Sam Patterson would never have thought she would be able to afford a trip to Costa Rica at all, let alone two weeks at Jurassic World over Christmas and New Years. But there she was, standing on the docks, looking up at the train that would carry her into the park. It had been a rough year and she was absolutely determined to send 2015 out on a high note with her dream holiday. Her grandma would've told her it was a waste of money better put toward buying a house, but her grandpa? He would've been right beside her, giddy as the children screaming as they ran up the stairs to the train.
Subconsciously, she reached up to toy with the necklace they had given her as she moved to get in line for the ride. A small girl, probably only 5 or 6 years old, was walking up to everyone nearby and asking what their favourite dinosaur was. Some of the adults answered, some ignored her, but every child enthusiastically told her about their favourite.
"What's your favourite dinosaur?"
Sam grinned down at her. "It's an archaeopteryx."
The girl scrunched up her features. "What's that?"
Bending down to the girl's level, she pulled the necklace out from under her shirt and held the pendant in the palm of her hand. "This. It's one of the earliest dinosaur fossils to show that dinosaurs turned into birds." A bit of an oversimplification, but the kid probably hadn't even started kindergarten. It might be a bit much to dive into the history of archaeopteryxes. Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out one of her archaeopteryx stickers and gave it to the girl, who ran back to her parents, absolutely thrilled.
Her mother looked over at Sam, then helped the kid put the sticker in a book as the train pulled up to the station. They wound up in different cars, but through the glass, she could see the kid showing everyone her sticker book as she took a seat and watched the scenery as the train pulled away.
Before coming to Isla Nublar, she had spent a week at an all inclusive resort in Papagayo. The resort had lush hiking trails and day trips out to the Arenal volcano. And yet all that couldn't compare to the sights on Isla Nublar. She was pretty sure some of the plants were long-extinct, brought back to life by the scientists at the park. It was absolutely gorgeous! Colourful flowers and leaves lined the sides of the tracks.
As much as she tried, it was hard to pay attention to the guide talking over the speakers. Everything was so much better than she had imagined and she hadn't even entered the park yet!
Up ahead the main gate slowly started to open to admit the train, giving her a view of the massive on-site resort, giant pool housing the mosasaurus and who knew what else, the massive innovation center at the middle, and train tracks winding all throughout. All to the backdrop of beautiful mountains and valleys!
The train travelled past the pool and she tried to catch a glimpse of the mosasaur, but with no luck. She made a note to put the show on her list for the next day and grinned as she took in the rest of the resort and park from her seat.
When the train slid to a stop, she waited for the others to disembark and followed as one of the last passengers to leave. Not that she wasn't keen to get checked in and explore, but she was less thrilled to push through crowds of families for the opportunity to wait in line to check-in. Instead of stopping by the hotel first, she took a left and went to Starbucks. The ferry from the mainland left way too early, so a little caffeine wouldn't exactly be a bad idea.
After finishing, she headed to the hotel to check in. The line was still pretty long, but she could only imagine what it would've been if she'd gone when first arriving.
By the time she made it up to her room on the second floor it was nearly lunch time. The second the door closed, she dropped her suitcase next to the bed and got to work. While she was able to afford the trip, the VIP badges were insanely expensive. But what were her hacking skills for if not to upgrade her access, right?
Grinning, she hooked the electronic arm badge up to her laptop, connected to the hotel wifi, and logged in. In less than an hour, she had VIP access free of charge. Maybe she could find a job at the park, replace whoever put the security controls around wristbands into place. Holy shit was that easy.
She threw her laptop into the safe, slid on the wrist band, grabbed her waterproof not-a-purse with her wallet, phone, and hotel key, then headed out to start her first day in the park.
Claire sighed as she waited for the elevator back up to the control room. She felt bad leaving her nephews with Zara, she really did, but with the Investors scheduling a trip at the last minute and Masrani deciding to fly over too? She just had to make it through the next two days of meetings, then she could actually spend the time to get to know her nephews.
God, how long had it been since she'd even spoken to them, let alone gone home to visit?
As much as it grated her on nerves when Karen pestered her about family and why she wasn't married and why she didn't have kids, she did love her sister and probably should visit more. And it wasn't as though Karen was entirely wrong - she did want kids, she did want to get married. But she was busy, something was always happening at the park. And it wasn't like she had much in the way of options when she lived on Isla Nublar.
Hell, her date with Owen Grady the other week was a total disaster. No surprise there. They were oil and water. And she expected Owen to…what? Show up in a three-piece suit? The man would struggle to put on a clip on tie, let alone a three-piece! Sighing, she stepped into the elevator. No, that wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault they weren't compatible.
Her phone dinged and she looked at the message from Vivian telling her Mr. Masrani was in the control room. He would probably be expecting an update on the park statistics before she took him out to see the Indominus. Hopefully Vivian would be able to intercept anything…unfiltered from Lowery.
As the elevator doors slid open, she pasted on her customer service smile - perfected during her college days - and mentally pulled up every statistic she had memorized.
"Mr. Masrani!" she greeted, trying not to wince as he reminded her to call him 'Simon'. That was too far out of her comfort zone.
"Tell me about my park, Claire," he said, excitement pulling at the corners of his mouth.
Owen swore to himself as he worked on his bike. Whoever let that damned kid into the restricted area - hell, anywhere near any of the carnivores! - was going to get a damn earful later. Falling into the pen? Did anybody even train him?
"Fucking idiot," he grumbled, reaching for his beer.
If Hoskins hadn't been with him when it happened, he'd have put money on the asshole pushing the kid in to test him or the raptors or some shit. Hoskins was unhinged. Part of him wondered if Masrani had any fucking clue how insane the head of InGen security was. Simon Masrani, while 100% businessman, at least had some vague sense of empathy and humanity. At least for a billionaire.
Snorting a laugh, he shook his head. Why the hell anyone needed or wanted to have that much damn money was beyond him. Give him his cobbled together bungalow by the water and he was happy. Well, that and his raptors. While he was pissed about the kid falling in, he was a little proud of the girls. They did well. And nobody even had the smallest bite or scratch. He'd seen experienced trainers like Barry get scratches for just feeding them. So no raptor-induced injuries when someone fell into the pen? A fucking miracle.
He smiled around the neck of his beer. Blue would be getting an extra treat for that. And maybe a little for scaring the kid after they got out of the pen.
The sound of an engine pulled him away from his bike and he looked up just in time to see Claire Dearing pull up. He had to admit, he was a little surprised to see her there after their shitty date. What the hell had he even been thinking? There were plenty of women on the island to scratch that itch with who weren't his boss.
Slowly, she got out of her car and made her way toward him, fiddling with her hands. "Mr. Grady?"
"Owen," he grunted. Even if they weren't compatible, he didn't have to be an asshole about it.
Nodding, she continued, "I need you to take a look at something."
"What the hell do they want now?" If it was something to do with the incident with the girls, he sure as hell didn't have the patience to deal with that just yet.
"We have a new attraction."
Laughter bubbled up out of him, he couldn't help it. "That's not what you said last time I saw you."
Claire sighed and put her hands on her hips. "The dinosaurs?"
"What about 'em?" he chuckled. Okay, maybe it was bad timing, but holy shit did he need a laugh after his day so far.
"We've made a new species," she said.
There was no way he heard that right. Throwing down the wrench he was holding, he walked back to the porch to get a rag to wipe off the grease. "You what?"
"I mean, we employ genetic engineers. And we need to reinvigorate interest in the park somehow. The numbers have been slowly declining recently and -."
Tossing the rag down, he grunted, "And you thought just building a dinosaur would be a good idea? What's it made of?"
"It's…classified."
Claire Dearing never hesitated, so when she did, he knew something was wrong. It took a minute before it clicked. "You have no idea, do you."
"I can tell you the base genome is t-rex and that's it," she replied, crossing her arms. "Can we go now, please? My nephews are here and I'd like to at least try to make it to dinner with them on time?"
Redirecting and saying please? She was desperate to get this over with and he honestly couldn't tell if it was just to get away from him or to actually go join her nephews. He'd never pictured Claire as being good with kids. Every time she was out in the park, she was stiff and anxious and struggled to actually identify with any of the guests. Owen couldn't tell if it was her perfectionist tendencies or just genuinely not being much of a people person. Shaking his head and grinning, he muttered, "You have nephews?"
"Yes," she sighed. "Just go change, I'll be in the car when you're done."
"Yes, Ma'am," he laughed, watching her try to stomp angrily back to the car in a pair of heels that probably cost more than his whole damned bungalow.
He had no idea if his day was about to get better or worse, and after the morning he had? He was leaning toward worse.
"Shit," he hissed, walking back inside to change.
Nate Gray hated tourists. With a passion. His friends said it was a mistake to pick a job at Jurassic World, but honestly? If putting up with a bunch of entitled tourists every so often was the penance for working with live dinosaurs, he'd happily pay it. Even if it was just tangentially as part of InGen's security division.
Taking a breath, he walked out of the security office onto Main Street and headed for the labs. Hoskins needed some…file or report or something from Dr. Wu and heaven forbid the man use email! No, he delighted in lording his power over his officers, gloated over his victories. The guy was a total prick.
But the job paid well. And, well, dinosaurs. Nate's inner child would've been pissed at him for turning down a job with real live dinosaurs.
As he ascended the stairs into the Innovation Center, he was ambushed by a small girl asking people what their favourite dinosaurs were.
"What's your favourite dinosaur?"
He grinned down at the tiny blonde girl with the dinosaur dress and a sticker book filled with, presumably, dinosaur stickers. While he did hate adult tourists, he had a soft spot for kids. Especially when they were so excited. "Archaeopteryx."
The little girl squealed as something caught her eye and ran off shouting, "He has the same dinosaur as you!"
She ran up to a startled-looking woman with brown hair pulled into a pair of ponytails hanging loosely over her shoulders. The woman smiled and looked back at him, following the kid's hand. Brown hair that fell just past her shoulders and framed a silver necklace with a pendant of the Berlin specimen archaeopteryx, probably about a foot shorter than him, shining green eyes; she was pretty.
"Does he?"
"He said Archie-toptix too!" the girl giggled before running off. "Mommy! I found another Archie-toptix!" The girl's mother sighed and offered an apologetic grin before shooing the kid inside a souvenir shop.
"You like Archie-toptix?" a voice laughed next to him.
Turning, he saw the Archaeopteryx woman had somehow walked up to him. "Honestly, I'm impressed she got that far. At her age, I would've struggled with saying 'triceratops' correctly," he said, turning back to the souvenir shop. Inside he could see the kid still running around excitedly, probably talking about the Archie-toptixes.
"I'm Sam," her voice drew his attention back to her.
"Nate."
The radio on his shoulder crackled to life and she grinned. "Looks like you need to get back to work. Maybe some Archie-toptixes in need of rescue."
"Sadly, we don't have any here," he shot back, grabbing his radio. "But you'll find some microraptors in the aviary." He muttered into the radio and sighed as Hoskins asked him to pick up a soda on his way back. Maybe he ought to get the guy a dictionary to show him the difference between employee and servant. Jackass. "I gotta go, but maybe I'll see you around?"
Her grin pulled a little wider. "I mean, we are on an island. And I'm here for another two weeks."
Finally, he allowed himself to smile a little. "I'll see you around, Sam." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and jogged the rest of the way to the lab. Maybe he didn't hate all tourists.