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After a few attempts at swiping the keycard he had stolen, Owen dropped it and took another from a passing worker. It had been, what, damned near half an hour since he had escaped and still no sign of Len or Barry or Blue.
If Mills's security were willing to shoot him and feed him to the Indoraptor, he hated to think of what they might have done with Len and Barry. Until he found them, all he could do was cross his fingers Barry had gotten her out of there safely. And that Len had not done anything impulsive. Hell, not that he was one to talk, but at least he had training in the Navy behind him. What did she have? A few self-defence lessons with him and some training in the tranquilizer weapons from the park.
No, Barry would have ensured her safety.
Behind him he heard quick footsteps, so he took the keycard and swiped the nearest door, ducking inside and quickly shutting himself in. He listened at the door for the footsteps to pass, and heard someone say 'they've escaped'. They must mean Lennie and Barry! He sagged against the door in relief, then turned back to see a large lab - beakers and…science shit everywhere. What the hell was going on? Was this where they had made the Indoraptor? Or other dinosaurs?
He took out his phone to start taking pictures to send back to Michael and Claire. When he turned it on, he saw a message from Claire. It looked like she had been trying to reach…probably all of them since Barry sent her the video.
Biting out a frustrated curse, he texted back 'you need to see this', then 'looking for L & B' before sending her photos as he explored the room.
Jars of weird science shit, notes that made no sense to him, computer programs on unlocked screens….
Moving around a corner, he saw jars full of tiny embryos all labelled D1(z), D7(p), E1(i), and so on. He walked closer and kept taking pictures. They looked…almost human. Not that he was an expert in embryos. Hell, he had fallen for that thing Len had shown him with the elephant embryo. Not that he was not pro-choice. Hell, what a woman did with her…lady bits was no damned business of his. But he still had thought the damned elephant was human and Len had to explain why she was laughing.
After a few minutes he sent another batch of the pictures off. Even if he was not equipped to understand what the hell was going on, someone on Michael Masrani's payroll would be.
A text from Claire popped up, immediately followed by another. 'Don't know where to start / Where are they?'
He sighed and kept walking, taking photos as he went and not texting her back. Honestly, he did not even want to think about where they could be.
Making his way back to the door, his eye caught on another door on the far side of the room that he had not noticed before. He snapped another picture of the door, sending it off again, before pocketing the phone and approaching. The label next to it was C8(e), like the labels on the jars.
Pursing his lips, he glanced from the door label down to his keycard and back. It was a terrible idea, considering he had no idea what those damned embryos were. But on the other hand there was only one way to find out, he supposed.
Taking a deep breath, he swiped the keycard.
Claire damned near threw her phone across the room. Owen was blatantly not answering her and it was doing nothing to help the anxiety building up. Where the hell were Lennie and Barry? Why were they not with Owen? Was that damned…thing still locked away?
Instead of wrecking her new iPhone, she unlocked the screen and tried texting Lennie while Michael forwarded the photos on to a scientist in the Masrani Global labs.
Across the room, she saw Joan sitting with Lowery trying to figure out what the hell was in the video.
"Pause it," Joan said, staring at the screen. Lowery froze the screen on an image of the thing reaching out toward Lennie and Owen, a piece of fabric in its claw. "It looks like a theropod, but the claws…they're almost…it looks like the arms are…almost quadrupedal…." She chewed on the cap of a pen as she stared, her leg bouncing anxiously. "It's definitely not a known species."
"So what do you think?" Michael asked as he stood up from his desk.
Joan sighed. "Honestly?"
Michael glanced over at Claire, then said, "Go on."
Joan sighed and wrapped her arms around her middle. "It reminds me of the Indominus, but…it's not. I mean, it's definitely man-made, but I really don't know what they used to make it. No dinosaur I know looks quite like it." She pursed her lips, eyes frozen on the image on the screen. "Maybe we should send this to my parents."
Claire chewed her bottom lip. It was not a bad idea, per se.
"They'll kill me," Michael said, walking over to put his hands on Joan's shoulders. Her hand slid up to take his almost immediately. It was sweet, watching him comfort her like that. Hell, nearly three years later and even she still had nightmares. She could only imagine what Joan must be feeling right now.
"Might be our only shot of finding out what it's made of," Claire said.
Michael stopped rubbing Joan's shoulders for a moment and stared at the screen, then lowered his head and shook it. "Give them more time. They're not done there yet."
"And if it gets out?" Claire shot back. "I'd rather be ahead of the game here, Michael."
With a sigh, he scrubbed at his jaw and walked over to the window. After staring out it for a few minutes, he turned back. "Sunrise," he said. "Give them and the people at the lab until sunrise to…get out, work out what's in the pictures…whatever. If we don't have anything then, we'll reach out."
Joan stood up and joined him at the window. "Honestly, they're probably asleep anyway," she said. "And you know dad, phones off at night unless the house is on fire."
"I think that thing qualifies," Claire groused, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. After a minute she uncrossed her arms. "Fine. Sunrise. Then we call in…everyone and anyone who'll listen."
Michael nodded, pulling Joan into his arms. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed. "Lowery, see what else you can find."
"Roger, Roger," he muttered, turning back to his workstation.
Lennie was convinced that white lab coat was not a better disguise than the workers jumpsuit she had previously worn, but Barry had insisted. In principle she agreed that wearing her torn jumpsuit was probably a bad idea since it would stand out, but where the hell was she going to hide if needed while wearing white? Not that there were a lot of options in the locker room they had found.
She stopped herself before she could imagine what Owen would say about it. Now was not the time to risk losing it again.
Instead, she shrugged into it and twirled around. "Well?"
Barry smiled. "It suits you better than the jumpsuit."
Lennie grinned. "Guess the PhD wasn't for nothing after all."
The sound of a door opening just outside the locker room reached her ears and she froze, Barry putting an arm out to hold her back. They waited a moment and when nothing happened, he turned back to her and said, "wait here."
When he disappeared around the same corner, she sighed. 'Here' was pretty vague, so she decided to look around the room she was in. There was not much in it, apart from closed lockers, benches with work boots under them, and some random personal items.
The locks on the lockers had a small pad on them, lit from behind to show a fingerprint. So she assumed they were biometrically locked, like the fingerprint reader on her phone. She wondered if they were as buggy as her phone - while dicking around, Owen had managed to unlock her phone last month. Secure, my ass , she thought, smiling at the memory. Not that she had minded, there was nothing on the phone he would not have already seen. The smile fell as she remembered seeing him drop to the ground, and she blinked back the tears.
To distract herself, she reached out and tried one of the fingerprint sensors.
Nothing.
Rather than being deterred, she kept going down the line of lockers until one opened and she grinned. Pulling it fully open, she looked inside and saw…nothing terribly interesting. A light jacket for the fall weather, a few snacks….
"Hey!" a voice called, making her jump.
She turned to see a man standing in the doorway, wearing a security uniform and she froze.
Fuck . Given that she was…well, a paleontologist, escaping well-armed guards without help was not exactly her forte.
"You're supposed to be down in the lab with the others, preparing the damned things!" he growled, clearly exasperated. "Damned scientists, no regard for Mr. Mills's time just because you…."
Lennie tuned him out as she processed what the hell was going on. He thought she worked there? Where the hell was Barry? Shaking her head, she put on a smile and looked up at the man through her lashes. Maybe she could use him to find Blue. Or Owen.
Nope, not now.
"Sorry, you know how traffic can be!" she said, biting her lower lip. "Would you mind taking me there? I don't want to be even later than I already am and…I just get so turned around, you know?"
The man sighed and grumbled to himself about idiot scientists and how no damned women should be down there, then turned around. "Well? Let's go."
Lennie smiled, catching Barry duck out of sight as she started to follow the guard.
A few minutes later she was waving the idiot off. He had taken her to a large open lab that was at least two storeys high, filled with…all kinds of dinosaurs. On one side, she saw a caged triceratops. In another corner of the room, she saw a small aviary filled with microraptors and archaeopteryxes. Another cage housed a group of dilophosauruses. None of the more worrisome carnivores were around. No cages with raptors or rexes or…worse. But they were not on Isla Nublar, so where the hell were they?
She approached the aviary and checked the animals inside. They looked…miserable. Each animal clung to the fake branches inside, barely hanging on. Their eyes were hollow, their feathers were dull and sparse. They were her favourite dinosaurs and they were suffering. It broke her heart.
None of the dinosaurs she could see were being kept in the greatest conditions.
The room was filled with scientists and lab workers checking shit on computer screens, looking at the dinosaurs and taking notes, yet not one of them seemed to…give a shit. What they hell were they going to do? No way in hell could she just leave these poor animals….
Off to the side, she caught Barry waving her over, so she slowly made her way across. As she was walking and inspecting the animals, she caught a guard asking if the animals were ready. Ready for what?
"Mr. Mills's guests are arriving," the guard said. "And we're starting here. The Indoraptor is the finale."
"They'll be ready, we just need a few more minutes to ensure -."
"I don't care," the guard huffed. "Just have them ready to go on the elevator in ten."
Lennie glanced over her shoulder and saw the guard walking away, muttering to himself and shaking his head. Just past him she saw what looked like part of the ground was cut out and a small control panel.
"I think that's the elevator," Barry's voice sounded to her left.
Startled, she looked at him, then ducked around the storage container he was hiding behind. "What the hell is going on?" she whispered. "These animals…the conditions they're in are…."
"Épouvantable," Barry muttered.
"We can't just leave them here," she said.
"Non," he agreed. "But we need to figure out what's going on first." He pulled her through a doorway and into the hall. "Allons-y. I saw Mills heading this way while I followed you here."
"We can't forget Owen," she mumbled.
"Non, we'll find him," Barry said. "Je te promets que nous ne le ferons pas."
"My French isn't that good, Barry, so I'm just going to assume you agreed with me," she shot back.
Barry smiled. "Oui. Let's go find out what Mills is up to, then we can find Owen."
Lennie tried to smile back, but she felt anything but happy. Dinosaurs in what was effectively a dinosaur puppy mill, Owen dead. God, even thinking the word nearly broke her again. This was an absolute shit day and it was only a few hours past midnight. What the hell else was going to go wrong?