A Grey Guard jeep parked in the Administration's lot and Darbinian and Yu came out, heading towards the entrance of the building while ash was falling around them.
Earlier, Brunet had talked with both of them to agree on how they would approach Dearing's nephews and get the information they had from them.
They had of course agreed that they should not appear intimidating and act rather affably in order to not frighten innocent boys who had been deeply affected by the events.
Thus, it was unarmed and wearing only their uniforms that they went to meet them. However, during the talk, a microphone hidden in Darbinian's uniform would transmit to the barracks the conversation in real time.
Once the one who had followed Grady's jeep told them that the ex-director had dropped her nephews at the Administration, Yu and Darbinian had left as quickly as possible.
But as they were crossing the parking lot, they saw that their way was blocked by the two J-SEC officers that guarded the bridge.
"Halt!" One of the watchmen stopped them, speaking behind his dust mask. "We must submit you to a search, simple security protocol."
"That's new…" Darbinian mumbled behind the balaclava that hid the lower half of her face.
She pretended to be surprised but she knew that she and Brunet had something to do with its implementation.
They complied and the other officer came to search them.
Noticing that they had no weapons on them, he stepped aside and allowed them to move forward, although he stayed vigilant.
"All clear, you can pass."
Darbinian and Yu crossed the bridge, climbed the stairs, and after they removed the ash that had fallen on their shoulders, they entered in the Administration and lowered their balaclavas.
The whole building was buzzing: Employees kept running from one end of the building to the other, often with a phone on their ear, to transmit instructions or carry documents while reporters had gathered in the Atrium, cooling their heels while waiting for new information. Among them was Cassandra Landis, the San Diego Herald journalist who had tried to take pictures of the Indominus the previous day.
Ignoring where exactly Dearing's nephews were, the two grey guards agreed to split up and contact each other as soon as one of them would find them.
X
Zach and Gray were in one of the break rooms, close to the control room.
They were not alone since some of the people working at the Administration had taken advantage of a moment of respite to come there.
One of them had turned on the television and choose a US news channel.
While Gray was lying on the couch and had fallen into Morpheus' arms, Zach couldn't find sleep and was also watching the television, which was then showing live footage of the so-called Battle of Burroughs, taken from a cell phone. Grey Guards were advancing, firing while smoke covered most of the street and cries of terror were heard. A shadow passed over the one who had taken this footage.
"This footage doesn't come from a war-torn country but from the world-famous theme park Jurassic World," the anchorman said before relating the pterosaur attack on the city and the chaos they had caused.
He then went on Mount Sibo's eruption.
"At 04:02 pm local time, a 7.2 earthquake on Richter scale struck the island and caused heavy damage throughout the park," he stated while a video of Burroughs enduring the earthquake occupied the screen. "It was even felt in the Five Deaths and in Liberia, Puntarenas and Jaco, more than two hundred kilometers from the epicenter, and lasted two minutes and sixteen seconds.
"At 04:06, the solidified lava dome atop Mount Sibo exploded, releasing a large amount of tephra. As I speak, the plume has reached an altitude of seventeen thousand meters and is about to cover the entire island. The coastguards fear that the ash cloud will soon prevent any air traffic over the island, making it difficult to evacuate and to transport there rescuers and their equipment.
"Although few were those that didn't expected the volcano to erupt in the near future given the recent increase of telluric activity on the island, no one thought that the volcano was going to erupt today and in such a sudden and violent way…"
Footage of the eruption and the coastguards' water-bombing planes attempting to extinguish the forest fires gave way to those filmed with a drone of the stampede in the reserve.
"According to InGen, this surge of volcanic activity made a mamenchisaurus panic in the late morning. In the wake of its panic, a pack of metriacanthosaurs escaped from their enclosure and attacked a herd and a safari truck, causing the stampede shown on these images. The vehicle and its passengers vanished into the jungle after it and the Grey Guard searched for survivors but ended up only finding a mass grave. The metriacanthosaurs behind this massacre were slaughtered. According to some of our sources, only two people managed to reach the park's main hub and as we speak, visitors are still declared missing. For the moment, the human toll of the crisis indicates one hundred and seventy-three dead and seven hundred and forty wounded. Hospitals and clinics of the Costa-Rican Pacific coast have received their first wounded a few hours ago and they expect to see more arriving in the next few hours and tomorrow.
"According to one of our colleagues from the San Diego Herald, park director Claire Dearing had been dismissed by InGen's board of directors and the management of the crisis went to the director of the security division, Victor Hoskins, known for the role he had sixteen years ago in the Horseshoe Bay incident where he and his team dealt with pteranodons escaped from Isla Sorna," the anchorman stated while they were showing the urgent press conference that Hoskins had held.
"The President announced on Twitter that he will have a long talk with his Costa Rican counterpart Luis Guillermo Solis about a country-wide collaborative management of the disaster. On this matter, the Navy announced that one of its destroyers, the USS Errinwright, had set course to Isla Nublar. Mr. Solis declared that it was the biggest tragedy that Costa Rica has ever known since the 1948 civil war, and all over the world, people are praying for the victims, as the trending hashtag PrayforNublar shows."
The report illustrated this part of the anchorman's speech with an image of the Eiffel Tower on which the Jurassic World logo had been projected, as well as a great number of tweets that had the mentioned hashtag, including some written by celebrities. The parade of tweets stopped on one, simple but striking, written by none other than Professor Ian Malcolm:
We pray because we know we don't control anything. We are at its mercy. #PrayforNublar
"In the name of the entire channel, I inform you that all our prayers go to the victims of the disaster and to the park's staff members. I wish you in spite of everything a nice Christmas Eve," the anchorman concluded.
As the closing credits rolled by, Darbinian walked past the break room and saw the two boys.
She then called Yu and he joined her shortly after.
They entered together.
"Good evening," Darbinian said to Zach. "Can we talk to you for a moment?"
"Yes, sure," the young man answered.
He was uncertain about what the two grey guards that had entered in the room, a Russian woman and a Chinese man, wanted from him but looking at the first, he recognized her.
"I recognize you. You're the one who killed the quetzalcoatlus that was chasing us. Thank you for saving us, we're indebted to you."
"I was only doing my duty," Darbinian replied humbly.
She cleared her throat.
"If we came to see you, it's to ask you some information," she said, taking a seat next to him on the couch while Yu positioned a chair in order to sit in front of the young man.
Gray began to wake up at that moment.
"It's about your colleagues, those who were murdered?" Zach guessed.
Darbinian nodded gravely.
"One of the two recruits who had been killed was the niece of my colleague, Lieutenant Yu. It would help if you tell us what happened exactly."
Seeing that Zach seemed uncomfortable at having to remember the horrible scene he had witnessed, Darbinian gently placed a hand on his wrist.
"Take your time…"
He inhaled deeply and narrated to them that part of their journey.
Among other things, he mentioned that Bellamy seemed to know the killers and that she was having a conversation with them while she was at their mercy.
"During their conversation, did you heard anything in particular?" Yu asked.
"One of the mercenaries, the one with the club. He seemed to really hate Sergeant Bellamy. At one point, he squabbled with some guy named Leng."
Darbinian and Yu widened their eyes in surprise and exchanged a troubled look.
Zach knew he might have led them on a track.
"Their leader. He was chanting in Latin when he executed the two recruits," Gray added.
Yu looked down to the floor and he put his fist in front of his mouth before exhaling.
"I'm sorry but that's all we remember," Zach assured them. "We still hope that this information will help you find the responsible persons."
"And they will," Yu said with a tight voice. "Thank you very much."
He and Darbinian got up and left.
As they walked down the steps in front of the building's entrance, Yu took a grim resolution. He planned to make his niece's murderer pay.
"I will skin him!" He said
X
Having listened to the whole discussion thanks to the microphone hidden in Darbinian's uniform, Brunet leaned back in his chair, pensive and angry.
It was not because the discussion was fruitless, on the contrary.
The few clues revealed by the two boys were enough to unmask the murderers.
They were on the island and they knew them too well.
In the garage, the guards that weren't on duty had also listened to the conversation via one of their radios, calibrated on the frequency chosen by Brunet and Darbinian. They too had realized who the assassins were and were roundly discussing.
"Maláka!" One of them roared. "The Slayers were behind this, we should have known since their "providential" arrival. I will send them pay a visit to Hades! Who's with me?!"
He was answered with several shouts of approval and some prepared to leave but when Brunet left the captain's office and came to stood on the metallic walkway that overhung the garages, his subordinates looked at him and among them, Chapuy asked:
"What do we do?"
Then Brunet thought for a brief moment, took a deep breath and declared forcefully:
"Assemble the men. We march on Burroughs."
