"You alright there, Claire?" Owen Grady frowned at her only half teasing. "You look a bit peaky."
"I'm fine."
She wasn't. She looked like a ghost, paler than her attire. She'd heard that animals could sense disaster coming, perhaps that transferred over to her as well because she could feel it in her bones that something...something was going to go terribly wrong. Something big and dangerous was coming and in her dreams it always took the form of the Indominus.
Claire hadn't slept since the Indominus tried to break the glass. She'd been on edge, nightmares of running through the forests far too slowly to survive filled her sleep and she woke to the feel of phantom teeth closing in around her. She'd had a near breakdown just two days ago when her blouse had snagged on a branch, shrieked and whirled trying to get away from it. The others had laughed and joked about it and she'd gone along with their ribbing while her eyes hunted the trees for any sign of white flashing through them.
Owen was looking at her carefully. Too carefully and she snapped herself out of it. He scared her. Everyone else watched one or the other, dinosaurs or people but Owen, watched her and them in equal measure and if anyone was to figure out the crazy things she heard it would be him and she absolutely couldn't let that happen.
She knew what would happen if anyone caught on to it. She'd be turned into an exhibit, a weapon, she'd be the asset then.
That just wouldn't do.
"We've made a new species and we'd like you to take a look at it."
"You just went and made a dinosaur?" She couldn't blame him for his incredulity but she couldn't show him her own.
"As opposed to the rest which just sprouted on trees? Making dinosaurs is kind of what we do here." Anger was a good emotion. Anger helped hide fear and remembering the way Owen made fun of her itinerary made her just angry enough to latch onto it. "The exhibit opens to the public in three weeks and Mr Masrani wanted me to consult with you about some containment issues."
"You wanna consult here or...in my bungalow." He looked like a kid when he grinned.
"I'd rather consult at the facility itself. We want you to check the paddock for vulnerabilities."
"Why me?"
"I guess Masrani thinks that since the raptors listen to you-"
"Listen to me? They don't listen to me." He snorted and she agreed. They didn't listen to him, they listened to what he said and then all but stuck their tongues out at him.
"Fine then, since they pretend to listen to you when it suits them you have a communication line open with the assets."
"Assets? Really Claire?" She really hated the way he said her name. Like he knew something she didn't. It never failed to have her panic rising again. "I get it, it's easier for you to pretend they're just numbers on spreadsheets, things. But they're not, they're alive."
"I'm aware of that. That's why we've hired you to interact with them. I handle the numbers on the spreadsheet, treating them like they're alive is your job."
He stared at her for a good minute before giving in with a lopsided grin that was almost certainly fake.
"Fine, when do I meet this asset?"
Finally, Claire thought with a sigh of relief, something went her way.
"Right now."
"So who's been doing my job up until now?" He asked her as they climbed up the stairs to the observation deck.
"I'm sorry?"
"Treating the asset like it's alive," He mocked. "Who was the handler before?"
"No one."
"What do you mean no one?"
"The Indominus grew big very fast, the base genome is T-Rex and after the first month it became too dangerous for anyone to be in or near the paddock in any capacity since it anticipated where the food was coming from."
"It's smart then."
A sharp bark of laughter left Claire involuntarily. You didn't need to understand it to know that the Indominus was most definitely smart.
"Yes, it's smart."
"That's not the T-Rex in it then."
"No it's not."
"What about the rest of it?"
"Sorry?"
"What's the rest of it, it's a hybrid right?"
"The rest is...classified."
But Claire could guess. Raptor, a bit of the Carnotaurus judging by its bony ridges, some snake given its infrared vision. The rest was up in the air.
"You made a new dinosaur but you don't know what's in it?"
"Dr Wu made the dinosaur Mr Grady not me. I just file the paperwork and liase with Corporate."
"So where is this Indominus Rex?" He shook his head with a snort, clearly unimpressed by the name.
"It's...it should be here, she always reacts when she sees someone in the observation deck." Claire frowned and checked the feeds. She liked taunting Claire, scaring her two times in a span of a few hours would be the highlight of her day.
"What do you mean she reacts when someone's in the observation deck?" Owen asked in a low voice and the security guard answered, wiping the sugar left on his hands from the donut on his pants.
"You watch her she watches you right back." He said flippantly, reading his magazine only to jolt to awareness as alarms began blaring as it went undetected.
"Oh shit."
Panic descended upon the three as the guard began combing through the security logs frantically and Owen walked to the other side of the room.
"Were those claw marks always there?"
"You don't think it..."
"Escaped? Probably."
Escaped. The Indominus out there in the park. For a moment Claire stood there rooted to the floor frozen in fear, reliving all her nightmares. Her breath came hard and fast as all thought fled her mind but the urge to run as fast as she could even as her feet refused to obey her.
"Claire, Claire you alright?" She hadn't noticed when her vision had begun to swim until it finally began to focus and she found herself looking at Owen Brady's worried green eyes.
"Wha-?" She asked weakly wondering what had happened and he frowned.
"You blacked out there for a second."
"No, I-I'm fine. I'm...I can track her from the control room, I need to-"
A ripple of dark laughter from beyond the glass stopped her in her tracks. It was a low sound, one that could easily be disguised by the rushing of the leave sin the paddock but Claire hadn't spent every waking and non-waking moment of the last week thinking of the Indominus for nothing and she knew what she'd heard.
The Indominus had just found another way to taunt her.
"I need to go check the paddock-" Owen began and Claire reached out and stopped him.
"No!" She said loudly, her voice tinged with more fear than anyone at the park probably thought her capable of. "She's there, she's just messing with us."
The furrow in his forehead grew deeper and even the guard looked at her like she was losing it. Claire didn't care, she couldn't let the Indominus win.
"The scanners-"
"Can be messed with, if it has any other characteristics of a snake then it might be able to regulate its temperature so that the scanners don't pick it up, she's in there."
Owen looked at her carefully. "How can you be so sure of it?"
Claire struggled with her answer. This was exactly what the Indominus wanted, this sheer unadulterated fear running through her. How could she explain the sadistic tendencies of an animal that she wasn't supposed to understand? How could she explain how she knew the nuances of her psyche without outing herself as the freakshow.
"Pete, right?" She turned to the guard who just nodded tentatively. "Call Control Centre and tell them to track its implant, tell them it's priority."
Pete nodded and did what she said but Owen, Owen was still looking for answers she could not give.
"You sure she couldn't have jumped out of there? If she has some raptor in her she might."
"Even if she did, she's not big enough for it, she's there trust me."
Pete cleared his throat. "Ma'am, Control Centre says she's still in the paddock."
Every single muscle in Claire's body relaxed and she burst into hysterical laughter. Her face dropped into her shaking hands as she tried to contain herself. She allowed herself a brief moment to unwind. Finally, she was in control again and the Indominus hadn't been able to get one over her.
So she never saw the clawed hand coming at the glass until it ripped through it and sound of shattered glass hitting the ground mingled with her own scream.