March 20th, 2011
Maisie had been trying to sneak away from Iris all day. Why was it so much harder than usual? Iris had been keeping a close eye on the girl the last couple of days, and Maisie was scared to think she might suspect something. Usually, Maisie had no problem getting away from her boring nanny, Iris just thought she was playing hide and seek and would search all round the huge house. But today, she was trying to keep her close at hand. And under no circumstances would she let her go outside. Maisie didn't understand any of this, and it was getting very annoying.
Her chance finally came after lunch, when Iris wanted her to have 'quiet time'. Maisie was expected to relax and maybe watch a film in the entertainment room, a chance for her mind to level out and let her stomach settle after eating. Also it was so that Iris could get a break from the over-active little girl and have a chance to read her current book. But Iris never got very far – by page 3 she was already nodding off to sleep. Maisie made sure she was out but flicking a grape from the fruit bowl at her. No response. Heart quickening with excitement, she left the television running so the background noise would keep Iris asleep, and tiptoed out of the room.
Considering the fact that she did actually like to play hide and seek, Maisie knew she was the ultimate champion of the house. So she knew how to move through the corridors and rooms whilst avoiding all the people who worked in the house. It wasn't like she had to go far. At the end of the corridor outside her bedroom, was the little door in the wall that led to the mini elevator. Maisie had brought it up here last night when she'd snuck back into bed. Going down to the basement during the day was much riskier than at night – there were more people around who might see her. But she was too excited to wait until tonight. And besides, she wanted to see if Jack could play today. She was getting sick of him sitting behind the bars in his cage.
She'd sneaking down to see him every night for the past week. It was like she was a hero out of a movie, keeping this big secret to herself and having an animal friend. Jack always seemed happy to see her, but she had the feeling that he was getting a little short-tempered. He'd always be scratching at the padlock on his cage, trying to break it open. Maisie had tried to find the key – honestly, she had! – but she couldn't find it anywhere. And she didn't know what would happen if she did let him out. She wanted to, she wanted to be able to pet him and play with him, but what if someone noticed the cage had been opened? How much trouble would she be in? It was only last three days ago that Maisie had accidentally found a stash of Easter-eggs hidden in a cupboard in the pantry. She hadn't even done it on purpose but Iris had given her a proper scolding for spoiling the surprise. Mills had tried to smooth things over: he'd explained that the Easter bunny had dropped off the eggs ahead of time because he was very busy this year to hide them himself. He'd also said how bad it was when nosey little children spoiled their surprises when they went snooping around. So, would Maisie get in trouble now? To her, it was obvious that Grandpa wanted Jack to be a surprise for her birthday, but her birthday was ages away. If she got caught seeing him, would she be told off again for spoiling the surprise?
But if she didn't come to see Jack, he'd be all alone… and so would she. Maisie wasn't allowed to go to nursery – or kindergarten, as the Americans called it. And every time she asked about when she'd go to big-school, her Grandpa would always say that she was too special for a mundane school, she could learn everything in the world right here with him. Maisie did take that as a compliment, but… she also wanted to go make friends. She'd never really had a friend. No one else in the mansion had kids to bring to play with her. Jack was all she had. Even if she had to sneak around until her birthday, she was going to see him. And when her birthday finally got here, she would just act really surprised.
Finally, she reached the level she needed. Five nights ago, she'd gotten the levels mixed up and gotten lost. The night after, she managed to snatch up a knife from the kitchen and had put marks on secret corners of the doors, so she'd know which one was which. Sliding them open so she could peek out, Maisie made sure the coast was clear. Slowly, she climbed out, and made her way along to Jack's room, always ready to duck if she heard or saw anyone coming. Even if down here there were fewer good places to hide.
Footsteps echoed along the metal walkways up ahead. Maisie gasped and dove down behind a stack of crates. It was the worst hiding place, but it was the only one closest to her. Voices came with the footsteps, and as they got closer, Maisie thought she recognised one of them. Not knowing if she should, she peeked around the edge to try and catch a glimpse.
"…paid monthly with an already secured bonus to cover any treatment should you be injured in any capacity." Came the voice of Mr Mills, who was walking down the metal bridge right towards Maisie's hiding place. Next to him was another man, and Mills was talking to him with his 'business-face' on. Usually Mills was soft and warm when he spoke to her, even if he could be a little distant at times. But when he had his 'business-face' on, he turned cold and hard, and his face never moved as if an ice queen had frozen it in a permanent scowl of disapproval. "In return, we demand that you never speak to anyone of what transpires in this house. No matter what you see, hear or learn of, it is not to leave these walls. Should you violate this agreement, Mr Lockwood will find it incredibly easy to not only sue you of whatever money you have, but to discredit your working-reputation permanently. Ingen's cover up of the first Nublar incident pales in comparison to what our lawyers are prepared to do."
The pair stopped right outside Jack's room, and Maisie managed to get a good look at the new man. He was tall, at least a little taller than Mills. He had short-cut bright orange hair, like a carrot, With a single scar running from the corner of his mouth to the bottom of his chin. He seemed to have a 'business-face' on as well, for she couldn't tell if he was happy or scared or anything. When the man spoke, it was in a voice with an accent that reminded Maisie of the old show she sometimes watched on the Discovery Channel – the crocodile hunter! "No need to worry about that. Ya boys did their research. I got no one to spill the beans to anyway."
"You've come highly recommended. I was told you're able to tame some of the most dangerous animals on the planet. That means I have high expectations."
"Where I come from, ya live with the wildlife or ya die," said the carrot-haired stranger. "Sharks, crocs, snakes, cats, wolves; I've done it all before. Nothing ya got's gonna surprise me."
"I'm pretty sure I can…"
The two stepped through the door into Jack's room. Maisie dared to poke her head above the sill and peak through the thick glass window. When the door closed, sound was muffled, but Maisie could still hear the new man yell when he saw Jack for the first time. Her Blackiesaurus looked the man up and down from behind his bars and gave a low rumbling sound.
The new man looked startled from the cage to Mills. "What in the bloody hell is–?!"
"This, Mr Lisle," Mills said smoothly, "is your new project. A creature made by the miracle of science. We call it, the Indoraptor."
Maisie felt her eyebrows rise at hearing Jack's real name. An Indoraptor? Well, she preferred Blackiesaurus, but if that was what he was…
The ginger man – Lisle – seemed to lose his fear and crept closer to the cage. He crouched far enough away that if Jack were to stretch his long arm through the bars, he still wouldn't be able to reach him. "A dinosaur… Thought they was all on that island next to them stinking Ticos. Big boy… ugly looking bugger, ain't he?"
Through the window, Maisie scowled at the man. She didn't understand some of his words, but the way he said them made her believe it wasn't very nice. And no one got to call her Jack ugly! As if agreeing with her, Jack let out a loud hiss as Lisle went to hold out his hand to the cage.
"The Indoraptor is exclusively ours, there's no other animal in the world like it." Mills said with a hint of pride. "You'll be his keeper. You'll be responsible for feeding it, making sure its cage is clean, making sure it is exercised and also that it is properly disciplined. Several of my members of staff have complained about threats to their safety. I trust you have the backbone to put it in its place?"
Lisle stood, staring down at Jack. "Ya got no fear of that, mate."
"Careful," Mills warned. "As an employee, you'll be expected to show proper respect to your superiors. Also, there's one more thing…"
Their voices lowered not to whispers, but just quiet enough that Maisie couldn't hear their muffled words through the glass. The two nodded back and forth, Mills seemed to be telling Lisle something important, and Maisie was desperate to know what. But then, they broke apart, and the two stepped outside the door. Maisie ducked back down behind her crates before she could be spotted.
"…You'll be reporting directly to Dr Moroe," Mills was saying, "She's in charge of monitoring the Indoraptor's development and keeping track of when it's needed for her treatments. I believe her first demand will be to have you test its manoeuvrability."
"It'll need to be able to respond to basic commands first."
"Then I'll leave that up to you. Welcome aboard, Sean Lisle." And with that, Mills turned on his heel and walked away. Sean watched him go, before ducking back into the room.
Through the window, Maisie watched, as Mr Lisle came right up to the cage, sorting through a set of keys in his hands. Jack watched him intently, and Lisle watched him back. He slid the key into the lock, but before he could turn it, Jack's arm launched out as if to swipe at the man's arm. Lisle jumped back, avoiding the claws that tried to swipe at him. Lisle didn't look mad though, like Maisie thought he would, instead he looked like he expected this. As if it were planned, he went over and began to sort through the various strange-looking tools hanging on the walls. He picked up what looked like a long fishing pole with a noose on one end. Next was brought down a huge roll of duct tape, and some strange clamp-like things. Mr Lisle came back towards Jack's cage, dropping the duct tape and clamps on the metal table behind him. Jack looked uneasily at the contraptions and growled. Mr Lisle didn't pay any attention to the unhappy noise, and poked the noose-end of the stick through the bars. Jack shied away from it, wary, but Lisle jabbed it closer and closer. When Jack tripped to swipe his claws at it, Lisle pulled it away just out of reach. Unable to get at it, Jack snarled with frustration and snapped his teeth at it.
The moment his head came too close, Lisle slipped the noose over Jack's head. The cord pulled tight around Jack's neck. The Indoraptor screeched and began to thrash from side to side, claws going up to his neck to try and pull himself loose. Teeth gritted, Lisle yanked on the pole, dragging Jack with him, with such force that Jack's snout was rammed through the bars. A loud CLANG echoed through the room where the metal echoed the force of the blow. Jack was momentarily dazed.
Maisie had to clamp her hands over her mouth to stop herself from crying out. He was hurting her Jack!
Using the moment, Lisle dashed for the table and snatched up the duct tape. He reached through the bars and began to tape Jack's mouth shut. He wound the tape round and round Jack's large snout, the harsh sound of the tape being yanked onto his scales horrifying the little girl that looked on. Jack came to his senses half way through, and noticing that he couldn't open his jaws, began to pull and struggle in blind panic. His screams were muffled, but the force of his growls was loud enough to make the glass in front of Maisie vibrate. His claws came up to try and scratch off the tape, but they instead caught hold of Lisle's arm.
The man screeched, pulling his arm back to reveal a short cut. Maisie gasped at the sight of blood. It wasn't much, but still! Lisle said something in a menacing voice low enough that Maisie couldn't hear it, but she knew he was swearing by the look on his face. Viciously, he picked up the stick and slammed it against the bars. Metal rang against metal, making a horrible loud noise. Jack shrieked, even with his mouth shut, shaking his head as if the noise hurt his ears. Lisle picked up the clamp, and dove for one of Jack's hands as it went to grab hold of the bars. It slipped on like a boxing glove, with one end like a handcuff that Lisle secured to the bars. Jack found himself trapped again and tried to pull his arm free, but couldn't. Deeming him now incapacitated, Lisle stood to his full height, panting.
He turned around and walked out of the room, looking over his injured arm, a grimace marring the triumphant smile on his face. "Nasty little freak," he muttered, walking in the direction of the infirmary.
The moment he was gone, Maisie bolted out of her hiding place on shaking legs. Tears were streaming down her face. She wanted a grownup, she wanted her grandpa! But he wasn't here! She was so upset, she wanted to cry so much, but Jack needed her. She threw open the door, and the moment that she came into the room, Jack's golden eyes lit up and he began to throw himself around all the harder. Maisie tried to wipe away her tears so she could see well enough. The key was very stiff for her little fingers as she tried to turn it. The tears came harder – oh why did that new man have to do this, it wasn't nice, it wasn't fair! And then, she heard the loud click of the lock as it turned. Then, the door swung open on noisy hinges, and Maisie might've panicked that someone had heard her but she right now was too upset to notice. Seeing the door open and her coming in, Jack began to scrabble around frantically.
"Jack," Maisie whimpered, "Please hold still – I-I just want to get it off…"
For the past week, she'd been touching his hands when he poked them through the bars, and she hadn't had a care in the world. But seeing him make blood on a man – even if it was an accident – frightened her a little bit. She knew in her heart that he wouldn't hurt her, but what if he did? Yet seeing him like this was only making her heart cry harder. So, she knew what she had to do.
Her fingers fiddled around to try and find the catch that would release the clamp on his hand. But with him stomping around and moving, he was constantly jostling her. Maisie wanted at one point to duck away in fright, but persistently kept going. Then, finally, she felt something come loose, and then the clamp slid off. Before she could think to reach up for the duct-tape, Jack stumbled away from the bars, snarling loudly. His shoulder collided with her, sending the little girl stumbling back, her chest hurting from the bruising force. Jack reached up, and scraped his claws along his face to try and catch the tape. He even left little cuts when one or two claws dug in a little too hard! His feet staggered towards her, and Maisie yelped and scrambled out of the cage to escape. She turned around, and gasped to see Jack had followed her out!
Underneath the overhead-lights, she could see just how big he was. When he was stood on all-fours, he was about as tall as her chest, but when he leant back on his hind legs, he towered over her. His long tail lashed behind him, the gold stripe flashing in the light. Suddenly, she heard a loud SHHHHHHHHHHREEEEECCCHHH! And the tape came off. It fell to the floor, and Maisie looked up as Jack grew to his full height, back and neck stretched to look down his nose at her with bright and blazing eyes.
Dr Moroe searched through all her files, her brows furrowing in frustration as she tried to find the link in her research. Not the research for the Lockwoods – that was over on her desk, beneath a ton of paperwork. No, this was her personal research, her magnum opus that she'd been working on since leaving university. She was this close to cracking it, all she had to do was find a missing element in the equation. But no matter what she tried, she hit road-block after road-block. The answer had to be here somewhere – was it in the formula? Or perhaps her calculations on chemical imbalances was off… No! She knew she had all the relevant data. But why wouldn't it work? She knew why. She didn't have the sufficient resources to test her findings. It's what had gotten her branded by almost every scientific institution in the world; for who would subject human testing on her research?
She blamed it all on Henry Wu, of course. They'd attended the same university, mentored under the same brilliant professor, and left with the exact same marks. Yet he was heralded as the greatest mind in genetic-engineering, and she was left in the dirt. All his fault!
Her mind was distracted for a moment when a bleep came from her computer. Glancing up, she noticed it was a report from the camera feeds. She clicked on it, and her eyes widened in shock.
Somewhere in her peripheral, the door opened, someone bustled in and the door closed again. But she did not look up, or hardly take any notice at all. Somehow, she was aware of Eli standing in front of her desk, but still didn't look up.
"Moroe, I want to discuss what progress you've made," Eli was saying. "Your last report didn't show much of anything, and Maisie's health has not improved."
"It's been stable for the past six months!" Moroe snapped, but still didn't look away from her screen.
"But it hasn't improved!" Eli retorted. "You do realise that this is about more than the girl, right? If we don't have a cure, then it won't be long before we're looking at Mr Lockwood–" suddenly a buzzing came from his pocket. He growled as he fished it out. "Mills here. Iris? What're you… Calm down, and just… No, I haven't seen her. You're the nanny. Do your job correctly or I'll find someone who'll–" there came an indignant shriek from the other end of the phone. Mills muttered something to himself, and tried to grab the Dr's attention. "We are not done here, I expect… No! Not you, Iris, I'm talking to… Damn it, Moroe! Look at me when I'm speaking to you!"
Moroe did not. She couldn't look away. Finally realising her attention was fixated elsewhere, Eli shuffled around the desk to peer over her shoulder. She felt his breath freeze beside her ear. They both watched the camera footage of Maisie in the Indoraptor's cell, the beast out of its cage and towering over her.
Eli let loose a wordless shriek, dropped the phone, and bolted for the door!
Maisie staggered back, unable to take her wide eyes away from the dinosaur above her. Her heart was pounding, she couldn't get enough air, she was going to sc–
Jack dropped down to all fours, his wide hand and long claws splayed out over the tiled floor. His big rounded-head pushed closer to Maisie's, the puff of putrid breath from blowing in her face when he sniffed at her. A rumble was in his chest, and his jaws shivered with a clatter of pointed teeth. Despite the fact that she used to be unafraid, Maisie wondered if he would actually hurt her. Those teeth were very close, and Jack hadn't been acting nicely. And yet he didn't try to bite her or shove her again. Instead he just watched her, inspected her, studied her.
More than anything, Maisie wanted a grownup here to tell her if she was safe or not. When she'd met the chickens for the first time, she'd wanted to put them. But the birds hadn't acted very nicely, trying to peck at Maisie's fingers when she came close. But their keeper had told her to approach slow and gentle and she'd be okay. A grownup always knew what to do in situations like this. But Maisie didn't have a grownup here. She was the one in charge. So, she did the only thing she could think to do – she reached up to pet him.
The Indoraptor looked like he didn't know how he should react when Maisie's little fingers reached up and scratched at the scales on the side of his neck. His teeth snapped, but not in a nasty way. And then, after a moment, he began to relax. And as he did, Maisie felt her fear melting away to be replaced by a smile. A deep purr vibrated out of him, and he leaned closer to sniff at Maisie's shoulder. He tilted his head as if he were thinking very hard for a moment. Then, he pushed closer, and began to rub his head on Maisie's shoulder. Back and forth, he wiped his dribble-covered teeth and the line of his chin onto her arm and then across her chest. Maisie grimaced as his foul smell washed up into her face. She was pretty sure she would stink to if he didn't stop.
BANG!
The door burst open, and Mr Lisle came storming in. Jack and Maisie were startled, the Indoraptor shrieking and hissing savagely. He splayed his claws, the sickle toes pulled up and ready to attack. Lisle swore and reached for a long pole, that when he flicked a switch, electricity zapped at the end. It crackled so loudly that even Maisie was frightened of the strange object. She wanted to run away from it, and on instinct tried to drag Jack with her. The dinosaur hissed and wouldn't budge. His golden eyes looked like they were glowing as he glared at Mr Lisle.
"Girly!" Mr Lisle shouted, and Jack snarled and shook his head as if he didn't like the loud noise. "Get away from that beast! It'll take ya arm off!"
"No." Maisie whimpered when the pole tried to crackle at Jack, trying to push him back towards the cage. Jack didn't seem to have the instinctive fear of the lightning tip that the little girl did.
"Maisie!" came several shouts, and then all kinds of grown ups were trying to run into the room. There was Mr Mills, two men in lab coats, and then there were two security-men that was always patrolling outside, and they were holding up guns! All the people, all the adults trying to tell her what to do, Maisie became completely confused and frightened, none of it made sense. And the more noise everyone made the more Jack was screeching loudly. The Indoraptor looked like he wanted to jump up and run or fight everyone out of the room, but he kept looking at how many men there were crowding in.
"Maisie!" came Mr Mills' sharp voice. "You need to come to me right now – right now! You're gonna get hurt!"
But the little girl was unable to respond, tears streaming down her face. The men were pointing their guns at Jack, more people were shouting. She wanted to hide from them all. So she turned and buried her face in Jack's shoulder. The Indoraptor looked down at her, then at the men, his eyes twitching manically. Then, he made a high-pitched whine, and suddenly twitsed himself so it was him hiding behind Maisie. The men in the room looked confused, for they hadn't expected that – Maisie herself hadn't expected that. Jack huddled behind her, as if he could squash himself to fit inside her shadow. He made low, almost whimpering noises. He almost sounded like he was sorry, to Maisie, but if he wanted to be sorry, then why did she think his eyes looked so sharp?
"Maise…" Mills was saying in a softer voice. "Come on, sweetie, it's time to go. We need to go see your grandfather now."
Maisie felt her heart quicken with fear – No! She'd be told off for ruining the surprise! And then she'd be told off again for letting Jack out of his cage! But she needed her grandfather, she wanted someone to tell her everything was going to be alright and give her a hug.
Mills was beckoning her towards him. "Come on, now, it's alright. You're not in trouble. We just want you somewhere safe…"
"Don't hurt Jack," was all she could say in a hiccupping voice.
"Who?" Mills' eyes darted to the Indoraptor in her shadow and widened with understanding. "No, no, Maisie. No one's gonna hurt… Jack… We just need to put him back in his cage now. Yeah? He's gonna go for a nice nap while we go see your grandfather. Okay?"
That didn't seem too bad to Maisie. She glanced timidly at Mr Lisle, who put down his long electric pole. That made her feel a little better. Biting her lip, Maisie shuffled closer to Mills. However, where she went, Jack followed in her footsteps. Maybe he could come with her? If Mills saw how nice Jack was, maybe Grandpa would let her keep him? If they could just–
Pppppppppphhhhhttt! Came a sharp whistling sound. A bright blue dart pricked the side of Jack's neck, making him flinch with a screech.
Mr Lisle sprung forward and threw himself over Jack's back. Maisie was flung forward with a yell, and Mr Mills caught her in his arms. Jack was as long as Mr Lisle was tall, but he wasn't as wide. He was squashed underneath the man's weight and shrieked with loud fury. Wriggling and writhing, Jack tried to get out, jaws snapping all around to try and bite someone. Gone was his docile whimpering in her shadow, now he thrashed like… like a wild animal. Mr Lisle was shouting, and then the security men were coming in. Mr Mills began to drag Maisie out of the room, but she struggled. She didn't want to leave Jack – Mills promised they wouldn't hurt him! through the bodies, she could see Mr Lisle pulling Jack's arms behind his back until they were bent into an unnatural position, and tying the wrists together like handcuffs. Someone else was doing the same to his ankles, another man was trying to sit on Jack's tail to stop it squirming, and the last man was wrapping the duct tape around his mouth again!
"Jack!" Maisie shouted, trying to stay with him. He must've heard her. He pulled against the hands on his head, trying to follow her with his eyes. When he saw Mills trying to drag her out of the room and down the hall, Jack's struggles grew twice as frantic. Through his closed jaws, she could hear him barking as if calling out to her. When Mills pulled her past the window and she could see him no more, she screamed: "JACK!"
Author's Note: for those who don't know, "Tico" is a derogatory/racist slang to describe someone who is Costa Rican. At least, that's what my internet research has told me.
This chapter turned out A LOT different then I had planned. But... It fit. And now having mapped out exactly what I want to do with this story... This is gonna be a little longer than I had thought it would be. :3 Ah, well, more fun for us!
And please don't forget to review! All comments are welcomed and appreciated!
