Seven

Sarah Harding took a deep breath and smoothed the front of her blouse as she had done at least twenty times in the previous hour. She tried to rationalize her apprehension. She was used to speaking to bored students and faculty, she was no stranger to large crowds, particularly after her flirtation with fame following the San Diego incident. There seemed to be something different about this time, however. Perhaps, she told herself, it was because her words were going to affect world history.

She convinced herself that what she was doing was not only right, but her duty. Tim's pleas for her help had stuck something deep within her. She had jumped at the chance John Hammond had given her, as so many people would have, but she only came to regret it when she had inadvertently placed her loved ones at risk. It was fine when it was her ass on the line all those times with the big cats and the man eating predators, but quite another when it was the lives of innocent civilians she placed in harms way.

She cleared her throat and poured herself a glass of water from a carafe sitting on a low table next to her. Tim opened the door to the conference room and smiled gamely. "Are you ready for the class to begin, Dr. Harding?"

Sarah nodded and tried for the ghost of a smile, but it died on her lips. "Send them in. Lets get this over with."

Tim opened the door wider and in spilled a group of about twenty people. Tim and Nick she recognised, but the rest of them were new faces. They wore name badges, Sarah noted. She sighed inwardly and gathered some papers together as the small group found their seats.

When there was a sense that everyone was done fidgeting, Sarah Began. "My name is Sarah Harding. You might know my name from some of the studies I have released on the hunting habits of large predators in the African Savannah, but its more likely you know my face from the 11 o'clock news after a maternally enraged Tyrannosaurus Rex tore apart San Diego. Young mister Hammond convinced me to come talk to you, as you are going to come into contact with the animals on Isla Nublar, and I have been able to study them up close.

"What you all first need to understand is that these creatures will not be easy to kill. Its not like a buffalo cull, where you shoot them from helicopters as they run. You will be on the ground for the most part, seeking them out in their habitat, and if you make a mistake, you will be killed."

Sarah paused for effect. She let her eyes roam over the group, noticed a few people nodding like they understood. She wondered how they would cope when faced with the very real prospect of a bus – sized dinosaur chasing them as they blindly flailed and offered themselves up to sharp teeth and powerful jaws. "I would like to pint out that while I did have a chance to observe the hunting patterns of most of the animals on Site B, I have it on good authority that InGen bred more species that were not on show on either island. I can only offer educated guesses about the habits of these creatures. Now if you will all turn your reading material to page 33, we will start our in depth study of the smaller predators..."

Kate endured Harding's lecture out of respect, but she really wasn't interested in what the paleontologist had to say; Kate had no intention of coming into close contact with those claws and teeth and the bad equation they made in her mind. She wanted to tell Nick that she had no intention of actually setting foot on the island, but she knew that if the mission was to go off with as few mistakes as possible, she would need to coordinate the delivery of her equipment and ensure that the team knew how to use them. After that, she had every intention of waiting as close to sure as she could get.

Harding was an interesting woman, she decided. Equal parts vulnerability and steel backbone. She had stared these creatures in the eye and she had been one of too few survivors from the failed Site B expedition. Rumor had it that Harding suffered a complete mental breakdown after her ordeal. Kate sipped her lukewarm coffee and watched as Nick and Tim sat in deep conversation with Sarah Harding. Nick looked more switched on than he had in years. Despite everything that had happened between them, Kate still felt that familiar twinge when she saw him with that spark in his eye. When they were together, she felt like she could follow him the ends of the earth for whatever cause he believed in. She smiled despite herself, thinking of the times when they were both young enough to be brave and stupid enough to believe they could ever make a difference.

The fight had left Nick after what happened at Site B. Like many Earth First types, he simply shrugged his shoulders at the world and said "You win". Kate had done the same, let other idealists take up the charge. She reconciled her own failure to change the world a number of ways: That the problems were just too big and the number of people to fix them too small, and that she alone could not change an entire generation's way of thinking. Nick for his part had held on for slightly longer, his zeal reaching a fever pitch that sometimes scared her.

her thoughts were interrupted by Julio Vincente, asking her a question. She frowned at him, a bemused smile on her face. "I'm sorry. Did you say something? I was a world away."

He smiled. "Looks that way." He looked around as if checking to see if he was within earshot of anyone and stepped closer. Kate's instinctive reaction was to stand back. Vincente noticed this and then eased the pressure on her personal space. "I was just asking whether you think this is right, what we're doing."

Kate nodded. "I think its right." She noticed that she did not inject the right amount of conviction into her response, and answered more forcefully. "I think that its a necessary mission. Its important for so many reasons. I mean, the research is all there to support--"

Vincente held up a hand. "Let me ask you this. Would you have agreed to this if they hadn't offered you a butt load of cash?"

Kate mulled this over, noticing that Vincente was watching her face intently. He was certainly someone who could see through bullshit. "If I had any doubts, Doctor Harding's talk has dispersed them."

Vincente nodded and held up his Styrofoam cup in a little salute. "Thats a very good answer. Let me know when you wanna tell me the truth."

Kate was left with the feeling that Vincente was trying to unsettle her, and she couldn't think why he would want to do that. She drove home in silence, the windows rolled down so the breeze could lift her hair. She wanted to tell Nick about the exchange. She glanced down at her cellphone sitting on the passenger seat and thought how easy it would be to open up the old channels once more, be conspirators again. They had once been able to communicate almost without words, even had their own language of shortened words or sentences. When they worked and played together, they were rock solid. Or so she thought.

She drummed her fingers on the driving wheel, mad at herself for even thinking she could just reopen that old wound, She licked the fact that he kept his distance now. Their interaction so far had been purely mission-driven, delving into technical and logistical problems, and nothing more. These exchanges were brief and offered them both a chance to hide behind something. Calling Nick out of the blue with this bit of probably useless information would lead to more complications all round, and she didn't think she could cope with complications right now.

By the time she had reached her apartment, she had decided to keep an eye on Vincente herself. If he was up to something, then she would pass the information on.

She just hoped to God she had misread the man.