Anguirus111 Note: I'm not saying what happened to Regis on his trip into the jungle with Jake and the others in this story. The reason for that being is that the entire scene appears in Demons of the Past and I have no desire to rehash the entire thing. That and copy and paste doesn't work right any more when taking things from :D. And no, I don't have any idea where Steviesaurus disappeared to either considering I don't believe she was in the truck bed when Regis witnessed what he witnessed.
Workers Village: The truck rumbled to a halt back in the village with a fine layer of blood on it on top of a fine layer of caked mud and dirt.
"My God," said Regis sickened to death at what he had seen out there. He stumbled along the dirt road with his camera in his hand before just flat out collapsing on the ground from shock. Jake and Gerry approached him and stood over his body.
"Well he took that well, all things considering," said Gerry shrugging.
"Still, his reaction does put me a little bit ill at ease," said Jake. "Are things really that bad here? I mean I realize all the senseless killing a couple months back was wrong, but now we're doing it for a very important reason."
"Yeah but he doesn't know that," said Gerry as he lifted Regis up and over his shoulders as he dragged him back to the bungalow. "And you've been having hallucinations where you're combating your conscience about all this, and don't try to deny it, its obvious."
Jake nodded grimly.
"And what the hell were you thinking saying that we should grab the thing's tongue?" asked Gerry with a laugh. "That's just gross."
Jake laughed. "It seemed like the savage thing to do."
"Yeah it's a regular Lord of the Flies around here," responded Gerry shaking his head. Steviesaurus squeaked at that moment in Jake's arms as it tried to get free from his grip and descend on a single blade of grass growing on the roadway.
"Don't worry," said Jake to the thing. "You can be the main character Piggy."
Gerry got a huge laugh out of that one as the dinosaur sensed it was being made fun of and snapped at Jake.
"Easy, only joking," said Jake as he set the beast down and it ran and quickly ate the single blade of grass before returning and walking next to the scientist.
"What should we do with Regis?" Gerry asked.
"Leave him with Stormy until he wakes up," said Jake simply.
"Until who wakes up, him or Stormy?" chuckled Gerry.
"Oy vey," said Jake defeated. "Listen, just because that man has a Pac-man obsession doesn't mean we can make fun of him."
"Yeah well he's no Dr. LaSalle," Gerry grumbled.
"Yeah I don't understand why they recalled the Doctor yet left the physician," said Jake as they pushed the doors open. They put Regis down on one of the few beds in the hospital and went to find Stormy. They found him hunched over his Pac-Man arcade machine asleep with a half eaten Dagwood in his right hand that was hanging over the side of the machine. On the screen it read: GAME OVER.
"I say we unplug this thing, it's wasting too much juice," said Gerry heading for the outlet.
"Don't," said Jake stopping him. "That's the only thing keeping him sane and with it off, if someone gets injured we'll be screwed."
"I guess you do have a point," Gerry admitted reluctantly before he began poking Stormy. "Hey Derek it's time to wake up."
Derek slowly stirred to life before he shot up suddenly, startling Jake and Gerry along with Steviesaurus.
"Wakka, wakka, wakka!" he shouted before looking around. "Oh hey hi guys!"
He chomped down on his half-remaining Dagwood as he looked at the two scientists.
"Nice sandwich," said Gerry disgusted at the sight of the thing. Stormy looked at him defensively while holding the thing protectively.
"You want a dagwood, you go fight your way through miles of jungle, and somehow miraculously make your own!" he shouted annoyed.
"Yeah how'd you do that anyway?" asked Jake remembering when Stormy vanished a couple weeks back only to reappear with the sandwich in hand.
"I dunno," said Stormy confused. "I blacked out."
"Anyway," said Gerry trying to stop this bizarre conversation. "Regis is out cold, we're leaving him here until he wakes up. Check him out and then contact us when he does."
"Wakka," Stormy acknowledged before heading back to his game.
"This from the only guy on the island not participating in Project ELE," said Gerry shaking his head incredulously as he and Jake left and proceeded into the roadway. At that exact moment, two workers ran out from an alleyway and hit the ground.
"Get down!" they shouted as Jake and Gerry dropped as an explosion tore up dirt and asphalt nearby pelting the entire area. As soon as the temporary rainstorm finished, the two workers got up and clapped hands as Jake brushed himself off.
"Project HSWS?" surmised Jake still a little frazzled.
"You got that right," said Gerry coughing up some dirt before wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "We've finally finished wiring the entire place and have installed multiple exit points in every building. We're not going to give up without a fight."
"We'd better not," said Jake darkly. "Because I am not going to see this island turned into some sort of Lost World."
"I hear that," said Gerry as they both advanced towards the Operations Building. "Now you're sure about not introducing the predators into the herbivore pens to both lessen the population and conserve on power?"
"Yeah I'm sure," said Jake as they entered into the building and made their way to the Control Room. "Because when the lysine madness finally kicks in all the dinos are going to be storming those fences and they're going to go into a hyper-aggressive state and I'd just as soon they go after each other than us."
"But if your theory is right and they have come to hate us during the last four months or so…" Gerry trailed off.
"That's why we have to prepare for the worst and brace ourselves for when those fences finally fail," said Jake before sighing. "And we have to get Ed Regis out of here in a week tops because if he isn't out of here and those fences fail, then Ingen is never going to know what's going on here."
"Assuming that they don't try and truly bury this project," Gerry pointed out.
"But unfortunately for them they hate lawsuits more than they hate this place," Jake reminded him with a chuckle before dropping his humorous tone. "And they'll have a hell of a lot of them if they abandon us here."
"Plus your wrath right?" asked Gerry. "I don't think anyone would want to face that."
"I'm not leaving this island," said Jake pointedly. "Not without a fight. I'm not leaving until I am personally satisfied that every person has already been evacuated first."
"You know I
was thinking," said Gerry after a couple moments silence. "
That there are two more spots available on that helicopter. I think we should have a lottery and pick two
of our members to be evacuated with Regis and tell Ingen
a better account of what's been going on here since the last recall over a
month ago."
"I agree," Jake said nodding. "Although neither me, you, or Sam can be in the drawing."
"Yeah," said Gerry a little glum but knowing that it was the only way. "When should we announce it?"
"Later on in the week," said Jake. "We'll run a computer program to randomly pick the two lucky winners but I'd just as soon rather not risk Tim rigging it somehow."
"You really think he would?" asked Gerry as they entered into the Control Room.
"Anything's possible when it comes to protecting ones own life, this island is evidence enough of that fact," said Jake bitterly. "I'm not taking any chances, real or imaginary."
"Alright," Gerry conceded. "So what do we do now while waiting for sleeping beauty to wake up?"
"Jake, you're not going to believe this," said Tim as he looked at a radar display. "But it appears that we have incoming."
"What?" Jake asked astounded. "Are you sure it's not just a glitch? We seem to be having those a lot lately and as I recall making sure the radar antenna works correctly isn't high on our list of priorities."
"We haven't had any problems with it yet. Granted we did have to clear some debris off of it from that tropical storm, but it was working fine when Ed Regis showed up," said Tim.
"So what is it?" asked Gerry as he and Jake came over and looked at the radar display.
"A jet of some kind, but its transponder signal doesn't match to anything owned by Ingen," said Tim as he pointed to both the dot on the screen advancing towards the island and then to a gigantic book giving transponder codes for every Ingen owned vehicle.
"Are you sure it's not just going to buzz us?" asked Jake skeptical about the whole thing.
"No, it's definitely entering into a standard landing path for this island," said Tim assuredly. "It'll be landing on the runway in fifteen minutes."
"Who is the nearest team to the runway?" asked Gerry.
"Team A-27 but they're busy mapping out defensive positions that we'll need at the end of the week," said Tim shuddering.
"Fine," said Jake leaving. "Gerry let's roll."
"Right," said Gerry following him out of the room. They advanced out to the parking garage and got in Jake's Interceptor and took off for the landing strip. Ten minutes later they arrived just as the plane appeared in the distance heading for the dirt runway.
"It's a leer jet," said Gerry whistling as he looked at the thing through a pair of binoculars at the thing. "Somebody must be rich."
"Hammond?" Jake suggested.
"In an unlisted transport, it'd have to be extremely doubtful," Gerry pointed out. The jet now lowered its landing gear and settled into a final approach as it soared low over the trees.
"Gun runners?" Gerry suggested with a laugh.
"That wouldn't sound too bad right now, we could use any armaments we can get our hands on right now," said Jake as the plane landed on the ground and bumped along as it roared past the two scientists before finally slowing down. It smoothly turned around and rolled back towards them before coming to a complete halt. The jet was silver colored and completely lacking any identifying markings save for the transponder code on the tail fin. Jake swung up his rifle to aim at the exit hatch as Gerry un-slung his weapon as well. The hatch opened and lowered producing a flight of stairs but no one emerged.
"You're an unregistered transport on an Ingen controlled island," Jake called into the craft. "Come out with your hands up, you're officially under arrest for industrial espionage."
A duffel bag flew out of the plane and landed on the ground in front of them as a figure emerged in a jungle excursion outfit.
"Is that anyway to greet an old friend?" the figure asked sarcastically. Jake groaned and lowered his rifle.
"For God's sake what hell are you doing here?" the scientist demanded annoyed.
"Your phone lines died, I'm just here to make sure you're still alive," said the figure with a grin as he advanced down onto the ground and picked up his bag.
"We're fine," said Jake promptly. "Now get back on that plane and get out of here unless you have some sort of death wish."
"I have a week don't I?" the figure asked. "And I fully intend to spend my vacation here."
"Like hell you-," began Jake before Gerry interrupted him.
"Who is this person?" the vet demanded. Jake sighed and held his head in agony.
"Gerry Harding meet Pacific Pharmaceuticals CEO and royal pain in the ass John Brown," said Jake.
"So you're the thorn in Jake's side," said Gerry shaking hands with the CEO.
"That's right," said John with a grin.
"If you don't mind my asking, what is your fascination with our fair island?" asked Gerry suspiciously.
"Well first of all I've come bearing gifts," said John pointing back to his plane. A group of workers were hauling down several crates through the hatch and onto the ground as the CEO walked back to them. He took a crowbar and popped open one of the boxes revealing an assortment of military-grade weapons.
"Standard RPG's, Cobra Assault Cannons, miniguns, plasma based-pulse rifles, the works," he said taking one out and aiming at a tree. John squeezed the trigger and a shell rocketed out of the gun taking out a nearby tree.
"Basically what you'd need to take out a less than small army," said the CEO putting the weapon back. "Or for instance a herd of creatures that should've been extinct sixty-five million years ago, either way they're all yours."
"Why?" asked Jake. "Why are you turning this island into your own private dumping ground for illegal weaponry?"
"Because like you I have no desire to see this island or the rest of the world fall to the dinos," said John simply. "And as to your question Mr. Harding, I'm interested in the technology this island possesses. Not to clone dinosaurs like Biosyn mind you, but to use it to create new designer drugs to improve humanity's chances of survival against deadly diseases and infections."
Jake's eyes widened at the mentioning of Biosyn.
"How long did you know?" he asked darkly.
"Know what?" asked John feigning confusion.
"How long did you know that Nedry was going to turn traitor on Ingen?" asked Jake again. John sighed deeply.
"I don't think this is the time or place to discuss this," he said avoiding the question.
"We will discuss it now," said Jake harshly. "How long?"
"It's not that simple," said John. "But if you want the truth then fine I'll tell you the truth but it's not going to be what you want to hear."
"Which is?" Jake demanded.
"That I knew about Nedry and chose to keep quiet about it in the hopes that Ingen would fall so Pacific Pharmaceuticals could easily acquire it," said John. "It's not."
"So go on, tell me the truth then," said Jake.
"Can we talk about this inside the plane?" John asked pointing back to the open hatchway.
"No!" said Jake. "We're going to discuss this now and in the open."
John sighed before shrugging defeated. He snapped his fingers and a worker brought out a pair of chairs that they sat in as Gerry went off to inspect the weaponry as well as call for a transport. Jake and John sat down as John sighed and held his head.
"Alright," he said finally sitting back up. "You want to know about Nedry? Fine, here goes. The truth of the matter is that yes, I do have spies in other organizations that I think are trying to horn in on my market. Now nine times out of ten I don't act on the information I am given. The only times I act are when that information involves my company directly, whether through theft or other means. Anyway, seven months ago, one of my spies in Biosyn reported a small item indicating that someone in Ingen was willing to sell the company out for money. This report took awhile in reaching my desk but when it did, three weeks after it having been first received, I had my spy devote more resources to finding out who was the traitor. A couple months later, this around the time that Jeffrey was killed Jake, my spy indicated that whoever was selling out Ingen was going to meet up with Lewis Dodgson, hopefully that name means something you, in a café in San Jose. Afterwards I soon learned about what happened on Nublar regarding Jeffrey and how distraught you were over it. I decided that now would be the perfect time to try and kill two birds with one stone so I persuaded you to come to San Jose to talk about what happened. Because remember Jake you weren't his only friend, Henry and I knew him too. So we talked in that outdoor café and I recall you mentioning that Arnold Nedry was sitting at one of the other tables. At that point I realized that he must be the turncoat that I was looking for, but you said you had to leave and took off just as Lewis Dodgson arrived. I tried to call you back, but if I spoke to loud and chased after you only to bring you back, it'd probably tip off the two individuals and the opportunity would be lost to catch them in the act."
Jake's jaw dropped at this part of the story.
"I almost went back to say that I should pay for part of the bill before deciding that you should pay in full for making my life such a living hell over the years. What could've been," said Jake. "So what happened next?"
"Well naturally I couldn't hear a word they were saying, save for Nedry yelling out that Dodgson was with him, no one cares indeed Nedry, but I soon found out," said John. "A couple moments later, Dodgson produced a can of barbasol that he promptly unscrewed to reveal a hidden compartment underneath that had storage clips for small round pellet shaped objects."
"The embryos," said Jake with realization as he remember John's earlier conversation him right after Nublar fell. "So that's how he was planning on getting them off of the island."
"Yeah, anyway they shortly went their separate ways, after Dodgson astonishingly paid Nedry's check, and I ran off to the local Pacific Pharmaceuticals branch to consider my options of which there were only two. I could either tell Ingen directly or have my spies start spreading rumors. But realizing that there wasn't any time, I called directly to Peter Ludlow himself and told him the whole story," said John Brown leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. Nearby Gerry was loading the crates onto a semi while also listening amazed at the whole story.
"And he didn't believe you," Jake completed before groaning. "Pete, you piece of crap couldn't you have just listened to someone else for once?"
"Then he threatened me with legal action for attempting to stir up trouble. He said that if I told anyone else about this he'd personally bring Pacific Pharmaceuticals to court for attempting to spread panic and chaos in a rival corporation. Then he hung up leaving me with a dilemma on my hands, on whether or not to call Nublar and warn them or just clam up and hope nothing bad would happen as a result of Nedry's actions," responded the CEO.
"I can imagine," said Jake leaning forward. "So what'd you decide?"
"I decided to hell with it, those people on that island do not deserve what's coming to them. So I decided to call Nublar. Unfortunately our radio transmitter was in the last phases of an overhaul and was finally finished that night. As soon as it was fixed, I immediately dialed Nublar and…damnit," said John getting distracted as he held his head in agony as his eyes began to water. "Those people didn't deserve what happened to them!"
"The line was dead," Jake finished as he leaned back in his chair. "Don't tear yourself up over this you did everything you could."
"I could've done more. No, I should've done more. Instead I did nothing," said John.
"That's not true," Jake responded. "You did ship those weapons to Indigo in anticipation of something like what Nedry was going to pull."
"That's right," said John nodding his head. "I forgot about that. I did ship those weapons to you, both because of what happened to Jeffrey and because of this whole spy situation. I'm sorry to unload all of this on you, but it's been a burden I've been shouldering for the past several months and…I just had to tell someone. And it could have only been you…I'm sorry if that's unfair."
"Its fine," said Jake waving it off. "Don't live your life with a guilt that you can't escape from. Believe me I know, I have that guilt and it's tearing me up, both physically and emotionally."
"You've got to let go Jake," John warned. "You have to move past Jeffrey's death. If what I've been experiencing with this guilt is even a fraction of what you've been feeling then I find it a miracle you can even stand, much less talk."
"The hatred I have burning inside of me for all dinosaurs is the only thing keeping me going right now. I pushed past empty weeks ago and am operating on pure adrenalin alone and if I were relieved of my driving force in life, I'd just curl up and die. I won't do that, not now. Not with the fences about to fail."
John nodded. "Good luck."
"Luck can't save us now," said Jake darkly. "Only Regis' report can do that and right now I don't have much faith in it accomplishing anything. The bottom line is that nothing short of a natural disaster is going to Ingen to finally get off their butts and finally evacuate us."
"Maybe not," said John. "I am attempting to pursue legal action to force Ingen to evacuate you off of this island under the guise of hazardous working conditions. Unfortunately I have to channel it through the Costa Rican government and there's a lot of red tape but I think I can get away with it in a few months to finally be able to evacuate the whole lot of you off of this deathtrap."
"Well I'm going back to the village with these weapons," said Gerry finally butting in. "I'll see you two around sometime. Mr. Brown it's been a pleasure."
John nodded and shook the vet's hand again.
"You ever need a job I think we can create a position for you in our research park in Djibouti," said John to the departing worker.
"I'll think about it," said Gerry with a grin. "Bye."
He boarded the semi with his Ingen workers and it departed into the island only to be swallowed up by the trees.
"Well I've got to get going," said John standing up as his workers filed back into the plane.
"Somehow I didn't really think you were staying for a week," said Jake. "So why come at all? Why supply us with these weapons that you'll never get back?"
"Guilt," John explained. "And shame. I will see you again and you will work for me…or at least according to one of my spies at any rate."
Jake's eyes widened. "Regis is your spy? You son of a-!"
John laughed. "One of my two I have in your company, unless you want to be the third. Anyway, please let him finish his job, Ingen has to know what's going on here."
"Will do," said Jake as John headed up the stairs to his plane before stopping.
"Oh," he said. "Before I forget, do you want me to deliver anything back to anyone on the mainland? Somehow I doubt you get mail calls anymore."
Jake looked back to his Interceptor and sighed. "Actually yes there is but it'll take me a minute to get it."
"We'll be waiting," said John disappearing into his craft. Jake entered into his Interceptor as Steviesaurus sat in the front seat asleep. Jake smiled and rubbed the dino's frill before opening the glove compartment and taking out a sheet of paper that he quickly scrawled a note on. Before taking out a needle and syringe and tapped it before looking at Steviesaurus.
"I hope you live a long and full life without me," he said to the thing.
Later: Jake walked towards the plane carrying a wooden crate with an envelope on top. He walked up the ramp and set the crate in one of the empty sections of the plane and secured it in.
"There we go," he said rubbing his hands.
"Now we'll kidnap you and take you off this island so you won't die here," said John abruptly. Jake looked at him wide-eyed as John began laughing at his expression.
"Just kidding," he said. "But be careful Jake, it's a real jungle out there."
"I will," said Jake nodding.
"So where's this going?" asked John putting to the crate.
"Stephanie Sandelder's place," said Jake simply. "This letter goes with it too."
"What's in the crate?" asked John.
"Just some stuff she left behind that I think she might want before it probably gets destroyed in the crossfire," the scientist responded. "I wish you were staying with us though, this should be one hell of a fight."
"I would but I am the CEO of an international conglomerate, a position that I've worked hard to obtain," said John.
"Bullshit," said Jake knowing him better. "What's your real reason?"
"I got married," said John simply. Jake began uncontrollably coughing.
"What?" he asked incredulously before he tried to form another coherent strain of words and failed.
"It's true," said John simply as he held up his hand with a ring on it.
"No way," said Jake not believing it. John just shrugged.
"Who's the unlucky lady," Jake asked while laughing.
"You remember that woman you ran into around the turn of the decade in that camp in Costa Rica when you were searching for A1?" John asked.
"Yeah, Sarah something or other as I recall," said Jake not at all surprised that John knew about A1. "Why?"
"When she came to get a job at Pacific Pharmaceuticals she wrote you down as a reference. I of course knowing you was sent by corporate to conduct an interview with her and she briefly mentioned that you had talked about me. Well things clicked and after a three year long relationship we finally tied the knot just a couple weeks ago. We came to Costa Rica for our honeymoon this week and I was already planning a shipment to be sent to Sorna. I told her this morning that I had to do a quick errand for an old friend and I immediately flew out here," said John.
"No shit," said Jake at the abrupt turn in John's life. "Well I wish you the best. I just wish I had been there."
"I tried to get you off this island but Ingen was adamant about you staying here and again threatened me with a lawsuit. Sorry J," said John sadly.
"Don't worry about it," said Jake. "I'm through putting up with Ingen's stupid orders. We're going to defend this island by any means necessary. Later."
John nodded solemnly as Jake bounded down the steps and walked out to his car as the jet powered up. Jake walked down to his car and turned it on before taking up a position next to the jet as he revved his engine.
"What's going on sir?" asked the pilot. John strapped himself in and looked at the window with a grin.
"Just go," he said. The plane began picking up speed as the Interceptor tore off alongside it. The two continued racing down the runway neck and neck until the plane finally pulled away and lifted up into the air. John watched the shrinking car and sighed.
"What's up?" asked the pilot from the cockpit.
"I just got a funny feeling like I'm not going to see him again," said John distantly as the workers around him just looked at each other confused as they had no idea what was happening on that island or what was going to happen. The plane flew beyond the shore and once again Isla Sorna was swallowed up by the cloudy darkness.