Chapter Thirteen
The file made a suitably pleasing thwack as it hit the desk, and Beth made a suitably irritable huff to accompany it as she thumped down into the old office chair in front of the computer that was turning green with the years of neglect. How the thing was still working was anyone's guess. A myriad jumble of wires, cables and blinking lights swarmed out of the thing and found their way to the big, heavy power box that either Hal or Valerie had spent hours tinkering with. It was a similar story with the one beside it, which Dr. McCallister sat at, leaning back in his own chair and drumming his fingers on the end of the metal arm rests as he watched her with infuriating amusement.
She shot him a withering look and began to punch in the data from the file to the testing program on the computer, trying to make every key feel her displeasure. Something should.
"Not a happy bunny today then?" said McCallister, returning to his own work. Despite Beth's mood, she could summon only the energy to raise one eyebrow at McCallister. She really could do without his two-dollar brand of sarcasm. Tolerating him was an exploration of tedium at best. He snorted at her silence. "I'll take that as a resounding no then."
"Isn't this bothering you though?" she huffed, hitting the enter key a bit too hard. "Is this really what you signed on for?"
"I signed on for the money, personally,'' said McCallister without looking at her. Beth looked at him as if he were speaking another language. Or out of his ass.
"How can you say that? What about the chance to do what we used to do again?" She shook her head slightly, feeling annoyingly perplexed by his indifference. He simply shrugged though.
"I can say that because money pays for things. We all have our reasons."
"And what are yours then?" she said sharply. For a fleeting second, McCallister looked something approaching pensive thought.
"My daughter,'' he said flatly. "She has cerebral palsy. Do you know how expensive the specialist equipment is and the medical bills?" The retort caught in Beth's throat, lodged there with the surprise and nagging shame she suddenly felt. She could feel her eyes widening. McCallister seemed to see he'd hit his mark, steering Beth away from her discomfort and back to the source of her previous complaint. "We'll get our chance to get in there with him, quit fussing."
"It's been two days of this so far though," said Beth, thankful for the diversion from disabled children and opting to glare at her monitor instead. "Henry said he needed minds for this project. If I'd have known I would be doing admin to begin with I would have stayed at home. Almost wish they hadn't been able to repair the lab."
"Like I said, we'll get our chance. He said we'd all be in there soon enough. Just happens to be us that has to run these algorithms. Luck of the draw." McCallister sniffed, shrugging again. Beth could feel herself feeling more and more irritable about it.
"Luck of the damn draw?" she said. "Pat and Jill are down there with him, probably getting first go at the entire process. While we are up here crunching numbers like interns."
"Well as I recall, weren't you a junior member of the team on Nublar anyway?" McCallister raised his own eyebrow at her this time.
"As if that matters now,'' she said quickly. But it did matter. Of course it did. She'd had that worry grow on her for a while now, ignoring it on the sole basis she'd been approached for this experiment. Wu had even said he'd read her research, wanted to use it in fact. Surely she was going to be instrumental for this project. Now she wondered quite differently.
And it grated on her. This was far from the forefront of discovery she'd imagined. She had bigger ambitions than simply waiting for her go in the playroom. She closed her eyes and took a very, very deep breath, summoning some semblance of patience and looking back at the screen in front of her. She did have a job to do, after all, and she was damned if she was going to be the only one to not deliver on what had been asked of her. She bent towards her monitor and began running the sequencing data for the DNA samples they had brought with them.
It did not take long to feel herself becoming engrossed in the task, despite her resentment of Wu, and Pat and Jill at that moment. Her fingers danced on the keyboard, sparring and wrestling with the elusive results and the further questions posed by each answer she found. She alternated between typing and scribbling annotations to the paperwork research beside her on the desk, the scratch of the nib on the paper as powerful as music to her. It was the sound of work. Of progress.
The codes of the species they were going to create flashed up, one by one, as she worked on them. The mystery of creation, simplified in numbers on a screen. It didn't seem right, for something so complex, but the feeling was intoxicating. This was how they controlled it. How they tamed it. It all came down to numbers in the end. Calculations, adjustments and results. All of it laid out like a puzzle that was just waiting to be put together.
Another puzzle crossed her mind. One that had been oddly ignored by most others in the group. She frowned, looking sideways at McCallister and pursing her lips in thought as her typing slowed down.
"You've been strangely quiet given that curious incident with the lab the other morning." She watched his face twitch, as if the thought troubled him. The twitch passed and she probed again. "Would have thought you'd enjoy the intrigue."
"Big belly Hal thinks it was just a glitch now,'' said McCallister, scratching his chin. "Just a teething fault with the wonky system they set up."
"Seems a bit strange though,'' said Beth, surprised by his lack of excitement. "Don't you wonder who this Dr. Jane Marsden is? I've never heard of her."
"Me neither,'' he said. "But InGen had a lot of employees. I didn't know half of them. She's probably a nobody who faded into obscurity when we all had to keep our mouths shut back then."
"Probably," mused Beth, returning to her typing. "I'm still amazed you don't have a story or two though." McCallister just shrugged again. Then that grin spread across his face.
"You hear about what happened to those morons when they went to the Aviary?" he said, the first notes of glee entering his voice. Always fascinating how people could change on a dime.
"With the skull or bones? I heard. A silly story. Did you put them up to it?"
"Absolutely not,'' he snorted. "Which makes it so much more delicious."
"You believe them then? Magic bones rearranging themselves. Give me a break."
"I believe they saw something,'' he said, coughing out a laugh. "I very much doubt it was as they say though. People make mistakes. Just couldn't be more perfect for this place. Haunted bones! I love it. That Summers kid looked like he needed to piss every pair of pants he'd brought!"
"Strange that they all say the same thing though,'' said Beth.
"Please,'' said McCallister, chuckling. "Perry is more worried about where his next stick of nicotine gum is coming from, Hal about where the next meal is coming from. And Sam Summers wouldn't know a dinosaur skull if one fell out of his ass. I'm betting it was that poster boy for PTSD Carl fucking Mortimer, getting jumpy again and putting ideas in their heads." He went back to his work, a mean smirk on his face.
Beth sighed, looking away from her monitor and around the dim room that served as their workspace. Located off of a side entry door to the upper catwalk of the lab, the small, soulless room had seemed an insult at first, a place of inferior work that needed little imagination or intellect to complete. A glorified cupboard to keep people out of the way. Now that she looked at it again, she decided it was definitely an insult. She needed to be out of it. She needed to be down there, testing the theories and solutions to the problems, not just running them through a program that seemed older than her. She fidgeted in her seat, chewing at her lip and huffing again. The annoyance came back very quickly.
"Will you sit still?" said McCallister, cracking a knuckle. "Do you need to piss or something?
"I need to work," she said sullenly. McCallister just tutted, clearly growing annoyed at her frustration. She didn't care. Just made her more convinced she was wasted in here. She drummed her fingers before returning to her task.
She scanned down the list of the species she'd completed the sequencing on over the last two days. Species that she knew InGen had not cloned before.
Ankylosaurus
Ceratosaurus.
Corythosaurus.
The names didn't really mean much to her. She, along with many others, had never really known what the animals would look like, or anything else about the final product. Her task had always been to put the biology of them together and see it through to incubation. What John Hammond had done with them afterwards was John Hammonds business.
She looked at McCallister's pile of files. He only had the two but he was still working on the first. She turned her head to read the species name on the top one. Velociraptor. Definitely a familiar name, and one she knew Wu had worked closely on. She briefly wondered why they were going to create more of a species that InGen had already had huge success with. The name on the file underneath was more intriguing though.
S. Aegyptiacus.
She pursed her lips and tapped the edge of the file.
"Whats this one?" she said, enjoying the feeling of curiosity that came before discovery. McCallister sniffed as he glanced at the file.
"Wu's master piece in the making. Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus." He cracked a knuckle smugly, as if he knew exactly what a Spinosaurus was. Beth felt a pang of envy that McCallister had been given the file.
"Never heard of it,'' she said. "What is it?"
"Last I checked, I was a Geneticist, not a Palaeontologist. So in short, not a clue. Mind you…" He stopped typing and looked up at the ceiling, squinting. "I do recall this name. Long time ago now, back when I was here in ninety-two. I think someone else was looking into it." His knuckle clicked and then he snapped his fingers. "Ah! Adam Wilson! That was his name. Nice guy. Fucking clever guy." Beth vaguely remembered the name herself now.
"I think I know him,'' she said. "He spent a lot of time working with Dr. Anderson. Wonder where they are now."
"You didn't hear?" said McCallister, that sly look creeping into his eyes. Beth raised both eyebrows this time.
"Let me guess? Dr. Anderson turned into a dinosaur and ate Adam Wilson and now it's her bones that haunt the island?" It was the most ridiculous thing she could come up with, and she almost flinched from what she knew her mother would have said to such an absurd thing. But it seemed appropriate to play McCallister's predictable game. He made that snort of amusement again.
"Not quite, but I see you're trying,'' he said. "No, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Anderson were on The Endeavour."
"I'm sorry?" said Beth.
"The boat that wasn't accounted for,'' said McCallister, looking at her as if she were dense. Her mother flashed in her mind. An unpleasant thought. "You know, the people that went missing." Beth rolled her eyes.
"Not this again,'' she sighed. "Those people likely just got evacuated at a later time and went on with their lives like the rest of us did. The only story people remember is what happened at the Park, and San Diego now. Anything else is just rumour."
"If you say so,'' he said, making a face as if what she had said couldn't be further from any rational truth. "But this place," he paused for apparent effect, "this place has a bloody history."
"So you truly believe that the game warden of this island, in a drunken rage from being fired, single-handedly murdered a boat load of employees and then vanished? And what, his vengeful spirit now haunts Sorna?" Beth tapped her fingers on the desk a few times.
"Seems plausible to me,'' said McCallister with a smile. "Or I suppose it could be this Dr. Jane Marsden, come back from the dead maybe? Maybe she was the one that killed them all. Could be us next." He flashed his eyes at her, as if the notion of people being killed was an entertaining one. Beth just shook her head slowly.
"Pretty sure the person that gets bumped off first in any horror film is the one that spews all the ballshit stories, isn't it?" Beth had a go at imitating his wolf grin. "Guess we know who victim number one will be." McCallister chuckled wickedly as he typed away at his computer.
"Yes well I am sure you'd all…love…that…" he said, voice dying away as a frown deepened on his brow. "Huh. That's interesting."
"What is?" said Beth, leaning over. McCallister tapped a pen against the screen and then flicked through the file of papers, his bottom lip sticking out. "Dr. Wu is trying something different with the velociraptors."
"How do you mean?"
"A lot of the animals we created years ago, we used amphibian DNA to fill in the gaps in the gene sequences," said McCallister.
"Yes?" said Beth, more than familiar. "What's your point?"
"The raptors were the breakthrough species for that theory, and it paved the way for a lot of the others code to be completed." He tapped the file. "But this file has got the use of avian DNA as the primary solution to the code."
Beth's stomach did a nasty little flip, and her eyes began to ache with the force of the frown that was building above them. Her mother would have admonished her, saying she would get wrinkles, frowning in that way. She knew exactly what she would have said to her mother though, given the circumstances.
She swept up the file, fingers nimbly skipping over the edges and selecting certain papers, eyes nimbly skimming through the words and formulas, finding what she now knew was hers. Her words. Her formulas. McCallister seemed oblivious to her building anger, continuing to chatter away to himself with the odd knuckle crack.
"…seems pretty cool. He's using some hawk DNA, predominantly a goshawk, and he's tapping into certain strains of songbird. Fascinating, and…"
But Beth knew it all. Had researched it all. It was like the voice of an old friend, familiar and cherished, calling to her and reminding her of everything that had come before. And here it was now, being used for everything that was coming. Used without her input, without her guidance. The insults just kept coming it seemed.
The paper crunched in her hand as she made a fist and stood, her chair scooting backwards on its wheels as if it wanted to get out of her way. McCallister looked puzzled for that brief moment before she was striding to the door, wrenching it open and making her way along the catwalk to the stairs. Her sterile suit's fabric hissed as she moved, the coverings on her shoes somewhat diminishing the sounds of her footfalls but doing nothing to quell her disbelief and utter indignation.
The lab, in its current guise of clinical white curtains, stabbed at her eyes as she adjusted to the garish colour change. The gentle whirring of the equipment below sounded like the far-off droning of bees, a noise she could have found tolerable if perhaps she had been afforded the chance to actually work amongst it. At this moment, it simply added to her frustration. She stalked down the stairs, eyes darting about the curtained sections she could see into, seeking him, searching him out.
She reached the floor and swept through the lab, striding over cables and pipe work, wending her way between the incubation domes and automated robotic arms, the paper in her hand becoming more creased and crumpled. She spotted a figure, bent over some apparatus with a selection of thin test tubes, a series of coloured liquids in the bottom. From the build of the person, it was Dr. Morgan. Pat looked round at her, eyebrows raised in inquiry. She blustered past him, leaving him looking as puzzled as McCallister had.
"Everything alri…" he started, and then he was gone, lost behind the curtain in her wake. She rounded the end of a narrow corridor between two draped sheets and there he was, quietly talking with Jill and pointing at an open case of ostrich eggs they had brought with them. He glanced at Beth, a look of untroubled indifference on his face. It somewhat rankled.
"Dr. Wu?" said Beth, trying to keep her voice steady but knew it was rising a few notes. She blew a breath through her nose. "A moment please?"
Dr. Wu considered her for a moment. A long moment it seemed, his lips pursed together, almost in annoyance. As if her interruption was the biggest offence imaginable. Beth decided this paled in comparison to her own interpretation of being offended.
He walked towards her, eyebrows slowly rising in query, fingers tapping at the clipboard in his hands. Beth found she had sunk her teeth into her bottom lip as he approached, not sure if she was annoyed he didn't look more concerned or that she knew she was acting impulsively. Her mother had hated when she did things on impulse. Bit late now to worry about it.
"Dr. Weaver?" he said gently. "Is there a problem?"
Beth took a moment to think, breathing deeply as she withdrew her teeth from her lip. She gestured for him to follow her, choosing to move away from Jill a few more steps. He followed at a considered pace, that look of indifference still on his face.
"This is my research," she said, holding up the paper for him to see. His eyes flicked to it for a moment.
"And?"
"And you led me to believe I would be pursuing it,'' she said, feeling the blood in her throat pulse with a fair bit of force. Wu's eyebrows drew together.
"I am not sure I understand how you've arrived at that conclusion," he said. Now Beth's eyebrows drew together. She shook her head ever so slightly, the feeling of confusion tingling behind her eyes.
"You said you wanted me to be a part of new breakthroughs. You said you still needed to learn!" Her voice had risen again. "You approached me for this venture. I assumed you wanted me working on my own theories and research. Not running scut work." Wu took a few quite moments.
"And are you not a part of what we are doing here?" he said at last, head tilting ever so slightly to the side. "We are all learning here. Always. Your assumptions are concerning." There was such a tone and finality to his voice that Beth felt somehow she was losing the argument already. If it could even be considered an argument. She was beginning to feel quite foolish. The anger flared back, stubbornly, for one last try. She looked around her, trying to find the words for something she was fast running out of fuel for.
"But…this is my research,'' she said again. "Dr. McCallister is up there working through it, and I've not even been consulted."
"And this is my venture," returned Wu. "Dr. Morgan is currently testing solutions based on Dr. Manning's presumptions for a synthetic amnion. And Dr. McCallister is kindly using his expertise to run not only your research, but my own and Dr. Morgan's. They are all a part of this, just like you. The only difference is you have shown an immature approach to a collective goal. I'm drawing my own conclusion that perhaps I have misjudged you, Dr. Weaver." His command of the conversation, which Beth had felt belonged to her but moments ago, seemed absolute. "Have I misjudged you?"
There it was. The condescending question that left no room to manoeuvre. No room to retort or wiggle into a new line of discussion. Beth felt that nasty resentment again, a feeling she'd really only allocated for her mother. But there was a bit going spare at the moment. She just looked evenly back at Dr. Wu.
"I think I have misjudged myself,'' she said, weaving a bit of truth into it. She summoned some willpower. "Dr. Wu, I apologise." A hollow apology, but it would have to do for the moment. "It won't happen again."
"It certainly won't,'' he said, eyes narrowing. Beth had the horrible realisation he may well put her on the next flight out of here. "I expect better of you Dr. Weaver. A lot better. Especially as Dr. Manning and I were just discussing something that would have involved you. A shame."
Beth could feel the instinctive protest bubbling up from inside her, desperate to get out and make it clear whatever they had discussed should involve her. But there was just a flash of a look across Wu's face, a split second, that made Beth clamp her mouth shut. She almost smirked she'd been so close to failing the test. Such a simple test as well, even if she had brought it on herself. She lifted her chin now.
"You have made your point, Dr. Wu," she said. "I have made my apology, I won't make another." His lips twitched, perhaps a small smirk of his own. Beth pressed on. "In Rawlings Park you said you wanted people with ambition. With daring. If I have dared show my passion for my work, then so be it."
In an unfathomable display, Wu gave her a slight nod of approval. That smirk didn't leave his face.
"Your passion, and your backbone, is commendable,'' he said. "You may return to the sequencing task I have set you."
Beth took a small step backwards, nodding slowly, knowing she had narrowly avoided being dismissed in different circumstances. She hovered for a moment, neatly folding the paper of her research notes and slotting it into a pocket.
"Dr. Wu, if I may. Was there something that you had considered my input for?" She wondered if she was perhaps overstepping again, but it was worth the question. Might have been another test as well, to gauge her curiosity and drive. Wu was nodding.
"Yes. Dr. Manning came to me with a suggestion concerning a species she was intrigued about." That step Beth had taken she now took back towards him. He guided her back towards where he'd been with Jill. She was still there, busy around that case of eggs, taking measurements and notes. She smiled at Beth. "Dr. Manning has suggested we look into the pteranodons."
"I did not see that species in the files upstairs,'' said Beth. "I thought we would not be pursuing any pterosaur genomes." Wu pursed his lips, studying his clipboard as if it contained the answer to everything.
"That was indeed true,'' he said. "However, given the recent visit to the Aviary lab was met with no incident, and the technician informs me the lab there is currently in good condition, it has offered potential expansion of our enterprise. One that our employer would not expect or, as Dr. Manning has suggested, be unwelcome."
Jill was looking eager now, the recognition of her idea clearly fuelling her. Beth felt a stab of annoyance. The idea of someone else's initiative and ambition felt like direct competition to her own. Seemed she couldn't shake that pride. Jill was gesturing at the eggs.
"These eggs are potentially surplus to the project here,'' she said. "The amniotic fluid that I have developed could function with the gestation cylinders, cutting out the need for eggs and incubation." She chewed her lip in anticipation, as if she clearly saw in her mind what she was picturing. "We could pioneer a new approach to creating life here whilst developing a species we had limited success with before, using these eggs to hatch the pterosaurs."
Beth felt the intrigue of it all, her curiosity more than piqued. Once again, it wasn't long before thoughts of her own interests crept into the picture, finding room for her in this new development. The enticing notion of putting her skills to use and showing Wu, really showing him, what she was capable of was a very pleasant notion. Her eagerness dashed out of her mouth before she could temper it.
"I could run my formulas in conjunction with the pteranodon DNA strains that we have in the archives,'' said Beth, feeling her pulse quicken. "I could have a sequence in place by the end of the day and start work on the fertilisation tomorrow. It would…"
Wu had held up his hand. Not quite dismissive, but one that looked like his patience had been poked again.
"Dr. Weaver,'' he said, just a splinter of iron in his voice. "I commended your passion, but I must remind you that should this diversion of our attention happen, then Dr. Manning will take the lead. Whilst your input and involvement will be required, you will be there to assist. Is that understood?"
Assist. A word Beth had heard enough in her days back on Nublar and more recently at the university. A word for people who could not be trusted to handle something themselves. A runner-up prize. She smiled at Dr. Wu.
"Of course,'' she said, no trace of disappointment or loaded venom in her voice. A somewhat herculean achievement. "I understand completely. When will we know if this is to proceed?"
"I must discuss this with Mr. England and ensure he can spare the man power. I imagine he will not be happy, but I am confident he and his team will make the right choice. In any case, I will inform you all in due course." He raised his eyebrows in a way that said that was the end of the discussion. Beth took the prompt and turned away, threading her way back to the stairs up to the computer room in a very different mood to how she had come down.
Before, it had been indignant and scorned anger. Now, the calculation had begun in quiet reflection as to how she could really make her mark here. Research was only one part of the puzzle. Theory only took you so far. Practical application would be the yard stick by which she could measure her success. And Beth was planning every success. Even if she did have to assist.
She entered into the dim room where McCallister was sat, predictably cracking his knuckles and looking pleased with himself. He reclined in his chair, giving her an expectant look.
"And how did that go? A good use of your time?" he asked, settling his hands in his lap and wiggling his ass into his seat as if getting comfy for a reply he knew would amuse him. Beth smiled sweetly at him.
"It was…productive," she said.
XXXXX
Three days. Three days of waiting, working, and waiting some more for Wu to give them the news. Three days of unbearable anticipation as to whether of not she would be heading to the Aviary. Three days of tedium. But tedium that might have a reward if things went right.
Beth focused on that possibility. Obsessed over it. She went about her work with a stoic resolve, stomach giddy with the prospect that at any moment Wu may call her down to announce she and Jill would be engaging in something different and completely enviable to others. The chance it would happen made the conditions of their existence that bit more bearable.
The water in the cold storage room where they showered seemed a few degrees warmer than the luke-warm sprinkling they were all growing sick of. The mouldy smelling room where they washed and dried their clothes smelt just slightly fresher. And the dark corridors and soulless rooms they inhabited when they were not working did not seem quite so…soulless.
Even the weather, which currently pelted the windows of the common room in a wet display of tropical precipitation as the evening settled in, was easier to bear. Especially as a dedicated leak tended to drip from the ceiling when it rained. There was currently an enterprising puddle in one corner of the room, branching out towards the seat where Elliot sat. The man was checking the weapons, apparently untroubled by the water lapping at his boots. He was humming softly to himself.
The sound reminded her of when Oliver would hum. More than a little bit comforting, more than a little bit infuriating. Only, Beth was leaning towards the comfort aspect at the moment. She watched the others as they either sat about the room or came and went with armfuls of their washed or needing to be washed clothes, all the while she rubbed thoughtfully at the necklace at her chest, her thumb tracing and re-tracing the smooth edge of the diamond tear drop. It felt less of an anchor or tether recently. Less of a reminder of that drab existence she used to lead.
She closed her eyes, listening to Elliot's humming and picturing Oliver as he did the dishes. She smiled. The hopeful anticipation she was feeling for her work was bleeding into her thoughts of home, mixing nicely and leaving her with a nostalgic feeling of gentle warmth. If everything just went right here, returning home and furthering her career with the knowledge she would attain would lead to greater heights. For both her and Oliver. She found the notion pleasing. A lot to pin your hopes on, but when was it ever any different when much was at stake?
Elliot's humming slowed slightly, and Beth smiled again. In her mind, Oliver wasn't wearing much. Another pleasing notion, and one she hadn't really considered until then. She felt a slight flush to her cheeks and an even slighter tingle somewhere below her stomach. The idea of success aroused more than just her academic hunger it appeared. She opened her eyes slowly, for a moment panicking that anyone had noticed her enjoying her thoughts in any way. Nobody appeared to be even looking her way.
Catherine Redgrove appeared from the door, clearly having just made use of the shower. She was rubbing a towel at her dark hair and looking as stern as she ever did. The light caught her wet hair and Beth noticed the yellowish-grey colour at the roots. Beth smiled to herself, wondering if the bitch would get more annoyed if there wasn't any hair dye in the next supply drop to cover up that glaring sign of aging. Redgrove vanished up the stairs to the dorm room, taking her air of miserable disapproval with her.
Beth's eyes found Sam, sat the other side of the room with Kurt England's dog laid beside him on the sofa chair. The dogs head was on Sam's lap. Sam was gently tussling the dogs ear at the same time as rubbing at his knee. Every now and again his face would twitch, but Beth was more focused on his hands. There was something hypnotic about the way his fingers moved, the way the tendons and muscle in his forearms moved and rolled as he kneaded his leg. Her eyes began to travel upwards, noting the width of his shoulders, the way the fabric of his shirt sat against his chest and upper arms. She wondered what it felt like if it were her head he was touching. Her stomach fluttered again and she took a sharp breath, wrenching her eyes away from him and rolling her necklace between her thumb and forefinger. There was that impulsive side to here again. She squeezed the diamond tightly in her palm, remembering the man who had given it to her.
She spotted Dr. Wu and Kurt, entering the room and talking together, and Beth's stomach fluttered again, driving away any thought of aesthetic men. Her eyes zeroed in on them, watching them and assessing the body language, the tone of their murmurs.
Wu was speaking calmly, quietly. That seemed good. Even better was England's slow nodding and agreeable expression. Beth wondered for a horrible moment if they were discussing what they had all just had for their evening meal. She took a breath, and then Wu looked her way. It felt like she had been discovered eavesdropping, but she didn't look away. Wu went back to speaking with England, and Beth nibbled her lip. Was this it? The moment it would be decided. Why had it taken three days? Surely this was a simple decision. It was agonising. Kurt and Wu were heading for a corner of the room when the door bumped open.
Hal and Valerie appeared, carrying a stack of papers between them. Hal had a pinched looked to his face and a ruddy glow from his cheeks. Looked like he'd been exerting himself a fair bit, but Beth guessed it was just from climbing the stairs. Valerie pointed to some empty seats not far from Beth, and the two technicians slumped down, some of the papers sliding off their laps beside them. Hal was shaking his head and muttering.
"We checked that system four times now. It can't be a glitch."
"What else could it be though?" said Valerie, a sort of nervous laugh finding its way out. "It's not like there is anyone else in this place. Or on the entire island."
"I don't know what it is, Val,'' he said. "All I know is we need to sort it before Redgrove asks anymore questions. Woman has a hell of a stick up her ass, and I don't want her to shove it up mine."
"Her and Kurt. And Dr. Wu. That Perry guy also seems to have one lodged up there." Valerie made that nervous laugh again. "You'd think they'd lighten up with how much we are being paid."
"We might not get paid at all if we can't figure out why that name has popped up on the entry log. Have you found the file yet?"
Beth's ears pricked up. Quietly, she rose from her seat and drifted over to the two technicians. Valerie was flicking through her stack of papers, talking under her breath. Hal glanced up suddenly at her, looking like she'd caught him with his pants down.
"Oh. Dr. Weaver, hello.'' Hal sounded about as flustered as you could get. "We were just going over…some…"
Beth sat down next to him quickly, smiling gently.
"It's alright Hal. I'm not about to blow your cover." She pointed at his own stack of papers. "Is there a problem though? Maybe I could help?"
"Its not…no, I…" Hal winced, struggling for the words, then sighed defeatedly. "The lab entry log picked up another name again. Unfamiliar, like last time."
"A new name?" said Beth, pursing her lips. "Not this Dr. Marsden name again?"
"No," said Hal. "This time it was Dr. Anna Michaels. Three hours ago. Just before we all had dinner." He shook his head, his cheeks wobbling in confusion. Beth's mouth had fallen slightly open though.
"Anna?" she breathed. Hal looked at her, an eyebrow raised.
"You know her? Who is she?"
"I…" Beth twisted her lips in thought. "Yes, I know her. Knew, I suppose. She was an intern at Jurassic Park with me. I haven't heard from her since we left the island. She was on one of the other boats." Beth's mouth dropped open a bit more again. "She was on The Endeavour. To Sorna…."
"Ah!" said Valerie suddenly, pulling a few papers from the pile. "Here she is."
"What's that?" said Beth, nodding at the papers.
"We found the internal archives on the Lab servers for the personnel records so we printed out the profiles of everyone that may have had access to this place, back in ninety-three," said Hal. "I want to know who these people are. Might be some indication as to why they are appearing on the logs."
Beth looked at the papers, seeing the pages divided into different sections of information, credentials and personal data. At the top right of the second page was a grainy black and white photo of Anna. Beth studied it, remembering her.
She'd always been a bit quiet. Thoughtful and considerate. She took her time. Beth had always found it slightly plodding. Julia had been a bit more her speed. But that was then. Her speed was very different now. Beth read the words at the top of the first page as Hal flicked through the file.
Employment terminated.
"Hey can I have a look at those?" said Beth. Valerie handed her the stack of other files. Beth rifled through them, checking the names and photo's out of sheer curiosity. The list brought back familiar names or outright strangers. She found her own.
Across the top of her own file, the same termination statement had been printed. Beth felt a stab of annoyance seeing it. She found McCallister, and even Wu. All the same, amongst many others. Then she found names that had something different printed across the top. Her fingers flicked through the names, one after the other.
Deborah Reynalds. Deceased.
Robert Muldoon. Deceased.
Dr. Graham Sturridge. Deceased.
Dr. Lee Denton. Deceased.
Raymond Arnold. Deceased.
Hannah Lockwood. Deceased.
Carlos Herrera Lopez. Deceased
Dr. Adam Wilson. Deceased.
Dr. Grace Anderson. Deceased.
Sidney Wallace. Deceased.
Beth lingered on Dr. Anderson's file, remembering the woman. Deceased. Not employment terminated. Deceased. The word was incredibly final. Beth looked at the photo of a smiling woman with long hair. A smiling dead woman. Beth was suddenly finding it difficult to match up the list of the dead with the carefree stories that McCallister and the others had tossed about when they said people had died before. Beth found she wondered how Dr. Anderson had died. She didn't know why.
She turned the page over to the name underneath. Sidney Wallace. The Warden of Isla Sorna and the object of McCallister's absurd ghost stories. The drunken madman that had murdered everyone on The Endeavour, if you believed the stories. Beth had never met the man, but she'd seen him once or twice. She recalled a typically rugged man, with some scars on his head. She'd remembered laughing with Susie at the time that he must have been employed solely for looking the part. She'd laughed, and privately wondered what such a man was like in other activities. She knew Susie had done the same.
She looked at the photo. The man that looked back looked pensive, his eyes almost sad. As if he was struggling with something but putting on a brave face. Still had that rugged look though. A very pleasing, rugged look. It was hard to believe the stories looking at him. Even more so looking at the word deceased next to his name. That word was next to a lot of names. Such as Dr. Wilson. The man who McCallister had spoken about, the clever one. Beth had apparently been wrong to think those on The Endeavour had been evacuated later. Something had clearly happened. Something bad.
Beth pulled the bottom pages out and read the final name.
Dr. Jane Marsden. Employment terminated.
Beth felt her skin prickle for some reason, the hairs standing up and a slight shiver working its way down from her shoulders. She looked at the photo. A plain looking woman looked back at her, chin slightly raised. Her hair was short, the length just below her ears, and looked to be blonde, judging by the shade from the black and white photo. Small rectangular glasses gave her a sophisticated look. Her eyes though. There was something about the eyes.
Hal huffed.
"These don't tell us anything,'' he grunted. "Some of these people are dead, some of them were booted out along with the rest of us. It just doesn't make sense."
"I'm telling you, it must be a glitch,'' said Valerie.
"You gonna tell England and Redgrove that? How many times are they going to forgive a glitch?"
"They'll have to,'' she said, with an air of losing a reason to care. "It's not like the lab and all its systems are in the greatest condition. To even get half the stuff that we have online is a miracle." She flicked a lock of curly hair off her forehead.
Hall puffed out his cheeks, rubbing at his stomach and looking like he was getting a stomach ache. Beth just tapped at the papers on her lap, watching Jill and Pat now at they sat going over some files of their own by a lamp. She frowned, unsure if she was more perplexed how the names of two ex-employees had shown up on an entry log, or more perplexed how she could get ahead of Jill in the experiments she hoped were coming her way. She looked at the photo of Dr. Marsden. She pouted her lips as a thought crossed her mind.
"Hal, was the lab still functioning? After you spotted Dr. Michaels name?" Hal nodded quickly.
"We checked all equipment twice,'' he said. "Don't worry though, we put sterile suits on."
"No sign of any damage,'' confirmed Valerie. Beth nodded. At least the lab and their current progress had not suffered.
"That's good,'' said Beth, not taking her eyes off Jill. "That's good."
Dr. Wu glided into the room, heading for Jill. Beth's eyes flit between the two, her heart rate picking up suddenly. Her fingers started tapping even faster at the paper on her lap. Wu beckoned Jill to him and they stood closely, talking together. Impossible to hear. Jill was nodding though. Beth caught a look at Dr. Wu, his eyebrows raised as he pointed to the file in Jill's hand, both of them looking at it and then pointing to certain parts within. More nods. Slow nods. Nods of understanding, as if something had been agreed. Something agreed without Beth.
Wu glided away as serenely as he'd come, and then Jill was coming to Beth, and that heart rate picked up even more. Surely. Surely this was it? Jill was smiling, that warm smile she'd always had, that good humoured and conspiratorial look in her eye. She nodded her head at Beth, indicating for her to follow.
Beth fidgeted with the papers, handing them back to Valerie who had produced one of those annoying hand-held gaming devices from somewhere and was busy jabbing at the buttons. The small blue and red figure jumped up and down while some awful synthetic music chirped along.
Beth followed Jill out of the room to the wide landing with the large window. The rain pattered against the glass, running down in silvery streaks and distorting Beth's reflection. Jill held the file tightly to her chest, not protectively but almost in triumph. It was Beth's research file. Beth's eye twitched a bit.
"They've approved it!" said Jill. A gasp of relief escaped Beth's lungs, the surge of giddy excitement taking its place in the queue in her stomach, just behind the bubbling annoyance of Jill holding her research. And another little nag.
"Why didn't Dr. Wu tell me?" asked Beth. Jill's head tilted in thought, her lips rolling inside her mouth somehow as if she'd sucked a lemon.
"I suppose as lead on this new project, he delegated to me." Jill looked as if that ought to be satisfactory. For some reason, it rankled.
"So what's next?'' said Beth, trying to move away from her perceived grievances and allow the excitement it's turn. Jill brought her smile back, but it looked laced with a smugness.
"Henry had to work hard to convince Kurt to green light this. He and Redgrove had many concerns. Lots of logistical and safety elements. Kurt has sent a radio request for some extra lab equipment, which will delay the supply drop by a day or two. Once that comes in, Hal or Valerie will go with some of England's men to the Aviary lab to make the preparations. It should be ready in just over a week. That's when we'll go." Jill crossed her arms over the file in a kind of happy wiggle.
"A week?" said Beth.
"I know. I thought it'd be much longer!"
Beth couldn't stop the frown twitch across her forehead. A week was as good as an eternity. How Jill saw this as a swift result was an utter mystery. Beth wanted to go now. She'd had visions of them striking out into the jungle with purpose the first moment they could, racing to the lab even in the dead of night to begin. The prospect of a weeks tedious work in that suffocating box of a room with that ape McCallister was a very difficult notion to accept. It did more than rankle.
"A week it is then,'' said Beth, resisting the urge to grind her teeth. Impulse was ever a difficult beast to tame. "Gives me time to review my files anyway."
"Actually,'' said Jill, holding Beth's work a little bit tighter now. "I think we'd both best review it. I have been going over it and have found a few…little things I think need a bit of polishing. There are some untidy hypothesis in here which I would love to work through with you, and some of your formulas have not been calculated quite correctly. It all feels a bit rushed, so I'd like us to get ahead of the data before we start applying it. As lead on this I want absolute perfection."
Polishing? Untidy? Rushed?
Beth sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, drawing in a sharp breath in just the way her mother had done when she'd been displeased. Her research was perfection. That's why it was being used in the first place. Beth fixed a look of gracious humility and willing onto her face, smiled and nodded.
"Of course, Dr. Manning,'' she said.
Yes, this did more than rankle.