Following morning, Isla Sorna Operations Building: Stephanie Sandelder was still knee deep in reorganizing the records room as she glanced over every page she sorted for anything of relevance for Peter Ludlow back in San Diego. As it was all she had found so far were numerous policy and procedures violations but nothing substantial.
*Murmur* *Murmur*
Muffled noises were heard just outside the door but that was nothing new since it was adjacent to the main hallway.
*Click*
The sound of the door lock to the records room opening and the door swinging open did get her attention. She wasn't expecting Sam Stone as he had mentioned being in meetings all day regarding the Mt. Watson Incident and no one else but the senior staff should have had access to this room so who…?
Once the door fully opened, a bespectacled brown-haired young woman was seen with her head to the side addressing someone out of sight. Apparently she'd gotten in with a duplicate of the master key that opened the room.
"I told you it'll be fine there's no way he'll know that…," the woman said before she turned her head forward and stood completely finally noticing the other woman already in the room.
"Hello," said Stephanie unsure of what else to say but with an undercurrent of the other person clearly shouldn't have been there.
"I-uh-I,' the other woman stammered briefly before regaining her composure. "I have clearly walked into the wrong room. That's what I get for paying attention to you, May. I'll just be going now."
Something Sam Stone had told Stephanie days earlier sparked in her mind.
"You wouldn't be Rebecca Farrah would you?" she had to ask.
The woman paused again before she had completely left the room and closed the door.
"Yes as a matter of fact I am," said the woman barely holding her contempt for the room's other occupant. She clearly didn't like being upstaged by someone in the knowledge department. Invisible electrical sparks seemed to fly between the two of them.
"And you would be?" came the next obvious question from Becky as she faced the Administrative Assistant head-on.
"I didn't offer," Stephanie responded curtly then returned to her work and deliberately turned her back on the woman. A steely gaze passed over Becky's eyes and her jaw set hard in her face. And then a sly grin passed over her lips and she turned around and left without another word. It'd been too long since she'd had a decent challenge from a fellow employee on the island. She was looking forward to ultimately reigning supreme and making this newcomer her bitch.
Silently closing the door without another word May Hopkins immediately started yelling at Becky for blaming her for violating the Record Room rules. Irene 'Rally' Vincent for her part stood leaning up the wall groggily holding a steaming cup of coffee in her hands hoping it would wake her up before they had to meet with Sam Stone about yesterday's events. All the while trying to ignore the death stares directed at the trio from the workers moving up and down the hallway…
Pacific Pharmaceuticals Headquarters: John Brown had let the team sleep on his request and now the group once more found themselves in the conference room a bit out of sorts with yesterday's revelation.
"So there are dinosaurs on the mainland," Jeff repeated from the day before. He wasn't sure how to take that, not after the hell the team had been through trying to wrestle Nublar back under control from a species that should have been extinct.
"How long have you known?" asked Lorne Tenners wanting to get a timeline together in his head. John Brown eyed him matter-of-factly.
"I've known ever since April 1991. I've told you all before about what InGen refers to as the A1 Incident. What I never told you was that it was a Pacific Pharmaceuticals field team whose campsite was destroyed by the Deinonychus and brought proof to the Costa Rican government that dinosaurs were loose in the jungles. When that village was destroyed shortly thereafter, I had all the ruined PacPharm equipment analyzed down to the molecular level for what attacked it. What DNA and skin and teeth samples we found I didn't fully understand at the time but with some digging discovered that InGen had managed to revive dinosaurs.
As for what's happening since then, I've picked up rumors and tabloid stories here and there about fantastical creatures living in the jungles lending credence to the notion that the A1 incident was not an isolated one. It wasn't until a month or so ago that I got the Costa Rican government to finally tell me just how bad things really are and believe me, it's bad and getting worse. InGen's islands have been like leaky sieves for years and Jurassic Park coming apart didn't help matters until you wrestled it back under control. But if Site B falls apart than it's open season on them coming over here."
He pressed his slide clicker and an image reappeared of the Velociraptor from earlier. John summarily crossed his arms and looked at the team pensively.
"I need a Velociraptor and I need it now to try and stop this. Finally have proof that shaving cream can contains dinosaurs DNA, bring Biosyn to justice, and stop InGen from entering Chapter 11," he informed the group.
Jeff Thomas and Cassandra Matula both felt there was still more to it than that. Their boss was purposely withholding a vital piece of information about what his stake really was in all this. Pacific Pharmaceuticals had no real interest in dinosaur research or the corporate infighting between outside companies. While the CEO had agreed to let John pursue this passion project of his of taking down Biosyn, they both suspected it was just to get Brown off his shoulders in this regard knowing that he would've continued to nag him about it and then likely went and gone off and pursued it anyway.
Yes, having dinosaurs in the mainland wasn't a good thing. But the lysine contingency and inability to breed should make them largely a non-factor shouldn't it? But their boss was acting like the world was about to end if he didn't get his dinosaur.
"But alive?" asked Serena curious. She hadn't been part of the capture operations but had seen her fair share of injured workers brought into the Visitor's Center as part of the cleanup operations. Capturing any dinosaur alive likely wouldn't prove easy, especially a vicious carnivore.
John knew what he was asking of them. "I can't be certain how much DNA I will need from the thing or in what regards so a carcass does me no good."
The team didn't know how to respond to this request, now. Not after what they'd seen on Nublar. And it showed on their expressions and in their mannerisms as each shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. It had taken an army to clean out Nublar, how were the five of them supposed to capture one of the deadliest creatures alive in its natural habitat (or closest equivalent)?
"But you won't be going in alone," John promised them as he crossed his arms and gave them a slight smile of reassurance. "I'll be going with you."
That statement dropped like a massive bombshell on the team and silence completely permeated the room.
Base of Mt. Watson, Isla Sorna: Inside the cave that contained the locomotive, cars and caboose; Hugh and some of the mechanics were looking over the thing trying to decide what to do with it. On the one hand the train could likely be close to a century old. On the other hand, with all the track already laid crisscrossing the entire island and a good portion of it in decent condition, if they could get the thing up and running it would be a big benefit to the island's fuel saving measures. Already some of the regular route trips out into the island had to be cut back if the need wasn't big enough for whatever needed to be done. And so Sam had asked the garage staff to go take a look at what could be done if anything.
THWIP THWIP THWIP
Given how far this location was off the beaten path, Sam had given special dispensation for Jennifer Flores to fly them out here in the helicopter. The sound the team now heard echoing through the cave was of the blades coming to a slow stop. Hugh was kind of surprised the female pilot had agreed to stick around as he figured she'd have bailed for the airstrip right away, but presumably she had her reasons that didn't involve fuel concerns.
Jennifer's shadow soon overtook the entire area and grew smaller and smaller as she sauntered in. Hugh didn't really want to deal with her at the moment so he didn't bother giving a friendly greeting, he just continued inspecting the locomotive.
*Snap* *Pop*
"A Sierra No. 3. Nice," she commented impressed after finished with her gum. Hugh was not normally one to show surprise but her comment did take him aback.
"You know what this?" he had to ask. Jennifer smirked at him underneath her aviator shades that she was still wearing inside the darkened cave.
"It's a Rogers and Machine Works Locomotive that's got a configuration of 4-6-0 on the Whyte Scale," she further informed him as if that should be obvious before turning thoughtful. "But I guess since the Germans owned this thing they'd be using the UIC Classification making it a 1C. Never would have thought a bunch of Europeans in the Pacific Ocean would be using an American built locomotive, but maybe it was easier to get it here than anything from back home. Or maybe they always used American built machines, I don't know."
Hugh couldn't tell if she was being serious knowing what this thing was or if she was somehow pulling his leg. But she seemed to be serious.
"How would you know anything about locomotives?" he demanded to know, looking down on her from the cab. Jennifer's smirk grew wider into a full blown grin.
"Great-grandpa and grandpa built and serviced these kinds of locomotives back in the day. They took me to the Railtown State Historic Park more times than I can count and told me all about them and how they operated," said the pilot verging on sounding full of herself. "I've sort of kept up with it over the years for fun."
Hugh wanted to put a damper on her ego but he was in a tight fix with this. "Do you think you can get this thing up and running?" the Head Mechanic asked next.
Jennifer turned serious at that. "Well if the boiler is still in good shape," she began putting her hand to her mouth in thought. "Plus we'd need some technical journals from stateside and if the machine shop would work with us without their usual level of crap for making them do anything labor intensive… Yeah, I'd say we might be able to get the locomotive working again."
Hugh sighed to himself, recognizing the amount of work that would likely be necessary to get this thing in workable shape and that they'd need to lay track to the cave to haul the train out of here and back to the railyard to work on it. With little else to do now with his inspection, he squatted down in front of the locomotive and stared at it intensely while steepling his hands in front of his face.
"Boss?" inquired James-the second in command of the Gallimimus Garage-walking up to them with a satellite phone in his hand. "The big guy upstairs wants an update."
That was in reference to Sam Stone. The gears continued grinding in Hugh's head as he further weighed the pros and cons about what to do with this 50 short-ton steel elephant in the cave. Hugh's eyes drifted from the locomotive to the female pilot whose sudden interest and stake in this he couldn't entirely tell. Her first love would always be the sky not some land-based vehicle even if she had a personal background with it. She had hopped up onto the starboard platform which ran on both sides of the engine and was tapping on the boiler and listening to the sounds it made back. Then she wrote down notations in her logbook. Hugh then looked at the maintenance staff who looked largely out of sorts with something like this and could only stand around helplessly. They knew cars and trucks not trains. And then he looked back out the cave towards the light outside.
Standing up and cracking his back, Hugh walked up to James and snatched the phone from his hand in one smooth motion and walked towards the outside to get better reception and not have his crew hear the upcoming conversation.
Behind in the cave it was mostly silence aside from Jennifer still tapping on the boiler along the sound of her popping another bubble with her gum.
Worker's Village: The Gunsmith Cats were all sitting in chairs opposite Sam Stone's desk as he had his back to them while sitting in his chair and speaking with Hugh about the train.
Standing at his side with her hands at her back, Daniela St. Ives looked down at the Cats. She had already formed her own opinion on what she expected the three women to look like and how they would act in the presence of authority based on their actions so far.
But looking at them now, her expectations had been completely thrown out the window. These three women had their hands on their laps and were meekly looking down at them as if they were about to be put before a firing squad. And they looked nothing like the older grizzled unkempt appearance Daniela anticipated. These young individuals wouldn't have looked out of the ordinary amongst the shopping crowds on Chicago's Magnificent Mile on a normal day.
"The names of the workers involved in this incident have not yet been revealed…,"
Turning her head to the radio on the shelving unit to the right of Sam's window, which was turned on low volume to act as background white noise, it presented a different story. As most radio stations received on the island were often in Spanish or the occasional patchy English broadcast from the States, some enterprising workers had started their own station on the island to try and alleviate the soul crushing silence heard while working in the wilderness of the island. They would play music, provide periodic updates on goings-on on the island, and other miscellaneous things during their broadcasts.
As the radio station was strictly off the books and as such not officially monitored, it gave those running it largely carte blanche over what they could say. And their target of attack at the moment was-understandably-what had happened at Mt. Watson.
But just because they weren't officially monitored didn't mean they had complete freedom and had to keep things civil. So while in lieu of an official report from HQ they couldn't actually come out and say what had happened, they could still strongly hint about it and whom they felt was responsible.
If Sam had the station on as a reminder to the three what they had done or it really was just white noise in the background, she hadn't had time to ask him before letting Rally, May, and Becky in and he had taken the phone call from the garage staff.
*Beep*
Daniela immediately snapped to attention as Sam ended the call and she wished she had been paying more attention to it rather than her own thoughts to overhear what Hugh felt about the train situation.
"But we know who they are, don't we? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves," Sam immediately told the trio as he turned his chair around to face him. His face and posture was a mixture between being all business and quiet resignation over these three once more being brought before him.
To Daniela, Sam Stone was normally an affable kind of guy. When the situation looked grim, he would take it all in stride and provide solutions in a calm reassuring kind of way. So it was a little unsettling to see that the Gunsmith Cats were able to get under his skin this way due to events of which Daniela had little to no knowledge.
"Yes, sir," was the subdued response from the group.
Sam then leaned towards them to further emphasize the points he was making. "After last night's insanity, I hadn't been back in the office this morning for more than five minutes when the phone started ringing off the hook," he informed the trio. That Daniela could confirm as she had been with him and just about every head of the various departments around the island had been calling wanting to know what had actually happened, what it meant for the island, and what was being done about it to make sure it wouldn't happen again.
"You've really gone and done it this time. They want blood," Daniela said, finally speaking up. Since Daniela was technically co-leader of the island Sam had put the calls he'd received on speaker phone so she could hear what he was going through. In between calls he'd grimly informed her that as they got closer to the fences failing in 65 days this was going to be the new normal.
"Oh come on, Daniela, you're blowing everything way out of proportion," Rally complained, finally addressing the former Head of Isla Indigo for the first time. That surprised and slightly impressed the former Head of Indigo that the woman knew who she was after only being on the island for a few weeks and felt confident addressing her and not just Sam. Perhaps her earlier fears that the Sorna staff wouldn't accept her as an authority figure were unfounded. Course the acknowledgement that it was coming from a noted rogue element…
"Ohhh, she's not exaggerating," Sam said cutting into Daniela's thoughts as he shook his head at the trio. "Half the staff want to throw the three of you into the ocean."
"And what does the other half want?" asked Becky snarkily as she pushed up her glasses to sit better on her face.
Sam looked at her bluntly. "To throw you into the volcano." That through the window in back of him Mt. Watson could clearly be seen further emphasized the point.
That shut the information analyst up.
"It wasn't our idea you know," said the youngest-and shortest- of the group, May Hopkins.
"That's right, Sam, we're not the ones who caused this. We're innocent victims ourselves," Rally pointed out trying to play innocent. "It was all Richard Levine's idea."
"Even if it was, why did you blow up a chunk of the base Mt. Watson?" Sam had to point out for how ridiculous an idea it was in the first place. "The way Levine tells it, the one who provided the explosive was your group."
"That snake!" Rally shouted irate. Not that she should've expected anything less from the man.
Sam turned his attention to May. "Hopkins, where did you get the plastic explosive? I spoke to O&M and they said they weren't giving you anything destructive after the dam incident. And they triple-checked their inventory to make sure you hadn't stolen any."
May instantly perked up at that. "I made it! My own potent homemade recipe," said the young woman pleased with herself. It took her a moment to realize she shouldn't have volunteered that information and she instantly clamped her hands over her mouth and turned a bright shade of red. Daniela could only stare at her in shock. Rally gave May an annoyed side-glance at further digging the hole for them. While Becky for her part verbally denied any affiliation with either one of them.
"Well I want all of it turned into O&M by the end of the day," Sam ordered. "I don't want to have to send them in again to clear out your stock only to find you booby trapped your apartment again."
To Daniela she would've thought she was now being pranked if not for the grave seriousness on Sam's face.
"And you, Vincent," said Sam addressing rally as she now clasped his hands together in front of him on his desk. "Even if they're not your employees, you're supposed to be overseeing these two to make sure they don't do anything stupid like what happened."
"Hey, it was a group vote," Rally protested refusing to back down from the boss while also not wanting to address the charge laid against her which she disagreed with. "Aren't you going to chew out Bobbie and Frankie?"
Sam shook his head and settled back into his seat with arms crossed. "Believe me I intend to after Carter's done giving Dr. White her checkup," he informed the trio. Bobbie was supposed to be the modicum of sanity on this island being the head doctor. That she had gone along with this was very disconcerting to him. Frankie already had a few screws loose in his opinion for her actions regarding the Velociraptors. But at least her scare with them had gotten her mostly back on track.
"I'm still not sure what we did that was so bad," May admitted quietly. It was all overblown in her opinion, much more than explosive she had set off.
Sam turned exasperated as her seeming indifference to what they had done. "Hopkins you blew a hole in a dormant volcano! Carl and the seismologists were running around like chickens with their heads cut off they were convinced things were going to hell on Watson with that blast."
"And did it?" Rally pointed out coolly with an arched eyebrow.
"No," the Head of Sorna had to admit backing down from his heated emotions from earlier. "They're still running final checks but everything seems okay. We could all be drowning in molten lava and choking on falling ash right now if things had gone south."
"But we found the train so I'd say we came out ahead," said May back to being pleased with how things had worked out.
"And that train is the only reason I haven't had you fired and thrown off the island like the staff wants," Sam informed them looking at each three individually in the eyes. "You don't know how lucky you are that Hugh just reported that he thinks the thing can be restored to working order. We could desperately use it right now and it is also why the staff hasn't come after you with pitchforks and torches."
The trio on the opposite side of the desk straightened up feeling their chewing out was coming to an end. "So what now, get sent back to the Food Expeditionary Unit?" asked Becky curious. She wasn't sure she wanted to go back to frizzy hair but if it meant staying out of the Village then she could live with it.
Sam shook his head for the umpteenth time in this conversation. "They don't want you back after May's smoke bomb went off. And since I can't keep you here because I have enough on my plate as it is, I'm reassigning you to the Gerry Harding and the DRT team's inspection of the perimeter fences."
That got the expected reaction as it set the three off.
"That's crap, they're going to be out there for weeks doing that!" Rally responded irate and louder over the other two's protests.
"Well I have nothing else for you that I'm not convinced you wouldn't find a way to screw up," Head of Operations had to bluntly admit as he drummed his fingers on his desk. He didn't care if her hurt their feelings with that statement, if he wasn't upfront with them they'd just go back to causing problems.
And then a voice spoke up that surprised them all, even its speaker.
"I'll take them," said Daniela out of the blue. Sam stared at her incredulously as did the Cats. Nobody in charge wanted them, they all knew that. Except for Jake but the three of them had no business being in the genetics field. But their efforts to be spun off into their own subunit had been steadfastly refused by the High Brass in San Diego because of the property destruction they'd been responsible for causing or nearly causing whether here on Sorna or back home in Chicago.
"What?" the Head of Sorna had to ask to make sure he'd heard her right. Daniela didn't blame him. Her comment had come completely without thought. Maybe throughout the course of the conversation she had begun to see the value in keeping them around just like Jake did.
"I'll take them," Daniela affirmed this time with a solid nod of her head to show she was serious. "I don't have anything for you now but I'll come up with something. So you may need to work with the DRT Team for the time being but I promise I'll come calling."
The trio was clearly touched by this unexpected development. "Thank you," said Rally softly. "Can we go then?"
Sam groaned to himself and rubbed his hand down his face.
"Go back to your apartments and behave yourselves," Sam ordered with a wave of his hand anxious to be done with this conversation. "C'mon, I'll give you an escort…through the back door."
Rally shook her head and stood up, as did the others. "We can take of ourselves. You have to be tough to survive in Chicago or on this island. See ya' around, Sam."
"This whole thing was a waste of time," May griped as her last words for this conversation.
They were moving to the door when a niggling thought began bothering Sam beyond general insubordination on their part. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to hurry up and figure out what it was before they were gone.
And as he noticed the file cabinet closest to him it hit what it was.
"And Farrah for the last time stay out of the records room!" he shouted at their backs.
Becky gave a quick 'eep' at that while straightening up and leaving the room with the rest. Sam finally let out the sigh he'd been holding in (like shaking his head he found sighs were a constant in his life at this point). He then turned contemplative on how the conversation had gone before turning in his chair to face Daniela at his side.
"You sure you want them?" he had to ask dimly. He clearly felt Daniela might be making a mistake taking them in.
"Yes," said Daniela feeling emboldened. She hadn't really made any real decisions since starting on this island. So far she'd coasted on her laurels and what Sam and the Board had already decided. After her indecisiveness following the Mt. Watson blast, this felt like a step in the right direction.
"Your funeral," Sam told her not willing to mince words on the subject as he turned to straightening the papers on his desk and looking at his desk planner for his schedule the rest of the day. Rather than fight him on this, Daniela instead turned thoughtful.
"How come you always referred to them by their last names?" the former Head of Indigo had to ask as she tipped her head at the now closed door in terms of who she was referring to.
Sam snorted at that and gave a brief chuckle which helped alleviate his dour mood. "Easy, because constantly chewing them out using their first names was beginning to lose its effect."