The Fortress, Isla Sorna: "Ha, eat it, Tim!" said Sheila Matula satisfactorily over the radio as the first key she tried to open the power switches to the building unlocked the protective covering.
"Yeah, yeah, everyone's a critic," Tim ruminated at the other end, but Sheila could sense the humor in his tone. Nearby in the bay area, the rest of the current occupants of the building were loafing around waiting to take off once Sheila killed the power to the building.
"You're not taking anything with you?" asked Lori Ruso to Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu surprised. She'd carted off crates of equipment that could be put to better use down with the rest of the island's infrastructure.
"We came to find Laura to convince her to leave and we did," was all Jake could respond to in regards to that question.
"Like I had a choice!" Sorkin said nearby miffed as she was hastily applying lipstick to at least look presentable when she rejoined the rest of the island's staff later that day.
"What about you Nikki?" asked Lori next, secretly probing the Head of Strategic Planning curious what response she would get. Hence the derided nickname to hopefully throw her off her game.
The blonde was sitting on a nearby chair and turned thoughtful.
"Some things are more important to recover than physical assets," was the cryptic response. Lori raised an eyebrow at that.
"Such as?" she had to ask, not sure if Nicolette would answer that question.
To her surprise, she did.
"Closure and regret,"
At that, Sheila twisted the key and the generator powered down leaving them in darkness with the only light came from the shutters to the outside. The team left the bay, manually closed the shutter system, locked the bay doors with yet another key, and then hopped in the waiting Humvee as it then trundled down the mountain followed by the semi-truck. Leaving the Fortress behind in total silence.
Train Depot, Isla Sorna: Jennifer Flores couldn't believe what she was seeing, the locomotive and all its cars had been brought to the depot and were now waiting in their respective sheds in the roundhouse.
"What the hell," she said, unable to completely silence her shock as she stood on the wheelhouse looking at them all.
Hugh was walking past her and paused briefly.
"Something wrong?" he asked, confused. Jennifer turned to face him with an incredulous look on her face.
"How did you get these things here in only a week? I know returning to normalcy was kind of slow going trying to get everything settled after the Watson explosion. But when you asked me back out here to work on the locomotive, I assumed it was going to be there figuring out how to get the locomotive and train cars here to the depot. Don't tell me you fired up the boiler without inspecting it first because you could have blown the whole engine!" she cried dismayed.
Hugh didn't offer up much of a response.
"We worked with Kevin Saunders to get them here," was all he revealed. Kevin's absence on the island was still a hot button issue with Jennifer but she was willing to let it go in favor of this mystery.
"With what?! We don't have anything on this island with the towing capacity for the train and the cars," she shot back. She may not have comprehensive knowledge of what vehicles were on the island, but they definitely had nothing in the air that could carry that much weight. But Kevin was involved so…
"We got it here, that's all you need to know," said Hugh shutting down any further inquiries. He then sidled off to join his staff who were poring over the technical journals sent to them from the mainland via fax.
Leaving her to her thoughts, all Jennifer could do was wander to the tracks that lead to the rest of the island. As she went to join the group, her foot hit a divot in the ground. Looking at the ground, she noticed some odd repeating marks on both sides of the rails and she bent down to inspect them.
They looked like they came from tank treads.
Juan Santamaria International Airport, San Jose, Costa Rica: Sarah and Jessica Harding had collected their luggage and made their way through customs and were now in the main airport area deciding on their first course of action to uncovering InGen's secrets.
"So we know InGen has an operations building in San Jose so I'm figuring we can start there," Sarah began as she bit into her pretzel she had bought from a stand in the airport. "Hey, maybe this time we'll have you pretend to be Dr. Harding to bluff our way into the building."
She chuckled lightly at that joke but was a little surprised that Jess didn't respond to it. Looking at her, her younger sister seemed distracted looking back at customs.
"What?" Sarah asked concerned. Jessica tipped her head at the people coming out of customs.
"Those two look familiar to you?" she had to ask. Sarah turned and was surprised to see the two individuals they had previously seen in the San Diego café meeting with Samantha Brown come through customs and wait expectantly for others to finish.
"I don't believe it," said Sarah at a complete loss.
But that was nothing compared to the next surprise which completely floored her.
The mysterious man who kept leading her along with breadcrumbs emerged from customs and stood with the two and conferred with them.
Sarah's stunned expression was enough to queue Jessica in as to who the third man likely was.
"So that's the mystery man. Interesting," she commented before pulling out her Kodak disposable camera and snapped a photo of the trio while they were distracted.
Eventually three others joined them and the group moved towards the exit.
"Do we follow them?" asked Jessica confused on what to do next. Her only experience with clandestine operations was what she saw in the movies.
"No," Sarah answered taking another bite from her pretzel. "We keep with our original plan. Besides, San Jose isn't that big. I know some people, we can try and figure out who they are and what they're doing here after we finish with our own investigation."
"Cool," said Jess pleased as she once more returned her attention to the plans Sarah had drafted for their fact finding excursion. After a brief overview, the duo collected their things and headed to the car rental desk to finally get to their hotel.
Unbeknownst to either of them, eyes were also watching them depart.
"Something important about those two?" asked Howard King to Ed James who had been watching Sarah and Jessica.
A sly smile crossed Ed's face. "Just an opportunity to throw a wrench into PacPharm's carefully thought out plans. C'mon, let's go."
The BioSyn group consisted of Ed James, Howard King, and George Baselton who was a heavyset Stanford Professor. Plus two mercenaries who went by the names Dr. Snare and Skinner. The group also headed for the doors.
Three different groups, three different aims, one unknown future awaiting them in the dark depths of the jungle.
Embryonics Administration, Site B: The vehicles from Mt. Watson came to a halt and the group inside piled out. Ahead of the vehicles were two Jurassic Park Jungle Explorers that were waiting for the stop time to expire before they could head out back to the Village.
"Glad I don't have to go up there again," Lori Ruso shuddered. She would miss the hot tub for sure, but the ticking time bomb that was Watson outweighed that. Gunsmith Cats shenanigans or otherwise. The drivers for the vehicles who had to constantly go up there week after week gave their agreement to that.
But before she could say anything further, the building's administrative assistant exited the building, walked up to Lori, and unexpectedly handled her an interdepartmental communique that Lori immediately opened and started reading.
"Goodness, I'd forgotten what it looked like down here," Laura Sorkin opined as she tried to clear the pressure in her ears. It was also muggier than she remembered. Sure she'd been at the Village for the Fourth of July but it was mainly as a courtesy call and she and David Banks had left at their earliest opportunity.
"Well get used to it," Henry informed with a mild smile on his face before he consulted his watch. "Because you're about to be thrown feet first into the fire, the weekly senior staff meeting is in an hour."
Laura looked at him incredulously.
"You want me at the senior staff meeting?" she stated bewildered. "Do you want an explosion between Venn and Chang and myself worse than anything that might've happened on Watson?"
Jake held up his hands as if not sure what her problem was. "You're senior staff, you have to be there. Besides, Jenkins and Backes will be there too," he informed her in a mocking tone.
"Oh, that's real reassuring," Laura shot back sarcastically. She then swore to herself and rubbed her chin thoughtfully about finding some way of getting out of the impending meeting.
"Umm, if you'll excuse me I have to go catch my ride," said Sheila Matula politely as she scrambled towards the Jungle Explorers which were entering into start-up mode.
"Hey what about the all the electronics junk in the trailer?" one of the drivers called after her as the 18-wheeler was being backed up to a loading dock at the building.
"It's all earmarked for where to go. Tim or I will set it all up later once they're where they're supposed to be," she called back before getting in.
Henry turned to the drivers. "I'm sure Lori knows where it all goes too," he commented. But then he noticed the Head of Production was still reading the message she had received which seemed odd since it was only one page and from the light shining through hinting at the text on the other side didn't seem to be that long.
The Jungle Explorers came to life and rolled away from the building. Once they were out of sight, Lori finally looked up.
"Can't. Looks like I've been recalled by Sam back to Home Base," she informed the group. She didn't seem particularly shook up about it, it almost seemed like she'd been expecting it.
Jake looked at the place where the Explorers had just vanished. "Well your ride just left. But if you hurry…," he began and then noted the sly hint of a smile on Lori's face. "Oh," he finished as it occurred to him why it had taken her so long to conclude reading her orders.
"Yes, what a shame," Lori responded clearly faking her displeasure at having 'missed' riding in the Explorers which she enjoyed so much. She then looked at Jake straight in the face and held up her right hand expectantly. "Key me."
Jake stared at her. "Are you crazy, I'm not giving you my car! You drive like you're at a demolition derby."
Lori's grin grew wider. "You only say that because I drive like a normal person and you drive like a madman. Boss says I'm needed, key me."
A brief stare off occurred between the two before Jake finally reached into his pocket and then tossed her the keys.
"Thank you," she said with a courteous bow as Jake waved her off.
"You won't be laughing when you find out Sam never wants to pull you off the tour again," Jake said snidely before he laughed evilly to himself and then the followed the others into the building. Lori watched him go before hurriedly rushing to Jake's Dodge Challenger R/T and firing it up. The male scientist was almost into the building when he noticeably cringed as he heard the loud squeal of tires on his car as Lori sped out of the dirt parking lot just to push his buttons.
"Not one word," Jake made Henry promise as his fellow scientist couldn't quite control his laughter.
As Lori sped off, she looked in her review mirror to see if Jake threw a fit at her driving. She smirked at seeing him point at Henry accusingly. But then something else caught her eye, a flash of blonde hair. And then a sense of shock came over her as she realized Nicolette Stefrassa had taken neither the Jungle Explorers nor asked for Lori to drive her back to the Village. Instead she had intentionally stayed behind…
The remaining group for their part entered into the main part of the facility with all the cloning equipment and noted the hushed tone fall over the bays below as all the workers were now staring at Laura Sorkin and David Banks. They'd been informed the two were coming well in advance but it was another thing seeing them in-person.
Jake and Henry both looked at each other deciding if they should say anything to the group about Laura's return before noticing Venn and Chang giving Laura and David death glares and deciding it wasn't worth it. They just silently trudged off to Jake's office. Outside their door, Carly Carlson was learning against the wall waiting for them. The two had wired ahead to have her meet them before the Senior Staff meeting, and so the two invited her in and shut the door.
"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K," Carly quipped in reference to Laura's arrival.
"Comes with the territory," Jake figured dismissively as he sat behind his desk while Henry took a seat on the couch by the side and Carly sat down in a chair on the other side of the desk.
After a few moment of silence, Carly sighed. "You're putting her in charge of the Lysine Investigation project aren't you?" she said in regards to Dr. Sorkin. Not quite accusatorily but at the same time resigned that she had somehow failed being in charge of it.
"We have to," said Jake apologetically as he clasped his hands in front of him before wincing slightly as they were still sore from the tumble down the volcano. "We're under a severe time crunch of getting it solved before the fences fail. You are an excellent scientist, Carly, but Laura just has the background and experience right now that we need to get it done in the time we have left."
Carly nodded her head, not happy about, it but knowing it was true.
"But you are still part of the project and we need you to report regularly back to us on what you uncover," Henry stated from the side. The unspoken part being the two of them couldn't trust Laura to not have an agenda of some kind working on this. They couldn't risk the senior scientist perhaps not being all that communicative on her efforts to find out if the lysine contingency was being subverted if it was something she too desired.
"Very well," said Carly not pleased about being put in a position to spy on someone higher up the food chain than her but recognizing the situation for what it was. Things were becoming rough all over the island with the Lockdown and impending fence failure and this was simply part of that.
"If that's all then," she continued starting to collect her things and get up before Jake held up his hand to stop her. Carly was surprised they had more to say and judging by the expression on both male scientists' faces it was something serious. And so she dutifully took back her seat.
Being the one ultimately in charge of all the scientists on the island, Henry spoke up at this point. "When Watson had its little artificial rumble, it forced Jake and me to confront some issues we'd been largely ignoring up to this point. That being the order of succession,"
"I'd been wondering about that," Carly confessed. Presumably the next in the chain of command would be Venn, Chang, or possibly Lori until the Board of Directors formally figured out who would take over.
"Carly, Jake and I decided that if something were to happen to both of us…that if somehow we disappeared, became incapacitated, killed, or somehow something worse; that you will officially become the lead scientist in charge of the Dinosaur Revivification Project," Henry concluded matter-of-factly.
That had not been at all what Carly had been expecting them to say and her expression clearly reflected it.
"I-I-I-," she began unable to form a coherent sentence.
"Congrats, kid, you earned it," Jake said, his expression turning from somber to one of congratulations with a slight smile.
"B-but I'm not a senior scientist, surely the others…,"began Carly still clearly in a state of shock. Jake shook his head at where she was going with this.
"Carly, you're right that you're a not a senior scientist, not yet anyway. But this project doesn't need just a well-respected knowledgeable scientist at the top, it also needs a leader. Venn and Chang can be in charge of groups of lower level scientists and do incredibly things with the DNA codes, but leading the DRP project requires more than that. You need to be able to manage conflicting personalities, projects, opinions, orders from above; you name it; and still rise above it all and do what's best of the project as a whole. Venn and Chang just aren't up to that task and certainly not Laura who can't be trusted not to put forth her own personal agenda.
"When the mid-level and junior scientists need help with their projects or assignments, they come to you for support and advice. When the initial lysine experiment went awry Collin, Abby, and Derrick contacted you first, they didn't come to us. And you took charge by keeping your cool and contacting the DRT team and also bringing us in.
"You're a leader Carly, whether you realize it or not. And you're what this project needs most in the event of a crisis."
More silence.
"Thank you," said Carly in a hushed tone clearly touched at the faith the two had in her. Figuring that was all, she got up and was getting to ready to leave when Jake called out to her.
"Oh, I'm afraid it's not all good news," he warned to Carly's confusion. "Senior Staff meeting is in a little less than an hour, be there."
Carly thought about that for a moment before realization dawned on her on what bad news was referring to and a look of understanding came across her features.
"Right," she said knowingly. Clearly she was being thrown feet first into the fire.
"But until then, we'll make a more formal announcement about your promotion later today. In the meantime, feel free to tell whomever you want," said Henry with a friendly smile on his face. Carly nodded her thanks and left the room in much more positive spirits than she had when first entered. But as she reopened the door and looked to the right of the entryway she appeared startled at something Jake and Henry couldn't see before continuing on her way.
Jake turned his attention away from whatever unseen element that was and back to Henry.
"They're going to shit a brick at the meeting," he declared not looking forward to that.
"You don't know that," Henry disagreed, crossing his arms and leaning back in the couch. "They may say nothing."
Jake gave him a doubtful look at that and Henry just put his chin on his right palm and stared off into space.
"I bet that's why Lori had to leave suddenly. She doesn't want to be there to see everything break loose," Jake said with a vigorous nod of his head, once again spotting off an inane conspiracy theory with no basis in reality.
"She had a memo," Henry shot back.
"Right…a 'memo'," was the other scientist's mocking response while making air quotes with their hands. After a moment Henry burst out laughing and Jake joined him momentarily thereafter.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
The two abruptly shifted their attention to the open doorway and were surprised to see Nicolette standing there. They had noticed she hadn't returned to Workers Village but weren't sure what her motivation for staying behind was.
The Head of Strategic Planning for her part walked in, took out a piece of paper from her binder, and placed it on the desk in front of Jake. Jake looked at it, glanced at Henry who had a good idea what it was, and then both looked at Nicolette and she looked back at them expectantly with crossed arms.
Without another word, Jake signed and dated the bottom of the page and then pushed the paper over to Henry who signed and dated it as well. Pleased, Nicolette took the paper and then left the room.
"I think Sam's going to be the one to shit a brick once he reads that," Henry remarked ruefully.
"No argument there," Jake agreed and then from down below in the embryonics area, a cheer arose from the sound of a successful birth and the two scientists went out to join their fellow workers in the good tidings.
San Jose, Costa Rica: At the University of Costa Rica, Sarah and Jessica Harding were visiting some colleagues of Sarah's and asking about unusual lifeforms in the Costa Rican jungles.
"Interesting," said Sarah reviewing some charts from her friend, Alberto Corazon, in his office. "I'd heard some rumblings on the news back in the States but there's really been an unexplained surge in infant deaths out in the more remote areas of the country?"
"Yes and so far there's been no conclusive biological explanation. Just speculation on our part about what may really be going on," Alberto ruminated as he poured himself some fresh coffee. "There've only been a handful of deaths that have been reported as being the results of animal attacks. But possibly more that have been covered up or written off as other things like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS."
Sarah began processing possible answers in her mind and if it might be related to their quest.
"So for those that did report it properly what did they claim happened?" asked Jessica curious.
"Hupia," responded Alberto simply.
"Hupia?" Jessica repeated, clearly showing her Spanish classes were not paying off.
"It means raptor," Sarah informed her absently while still pouring over the data. Once she realized what she'd said, she froze. Jessica too was a little taken aback by that word.
"It doesn't have quite the meaning of a bird," Alberto supplied not realizing that wasn't what they were thinking of. "It means a man who comes and steals a baby. A local superstition."
Sarah was flipping through some more documentation when she again froze. She took out a crudely done drawing and passed it to Jessica who also looked at it wide-eyed. The drawing was of a bipedal lizard that strongly resembled a Compsognathus or Compy.
"What's this?" asked Jessica maintaining her composure a she twisted the drawing around in her fingers so Alberto could see the drawing.
"We're not sure," he confessed taking a seat. "It was drawn by a young girl who claims she fended the creatures off from attacking her newborn baby sister. What species it is or if it is related we still can't tell. We sent some found skin samples and a copy of that drawing to zoology Professor Edward H. Simpson at Columbia University. His office got back to us and said he's on a field trip to Borneo. So instead Dr. Richard Stone of the Tropical Diseases Laboratory also at Columbia took a look at it. He can't make heads or tails of it and will wait for Dr. Simpson to return before giving us a more conclusive answer."
Sarah snorted at hearing Stone's name being brought up. From what she'd heard from Simpson, Stone was a man too set in his ways from being head of the Diseases Laboratory too long. Any outside explanations or theories for disease causes were often dismissed by him unless later evidence bore it out.
"Let's say I wanted to see if there was any proof of this creature or any others. Where would we want to go?" Sarah inquired.
"Sarah I think you've be going on a wild goose chase," Alberto forewarned. But on seeing the determination on both her and her sister's faces he relented. He took out a foldable map and circled a location it.
"Bahia Anasco, which is in a remote fishing village between the jungle and sea. We have reason to believe a recent death may have been caused by our friend there or something like it. It's also where that girl lives who did the drawing," he informed them.
"Thanks, Al," Sarah said with a smile and got up as her sister did the same. "I don't know that we'll find an answer with the time we have here, just that hopefully there is one."
"Hopefully the answers will be worth it for whatever you are looking for," her colleague wished, while also praying it wouldn't cause them any undue problems. He'd also shared some things he had learned from Martin Gutierrez's expeditions into other unknown creatures appearing in the jungles and none of it sounded good to him. He was just glad he lived in the city.
With a goodbye handshake the two Harding sisters left the University, ready to finally get some long sought after answers.