West Beach, Isla Sorna: Workers were either enjoying their time in the water, building sandcastles, and more to spend their day off. In a lounge chair underneath an umbrella, a book sat unread as Lori Ruso was seen snoozing away.
WHHOOOOOOSHHHHHHHH!
Her sleep was then forcibly interrupted as Katrice Maken went rocketing past down the beach and out of sight. In her wake, sand went flying everywhere. As Lori woke up spitting out sand while brushing herself off, Colin Maken stumbled down the beach still in pursuit of his sister.
"Give it up, you're never going to catch her," Lori called out to him. "That girl runs faster than a galimimus."
"Yeah," Colin wheezed out of breath in complete agreement over the statement. "But you don't often get to choose who your family is. And so I don't have much of a choice but to keep chasing after her."
After catching his breath, he continued his pursuit.
Sam Stone's Office, Operations Building, Isla Sorna: "As you two well know, I was married to him for five years. And if there's one I learned about the man it's that he likes to keep everything close to his chest," Samantha said, still miffed after having been separated for four years. "That was one of the reasons we got a divorce in the first place."
"No argument here," said Jake in full agreement about her comment regarding John Brown's need for secrecy.
"You're sure he was responsible for taking the embryos?" Samantha felt she had to ask, while also trying to get away from the subject of her personal life.
"Back when we were last in Costa Rica, we saw him with a team of individuals. One of them being a computer programmer," Henry began. "We saw her again amongst the programmers leaving Sorna and she wasn't happy about something. She even apologized for what had happened," Henry admitted. He knew that wasn't the entire truth, but there wasn't any reason to bring up Sheila; especially since he hadn't given her the message yet.
"So can we use her to pin something on John?" asked Samantha partway been hopefulness and asking for advice.
"Not really because we have nothing concrete tying them together besides our say so," Jake pointed out. "And you know John and his way with manipulating the truth. In a case of 'he said' 'she said', we're practically guaranteed to lose against him."
"And besides that, the programmer was right in something else she said to us," Henry continued. "If John doesn't know we're onto him, then that gives us the advantage."
Samantha nodded her head as she absently doodled on her notebook to try and concentrate her thoughts.
"But again, why would he want those embryos in the first place?" Samantha still wondered. "They're non-viable and the genetic code is probably a big mess by now. Could he reconstruct the genetic codes from them?" she inquired.
"It's possible," said Henry noncommittally. "But I'm not sure why he'd go to the trouble. Since he knows about the embryos, he'd also have to know how we're cloning the dinosaurs in the first place. Going that route would be a lot simpler."
"Plus there's the fact that Dodgson showed up," Jake also pointed out. "Non-viable embryos aren't going to do him much good either. And I doubt that embryo canister could be tied to him. So what was his interest in the whole thing?" Jake said, ominously.
It was another question none of them had an answer for.
Pacific Pharmaceuticals Headquarters, San Diego: Lorne, Serena, and Chip were in the bay celebrating the successful retrieval of the embryo canister. Further up above, John Brown and Jeff Thomas were visible through glass windows from John's office.
"Congratulations, you pulled it off," said John pleased. He did have faith in his employees to get the job done but being in such isolated surroundings didn't leave much room for error.
"Well it wasn't easy," Jeff had to admit, thereby confirming John's suspicions. "Especially considering what was on that island."
John laughed a little bit unsteadily at that. "Yeah, sorry about not keeping you guys on the up and up. I figured if I told you what InGen was really up to, you either wouldn't believe me or would be too scared to even suggest going to that island of your own free will."
"I'm still trying to come to terms with what I saw there," Jeff stated. "Drawing up plans to take out a stubborn group of dilophosaurs was something I never thought of in my wildest dreams."
John had the embryo canister in his hand and he unscrewed the top of the shaving can, pulled it off, and looked at the hidden embryos underneath.
"They're in better shape than I thought they would be," John confessed as he pulled out a small portable refrigeration unit and began transferring each one into it.
"If you don't mind my asking, now that we have them, what do you want with them?" Jeff asked after a moment's hesitation about bringing up the subject.
John shook his head. "You know how this works," he reminded his worker. "If I feel it's worth telling you, then I'll tell you."
Jeff knew better than to be disappointed by that statement, so instead he tried a different tact.
"She wanted to know," he said cryptically. That caused John to pause briefly in his work but his expression otherwise revealed nothing.
"She who?" he asked finally.
"You don't need me to answer that," Jeff said dismissively. John finally put away the last embryo and then forcibly closed the lid shut. He then leaned back in his chair and looked at Jeff.
"If there's one thing you need to know about Samantha, it's this," the Executive warned. "She has an unstoppable desire to know the truth about anything and everything. If she gets wind of some secret being kept from her or feels some mystery is going on, she won't stop until she finds the answer.
"However, sometimes the truth needs to be hidden for good reason, but she can't…won't accept that. And that's where we clashed more often than not," John concluded, not willing to reveal more about his personal life. "So, did she figure out who you were or who you worked for?"
Jeff immediately shook his head. "No," he answered.
"Good," said John pleased. "See that it stays that way," he ordered coldly.
Jeff nodded his head, knowing John's ex-wife was undoubtedly a sore spot with him. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go get Cassie from the airport."
John absently waved his dismissal as he was now deeply focused on his computer. As Jeff left, John watched him go before sighing to himself.
"Damnit, Sam, for once in your life, let it go," he pleaded softly. But he had no time for any more such thoughts and he picked up the refrigeration unit and took it with him to have its contents analyzed.
Operations Building, Isla Sorna: "There's something else you're not telling me, isn't there?" Samantha accused of Jake and Henry. The two scientists again exchanged a sideways glance before nodding their heads.
"Yes," Henry admitted finally.
"But you won't tell me what it is, will you?" the Board Member said knowingly.
"Not right now, no," Jake agreed with a slight shake of his head.
"And why not?" demanded Samantha partly hurt at their lack of trust in her despite everything she'd done already to try and earn their trust.
"Because we're not sure what's really going on," Henry told her. "We'd rather not have a panic on our hands based solely on something we can't prove yet."
Samantha sighed as she stopped writing and clasped her hands together on top of her notebook.
"What is it going to take to get you two to trust me?" she asked frankly. Jake for his part blew out a long breath.
"It's been three very long weeks since Jurassic Park fell and in that time we haven't received an official report on what happened," the scientist began, feeling extremely weary about the whole sequence of events. "Are we going to get one anytime soon?"
Samantha nodded her head. "Peter is still going to continue his investigation, but a preliminary report will be issued to you when the lockdown goes into effect."
"A heavily collated and sanitized report," Henry pointed out. Samantha gave him a look of pure confusion.
"What does that mean?" she asked. She wasn't sure what else he was expecting.
"If you want us to trust you then we need a showing of good faith on your part," Jake told her. "We need the raw testimony of Alan Grant's time at Jurassic Park."
That completely threw Samantha for a loop.
"Alan Grant, why him?"
"Because what little we got out of the survivors immediately after they left Jurassic Park was that he'd spent some unsupervised time out in the park itself when he tried to get back to the Visitors Center from the T-Rex attack," Henry supplied.
"We need to know if he saw something out there," Jake concluded.
"Which was?" Samantha said, completely drawn in by their mysterious tale.
"If you read it yourself, you'll either know what we're talking about or else realize we were wrong," Henry told her even more mysteriously.
"But I don't have access to the unedited testimony, only Ludlow and Daniel Ross do," the Board Member protested, hoping they'd let her in on what they were really after.
"Then you have a problem," said Jake unsympathetically. "But then again, I've never known you to let go of finding out the truth about anything." He goaded. Samantha gave him a half-hearted scowl before finally giving a slight smile.
"You two know me so well," she said wistfully. "But that shouldn't be a surprise considering how many times we've butted heads over the years. I'll see what I can do."
"Excellent," said Henry pleased. "Was there anything else you needed?"
"Just one more," Samantha promised. "Tomorrow I'll be bringing Daniela up to speed on E.L.E. and may also bring in Lori as well. So I have to know; E.L.E., will it work?"
"Are you asking because you're hoping it won't or…," began Henry concerned.
"I'm asking because either way people's lives will be at stake," Samantha reminded them. "I want to know it will do what you've promised it will."
Henry shook his head lightly at her comment. "But you know we have no way of knowing if it will work or not until it goes into effect. And it will only work once. We can't stop it, step away, and then come back to it. Especially considering what's at stake."
Samantha wrote some notes down on her notebook before looking up at them again. "How many days before the fences fail does E.L.E. need to be activated so it'll be done before they go?"
Jake and Henry talked back and forth about a couple details that were lost on Samantha before returning their attention to her.
"We'll need two days prep-time and then fifteen more to pull it off," Henry told her. "And that's rushing things."
"But Jurassic Park: San Diego isn't supposed to be open to the general public until September 12th," said Samantha.
"Look, if E.L.E. doesn't go into effect by September 1st then that's it, we'll be at the mercy of the fences," Jake forced her to recognize. "Five days isn't going to cut it for getting it done. And I'm sure not going to tell anybody in advance about E.L.E. if we're not actually going to through with it. Telling the staff about it and then not activating it would be worse than if it was activated."
Samantha recalled her previous talk with Ed Regis and his insistence that if E.L.E. was to be activated, there would have to be a cover-up to make sure the outside world never learned of it.
"Well as I see it, we don't know what's going to happen until we get closer to September," Samantha commented, "Especially since without Doctor Graves you can't activate Stage 3 of E.L.E. anyway. And that's what really makes it all work."
"We'll figure something out," Henry promised before consulting his watch. "And right now Jake and I have a busy schedule that we'd like to get a start on."
"Fine, you're dismissed," said Samantha with a flick of her hand. The two scientists immediately shuffled towards the exit.
"It won't come to this," Samantha swore, as she had before when it came to E.L.E. Jake opened his mouth like he wanted to say something but ultimately thought better of it and left without a word.
Alone in the room, Samantha looked down at her notebook and re-read what she had written. It didn't escape her notice that there was one thing she had deliberately not written down.
"Damnit John," she swore. "Just for once, why can't you leave us alone?"
Visitors Center, Isla Indigo: Daniela St. Ives was on the phone with Kelly Curtis and R.B. Benton while glancing over notes on the final preparations for shutting down Site C.
"So we'll be coming in on the flight tomorrow and staying the week," Kelly told her. "And we want to help you as much as we can when Dr. Levine doesn't need us."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it," said Daniela sincerely. "I'll let you know what I need you to do when you get here."
Kelly hung up the phone and immediately she was buzzed by her secretary.
"There's a 'Tim the Computer Man' from Sorna here to see you," stated the woman on the other line. A small smile crossed Daniela's face at Tim's habit of rarely mentioning his last name to anyone.
"I'll be right out," she confirmed. Putting her notes away, she exited her office where Tim was waiting.
"Hey Tim, long time no see," the Head of Indigo said with a quick handshake, glad to see him. The two then headed off out of the office for the Control Room.
"Wouldn't you consider that a good thing?" the programmer asked pointedly. Daniela laughed at that.
"Well, all the same it'll be good to be on the same island with you and Sheila. Before all this mess happened with Jurassic Park you two were supposed to rotate between Sites B and C," she reminded him.
"I'm sure Sheila would rather be here," Tim pointed out as the two walked down the steps past the large three glass windows through which the Control Room could be seen. Daniela flashed her card through the reader and it opened and the two walked into the empty room, identical to the one that had been in the Visitors Center at Jurassic Park.
"Kind of surreal being in here since I was just in the original one yesterday," Tim commented as the two of them walked over to the main computer terminal and Tim fired it up and logged in. He then went into the settings menu and began writing a special computer program.
"You ever figure out what Nedry did to K.O. Nublar?" asked Daneila curious. Tim shook his head, although in truth he was trying to figure that out.
"Best guess is he set up a hidden trap door to kill the security system while he went off to do whatever," the programmer figured. "Okay, I've set up the system so that when you activate this program here," Tim explained while tapping the appropriate icon on the screen with his hand, "it will automatically shut down everything on this island. From there it's just a matter of walking over to the master control board over there and flipping the four switches. Then you can leave."
"That simple, huh?" said Daniela a little disappointed that her life's work could be ended with only a computer click and a flick of a switch. Tim didn't respond to her comment he just leaned back in his chair and looked at her.
"Do me a favor; if Sheila or you ever find out what Nedry did, let me know," the Head of Indigo requested. Tim was a little surprised by that request but nodded his head. He then powered down the console and the two got up and headed back for the exit.
"Oh, and one more favor," Daniela added as Tim inwardly cringed wondering what it could be. "With the lockdown going into effect in two days, I wanted to know if you could get me some things from the mainland," she requested while producing a list. She laughed a little nervously as Tim lightly groaned.
"I'll just add it to the lists I already have," he relented as he took the list. Daniela for her part just gave him a big smile.
Operations Building, Isla Sorna: Samantha Brown was reading Sam Stone's reports on how the Lockdown preparations were proceeding when there was a knock at the office door. At the entryway, she saw Veterinarian Gerry Harding waiting to come in.
"Hello, Gerry, please take a seat," said Samantha as she powered down her monitor and took her notebook out. "Thanks for showing up on such short notice."
"I'm not really going to refuse a summons from a member of the Board of Directors," Harding pointed out to her. "Especially when they lead Human Resources."
Understanding crossed Samantha's face and she gave him a disarming smile. "If you're expecting a performance evaluation, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you. Sam Stone is still giving those and so far he hasn't reported on anything to get my attention."
Harding was slightly relieved at that but still refused to completely let his guard down.
"So then why…,"
"I'm mainly here to touch base with how the employees are doing with the lockdown about to put into effect," Samantha confessed as she clasped her hands together. "And I haven't spoken with you in quite awhile so it makes me feel like I've been neglecting you."
Harding shook his head. "I wasn't happy about the lockdown when you first announced it and I'm still not. But there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to live with it, we all do."
"That's true," Samantha conceded. "But yours is a unique case amongst the essential personnel on this island. Very few have immediate families and even fewer have children; while you have a wife and two daughters, one of whom is in High School."
Harding felt a slight bubble of aggravation at her bringing up his family, but he knew her position required her to examine all possible angles when it came to how the employees were likely going to behave under certain circumstances, in this case the Lockdown.
"Gerry, nobody would think less of you if you left before the Lockdown went into effect," Samantha promised him. To that Harding could only sigh.
"I do miss my wife, Jessica, and Sarah," Harding had to admit. "But being here is what's important because it allows food to be put on the table back home. That helps me get through the day and after the Lockdown passes, I'll do everything I can to make up for my absence."
Samantha listened to what he said and looked like she wanted to say more on the subject, but ultimately decided to let it go.
"Okay, but if you do want to talk about it while the Lockdown is in effect, feel free to get in touch with me," the Head of Human Resources requested. Harding nodded his head but didn't know whether he ever would or not.
"Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" he asked, wanting to get away from the previous subject.
"I do, but it's on a completely different topic," Samantha said as she got up and closed the door to the room. Harding watched her actions with some apprehension.
"Well, go right ahead," he said, figuring there was no point but to dive right into it.
"I'd like you to tell me about the A-1 Incident," Samantha informed him in reference to the event when three Deinonychus Dinosaurs escaped from Jurassic Park and successfully made it across the ocean to Costa Rica.
West Beach, Isla Sorna: Lori Ruso was applying suntan lotion as a second van with trailer appeared on the beach and the next wave of workers spread out across the beach. As she turned her attention to her sunglasses, she was rubbing sand off of them when a shadow fell over her.
Looking up, LoRu saw Bobbie Carter in cutoff jeans and a tank top.
"Damn, girl, nice outfit," commented LoRu approvingly. "I thought you weren't going to wear that again after Jake…"
"Ah, screw Jake, I'm enjoying my day off," said Bobbie dismissively as she took her towel and laid it down next to LoRu and began rummaging through her tote bag. Lori watched her for a few moments and noted how she was absently fishing for things as if her mind was on something else.
"Alright, out with it. What did you want to ask me?" said the Head of Production as she put on her sunglasses and leaned back in her lounge chair. Bobbie sighed.
"Confession time," Bobbie prefaced her next comments with as Lori gave a nod of her head in acknowledgment. "I've been really worried about what's going to happen in 76 days."
"Since you're the resident M.D., I'm hardly surprised," Lori stated.
"But it's more than just concern for the lives of everyone on this island," Bobbie continued. "You weren't really kept much in the loop about what happened when the raptors broke into the clinic because you had the tour group. But something happened that I can't explain. And that something has me worried."
Lori didn't have an immediate reply to that as she knew the Doctor was trying to get things off her chest.
"It involves E.L.E. and I still don't know what it is," Bobbie finished, a little scared by that term.
"Well I told you what little I know about it," LoRu reminded her. "It's a contingency plan in case of dinosaur containment failure. But I don't think it's something to be concerned about."
"Except that contingency plan involved a low-level explosive that blew up a large piece of ceiling tile in my clinic," the Doctor told her of something she didn't know. "And I think that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that plan."
"Oh," said Lori at a loss and a little surprised by that.
"I'm going to find out what E.L.E. is," Bobbie swore. "I just wish I knew where to start."
Lori's mind flash back to last night's conversation with Samantha Brown and her mentioning she might have to bring her into the fold on what E.L.E. entailed.
"Oh, I think you do," the Head of Production said as a brief smile crossed her face at Bobbie's confusion. "You should consult your favorite and most trusted resource."
Bobbie had to think about it for a few moments before she realized what Lori was referring to. Whenever she started a research project, she always consulted a dictionary. Lori for her part began laughing hysterically as Bobbie gave her an exaggerated grumpy expression.
"I don't need a dictionary to do this!" she said dramatically as she tipped over Lori's beach chair and the woman sprawled out onto the sand still laughing. And soon Bobbie joined her and found herself finally enjoying her day.
Isla Indigo: The DC-3 soared through the air over the Visitors Center before heading north towards San Diego. Down below, Daniela St. Ives was back in her office packing her things into cardboard boxes for the trip to Sorna tomorrow. While she didn't necessarily need to pack everything since she'd be returning here in two and a half months, she didn't want to leave anything behind in case she needed it later and the Lockdown wouldn't let her back onto Indigo.
As she packed up some books from her bookshelf, she came across a pocket dictionary and looked it over. As she did this, she remembered her pleading with Jake and Henry for information on E.L.E. and how their only response was "Katie".
Shrugging to herself, she flipped to the Ks and read the entry for Katie. Katie was an English feminine name that in Greek meant "pure". That didn't really help her at all because she had a cousin named Kaitlyn and knew all this already.
Sighing, she snapped the dictionary closed and stared at the remainder of her bookshelf. Her eyes then fell over a series of leather bound tomes with comprehensive information on all known dinosaurs that had been a Christmas present one year from John Hammond. The tomes were broken up into parts of the alphabet and on the spines read: "A-D", "E-G" and so forth.
Thinking back to "Katie", Daniela flipped the dictionary back open and looked at the entry labeled "K-T". To her surprise, there was an entry there. The first part of the entry suggested to the viewer that it was a misspelling of "Katie" to which Daniela groaned briefly before reading further. But the next entry grabbed her attention as it read: "See Cretaceous-Tertiary Event". Cretaceous was a word well known to her in the line of work she was in as it referred to the final time period in which the dinosaurs had lived.
Flipping to the appropriate entry, she read what the entry had to say:
Cretaceous-Tertiary Event (n)-Occurred approximately 65 million years ago. Whether through an asteroid impact, virus, climate change, or other means, it resulted in the immediate mass eradication of 75 percent of all known species residing on the planet. This is the event which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.