Along the hallway that led to the meeting room, located just a few meters from the control room, many employees of the Administration had gathered while awaiting Dearing's arrival.
When she appeared at the end of the hallway followed by Grady and her nephews, some had great difficulty in recognizing her with the shaggy hairs that were half-covering her haggard face, her dirty clothes and the hiking shoes she wore, almost too big for her feet and muddy, leaving visible shoe prints on her way.
The scent of her vanilla scent was now blended with the smells of the jungle's moisture and the tyrannnosaur's droppings, and it reached the nostrils of those she passed by.
Her gait was also punctuated by her right leg's limping and when they noticed that one of her jodhpurs' leg was torn and bloodstained, the employees wondered through which ordeals she had gone through.
Walking behind at her left, Zach saw Krill at the end of the hallway, crying in Cruthers' arms, who was himself deeply saddened. The two technicians just had learned about Young's death.
When they reached the door, the J-SEC officer guarding it stopped Grady and the boys.
"Only Claire can enter," he said. "Stay outside please."
Dearing turned and saw that Grady and Zach were giving her the same look, encouraging her to have courage.
She faced the door, took a deep breath, grabbed the handle, and entered.
Dearing scanned the room.
All the park executives, as well as Wu and Hoskins, were there, standing behind a large oval table. They had turned their gaze to her.
She noticed that Masrani was missing however, as she had expected his presence.
"Where is Mr. Masrani?" She asked.
"He had been escorted to the presidential suite of the Palace," Hoskins replied. "He is still in shock."
On the back wall, a large screen had been turned on.
It allowed to have videoconferences with InGen's higher-ups in Palo Alto, California. The screen showed a room whose walls were covered with a dark brown wood planks. It was dimly lit except at its heart, where ceiling lights illuminated a large oval wooden table and the chairs arranged around it, and at the level of one of the wall's centre where an InGen corporation sign diffused its own light.
In front of it and facing the camera, three individuals, key members of the board of directors, were seated. Each had a touch pad placed in front of them on the table.
On the right was Alistair Iger, the public relations director and spokesman for the corporation, a tall thin black man about fifty years old; On the left was seated a quite small spectacled septuagenarian with a bald forehead and whose red tie suit betrayed his stoutness: Dominick Silverman, chief financial officer; And finally, in the centre, was Susan Lynton, vice-president, who although she was a few years older than Silverman, looked younger because of her elegance and many even said that she still looked good for her age. She wore a flawless beige suit and had a squared haircut of blonde hairs.
She spoke first:
"Greetings, Mrs. Dearing. Since you have finally arrived, we can start the meeting despite Mr. Lockwood's absence."
Benjamin Lockwood, philanthropist, former friend of John Hammond, and notable sponsor of biology researches that aimed to improve the human being, was InGen's chief executive officer.
Having succeeded Peter Ludlow after his death during the infamous San Diego incident, it was he who reopened negotiations with Masrani for InGen's buyout.
In recent years, he had become notable for his absences, justified by health issues, and he supervised InGen as much as he could from his mansion in northern California, sometimes sending his aide to Palo Alto to convey his instructions and ensure their application. But actually, it was Lynton, more accessible to investors and present in the media, who ran the company.
The park executives sat around the table, except for Dearing, who was asked to stand between the table and the screen.
The board started by making a provisional assessment of the disaster:
"As you know, state of emergency has been declared for Isla Nublar," Iger said. "The figures we received a few minutes ago show a provisional estimate of one hundred and sixteen dead and four hundred and sixty-eight confirmed wounded, the kind of figures worthy of a large-scale terrorist attack and judging by the footage that we are getting, those numbers are likely to be revised upwards in the coming hours," he stated while looking at his tablet. "It's only a matter of minutes before the president himself call us and ask how the fuck it could have happened!"
"The operation Fallen Kingdom has been launched," Lynton continued. "Instructions have already been sent to the park's staff. As originally planned, the Anne B will dock at the east docks this evening and a first part of ours assets, including some animals of the zoo, will be loaded. The Arcadia is being equipped at Puntarenas as we speak and it will arrive in Nublar tomorrow at the end of the afternoon. The animals retrieved during the operation will be brought back to the mainland where they will be quarantined in our facilities in the Ismaloya Mountains while waiting to be transferred to the United States."
"An auction will be organized soon," Silverman announced. "The money we will gain through the sale of the retrieved biological and technological assets should allow us to partially offset the financial losses due to the current disaster. But if we want the company to avoid bankruptcy, budgetary restrictions and staff layoffs will be necessary. It starts now with yours."
Dearing froze on the spot. She expected it but it felt like she was dying.
"Of course," the chief financial officer said, "it hasn't been voted on yet, but following a discussion among the board's members, we can announce that you can already begin to clean your desk."
"And what opinion has Mr. Masrani on the matter you would ask us? You already know it thanks to the three breaches that you had with him today," InGen's spokesman added.
"If there was only that… You are also partly responsible for the current crisis," Silverman stated. "Let us expose the facts: Among other things, you refused Captain Hamada's proposal to build high-capacity bunkers…"
"I was forced to refuse because you were opposed to this proposal, Mr. Silverman," Dearing retorted.
Silverman pretended to be surprised.
"Really? I don't remember having any exchange with you about these bunkers."
You damn lying yid! Dearing cried silently.
Silverman didn't looked like it at first sight, but Dearing had been quick to realize that he was a sly bastard, openly lying in front of everyone. But it was his word against hers…
"You also built the quetzalcoatluses' aviary near Mount Sibo," the vice president added. "Although the decision was approved by the board, remains the fact that the damages due to the eruption allowed the pterosaurs to leave it."
Dearing was still unaware of how the pterosaurs had escaped and she would have accepted to be blamed if the park's chief steward, Ramon Figueres, hadn't intervene to reveal the circumstances.
"Nonsenses!" Exclaimed the latter, a well-padded fortyish years old man with a moustache. "It's the Indominus that allowed them to escape, I saw the footage! The aviary resisted to the earthquake and the eruption!"
"Is it true, Mr. Figueres?" Lynton asked. "Let's have a look on this footage taken by a drone…"
The screen displayed the footage, which shown the aviary and its cirque in the darkness.
In the background, lava flowed along the slopes of the Sibo and volcanic bombs were falling from the skies, exploding on the ground when they landed.
The drone's camera zoomed to show a large gaping breach in the middle of the aviary's mesh. Below the vegetation was in flames.
If one only considered this footage, he or she could have easily be led to believe that a volcanic bomb had made this breach.
"The news of the Indominus' escape has not yet reached the media's ears and we don't want that to happen," Iger exposed. "Imagine for a second the panic that would strike the remaining visitors on Isla Nublar if they learned that such a monster freely roams the island. The building in which you are would be immediately stormed."
"Being bound to the company by a non-disclosure agreement, any employee or former employee that will tell the press about what really happened will be sued," Lynton warned. "On their side, the grey guards are also bound by secrecy regarding their missions safe for a permission or a counter-order of their command. But Victor spoke with Marshal Störmer and the latter understands our position so there should be no risk on that side."
"Coming back to you, Ms. Dearing," Silverman said. "Your main fault today is your abandonment of the crisis' supervision to roam the woods with Mr. Grady, your virile wapiti."
The mention of this nickname made him chuckle and he addressed to Dearing a mocking smile of yellowish teeth.
Dearing blushed out of shame.
How did he knew?
"Yes, we know about your hanky-panky and we have audiotapes to prove it. If it was just up to me, I would be broadcasting them right now."
She remembered an email where Hoskins had announced that he would implement counterintelligence measures within all key InGen facilities.
She had not imagine that he was going to riddle with micros places that one didn't expected to be.
"Per se, we don't care about to whom you open the thighs but what bother us is that it happened several times in workplaces, an act that the code of conduct you both signed reprove," Silverman continued. "Disciplinary sanctions will also apply to Mr. Grady."
"Let's refocus on the subject," Lynton suggested, thinking that Silverman was lingering too much on Dearing and Grady's affair while there was more urgent matter to discuss. "We know that you went into the jungle for reasons other than those mentioned by Dominick. Victor told us that your nephews had been attacked and got lost in the Reserve. I understand your desire of saving relatives but it was the job of the guards and the J-SEC, not yours. It wasn't up to Vic to replace you at last minute! Unless the situation forced you to do otherwise, your duty was to stay in the control room."
And the board continued to incriminate Dearing for a whole quarter of an hour during which Iger even declared "Do not count on us to pay you a lawyer, we're not called Biosyn!".
Few tried to defend her, arguing that she couldn't have foreseen the way the situation would escalate and that many times, everyone was caught off-guard by the turn of events. But they rejected or ignored their arguments.
At the end of what was the equivalent of a trial or a pure and simple execution from Dearing's perspective, they finally concluded and dismissed Dearing with a cold but scathing "Goodbye.".
The screen was turned off and the meeting's attendance remained silent for a moment while looking at Dearing.
Not giving back anyone a single glance, she headed for the door.
"Farewell." She said over her shoulder to her now-ex colleagues, in a barely audible way.
Then, stooped and keeping her gaze low, exhausted physically and emotionally, she left the meeting room.
When she joined Grady and Gray, she said:
"All I want now is a good meal, a shower and a bed."
Soon after, she added:
"What a day! What a shitty day!"
They understood that she was going to be fired but as they were about to leave, Cruthers pointed Hoskins to Zach as he left the room in his turn:
"It's him. Go. He must know."
Zach had indeed revealed to Cruthers and Krill the fact that with Gray, they had witnessed the killings of three grey guards by a band of mysterious mercenaries.
Once he had told them everything, the technician had suggested that he inform Hoskins.
The young man then walked towards the director of the security division and hailed him:
"Uh excuse me, Mr. Hoskins?"
Hoskins turned around, surprised by the fact that a teenager had hailed him in the park's administration just after an important meeting.
"Yes, young man? What are you doing here?"
"Claire is my aunt. As you might know, she searched us after the attack of our truck. As my brother and I were crossing the jungle, we witnessed the murder of three grey guards."
At the announcement of this news, all who heard Zach turned to him and repeated with a stunned look the word murder.
Shocked looks were exchanged, and Hoskins looked Zach with a serious face.
"A murder? Tell me exactly what happened, please," he asked, taking him aside.
While Zach told him this part of their journey, Harriman joined his fellow technicians:
"Guys? I had the coast guards on the phone… What's all this racket?" He wondered, noting the agitation created by the news.
Cruthers then told him what Zach had said to him and as soon as he had the opportunity, Harriman passed the information to Brunet.
"Good Lord… The last thing we needed is that someone use the current chaos at his own advantage in order to accomplish his misdeeds," Hoskins said, troubled. "Thank you for informing me. Good luck! This island will soon be nothing but a bad memory."
Zach turned around and walked away to join his aunt.
When they disappeared at the corner of the hallway, the employees scattered to return to their posts.
Hoskins pulled out his phone and dialled Lynton's number:
"Susan? We need to talk. In private."
He returned to the deserted meeting room and locked the door behind him.
A/N:
Hypothetical Casting:
Jessica Walter as Susan Lynton
Orlando Jones as Alistair Iger
Tom McBeath as Dominick Silverman
