Fortress, Mt. Watson: "I can't believe she's still alive," Jake Whitacre remarked as he looked over the bipedal creature.
"She's a survivor, we built her that way," answered Henry Wu as he examined the readouts of the creature.
"But after all these months…," Jake trailed off as he walked around the creature physically examining it.
"She'd have better still been alive, she's our contingency plan should everything goes to pieces in 67 days," Henry reminded him bitterly as he began firing up some more diagnostic machines in the room. "Although, I suppose…"
Jake snapped his head up to look at him.
"Suppose what?" he demanded, not liking the direction Henry was thinking about leading them. Henry sighed and then turned to face his fellow scientist.
"We could accelerate our plans and move on to phase two of this part of the contingency plan," he offered with a morbid chuckle.
"Are you crazy?!" demanded Jake throwing up his arms. "We don't have the time or the resources to produce the Indom-."
"I know!" Henry snapped at him. "But we don't exactly have a lot of options at the moment."
Jake didn't respond right away as he opened the left eyelid of the Diabolus Rex and shined a penlight into its eye to gauge its reaction. Still heavily sedated.
"That thing would be the equivalent setting off a nuclear bomb," Jake said calmly. "We could never walk away from all of this if that thing got made."
"Well I'm not entirely convinced E.L.E. is going to go off without a hitch," Henry admitted reluctantly and then dropped his head into his hands on top of the computer. That was news to Jake but he tried not to let it show.
"Something we overlooked?" he asked all business as he took a blood sample from the creature.
"No," said Henry sitting back up and continuing to analyze the results. "It all looks good on paper and with all of our simulations. But I can't shake the feeling something unexpected is going to pop-up that will throw all our hard work into chaos."
Jake snorted at that last word. "Been listening to Ian Malcolm too much," he commented.
"Maybe," Henry acquiesced as he flipped some switches and typed in various commands into computer. "But he seemed so sure about the dinosaurs being able to breed and the park was going to fail. And without any evidence against it, he was right."
Jake shrugged at that as he prepared a slide with the blood sample and placed it under an electron microscope.
"The park failing was no random act. Nedry deliberately sabotaged it and the creatures did exactly what they did back in 1991 and 1986," Jake said, practically spitting out the last date. "And for the code, there are unexplainable variances that cannot be coincidences or random mutations."
"Sabotage?" Henry had to ask not able to face his colleague. He too had similar thoughts.
"We won't know until we can get our hands on the master records in Kenya," Jake forced himself to realize. "But in the meantime we have to get E.L.E. pre-prepped as much as possible. And there's one important contingency plan up here that need our personal attention."
Henry nodded his head and pushed himself away from the computer and walked past numerous gene sequencers and other equipment as he reached an unassuming cabinet. Without needing a key to open it-no one could get into this part of Sublevel 3 but three people on the entire planet-he turned the handle and opened the doors and looked at the various binders. Various names were on the spines but Henry specifically pulled out a binder labelled cryptically "The Clean Slate Project" and brought it over to a large table where he was joined by Jake.
Opening the binder clips, Henry pulled out a folded typography map of Mt. Watson and at just below the rim of the crater were numerous dots scattered around it.
"We can use the hard-wired connection terminal here to do a diagnostic of them but we will also have to physically examine a random sampling of the units to check for any issues or variances," Henry stated as he pointed to various points on the map. Jake nodded his head.
"I hate mountaineering," he complained with a wry smile. Henry folded the map back up.
"Good thing we won't have to do much of that," he commented. "But I wonder if Laura knows about our little party favors up here."
"I doubt it," said Jake dismissively as while Henry was using an old copier to shrink the map into smaller copies, Jake went over to another locker and pulled out some coveralls, gas masks, and hard hats and laid them on a table. He zipped himself into one as Henry handed him a small map and placed the binder back in the cabinet. He then got into the other outfit and placed the hat on his head.
The two walked into the part of the room in Sublevel-3 that was embedded into the mountain and approached another set of blast doors on the outer wall. The two flipped on the lanterns on their helmets and then pulled out some flashlights for good measure. The two then inserted their keycards into slots on either sides of the blast doors and then emergency lights began cycling and an alarm began blaring. As this was happening, the two pulled the gas masks over their faces. The doors parted to reveal an airlock with two outer doors. As the inner doors closed, the air noisily cycled for a moment and then the outer doors began to part.
With a heavy creaking noise, the doors slide to the side and revealed in the darkness a lava tube. Walking just inside the doors, Jake flipped a switch and several lights embedded in the sides of the tube lit up the area. The two scientists shook themselves to brush off their worries and advanced down the tube as the blast doors closed behind them leaving the room in silence.
The Diabolus Rex shifted briefly.
Jungle: Workers were still coughing heavily and trying to pat the smoke off of them from May Hopkin's smoke grenade incident. The camp was in general disarray and everyone looking haggard. The only exception being Katrice Maken. Surprisingly-or perhaps unsurprisingly-the young woman looked completely unphased in her aviator sunglasses, black leather jacket, white undershirt, and jeans. Whether the tear gas had no effect on her or she'd bolted as soon as it went off and returned when it was done, no one in the group was entirely sure.
"Way to go Hopkins," complaints were routinely directed at the pint-sized blonde who was a noticeable shade of red-though that may also have been from her hoarse coughing of the smoke. Alejandro meanwhile was rubbing his eyes with his hand as he tried to figure out what he was going to do with her.
Roberta Carter had set up a makeshift clinic with a couple of the nurses who had originally accompanied the team and was administering medical attention as necessary.
"Honestly did you even try and get away from the smoke?" the Doctor complained as she looked at Doc Thorne's eyes.
"I didn't want to risk running and falling or else slam into somebody," Thorne joked as he winced in pain. He hadn't been able to glean much from a closer observation of the tower but he had managed to find a worn serial number on the door that he'd immediately written down. That was entirely worth the pain he was now in.
"We'll put some drops in your eyes which will sting but should eliminate your blurriness in a couple hours," Bobbie ordered. "Next!"
"Thanks, Doc," said Doc wryly as one of the nurses assisted him. The next patient was Richard Levine he winced as he walked.
"What happened?" Dr. Carter asked as she pulled out a new clipboard to write on.
"I ran a little bit faster than anyone and slammed my foot into something hard," Levine said. Bobbie raised an eyebrow at that as Frances White appeared behind him holding an opened can of beans. She needed all the protein she could get after near starvation for weeks on end.
"It looks like he slammed his foot into one of the rail lines," she revealed before shoveling in some beans with her spoon.
"Rail lines?" asked Levine confused as he turned to face the standing woman.
"This island used to be a German mining zone, they laid track everywhere," Bobbie answered instead as she propped up Levine's foot and began examining it. "We found several rail carts and an entire depot; but never what they ended up doing with the locomotive."
"Oh," was the response to that while Frankie belched loudly and wiped her mouth of sauce. Bobbie for her part ignored her colleague's lack of table manners and completed her examination.
"Well the good news is nothing appears to be broken. Ordinarily I'd give you a shot of anesthetic and keep you off it for a day or so. But we don't have that luxury out here so you'll get some aspirin and just know it'll hurt for awhile," Bobbie diagnosed.
"Thanks," Levine grumbled. A small part of him wondered if perhaps Carter could have done more for his pain but he knew that was unlikely with her work ethic. The nurses helped him as Carter wrote down some final notes to be filed away later when the food expedition returned to the Workers Village.
"Okay, team, let's-," began Alejandro figuring it was better to get back on schedule when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning he found himself facing Katrice who was sniffing the air curiously.
"What?" he asked, a little exasperated, fearing another one of Katrice's random non-sequiturs.
"I smell iron," she stated bluntly and completely out of the blue. Both of Alejandro's eyebrows raised at that as the workers began gathering their things while still paying attention, each eagerly wondering how Alejandro was going to respond to her comment.
"Iron?" he said doubtfully. "And what does that mean?"
"It means I want to go find it," she said in a sweet innocent tone that still managed to sound like she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"You mean it's not here," asked the head chef next, unsure how to extricate himself from this bizarre conversation.
"She's probably just smelling the tower," Levine said condescendingly, glad to get a dig in at the young woman who had terrified him earlier in the dark.
"Don't be ridiculous," said Katrice shaking her head. "That tower smells of steel. Plus some other smells I can place but others I can't entirely figure out."
"Such as?" asked Thorne, his interest piqued. Any insight he could gain into the mysterious structures would be of help in figuring out just what they were.
Katrice sniffed the air once more while concentrating on the tower. "From what I can recognize, I can at least smell chrysanthemum and puppy chow."
Thorne barely avoided dropping his head at hearing that. So much for that plan.
"What?!" shouted Levine next, completely and utterly bewildered. Katrice held her hand up to her mouth as she reflected on this. Collin had warned her that without him to translate for her they might not be able to understand her.
"Silver iodide and helium," she clarified.
"Silv-," began Thorne not entirely paying attention to her when realization hit him and his jaw dropped and he stared at her intently. "Wait, you really can smell what's in that tower!?" he demanded all pretext of him trying to cover his interests in the structures completely forgotten by this newest revelation. All this time and he'd never expected one of his best resources to deducing the mystery was this young woman in front of him who often came across like a stereotypical clueless blonde.
"Who cares what's in that stupid tower!" said Levine dismissively ruining that line of inquiry. His attitude was ramped up to eleven thanks to his injured foot.
"Katrice if it's not in the tower then where's the smell coming from?" asked Frankie trying to stand up for her protégé.
"Two hours that way at the base of Mt. Watson," said Katrice pointing at the mountain in the distance. Alejandro pulled out his map and looked at where they were.
"Two hours your speed probably," he ruminated before chastising himself. "There's just one problem, Katrice. We're going in the opposite direction to search for food."
"Then I'll go alone," said the young woman affirmatively as she started walking only for Alejandro to nod at some workers in front of her and they stepped in front of her to prevent her escape.
"Katrice I can't send you off into the unknown by yourself," Alejandro informed her as an idea slowly began to form in the back of his mind. "Yes, the fences are supposed to be secure but we have no idea what's really out there."
"I suppose we could go with her," Bobbie figured as she secured her files inside of her clipboard carrying case. "One direction's as good as another and seeing Mt. Watson up close might make for a good observations for the team as there are a few dinosaur pens between here and there."
"But still…," said Alejandro as he tried to dance around his earlier idea. He then snapped his fingers and pointed. "May Hopkins, you and the rest of the Gunsmith Cats go with them for protection."
May gathered her things eager to be away from the other workers still shooting the occasional death glance at her. All eyes turned to Rally accusingly.
"What?" demanded Rally standing up refusing to back down about being accused of something for which she didn't feel she was personally responsible.
"She's your employee," someone stated.
"Not here she isn't," Rally disagreed with a shake of her head. "She is an official employee of InGen Bioengineering and that is who is currently responsible for her."
"Just go with her," Alejandro half-pleaded under his breath. "She's enough of a loose cannon as it is and these workers are about at wits end with her. Give it some time and they'll cool off."
"Fine. But just remember my CZ-75 isn't going to be able to stop anything we might run across out there," said Rally not happy about it but recognizing the brewing situation for what it was and also grabbed her bag and started off towards May who was standing next to Katrice. All eyes now turned to Becky Farrah who was oblivious to their problems as she continued fighting knots in her hair by tugging on her hairbrush as hard as she could. One more yank and then brush finally moved freely through her hair.
"Finally," she said, relieved. Then she saw the eyes upon her. "Did I miss something?" she asked cluelessly but knowing her pension for knowledge they all sensed she knew what was going on.
"Okay then let me clue you in, I am not nor have ever been an employee of Gunsmith Cats," she informed them with her haughty tone. "I am merely an associate of theirs."
"Exactly and that means its guilt by association," someone said darkly.
"I-, damn," said Farrah shaking her head knowing there would be arguing with this group. She grabbed her things without another word and set off with the others. Not that it mattered, she'd still find ways of collecting dirt on everyone to use against them later.
"Hey, Rally," said Alejandro walked up to the woman as he handed her a pump-action rifle and a box of shells. "Be careful out there."
"I will," the younger woman promised as she nodded her head and tipped her rifle at him. As the two groups split apart, Thorne walked up to Bobbie.
"That seemed, intense," he remarked. The doctor nodded her head, shivering briefly.
"In the old days before the lockdown May's antics would've gotten amused laughter but not outright hostility," she agreed.
"So what does it mean?" Thorne had to ask.
"It means Samantha was right. Things are getting worse,"
San Diego, California: In her office at InGen Headquarters, Samantha Brown was reading through Ingen and Cowain, Swain and Ross's official findings on the Jurassic Park incident. The report was highly sanitized and devoid of anything really useful for her questions and so she tossed the report onto her desk in disgust. Jake and Henry were right about wanting the raw testimony of everyone involved in what had happened.
Tapping absently on her keyboard while trying to decide what to do next she was interrupted by a knock at the door. After Stephanie Sandelder had been suddenly shipped off to Sorna by Ludlow for whatever reason, there had been a new temporary greeter hired until she eventually returned. To say a sudden personnel change that didn't go through her was suspicious to say the last. But it was a mystery best left for another day. If Sandelder was sent to spy on the staff on Site B that was hardly her concern at this time given everything else going on.
"Your morning appointment is here," said the greeter meekly before leaving as R.B. Benton and Kelly Curtis walked in.
"Ah, hello you two," said Samantha all smiles as she casually collected up the Jurassic Park Incident report in one hand and stood up to shake both of their hands.
"So you wanted to see us?" asked Kelly not trying to be a little intimidated talking to the head of Human Resources at InGen since she was still working with Arby off and on to try and get to the bottom of who sent those emails telling the workers to all vacate Jurassic Park before the incident occurred and to also let Nedry get a free pass with his can of shaving cream.
"Yes, I wanted to apologize to you two about not being able to return to Isla Sorna to continue your work with Richard Levine," Samantha began as she sat back down and linked her hands together in front of her. "I'm afraid extenuating circumstances largely beyond our control came up and we just are not able to let you leave at this time."
Arby and Kelly turned a little white at that. They weren't sure if they had been discovered or not with what they were up to.
"So let's just say that if we let you onto that island when you were originally scheduled, you might not have come back," Samantha explained her further. Now the two teenagers definitely turned pale shades of white upon hearing that and Samantha belatedly realized she'd just stuck her foot in her mouth saying something so cryptic.
"What happened?" asked Kelly finally, deciding better to go on the offensive than have a losing defense.
"Well, nothing bad. Not yet anyway. The island has been placed under a permanent lockdown. Basically nothing is coming or off that island in the foreseeable future," the Human Resources head finally explained.
"So where does that leave us?" asked Arby finally speaking up. He'd hate to have to tell Dr. Levine they'd been removed from InGen so they could not continue their research.
Samantha leaned back in her chair as she thought about it.
"Well, you were brought on with the intention to determine the stability of Isla Sorna so I don't see why that can't continue here at InGen HQ," Brown reasoned out loud. "Plus there's the matter of whatever it is you two have been looking into during your trips here."
The two teenagers both straightened up at that as Samantha briefly smirked to herself. She then held up her hand to calm them down.
"Relax, I'm not going to ask what it is…not yet anyway," she told them. "In fact I'm willing to run interference for you to get Ludlow off your backs because I think whatever it is important to the stability of the island if not the company. But whatever you find you have to tell me what it is. If not, I can't really guarantee what Cowain, Swain, and Ross might do to you in the courts."
The two teenagers nodded.
"So is there any chance we can get back to Isla Sorna?" asked Arby curious. Kelly was surprised by his attitude to want to return to that island but then she recalled the supercomputers housed there and barely avoided keeping her face straight. That boy loved technology.
"Maybe," said Samantha noncommittally. "If it's before the Lockdown it would have to be on my authority and so it'd better be for something good."
"Understood," said the two teens in unison. Samantha smiled at them.
"Excellent, so now…," she began when a new email message caught her eye. She read it briefly and then looked up at the two other occupants in the room.
"Something unexpected just came up but I'd like to take you two to lunch sometime if that's okay with your parents," said the Head of Human Resources as she began to usher Arby and Kelly out of the room. "In the meantime, if anyone besides Ludlow gives you any problems while you are doing your research just tell them if they have an issue with it to come speak to me."
She then said her goodbyes and the two students now found themselves outside her door as it closed behind them.
"What was that about?" asked Kelly suddenly suspicious.
"Nothing that's any of our business, let's just get back to work on things that are," Arby decided as he pulled her back towards the computer lab.
Back at her desk, Samantha read her email message again:
It's Time We Both Decided to Find the Answers to the Questions We Need Answers. Meet me at the Jurassic Park Amphitheatre Friday, July 16th at 7 p.m. Come Alone.-The Lifeguard with the Shaving Cream Can.
That narrowed it down to whomever had sent the message as it had no sender and the bottom of the email mentioned it came from an account that was not monitored.
Leaning back in her chair, Samantha recalled that conversation with the Pacific Pharmaceuticals employee before the bullets started flying and she found herself in the water as a power boat and attack helicopter crisscrossed around the area around the loading dock.
Looking over out her window, she spied the Pacific Pharmaceuticals Headquarters building across the way. Narrowing her eyes at it briefly, she then turned back to her desk and sunk down in her chair, steepling her hands in front of her face as she contemplated what to do next.
Operations Building, Isla Sorna: Sam Stone and Daniela St. Ives were in Sam's office as the former was on the phone with Alejandro and the food expedition.
"Well who the hell gave her a smoke grenade?!" demanded Sam over the phone as the head chef described what had happened earlier in the day.
"Well I told you to watch her like a hawk, she's a magnet for trouble," Sam continued. "So then what happened? You allowed Katrice and the Survey Team into the jungle on their own? Alejandro look, I know she is a sweet girl and she always complements on your cooking but you cannot let her just go off on her own no matter how much she seems insistent on doing it. Well the survey team isn't exactly equipped to handle an attack and if they get killed everything will go to pieces. …Wait you sent who with them for protection? The Cats?!
"Oh, Alejandro after what happened did you think to search Minnie May for more surprises. You didn't… You're killing me, you're really killing me. I'll admit I'm terrified to think about the dinosaurs getting loose but down the line is that pint-sized blonde cannonball running around without supervision and who knows what hidden in her jacket. Because Rally can barely control her as it is. I'm sure it will be fine but next time please be more careful. And thanks for the update I'm glad you're finding some non-perishables out there we can use for food. Until next time."
Sam hung up the phone and groaned as he rubbed his face. In front of him, Daniela took a loud bite out of a stick of celery to partially get his attention.
"Problems?" she asked as she was still getting used to Sorna's personnel and all their quirks.
"Not really," Sam had to admit as it was just par for the course around here. "You ever hear the legend of Minnie May Hopkins of the Gunsmith Cats?"
"Not really," began Daniela searching her memory before a thought occurred to her. "Oh wait, wasn't she the one who almost blew up the dam?"
"That's right," Sam agreed as he shuddered recalling that nightmarish day.
"I thought whoever was responsible for nearly flooding part of the island would have been fired," the former head of Indigo figured.
"By all accounts she probably should've been," Sam agreed. "But Jake unexpectedly came to her defense claiming she'd only been doing what she was told and so she and the other two Cats were allowed to stay."
Daniela looked at him skeptically. "I can't imagine he would have a thing for her."
"He doesn't, but having an explosives expert might come in handy if the fences ever fail," Sam pointed out and that abruptly killed the mood in the room.
The Fortress, Mt. Watson, Isla Sorna: The observation level at the fortress peaked just over the top of the volcano and so one could see into the rim and down into the cone. There was a higher observation position atop the building itself but workers rarely ventured up there due to the occasional high winds that buffeted the area.
Nicolette Stefrassa found herself alone in the observation area using a pair of binoculars to peer into the volcano. While not exactly an active volcano, Mt. Watson was hardly dormant either as the occasional flash of reddish orange color indicated that lava continued to churn down in the heart of the beast. But that was not the cause of her looking out on the area, her attention was focused on cylindrical objects pickpocketing the inner part of the cone and two bodies moving amongst them.
She was so engrossed in her observations she nearly missed the sounds of another being entering the observation level. Nearly…
*SNAP* *POP*
Sheila Matula popped her gum rather loudly as she walked up to the other woman.
"Whatcha looking at?" she asked curious. She'd been down in the computer bay all afternoon and she had needed to stretch her legs and see some daylight.
"None of your concern," answered Nicolette bluntly. Sheila gave a noticeable "hmmph" and then stuck her tongue out at her in no mood for her attitude.
"So anyway," said Sheila upbeat again deciding to ignore the other woman's comment knowing it would tee her off. "It's kind of interesting how this whole base of operations isn't connected to the rest of the network on the island. You would think after they built the rest of the island's infrastructure that it would be a simple means of just running some networking cable up here or trying to get what you could out of a satellite linkup from that antenna dish on the roof. But nearest as I can tell no one's ever done that. Offhand you'd think this place was keeping some big secret you wouldn't want to let out. But that's just silly given how old this place is. So that brings me to my first question, when this place was originally abandoned, was there ever any intention to come back here?"
"No," Nicolette responded deciding wisely that ignoring Sheila wouldn't make the situation any better. Hopefully once she got the answers to her questions she would leave.
"So how did they get all the information out of here when the left? The Crays they installed here never left the building," Sheila continued.
"The only two men who could answer that question are dead," said Nicolette in reference to Dennis Nedry and John Arnold before she scowled briefly realizing in her talking she'd lost track of the two objects moving around the inside of the volcano. "But as I recall they brought in a specially built semi-truck with a trailer fully of computer hardware up here and dumped the databases leaving only the vital parts still in the mainframes. Everything else was wiped."
"Seems awfully risky," Sheila said surprised they'd gone to that much trouble. One wrong move and the truck could've gone straight down the side of the mountain and destroyed years of hard work.
"No risk, no reward," said Nicolette curtly. She'd frankly agreed with the whole process. The Fortress was a death trap in more ways than one and if Mt. Watson ever erupted, all the data would've been lost. Down in the valley it stood a greater chance of survival.
"Besides, we use that same setup for the yearly off-site backup that is sent to Kenya," Nicolette pointed out. While data was sent to Kenya on a regular basis via hard-wire, it could sometimes become corrupted or lost due to the distances involved which was why a physical transfer was never a bad idea. The data was compared, holes plugged or fixed, and everything continued along smoothly. And that data was also on the forefront of Nicolette's mind as she again resolved she had to get to Kenya to look at it. There was information there she desperately needed to view to help either allay or confirm her suspicions that something very wrong had been happening ever since she'd filed her report on: The Sustainability of…
"Did they backup whatever computers are down in sublevel-3 in that room only Jake and Henry seem to have access to?" asked Sheila next. That woman was too inquisitive for her own good, Nicolette noted. She would have warned her not to pursue that line of inquiry but was too distracted trying to observe what was happening to the crater. In short, she was becoming irritated which was out of character for her normally unflappable self. Something which was happening more and more often these days since the Lockdown went into effect.
Sensing Sheila was looking for an answer, Nicolette silently chided herself for losing her focus. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. "I'm not even sure they even have any supercomputers down there."
"Well they must even though they're not connected to any network even in this building that I could find," Sheila said a little miffed about that. In her mind, everything should be interconnected and security just beefed up as a ways of protection. A philosophy not much uncommon to that of her twin sister's.
"And what makes you say that?" asked Nicolette becoming at least a little bit interested in the conversation. She had no idea what was in the room but she had a pretty guide hypothesis. One that could benefit from any new information.
"I've looked at the power consumption levels for this building. And since there's really no one here and most electrical items are turned off, it's been easy to run a program to isolate that room from the rest of the building and figure out what sort of voltage they've been drawing. You can hide a computer from the network but to string up its own power supply free from the grid is a lot harder. All appliances and computers usually draw a specific amount of power and so I've been able to determine that they've got what is some of super mainframe, assorted standard terminals, plus a Cray in that room," Sheila deduced. "That's an awful of processing power in there. But for what I'm not sure," she wondered further.
Figuring that was all the useful information she would get out of the younger woman, Nicolette was trying to come up with a tactful way to tell her to make herself scarce when the programmer spoke up again.
"Does E.L.E. mean anything to you?" asked the young computer programmer out of the blue and the older woman nearly dropped her binoculars upon hearing those letters spoken aloud without reservation.
"Should it?" asked Nicolette barely keeping her composure to then lie through her teeth. "What brings-whatever that is-up?"
"It was engraved on the blast doors to that secret chamber," Sheila told her. Nicolette desperately didn't want this conversation to continue so she switched to a tried and true distraction tactic.
"Why don't you go bother Lori Ruso with this?" Nicolette requested. And then a new form entered the room and her expression almost dropped.
"Bother me with what?" asked Lori walking up to them curious as she enjoyed an ice cream cone. She wouldn't have expected to find cones and the ice cream all the way up here-anything left behind after the abandonment of the Fortress would've been long since expired-but David Banks apparently had a bit of a sweet tooth to get the occasional fresh shipment so she wasn't complaining. It helped to cool her down after another dip in the geothermal hot tub.
"I was asking her about E.L.E.?" Sheila told her. "Just in case she might know more than you about it."
Lori sighed.
"Kid, you don't give up do you," she said, exasperated at Sheila's naivete about the world of corporate entities. "Here's some advice, with something that is so hush-hush, you shouldn't overtly go around asking people about it. Sooner or later you'll ask the wrong person and land yourself in a lot of trouble.
Sheila's expression turned to mild terror at hearing that and she began shaking a little. But LoRu held up her hand to calm her.
"Relax. You've only asked me and Nicolette. I can keep a secret in this regard because so far it has not impacted the operations of this island or got you looking into things you shouldn't so. So far," she emphasized. "Nicki meanwhile won't forget this conversation but will only use it if it proves advantageous to her in the future. Right?"
"Believe whatever you want," said Nicolette coldly, even if it was the truth. Not that she had anything against the young programmer per se, but if she continued to inquire down the line she was already on, she was going to cause trouble to Nicolette's own line of investigations. Investigations she needed to keep secret from the rest of the personnel on the island.
"But E.L.E. sure does seem to be the real buzzword around here, Bobbie is interested in it also," the Head of Production remarked offhand, possibly to get Nicolette to focus more on the doctor who could better handle Nicolette's machinations than the young fish out of water programmer. That was definitely news to Nicolette who stored that information away for later. Clearly this 'secret' contingency plan was becoming less and less a secret.
"Well I think the Fortress might have something to do with it," Sheila commented figuring since Nicolette knew she was interested in the concept anyway that more information would not likely dig the hole deeper for herself.
"I suppose it could," Lori agreed but really feeling the whole line of inquiry was not worth pursuing. Secrets should remain secrets, she felt. But from the look on Sheila's face…
"I'm guessing if I told you to let it go you wouldn't any more than she would," Lori said resigned. "Alright, I'm sure Bobbie would be happy to have someone else in the fold wanting to find out. Welcome to the 'team'."
"Cool," said Sheila with a big grin as Lori barely suppressed a groan at being dragged into this. Sheila for her part never got to be involved in uncovering anything hush-hush like her sister and she was eagerly looking forward to seeing what it was like.
"Hey Stefrassa, you want to join us?" asked Lori knowing fully well what her answer would be.
"No," was Nicolette's curt reply. E.L.E. was also of importance to her as well in ways the others did not and could not yet realize but she had no desire to help them uncover the truth.
"Your loss," said Lori flippantly. "C'mon kid, I can tell someone wishes to be left alone so let's oblige her."
"Oh, okay," said Sheila feeling like she was missing something, but she'd never been able to easily read between the lines when it came to people. "Bye, Ms. Stefrassa."
Nicolette normally would not have responded at all, but something in the young woman's innocent voice obliged her to. "Goodbye," she responded in a not entirely rude tone. The two other women left the room and in peace, Nicolette finally located her targets again in the cone of the volcano.
Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu.
Near Mt. Watson, the investigative team, Katrice, and the Gunsmith Cats were coming ever closer to their unknown destination unaware that something amongst the trees was stalking them.