Ludlow sighed to himself. "If you were more involved with this company and not secluding yourself here, you would know," he said unashamedly at his actions in running InGen. Hammond in response gave him an angry glare.
"What I do or don't do is none of your business," he said curtly. "Why was E.L.E. activated?"
"The maintenance staff was cycling power to the fences and some velociraptors escaped," Ludlow answered. "They invaded the field clinic and something had to be done."
"Who proposed that solution was it Jake or Henry?" the CEO asked. Ludlow shook his head.
"Samantha Brown," he told him. That clearly wasn't the answer Hammond had been expecting and he pushed back into his chair for a moment in surprise.
"So she approves of E.L.E.?" he asked, a little concerned. Ludlow nodded his head.
"Given her primary interest lie in the welfare of the workers, I'd say yes," he reasoned. "Is that a problem?"
"It is if the contingency plan is ever fully activated," Hammond reminded him. "Under no circumstances can you allow Jake and Henry to use E.L.E. on Sorna. If we lose Sorna then we lose everything."
Ludlow snorted at that. "Well it's nice to know we both finally agree on something," he stated ruefully. "I have no intention of ever letting them selfishly use their pet project. That is another reason for the lockdown. As long as they're trapped on that island they won't be able to locate and find Dr. Graves to activate the Third Level Protocols."
"Do you even know where Dr. Graves is?" asked Hammond pointedly. Ludlow didn't respond to that question.
Hammond shook his head in shame. "If they want to, they'll find a way to get him onto Site B. Life always finds a way. I discovered that the hard way with Jurassic Park."
Ludlow dipped his head in deference to the statement but had no comments on it.
"Speaking of, tomorrow is the final day for Jurassic Park," Ludlow informed his uncle. "I am prepared to give a speech and you are more than welcome to attend," the COO offered but desperately hoped the offer would be turned down.
"I haven't decided yet," said Hammond truthfully and noncommittally so as to bother his nephew. "But was it necessary to destroy Jurassic Park?"
"Yes," said Ludlow firmly as he folded his hands on the table. "Daniel Ross, Ed Regis, the rest of the board, and myself reviewed all possible options for retaking the island and bringing Jurassic Park back to full operational status. But there was no way to avoid the fact that what happened, happened. The Jurassic Park Incident can never be fully concealed; at some point word is going to get out. And when it does, the average citizen will not want to go to an island where the attractions previously ran wild. That king of negative P.R. would doom us."
Hammond looked at him skeptically. "And I suppose your feelings on there even being a Jurassic Park on Nublar in the first place has nothing to do with it?"
Ludlow shook his head. "I've never hidden the fact that I thought Site A was a bad idea. But after you decided to go forward with it and got the investors and the Board to buy into it, I dutifully supported it. We just spent 126 million dollars to quickly demolish, deconstruct, and dispose of Isla Nublar's organic and inorganic facilities. And that doesn't even include writing off whatever was damaged or destroyed. I don't like spending money like that on anything where it won't eventually result in a profit for us. This won't save us an immediate profit, but it will help us in the long run."
"And you think Jurassic Park: San Diego is going to provide those future profits?" asked Hammond not entirely convinced.
"Yes. Plus it has the advantages of keeping things local where the Board can closely watch over things rather than have them occur on some island several hours away where news is…delayed," Ludlow said, his final comment a note on how it had take more than 12 hours to realize something had gone wrong on Jurassic Park.
"I think keeping things local is a mistake," Hammond said in turn. "The closer we keep things the easier it will be for our competitors to steal our secrets. Even Nublar being as far away as it was still wasn't safe from Biosyn."
"You're probably right," the COO conceded. "But we need a quick source of revenue and we need one now. This company cannot continue to survive on the money already invested in it."
"Especially now that the wrongful death lawsuits have begun to be filed," Hammond said knowingly. Ludlow's expression darkened at hearing about yet another thing his Uncle had found out about without being around the office.
"Well, I can't really comment as litigation is ongoing," said the COO trying to deflect the question.
"Pay the amounts requested in full," Hammond immediately requested. Ludlow had to do a double-take upon hearing that one.
"What?" he asked softly, shocked.
"That's my official decision as CEO," his Uncle stated firmly with a nod of his head.
"We aren't to blame!" Ludlow shouted upset. "This was Nedry's doing; his estate should pay all reparations!"
"We ARE the ones responsible!" Hammond shot back. "I'm not going to blame others again for the mistakes I've made. I should've recognized Nedry's growing discontent would cause problems, but I was too wrapped in my own ego to notice. I was blind about that and many other things, but never again. I refuse to make the same mistakes again."
Ludlow groaned aloud at his Uncle's idealism and naïveté. "If we pay them off right away the press will get wind of it and wonder what's going on and investigate. We'll end up in trade journals, magazines, newspapers, tabloids, everything. We don't need that attention right now. It will keep our attention away from what needs to be done and also generate negative publicity prior to the opening of Jurassic Park: San Diego. The costs involved to pay those reporters off to keep them quiet, make it seem like there was never anything on Nublar-let along dinosaurs-and whatever other costs may be involved to keep things quiet is a financial burden we don't need right now. Silence is expensive and right now we're having enough problems keeping track of Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm and making sure they don't violate their NDAs!"
"Well perhaps we're better off making things public," the CEO declared. "Make a clean admission, gain sympathy, and build interest in our company."
Ludlow again shook his head, not liking that idea. "Sorry, but that's not even something you can do," he said grateful of that fact. "We're still under a media blackout that was supposed to last until Jurassic Park's opening. The Board just approved that be shifted until the opening of Jurassic Park: San Diego. You violate that and its grounds for dismissal."
Hammond harrumphed at being stonewalled by his nephew who had apparently accumulated quit a bit of power during his absence since Jurassic Park's fall.
"I know you're probably thinking very highly of yourself right now," Hammond said of his nephew's undoubted smugness about the whole thing. "But you're sadly mistaken. The smallest details are the ones that can undermine you and your plan. You'd better be ready for when they do."
Ludlow looked at Hammond dimly. "If you don't like the way I'm running things then step in and take over. Otherwise stay out of my way," He said undiplomatically before getting up.
"I haven't dismissed you," Hammond said angrily. Ludlow made an effort of looking at his watch.
"I'm afraid I must go and catch some sleep while I still can. I have a 7 a.m. flight tomorrow that I can't afford to miss," the COO told him. "Goodbye uncle, it's always a pleasure to be in your company," he finished, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Don't think that just because you're leaving means this conversation is over," Hammond warned his nephew. "I will make sure my company survives whatever you're planning for it. And when you fail, I'll still be here."
"Then I won't fail," Ludlow swore. With that he was gone, leaving the CEO alone in silence. The conversation had gone as he'd expected, but at least now he knew what his nephew was really up to.
Hammond sighed briefly and then got up and left the room and went over to his combined living area and library. Heading to his bookshelves, he looked at a cabinet that was full of binders containing information on InGen from over the years. Almost all of the information was available electronically, but the older man liked to have physical copies as sometimes it made it easier to concentrate as opposed to viewing lines on the screens.
The binders were arranged by topic in alphabetical order. Next to the binder on the DX Virus was a binder labeled: E.L.E. Hammond pulled it from the shelf, walked over to his desk, set the binder down, and then cracked it open. The first page clearly indicated the information was classified and warned any unauthorized users about the consequences of reading the information contained within. The CEO flipped past that page and then the cover page, table of contents, and the preface summarizing what E.L.E. was, of which more detailed information was listed in the rest of the binder.
Hammond then stopped as he reached the prologue. He stared at the section full of information and then clasped his hands together and looked at the computer screen in front of him. While it was true most information was available electronically, that didn't mean all information. Certain pieces of information needed to be kept away from prying eyes for a variety of reasons and so it wasn't made publicly available to InGen's staff. E.L.E. was available electronically, however it can only be accessed by authorized personnel and not a line level worker.
But even the information online didn't contain the prologue that his copy did…in fact the electronic copy's table of contents didn't even refer to a prologue having existed in the first place. It was a piece of phantom information known only to a select few and it was intended to stay that way. Hammond returned his attention to the text and read what it had to say.
The A-0 Incident
The Extinction Level Event protocols-further referred to as E.L.E.-were developed in 1987 by Doctors Gustavius Graves, Jake Whitacre, and Henry Wu in response to an event that occurred at InGen's Kenya Facilities on 3/3/86…