Notes
Hypothetical casting:
By order of appearance:
Charlotte Nicdao as Peggy Zubiri
Jim Rash as Alexander Singer
Alexandre Astier as Guillaume Vuillier
-o-
Created at the turn of the millennium, the World De-extinction Monitoring Center, more commonly known as WDMC, occupied an old hotel in San Francisco's Japantown. Part of the United Nations Environment Program, it was in charge of the de-extinction question within the UN.
Its activities included conducting studies on de-extinction and its ramifications, of not only environmental and economic nature but also socio-political and ethical; the creation and the management of databases about de-extinct species, the entities which are housing them and/or the territories they live on, and the organizations that have recreated them; as well as thinking about policies concerning de-extinction.
The agency employed around a hundred scientists and technicians which mostly worked either at the agency's headquarters in San Francisco or at its scientific station in Caer Draig, the Grey Guard's stronghold on Isla Sorna. In addition to these scientists and technicians, there was a continuous turnover of interns, doctoral students and honorary members, while a small administrative team supported the whole agency.
When her desk's phone rang, Peggy Zubiri had just settled in and the coffee she had bought a few minutes earlier was still hot. Born in Darwin, Australia, and of Filipino ancestry, the young woman had lived in the United States since the end of her studies and worked at the WDMC as assistant of the general director. Keeping a pen and post-it handy, she picked up:
"Hello, this is the World De-extinction Monitoring Center."
"Hi, I'm Alexander Singer, founder and president of the Dinosaur Protection Group, better known as the DPG," the caller introduced himself. "I am calling you because I would very much like to meet the new director of your agency, Mr Guillaume Vuillier, and have a discussion with him."
"Why would you like to talk with him?"
She, along with other staff members at the center, had already heard of the Dinosaur Protection Group, a then burgeoning NGO also headquartered in San Francisco, in a pre-war building in Mission District.
While Alexander Singer explained to her that he wanted to speak with Guillaume Vuillier to discuss the current debate surrounding InGen's animals and to know his positions, she went to the DPG website and read the preface on the homepage, written by the NGO's founder. The latter appeared on the thumbnail of a video next to the preface and Peggy saw that he was a bespectacled man in his late forties, bald, clean-shaven, and with a thin, if not frail, build.
"Okay, I'll let him know you've contacted us," she said after he explained the reason behind his call. "Mr. Vuillier hasn't arrived yet and his schedule is very busy at the moment so if he agrees to meet you, don't expect an interview before next month. Give me your contact details so we can send you an answer later."
Singer gave her his email address and phone number, she wrote them down, then thanked him and ended the call.
She looked at the time in the lower right corner of her computer screen. It was a quarter past eight. Mr Vuillier would arrive in any minute, if he wasn't already there.
She got up, walked past the various offices in the center's administrative part, and reached the reception and the adjacent waiting room. She asked the receptionist if Mr. Vuillier had arrived and she replied that he did. Peggy then went to the staff lounge.
Rather large, it was furnished with several sofas, chairs and tables, while a kitchen occupied the opposite end. Like the agency's other main rooms and the hallways, it featured a Japanese style, with wooden flooring, white walls and black skirting boards, and its walls were decorated with artwork depicting prehistoric animals along with some which died out during the Holocene like the Dodo, the Thylacine or the Pyrenean Ibex. Not far from the sofas, a television screen hung on the wall and was broadcasting the national news. Opposite it, near the large bay window that overlooked the patio, Peggy recognized the lean figure and the short black hair of the agency's director. A black shoulder bag was at his feet while a wet umbrella rested against the glass.
Turning his back on Peggy and sipping tea, Guillaume Vuillier watched raindrops fall in the patio and slide on the bushes' and bonsai's leaves. As he was dressed not in a suit but in a simple sweater and jeans, a visitor could have easily thought that he was only an employee and not the general manager.
Having heard the tapping made by his assistant's short heels, he turned and greeted her:
"Hello Peggy. How are you?"
"Good morning sir. I'm fine thank you," she replied as she approached. "And you?"
"Oh... I'm concerned about the decision being taken in Washington," he told her, glancing sideways at the television screen.
Although he spoke with a slight French accent, Peggy thought it wasn't unpleasant, and even pleasing to the ear, which went hand in hand with his trust-inspiring appearance. Mid-forties, average height, pleasant face and impeccably trimmed goatee and moustache, she even thought he was a rather nice-looking man.
"The Dinosaur Protection Group just called us. Its founder and president would like to meet you. I told them that you were busy at the moment and that it wouldn't be possible until next month."
"The Dinosaur Protection Group?" He repeated as he pulled his laptop out of its bag to put it on a nearby table.
"Think PETA for dinosaurs."
Hearing that comparison, Guillaume squinted and stroked his goatee, hoping that the DPG was not as controversial as PETA.
"Mr. Singer, its founder, was a keeper at Jurassic World for a while before quitting," Peggy continued. "I don't know if they're famous abroad but they're starting to make some noise in this country. Their popularity has skyrocketed since the park fell," the assistant explained before looking at the television, which showed large numbers of people protesting outside the Capitol complex in Washington, with some expressing their support for the dinosaurs, and others the opposite stance.
Guillaume also took out his glasses, put them on and entered his password. His home screen appeared and his assistant noticed that it was a picture of a savanna, somewhere in Africa judging by the presence of a small group of giraffes.
Probably Kenya…, she guessed.
Peggy knew that before arriving in the United States and taking up his post as General Director of the World De-extinction Monitoring Center just a few weeks ago, Guillaume Vuillier worked in Nairobi, at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Program. But as much as she was aware that he had travelled a lot during his career and that he had lived in several countries, she did not know who his previous employers were and which positions he had held.
As he went on a search engine, Peggy couldn't help but gaze at the long thin scar on his scalp, just above his left ear, a scar that had caught her eye since the first day.
Eventually she looked away and as she ran her hand up her bun, a small green Stegosaurus, the DPG mascot, trotted on the screen while the site loaded. While Peggy thought the animation was cute, Guillaume thought it was a bit amusing but nothing more.
The site's home page finally appeared and he read the names of the different sections under the banner: Home; Our Cause; Support our Actions; News; Blog; Media; Shop; Children Section. Under these columns, there was a large photo showing Alexander Singer in a classroom, taken when the DPG was invited in some school. Guillaume scrolled down the screen and saw the preface and the presentation video. He played it.
It showed Alexander Singer and two other members of the NGO, a Hispanic woman in her early thirties with bobbed hair and a young bespectacled mixed-race man. They were in an elementary school classroom, probably the same as the one in the photo, doing a presentation and supervising various dinosaur-themed games and activities, and that footage was interspersed with interviews of the NGO's founder and his two colleagues. In those, they talked about the reasons behind the DPG's creations, its missions, and their personal journeys.
The Hispanic woman was named Zia Rodriguez and had trained as a paleo-veterinarian at the InGen-Masrani Global Academy in San Diego, housed in what was once a Jurassic Park under construction. Her training was cut short by the fall of Jurassic World and its aftermath. But as she wanted to act in favour of the dinosaurs, Zia had ended up joining the DPG, of which she had heard of through a fellow student.
The young man was named Franklin Webb and like Alexander Singer and Zia Rodriguez, he was familiar with InGen since he previously worked as a computer technician at the corporation's headquarters in Palo Alto where he had been tasked of managing certain parts of the park's website among other things, and he had left InGen on his own accord shortly after the park fell.
While Guillaume thought the interviews were interesting, mainly because of the links that the three featuring members had with Jurassic World and/or InGen, he was less convinced by the rest of the video. Several elements made him wince, such as showing a child's drawing of questionable quality to present a Velociraptor, which he didn't consider as very educational, while the high fives between the DPG members and the children as well as the enthusiastic group shout at the end were clichés.
When the video ended, he quickly browsed a few pages of the site out of curiosity.
"They talk about dinosaurs, but what about pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and non-mammalian synapsids? Do they stink?" he asked.
"Non-mammalian synapsids?" The assistant repeated hesitantly as she just heard the word synapsid for the first time.
"Better known as mammalian reptiles. You should hang out more often with the people from the Species program, Peggy," he quipped.
"Maybe I should," she laughed. "You knew this word before coming here?"
"Let's say that being this agency's general director is not my first experience related to de-extinct animals...," he replied.
One of the agency's employees in the room suddenly hailed them:
"Guys!"
Guillaume and Peggy turned to him and noticed that not only had many of their colleagues joined the room since her arrival, but that they were all staring at the television. The WDMC director walked towards the latter and a senate's spokesman appeared on the screen, announcing the government's decision:
"After much deliberation, the committee has decided to authorize International Genetics to transport its creatures to the United States…"
The reactions aroused among the employees of the WDMC were mixed and the staff lounge became silent. While many, including Guillaume Vuillier, were distrustful towards InGen due to its various controversies and thus did not look favourably on this government decision which would help InGen avoid collapse; others actually thought that a strong InGen would prevent an uncontrolled spread of its technologies, that it was less worse than Biosyn for example, and that the government should have given its authorization way earlier, which would have prevented the protests in Costa Rica; and others believed, not without irony, that this decision would give an additional reason for the WDMC to exist, and would therefore preserve their jobs.
Once the report on the senate's decision was over, Guillaume took the remote and turned off the television.
"Well, I think we're going to have a lot of work in the future...," he declared.
As the employees slowly left the room to head to their respective offices, he heard one of them say:
"Fairy Blowie leaned over the senate."
"Indeed. How many senators did Lynton sucked for the adoption of this decision?" A female colleague asked him.
"Ian Malcolm must be eating his books ...," a third added.
Guillaume stood there thoughtfully, his chin resting between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.
When the room was almost deserted, he called Peggy.
"Tell programs' heads that we'll have a meeting this afternoon, to discuss this decision and its consequences," he ordered her.
She nodded and while she carried out her task, he walked back to his office.