck, the drivers were not PE staff. Two men and a woman sat in the truck, dressed as PE staff – the woman was driving and the two men were sitting in the other seats. These were three Novum black operatives – Ursula Crabb, Zander Hacker and Ed Baylor; plus the creature they were transporting.
They had spent the hour driving to the park discussing their latest assignment. Zander muttered, "I thought it was a trick at first. Or a front for something else." Ursula rolled her eyes and said, "What could going back in time and bringing back dinosaurs possibly be a front for?" Her two cohorts looked at each other, before Ed said, "Erm… aliens?" Ursula facepalmed; sometimes she wondered about her cohorts.
Eventually, they pulled to a spot near the park's largest paddock; close enough to the main control room for them to meet up with their contact quickly, but secluded enough. Ursula scanned the area and said, "This seems like a decent enough spot. Ed, open the doors.", to which the shorter mercenary obliged. The doors opened to reveal a young female Tyrannosaurus rex; twenty-five feet long and two tons, who snapped at the air, before tearing off out of the truck and into the night. Ursula chuckled, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war…"
Will and Alice, feeling refreshed after several hours sleep, walked into the park bar; they opened the door and walked into the staff bar, where they saw Cynthia, sitting at the same booth as last time. She waved to them and beckoned them in. Awkwardly, they sat down. It was Alice who spoke first, "You said you had info regarding the mole in our camp?"
Cynthia nodded, before showing them a picture of a short, thin, brown-haired man. This was one of the security guards, however, they didn't know his name - Duncan or Darren or something; one of the staff who'd come in with the Novum board…. Which made a whole lot of sense.
Smiling, Cynthia said, "Duncan Kent; one of our guards. It seems he's been sending messages to an encrypted number at Novum HQ in San Francisco… and, perhaps more interestingly, he's been sending messages to an operation on the north side of this island. And, in the past few days, he's been sending triple the amount of messages he normally does – I get the feeling that something big's going down… Take Raksha and find him. Now."
A park Jeep drove through the night; sitting in the Jeep were Drew, Jack, Leon, Collete and Kyle, with Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion running alongside the jeep. Jack asked, "Refresh my memory; how did this happen?" Drew breathed out and stated, "A keeper heading to the storehouse saw a Tyrannosaurus loose by Mesozoic Safaris. They couldn't get much more than a glimpse of it – however, we put the park on lockdown." Collete snorted, "We haven't really had any big escapes for a while; forgotten what one feels like." Kyle nodded, before continuing, "We're going to be doing a count on the T-rex; it could be Sharptooth, but the witness didn't think it was the right size." Jack sighed, "So we've got to track it down…" Kyle nodded grimly, "Yup."
They reached a clearing in the forest, and the allosaurs slowed down, lowering their heads to the ground. Leon turned to Drew quietly, "They've found something." Leon nodded, "I know." Standing in the clearing, about 200 metres away, was the unmistakeable form of a theropod. As they looked quietly, they could discern it wasn't Sharptooth; it was far too small, scarcely bigger than the allosaurs.
After a few minutes, the tyrannosaur stepped out into the light. From its size, they could tell it was a female – however, it didn't look like Sue. Her colouration was slightly lighter than Sue – the grey on its underside was incredibly pale, almost white and the black on her body was more like a dark grey. She was painfully thin, with exposed ribs, and her face was contorted into a snarl, her eyes burning with crazed fury and drool cascading down her mouth
Jack vocalised the thoughts that were all on their minds, "She isn't one of ours." Drew looked at Jack, mouth agape, "What?!" Before they could ponder this, the T-rex suddenly hurled herself at Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion, snarling, hissing and spitting. Drogon and Rhaegal managed to jump away in time, but Viserion, the nearest to her, moved to late, and suffered a bite to the thigh. Viserion swung his tail at her and attempted to bite her, but she managed to dodge it, before diving at him. However, she was knocked away by Rhaegal, who briefly grappled with her; however, she broke it by biting him the arm, before hitting him with her tail. With both his brothers injured, Drogon headbutted the tyrannosaur in the flank, sending her to the ground. However, she got up quickly and hurled herself at him. Knocking down Drogon, she tore off into the night.
The team watched the retreating theropod, mouths open. Jack looked at Drew and said, his voice tinged with shock, "How the hell did one get past without us knowing?! There wasn't any way she could have sneaked through the portal; there was only Sue at the camp and I think we'd have noticed if another one got through." Leon sighed, "You're going to have to radio this in. The allosaurs are still fight-capable; all their injuries we can fix now; we can still go after her." Grabbing the radio, Drew screamed, "There's a T-rex on the loose and it isn't one of ours! Repeat, it isn't one of ours!"
By the steps up to the gangplank, Duncan Kent stood, in a dark corner, waiting for his reinforcements to arrive. people – two men and a woman – got out; each was clad in black BDUs and had the look of a professional killer. The two men were almost physical opposites; one tall and thin, the other short and stocky. The woman was a tall Asian woman, with dark hair and green eyes; she scanned the area with the look of a cobra looking at its prey.
Looking furtively, Duncan walked into the light, "Ursula Crabb, I presume?" The woman looked at him and smirked a mirthless smile, "In the flesh. These are my colleagues, Zander Hacker and Ed Baylor. The T-rex we turned loose is giving most of the staff a hard time." Duncan smirked, "I saw – Frank listened to my advice for once. You take the allosaurs out of the game and you can do anything. Anyway, my lady, the portal room is thataway… unguarded." Ursula smirked, "Lead on, MacDuff."
The four climbed the steps up the gangplank to the portal room; keeping careful watch for any possible staff. However, they were fortunate – no staff members encountered them as they silently walked down to the portal room.
Using Duncan's security card, they opened the door to the portal room. The mercenaries entered first, scanning the room to check if there was anyone in it. Once they confirmed the room was empty, Ursula ushered Duncan forward.
With the mercenaries checking the door, Duncan advanced towards the portal remote in its clear box and put his keycard to the portal box, opening it. Before reaching in, he paused, as if ruminating on the ramifications of what he was going to do. Eventually, he shrugged, took the portal remote and lifted it out. The three mercenaries crowded around him; Ed muttered, "Is that it, mate? I was expecting something a bit bigger." Ursula gave him a look, "They have to take it with them, Ed, you idiot."
"What is going on here?" The four went rigid and turned to see Adrian Sky standing outside the door. Adrian scanned the room, "Now this is weird – we have a T-rex on the loose that we didn't bring back and now I see you sneaking the portal remote out with three people dressed like G.I. Joe dolls". Zander turned to Ursula and asked, "Does he mean us?", to which the woman rolled her eyes and muttered, "Yes, moron". Out of the corner of Duncan's eyes, he saw Ed lift a taser; Ursula silently turned to Duncan and nodded. Duncan knew what this instruction was. Bluff him.
Standing forward, Duncan said, "Adrian, is it? I, uh, can explain everything… there's a reason to this." Adrian stepped forward, "Are you sure? I". Duncan sighed, "I'm sorry." Adrian took two steps back and looked confused, "Sorry about what?", to which Duncan sighed. "This." Adrian's eyes widened as Ed lifted the taser and fired. Adrian turned and attempted to run, but the mercenary's aim was perfect.
As Adrian slipped into unconsciousness, his mind began to flounder – who were these people? What were they doing? Was Duncan their hostage or their co-conspirator? Why did they take the portal remote? This all amalgamated into one single imperative; Sound the alarm. He managed to crawl over to the alarm button and pressed it. Before he passed out, the alarm sounded all over the park. Duncan and the mercenaries looked at each other, before Ursula muttered, "Shit. We have to get out of here." The four ran, past the unconscious Adrian, back to their truck.
This situation had just gotten… complicated.
