I made my way to the helicopter pad to meet Mr. Masrani. The helicopter landed and I was signaled that it was safe to board.
"Mr. Masroni, you're flying?" I pointed out as I took my seat.
He shrugged. "I got my license."
"Two more," the pilot instructor pointed out.
"Two more days." Mr. Masrani corrected.
I gave a polite smile and quickly buckled my seatbelt.
"How's my little junior park ranger doing?" He asked as the helicopter lifted off the ground.
I gasped, waiting for my stomach to catch up from being left on the ground. "She's fine." I panted.
I heard him laugh. "She's going to run this park one day." He continued his conversation as if he didn't have our lives on the line.
"Mhmm," I agreed. Not sure if I was going to throw up for not.
"So how's my park doing?" He asked. The helicopter finally leveled out and I worked on getting my organs back in their regular place.
I took a deep breath and reached for my notes. "Great," I started. "We are up 2.5% over last year. A bit lower than our initial projection."
Mr. Masrani cut me off. "No, no. How's it doing? Are the guests having fun? Are the animals enjoying life?"
I stared at the back of his head. "Well," I started again, "guest satisfaction is steady in the low 90's." I paused not sure how to answer the second part of his question. "We don't have a way to measure the animals' emotional experience."
"Sure you do," he disagreed, "You can see it in their eyes, right?"
I smiled, that would have been something Maisie and Owen would have pointed out. "Of course," I agreed.
"Now, show me my new dinosaur," he grabbed the controls and sped up.
I tensed up, squeezing my eyes shut. I wanted to beg him not to kill me up here.
"You look tense, Claire." He pointed out as I held on for my life.
Really? You think? I wanted to ask him if he had gone mad, but I decided it wouldn't sound too professional. "Maybe you should just, focus on the controls." I stuttered.
Mr. Masrani let go of the controls with one hand gesturing back at me. "They key to a happy life is to accept you are never actually in control."
"Bird!" I called out and squeezed my eyes shut.
"I got it… got it." He gained control of the helicopter again and relaxed back in his seat.
"You should spend a day at the beach. Get some sun." He advised and glanced over his shoulder at me. "I'm sure that little girl of yours would enjoy that."
I thought about it for a moment. Maisie frequently went to the beach. But it was either with Owen or Beth. I couldn't actually remember the last time we went as a family. I shook my head. "Right," I changed the subject, "so marketing thought we could offset some of the costs by—"
"Enough about costs," he interrupted. "John Hammond entrusted me with his dying wish and never did he mention costs. "'Spare no expense'" he spoke the famous words John Hammond spoke often.
"I appreciate that," I pressed on, "but the reality of running a theme park requires—"
"Don't forget why we built this place, Claire. Jurassic World exists to remind us just how very small we are. You can't put a price on that. Now please," he gripped the controls and pulled up. "We're flying!"
"Yes, that's wonderful," I groan, feeling my stomach flop out of place again. I was suddenly glad I didn't have a chance to eat lunch.
The helicopter swayed as it landed, hitting the ground harder than I would have liked.
I stepped off uneasily and the pilot instructor dove for the bushes. "Is he ok? I asked Mr. Masrani before turning towards the pilot. "You ok?"
"He's just being dramatic," Mr. Masrani answered absentmindedly. His attention was on the enclosure. "You're still building?"
"Well, we planned to open in May, but asset containment insisted we build the walls up higher," I informed him, leading the way towards the observation deck. "It's bigger than expected."
"That's a good sign," He breathed. He was nervous.
"We hit a few speed bumps early on," I explained, "It began to anticipate where the food was coming from. One of the handlers nearly lost an arm, and the others threatened to quit because I couldn't guarantee their safety."
He studied the glass. "She's intelligent then?"
I shrugged, "For a dinosaur."
"And that?" He asked, pointing to a spot on the window.
I tried to keep my voice steady. "It tried to break the glass."
He paused for a while before he added, "I like her spirit."
The trees swayed in the enclosure and her face came into view. I stepped back instinctively.
"It's white," Mr. Masrani pointed out. "You never said it was white."
"Think it'll scare the kids?" I knew the answer. There's no way I was going to let Maisie see this thing until she is older.
"The kids?" He questioned. "This will give the parents nightmares."
I raised an eyebrow, "Is that a bad thing?"
He breathed in, "It's fantastic."
The indominus stalked by the glass. "Can she see us?" He asked nervously.
"They said she can sense thermal radiation. Like snakes."
He looked around the indominus and whispered, "I thought you said there were two of them."
I took a deep breath. "There was a sibling incase this one didn't survive infancy."
"Where's the sibling?" He asked.
"She ate it," I gave a slight smile and he shifted uncomfortably.
His eyes focused on the walls around the enclosure. "The paddock is safe then?" He questioned.
"We have the best structural engineers in the world." I answered.
"That's what Hammond said." He mumbled under his breath.
I rolled my eyes.
"I'd like you to have your husband come look at the paddock."
I whipped my head around to look at him. "Why?" I gasped. I didn't want him anywhere near the indominus and I knew he didn't want anything to do with it either.
"His raptors often try to escape. They are smart," he explained, "he has to be smarter."
I snorted. "He thinks he's smarter."
"I want you to bring him in. Let him inspect the paddock. Maybe he sees something we can't."
"I assure you," I pressed, "these walls are safe."
"You will have Owen check just to be sure." His statement was final. There was no getting him out of this. I dreaded having to have this conversation with Owen.
"Yes, sir." I sighed. Defeated.
"Great, let's get out of here." He glanced at the cracked glass once more before leading the way out the door.
The helicopter ride back to the office was silent. I was angry at Mr. Masrani for making me drag Owen into this. Owen has always supported my career, but once the lab started messing around with the DNA to create species that naturally shouldn't exist, he lost all respect for the lab.
"It's not natural, Claire! You don't see a half cat, half turtle walking around do you?" Was his response when I came home and told him the lab created a new species.
"I'm not saying I agree with it either, but Mr. Masrani requested it. Therefore I have no choice but to sign off on the report."
"Do what you have to do, but this is the last I want to hear about that thing!" He yelled and walked out the front door heading to the garage to work on his motorcycle. The only place he ever went after an argument.
The helicopter landed, puling me out of my train of thought. I thanked Mr. Masrani once again and made my way back to my office.
"Claire Grady to the control room. Claire Grady, control room." The walls echoed the overhead announcement.
"What now?" I grumbled as I turned back towards the control room.
"I'm so sorry…" Vivian was on her feet as soon as I walked in.
"What?" I asked. Looking from her face to the others staring wide eyed at me.
"Owen," She whispered.
My eyes shot up to the monitor and I ran to stand closer. He was standing face to face with all four raptors.
"WHAT IS HE DOING?" I screamed. I didn't even try to keep professional.
"Someone fell in the paddock. He went in after him." Lawery answered calmly.
"Of course he did!" I spat. "Dammit, Owen!" I leaned over Vivian who had sat back down and grabbed her phone, pushing the extension for ACU at the paddock. "Get him out of there!" I demanded. From what I saw on the screen, they had aim on the raptors, but did nothing to help him.
I saw one of them reach for his walkie to answer me. "Mrs. Grady, we are doing all we can."
With Owen's hands stretched towards the raptors he glanced quickly at the ACU officer that spoke to me. "Get her out of the control room!" Everyone in the room heard him over the security system's speakers.
The only noise in the room were the rustling of bodies as they turned to look at me. A walkie went off behind me. It belonged to one of the security guards. ACU was relaying Owen's message.
"Ma'am," his eyes were sincere as he reached for me.
I jumped back and away from him. "You touch me and you will never step foot on this island again." I pointed at Owen on the screen, "He has no authority here. You get those men to get my husband out of the paddock." My eyes narrowed when he didn't budge. "That's an order, officer!"
"Close the gate," I heard Owen speak to Barry.
The tears I've been fighting to keep in spilled over. My hands clapped over my mouth to stifle my scream as he dove for the closing gate, the raptors missing him by mere inches.
I waited until Barry helped him stand up to let out the breath I was holding. He turned to where the security camera was and waved at me. "I'm going to kill him," I growled as I made my way to the door.
"She's en route." I heard the security guard inform ACU.
"Shit." Owen grumbled once he was informed. I could hear some of the guys in the room laughing at Owen's response as I stormed out of the room.