It was raining and humid. Not unheard of for Texas this time of year, but it presented challenges considering the circumstances. The rain was fogging up the sites for the snipers, and making a difficult shot near impossible. The SWAT breach team had little chance of achieving stealth in these conditions, but it didn't matter. I could talk this guy down; we didn't need to go in guns blazing.
Richard Hayes was a wealthy, and by all accounts, stable father of three. Happily married to his college sweetheart for 15 years, paid his taxes, and even coached his son's T-ball team. Utterly and completely normal until it had been discovered he had stolen millions of dollars from his company, Exxon Mobile, over the course of several years. This white collar criminal behavior resulted in Richard barricading himself and his family of four inside their suburban home on the outskirts of Sugarland at gunpoint.
"Mr. Hayes, I need you to stay calm. I want to help you, but hurting your family is going to make it very difficult for me to do that. Do you understand?" I said speaking rapidly into my phone.
"You listen! I said I wanted a car and guarantee of safe passage out of here. I want a plane that will take me wherever I want!"
Why do they always want a plane? I blame it on television, they always ask for crap like that on TV, and now everyone thinks I can just snap my fingers and produce a Learjet
"Mr. Hayes, is your family ok? Can I speak with them?"
"No! You do what I say! I can't go to jail, do you hear me!"
"I understand Mr. Hayes. Listen, I want to come inside. Is that ok? I think I can help if we could talk face-to-face." I needed inside that house. I needed to ensure the family was still alive, needed to know exactly where they were in case we needed to go in. I knew Richard loved his family, but he was desperate, and that made him unpredictable.
"No, you'll try to trick me! I want my car and my plane dammit!" He was escalating, losing all sense of rational thought. I had to act, now.
I turned to my partner. "I'm going in there," I said handing him my gun.
"Are you fucking insane. That guy is off his rocker. You can't just walk up to the door and knock." Martinez had a solid point, but time was running out. The longer this drug on the more danger the family was in.
"I can and I am. Take this and make sure you keep the SWAT team back. Nobody goes in without my say."
"This is crazy Jo," Martinez pleaded with me.
"That's why I'm going in. I'm crazy, remember." I smiled stepping around him starting towards the house. At the door I knocked calling out, "Mr. Hayes, it's Agent King. Can you open the door please?"
The door opened almost immediately, but it wasn't Richard Hayes who answered. It was his 10 year old son Luke.
"Hey Luke, I'm Agent King with the F.B.I. Can I come in?" The boy opened the door and I slowly stepped into the house shutting the door behind me.
Luke ran by back to his mother who was doing her best to shield all the children from Richard with her body. Richard was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace mumbling incoherently under his breath.
"Mr. Hayes, I'm Agent King with the F.B.I. We spoke on the phone," I stated calmly with my hands in the air. He whirled around on me pointing the gun at my chest.
"I told you not to come in. I said no!" he roared as he approached me.
"Mr. Hayes, I'm here to help. Why don't we sit down and talk about this. We could let your family go and I'll stay with you. No one will hurt you with me in here, you don't need to keep them," I said pointing to the couch where his terrified family huddled.
He looked at them almost surprised to see them sitting there. Richard Hayes was more imbalanced than I thought. This was all kinds of bad.
"I, I would never hurt them. I love them." he stuttered, distraught.
"I know Mr. Hayes, I believe you." I moved to put myself between Richard and his family. This caused an explosive reaction in Richard.
"Stay back. Get away from them!" He waved the gun back and forth between his family and me while I retreated back towards the foyer amid the screams of his children. He was shaking and sweating profusely. My ear com crackled to life with the sniper's relaying they had a clear shot now that Richard was directly in front of the bay window.
I heard Martinez utter a negative response reiterating to the breach team they were to hold, that there was a Federal Agent inside. There was a volley of conversation tossed back and forth between the SWAT team holding and my people struggling to maintain control on the ground. I was spinning trying to keep up with the development outside, and the quickly unraveling conditions in this living room.
Then I heard it, barley a whisper, the green light for the sniper to take the shot. My eyes widened as I looked at Richard who seem to have some sick sense that time was up.
"You bitch," he sneered as he unloaded two rounds from his gun directly into my chest. I fell backwards, my head colliding with the tile floor with an audible thwack. I groaned as a shot splintered the window slamming into Richard Hayes from behind.
I gasped for air rolling to my side seeing both rounds from Richard embedded in my vest. The front door exploded off its hinges at the same time as a flash bang was tossed into the living room. I heard a volley of gunshots whip around the living room over my head, but couldn't tell who was firing. The shouts and stomps of the SWAT team entering the room was drowned out by the after effects of the flash bang, and what I was almost positive was a concussion.
I crawled onto my hands and knees ignoring the pain in my chest and head trying to see into the living room. Then I saw it, Richard Hayes lying dead in a pool of his own blood by the couch riddled with bullet holes. Bullet holes that shouldn't be there if the sniper's bullet had met its mark.
I drug my eyes over to the couch choking on a sob. Dead, the entire family was dead on the couch.
I shot up in bed panting, drenched in sweat. I rubbed my face cursing then looked at the clock on the end table. Five o'clock in the morning. Great, five hours of sleep wasn't too bad.
I swung my legs out of the bed placing my elbows on my knees cradling my head in my hands. I pounded my hands against my skull whispering, "Get out of my head." I said it over and over, like a mantra.
Knowing sleep was impossible at this point I stood up quickly changing into spandex shorts, a sports bra and tank top. I went searching for my running shoes in the living room, and within 20 minutes was out the door tearing across the beach. I had my iPod strapped to my arm with the music blaring. I needed a distraction. I ran as fast as I could pushing my body to the point of punishment. My legs loosened up after the long day of travel yesterday, and after the first mile I hit my stride. I kept going, running down the beach so fast my lungs burned. It felt good. Anything was better than remembering.
Five miles later I collapsed in the grass outside my Airstream panting with the music still pumping through my headphones.
I felt a shadow drift over my face and cracked open my eyes to see Owen standing over me. I pulled out my earbuds letting my hands fall back to the ground.
"You're up early," he smiled down at me.
"Something tells me bikini season is 24/7 around here. I wouldn't want to fall behind," I retorted trying to slow my breathing down.
"Most people would take a few days to acclimate before running a marathon. I thought a dinosaur was chasing you the way you flew by my place." Had I run by his place? I didn't notice.
"I'm not most people I guess."
"That you are not Jo," he said as he reached his hand down offering to help me up. I accepted his hand because I was pretty sure without it I would be on the ground for at least another hour. "What's on your schedule for today?"
"Got a meeting with Claire in a couple of hours. After that, who knows?" I shrugged.
He quietly contemplated my response looking at me with an intensity that was unnerving for seven o'clock in the morning. "Well, I'm off to feed my girls. Have a fun on your first day Josephine."
By "his girls" I was assuming he meant the raptors. But who knows, maybe Owen had a harem stashed away at his place in case of an emergency. "Try not to get eaten Grady."
He laughed as if that was the last thing that would happen when dealing with vicious, blood sucking raptors. "Will do King." And with that he was off.
I climbed the steps to my house hauling myself into the shower. I had a couple of hours until my meeting with Claire, but considering I had no idea where I was going I needed to leave a little early.
After my shower I stood in front of my closet contemplate my wardrobe. I wanted to convey the message "It's my first day on the job, I have no idea what's expected of me, but I'm capable and confident". I couldn't find anything like that so I settled on a black pair of cargo pants complete with ass kicking black Bates boots. I grabbed a lightweight black Under Armour ¾ sleeve shirt, and pulled my long chestnut colored hair into a messy pony tail. Chestnut colored is really a just a fancy way of saying brownish blonde, but Cosmo magazine says calling it chestnut color is the new thing. Plus, it makes me sound more exotic than I really am. I strapped a KA-BAR knife to my right boot and made sure my Gerber knife was securely attached to my belt covered by my shirt. I'm sure my meeting with Claire didn't require weapons, but who knows what else I would be doing today.
I stared in the mirror and debated putting on makeup. Normally my answer would be an easy no just because I'm lazy, but the idea of facing perfectly polished Claire and the swag brigade had me applying a couple of swipes of mascara for extra courage. I'm not sure it did anything to help my plain, hazel eyes stand out, but a girl's got to work with what she's got.
I grabbed my keys, cell phone and Camelback backpack from the living room hoisting it onto my shoulder. Considering I had no idea what today would bring I felt I had prepared the best I could. Putting on my aviator sunglasses I stepped out the door not bothering to lock it. There wasn't anything inside worth stealing.
I jumped into the Jeep firing up the GPS inside hoping like hell it would navigate me to Claire's office. Thankfully, Claire is nothing if not prepared, and I found the headquarters building location already pre-programmed into the unit. That woman would have made a good Boy Scout.
Exactly twenty minutes later I was parked directly in front of the headquarters building. I stepped out of the Jeep looking around the mostly deserted interior of the park. It was an impressive sight with shops, cafes and restaurants lining the large walkway that made up Main Street. I wasn't sure I was parked legally considered the stares I was getting from the employees entering the building, but from what I could tell the parking lot was closer to my camper than this building.
I left my bag in the Jeep walking up the steps into the building. As the doors opened I was greeted by a blast of cool air. Air conditioning was a beautiful thing. I perched my sunglasses on top of my head walking towards the elevators. I pushed the button for Claire's floor while tapping my foot to the beat of the cheesy elevator music. I could get down to Disco music if the situation called for it.
The seventh floor was already awash with activity as employees dashed this way and that going about their day. I lazily walked in the general direction of most of the offices hoping to bump into someone who could tell me where I needed to go. Thankfully I was saved from too much wondering by the World's Greatest Assistant, Zara.
"Good Morning Jo. How was your night?" she asked falling in step with me as we traveled down the hall.
"Great. Yours?" Zara hadn't looked up from her iPhone yet. I'd never seen anyone type so fast on a phone before, it was impressive.
"Fine. If you'll follow me I'll take you to Ms. Dearing's office." I quietly followed Zara down the same hallway as yesterday stopping just short of Simon's office. No secret knock was needed today as she swung the door open.
While Claire's office may have been slightly smaller than Simon's it was no less opulent. A large, modern, white desk was centered in the room directly in front of a wall of windows overlooking the park. A sleek Mac computer was perched on Claire's desk along with a nameplate identifying her as 'Claire Dearing, Park Operations Manager'. While Simon's office was littered with dinosaur artifacts and personal effects, Claire's was barren. No family photos or kids art drawings. It was practically staged, cold and impersonal. Not a whole lot unlike the woman herself.
"Good morning Jo, thank you for being on time."
I wasn't really sure how to respond to that one, I was always on time. Well, almost always. "Sure. What's on the agenda for this morning?"
Claire wasted no time pushing a pile of paperwork towards me. "This is your contract with Masrani Global. Feel free to take it with you and review it tonight. Once you sign it you can give it to Zara and she will ensure you receive a copy." The contract in question was the size of a Harry Potter novel, and it made me wonder exactly what I had agreed to. "This is your badge. It gives you unrestricted access to everything at the park."
Oh, that sounded dangerous. I was going to put the unrestricted part to the test ASAP. Claire looked slightly less comfortable with the idea. The small plastic card came complete with a picture of me I did not remember taking, a computer chip which was embedded on the right hand side with a bar code lining the other. My title was taking up two lines of precious real-estate on the tiny card, and I made a mental note to talk to Simon about paraphrasing. I was officially an employee of Masrani Global Corporation, yea me!
"If you will follow me I will take you down to inventory where Mr. Hamada should be waiting." Claire was already up moving towards the door. We went back to the elevator and Claire hit the button for the basement prompting the elevator to ask an access card. She swiped her badge and a green light illuminated closing the doors plunging us down.
So you needed clearance to get into inventory. Something told me they weren't storing the extra paper and pens down here.
We stepped off the elevator into a large warehouse complete with locked storage cages on either side. The cages were filled with all types of tactical gear from clothes to weapons. I was pretty sure we had just passed a rocket launcher, but Claire was walking so fast I couldn't be sure.
"I knew you'd take the job Jo," said a voice from inside a cage to my right. Katashi Hamada was standing inside a weapons locker putting together a pretty impressive care package by the look of the gear stacked on the table.
"Considering you sold my life story to Simon it shouldn't be too surprising," was my rebuttal. Claire's eyes narrowed in on me at the casual use of Simon's first name. Something told me her and Mr. Masrani weren't on a first name basis.
"You always were melodramatic," he said walking over and shaking my hand smiling. I appreciated Hamada not trying to hug me like we were long lost BFFs. Handshakes I could handle, hugging was weird.
"It seems you two have a lot to catch up on. If you'll excuse me I'm late for my next appointment." And with that Claire retreated back the way we came with speed I personally would be unable to achieve in heels.
"She's a trip, huh?" Hamada asked nodding his head to the spot Claire had recently vacated.
"She's not so bad." Claire probably had a bad rap around this job. Women living in a predominantly man's world always did. It was a position I could relate to. "Any of this stuff for me Commander Hamada?" I asked gesturing to the contents on the table referencing his prominently displayed title on the front of his uniform.
He sighed ignoring my sarcasm directed at his rank of 'Commander' turning around. "You know I'd never let you down. It's Christmas come early for you Jo."
He wasn't lying. By the time we were done and standing at the checkout counter of this doomsday basement I had signed for a tranquilizer gun, the InGen version of body armor, an electronic micro ear communication system, night vision goggles, what can only be described as a GoPro camera, a .40 caliber Glock with ammo and a NcStar 3-piece drop leg gun holster complete with a magazine holder. I was going to look like Lara Croft if I ever put all this crap on.
"Is all of this really necessary?" I asked Hamada as we carried my apocalypse gear back to my Jeep.
"You did notice there are dinosaurs on this island, right?" You know, now that he mentioned it, I hadn't actually seen any dinosaurs yet.
At that moment the front doors of the headquarters building opened and out sauntered Simon trailed by at least 15 people. That man knew how to travel with an entourage. He would have been a great rapper.
"Jo, I assumed this Jeep belonged to you?" He didn't sound mad I had decided to park my Jeep in the middle of Main Street.
"You do realize the closest parking lot is five miles away from this building?"
He simply laughed and kept walking his minions hot on his heels. I saw Claire turn to glare at me as she passed, clearly not impressed with my parking skills.
Hamada seemed to visibly relax once Simon rounded the corner vanishing from sight, "Only you Jo. Only you."
I shrugged and finished loaded all my gear into the back of the Jeep.
"Listen, I need you to take a look at some stuff for me," he said leaning against the Jeep.
"And by stuff, you mean?" Warning bells were blaring inside my head. Danger Will Robinson!
"Personnel records for some of the new InGen security recruits."
"Don't you have your own people to do that? And shouldn't you have done that before you brought them to the island?"
Hamada rubbed his hands over his face turning to face me. "We did, we do, but I want your take on them. It will take InGen's people two weeks to make a decision. It will take you two minutes. Plus, I trust your opinion."
The part about not trusting InGen hung in the air. "I'm not a profiler anymore. You know that." I pushed off the Jeep and started back towards the building.
"I'm not asking you to profile homicidal maniacs. I just need you to look at their files, talk to them, tell me if they have what it takes to do this job." He fell in step with me looking hard at the ground. "These guys will have lives in their hands, sometimes even mine. It's my job to make sure they are up for the task."
Guilt trip complete. "Fine, but you owe me coffee. That Starbucks down the street looks open."
He slapped me on the shoulder turning back, "You got it Jo. You still into pumpkin spice latte's?"
"Yea, but no whip cream. I gotta watch my girlish figure," I said striding back inside. Time to delve into the minds of InGen's finest.