Jurassic Park IV: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 8: Hammond's Confession
A/N: Finally! It is time to share one of my favorite chapters that I've written so far! Now you as the reader will be able to see how I tie the previous seven chapters together and learn more about the mysteries surrounding Jurassic Park.
By the way: someone by the name of "Matt" has asked via comment what characters will be appearing in this story and if Eric Kirby will make an appearance. Since "Matt" doesn't appear to have an account on Fanfiction, I'm not able to answer his question via comment, so I'll answer it here. The answer to his question is: I'm not entirely sure of all the characters I'll have in this story because I'm sort of writing it as I go, but most of the main characters will appear in this chapter. If Eric Kirby makes an appearance in the story, it might be a cameo appearance. Of course, since I'm not sure yet, I could be wrong . . . Hope I answered your question, Matt!
Anyways I hope you readers enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Ah! Finally I can relax! Malcolm thought as he finished putting on his pajamas and crawled into bed next to Sarah. The two of them had just come home from yet another book signing and this one was much more exhausting to Malcolm than the last one that he had two weeks ago at Middleton Bookstore. This one was massive and filled with at least a hundred other authors and possibly millions of people. Malcolm's hands and fingers were numb from signing so many autographs and his throat was itching from all the talking he had to do.
With Kelly and his two younger children, Tracy and Douglas at summer camp (Kelly was helping out), he and Sarah were prepared to enjoy the rest of the summer months relaxing . . . except for more advertising campaigns for the books and book signings of course. Strangely enough, the Jurassic Park's Isla Nublar-syndrome just about everyone seemed to have was finally winding down, he hadn't even received a single call from Levine ever since he talked to him at the Middleton Bookstore book signing two weeks ago. Maybe the man had finally given up on trying to find evidence for Isla Nublar's existence.
Malcolm put one arm around Sarah as he pulled the covers over them and kissed her.
"Goodnight, Sarah," he said.
"Goodnight, Ian," she replied. Just as Malcolm sank under the covers and turned the lamp off, his cellphone that sat on his side table buzzed – he had received a text message.
Who on earth would be sending me a text message 11 o' clock at night? He thought as he reluctantly picked up his phone to check the person who left the message. Malcolm groaned loudly as he read the name of the person who left the message: Richard Levine. "Typical of him to be calling me this late at night."
Sarah sat up and looked over at him. "Who is it?"
"Who'd ya think? Levine!"
"What does the text say?"
Malcolm shrugged and pressed the "read message" icon on the phone's screen. He read: Sorry for late notice Malcolm, Lex wants us at Hammond's mansion pronto for important meeting. Want a hint on the topic? Isla Nublar: life found a way!
"Oh . . . no!" Malcolm sighed and groaned pitifully as he placed his hand over his forehead. "Change of plans, Sarah. We've got to get dressed and go to Hammond's place."
"What happened?"
Malcolm got out of bed and turned to face his wife. "Levine said something about Isla Nublar: apparently 'life found a way'."
"Yes, I'm Dr. Laura Sorkin," said the female scientist to Alan Grant as he straightened his famous hat. She and her assistant Kailey Harding had just flown to Montana to join Lex at Hammond's mansion. She was now standing on the older Hammond's front porch talking to Dr. Alan Grant, Tim Murphy and Richard Levine, whom she'd been corresponding with over the past few weeks ever since the jet-skier incident. "And you must be the famous Tim Murphy," she recalled.
"Yeah, that's me," Tim answered. "So you used to work at Jurassic Park?"
Dr. Sorkin sighed. "Yes, I did. That tragic day at the park is a day we'll all remember for an eternity. I must say, I've really admired the work you guys have been doing at the Snakewater Formation. What are you working on now?"
"Well," Grant paused. "We've recently started unearthing a pair of dinosaurs – a carnivore and an herbivore – that appear to have been caught in some sort of death duel before they died. Considering their preservation, we believe they must have died in a flood of some kind."
"What species are they?" Kailey asked.
"We're not sure at this point. The carnivore is definitely a tyrannosaur based on the tooth shape, and it might be a Nanotyrannus. The herbivore is a type of ceratopsian related to Triceratops. We think the ceratopsian might be a new species. Of course, that will have to wait until after we get back to the dig."
"And tell them about the nests," Levine urged.
"Oh yes. We've found a cliff that used to be on the coast of an ancient sea-sized lake and it's littered with burrows. In the burrows we've found 15 nests from some type of pterosaur or bird."
Dr. Sorkin asked, "What are the nests made of?"
"Twigs, small branches and leaves."
Dr. Sorkin looked thoughtful. "If it's a pterosaur nest, it will be the first one ever found made of those materials. Kailey and I have mainly been studying the Pteranodon colony in California."
"I'm glad they decided to calm down and not terrorize the planet!"
There was a moment of silence when another car drove and parked in Hammond's driveway. A familiar man dressed completely in black and wearing sunglasses stepped out of the car. Malcolm's never changed his style, thought Grant.
"Hello, Malcolm and Sarah!" Grant greeted. "Long time, no see! How was the book signing Levine told us about?"
"Good, if don't count the sore fingers and itchy throat." Both men chortled as they shook hands. Grant looked Malcolm up and down, eying his black shirt, black coat, black pants, black socks and black shoes. Grant recalled that Malcolm had never been one for style. Even almost 20 years ago when they first went to Isla Nublar to do an investigation on the park, he wore the exact same thing!
"Still wearing the same color clothes, Malcolm?" Grant asked.
"He's always wearing the same thing," Sarah answered before her husband could. "That's about all he has in the closet. The only contrasts in the colors he wears is gray."
Malcolm interjected saying, "Well, why bother with fashion in the first place? I believe my life has value, and I don't want to waste it thinking about clothing. I don't want to think about what I will wear in the morning or trying to stay in the 'latest styles'. They're changing by the minute! Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money – money that could be used for other good causes like helping the poor – to applaud. But, on the whole, I find fashion even more tedious than sports."
"You never did like sports, honey," Sarah reminded him.
"Fashion's not all that bad," argued Kailey.
After introducing himself and Sarah to Kailey and Dr. Sorkin, he turned to Levine and said, "Alright, enough small talk. Why on earth did you haul us out here in the–"
Levine winced. "Sorry about the middle-of-the-night-thing, but Lex wanted to make this as dramatic as possible."
Sarah frowned. "Why is that?"
"We need straight forward answers from Hammond, that's why," answered a male voice from behind. The others looked around to see Lex and her husband Lester, who were both holding large office folders as they exited their car. Lester, who's full name was Lester James Murphy, is the head of and ultimately responsible for Lexico, alongside Lex. One of the first things one might notice about Lester is that he could be rather ruthless and sarcastic at times. His serious attitude made it no wonder that he was also a senior government official.
"Well, this is terrific," Grant said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Hammond better give us clear answers, because this is rather inconvenient."
"Yes, inconvenient as it may be, our line of work is full inconveniences, I'm afraid," Lester said as he and Lex walked up the steps to Hammond's mansion. He then turned to Dr. Malcolm and Sarah. He retrieved a file and got a sheet of paper out of it before saying, "Let's see, Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dr. Sarah Harding, right? Dr. Malcolm here's a mathematician and recently published author and . . . Dr. Sarah Harding."
"We've got files?" Sarah asked.
"Everyone has a file. Let's see . . . uh, you're a paleontologist at Grant's dig site. Richard Levine and Tim Murphy, two paleontologists at Grant's dig site, Dr. Laura Sorkin and Kailey Harding, two scientists at the Pteranodon colony in California and . . . that's about it on these papers."
Tim leaned over to Grant and whispered, "How much information about us is available on the internet after lots of internet searching?"
"Couldn't tell you."
Tim grinned. "Oh yeah, I forgot, you hate computers."
Levine turned to Lex. "So when do we go in and talk to Hammond? I think everyone's here."
"We go now," she answered.
As the group started heading to the door, Dr. Sorkin said to Levine, "Thanks for taking all the time to try and uncover evidence for Isla Nublar's existence. Without your help, and Lex's, this wouldn't be possible."
"Oh, no problem," Levine responded. "I was beginning to get rather intrigued by the incidents happening around the area that Isla Nublar was or is, depending on where this conversation takes us."
"Could someone please tell me why we're doing this in the middle of the night? Why do we need to make a 'dramatic entrance'?" asked Malcolm.
"By coming at night, Hammond will know we mean no funny business and we aren't interested in any of his fancy tales of how everything is alright and dandy just as they are," Lester told him. "This needs to be stopped! People are dying thanks to Isla Nublar's possible existence. First three jet-skiers, and just a week ago, four men went missing in the same area, heading for Nublar."
"How do you know they were attempting to reach Nublar?"
"I have my sources."
"Besides," Levine interjected, "coming at night will add a lot of dimension to this epic tale, if someone ever decided to write a story about us based on what we're doing and put it on Fanfiction."
"In your dreams, Levine," Grant sighed.
The loud sound of the doorbell echoed through Hammond's mansion. The butler ran toward the door. "Who could be coming here at this late time?" he asked himself. He opened the door and gasped – before him was a crowd of familiar people including: Dr. Alan Grant, Richard Levine, Ian and Sarah Malcolm, Tim, Lex and Lester Murphy, Dr. Laura Sorkin and Kailey Harding.
"What on earth?" the butler was dumbfounded at this. "Can I help you?"
"We need to see Hammond, immediately," Lex told him.
"But . . . but he's getting ready for bed! Perhaps you can come by tomorrow and–"
"I'm afraid we can't do that. We need to speak with him right now."
"Alright, but can I at least tell him that you're here first?"
"No, we need to go right up." With that, Lex and the others entered the mansion and walked past the butler. He wasn't sure what to make of this at all.
After walking up the steps to the second floor, they found Hammond's bedroom and Lex lightly knocked on the door. "Come in," said the voice inside the room.
Imagine Hammond's surprise when he saw his grandchildren, accompanied by Lex's husband, Dr. Grant, Levine, Dr. Sorkin, Kailey Harding and the Malcolm's enter the room. "What on earth?" he asked in surprise. "Is something the matter."
"Yes, something's very wrong, Mr. Hammond," Dr. Sorkin told him. "We need some clarification on something."
"And we'd like straight answers," Lester added, "or else I'll have no other choice but to have you taken back to Lexico and keep you prisoner until you–"
Lex slapped his arm. "I was only joking," he said.
Then Lex said, "I'm really sorry to have to bother you in the middle of the night grandpa, but we really need to close this case and get some information."
"Sure, I guess." Hammond stood quietly, holding onto his famous amber-cane.
Lex got a stack of papers from her folder and announced, "As you recall, three people went out jet-skiing and were mysteriously killed three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, four men who supposedly were attempting to find Isla Nublar and bring evidence for its existence back to write a story on it for their tabloid."
"Yes, I recall those incidents. But like I've said before, Isla Nublar was destroyed! Mercenary Billy Yoder issued to have the island bombed by the US military. You remember, don't you Dr. Sorkin? You were there."
Dr. Sorkin stared at Hammond and nodded. Her memory went back to the dreadful day she was nearly eaten alive by a vicious marine reptiles.
In the summer of 1993, after the park failed, she was one of the people unintentionally left behind after Grant, Hammond, Ellie Sattler, Tim, Lex and Malcolm left the island. Left behind with her were Gerry Harding, the park's veterinarian and his daughter, Jess Harding (who was 14 years of age at the time), Nima Cruz, a female spy from InGen's rival company Biosyn sent to Nublar to retrieve the dinosaur embryo-canister Denis Nedry wasn't able to retrieve due to his death, and three mercenaries who were supposed to rescue them. But everything and everyone's priorities changed when the mercenaries were too fighting for their lives.
Once they had reached the Marine Facility to use the phones to contact the mainland, Dr. Sorkin tried to stop the pre-ordered bombing of Isla Nublar. But her plans failed when Billy Yoder took over and turned on the group. When the marine reptile that was kept in the Marine Facility knocked into the facility and Dr. Sorkin fell into the water. Fortunately, Gerry rescued her before the predator could eat her. But Billy used the opportunity to make the phone call to reconfirm the bombing and Isla Nublar was destined for destruction . . . at least, that's what everyone was told.
"I know the island was supposed to be destroyed," Dr. Sorkin told Hammond, "but if you keep as many secrets from us as you did from me when I worked at the park–"
"Look, I am very, very sorry for leaving you out of the loop," Hammond apologized. "I've said that countless times before. But you have to understand that–"
"That what?" Levine interrupted. "People have died due to rumors that Isla Nublar, or something from Isla Nublar, survived the bombing. We need answers Hammond. We need answers now before things get out of hand."
Hammond stood silently in front of the others. Lex peered into her grandfather's eyes – she could tell something was up. "We need to know what's the real story about Isla Nublar."
After a brief silence, Hammond sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you: Isla Nublar . . . was not destroyed."
The group gasped. This was news to them. John P. Hammond had kept this a secret for the past two or so decades! Malcolm was especially shocked by this. He knew Hammond was eccentric, but this was really eccentric? Why would he keep the island a secret. Life found a way, he thought.
"How on earth did the satellites or military not know about this?" asked Dr. Sorkin.
"Well, I might as well start at the beginning." Hammond cleared his throat as he continued. "Back in 1993 when the incident happened, I made a bargain with the higher-ups, if you will, of the military not to have the island destroyed. You see, I didn't want all of the park's dinosaurs – my dream – to go down the drain. So after much persuasion, I got the military to pretend that the bombing thing occurred. And I also made a deal with NASA to not reveal the location of the island via satellite-imaging. That's why Isla Nublar doesn't appear on GoogleMaps and other satellite-imaging apps. I didn't want the dinosaurs and the other unique creatures we had recreated killed by some reckless bombs."
"So are the dinosaurs still alive?" Grant asked.
Hammond nodded. "They should be. True, we made them lysine deficient, but–"
". . . the dinosaurs were able to eat lysine via lysine-rich plants," Sarah finished the sentence. "The carnivores in turn eat the herbivores and therefore they get lysine-supplements as well. That's what happened on Isla Sorna so it's likely that the same thing happened to Nublar's dinosaurs."
"Well, I think we've gotten all the answers we need," Lester concluded. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going back to Lexico." With that, everyone except Dr. Sorkin, Levine, Kailey and Lex left the room.
"I'm really sorry about all the commotion grandfather," Lex apologized. "But we really needed answers."
Hammond nodded. "It's quite alright. No real harm done. I just suppose everyone's going to be a bit groggy in the morning."
Dr. Sorkin said, "What's the real reason why you didn't tell anybody about Isla Nublar's true fate?"
After a slight hesitation, Hammond explained, "I know we didn't have the best start, Dr. Sorkin, but–"
"Best start? Our start was great! When I was first convinced to work for InGen by that slimy Peter Ludlow, I was made the chief paleogeneticist! It was what happened afterward."
"What happened?" Lex asked. "I knew you worked for InGen and were demoted or something, but I never was able to figure out how and why."
"It's a long story, but InGen and I didn't see eye-to-eye on certain things. That was my downfall. Henry – Dr. Wu – was willing to take shortcuts to meet InGen's standards in cloning the dinosaurs, but I didn't want to take those shortcuts and so I that's why I was demoted. After my demotion, I was sort of the outcast of InGen. I wanted the place to be a nature reserve where the dinosaurs could roam freely, but InGen's money-hogging Board of Directors felt that wouldn't make the profit they desired. By that point, I was kept out of the loop."
"Yes, and I greatly regretted treating you the way that we did by the time the park shut down," Hammond admitted. "I realized that maybe we should have listened to you. During the incident, I was still convinced that we had control of what we had recreated. But Ellie Degler was the one who helped me get my head where it needed to be. She said, 'We never had control, that's the illusion! I was overwhelmed by the power of this place! But I made a mistake too, I didn't have enough respect for that power and it's out now.' I still remember that conversation vividly. When I escaped the island on the helicopter and while we were worried sick about you, Gerry and the others that still remained on the island, I was so sorry that I didn't have the chance to set things right with you. Not only did I not want the dinosaurs destroyed after all our hard work, but I also wanted to fulfill your wish to let the dinosaurs roam free like they should. Isla Sorna couldn't be kept a secret, but Isla Nublar could. So Nublar was secretly kept alive and thriving. Now as we all know, Isla Sorna is a thriving nature reserve for the dinosaurs of that island. But Nublar . . . I didn't feel the world was ready to know about Nublar's existence. I wanted to fulfill your dream, Dr. Sorkin.
Dr. Sorkin nodded as she removed her glasses to wipe a tear from her eye. "Thanks."
"So after the incident," Levine started, "Hammond turned from capitalist to naturalist in just four years . . . that's something."
After saying their good-nights, Lex, Dr. Sorkin, Levine and Kailey walked down the stairs to join the others outside. Kailey looked at Dr. Sorkin and gasped. "Are . . . are you . . . crying?"
"What? No, of course not," Dr. Sorkin quickly responded as she sniffed. "I'm just sweating though my eyes."
When the four of them walked out the door, they caught up with the others who had attended this meeting at Hammond's.
"I suppose you know what this means," Lester announced to everyone.
"What does it mean?" Malcolm asked.
"We're going to have to make an investigation of the island in question." Everyone gasped.
"You're kidding, right?" Grant questioned.
Levine elbowed Malcolm. "You shouldn't be surprised to find yourself involved in another Jurassic Park adventure. You said yourself that if more evidence of Isla Nublar's existence arose, you'd–"
"I only said it would be worth mounting an expedition. I never said anything about going to the island myself."
"Oh . . . yeah." Levine frowned.
"I nearly died on Isla Nublar before! After I was injured, I spent most of the Jurassic Park Incident in bed until we left the island. When I was on Sorna in 1997, I only went to get Sarah back. She should have told me she was going though . . ."
"I knew you would have stopped me from going," Sarah broke into their conversation. "That's why I didn't tell you. It was an amazing research opportunity I didn't want to waste. Besides, if you found out I was going before I was out of your grasp, InGen would have succeeded in taking all of the dinosaurs they had in mind to the mainland."
"If I had known where you were off to I would have tied you to the bed."
Sarah smirked. "Besides, I thought it was kind of romantic of you to come and rescue me." Malcolm rolled his eyes, but he knew she was right.
Levine decided to bring them back on topic. "An expedition should be mounted to Isla Nublar. This is priority! The reason it's so important to go to Isla Nublar as soon as possible is because we need to validate the island in question. How can we expect to know what we're dealing with if we haven't seen the extent of what we're dealing with in the first place?"
"Exactly my point," Dr. Sorkin agreed. "An expedition is crucial."
Lester nodded. "Fine, Lex. Come along now. We've got some planning to schedule."
As Lester headed toward the car, Kailey asked, "Just curious: how on earth did you fall in love with a guy like Lester? He doesn't seem at all the 'romantic type'."
Lex giggled. "Stern and uptight as he may be on the outside, he can be really lovey-dovey . . . at times." She turned and followed her husband.
As everyone else walked toward their cars, none of them noticed a shadowy figure near Hammond's mansion slip away into the darkness – not even Grant, who was no more than 50 feet away from the figure. He only had one thing on his mind: his worse fear had come try – he'd be returning to Isla Nublar!
A/N: How was this chapter? If you enjoyed it, please be sure to leave a comment or two. Helpful suggests are encouraged. Lester James Murphy in my story is actually based on a character from the popular BBC series Primeval named James Lester. I switched his name around in my story because to me, "James Lester Murphy" doesn't sound as good as Lester James Murphy. Next week, while the team will be planning their expedition back to Isla Nublar, you will find out about the shady figure in the shadows that I mentioned. Dinosaurs? Don't worry, we should have a ton more dinosaur action coming up soon!