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A shot rang out on Sorna piercing the otherwise comfortable stillness of the late afternoon as one of the feather animals dropped to the ground as the other squawked angrily before racing off as a group of humans approached with Dr. Frances White holding a tranquilizer gun in her hand.
"We have to be careful because these little bastards know how to play possum and will sometimes attack you once you get too close," Bobbie ruminated from many a visit to the clinic from workers with bites, cuts, and scratches.
But that was not the case today as they animal they had stunned was clearly out of it.
"Velociraptors?" asked Richard Levine scrambling to look out at the short feathered creatures. "They don't look anything like raptors and definitely not the ones that spooked me the other day."
"That's because they're Gen 1s," Frankie explained to him
"What?" asked Levine confused by that terminology. It hadn't been in any of the preparatory materials InGen had sent him.
"Generation 1.0, meaning they were some of the first dinosaurs cloned," the behavioral scientist continued as she casually flipped her hair that was tossing about from the wind. "I wasn't there in those days, but once the cloning process started working well enough, Whitacre, Wu, and Dr. Graves cloned some velociraptors using guesswork about what the original DNA strands may have been and ended up with a bunch of turkeys. Hammond thought it was hysterical but the Board and Ludlow were furious since it wasn't a product they could sell or market. The decision was made to switch to amphibian DNA because it was cheaper, the results more predictable, and it involved less time commitment working on the strands to clone each species. The Gen 1s were kept and brought here from Kenya largely as a reminder of what not to do when using the dinosaur revivification process. There aren't too many of them on this island but since they can breed they haven't entirely died off either."
"Interesting," said Levine taking some photos of the animal and then lightly holding it up and examining it. "So it was only velociraptors."
Frankie shrugged. "There might be one or two other species but these are by far the most abundant. I heard a rumor the first T-Rex also looked like a turkey but that Whitacre and We were somehow able to rewrite its DNA while it was still alive to look like it did on Nublar. But not being a geneticist I have no idea if that's true or not."
"Can they breed with the regular velociraptors?" asked Thorne curious.
"Last I was told they weren't genetically compatible. Plus they really have no way of getting in to the pens. Not that it matters because these wild ones all seem to give any of the other pens a wide berth. I mean the velociraptors we keep caged up are unpredictable enough as it is. At one point we tried introducing newly hatched juveniles to the adults in hopes they would raise them as their own. It worked with the other species but in this case the raptors immediately ate the juveniles. So we stopped doing that again."
"But they never attacked you when you went in there," Bobbie recalled. "At least not until they got that new female Alpha and she ended up killing part of the Nublar pack."
Frankie yawned as she absently traced the bullet scar on her cheek. "And I am not ashamed to admit I'm glad that bitch died on Nublar. Hopefully now I can regain my trust with the pack."
Upon hearing Frankie yawn and consulting her watch and looking at the setting sun Dr. Carter turned to the group.
"We'd better find a place to camp for that night. Based on my last report, the food hunting expedition should be near here so we'll join up with them rather than try and go back to the Village or find a nearby bunker in the dark," she ordered and the group slowly starting walking back to the BMW.
"Could I take a feather?" asked Levine curious. Frankie shook her head.
"That one'll come after you if you did along with its pack. Turkey Vultures have the largest olfactory capabilities after the T-Rex but these babies sure come close and they will attack you as a warning," she advised. "We have some carcasses stashed away on ice at the Veterinary Clinic. You can get a feather then once we visit the place."
Levine took one last look at the animal on the ground and then looked up at the nearby tree line and was startled to see several of the Gen 1s staring at him intently. He immediately picked up his pace and joined the rest of the group and tried to avoid sweating nervously at the encounter.
The Fortress, Mt. Watson: "You're insane, you know that, absolutely insane," Dr. Laura Sorkin remarked to Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu.
"We're desperate," Jake admitted at a loss of what else to do. "We have to know how those creatures acted so similarly to how yours did when you gave them that early dose of the anti-lysine serum. I know you're not out of the loop enough to not know everything stands a good chance of going to hell in 68 days. The more we know now the more we'll know what to expect when the fences fail."
Sorkin sighed as rubbed her chin in thought.
"No, you do have a point," she conceded, also dreading that day. She had always wanted the dinosaurs to be free of their shackles and living without fences and boundaries. But not while humans beings were still on it. "I don't suppose you think I'm responsible for this if something is indeed going on?" she had to ask.
Jake and Henry both shook their heads. "It would make things simpler but we know you haven't got the resources or raw materials to pull off that anti-lysine stunt anymore. You tipped your hand with the genetic materials you requested; plus when tapped other scientists to unknowingly work on your project and then eating up so many computer cycles running virtual reality simulations of what you were trying to accomplish," Henry reminded her. Sorkin muttered under her breath about never trusting Venn and Chang again but had long ago written off the whole anti-lysine project after getting busted.
"Why do you even need me anyway?" the female scientist asked next. It wasn't that she wasn't intrigued by the possibility of working on the anti-lysine project again but she had little desire to work with her fellow scientists whose talents and abilities could never hope to match her own. Only Whitacre, Wu, and Graves were the ones whose talents she felt eclipsed hers and that didn't exactly make her happy either.
"I mean you made off with all of my research and even if it wasn't entirely up to spec, I had 95-98% of the hard work done already. I would think even you two or Carly with a small team could finish what I started," Sorkin figured as she lazily propped her feet up on the desk and leaned back in her chair. Jake and Henry exchanged a glance as they often did when they were both confronted with a question they didn't want to have to answer.
Then the moment passed and Jake leaned forward in his chair with a dead serious look on his face.
"Because we don't have your research," he informed her. Laura straightened up slightly upon hearing that but didn't take her feet off the desk.
"Don't tell me you destroyed it!" she exclaimed exasperated. "I put years into that anti-lysine vaccine."
"We'll you'll be glad to know we didn't destroy it," said Henry calmly. "Instead, Ludlow confiscated all of it before we really had a chance to review what you had done. The computer records, the hard copies, the vaccine, everything."
Sorkin nearly fell out of her chair upon hearing that.
Elsewhere, Isla Sorna: Sam Stone and Daniela St. Ives were pulling away from the secret warehouse as the sun had nearly sunk below the horizon. Daniela was completely exhausted and still reeling from what she had seen in that warehouse.
Sam for his part knew what she was going through and was fine with patiently letting her sit in silence.
"You're fine with giving that kind of hardware to civilians?" asked Daniela both disgusted and terrified as words suddenly spilled from her mouth unbidden due to her sleeplessness.
"Not many are civilians," Sam pointed out, not surprised at the question. "The scientists are, sure, but fewer of the support personnel and other workers aren't capable of figuring out the business end of an M-16. In fact a good chunk are ex-military. Plus, don't forget that everyone was trained in using basic firearms after they signed on to work on these islands. They'll all need some training but that's accounted for in E.L.E."
"It's going to be a bloodbath is what it is. You send barely trained personnel with dangerous tools into the field and you're inviting disaster," Daniela pointed out dismissively of Sam's statement. Just saying that she felt a headache coming on.
"We'll survive, we always do," was all Sam could say in response to that. He felt confident they would make it through this as they had everything else during the DRP project. Daniela sighed and almost wanted to cry at his seeming naiveté.
"Do you think a war is coming?" she had to ask. Sam remained silent for a few moments as he contemplated that question.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But Jake and Henry do. They always have. Oh, sure, they have never outright admitted to it, but from the day they first stepped foot on this island they've given little hints here and there that they both think we're only one step away from getting slaughtered. With Nublar reaching completion, I thought they had put those thoughts behind them. But the Jurassic Park Incident has made it so they can't think of anything else."
Daniela had to nod in agreement at that. The two were the only ones on the island who held the keys to activating E.L.E. They had also been on the warpath lately examining several unexplained phenomena with the genetic code and then taking off for The Fortress to speak with Laura Sorkin. She suspected that this was all part of making sure E.L.E. went off without a hitch when-not if-they activated it.
"Why, though? Why are they convinced it's all going to go pieces?" Daniela opined throwing up her hands. "A-1 was terrible, what happened on Jurassic Park was worse, but those were isolated incidents. We don't know what's going to happen when those fences fail. But those two seem to already know what's going to happen and I don't know why."
"Nor do I," Sam admitted shrugging. "But I don't think they'll tell us that reason."
"…And it's going to kill us," Daniela said quietly as tears finally stung her eyes as she leaned her head against the open window.
The vehicle continued down the darkened road in silence.
Wilderness, Isla Sorna: The investigation team tromped through the woods trying to find the Alejandro's food subsistence group that was camped somewhere in the area.
"It sure is spooky out here," said Bobbie Carter as she shuddered in the cold. Passing every tree and every shadow made her think something was going to leap out suddenly and attack her.
"You either get used to it and nothing think about it or you'll go mad," advised Frankie flippantly as she used her tracking skills to try and determine where the group was with the help of the very bulky and heavy night-vision goggles.
"Are you mad?" Levine muttered in frustration as he scrapped yet another branch that put yet another tear in his expensive clothes.
Bobbie was offended by that statement but Frankie just laughed. "I have to be a little bit if I identify with raptors so much."
The sound of loud crunching and the slight but consistent rumble of the ground suddenly caught the team's attention and they all froze. Within moments the sound was getting closer and heavy breathing was heard.
"What is it?" Bobbie whispered as she couldn't see anything out in the darkness.
"Ankylosaur," Frankie answered. "Turn off your flashlights, slowly back up and press yourself against the trees behind you and it shouldn't notice us and keep moving along."
The team tried to remain as quietly as they could as the sounds of crashing and breathing seemed to pass right in front of them and then after several moments of abject terror the noises receded into the distance.
A slow nervous laugh broke out from the group as they tried to collect their frayed nerves.
"Why was that thing not in a cage?" asked Thorne whispering lest he accidentally attract the creature back to them.
"Its large bony structure meant the fence's electricity wouldn't affect them unless it touched bare skin. So they either walked right through the fences without much trouble or they clubbed down the fence posts with their tails. It was just decided to let them roam free out here where they couldn't do much damage to the island's infrastructure," Frankie responded. "They and some other dinosaurs are sometimes scattered around here in the outer portions of the island."
Levine was smoothing out his clothes to calm himself before nodding his head. "Well let's just hope there aren't any more surprises out here…"
"Why is everyone whispering?" asked a new voice abruptly cutting in. Levine's flashlight immediately whipped up to focus on a pair of bluish-green catlike eyes and he screamed in terror before running into a nearby tree and knocking himself out cold. The others flashlights came on and illuminated a young blonde woman in a red jumpsuit standing next to them.
"Katrice you almost gave me a heart attack!" shouted Bobbie despite herself as she felt her wrist for her heartbeat.
"Sorry Dr. Carter," said Katrice Maken innocently. Thorne for his part bent down and slung Dr. Levine over his shoulder. From the looks of things this wasn't the first time the lead engineer had had to do this to the millionaire.
"It's good to see you, girl," said Frankie giving a Katrice a quick hug. Frankie often worked alone but she in some small ways thought of Katrice as her protégé.
"Hi, Dr. White," said Katrice pleased at seeing the other woman again.
"I told you a thousand times, call me Frankie!" insisted Frances exasperated.
"Okay, Dr. White," said Katrice obliviously. Frankie groaned lightly at hearing that as Bobbie stepped in.
"How 'bout you take us to the rest of your group?" the Doctor requested. Katrice brightened up at that.
"Sure," said Katrice as she immediately headed off into the woods without a flashlight, compass, or any external means of guiding her.
"How does she?" asked Thorne bewildered at both the young woman's ability to not only sneak up on them but also have such innate sense of direction.
"I've learned its best not to ask," was all Bobbie offered as she had no clue.
"I heard her coming from a mile away," insisted Frankie from behind them but neither knew if she was telling the truth. The group finally saw campfires in the distance and began to walk more confidently.
"Halt who goes there?!" demanded a new voice. "I've got a brick of C-4 and I'm not afraid to use it!"
"May, a dinosaur isn't going to understand words!" shouted a different voice.
"Oh, knock it off you two! It's just Katrice and the investigation team," said yet another voice. A young woman of Indian origin and an even younger blonde Caucasian woman appeared. The Indian woman was re-holstering a rather nasty looking semi-automatic pistol. From behind them came a slightly taller brown-haired woman wearing large rimmed glasses who looked like she belonged behind a desk filing papers than out in the field.
"You're always stealing my thunder, Rally!" the blonde woman, May, protested to the dark-haired woman.
"I can't help it if you're just going to make the situation worse!" Rally disagreed. The two started arguing as the taller woman approached.
"Don't mind them, they're really good friends," the woman stated. "My name is Becky Farrah, I'm working logistics for the group. The dark haired one is Irene 'Rally' Vincent who specializes in tracking while the short powder keg is May Hopkins who works in construction. You got here just in time, Alejandro was about to turn on the WEIRD system."
The group continued walking towards the campfires as the two woman continued arguing behind them.
"The younger one said she had C-4?" asked Thorne a little disconcerted. Becky laughed that off.
"Just for show. We stopped giving her explosives long ago after…well maybe it would be better if I don't talk about it," Becky said, even knowing her audience. Thorne for his part wasn't sure if she was joking or not but like with Frankie's earlier statement decided he didn't want to know.
The group finally emerged in a carved out area in the woods where the rest of the food subsistence team was waiting and that team let out a sigh of relief seeing them as the Wilderness Environment Intruder Response Defenses were fired up. The system consisted of lasers, motion tracking automatic turrets, and a lightweight metalloid mesh that was hooked up to a portable generator to supply 10,000 volts of electricity to whatever touched it.
It was a bit extreme but knowing what could possibly be lurking out there or have potentially escaped their pens, the team wasn't taking any chances.
Thorne placed Levine on the ground and Bobbie and one of her nurses who was travelling with the group took a quick look at him and determine he'd be fine when he woke up. The group then approached the Head Chef and leader of the expedition, Alejandro, with the exception of Katrice who had inexplicably vanished as quickly as she'd arrived. Rally, May, and Becky bid their farewells and went back to patrolling the campsite.
"Roberta, Frances, Mr. Thorne," Alejandro acknowledged with a tip of his head as he shook their hands. As a professional chef, he refused to call anyone by their nicknames. He then focused his attention on Frankie. "I must admit Dr. White it's a surprise to see you alive."
Frankie chuckled nervously at that as she absently scratched the back of her head. Silence had slowly fallen over the rest of the members of the food expedition as they were now all staring at the behaviorist as if looking at a ghost. That this was occurring in the dark around campfires mainly providing the light didn't help ward off that notion.
"Well, the point is that I've been living off of nuts and berries for the past several weeks and I'm looking forward to some of that famed cooking of yours," said Frankie disarmingly with a smile. Alejandro raised an eyebrow at that. Less so her compliment but more that knowing her condition he'd be surprised if she could keep any food down. He briefly turned his head to look at Bobbie who shrugged silently and then nodded his head.
"The kitchen is closed for the night but we should be able to reheat some soup for your dinner party," Alejandro graciously allowed. While his preference was that individuals eat at regular schedules, he also knew unexpected circumstances arrived and he wouldn't want anyone to leave hungry.
"Actually, your arrival is rather fortuitous Frances, you have likely been out to places in the interior few others have. In the morning I would like to consult with you about any foodstuffs you may have encountered on your travels," Alejandro requested.
"Sounds good to me. Plus I can tell you more about the interior geography and places to maybe avoid," Frankie chimed in. The group was passing some flood lights, none of which were turned on and Thorne pointed it out to the chef.
"I like to prepare the main course but I would not prefer to be the main course," Alejandro offered not entirely joking. "The floods are an extra line of defense if something comes our way. In the ensuing brightness we'll either fight or cut and run."
That answered unsettled Thorne but he had to admit there weren't too many other options possible when dealing with what lived on this island. Silently he promised himself to take a look at the defense systems on the island and see if there was anything he could do to shore them up; power or no power if they had to be used. Feeling a strange sense of déjà vu all of a sudden, he turned his head and noticed the reason why so much of the jungle had already been cleared out in this part of the jungle…
Another one of the mysterious giant silos sat in the middle of the campsite.
The Fortress, Mt. Watson: Dr. Sorkin was now properly sitting up with her head in her hands hoping she hadn't heard what she had just heard.
"How could you give my research to Ludlow?!" she demanded of them. Sorkin, Whitacre, and Wu rarely saw eye-to-eye on many things but their mutual contempt for inGen's COO Peter Ludlow was one of them.
"Again, he took everything," Wu repeated to her. "We barely had a chance to look at the preliminary findings of your work before Ludlow and his team of lawyers swept in, crated up all your research, and then had Nedry and Arnold transmit all your computer data before erasing it from the system."
Sorkin was shaking her head trying not to hear any of this.
"You know, you would've been aware of this already if you weren't so dead set on hiding up here," said Whitacre annoyed at her isolationist behavior. Sorkin shot him a look.
"I'm not 'hiding', I'm here because I don't like to be disturbed and especially have my research co-opted by individuals too ignorant to know what they're looking at," she snapped back. She then leaned back again in her chair arrogantly as she held her hand to the right side of her face.
"I hate to tell you this but I can't start from scratch and duplicate my original work and hope to have it done in a little over two months," she promised while nodding her head vigorously. "I'm guessing you've got a team ready for me to work with and that helps a little bit but I'm still guessing this is all below the table. Right?"
"Yes on both counts," Jake reluctantly admitted as he stared off at the far wall. Regardless of the necessity of what they needed to find out, if word reached the workers that the Sorkin was again trying to circumvent the lysine contingency with implicit instructions from Whitacre and Wu it would cause chaos. It had been difficult enough trying to convince some of the scientists not to throw her off of a cliff for what she had done.
"Your team will consist of Carly Carlson, Collin Maken, Abby Nakajima and Derrick Hoyle. With additional assistance from Katrice Maken when she is available," Wu answered. Dr. Sorkin had been ready to automatically reject whatever team she was assigned but had to reluctantly admit it was a good group of junior scientists and one helper.
"As for the second part, all of your research might not be lost," Whitacre informed her as he steepled his fingers in front of his face. Sorkin looked at him perplexed and a little doubtful but was willing to hear him out.
"While we don't have duplicates of your original work, don't forget that you did have a proposal for the entire project that had to be approved by us first in order to get started," Whitacre reminded her. "A lot of the groundwork you did was laid out in the project specifications even if you didn't admit just what it was you hoped to accomplish by completing your experiments. You also sent us periodic updates as we requested them. Plus any and all genetic materials you requested to be sent to the Fortress are also all on file in the Operations Center on Site B.
"Ludlow confiscated your completed project. But the trail you blazed to get there is still here on this island," Whitacre concluded as if to dismiss her dismissive expression on her face.
"Alright, so now you've got my interest," Sorkin agreed, now beginning to slowly come around to the project again. "But if all those files are in the file room then good luck finding them. Last I heard Katrice wrecked that place trying to spook you."
Jake turned beet red upon hearing that as Wu laughed into his hand.
"Before the Lockdown went into effect, inGen assigned an administrative assistant to assist Sam and from what I've head she's already made a sizeable dent into reorganizing that room," the Asian scientist informed her. That was news to Sorkin but as Whitacre had pointed out there were some disadvantages to being isolated up here.
"Is Ludlow spying on us?" Sorkin wondered.
"If he is, I can't imagine what he's hoping to find out," Whitacre said cluelessly. Truthfully, he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop when Ludlow and Cowain, Swain, and Ross finally barged in and started interrogating employees over the Jurassic Park Incident.
"Are you sure I can't remain here with that team?" the female lead scientist tried to again plead her case.
"No!" shouted Whitacre and Wu said in unison. Sorkin scowled at hearing their response.
"Venn and Chang aren't going to be very welcoming when I walk back through the doors of Embryonic Administration," Sorkin hoped they'd realized.
"Which is why you're working at the Hammond Administration Building," Wu answered. The Administration Building had been a temporary place for the support staff to hold up between when the Fortress was initially abandoned and the Workers Village being finished. Afterwards, it had been converted into another genetics laboratory which was mainly used for side projects or overspill when Embryonics Administration was at full capacity. That wasn't likely going to be the case with the current power conservation in progress but for now as long as Sorkin was far away from Venn and Chang the better.
What happened when Embryonics Administration and The Hammond Administration Building were both shut down to conserve power and they had to all work together back at the Operations Building was a hurdle best left for another day.
"Are you in?" asked Wu pointedly as he looked her directly in the eyes. Whitacre for his part was still staring at the side wall, clearly not happy about any of this.
"You're thinking this is all a mistake?" Sorkin pointed out lightly to him.
"Obviously," admitted the male scientist shoving his hands and looking at her point blank. "But we don't have any choice. The Jurassic Park Incident took that from us."
Sorkin nodded her head. At least she knew where both scientists stood and they were on the same page that she figured they were.
"The Lysine Contingency was and still is a mistake," Sorkin said, refusing to back down on that one point and so felt the need to get it off of her chest.
"And that's why it's not your call to make about its implementation," Whitacre said with a mildly smug grin. "But you try a stunt like you pulled two years ago and lockdown or no lockdown I'm throwing you off this island."
Sorkin gave him an equally smug grin in return. "On that note, if I'm going to do this I have one demand."
"Demand?!" said Wu irate while rearing back in surprise. "You're in no position to be making demands!"
Sorkin held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, a request. I lost all my Troodons when my first experiment went bust and I'd like another clutch."
Whitacre and Wu stared at her. "We're in enough trouble with all the other dinosaurs running around this place without potentially inviting another potentially deadly predator into the mix when the power fails," Whitacre stated.
"They'd be maybe a couple weeks to a month old when they hatched, hardly a threat to anyone," Sorkin said dismissively.
"What about the necessary power consumption to even make a clutch in the first place?" Wu asked next. Sorkin shrugged.
"I hear Venn and Chang are bringing some new species back into existence. That will mean multiple clutches are necessary to ensure viable stock of creatures for the future. Not all of those will be viable though so removing a lone clutch for one guaranteed to hatch sounds like a good investment of energy to me," said Sorkin pleased to be outmaneuvering them with information they figured she probably wasn't aware of.
"But-," began Whitacre when Sorkin held up her hand.
"So where I'm going with all of this is that my original experiment was based around the Troodons. Because I know their DNA structure and what their bodies are capable of. If I go experimenting on some other species it would take longer with potentially more unpredictable results," stated the female scientist. "If you want your answer and you want it fast, I need those Troodons."
"Fine," Wu acquiesced not willing to further press the issue knowing time was of the essence. "One clutch, that's it."
A broad smile crossed Sorkin's face.
"But once you find your answer they're being euthanized," Wu continued letting the other shoe drop. Sorkin's fists suddenly squeezed tight furiously before she forced herself to calm down and release the tension in them. That was a fight best left for another time and place.
"Then I'm in," she agreed. The three scientists nodded in unison as a brief chill seemed to pass through the room.
"So what's the reason for your extreme in those creatures?" Whitacre had to ask as he slapped his fist into his hand lazily. "It sure is a complete mystery to me."
Sorkin nodded her head before a sly smile crossed her face.
"Like whatever it is you're hiding in the Vault down on Sublevel 3?"