Sorna: "Seriously, Cass, I love you and all but what happened?" Sheila asked bewildered. "You look like somebody ate a rainbow and then crapped you out."
"I'm trying to be incognito!" Cassie responded exasperated. Sheila chuckled at that.
"Good job," she said sarcastically. "Now c'mon, let's get that gunk off you before it permanently ruins your hair. And then drown you in makeup remover."
Sheila immediately stood up and Cassie looked at her dismayed.
"I can't leave this facility," she told her sister. Sheila waved off that concern.
"Ah, but you're with me so no one will care," she responded. "But if you're concerned, here's this."
Sheila took out an identification badge and then clipped it to Cassie's shirt. Looking down at the image, Cassie saw an old picture of her self on the badge and then noticed that it was a foil and so as she moved the image to see the other image embedded in, it was revealed to be a clown.
"Seriously, how did you know I'd be here?" Cassie asked as the two headed for the exit. The receptionist at the front desk gave a brief questioning glance at Cassie, but quickly let it go when she saw Sheila as her escort. Sheila walked up and grabbed Cassie's room key.
"I was kind of expecting you to be here," Sheila confessed. "I mean if there's one thing Jake Whitacre is not subtle about, it's complaining. He's been talking for a few weeks now about Pacific Pharmaceuticals meddling in his affairs and so that meant they'd likely sneak someone in to Nublar during the demolition."
The two walked down the road of the Village headed for the Workers Quarters.
"Uh, speaking of, Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu saw me when I was doing some investigations and they could ID me," Cassie told her, a little nervous. Sheila looked surprised by that revelation that her sister had been up to a lot that she wasn't aware.
"You can relax, then," she said. "It's Thursday night which means Jake and Henry will be in Jake's office watching TV. But dish, what are you up to these days!"
Cassie sighed at having revealed more than she'd have liked to, not that Sheila couldn't tell if she was lying. The twin sisters entered into the lodgings and Sheila showed Cassie to her little apartment. It was decently furnished and had assorted technical journals covering the bed and some computer terminals set up nearby.
"Enough about me, what about you?" responded Cassie. "Living on a tropical island, we should all be so lucky."
Sheila chuckled darkly at that as she entered into her bathroom and began looking for cleaning products. "It's not all fun and games. You get people at the top constantly barking orders at you wanting everything down now. People who clearly have no idea how long it takes to really get the work down or all the intricacies involved. And then top it off we've lost our two lead programmers! I can't match their experience."
Cassie nodded her head at that. "While I can't confirm or deny that I know this, I heard you lost Arnold Nedry."
"Figures," said Sheila as she emerged with several bottles in her hands. "I can't imagine a worse way to go out though, being eaten alive."
Cassie was thrown for a loop with that statement. "I-I'm sorry, what?"
Sheila was now the one surprised. "You knew Nedry bit the dust and you came here in person to raid our computers and you have no idea what's really going on with this island and Nublar?"
Cassie shook her head with a look of genuine bafflement on her face.
"I don't believe it, you really don't know," said Sheila astounded. "Your boss never told you what it was Nedry stole?"
"Embryos, but of what he never said," Cassie said, not admitting that it was more refusal to say than just by omission. "So what was it?"
"Go look out that window while I prepare this stuff," said Sheila bringing out a bucket and pouring different cleaners into it. Cassie looked at her skeptical but got up and walked to the window which showed the overlay of the village and then off past the electrified fence and into the jungle.
"What am I looking for?" asked Cassie staring out at the setting sun.
"You'll see," said Sheila consulting her watch. "They'll be by any minute now."
Cassie continued watching, wondering what her sister could be so coy about.
SWOOP
And then a group of shadows crossed overhead as three Pterodactyls soared overhead and over the jungle below and a group of Brachiosaurs lifted their heads from the tree tops to watch them soar by before bellowing loudly. Cassie turned away from the window and her whole body was involuntarily shaking.
"Oh…my…God," she said and held her stomach tightly before she ran to the bathroom and threw up.
"You're going to Jurassic Park tomorrow. But for now, welcome to The Lost World," Sheila announced unapologetically as she continued mixing the ingredients.
Operations Building: Jake and Henry were watching TV as Sam rattled off the plan for disassembling Sorna.
"Are we going to get the Rex at least?" asked Jake, hopeful.
"My understanding is that all stock is to be liquidated," Sam responded grimly.
"And that's definitely it as far as new supplies are concerned?" asked Henry. Sam nodded his head as he consulted his clipboard.
"It certainly looks that way. We've slowly been getting the reserves off of Indigo and the last of it will be coming over shortly," Sam explained. "We're going to be up the creak sooner than we know because we're coming up on eighty days until the fences collapse."
"Yikes," said Jake whistling at that number. "Well we've done everything we can to slow production to the minimum level on our end."
"And so has everyone else, but all that served to do is allow us to meet that deadline Nicolette calculated in the first place," said Sam scratching the back of his head. "I don't know, I just don't know."
"And we can't get fuel from Nublar?" asked Henry. Sam shook his head.
"My understanding is that corporate needs to sell off all that fuel plus most of the other supplies as well just to break even with taking the park apart," Sam answered. "Jurassic Park was to be our sole source of revenue for the DRP Project, I don't need to remind you of that. Now we've got nothing. It's because we were primarily borrowing from investors that we never had much more supplies than we needed on a daily basis. It's also why we have such few personnel who duplicate tasks on these islands. Hence all these external programmers and others that are being contracted out to take apart Nublar."
Jake and Henry nodded their heads, but there was little they could do about any of it.
"So what's this I hear about one of the programmers looking she fell into a vat of paint?" asked Henry as Sam turned to leave. Sam stopped and chuckled at that.
"I don't pretend to understand," he said with a mild grin. "Good night."
The two waved him off and then turned to each other.
"If they do send us any dinosaurs from JP, should we check genders?" asked Jake. Henry nodded his head.
"Inconspicuously of course, provided they find no infant dinosaurs at any point," he answered. "Course, if they're…"
RING RING RING
Henry and Jake exchanged a confused look as to who would be calling Jake this late at night, but Jake shrugged and reached for the phone.
"If this isn't an incredibly beautiful woman, I'm hanging up," he said into it. Instantly he had to hold the phone from his ear as he got an earful from whoever was on the other line.
"Hold it, Carly, calm down," said Jake into it. "What's going on? WHAT? We're on our way."
The scientist immediately got up and grabbed his jacket as Henry also got up concerned.
"What is it?" Henry demanded as he followed Jake quickly out the door and then out of the building and across the bridge.
"I don't know the specifics, but Carly said something's gone wrong with the lysine experiment," Jake answered as the two ran went into the underground garage and Jake grabbed a pair of keys.
"Should we tell Sam?" asked Henry as the two got into one of the company jeeps and Jake fired up the engine.
"It's our problem, we'll deal with it until it gets out of hand," Jake stated as the vehicle drove out through the open fence gateway and off into the jungle.
Workers Quarters: Sheila was wringing Cassie's hair trying to get most of the color out as Cassie began taking off her makeup.
"I'm literally at a loss for words," said Cassie shaking her head. "Wow."
"Yeah, but it gets kind of mundane after awhile," Sheila told her. "Course then you showed up…"
Cassie sighed, wondering when her sister would get back to that line of thought.
"I'm here of my own free will," Cassie answered. "I'm trying to find out if Nedry was bribed by a company called Biosyn and more specifically by a man named Dodgson."
"Interesting," said Sheila emotionless as she wrung out some more color.
"Did they ever try and contact you?" asked Cassie after a couple moments silence.
"No and they'd have been wasting their time," Sheila told her. "This is a thankless job at times, but the staff here puts up with my craziness. That means more to me than any paycheck."
Cassie nodded her head. Her sister had always been more a loose cannon than she was and she'd gotten let go from a number of positions because of that. Then one day she announced she'd gotten a job with InGen and virtually disappeared with only occasional word that she was still alive.
"So are you going to turn me in?" asked Cassie finally as Sheila announced that she'd done all she could for her hair barring it all being shaved off, an idea she was enthusiastic about but Cassie steadfastly refused. Her hair had mostly regained its original brown color but had some streaks of orange, yellow, and red here and there.
"I haven't decided yet," Sheila admitted as she fumbled through her keys to lock her apartment. "Go and get the elevator, would you?"
"Sure," said Cassie as she walked over and hit the button. To her surprise the door opened immediately and Sam was on the other side yawning heavily. Cassie's eyes bugged out as her jaw nearly dropped before she gathered enough resolve to keep it shut.
"Oh, evening Sheila, you're up late," said Sam through bleary and half-closed eyes. "Good job with the tour vehicles you programmed to bring in the programmers, they worked great. When can you have the rest done?"
"Uh, thanks," said Cassie, astonished she was having this conversation, but then added a line that Sheila often said. "I'll have the rest done when they get done."
"Ha, I hear that," said Sam yawning again. "Well, goodnight."
Sam wandered down the hallway towards Sheila as Cassie immediately ran into the elevator and squeezed herself up against one of the walls so she wouldn't be seen. As she did so, Sam reached Sheila who had finished locking her door and looked at Sam with the same astonished look Cassie had just given him.
"Didn't I just talk to you?" Sam asked, even sleepier as his eyes were barely open at this point. Sheila chuckled nervously.
"Sam, you're practically asleep right now, it's no wonder you're hallucinating," said Sheila trying to sound flippant. "I've got to run a quick errand, but I'd better not find you asleep in the hallway when I get back."
Sam smirked at that. "No promises."
He then continued down the hallway to this room as Sheila bolted for the elevator. After a few torturous moments, the doors closed and the tension immediately drained from Sheila and Cassie and both began laughing hysterically to the point that their sides hurt.
After getting off of the elevator, the two crossed the road to see a pair of rear headlights vanish into the jungle through the opening in the fence and then to the lobby of the lodge. The doors were locked as the receptionist had gone to sleep, so Sheila used her card to swipe them open.
"Goodnight and stay safe," Sheila requested as she gave her sister a hug.
"You too," Cassie replied. "I love you, Sheila."
"And I love you too, Cassie," said Sheila as they let go and then stated harshly. "But if you dig through those systems for anything unrelated to Nedry, I will turn you in."
"I know," said Sheila in complete understanding and then turned to look out the glass doors and past the buildings on the other side where she saw the electrified fence surrounding the village and the blinking red and blue lights. "It's not going to last is it?"
Sheila shook her head as a haunted expression came across her face. "No, it won't."
"You need anything, just ask," Cassie insisted. "I've got a boss, a good boss, and he'll get you out of this mess."
"We'll see. Until next time," said Sheila and then she tossed Cassie her room key and then was gone leaving Cassie by herself in the lobby. She took another glance at the fence and then involuntarily shivered to herself before heading for her room.
Embryonics Administration: The jeep slid to a halt in front of the building as Jake and Henry got up and ran up the stairs and into the building. As soon as they entered they could tell something was wrong as angry dinosaur roars could be heard and the sounds of cages being rattled accompanied the noise. Jake and Henry bolted into the cage room where they found Carly, the DRT Team, Collin, Abby, and Derrick standing in the space between the cages while Katrice was terrified out of her mind just outside. Around them the dinosaurs were roaring angrily and shaking or pounding against the cages with reckless abandon.
"What the hell is going on?" demanded Jake trying to speak over the noise. "I thought your last report said these animals were nearly unconscious."
"They were!" Collin protested. "But about an hour ago they just all went crazy. I figured it was a last burst of energy but they haven't given up. I called Carly in here for her opinion first because she was already here but…"
Henry and Jake turned to the senior female scientist.
"I'm not a behaviorist, but something is definitely wrong here," Carly stated. "They're not responding to visual cues or stimuli and appear to be running on adrenaline alone."
The pachycephalosaurus slammed into the cage door so hard it nearly broke off of its hinges, startling them.
"What now, boss?" asked Abby finally giving voice the elephant in the room. Jake and Henry shared a brief glance.
"Alright this experiment is officially a bust," began Henry. "DRT Leader, eliminate stock two through nine. We'll see where one takes us as is and inject ten with lysine and see what happens."
"We can't just kill them!" Abby protested. "It's not their fault they're acting like this."
"Don't bring morality into this," said Jake as the rest of the group flinched when the raptor did a flying kick into the cell's steel mesh and nearly ripped clean through it. "I hope I don't need to remind you that it's us or them in eighty days."
"No," Abby said reluctantly. "It's just…"
Henry put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What we learn today may save even more of them tomorrow because our lysine reserves aren't infinite."
Abby nodded her head and then immediately left the area. But before she could get out, the raptor once more slammed into the grating and partly broke through causing her to scream in terror as Derek grabbed her and bolted out of the room with the other scientists.
"Light 'em up!" ordered Jake as he and Henry left the area. The DRT Team Leader pointed to the various cages to his team and moments later brief gunfire erupted and then was followed by silence. Jake and Henry stood with the other scientists out in the main part of the laboratory surrounding by the incubators and other scientific equipment.
"What happened here tonight is something between all of us only," Henry warned his fellow scientists. "Anyone asks what happened, just say we've moved beyond the observation phase and into analysis."
"But what exactly did happen?" Carly had to ask. She wasn't even part of this experiment; she'd just been in the wrong place at the right time.
"We'll know when we run some tests," Jake figured. "The key is to find conclusive results. So get some sleep, we'll be busier tomorrow than we've ever been."
The others nodded, still dismayed over what happened and then filtered out of the building back to the Village. Jake and Henry walked back into the cage area and saw the DRT team cleaning up the mess they had made. Two more dinosaurs were left in their cages and Jake produced a syringe of lysine and walked towards the pachycephalosaurus.
"Open it," Jake ordered. One of the DRT members threw open the door and another rushed in and tackled the small beast as Jake followed suit. The animal kicked and screamed before Jake pushed the needle through an artery on its neck and injected it with the lysine. The animals movements immediately became slower and slower until finally it stopped moving altogether having entered into a coma. Jake got up and dusted himself off from the hay that had been used to line the pen before he looked at the DRT Team Leader.
"Will that other cage hold?" he asked. The other cage held a Procompsognathus Triassicus. Although not a large animal by any means, it had put a tiny dent in the mesh at the bottom of the cage and even now was feverishly chewing on the metal to try and break free. The leader pulled out a tiny spiral notepad and began flipping through the pages.
"Based on the pressure that creature's jaw can put out, it should last," said the leader unenthusiastically.
"Then lock it up in a smaller cage with thicker bars," Henry requested. "We lose it now and we'll never get it back."
The DRT Leader nodded and pointed to a member and jerked his head and that member ran off to go find the appropriate containment device.
"What should we do with these?" asked the second in command while pointing to the dinosaur corpses. Jake sighed and then groaned heavily before yawning as he was so exhausted he could barely stand.
"We've got to get them to the morgue in the veterinary clinic," he said, not looking forward to that drive so late at night; especially as the clinic really wasn't near the village at all.
"Guess we're spending the night there," Henry figured as he yawned as well. "Let's go get suited up."
The two scientists quickly got into some protective outfits and then helped the DRT team haul the dinosaur carcasses into the team's SUV and then they set off for the veterinary clinic. Forty-five minutes later, the dinosaurs were secured in the morgue and the DRT Team was fast asleep on the various metal tables or on the floor.
But as for Jake and Henry, they were once more feverishly pouring through technical journals trying to root down what had caused the dinosaurs to go berserk.
"I can tell you've got something on your mind," observed Jake after a few moments of noticing the fellow scientist's distracted demeanor.
"I was just thinking that if Malcolm were here, he'd be rambling about Chaos Theory right now. That we've overlooked something small and now the dinosaurs might be breeding, they might be going psychotic when deprived of lysine, they might be…," Henry trailed off with a half-hearted grin on his face. Jake was too tired to even emit disappointment at that statement.
"He's a man who looks at the glass half-full and whose theory is being challenged by what we've done here. We've proven with these dinosaurs that the impossible is possible," began Jake. "That means his mathematical concepts on how the world is supposed to operate means crap. These issues we're dealing with now are just part of being involved in a startup venture with a new product being put on the market, nothing more. We'll get them ironed out and then we won't have to worry about them anymore."
"I hope so," said Henry glumly. "I hope so."
"We'll be fine, Henry. Trust me," Jake repeated as he had when they'd learned something had gone wrong on Nublar. With every day that passed, it looked less and likely that would come to fruition. But there was nothing they could about it now, they could only go forward and see what happened.
"'Something Has Survived'," Henry quoted. Jake gave him a confused look
"Site B's specific tagline. Jurassic Park's was 'An Adventure 65 Million Years in the Making'," Henry recalled. "And I can't remember what Indigo's tagline was."
"'Adventure has Evolved'," Jake filled in now that he knew what Henry was talking about. "I think. It was either that or 'Something Unexpected Has Evolved'."
"And is that what's happening now with the possible breeding and the lysine contingency?" Henry asked frankly. "Are these sixty-five million year old animals evolving in order to survive?"
That was a question neither of them had an answer for.