A/N: The story should start picking up from here until the end of Pt. I.
Next Day, UCLA Berkley: Sarah Harding yawned heavily into her hand having spent countless hours at the business library researching InGen and its corporate assets. Armed with only a cryptic clue about Mano De Dios from an even more cryptic individual, she was about at wits end.
"I know the answer is in here somewhere," she complained bitterly.
"Having problems?" asked a librarian who was walking past her. Sarah sighed and leaned back in her chair, pushing the books away.
"You might say that," she reluctantly admitted and then tried to come up for a reason why she had all the InGen books on her table. "I'm doing a report on John Hammond and I was wondering if this was all we had on his latest venture."
The librarian looked at all the books on the table and then at her.
"I take it you consulted the card catalog?" the librarian asked. Sarah nodded her head.
"I have the paper cuts to prove it," she remarked a little sarcastically. The librarian nodded their head at the thousandth time they'd heard that statement.
"Well have you consulted our digital resources?" the librarian asked next. Sarah looked at the librarian bewildered by that statement.
"Your what?" she asked. The librarian motioned for her to follow him. They walked past several bookshelves filled to nearly the ceiling before arriving at a group of computers.
"We have a number of collections of information on CD-ROMs called databases that contain information that sometimes isn't published," the librarian said leading Sarah to a particular computer that wasn't being used.
"This station has access to our business listings databases," the librarian informed her before grabbing a small device nearby attached to the computer with a single button on it. "Do you know how a computer mouse works?"
Sarah gave the librarian a dim look. "Yes, I know how a mouse works," she said a tone that was on the verge of snapping at him.
"Good enough," said the librarian pleased. "If you have any questions just let us know."
Sarah watched the person go before turning her attention to the computer in front of her. She saw the options before her and then found the database entries for InGen: BioEngineering and clicked it. Instantly a new series of information appeared on the screen.
InGen BioEngineering, Inc. Est: 1983. Company Slogan: 'We Make Your Future'. CEO and Founder: John Hammond. COO: Peter Ludlow. Head Scientist: Gustavius Graves. Lead Scientists: Henry Wu, Jake Whitacre…the information rolled on down off the screen. Sarah stared at it, most if it was stuff she already knew, although that InGen continued to emphasize its scientists made her wonder what sort of bio-engineering InGen was up to. And so she continued scrolling through the information looking for anything on "Mano De Dios".
InGen Headquarters, San Diego: Kelly Curtis and R.B. Benton hopped off the bus near the building and walked off towards it.
"Remind me why I'm here again?" Arby pleaded of his female companion. "I wanted to spend time at Mobile Field Systems working with Mr. Carr!"
Kelly laughed at that. "You can waste time there any time you want. But I need your help now, while we're still allowed to go to that island."
"Yeah," said Arby initially agreeing with her. "But why do you need me specifically? I thought you said Ms. St. Ives specifically asked for your help."
"She did and I need your help to help her," said Kelly with a smile that bordered on being malevolent. Arby sighed and knew there were no way he could get out of helping Kelly once her mind was made up that he had to help her.
"Just keep walking before I start getting a headache," the young man remarked as he rubbed his forehead. Kelly smiled brightly now and seemed to almost to skip towards the entrance to InGen's Headquarters as Arby trailed behind her. He then entered the building to see the receptionist looking skeptically at Kelly who was standing by the desk.
"Whatever you're selling, we don't allow solicitors in here," said the receptionist dimly. Kelly gave a false laugh at that as if she found that comment amusing.
"Oh we're not here as solicitors," Kelly explained. "I'm Kelly Curtis and this is R.B. Benton. We're here on behalf of Daniela St. Ives."
The receptionist was a little surprised by that statement but then looked at them even more skeptically.
"Excuse me one moment," the receptionist informed her as she picked up the phone. Kelly gave the receptionist a smug look before turning to Arby.
"So we'll head for the computer lab in this place and set up shop and get to work on finding out what she needs to know," Kelly figured.
"And how long will that take?" asked Arby curious. Kelly shrugged.
"Depends on how good a programmer you are," she said with a hint of challenge to it. Arby bristled at that before turning serious.
"Oh, it's on now," he declared as Kelly lightly clapped him on the shoulder for encouragement. She then turned back to the receptionist who was ending her phone call.
"I stand corrected," the receptionist began, a little steamed as she rummaged around in one of her drawers. "Here are your guest passes. Please don't lose them as they must be returned to this desk upon leaving this building."
"Thanks," said Kelly with false cheerfulness as she accepted the badges and handed one to Arby.
"Welcome to InGen: BioEngineering where we make your future," said the receptionist in the standard greeting she had to give all visitors to the building.
"Thanks…Ms…Sandelder," said Kelly concentrating on the nameplate on the desk as she quickly walked past it. Stephanie Sandelder watched them go still suspicious before picking up her phone and dialing an extension on it.
"Sir? Your suspicion was right, the two young members of the investigation team showed up looking for information for Ms. St. Ives," said Stephanie into her phone.
"Keep a discrete eye out on them for me and report what they were doing when they leave," ordered Peter Ludlow from the other end of the line and then it went dead as he hung up the phone and returned his attention to the proceedings in front of him.
"Problems?" asked Ross curious. Ludlow shook his head.
"Just keeping track of some loose ends," the COO responded dismissively. "Please continue your report on our cash saving measures so we can keep this company afloat until a new source of funds is secured."
"Very well," said Ross not willing to push the issue as he turned to the presenter. "Continue then."
The presenter continued their presentation as Ludlow listened intently while simultaneously processing several other thoughts of what else was going on with the company.
Nublar: The deconstruction of Jurassic Park was proceeding on schedule as the teams continued to liquidate the biological assets and smaller technological assets of the island in anticipation of the arrival of the SS Venture which would have the equipment necessary to begin tearing down the larger physical assets of the island.
Inside of the Control Room, Samantha Brown was going over some of the minor details of the Sorna inspection tour with Lori Ruso.
"You can take them on a brief trip out to the pens," said Samantha confirming Lori's proposed plan. "Maybe go on a walk since we're trying to clamp down on fuel usage and the nearest pens don't have anything too deadly."
"Thanks," said Lori grateful as she'd run out of places to take them inside of the Village. "Maybe all the walking will convince Levine to not want go out into the wild too much…at least not until the tour vehicle system is fully online."
"And do you know when that will be?" asked Samantha curious.
"It'll get done when it gets done," came a voice from offscreen that was clearly Sheila's. Nearby, Cassie was silently listening in on them and she narrowly avoided laughing at hearing that.
"Alright if that's…," began Samantha when Ed Regis approached her with a clipboard. "Hey, Ed, what's up?"
"Nicolette wanted you to have this," he said cutting in and handed her the clipboard. Samantha looked puzzled as she read a series of notes on how things were proceeding on Nublar.
"What's this?" Samantha asked confused.
"Oh, is that the 'bitch' list," asked Lori amused before she realized what she'd said out loud and clamped her hands over her mouth.
"The what?" asked Samantha curious as she diverted her attention between the vidscreen and the list.
"Well, you know how we have the 'glitch' list when anything goes wrong on these islands…," began Lori lightly. "Let's just say we have an informal term around the office for reports we get when a certain someone isn't happy about how things are going."
"Oh…," said Samantha understanding completely. "Your secret's safe with me; I won't send Human Resources on you."
"Thanks," said Lori with a grin as the video image shut off. Samantha went back to glancing through the list at the various items listed on it.
"Have you read this?" the Board Member asked of the HR Director. Ed shrugged.
"Most of it," he admitted. Samantha finished looking through the list and looked up at him.
"Can of these changes be feasible?" asked Samantha bewildered. Ed shrugged.
"One or two, but none of them are really affecting the timetable," he figured. Samantha then handed the list to him.
"See what you can do. Let's go, Tim," said Samantha quickly to the lead programmer and the two headed towards the exit as Ed tried to come up with a good reason for why he couldn't be bothered to do this. In the end all he got out were a few random syllables but nothing coherent as Tim and Samantha left the room.
"Smooth move," Tim commented as the two headed out into the lobby where the dinosaur bones had been collected, the fallen banner folded, and the area generally looked as clean as it had before the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptors had invaded the place.
"You don't become Head of HR without getting to know how most people tick," Samantha pointed out before a light malicious grin spread across her face. "Besides, he's really got no one to complain to about this besides me."
Tim shuddered at hearing that. "Jake is right, you are evil."
"No comment on that," Samantha replied as they reached Henry's office. "You sure they were here?"
"Records of card swipes don't usually lie," Tim figured. "But Nedry sure found a way around that."
Samantha swiped her card and the door lock popped open.
"Speaking of Nedry, I'll admit that my computer skills are okay and I can use Windows 3.1 as good as anyone, but is it possible whatever he did to make the security systems fail is still floating around in the system after the shutdown and restart?" Samantha asked as she walked into the darkened room. She failed to notice Tim briefly tense up at her question as he was trying to figure out that same thing.
"It's possible," said Tim trying not to lie lest Samantha figure out he was trying to find that line of code. "But you'd have to go through two millions lines of code to find it."
"So it went to the grave with Nedry," said Samantha relieved before turning on the lights in the room and noticing the still running computer with a binder sitting next to it. She sat in one of the two chairs in front of the computer as Tim took the second. The programmer then looked at the screen as he tried to figure out what was going on.
"Weird," he said leaning back in his chair having not touched anything.
"You can't figure out what they were up to?" asked Samantha. Tim shook his head.
"No, what they were doing is still running," the programmer informed her. "They're running a comparison program between two codes of DNA strands."
Samantha leaned in front of him and stared at the screen which had two vertical rows of ACGT letters rapidly passing by and directly between the two strands was an image of Mr. DNA, the cartoon character dreamed up for the Jurassic Park tour.
"If we looked at screens like these once a second for eight hours it'd take two years to look at the entire DNA strand it's that long," Tim told Samantha who gave him a dim look.
"Gee, I wonder where I heard that before," she commented annoyed. "So they're comparing the DNA strands? I didn't even realize we had a program that did that."
Tim nodded his head. "I remember Ray explained it to me during my orientation. There were issues in the early days with getting the dinosaurs to be cloned right so they came up with this program to test the blood with the master records on file on the islands. It's on all the mainframe computers."
Samantha looked around. "I don't see a vial of blood anywhere so what's it being compared with?"
"My guess would be the CD master records," said Tim grabbing the binder and cracking it open and pointing to the empty sleeve. "Henry usually has this locked up in his place back on Sorna but I guess he brought it with him to Nublar."
Samantha was even more confused now. "So you're saying they're running a comparison between the master records and the records already on file? Why would they do that?!"
Tim shrugged. "Not a clue, but I'm sure they would. You want to go ask them?"
Samantha immediately shook her head. "No. No, I won't. And neither will you. Leave everything the way it was because we were never here. How long will this report take to run? Hopefully not two years."
"No," Tim scoffed at the gross underestimation of the computing powers InGen had at its disposal. "I'd say four or five days."
Samantha closed her eyes in concentration. "Four or five days, the SS Venture will be here in three…which means we'll have torn apart most of the Visitors Center by then… Okay, nobody gets in here and this place is torn apart last. If Jake and Henry aren't back, take the results back to them and also let me know what the results are without telling them I know they were running this test."
Tim was shocked by that request. "You want me to lie to them?"
"No, I want you to omit certain details that if known would endanger company interests," said Samantha correcting him. "I'm a Board Member and I'm invoking an executive mandate on this matter."
"Shit," said Tim as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. "No, I'm sorry, I don't mean that."
"Yes you do," Samantha pointed out as she got up. "But I won't hold it against you. C'mon, let's go we still have work to do around this place."
Tim silently nodded and flipped the monitor off and then left with her out of the room.
"So what happens if Ludlow or Hammond finds out and asks me about this?" Tim had to know. Samantha waved off his concern as they left the room and shut the door behind them.
"Under an executive mandate, I'm the only one answerable for this so tell them nothing," she responded. Tim nodded his head absently and then shuffled off down the hallway wringing his hands to try and calm his nerves. Samantha watched him go and then shook her head lightly before heading off down the same hallway for the lobby. She had barely gotten to the steps leading down when Nicolette Stefrassa ambushed her.
"I trust you've read my report?" the woman asked. Samantha barely had to avoid sighing at that question.
"Yes, I looked through it and I've assigned Ed Regis to see what can be reasonably put into effect," Samantha said trying to show she wasn't being ignored.
"That's all fine and good but I'd only be more than willing to implement those changes myself," Nicolette suggested. How Samantha avoided groaning at that suggestion, she wasn't quite sure.
"I think Ed is more than capable of handling things on his own," said Samantha coolly as she started down the steps. "But I do appreciate your efforts here."
"I would hope that you would," said Nicolette with a tone of smugness in her voice. "But if that is your final call regarding my report then I will accept it for now. I do ask that you remember that during this project, time is money."
Samantha shot her a warning glance at that as Nicolette tipped her head in deference. "Very well I will go find something more useful to do. Can I just ask you one final question?"
"Go ahead," said Samantha willing to entertain her since Nicolette had apparently backed off on the earlier issue.
"How many directives are there for the demolition of this island?" asked the other woman curiously. Samantha looked at her confused.
"Sixteen, why?" asked the Board Member. Nicolette shook her head.
"No reason, just curious. I wanted to be sure there weren't, say, seventeen directives in place," Nicolette prodded. Samantha shook her head.
"If there is, I don't know about it," she concluded. "Is that all?"
Nicolette gave her usual business like smile. "Thank you for your time." The blonde then headed off back up the stairs as Samantha watched her go before shrugging off Nicolette's bizarre question as her trying to make sure she knew all the facts, real or imaginary. The Board Member then headed straight for the small medical bay in search of some aspirin for the headache she could sense about to come on.
Up above on the stairs, Nicolette looked around to make sure she wasn't being watched as she then took out a report from her plastic clipboard container whose cover read: The Sustainability of the Jurassic Park Project Drafted: 5/16/89 under Executive Mandate 933-4. Quickly flipping through the thick report, Nicolette came to a page with a series of actionable items on it and scrolling through the list, she found a particular line item and took out her pencil and wrote next to it: Directive 17-Secretly eliminate all biological evidence. She then quickly closed the report and put it back in its case as a pair of workers passed her headed to the ground floor. She then looked at the clipboard which had a piece of paper with a series of items she was in the process of investigating and immediately crossed a line through the first item.
"Shit," Nicolette said softly as if wishing she hadn't found out what she had. She then tucked her clipboard under her arm and quickly moved off.
San Diego: Sarah Harding rubbed her eyes as she stared at yet another page of data that got her no closer to discovering the answers she needed so desperately.
"There has to be another way," she pleaded silently at the computer. Her searches for InGen's connection to amber had told her more about the material than she cared to know but little on details as to why the company needed so much of it or what relevance "Mano De Dios" meant if her source wasn't putting her on. Needless to say after a couple of hours of searching she was getting more and more frustrated.
"Maybe I can just find a local InGen office and bribe someone to tell me what I need to know," she laughed lightly to herself. Sighing heavily at that crazy idea, she found a listing of InGen's holdings around the world and accessed it. The listing ended up being by country and Sarah was about to access the United States listings when something caught her eye.
InGen Holdings-Dominican Republic(1).
Quickly sitting up in her chair, Sarah immediately recalled her mysterious source mentioning something about the Dominican Republic. She accessed the record and was greeted with a single listing: Hand of God Amber Mine and the location of the mine in the Republic.
"Hand of God…?" began Sarah confused as her brows scrunched up. "Wait, in Spanish that would be…Mano…De DIOS!"
Her outburst caused everyone nearby to look at her. Sarah sheepishly waved an apology and then quickly wrote down the information on the screen and then closed out of the files and ejected the CD and put it back in its case.
"I take it you found what you were looking for?" asked the librarian from earlier, both pleased and a little smug his suggestion had worked.
"Yes I did," said Sarah who was so excited by her find that she didn't even take offense to the librarian's tone. "What should I do with the CD?"
"I'll take it," the librarian offered and Sarah handed it to him. She then collected her things and put them back in her lucky pack and was ready to head for the exit ready to book the first flight to the Dominican Republic when something caught her eye. She reached inside her pack and withdrew a photograph of herself and a young woman in her mid-teens who in some ways looked like a younger version of Sarah herself.
Sarah stared at the picture for a few moments before lightly nodding her head and putting the picture away and then slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the exit.
Hospital, Worker Village, Isla Sorna: Roberta Carter snapped awake and instantly sat up in her hospital bed hyperventilating. The nearby nurses and orderlies saw her state of panic and rushed to her side to try and calm her down.
"Where am I?" asked Bobbie still in a state of shock.
"You're in the infirmary in the village," answered one of the nurses. "You were brought in yesterday after that raptor attack."
Bobbie's attention darted around as she finally took in her surroundings. She noticed the EKG monitor beeping and displaying a steady heartbeat. She also noticed she wasn't hooked up to an IV which meant she didn't have any physical damage she was just wrecked emotionally from what had happened.
What had happened…?
As Bobbie tried to remember how she had gotten out of the mess with the raptor she found she couldn't come up with an answer. She remembered being scared out of her mind and then there was a bright flash and then she came to just a few moments ago.
"Bobbie," said Lori pleased as she walked into the room. "I was hoping you'd wake up before I had to go lead the tour. How're you doing?"
"Still in one piece," said the Doctor flopping back onto the bed exhausted. Lori nodded her head.
"Guess I'll skip getting a second opinion," said Lori with a smile. "I'll see you later when the tour's done for the day."
"Thanks," said Bobbie grateful for the companionship of a friend after her ordeal. "I do have one question before you go."
"Shoot," said Lori while gathering her things.
"Do you know what happened?" she asked in regards to her survival of the raptor.
"Nope," said Lori simply. "I was with the tour group in the control room but then they stared getting a little hysterical so I had to escort them out. I didn't make it back in time to see whatever had happened to save you. But Sam'll be here soon and I'm sure he can fill you in. Catch ya later."
Bobbie nodded her head absently as she still was trying to puzzle together the gaps in her memory as Lori stuffed a muffin in her mouth and headed out the door.
What had happened and why couldn't she remember it?
Isla Nublar: In the jungle near Dilophosaur Country, bullets were heard firing along explosions from tank shells as smoke wafted up into the bright sunny sky.
"This is Team 1 accompanied by Team 3, 5, 7, and 9, we are taking heavy fire in sector 37-A! Request air support immediately!" shouted Jeff into his headset as a tank nearby fired off a round into the jungle with globs of venom flying against it in response. All around, fully clothed workers were firing blindly into the jungle in all directions against enemies they couldn't locate amongst the trees.
THUD
Jeff turned his attention to the humvee behind him as it rocked on his wheels and he could only look up in horror as a dilophosaur stood on the hood. It roared briefly and then its frill expanded before it was shot full of bullets and it collapsed backwards off of the vehicle and out of sight.
"Thanks!" shouted Jeff over the firefight at whoever had saved him. But there was no response as the workers had to keep up the firefight in case any other dilos decided to be a hero.
"Attention Team 1, this is air cavalry," the radio said crackling to life. "We are circling your position but are unable to specifically pin you down. If we open fire, we might catch some of you in the blast zone."
"Shit," said Jeff looking around at the firefight and up at the tree line above which was only letting in small shafts of light and most of those holes now had smoke pouring from them.
"Flare gun!" he shouted at the group and an instant later a gun and flares were thrown his way as the loud noise of another tank shell was heard firing coupled with another explosion a moment later.
"Alright air support, hold your positions because I'm going to send a flare straight up!" he yelled into the radio and hoped the helicopters could hear him over the loud noise. Loading the gun, Jeff aimed the gun straight up and fired it and the flare raced off above the canopy.
"We have your position Team 1," the leader of the helicopter contingent confirmed. Jeff breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay, we'll be retreating back up the road towards the Visitors Center," he began. "I want you to lay down a suppressing arc of fire east of our position on my command."
"Roger," was the response. Jeff turned to the team who was still firing indiscriminately into the trees.
"We're going to blow this Popsicle stand!" he shouted at them. "Everyone get back to your vehicles!"
The workers slowly started getting back into the convoy vehicles as venom continued to fly everywhere.
"Tank 1, take the front and run over anything that gets in our way. Tank 3, bring up the rear of our convoy and lay down a suppressing fire behind us," ordered Jeff once he got into his humvee. Tank 2 was currently engaged in affairs elsewhere involving the triceratops and Jeff wished it had come with them into this failed push into dilo territory. But he had a good feeling that those hunting the triceratops wished the complete opposite.
"We're moving, sir," said Lorne from another vehicle as the convoy began moving off.
"Air Cav, you are a go!" shouted Jeff into his microphone.
A wall of fire erupted behind the convoy as if the sun had risen right behind them.
Main InGen Headquarters, San Diego: Stephanie Sandelder sat at her desk watching the two teenagers go through file after file in the computer lab looking for any number of unrelated items. So far it was all routine stuff but Stephanie was only more than ready to call her boss on the phone if they started perusing for restricted files.
Elsewhere in San Diego: Sarah Harding strode into her old family home to see her mother watching television in the living room.
"Sarah," said Mrs. Harding at a complete loss. "I wasn't…I mean…if you'd called…"
"Yeah, sorry, I've been a little too busy lately," Sarah confessed although her tone was hardly apologetic as she looked around the house. "Is Jess around?"
Mrs. Harding was a little surprised by that question. "She's up in her room."
Sarah looked up at the stairs leading to the upstairs part of the house.
"And how is she doing?" asked Sarah next, a little tentatively. Mrs. Harding shrugged lightly at that.
"She…doesn't remember a thing about what happened that weekend," Sarah's mother responded helplessly in reference to several weekends ago when Gerry had taken his daughter to an island off the coast of Costa Rica.
"Doesn't remember?" said Sarah as if finding that hard to believe. "Not anything?"
Her mother shook her head. "The psychiatrist we took her to claimed that whatever she saw was so traumatizing that her mind completely blocked it out as a coping mechanism."
"And dad hasn't said a word either?!" said Sarah a little irate. Mrs. Harding shook her head and Sarah growled angrily at that.
"Now just a minute!" her mother protested before her daughter could get started on a long winded rant. "Your father is under contract not to say a word about what he's up to."
"Yeah and I might have been willing to deal with that crap as long as he was the only one affected by it," said Sarah irate. "But not when Jess is involved!"
"He didn't mean to hurt her!" insisted Mrs. Harding. "It was…" she trailed off before realizing where her sentence was leading.
"An accident?" asked Sarah pointedly. "I seem to remember another 'accident' involving another little girl and some sharks that scared the living daylights out of her. It took her years to get over what happened."
"Apparently not," her mother muttered under her breath. "Look if you came here to insult your father again then you did your job. But he's not here right now to trade arguments with you so why are you really here?"
Sarah stewed over that comment. "I'm here because no matter how I feel about the things he's done he's still my father and right now he's in over his head. And I'm going to get him out."
Mrs. Harding's eyes widened at that as she found herself speechless at this turn of events. Sarah meanwhile said nothing else and headed up the stairs of her childhood home and walked up to one door in particular and knocked on it.
"Jess?" asked Sarah with a little trepidation as she had no idea what was waiting her on the other side of the door. Would her sister be huddled in a corner rocking on her heels muttering to herself, would she be sitting at her desk in a comatose state just staring blindly into a mirror, or would it be some other image she couldn't bear to watch?
With no other alternative, Sarah Harding twisted the door handle and walked in and what she was none of those things. Instead she found her sister sitting on her bed with her back against the wall and her legs stretched across the bed itself listening to her Walkman. Looking over at the door that was now open, the young woman was about to give an annoyed shout at her mother for barging in until she noticed who it was who had actually opened it.
"Sarah!" Jess shouted excited as she yanked off her walkman and quickly ran to her sister and gave her a big hug. "What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming home!"
Sarah smiled a little at being asked the same question that her mother just had.
"I came to see how you were doing," she said honestly as Jess pulled away. "Seriously, how are you? I mean to come by earlier but…I got busy and I know that's no excuse."
Jess nodded her head in a distracted fashion and sat down on the edge of her bed.
"I'm okay, I guess," Jess admitted, not sure what else to say. "It's just…"
"You don't remember anything," Sarah concluded, which meant her mother had been right regarding Jess's mental condition. She draped an arm around her sister for comfort as Jess leaned against her for support.
"I wish I could but I can't," said Jess frustrated as tears threatened to form in her eyes. "Sometimes I even wake up screaming at something I just can't see. It's…"
"I know," said Sarah nodding her head. "I've seen it before in some of the villages I've visited while observing wildlife and come across villages after an animal attack."
Jess's eyes bugged out at that and she separated from Sarah and stared at her. "You think I was attacked by a wild animal?"
"I don't know what happened," Sarah admitted frustrated. "That's actually why I'm here because whatever happened to you and dad wherever you went might very well happen to dad again. And he may not be so lucky the next time."
Jess had to nod her head in agreement at that but she said nothing else.
"And so far my search has gotten too much for me to handle on my own," Sarah continued. "So I could really use an assistant right about now. I don't suppose you know anyone available?"
It took a moment for Jess to fully realize what Sarah had just said and when she did her jaw dropped.
"Seriously?" she asked. Sarah nodded her head and ruffled her sister's hair.
"Absolutely," Sarah confirmed. "Where I grew up they had an old saying when it comes to finding out the truth. The Hardy Boys are good…"
A wicked smile flashed across Jess's face. "But the Harding Sisters are the best."
"That's my little sister," said Sarah pleased. "We'll be going on a little trip so how soon can you be packed?"
"I'm already packed," said Jess quickly as she walked over to her bed and pulled out her small suitcase and placed it on her bed. Sarah looked at her skeptically.
"How did you…?" she asked curious. Jess shrugged.
"When my trip with dad didn't last as long as it did, I never really got around to unpacking," her younger sister answered as she walked over to her closet.
"Oh, I see," said Sarah nodding her head. "Look, Jess, I do want you to know now that we're going to find out is probably not going to be pretty. Not after what did to you. I just want you to know what you're getting yourself into."
"I know that it won't be good," Jess contemplated sadly. "But with you there, I know I'll be handle it," she continued as she pulled out a backpack and set it on her bed and zipped it open to check what was in it. Jess then went around her room and picked up various things and put them into her back.
"Besides, I've got my lucky pack just like you do so I know I'll be fine," said Jess with an innocent smile as Sarah laughed at that as she hefted her own lucky pack on her shoulders.
"Like sister like sister," the older woman mused. Jess then picked up her skateboard off the ground and attached it to the outside of her pack and then pulled the pack up on her shoulders.
"Let's blow this popsicle stand," she said to her sister as she grabbed her suitcase and headed out the door. Sarah was about to follow after when she noticed her Jess's passport on her clothes dresser and she quickly pocketed it and headed out after her. Down the stairs, she saw her mother standing near Jess looking concerned.
"Relax, mom, she's just coming with me for a little while," said Sarah trying to sound reassuring.
"And where are you two going?" her mother demanded.
"Here there and everywhere," Sarah answered as she scooted Jess towards the front door.
"And when will you have her back?" asked her mother next knowing she couldn't stop the inevitable. Her daughters were as stubborn as her husband and when their minds were made up, next to nothing could change them.
"Before softball practice starts up," said Jess laughing as Sarah pushed her out onto the porch.
"Or before school starts," Sarah reasoned. Jess then ran off towards Sarah's jeep laughing all the way. Sarah was about to follow when her mother's hand rested on her shoulder to stop her.
"No matter what happens, you bring her back to me alive and in one piece," her mother declared solemnly. "I'll never forgive you if I see her come back in the same condition your father left her in."
"Did you make him promise the same thing?" Sarah had to ask as Jess began beeping the horn anxiously. Her mother nodded her head with tears in her eyes.
"I love your father but he had to leave in the middle of me being mad at him for what happened to her. I'd like to be able to finish that conversation with him in-person," her mother said as fury filled her eyes. "But if you don't bring her back then I'll never forgive you."
"S'okay, neither will I," Sarah confessed and then patted her mother on the hand and then headed off towards her jeep. She saw Jess sitting in the driver's seat and Sarah looked at her dimly.
"I have my learner's permit," Jess insisted as she threw the jeep into reverse in one swift motion.
"And since when do you know how to drive stick?" Sarah asked doubtful. Jess was about to answer when confusion crossed her face.
"I don't know," she stated before shaking off her confusion. "But I can do it, I swear!"
Sarah shook her head lightly. "You go over the median or run a stoplight or anything and that's it."
"Yes ma'am!" said Jess giving a mock salute as Sarah playfully smacked her hand and then got in the passenger's seat. "So where are we off to?"
"My place," answered Sarah as Jess backed out into the road and then took off down the road.
"Cool, girl's night out," said Jess pleased. "Hey your screwball boyfriend isn't going to be there is he?"
"He's not a screwball and he's…well our relationship is kind of complicated," Sarah confessed while leaving out the fact that Ian Malcolm had apparently been involved in the same incident that caused Jess to lose her memory.
"That is one big pile of shit," said her younger sister distantly. Sarah looked over in shock.
"Jess!" she exclaimed. Jess looked at her confused.
"What?" she asked, genuinely at a loss. Sarah's eyebrows furled at her sister's answer.
"You don't remember what you just said?" said Sarah perplexed. Jess shook her head.
"No, but that reminds me that mom says I've occasionally been saying random things in my sleep or when I'm distracted," Jess told her. "The shrink thinks it's my memories trying to resurface but I don't even realize that I've said anything."
Sarah quickly pulled out her notebook and wrote down what Jess had said even though it really didn't shed much light on anything at this point.
"Did I say anything important?" asked Jess curious. Sarah shook her head.
"Not really, but that's fine for now," her sister told her reassuringly. "Now, who wants to stop for some ice cream?"
Jess's eyes lit up at that request. "Me, me, me!"
"Then get us there in one piece and the first cone is on me!" said Sarah trying to remind Jess to keep her eyes on the road as the two Harding sisters drove on into San Diego seemingly without a care in the world.
Main Clinic, Isla Sorna: "Good to see you still in one piece," said Sam Stone relieved as he walked into Bobbie's waiting room and took a seat next to her bed.
"Thanks, Sam," said Bobbie thankful for the support as she groaned briefly while sitting up on her bed.
"So when are you planning on releasing yourself?" the Head of Operations on Sorna joked. Bobbie gave him a light smile.
"Probably after a few days bed rest and then I'll be available on a limited basis as I get my wits again," responded the Doctor as she sipped from her water container. "Look, Sam…about what happened…"
Sam shifted uneasily about what had occurred just a day prior before quickly regaining his composure before Bobbie noticed.
"That was what I was going to ask you," he responded instead of answering her unasked question. "The staff said there might be some slight memory loss."
Bobbie nodded her head. "I remember the raptor about to jump me and the worker I was with and then a bright flash and that's it."
Sam nodded his head. "That's actually about what happened. To distract the raptor, we remotely fired up the lights in the building and it distracted the thing long enough for the rescue team to reach you. They killed the raptor in mid-jump but also caused the ceiling to cave in on you. That's why you're in here and not resting in your apartment."
As soon as he finished saying that, it was dead silent in the room.
Bobbie nodded her head. "Thanks for filling in the details, Sam, I appreciate it."
Sam nodded his head and was grateful he didn't break out into a cold sweat over lying to the resident M.D. of the island. But he was under orders from above about keeping silent about what had happened and he had no choice but to obey them. And then his name was paged to return back to the Operations Building.
"Get well soon," he said with a smirk and then was gone from the room as Bobbie watched him go in silence. The Doctor then turned her attention to her hands as she studied them as if there was something on the edge of her memory that she couldn't remember…something very important. And before she was aware of it, she found herself staring at the PA system. She reached into her coat nearby for her trusty notepad to write that down, but then she couldn't find it.
"It must be buried in the rubble," she figured, vowing to get it back not just to wrote down more notes but to see if the pad contained clues about what had happened just prior to her memory loss.
Nublar: The workers from the failed venture into Dilophosaur Country were being looked over by the medical staff as Jeff Thomas sat with Samantha Brown and Ed Regis in the Control Room.
"I'm telling you those bastards are still really dug in there," Jeff complained as he looked at the welts on his body from where the dilophosaur venom had smacked into his protective clothing. The clothes of the entire team had been so covered in the stuff that they'd had to be burned rather than cleaned for the sake of time.
"So then what are our options because we need them out of there in three days," Samantha pointed out. "Hell we need all the stock eliminated in three days but besides these holdouts it's actually going according to schedule."
"Considering this is the third time we've sent a team in there and gotten no real results I think we need to level that whole part of the island to finish them off," Jeff figured.
"We don't have that kind of ordinance to do that," Ed scoffed. "Besides, our contract with the Costa Rican government sort of requires us to give this island back to them the way we found it. Blowing up part of it won't make that happen."
"You asked for my opinion and that's the only one I have beyond sending in more teams into that area to get nothing done," Jeff replied as he took a drink of water from his canteen. "How many of those things are still out there anyway? You said the number of dilos on this island was 15 but I'm pretty sure we've killed close to that many and it still seems like there's more out there."
Samantha was curious about that question herself as Ed shifted uneasily.
"I'd say between the fact that we haven't gotten most of the systems still running after Nedry's stunt and instead are taking most of them apart plus the destruction that's occurred to the motion sensors in that area from the previous tropical storm and the recent trips in there, we just don't know," Ed reasoned before Samantha could respond. Jeff got the distinct impression that there was something he wasn't telling him but without any idea what it was and since Ed was higher ranked them him in this operation he really couldn't call him out on it.
"I'd guess five or six by now," Samantha ventured. "One more trip in there should hopefully clear them out I would think."
Jeff wasn't happy about that idea and his body language clearly showed that.
"And I wouldn't have you go in there again without putting up some collateral," the Board Member continued. "We'll go in again tomorrow and when you do, I'll be there alongside you. And we won't leave until the dilophosaurs are gone."
Ed's expression turned to pure shock at that statement as Jeff nodded his head in approval of her statement.
"You can't do that! You're a Board Member and your safety matters above all else!" Ed exclaimed. Samantha shook her head.
"I'm not going to sit by this time and send men and women to their likely deaths without being there alongside them," Samantha responded angrily. "If I were in their shoes I wouldn't want to go out there again for no reason."
"That doesn't make any difference," said Ed dismayed at her reason for going. "You are the one in charge here after all, that doesn't make you expendable."
Samantha immediately directed all her attention at the Head of Public Relations.
"No one here is expendable and neither is anyone anywhere else on these islands," she reminded him. "I'm going in and that's final. Jeff, come up with some plan that we haven't tried before, something that will finish those bastards off once and for all."
"Yes ma'am," said Jeff now eager to get to work on that as he rushed out of the room. Samantha began gathering her things including several maps of that part of the island to get a better feel for the terrain in that area.
"I'll be in the dining hall conference room if you need me where I'll be speaking with Gerry Harding on Sorna," Samantha told Ed as the Head of PR nodded his head distantly as he wondered how he was going to explain all of this to Peter Ludlow during his next status update. Samantha was nearly to the door when she stopped before swiping her ID card.
"He's right you know," Samantha mentioned cryptically.
"Who?" asked Ed at a loss but not really caring what tangent the Board Member was on this time.
"Jeff Thomas's comment about the numbers of dinosaurs not adding up," Samantha clarified. "I have the same impression but I can't prove it either."
"Probably just nerves," Ed figured with his back to her. "This has seemed like a really long mission and we've only been here a few days."
"Maybe," Samantha had to admit. "Or maybe something else is going on."
Ed looked at her with an amused expression on his face. "I'd think if the dinosaurs were breeding we'd know by now. I mean the depositions of all the survivors of Nublar never once mentioned anything like that."
"True, but how do we know if what we read wasn't somehow censored the higher ups?" Samantha had to ask out of desperation. Ed laughed at that statement.
"You sound like Jake arguing about conspiracy theories that aren't going on at all," the Head of PR chuckled. Samantha had to concede that point although in Jake's defense little of his various ranting had ever been completely disproven.
"Okay," she said aloud to sate Ed's ego. "But what about what's happening here. Have any teams reported on encountering babies or juveniles or even hatched eggs out in the wild?"
"Of course not because if there had you would've heard about it by now," said Ed dismissively although his tone was less jovial than before. "Besides, even if they had noticed juveniles, some were introduced to make the scene more complete for tourists with parent and children dinosaurs."
Samantha also had to nod her head in agreement at that as she yawned into her hand.
"I'll be in the conference room," she said refusing to admit defeat. Ed gave her a brief wave and watched her go before leaning back against Nedry's terminal and looking around the control room which was deserted as all the programmers were on a brief break.
"Thoughts?" he asked aloud seemingly to no one in particular.
"Just the tired thoughts of someone with too much on their plate," said Peter Ludlow over the radio having secretly heard the entire conversation. "I wouldn't be concerned about it just yet. If Samantha starts to become a problem, I'll deal with it. But right now focus on getting that canister back that's what's most important."
"Understood," Ed confirmed and then the line went dead on the other end. The Head of Public Relations sighed heavily to himself as the empty room almost seemed to grow emptier by the moment.