Duncan Kent and Ursula Crabb were sitting in a truck in Theropod Kingdom, hearing Zander's gruesome death over the radio. Duncan turned to the Novum mercenary – both Zander and Ed were dead. Her face was unreadable, if a little depressed – Zander and Ed were idiots, but Duncan got the vibe that she at least thought that they were her idiots.
Ursula sighed, before turning to Duncan, "Well, that's the plan cracked wide open – we have to get out of here with the portal before anyone find us. Your boss, Frank, doesn't really think these plans through, does he?" Duncan rolled his eyes and said, "Firstly, I work for Mr. von Grimm, not Frank and, second of all, no he doesn't." Ursula briefly looked at him, confused, before suddenly, they heard movement outside the car.
Getting out of the car, Duncan stood behind Ursula, who scanned the area, before turning to him, "Any idea what could be out there?" Duncan sighed, "It could be anything; but it'll probably be in excess of thirty feet long, have big teeth and be very, very hungry." Ursula sighed, "Great. Just great." As if responding to Duncan's statement, a low, deep growl, like an alligator, reverberated from behind them. Duncan went rigid, as Ursula coldly scanned the area. Sensing movement in the bushes, Ursula reached for her gun.
She was fast.
Sharptooth was faster.
Duncan stood, rigid with horror, as he saw the mercenary disappear down Sharptooth's massive throat. He observed, rooted to the spot in fear, as the theropod before him scanned the area coldly. He looked an intimidating sight and, before it, Duncan felt as insignificant as a mouse. He began to slowly back away from the giant, in the hope that he wouldn't follow him. Suddenly, the tyrannosaur paused and sniffed the air, before turning its head to look at them. Duncan went rigid; he'd been found.
The theropod let out a low snarl, before turning towards Duncan, regarding him with a vicious coldness. He moved, slowly and surely, toward him, his massive strides meaning that he was quickly covering the distance towards him. Duncan. There was only one sensible thing to do. Run.
Duncan turned and sprinted away from the mighty theropod; however, Sharptooth, his prey drive activated, took off after him, his massive strides meaning that he was easily closing the distance between them. Whilst running, Duncan tripped over a root and lay, sprawled on the floor, as the giant tyrannosaur caught up to him. Duncan turned and looked, terrified, as the mighty tyrannosaur regarded him coldly. He lifted his hands reflexively, as a pathetic defence as the tyrannosaur loomed over him.
The last thing Duncan saw was a tooth-filled mouth and a gape three feet wide.
In the staff meeting room, Drew, Jack, Leon, Collete, Kyle, Nikolai and a recovering Adrian were sitting, trying to work out what had happened. Drew was walking up and down the room, pacing like an irritated tiger, "Maybe she got through the portal whilst you guys were getting everything through?" In response to this, Jack shook his head, "No, I think we'd have noticed if a young female T-rex ran through the portal", and Leon added, "We also keep the portal on a constant watch; if she slipped past we'd have noticed." Drew paused, thought about this for a moment, and raised his arms "Fine. That's it. I'm out of ideas. I have no theories as to how she got here."
Kyle looked at Drew, "The tyrannosaur is not the priority at the moment; finding the people who tazed Adrian and stole one of our portal remotes is." Leon turned to Adrian, "Could you see what they looked like?" Adrian sighed, "It was dark, but I only recognised one; Duncan, one of our guards. I think he let them in – I don't know if they forced him to or whether he was working with them", to which Jack replied, "Does it matter? More to the point, how did these guys find out about us?"
Nikolai sighed, "The man who attacked me obviously had combat training and experience – this was not a random thug. These were professionals with a military background – which complicates the matter immensely." The room all went quiet; it was Jack who spoke next, "Wait, Nikolai… are you talking about… hired guns? 'Cos that is some conspiracy shit right there."
Nikolai shook his head, "No. I looked at the taser gun I confiscated from him – and I found no insignia, no manufacturer's mark, no unique design… absolutely no indication of origin whatsoever. Mercenaries are rarely concerned with wiping all traces from their weapons. A black-ops squad would do that – it's standard procedure for them. If anything gets misplaced, there's no trail back to them." Drew pinched his nose with his hand and sighed, "Fine; a black-ops squad snuck into the park and tried to steal the portal remote. That still doesn't explain our main question; how did the tyrannosaur get here?"
At this, Nikolai sighed, "Komandir, I believe these two events are connected – the people infiltrating the park set the tyrannosaur loose as a diversion whilst they stole the portal remote." Jack looked at Nikolai, confused, "Hold on Nikolai, why would they need to steal the portal remote if they managed to bring back a tyrannosaur somehow?" Nikolai shrugged, "That, I don't have the faintest idea. However, I do think they've been planning this for a while."
It was Drew's turn to look confused, "How on Earth would you have guessed that?" Nikolai sighed and briefly looked guilty, before addressing the room, "As you all know, we suddenly had a long run of incidents for about six months; we had multiple containment failures, culminating in the mass breakout six months ago. I believe these were not little accidents, but were deliberately engineered." Jack briefly looked at him, curious, "How'd you find that out?"
Nikolai sighed, "After the Borealosaurus escape, Steven Woodward and I went searching by the paddock, in order to find a possible reason. What we found was a tablet, remotely linked to park computer terminals in order to remotely set a shutdown timer on a selected locking system. Woodward returned to Novum and enquired about leads, but he came up with nothing. And the tablet was stolen from my office before I could show it to anyone – and I'm starting to wonder whether our mysterious saboteurs were behind that as well."
Drew briefly looked confused, "Why didn't you tell me about this?" Nikolai sighed, "Because, without the evidence, you would make some snide comment about my being paranoid, komandir." Drew looked outraged, "I wouldn't do that!" Jack interjected, "Actually, yeah, you would have done, fearless leader." Leon nodded, "Yeah – that would be a very 'you' thing to do." Drew turned to look at his teammates, "Seriously?" Kyle, Adrian and Collete replied in affirmative. Drew sighed, before saying "Actually, yeah, I probably would… However, that doesn't answer the question, really; who the hell are they? What do they want?"
Suddenly, the door opened and Cynthia, Alice and Will looked in. Drew curiously looked at them and asked, "What on Earth are you doing here? And where were you when the T-rex was running loose?" Cynthia breathed out and gave Alice and Will an irritated look, before turning to Drew, "We have something to tell you. It's important."
