Hey followers. It's been a while again, though I had some things to take care of. Here's my latest update, please enjoy.

Chapter 16

The first explosion caused a terrifying tremor across the entire ship. The cannon on the back of the ship had been disintegrated. The moment it began to turn its barrel, the frigate had immediately fired a round at it to prevent any harm that it might cause. The main cannon of the Navy vessel was now locked onto the port turret, not knowing it had already been sapped of its energy. This was due to Stan ruining a vital circuit board. The only reason for their reluctance in destroying it was that not far from it, the life rafts were being lowered into the water. On it were the InGen employees and the Nelly sailors. The commanding officer of the Cathalina, the frigate that had arrived, had been notified of these escaping prisoners and had therefore chosen to postpone firing.

Owen had felt the vibrations too. He had nearly fallen down the stairs he had been walking. He was on his way down to the lower level of the cargo hold to locate the allegedly captured velociraptors. So far, he had searched the remainder of their level, but to no success. Slightly defeated at first, he had learned from the safety plan that there was a second floor, underneath the first. He was now at in front of the hatch that led to it, though there was no telling what was on the other side. All he knew was that if the dinosaurs werethere, so would be their guards.

"Alright, let's see what we got."

He opened the door carefully. Halfway, he realized there was no alternative to finding out besides peeking around the corner. In a quick dash, he popped his head in and out of the space behind it. Nothing. Just another hallway. He sighed relieved and stepped through. Suddenly he heard someone screaming. He froze. Had he been too quick in judging the place to be deserted? Seconds later he heard a familiar screech and knew straight away that the shout was not meant for him.

He pinpointed the noise and found one of the doors in the hallway ajar. He looked inside and saw the three ancient predators in an iron cage. It was an extremely unsafe way to keep them this way, he thought. If anything wandered to close, they'd still be able to snap at it through the bars.

A guard emerged from the space he couldn't see. Instinctively the ranger did a step back, yet the guard paid no attention to the door, hence did not notice him. He was completely focussed on the violent reptile that snarled at him.

"Moya ruka!" he heard someone whimper.

By the sounds of it, this person was the first to have gotten to close to the cage. Owen gently pushed open the steel door a little further and tried to pick out a place where he could hide. After all, he had to get in if he wanted to set the scaled creatures lose. About two metres next to him began a row of crates. The perfect spot, if he wasn't seen on his way in. He figured the best way to get in was to move slow rather than fast. A quick motion would be caught by human sight earlier.

"Here goes." he encouraged himself.

As he snuck in, one of the reptiles growled again. This fortunately drew the attention of all the four Ukrainians inside. Already they proved to be an excellent distraction Owen thought with a smile. From his vantage point, he could now see the other three men as well. One of them was, as he had predicted, wounded. The blood seeped from his hand, and it appears he was missing a few fingers. A second put a bandage on, whilst the third watched him do so. The fourth was the guy rattling the cage with a pipe. If he believed to be silencing the dinosaurs this way, he was failing miserably. The barked at him aggressively.

Owen observed the entire scene and bit his lip. It was going to be more than challenging to get it all done and for a moment he acknowledged Ian to have been right about his plan being reckless and stupid. The cages were opened or closed via a small control panel on the place of the lock. This was very unpractical, yet he figured that the Ukrainians had no intention of opening the cage anyway. Looking at it that way it was merely unpractical for himself. Even if he knew what numbers to dial in, in doing so he had put his hand dangerously close to the velociraptors. Moreover, opening the cage would set loose the killing machines in an instant and there was nowhere for him to seek shelter in this room. And then he hadn't even addressed the matter of the four guards.

He was so busy puzzling, that he noticed too late that the fourth guard had turned himself around. The man called out to the unoccupied soldier, who drew his Kalashnikov. Owen duck behind his crate just in time.

*Pock, pock, pock*

The bullets slammed into the wood. He realized how lucky he was that the boxes were capable of withstanding the gunfire. He pulled out the pistol he had won from one of the Ukrainians earlier. He opened it and counted six bullets. That wasn't nearly enough and he cursed himself for not thinking of checking the chamber before. Then, his eye fell on a combination of letters and numbers written on the side. He pulled out his army knife and cracked it open. Exactly what he was looking for: it was an M16 rifle. Meanwhile the men had ceased their fire and Owen heard them draw closer.

Without aiming, he placed the pistol on the edge of the crate and fired randomly at his assailants. He heard them yell in reply and knew from experience that they sought cover. His gun was now empty, but they couldn't know that. By the time they figured it out, he had already loaded this M16 rifle.

Quickly, though not too hastened he armed the military equipment, finishing up by clicking in the magazine. He waited with bated breath for anyone to make a noise and betray their position, yet it was quiet. Even the raptors made no sound at all. The longer the silence lasted, the more Owen got the feeling he was being outmanoeuvred .

An idea came to mind.

He pulled out his army knife again and held it out above the crate. Luckily he was so neurotic in cleaning it, else he wouldn't have been able to use it as a mirror. In the reflection he caught sight of two Ukrainians. One of them had a dagger and was sneaking up to him. The other had his rifle aimed in order to cover his pal whenever that was required. Seeing the knife, he reacted by sending a few bullets whizzing Owen's head.

Owen crouched further along the line of crates until he had reached a point where he could once again oversee the room, but also his former hiding place. He was closer to the cages now, so close he could even hear the breath of one of the velociraptors. It made him uneasy, yet he kept his wits together. Sooner than expected, the mercenary jumped over the crate slamming his dagger into backside of the crate. The short duration that it took him that there was nobody there anymore was long enough for Owen. He cried out when the ranger's M16 wounded him mortally and he fell on the ground like a lump of clothes.

Immediately the second guy began unloading his rifle at Owen's new position, but the wall of crates was even thicker there so it was a useless effort. However, having given away his position, Owen now headed back to the corpse of the mercenary. The loud noise of the other man's rifle covered any sound he made, thus it was unlikely he knew he had moved. Unfortunately, something happened that took away this advantage.

The other Ukrainian had completed applying the bandage and he and the injured now joined the fight. The lack of two of his fingers was for the wounded no hindrance as drew a pistol from his belt. They split up to come around from all sides. Owen was trapped. He calculated whether it was possible to rise up, shoot one of his enemies and seek cover again. He rejected this thought. The men might be slightly dim-witted, as ex-military it was impeccable that they aimed swift enough to catch him in his act. No. It was over. He wouldn't be able to fight off all three at once.

One of the raptors purred. It made Owen realize he had one last trick up his sleeve. The idea was insane, and it might as well result in his own death. Nonetheless, he had to try. He chance of surviving would still be larger than when he would be waiting for his enemies to get to him.

He took a deep breath, leaned to the side, aimed the M16 and pulled the trigger.

Almost with a victorious intonation, the first velociraptor screeched when it saw the automatic lock detonate by the impact of the bullet. It knocked open the cage door and lunged at the nearest mercenary. Too late did he saw what the M16 round had resulted in and his face was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye. The second man knew what was happening and unleashed an array of bullets upon the thing that ate his friend. He was so terrified however that he missed nearly every single one.

By the time the second and third raptor stepped out of the cage, his rifle was empty. He cast it aside and sprinted for the nearest door. It was locked and although he had a key, his adrenaline-fuelled panic made him miss the lock time and again. The first raptor let out a short snarl, causing another to run towards the key-wrestling soldier and dig its razor-sharp claws into said man's back.

The last guy alive knew better than to try and avenge his comrades. He charged into the hatch, almost tumbled over and made a mad dash towards the stairs. Owen watched it in slight amusement. Until a certain hissing.

On top of the crate stood one of the raptors. It looked down on him in a more than unfriendly manner. Owen knew he would be too slow to shoot it from this range. He employed the same technique he had done on the island. He lowered his head and put his rifle on the floor. This time it didn't work as well. In response, the reptile growled viciously and seemed unable or unwilling to accept his communicative signals.

Owen slowly started to move backwards. Behind him, the crates were stacked more tightly. Hopefully he'd be able to squeeze himself in between and at the same time, the raptor could not.

Suddenly, the lead raptor made a strange sound. A kind of bark he hadn't heard before. The animal before him answered in a similar tone. He couldn't resist looking up. He gazed in utter amazement as the three dinosaurs showed sign of actually having an argument, and it took no academic to see that he himself was the topic.

As if this wasn't stunning enough, the leader overruled the others and gave orders to let him be. When the carnivores subsequently left the room, it took Owen a few minutes to process what had happened. Was this dumb luck? Or had he truly been spared as a token of appreciation for releasing them? Had he really seen the animals have a conversation? And for that matter, had they really been arguing over what to do?

The tremors of a second explosion on deck shook him back into reality. Setting the raptors loose was one thing, now he had to get off this ship.

End of chapter.