Chapter 4

Hanging up the phone with Karen, Claire couldn't help but think that today was just not her day. Not only was she running late, but she'd had to survive a second helicopter ride with Mr. Masrani back to the control room so she could pick up her car. Since he had insisted that she contact Owen Grady, she had also been forced to scramble and rearrange all her afternoon plans to fit it in.

Now, not only had she told Zach and Gray earlier that she'd spend tomorrow with them, she had just promised her sister the same thing, so her original plan to catch up on today's work tomorrow was also falling through. Sighing heavily, she resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to cut back on sleep if she was going to have any hope of getting back on top of everything. And that was assuming nothing else went wrong – she might have to give up sleep altogether. Although, dammit, did she just tempt fate?

As she pulled onto the lot that Owen called home, Claire reminded herself that she could at least be thankful that Karen had distracted her from this visit. She could've spent the whole car ride fuming over it, as she had during the first half when she had driven all the way out to the raptor paddock only to be annoyed that he wasn't there. Now, as she put the car in park, she could see Owen sitting on an upturned bucket fiddling with his motorcycle. She saw his gaze flicker over to the car briefly, before he looked away.

Getting out, she couldn't help herself, checking over her reflection in the car window. If he didn't want to see her, fine. She didn't want to be there either. But she wasn't going to let him know that. She would put on her business face and make it through this whole interaction without letting him phase her. She could be the cold bitch everyone believed she was.

Walking towards him, Claire called out. "Mr. Grady. I need you to come take a look at something."

She watched as his gaze flickered over to her again, an eyebrow raised. "Why are you calling me Mr. Grady?"

"Owen," Claire corrected, resisting an eye roll. "If you're not too busy."

"I'm pretty busy," Owen replied, lifting a bottle of coke and taking a sip.

Claire clenched her teeth, pasting on a smile, and ignoring his passive aggressiveness. "We have an attraction–"

"That's not what you said the last time I saw you."

Okay, that sounded… accurate, considering their last interaction had been at the end of their ill-fated date. But, she wasn't going to let him needle her. She wasn't there to rehash that out again. It was over and in the past. She had moved on. He could too. "I'm talking about the dinosaurs, Mr. Grady." She emphasized his name this time, hoping to get a slight dig in and point out that she was there for professional reasons, not personal.

"Owen."

She suppressed another eye roll, watching as he got up, walking towards her. She would just stay on topic. She could do this. "We have a new species we've made–" Claire started, before having to duck back, as a fly chose that moment to start buzzing around her head.

Owen came to a stop in front of her, and she watched as his hand darted out, catching the fly. She offered him a smile of thanks, to be polite, only to want to turn it into a grimace at his next line.

"You just went and made a new dinosaur?"

"Yeah it's kind of what we do here," Claire stated. "We're hoping to have the exhibit ready to open to the public in two months. Mr. Masrani wanted me to consult with you."

"You wanna consult here or in my bungalow?"

She probably should've expected the line. It was just the kind of joke she should expect from him. Claire allowed herself an eye roll this time, before stating blandly, "That's not funny."

Owen chuckled, moving past her as he said, "It's a little funny."

As he headed up the steps around the one building on the lot (was this what he considered his bungalow? It was definitely more of a shack), she followed after him, trying to get back to the reason she was there. "We'd like you to evaluate the paddock for vulnerabilities."

"Why me?" Owen called over his shoulder, as she watched him disappear around the back of the bungalow.

"I guess Mr. Masrani thinks since you're able to control the raptors–" Claire started.

"It's all about control with you," Owen interrupted, coming back into sight, walking towards her. "I don't control the raptors. It's a relationship." He paused briefly in front of her, giving her a quick look up and down before he stated, "It's based on mutual respect." He moved forward, passing her to head back down the steps, before tossing a final barb, almost as an afterthought. "That's why you and I never had a second date."

She couldn't help her reaction, blurting out "Excuse me?" before she even really processed his words. Was he really implying that she hadn't respected him? Unsure how to strike back, she went with "I never wanted a second date."

"Who prints out an itinerary for a night out?" Owen chuckled, sitting back down on the bucket to work on his motorcycle.

"I'm an organized person," Claire shrugged. Well, at least she knew he was never going to let that go. Maybe the fact their date had been bad had been a blessing after all.

"Hell, what kind of a diet doesn't allow tequila?" Owen continued.

"All of them, actually," Claire replied swiftly. "Besides, I never said I was on a diet. That was just you jumping to conclusions." It was the first line she said that seemed to strike home, as he glanced over at her. She quickly added on, "And what kind of a man shows up to a date in board shorts?"

"It's Central America. It's hot," Owen shrugged, turning back to his motorcycle.

Yeah, she probably should've expected that wouldn't land. He was too cocky for that to impact his sense of pride. Taking a deep breath, Claire reminded herself why she was there. "Okay. Okay. Can we just focus on the asset, please?"

"The asset?" Owen got up, moving back towards her, looking annoyed. "Look, I get it. You're in charge out here. You gotta make a lot of tough decisions. It's probably easier to pretend these animals are just numbers on a spreadsheet. But they're not. They're alive."

This was the second time today someone had felt the need to reminder her the dinosaurs were alive. Did everyone really think she was that stupid? "I'm fully aware they're alive."

"You might have made them in a test tube, but they don't know that. They're thinking, 'I gotta eat. I gotta hunt. I gotta…'" Owen gave a crude gesture, pumping his fist. "You can relate to at least one of those things. Right?"

Claire pursued her lips, fighting back the reaction that was building inside of her. Did he really just imply…? Was he honestly saying that he thought that she was… what? A sexless ice bitch, like everyone liked to gossip? When he'd asked her out, when he'd already knew her name, she'd assumed that he'd heard the rumours (who hadn't). But she'd also assumed that he'd chosen to disregard them as being just that, rumours. Now… now she wasn't sure what to think. And she was feeling even more confident in her remark about not wanting a second date. If this is what he was normally like? Yeah, no thanks.

She walked down the few steps towards him, stopping on the bottom step that left her at eye level. "I'll be in the car." She paused, wrinkling her nose, and then finished with, "You might want to change your shirt. They're very sensitive to smell."

Claire stepped around him, before striding confidently towards her car. Now that she knew he couldn't see her, or at least couldn't see her expression, she bit her lip and clenched her fists in front of her, holding back the scream she wanted to let loose. This was really not her day.

o-o-o

He changed his shirt.

He debated not changing his shirt, just to piss her off, but, she was right. It did smell. It wasn't like he'd put on the cleanest shirt he owned for working on his bike, knowing that oil stains were likely. And, he'd been putting off laundry for a few days and had had to grab a shirt out of the hamper.

But it's not like Owen had been expecting her visit. In fact, he was surprised she even knew how to find his place. He had been pretty sure she'd erased all knowledge connected to him after their date. They hadn't crossed paths since that unfortunate night. And, besides the gossip that had circled about their date for a few weeks, he hadn't heard much about her. He had chosen to focus his time and energy on the raptors. As earlier today had shown, it was starting to pay off.

Exiting his trailer, he climbed into Claire's car, noticing that she was tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Nervous energy or frustration over the delay, he wasn't sure. He just fastened his seatbelt, settling back in the seat as Claire quickly pulled out of his lot.

The first few minutes went by in silence. Owen wasn't sure how to start a conversation. Or, really, if he even wanted to. He was still replaying their previous conversation in his head. He stood by his comments that bringing an itinerary to a date was patently ridiculous and that there was nothing wrong with board shorts. But he was more hung up on her reaction to his comment about respect. It had be the one time her expression had faltered, her response feeling unscripted and real. Well, the emotion in the response had felt real.

He also wasn't really sure how to take her comment about the second date, and was sort of kicking himself for even mentioning it in the first place. Not that he wanted one, not after that first date. The first date did exactly what it was supposed to do, show whether or not a second date made sense. And it didn't.

Looking out the window, he let out a sigh. This whole day had been a rollercoaster, from the high of the raptors finally following his commands to the unwelcome adrenaline rush of having to enter their cage. It felt fitting that he'd have to interact with Claire today, of all days.

A small huff from his left drew his attention away from the window, his gaze darting over to Claire's. She was still staring resolutely out the front of the car, focused on the dirt road they were speeding along. He wasn't sure if he was surprised by the fact she was a speedster behind the wheel, or if it really just confirmed what he'd already thought.

"What?" Owen asked.

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing," Owen disagreed.

"Just ready for this day to be over with," Claire said after a moment.

"You and me both," Owen concurred.

"Yours has gone off the rail, too?" Claire asked, sounding surprised as she looked over at him.

"I'm in a car with you, aren't I?" Owen joked. It was the wrong response. He knew it the moment it came out of his mouth, watching as her shoulders tensed and her grip on the steering wheel tightened. He let out another sigh. "Let's just say it was an eventful morning with the raptors and that I'm not normally home in the middle of the day."

"Are you–is everyone okay?" Claire glanced over again, this time taking a couple of seconds to actually look him over.

"Still in one piece," Owen shrugged. Physically, he was fine. He wasn't sure he'd completely processed everything else yet. But, since he'd been trying to not think about it, this side trip actually seemed like a nice distraction. He decided to try to get them onto the topic at hand. "Where are we going?"

"Paddock 11."

Owen could never remember what dinosaurs were kept in what paddock. He was sure the raptors paddock had a number too, but he didn't know what it was. "Which one is that?"

"A new one, near the base of Mt. Sibo," Claire replied. "You haven't heard about it?"

"I don't really pay much attention to any of that," Owen admitted. "The raptors keep me busy, and at the end of the day, I like to put my work aside."

"That's…" Claire trailed off.

"...Nice?" Owen tried to finish for her.

"Yes. No. I don't know," Claire shrugged. "I don't think I can remember the last time my work didn't follow me all hours of the day and night."

"And you wouldn't have it any other way," Owen added.

"What? No. I mean… I love my work. And I've worked hard to be able to do it. I just… that doesn't mean I don't want to take breaks from it."

"When was the last time you took a break?" Owen asked, curious.

"Just over five weeks ago," Claire admitted, with a bit of a wince.

"Five weeks? Surely you get time off more often than that."

"Yeah, well, breaks aren't always as good as they sound," Claire was pointedly refusing to look at him.

What happened five weeks ago? Oh… Owen looked back out his window. He wasn't really sure how to follow that. They rode the rest of the way there in silence.

o-o-o

Pulling her car to a stop, Claire switched off the engine, eager to escape. The silence that had descended over the car for the rest of the drive had felt borderline awkward. She knew Owen had made the connection from the time frame she gave him, and she was annoyed that she hadn't said something else. She should've said six weeks. Or four. She didn't want him to think she'd been focused on their date. Or that it had affected her all that much. She prefered that he assume that she had been able to just put it aside and move on, just like he seemed to have done.

Claire headed straight for the staircase, ready to have this over with. She just needed to give Owen the details and then she figured she could leave him there to do… well, whatever it was he felt necessary. She couldn't see any reason she would need to be there while he did his evaluation. There were others around who could give him access to whatever he needed and answer his questions.

As she started up the stairs, Claire realized that after all that, she hadn't even filled him in on any background yet. "We've been pre-booking tickets for months. The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest. Kind of like the space program. Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor."

She heard him scoff from behind her. "They're dinosaurs. Wow enough."

Rolling her eyes, but glad he couldn't see her, Claire corrected him. "Not according to our focus groups. The Indominus rex makes us relevant again."

Owen was out right laughing now, as he repeated the name. "The Indominus rex?"

To be fair, it was a name that Claire had fought against, thinking it was trite and that surely the marketing people could come up with something better. Unfortunately, she had been overruled. Of course, she wasn't about to let Owen know that. "We needed something scary and easy to pronounce. You should hear a four-year-old try to say 'Archaeornithomimus.'' Claire pulled the door open to the inside, stepping back to wave Owen ahead of her.

Owen paused at the top of the staircase to meet her gaze and said: "You should hear you try to say it." Before she could react or say anything, he headed into the viewing area.

"So, what's this thing made of?" Owen asked, as he moved over to one of the windows that looked down into the paddock.

Claire walked to one of the tablet screens, just as she had on her previous visit. She took a quick look into the paddock, but she couldn't seen the Indominus. This would take even longer if it continued to hide. She kept her gaze away from Owen as she responded, already knowing what he was going to say. It's not like she was happy that she couldn't actually answer the question. She'd asked. Multiple times. And had continually been told it was only being shared on a 'need to know basis' and that she 'didn't need to know.' "The base genome is a T. rex. The rest is... classified."

"Wait, you made a new dinosaur but you don't even know what it is?"

Claire knew he'd turned to look at her, even though she was still avoiding looking at him. She could feel his gaze penetrating the back of her head.

She wasn't about to admit to him that she didn't have clearance. "The lab delivers us finished assets and we show them to the public," she replied casually, like there was nothing wrong or abnormal about the situation. Looking into the paddock, she still couldn't find the Indominus. She turned towards Nick, the guard who was sitting at a desk by all the security monitors. "Nick, can we drop a steer, please?"

After she got a nod from him, she finally turned back to Owen, watching as he moved closer to the glass to observe the feeding system that was currently moving half a carcass into the paddock.

"How long has the animal been in here?" Owen asked, stepping right up to the glass.

"All its life."

"Never seen anything outside of these walls?" Owen turned to look at her.

Claire shrugged. "We can't exactly walk it."

"Is it always fed with that?" Owen asked next, turning to look back at the crane, which was now lowering the steer.

"Is there a problem?" Claire asked in return, although she already knew the answer. She'd said it earlier to Mr. Masrani himself. The Indominus had been predicting the feeding schedule. The use of the crane, which had been installed after an unfortunate employee incident, hadn't seemed to make things better. Instead, the animal had seemed annoyed to be delivered food from above, and there had been reports that some of the handlers and guards had been creeped out by her behaviour as she watched the crane move the food across the paddock.

"Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional," Owen shrugged. He was back to peering into the paddock. Even though the steer carcass had now been released, there was still no sign of the Indominus.

"Your raptors are born in captivity," Claire reminded him, not sure what the difference was.

"But they have siblings. We make sure they learn social skills. And, just as importantly, I imprinted on them when they were born," Owen moved away from the window he had been looking out, walking the length of the viewing area to get a better look around. "There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food."

Positive relationship? Ha. Of course, she couldn't say that to him. She decided to focus on what he'd said about socialization. Could they make some tweaks there? Find her… a friend? "You're saying she needs a friend. That we need to, what? Schedule play-dates? That sort of thing?"

"That depends, how old is she?" Owen asked. "Did they mess with her growth rate?"

"She was born in March," Claire supplied. "And yes, she's had an accelerated growth rate."

"Hm," Owen hummed, processing the information.

"Where is it?" Claire moved towards the glass, tapping against it lightly. Not that she expected it to do anything. They had designed the glass to be soundproof, not wanting any visitor sounds to spook the Indominus or set her off. As it was, the Indominus had already attempted to break the glass. She didn't need any other encouragement.

"Did she do that?" Owen asked, and Claire startled, not realizing he'd moved back beside her. He was looking at the cracked window.

"Yes."

"Hm," Owen hummed again before moving away, pacing the length of the viewing area.

Claire watched him for a second, before moving back to the tablet. Tapping through the screens she started a thermal scan. "It was just here. We were just here," Claire muttered.

Nick's "Oh shit" comment was quiet, but Claire heard it, as she had moved over to stand near him. Her gaze was focused on the screens mounted on the wall behind him, each representing a different camera in the paddock, as they one-by-one returned a negative result.

"That doesn't make any sense. These doors haven't been opened in weeks," Nick said, staring up at the screens.

She didn't have a chance to respond, Owen's voice drawing her attention to the other end of the room, where he was standing at a window staring out, pointing at something she couldn't see.

"Were those claw marks always there?"

Claire hurried across the room to his side, looking out at the deep scratches scaling the wall. "Do you think it…" she paused to take a deep breath, this wasn't happening. "Oh, god." She turned around, looking back towards Nick, where she could see the screens still flashing 'No thermal signatures detected' and her heart sank. "She has an implant in her back. I can track it."

She didn't wait for a response from anyone, pulling her phone out and quickly dialing the control room. "Lowery? Get me coordinates on the Indominus," Claire demanded as soon as Lowery answered. While she waited for a response, she looked over at Owen, who was still inspecting the paddock walls. "Do you really think she could've climbed out?"

"Depends what she's made of," Owen said with a shrug. "And how big she is. Is she agile? Has she tried climbing walls befo–"

Claire held up a finger to Owen, pausing him, as she heard Lowery speaking up. "Uh, she's in her paddock."

"What do you mean she's in the paddock?" Claire asked, moving closer to the windows that faced the main area, slowly sweeping her gaze over the paddock. She felt Owen come stand beside her and knew he was doing the same. "We ran the thermal scans, they came up empty."

"I don't know what to tell you Claire, but it's showing her in the paddock. I checked the tracker, it's still active and the last location ping was from…" There was a pause and Claire knew he was looking it up. "It just updated again – 22 seconds ago."

"That doesn't make sense," Claire said, still seeing no evidence of the Indominus. The steer carcass was lying untouched on the paddock floor.

"What is she made of?" Owen asked again. "Depending what they used…" he trailed off. When Claire turned to him, he added, "there are animals that can modulate their infrared output."

"Thanks Lowery," Claire said distractedly, hanging up even though she could hear Lowery calling out questions.

"You think she…?" Claire turned to Owen, looking both hopeful and fearful over the answer.

"Like I said, it depends what they used to make her," Owen shrugged. He peered at her intently for a moment. "You… don't actually know, do you?"

Claire pursed her lips, wanting to deny it. Not wanting him to know the truth.

"Why are they hiding it from you?" Owen asked, turning back to the window.

"The lab delivers us finished assets…" Claire started again, repeating the company line, but she trailed off. Standing there, unsure whether to believe Lowery that the Indominus was in the paddock, but not wanting to doubt him either, the company line felt weak. And she felt like a fool for not having pushed harder. The Indominus was different. It wasn't like not knowing that they used DNA from, say a monkey, to complete the Gallimimus. The Indominus was completely designed from scratch. There was no one DNA strand they were trying to complete. "But the claw marks?" Claire asked instead. "What about them?"

"Dinosaurs aren't stupid," Owen replied after a moment. "Well, not all of them. The raptors are very smart. They can problem solve. They can plan."

"You think she… planted the marks?" Claire looked doubtful.

"Well, it's that or she climbed out," Owen held up his hands, palms up, moving them up and down, like he was weighing the options.

"Her tracker shows she's in the cage," Claire reminded him.

"Of course, you're assuming the tracker is still on her."

"Oh god," Claire paled even further. She looked at her phone. Did that mean the Indominus was out? Should she be calling in a Code 19? Asset out of containment? She looked at Owen, "Do you… do you think that's likely?"

"Hard to say having never seen this dinosaur, or having any knowledge of her behaviour," Owen shrugged. "But, I've learned with the raptors not to underestimate their intelligence. How big is she? What's the chance she could sneak by people without them knowing?"

"She's pretty big," Claire said. "Like I said, base genome was the T-rex and she's probably about the same size as Rexy right now."

Owen let out a low whistle. "Hmm, I would say it's unlikely she would've been able to climb out without being noticed."

"How do we confirm?" Claire questioned, although mostly rhetorically, her mind still going through the options.

"We could always go in."

o-o-o

"Are you crazy?!"

It had been well over an hour since Claire had turned to him and said those words, a look of horrified shock on her face, but Owen hadn't been able to push them aside. Everytime he glanced into the paddock, they'd pop up again.

He stood by his suggestion that maybe someone needed to go in. In fact, he stood by it even more now, since they still hadn't seen any sign of the Indominus. And if she was as large as Claire claimed she was, he was getting more and more impressed every moment she remained hidden from them.

They'd managed to pull up the location of her tracking signal on one of the tablets in the viewing area, and she hadn't moved. Well, she had shifted around a bit on the screen, but the technician had informed him that didn't necessarily equal movement. At his confused look (tech really wasn't his thing), he'd been told that the tracking system had an accuracy of about 2 meters, and so the dinosaur could be expected to be close to the dot on the screen but that it was not uncommon for a stationary object to appear to drift slightly. He had also learned that the trackers were powered by the dinosaurs body heat and movement, so the fact that it was still supplying information was a good indicator that it was still in the dinosaur, as there had been no reason to add a battery so that it would continue to work after the animal died.

In the time between Lowery first informing Claire that the Indominus was still in the paddock and now, a lot had happened. A technician had come out to the paddock to setup the tablets to be able to access the tracking information (why it hadn't been accessible before, Owen had no idea, but hadn't pushed). Claire had left shortly after to go back to control, muttering something about Mr. Masrani and Dr. Wu. And Owen had attempted to do what he'd been brought out to do in the first place – examine the paddock. Of course, having still not seen the dinosaur in question, he was having trouble giving a fair assessment. He needed to not only see her, but preferably also see her moving about. Get an idea for how agile she was. How fast could she move? Could she jump? Could she pick up objects? All questions he still had no answers to.

Now, standing at the window staring into the paddock, he replayed the conversation he'd had with Claire after he'd made his suggestion. And after she'd called him crazy.

"You want confirmation," Owen had reminded her.

"You just said she's an intelligent animal, and now you want to doubt that? Which is it?" Claire had rolled her eyes at him.

"I never said she was intelligent," Owen had defended himself. He didn't know how intelligent this dinosaur was. But his experience with the raptors had taught him not to underestimate them. He also wasn't quite sure that the dinosaur could or would be smart enough to create a plan where not only she managed to make it look like she had escaped, but that she had also figured out how to hide from the scanners (and to know to do that), and to have found a way to stay hidden from everyone searching for her.

"No one's going in there," Claire had stated firmly, pointing a finger at him. "I mean it. There's got to be another way to confirm. She can't stay hidden forever."

After she'd shot his idea down he asked what he could do to help, and she'd asked him to do what she'd originally brought him out there for – to assess the paddock for vulnerabilities. He'd taken a slow walk around the outside of the paddock. There was one giant door that almost reached right to the top of the walls and he'd immediately made a note that that was a bad idea. Actually, he'd made a more general note when he'd then seen the second, smaller, human-sized entry way, that they needed to implement the double-gated security system that they used at the raptor paddock. If this dinosaur was able to scratch up – deeply scratch up – the reinforced concrete walls, he didn't think a single barrier was enough. He didn't trust it to not attempt to break its way out should either door ever open.

But, as much as he was thinking that, as much as he'd noted it down on his list of things that had to be fixed, he also was getting more antsy the longer the dinosaur managed to stay out of sight.

He believed them that the tracker was in it that the dinosaur was hiding. But that was mainly because he found it harder to believe that she'd managed to actually escape. That she could've climbed out of her paddock, that was surrounded by a construction crew. Not if she was anywhere as big as they were claiming.

There had also been no reports of anyone seeing this dinosaur. So if, by chance, she had got out, she hadn't headed towards any of the populated areas.

What they needed though, was confirmation. They needed to lay eyes on her. To not only confirm she was in the paddock, but to confirm that she was actually okay.

That was Owen's latest concern. He'd looked at the history of the tracker and it was unusual for this dinosaur to stay still during the day. Instead, she had a habit of constantly prowling the paddock, although she did appear to prefer the treed area at the back, away from the viewing windows.

"Any sign of her?"

The voice startled Owen out of his thoughts and he turned to find he'd been joined by a few more people. He recognized the one who had spoken up – Molly Holt. She was a veterinarian who had done shifts at the raptor paddock in the past.

"Nope," Owen said. "The longer this goes…"

"Yeah," Molly nodded. "She's not all that friendly."

"You've seen her?" Owen asked.

"I've been involved in some of her past evaluations," Molly said.

"Do you think she'd be able to climb out?" he questioned, leading her over to the viewing window to show her the claw marks.

Molly let out a low whistle and took a moment to examine them before answering. "She's smart," she said. "And while I'm not sure I like the idea that she's intelligent enough to be this cunning, I actually find it more difficult to imagine her successfully scaling the walls."

"That's what I keep coming back to," Owen stated. "But I haven't seen her yet, so I'm going off some vague descriptions. I need to get a look at her."

"You and me both," Molly nodded.

"She's not hungry," Owen commented. "She hasn't come out for the steer that we dropped. And she's not thirsty, or she's by a water source, because we haven't sensed any movement. Or at least nothing indicative of a large animal. I don't get the impression she's scared of anything – more that everyone is scared of her."

"She can be creepy," Molly agreed. "Did they tell you she's white? It can be… off putting."

"The only thing I keep coming back to, is that someone is going to need to go in. That a chance to escape, opening the doors, is going to be the only thing that might goad her into moving. Well, that and time. But I don't think we can afford to possibly wait her out for days."

"Not if we don't want animal cruelty charges," Molly sighed. "And I don't like that idea anyway. She could be injured. We don't actually know that her lack of movement is by choice."

"So we're going to have to go in," Owen said decisively.

"You want to be the one who tells control?" Molly asked. "I got firm instructions from up high that no one is allowed to enter the paddock."

"Yeah, well, we've run out of options," Owen shrugged. "We'll tell them after."

And the story has now definitely has diverged from JW. What do you think of Owen's suggestion that they go in? What do you think's going to happen?