Airfield: "Please don't do this," Jennifer pleaded, which was something that was atypical for her. She was standing in front of Sam Stone and next to Kevin as workers spread across the hanger hard at work. Right now the group was locking down the entire facility and taking specially designed chocks that they were putting into place around the DC-3 wheels and then drilling into the floor. Similarly, other workers were taking heavy chains and securing them to the wheels on the helicopter to prevent it from leaving.
"I'm sorry, Jennifer," said Sam sympathetically. "But this is part of the Lockdown procedures. No one is allowed to leave the island without authorization and so precautions have to be taken."
That had the expected effect of setting the female pilot off. "You've already taken all the fuel! These things aren't going anywhere so you don't have to cage them up!"
The previous Monday before he had called the impromptu week off, Sam had come with a contingent of workers who had siphoned the fuel from the plane and helicopter and then took all the drums of oil and fuel to places unknown.
"It's just an added failsafe," Sam tried to reassure her distractedly while giving out some orders. "I know you and Kevin wouldn't willingly take off from this island without orders, but the honest truth is we don't know where things will be in a little over two months. By putting our foot down now and saying we're not going anywhere, I'm hoping it will convince everyone that we're here to stay."
"But what are you going to do with the airplane fuel and oil drums? I know fuel mixture ratios and if you put that stuff in the gas powered generators it'll probably blow the whole system," Jennifer stated firmly, knowing she was right.
"It's been safely secured," the Head of Operations assured her as he got a report from one of the workers and began flipping through it.
"Where?" demanded Jennifer needing an answer. "If things go to shit in 68 days and we need to haul ass out of here you'd better damn well be sure that your two pilots know where the fuel is so we can all leave before we get eaten."
Jennifer always resorted to swearing when she was at wits end and anything that impacted the aircraft always put her at the end of her rope.
"If it comes to that, then I'll be the one making the decision to leave and then the fuel will be returned to you but not until then," said Sam firmly beginning to get a little fed up with her attitude. Jennifer shook briefly but then flicked her hands as if saying that was all she had to say on the issue and settled down.
"So what's going to happen to Kevin and me?" the female pilot asked next, already knowing she wouldn't like what the answer was going to be.
"First of all, I want you to know that you can still come out here as time and workload permits and you can officially service the vehicles once every two weeks," Sam prefaced his following statement to try and soften the blow of what was coming next. "But in the meantime, you're being reassigned."
Jennifer regarded that with a mixture of disgust and horror, disgust for being separated from the aircraft and horror because she had a pretty good idea where she would be reassigned.
"No!" she shouted in protest while shaking her head furiously. "I'm not going to go work with those grease monkeys in the motorpool!"
Sam audibly groaned at her comment.
"Why not?" he had to know, even though he wished he didn't feel compelled to ask that question.
"You might not know this, but there are fraternities of mechanics for aircrafts, motor vehicles, boats, and every other vehicle-type out there," Jennifer informed him as if he were a small child. "And we don't get along. The mechanics on the ground think that we aircraft mechanics always have our heads in the clouds and look down at them from the skies. Likewise, we think of them as nothing but jealous of us because they're stuck in the past thinking two-dimensionally about everything. When we come together, sparks fly and not in a good way."
Sam was now stuck in the unfortunate position of not having the slightest clue if she was being honest or just trying to pull one over on him. He'd certainly never heard any of this before, although he had to begrudgingly admit that those in the motorpool were a society almost all their own and Jennifer and Kevin did prefer to isolate themselves from the rest of the island.
"I'm no landlubber wrench wench," Jennifer swore, finally concluding her thoughts. "If I go work for them, those chauvinist pigs in the garage aren't going to care about my skills as a mechanic. They're only going to care that I'm an aircraft mechanic and the only things worth paying to attention to me are these and these," she concluded while pointing her hands at her chest and then her legs; both of which were in grease stained coveralls.
This time Sam did know she was trying to exaggerate the situation. "Nice try, but there are several female mechanics in the village garage and if they were being harassed they'd have come to me about it. Sure, they are all a bunch of oddballs but they get the job done and right now I need everyone I can hard at work to ensure we make it through the lockdown in one piece. You're moving back to the village lodge and you report bright and early Tuesday morning for your assignment."
Jennifer was definitely steamed at his refusal to reconsider her position.
"Fine!" she snapped at him before it finally dawned on her that all this time Sam had been speaking in a singular tone and not plural. "Wait, what about Kevin?" she asked defensively for her fellow pilot.
Sam shifted a little uneasily as did Kevin. "His is a unique situation. He's already at the optional retirement age set by InGen and had already begun seriously considering the idea. Due to the Lockdown putting any further thoughts of retirement on hold, Samantha has decided that Kevin is to be given a much lighter workload. He'll be working off and on with Nicolette, Lori, and me as we draw up plans for what will happen if we do have to evacuate this island. Other than that, he's free to relax and enjoy his unofficial retirement."
Jennifer couldn't believe what she was hearing and spun to face Kevin who had a slight guilty look on his face.
"You're leaving me," the female pilot said in a soft voice with what almost sounded like a whimper. She had always looked up to her fellow pilot as her mentor but to hear this now from Sam…
"I'm sorry, kid," said Kevin apologetic but not regretful over his decision. "I'll still be around and I'll try and do some work in the garage with you also, but I've lived a long life and worked nearly every day of it. And if everything does hit the fan in 68 days, I want to go out on my own terms."
"Words to live by," swore Jennifer harshly with a look of pure anger in her eyes. Without saying another word, she stormed from the hangar leaving the two others alone as the rest of the workers had finished their work and headed out.
"She's a real firecracker," Sam noted with a disappointed shake of his head.
"Yes," Kevin partially agreed. "Is she sometimes arrogant, cocky, and full of herself; absolutely. But she's also one of the best pilots I've ever known and a damn good mechanic, which is why she acts that way. She does need some humility, I'll give you that, but that will come with time and experience. But in a firefight or any other situation where aerial support or evacuation seem absolutely hopeless, she will be there for you and she'll succeed. You need her on your side because I won't be around forever."
"Who was she before this?" Sam wondered aloud. "What is she even doing here if she's that good?"
"If you really want to know, you can always ask Samantha Brown to look at her personnel file," Kevin began hesitantly. "But she's here for any of the two reasons we're all here. Either we're the best at what we do but have no place to show off our abilities or we've screwed up so badly that this is the only place left that'll take us."
Sam slowly digested all of that information as he again looked out the crack in the hangar doors where Jennifer had exited.
"And have I lost her?" the Head of Operations asked, curious. Kevin shook his head as he briefly clasped Sam on the shoulder.
"No, she'll come around eventually," he said knowingly. Kevin knew the young pilot inside and out. He'd never had much of a family life, but in her own brash way Jennifer was the closest thing he'd ever have to a daughter.
"Okay," said Sam nodding his head willing to let her insubordination slide for now. "On to other matters then; I take it you ran the final fuel check numbers?"
Kevin nodded his head.
"And?"
Kevin shook his head.
"Damn," said Sam closing his eyes and wishing he hadn't gotten that response.
"Is that what Nicolette came up with also?" the male pilot asked. Sam nodded his head as he rubbed his eyes.
"Do you think she knows?" asked the Head of Operations as he tipped his head at the exit, indicating Jennifer. Kevin shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets and the two slowly walked towards the door.
"I think she has a pretty good idea but can't bring herself to know for certain," he figured. Sam filed that away for the future.
"So what does that mean now?" asked the pilot uncertain about the future.
"The same as it always has. We either crash or crash through," said Sam with gritted teeth as the two emerged into the light and the hangar doors were closed behind them and locked. The two boarded the vehicle with the rest of the workers and it set off back to the village.
Embryonics Administration: "So that means we are all systems go!" shouted Jake from the catwalk down to the workers in the bay. Cheers arose from the group at knowing they could finally direct their efforts to cloning the two new species. It was not a process that was going to happen overnight despite all the groundwork having been laid. It would take several weeks if not more of testing and perfecting the DNA strands to produce a viable embryo and have a creature hatch from an egg, but that was work everyone was looking forward to because it would keep their minds focused and alert and not worried about what was coming next.
It was also a great relief to Henry and Jake as neither one could think of a good idea of what to do with the workers during the Lockdown with resources several limited. With the majority of the scientific staff focused on the cloning process it also allowed them to focus more on the issue of the altered DNA sequences.
The two were almost back at Jake's office when they saw Carly Carlson leaning against the wall just outside.
"Can I talk with you?" she requested. The two scientists nodded their heads and let her into their office and they shut the door behind them. Jake took his customary position behind his desk as Henry took a more laid back position and sat on the couch in the room off to the side as Carly took her seat opposite Jake's desk.
"What's up?" asked Jake concerned. Carly looked at them both.
"How did your analysis on the Crays go?" the female scientist finally asked.
"There was a variance," Jake admitted, not hesitating for once to tell her the truth.
"Random?" Carly asked spooked.
"It doesn't look like it," Henry chimed in from the side. Carly thought about that for a few moments before balling up her fists resting on her legs and then uncurling them as it to relieve tension.
"That's what we think too," she agreed in reference to what she and her team had managed to find out. Henry and Jake nodded in stride to what she had said.
"Any idea what got changed?" asked Henry curious if her team had had more success than them since the Crays were shut down before telling them that answer.
"Not yet. Since we could never physically read through the entire DNA strand of even one dinosaur, we've focused on reading certain parts we think might have caused what we witnessed in the cages," said Carly still horrified by what had happened when she had stayed late one night to work on something and been called in to deal with several dinosaurs going ballistic. "Right now we've got a simple computer program going through the coding for the lysine contingency from the genetic samples we took from the terminated specimens. At the same time we are still going through the sheets of coding we do have to supplement that."
"Anything interesting?" asked Jake, hopeful. Carly shook her head.
"Nothing yet, it all seems normal," she admitted a little helpless about the whole thing.
"Well, I wouldn't get too discouraged," said Henry trying to be sympathetic about finding an answer he knew he'd dread. "Just do as best you can."
"Thanks," said Carly feeling a little bit better that she'd had a chance to talk about all this with them. "But now that Venn and Chang are going to be heading up those projects, what should I do with the team? Should I keep them on their current assignment?"
Jake and Henry fervently shook their heads. "No not now. This could end up digging up some secrets we probably would wish stay buried. They could use this as a breather for awhile and just work on this project as time and workload permits. Besides, we don't want to raise suspicions if we don't assign them to it and instead have them working on some hush-hush project," Henry said. Carly nodded, relieved.
"I'll let you know what we come up with if we find anything," she promised and then headed for the door.
"Hey Carly, Henry and me will be incommunicado for the rest of the week, but how 'bout a round of tennis this weekend?" asked Jake trying to get her mind off her problems. Carly gave a light smile at that.
"Sounds like fun," she agreed and then left the room leaving the two alone. Jake looked at his desk and began rifling through his inbox and looking at the papers in there. After a few moments he turned to look at Henry who had an amused grin on his face he was trying to hide.
"What?" demanded Jake annoyed since he wasn't sure what his friend found so funny.
"You sure are acting nice…nicer than usual," his colleague had to admit. "Maybe this Lockdown has affected you except in reverse."
Jake rolled his eyes upon hearing that. "I'm just trying to follow Samantha's advice and avoid causing more headaches than necessary. Besides, I've got too much on my mind right now to cause trouble. If what we think is going on is going on, then it'll cause more headaches than I ever could. Afterwards, if this all blows over, I'll be back to my normal form."
Henry nodded his head reasonably and let the subject go for more important matters.
"We need to get to Kenya," he finally stated, bringing up the elephant in the room.
"I know, but how are we going to get there?" asked Jake bringing up the other important issue. "We can't go by plane because they're locked up, we can't go by boat because none of them can handle the open waters, and as for the you-know-whats locked up in the you-know-where; those need to stay where they are until E.L.E."
"We'll have to think of something," said Henry refusing to get discourage but knowing they were up against the wall. "Assuming we can get out of here, how long do you think we'll need to be gone?"
Jake thought about that for a few moments as he leaned back in his chair before sitting back up and spinning around to look at his wall calendar.
"I think it'll take two days to get there and another two days to get back. Once we get there, depending on a variety of factors it'll take anywhere between three to seven days to do our analyses to find what we're looking for."
"A week to a week and a half," said Henry mulling it over. "I don't think we'll be able to come up with a convincing alibi for why we'll be out of touch for that long or if we don't give them one when we leave, for where we were when we get back."
"Plus not getting caught in Kenya," Jake further reasoned not looking forward to that eventuality. "We get caught here and it's not a big deal but if we break the Lockdown…"
"Ludlow would hit the fan," Henry agreed nodding his head at that horrible thought. "So why don't we just talk to Samantha? She could get us off this island."
Jake had a look of distaste upon hearing that. "I don't think that's such a good idea. A. This really doesn't concern her and the less about all this the better until we have proof and B. without her knowing, that gives her deniability that she'll need to not have Ludlow also go after her," he confessed. "This is our problem; we'll deal with it ourselves."
"In that case, as things get closer to the day the fences fail, things will be hectic and chaotic around here. That might give us a better opportunity to get out of here. Circumstances permitting, I say we will leave mid-August," Henry figured. Jake nodded his head and made a small mark on his calendar for the second weekend of the month with the words "fight or flight".
"Not to beat a dead horse, but I just wish I knew where Gustavius is and what he is up to," Henry complained for the utmost time. "Nobody knew the lysine contingency better than he did."
Jake knew that was true. "I don't where he is now, but the last time he called he was asking about glucocorticoids, acetylcholine, and neuroplasticity," said the scientist still baffled by that call even though it had been made four years ago. "Do you have any idea now what that all meant?"
"Damned if I know," Henry confessed as he leaned forward. "And so that's a mystery for another day. Now…"
The lights began dimming in the room as machinery was heard firing up in the bay outside. The two looked at each briefly before heading for the door and when outside from the catwalk, looking down at the cloning assembly line start moving. Down below, Lori Ruso and her team were clad entirely in scrubs and other protective clothing as they began checking the assembly line for contaminants and defects. She had just finished issuing some orders when she looked up and saw Jake and Henry looking down at her.
"It's good to have you here, LoRu!" shouted Jake as he cupped both hands around his mouth so his voice would be louder. She snapped them a thumb's up and went back to working as Jake and Henry retreated back to the office to discuss other matters. In truth, Lori Ruso wasn't permanently back on the job. She was just taking a break from giving the tour so she could get some real work done. And knowing she was working in an area one member of the tour would give anything to see but probably never would was of great enjoyment to her.
InGen Headquarters, San Diego: Samantha Brown entered her office and dropped down on her desk exhausted from yet another several hour boardroom meeting that had seemingly gotten little accomplished. It was clear that Ludlow and she were the only ones who had any idea what was really going on at Site B but Ludlow clearly had his own agenda for what to do with that island. She personally would rather work with the personnel to try and develop a plan of action for what was to come. But given they were rapidly running out of time and they still had unanswered questions from the Jurassic Park Incident, she wasn't sure which course would yield better results.
Sighing to herself, she reached into her bag and pulled out the preliminary report of Ludlow's investigations into the Jurassic Park Incident. She had read the report backwards and forwards several times and each time she continued to get the impression that information was being deliberately left out of it.
That she, as InGen's Head of HR and also a trained therapist, had been cut-off from speaking with these clearly traumatized individuals was a warning bell in her mind.
In the past, she might have left it slide that Ludlow would reveal the truth when it was time. But she couldn't shake Henry and Jake's desperate request that she get them the raw interview transcripts of the survivors of the Jurassic Park incident.
They suspected something she didn't and that equally frustrated her.
There were too many secrets going on for her liking. It was like everything had been bottled up hidden behind the dam that was Jurassic Park and when it went down, the dam began to start leaking. And once it fully ruptured, she feared it would take InGen down along with it. And so she had to figure out just what the questions were so she could find her answers and save the company.
Reaching down her blouse she pulled out her necklace and attached to it was the genetic sample Gerry Harding had given to her with the implication that it held many of the answers she was looking for. The sample was too important to really leave out of her sight even though it was dangerous to her career if she was ever caught with it so she returned the necklace to where it originally was.
Turning to her computer, she accessed the company's intranet and found the listing for all the genetic testing facilities InGen owned. They were scattered throughout the globe due to the number of amber mines InGen contracted out digging work whose samples needed testing. But one in particular drew her attention the most, the one at InGen's original dinosaur cloning facility in Kenya. The other locations were mainly for recording new DNA strands from mosquitoes trapped in amber as well as DNA fragments recovered from ground up dinosaur bones. But Kenya was designed for comprehensive DNA analyses. With the other location also able to do that being on Isla Sorna, which was out of the question, it meant it was the one destination she could take her sample to try and get some answers.
Well…that wasn't entirely true. As the female HR representative found her eyes drifting lazily out the window, she saw through the window a building in the distance that caused intense anger and loathing on her part. The building in question was the Pacific Pharmaceuticals headquarters and somewhere in its walls was a man who still managed to bring out all of her emotions.
John Brown was a topic she thought was finally past here but now even in her new position at a new company he had come roaring back into her life. When they'd been married, she learned of Henry Wu and Jake Whitacre by association and that the two scientists never saw eye to eye with the man, which caused considerable tension between them. When that animosity had first started, she was never entirely sure, but over the years of their brief and tumultuous marriage, she had begun to feel how they must have and so things had fallen apart between them.
But now that he was back in her life and more importantly because it involved the company she now worked for, it meant there was yet another mystery that needed solving. Jake and Henry told her he had stolen the embryos and that meant he knew a lot more about the company than she had previously thought.
Normally his underlying motives were not that hard to determine. He was interested in power and profit for the company he worked for. But as Jake, Henry, and Carly had all pointed out, the busted embryos were useless. They had no value because their genetic codes had been scrambled after the coolant in the canister had run out. So the canister wouldn't really help achieve either of those goals in a cheap or timely manner. This raised the question of why he was so determined to have it.
Thinking about it was likely going to drive her crazy. Whatever he was up to with the canister would just have to wait for later. Instead, she decided to focus on a goal she thought she could accomplish: getting her hands on the unedited transcripts from Alan Grant's time in Jurassic Park. Jake and Henry were desperate for them and if she could finally get them on her side, some of the mysteries driving her crazy would be solved…hopefully.
But even with that goal, there was still another piece of the puzzle she knew she was avoiding and without confronting it sooner rather than later would only cause more problems down the road. As the Lockdown continued and the deadline for E.L.E. drew closer, InGen would likely threaten to split in half between the board in San Diego and the workers on Sorna just like it had during the aftermath of the A-1 incident.
She immediately buzzed her secretary and got a response. "Sheryl, I need you to do two things for me. One, get me a list of all the computer technicians who worked on the Jurassic Park Demolition project because there's one programmer in particular I want to contact. Two, and this is most important, I need you to get in touch with John Hammond's butler and tell him I demand an audience with Hammond before the end of July. Otherwise, I'll activate an executive power of mine and accuse him of abandonment of his job and have his voting rights stripped of him."
One way or another, she'd get her answers.