Ch 15:
Dr. Henry Wu was walking briskly through the bustling labs, ordering people to pack things up and make sure the backup generators were online. When he reached his own secret lab, he glanced back before pressing his thumb to the thumb print scanner, allowing the door to unlock and slide open. When his phone rang, he looked down at the caller ID before answering.
"Where have you been?" he asked Vic Hoskins.
"Change of plans. Mission took a…dart to the left." Vic answered quietly, as if trying to keep their conversation a secret. "We're taking everything off site."
"The embryos are safe here. They can live up to eight weeks on the generators." Henry argued.
"Listen. Job's gonna be chapter eleven by morning. Our little side-project's about to get a shot in the arm, and I don't want a bunch of lawyers messing around with something they don't even understand. Get it?" Henry was shocked into silence. He knew things had taken a bad turn, but he didn't realize it was this bad. "Hey. I'm gonna take that as a 'yes'. Oh, and while you're packing things up, I sent you a couple video clips from today's…mission. I want to take a look. It's a bit…illuminating."
The call ended, but it was several moments before Henry lowered the phone from his ear. Taking a deep breath, he tried to remain calm. He and Hoskins had a deal. Thanks to his part, he would be taken care of if everything on Jurassic World took a dive.
So, he turned and briskly entered his lab. He packed up the embryos in a case that would keep them alive until he made it to his new lab off the island. However, he paused when his eyes landed on his laptop. Approaching it, he took a seat at his desk and opened it up, pulling up his email. As expected, he had an email from Vic with two videos attached. He clicked on the first one and a night vision video popped up and started playing. He gathered by the name in the top left corner that it was a video from the camera attached to Blue the velociraptor.
In the video, Henry saw a man running for a hollow log, diving into it just as Blue took a flying leap onto the log. Henry could hear the man inside the log screaming as Blue viciously attacked the hollow wood, her claws easily ripping into it and puncturing holes. She even made a hole big enough to fit her whole head into.
"Blue!" the man in the footage yelled.
To Henry's surprise, the velociraptor stopped her attack to look into the log at the man inside.
That was where the video ended. Henry didn't know who the man in the log was, but he was likely a handler of some kind if he was able to identify the raptor in the dark so easily. And Blue must have recognized the man if she chose to stop attacking. Of course, one could argue she was merely intelligent enough to recognize her own name.
Knowing Vic Hoskins, he was choosing to believe it meant the raptors could follow orders, or form a bond with people.
Henry closed out of the video and clicked on the other one. This one started out much slower than the first. The raptor, labeled Charlie in the top corner, appeared to be stalking through the undergrowth instead of running. A loud voice could easily be heard in the audio, a man yelling from the sound of it.
The camera peaked out from between some bushes to reveal one of the InGen mercenaries and a young girl or woman. The man had hold of her arm and was yelling in her face while she appeared to be struggling to get away. A closer look, and Henry recognized her as the young Grady girl; Sara or Sierra or something. Vic had mentioned her several times.
The girl had a gun in her hand, and she tried to aim it at the man, but he grabbed her gun-wielding wrist and must have twisted or squeezed it, because she made a pained yelp kind of sound and dropped the gun.
The camera was suddenly a blur as the velociraptor shot out of the bushes to leap onto the man. There was a blur of movement and screaming, and Henry looked away when he caught a glimpse of claws tearing into flesh.
After a few moments, the sounds stopped and he chanced a look back at the screen. The camera turned, as the velociraptor turned her head, and it was suddenly focused on the girl, who was sitting on the ground cradling her wrist.
The next minute of footage certainly captured Henry Wu's attention. How the creature approached the girl. He'd expected it to attack. But it was…slow, careful. It made quiet sounds as if it were trying to communicate with her. And the girl spoke to the raptor, as if hoping the creature understood, even making a joke even though she was clearly nervous. And then…the raptor leaned close to the girl's chest and touched her sore wrist. Just a gentle tap of the raptor's nose to her wrist.
Then, the girl was allowed to take the camera off the velociraptor's head and toss it away, where the footage ended.
Henry could certainly see why Vic wanted him to see these. They may be nothing, but they could also be very important.
Saving the footage, Henry packed his laptop in with the embryos before leaving the lab.
AN: Special thanks to ZabuzasGirl, who suggested this idea in a review! I didn't even think of having the video footage being seen by anyone, so this chapter was added in last minute.
I'm also posting this as a bonus chapter today instead of my usual Saturday updates in honor of Jurassic World: Dominion coming out today. I can't wait to see it! I'll probably post my next chapter by Monday at the latest. It's going to be a long chapter, almost ten pages, as it goes through the final battle.
Thank you to all the wonderful reviews! They make me smile! Let me know if there's anything you want to see in the final chapters! Or if there's anything you want to specifically see in the future sequels! (Hint hint)
