The Novum smugglers' base was a hive of activity. Two brawny men were forcing a desperately thin Postosuchus into a small cage, whilst crates containing animal parts such as Triceratops horns, Smilodon pelts, therizinosaur claws, Megatherium fur pelts and Hyneria fins, were being loaded onto a boat labelled the Venture. Tonight was the deadline – and the crew were working around the clock to make sure the boat was ready.

Frank should have been supervising this. However, he was in his office, pacing up and down like an irritated tiger. It was almost time for everything to be shipped – however, he couldn't leave yet. The last component in his ultimate agenda wasn't there. That was a fancy way of saying that Duncan and the mercenaries should have been back with the portal by now…

Suddenly, Percival von Grimm's voice hissed through the main communicator, "Frank?! Pick up the communicator and answer!". Frank suddenly reached to grab it and held it to his ear, "Hi, boss – we're almost ready to get everything off the island. However, Duncan and the ops squad aren't back with the portal yet…" Percival interrupted this with a shout, "Frank, the reason why they haven't got the portal is because they're dead – your 'one last play' failed miserably. Thanks to your clumsiness, we have been left without the portal, without our agent in the facility and the very real possibility that we have been exposed." Frank's eyes widened in worry, "But, boss, we can always make another play – all we need is to plan again and try some other time…" Percival interrupted this again, "The portal no longer matters! The primary objective now is getting everything off this island – I want every asset you have, the live animals, the animal parts, our portal, everything on the mainland as soon as possible. And, to make sure you don't mess this up, I will be supervising this personally – in fact, I'm headed to the facility now. I will be there in about an hour." Frank glowered, "Yes, Mr. Grimm." Percival sighed, "Frank; how many times? It's von Grimm." Then he hung up.

Frank left his office, seething in rage. The fact was, Mr. Grimm (sorry, von Grimm) was blaming him for his own failures – if Duncan had gotten the dino-huggers' one when he was supposed to, they wouldn't be in this situation. And that bastard had the nerve to blame him for it! Moreover, his own plans for what they'd been collecting couldn't come to fruition.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the mewling of one of the juvenile Triceratops they had "collected". Irritated by the wretched thing's squealing and to blow off steam from his own anger, he grabbed the taser and struck it against the side of the dinosaur's cage, creating a shower of sparks. Quietened, the little creature recoiled. Frank smiled.

"What do you mean, 'you've got something to tell us'? And what do Alice and Will have to do with it?"

To Jack's statement, Cynthia smiled, a fake, predatory smile, "Confession time; I haven't been entirely truthful with you. The reasons Theodore sent me here were… different to what he said to you." Alice and Will looked sheepishly to the floor, before Leon stated, confused, "Why did he send you?" Cynthia smiled, "You see Theodore became… worried about how interested the board were becoming after the whole Brontoscorpio thing; he knew them and he knew they thought it was an opening. He thought they were going to be up to something fishy; so he sent me here, undercover to keep an eye on the place."

She looked at Jack, "Firstly, I have to owe you an apology; I thought you were a saboteur. However, that got nixed fairly quickly; after the Velociraptor thing, I realised that nobody can be in two places at once." She paused, "After that, I thought you were one of ours… but then, I realised you aren't our type." Jack looked at Cynthia, confused, "You have a type?" Alice shrugged, "Apparently, they do.", to which Leon pointed at Alice, "I knew something was up with you!". At this statement, Cynthia turned to Alice, an irritated expression on her face, "How did he end up thinking that?" Leon gave Cynthia a look, "I overheard her talking to someone – I guess that someone was you. And, since I don't like people conscripting my friends to help them do shady stuff, you'd best tell us who you really are and why you thought Jack was a saboteur. We know someone's been infiltrating the park – do you know anything about them?"

As if sensing the confusion, Cynthia rolled her eyes and said, in the patronising, half-sneering tone one used when speaking to a four-year-old, "Go ahead, tell me what you know so far." Leon narrowed his eyes and Nikolai gave her a glare, before the latter stated, "As Leon stated, we know that someone has been infiltrating the park for quite some time – engineering all the containment faliures, as well as the mass breakout."

Cynthia lifted the tablet Nikolai had found after the Borealosaurus escape, "Correct. This is how they did it – it links to the main computer terminal, allows the user to select any chosen perimeter system and turn it off. That's how we had all the escapes; I thought, after I'd confiscated this one, it'd stop but it seems Duncan had a spare. One which he was very good at hiding." Nikolai looked at her, harshly, "So it was you who stole it from my office. But why?" Cynthia shrugged, "I didn't want you getting involved; the last thing I needed was you finding it and that Woodward starting to ask questions." Nikolai glowered.

Jack interrupted, "Anyway, we know a Novum black-ops team cam here and set a T-rex loose so they could nick the portal remote, if that's what you were going to tell us next. And that Duncan Kent, one of our guards was working with them." Cynthia gave him an annoyed look, "Yes, that's exactly I was going to say next – I didn't know you'd figured that out yet. Anyway, Duncan was helping the black-ops team – rather sadly, he's dead. It seems Sharptooth got hungry – we found the portal remote in the Jeep they nicked."

The team all looked alarmed, and Jack turned to look at his sister, "How'd she get you into this?" Alice sighed, "Cynthia met me and Will in the park bar after the Australopithecus mission – she told us everything and basically… conscripted us". Cynthia rolled her eyes, "I recruited you – if I pointed a gun at you and forced you to help me, I'd have conscripted you." It was Leon who spoke next, "Who's behind all this? And, more to the point, why are you telling us now?"

Cynthia shrugs, "Haven't the faintest idea. I thought it was just someone working behind everybody's back, but I've realised this goes further than I thought. It goes up to the top – the very top; one of the higher-ups is behind this. After finding the Jeep, we looked in his locker and found that Duncan's been chatting to someone at Novum HQ for months now – however, the number was encrypted, so we couldn't find out precisely who."

Nikolai sighed "And so we have a dead end." Alice stepped forward and said, "Not exactly – we found out that Duncan had been sending messages to an operation on the north side of this island. We think something big's going down…" Cynthia interrupted her, "And, with Duncan gone and the operation exposed, they're going to want everything off this island, as quickly as possible. We know where the operation is – and we don't have time to contact Theodore. We have to stop them. Tonight"