ADAPTATIONS
19 – Not the Warmest of Welcomes
In twenty minutes, an oil pan was under the Jeep and collecting the old oil. While the old oil was draining, Muldoon was wiping down the engine and checking its hoses and connectors.
Pet's eyes slid off his working and up to a hill where a dust cloud following a white SUV came into view. She squinted down on her examination of the vehicle, not recognizing it as being one belonging to a dig site worker. Was it someone from the museum coming to speak with Grant? Maybe it was a potential sponsor to the scientist's work following the unveiling. Pet didn't get a chance to get a good look at the driver of the fresh off the lot Toyota 4runner before it parked out of her line of view.
She brought her attention back to Muldoon. "I think someone from the museum just pulled up."
The man checked the time on his wrist watch. "Just on time."
"What?"
The driver of the SUV came into view, Pet getting a good look at him; Terrence Mitchell. "What the… Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me." Not immediately noticing the two people not far away, Terrence scanned the many faces of the excavation volunteers. Pet stammered, "Why is he here? How…How the hell did he know to find us here?"
Muldoon reached for a red rag hanging off the Jeep's grille and wiped off his greasy hands. "I told him."
"What? Why? When?!"
"At John's funeral. After learning you were alive, I realized what he did when sent to Jurassic Park with a group of mercenaries." Grey eyes slyly grinned at wordless blue-green ones. "You must've had a hand in it, too, since he had your collar I know you never took off for any reason." The rag was draped back over the grille. "Either way, he's earned my trust."
Pet bit her lips together. Muldoon walked away, Pet unsure if she should follow or not. While Terrence wasn't her favorite person, he did prove himself trustworthy. For this, she was grateful.
Terrence noticed the familiar face approaching him and shifted his attention to the other man. Pet watched the two talk, her booted feet carrying her to them before she realized it. Terrence saw her and stopped looking around the dig site to meet her gaze. "Hey you."
Pet weakly smiled and without immediately realizing it, was hugging the newcomer.
Grant cocked his head and studied the smiling new comer standing in the office trailer. "What did you say your name was, again?"
"Terrence," the man in question answered. "Terrence Mitchell."
"How do you know Veronica?" The scientist crossed his arms over his chest. Given the hybrid's current predicament, he couldn't help but be concerned for her.
Pet cut in. "We used to work together in Kenya. He was my partner after Robert was transferred to the park."
"Ah," Grant stated, observing at the other ex-game warden beneath his hat.
Without warning, Derek barged into the trailer and into conversation. He reared back a fist and punched Terrence in the face. "You son of a bitch! What the fuck do you think you are you doing here, huh?!"
Billy ran into the trailer, next, and shut the door behind him. By now, the group of people he took to associating with tended to make a scene.
It took Muldoon and Pet to hold the furious bounty hunter back in his trying to make another swing at the newcomer. "Damn it, Derek, back off!" The older man jerked his nephew from the scene and threw him off to the side.
Just because Derek was too far to physically assault the other man didn't mean he couldn't yell at him. "I know what you did, asshole!"
Terrence got to his feet and wiped at the trickle of blood streaming from a fresh cut on his now busted lip. "What was that for?"
"You tried to kill her," Derek raged back, trying to push past his uncle but failing.
Pet stood between the angry man and once co-worker. "Relax, no he didn't! He's the reason I'm still here. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be dead. When InGen sent their first team to come find me right after the whole Jurassic Park issue, it was Terrence who told me what was going on and watched my ass!"
Derek kept his gaze on Pet and aimed a finger at Terrence over her shoulder. "I remember what Uncle Rob told me. He was hired to find you and kill you on sight!" The bounty hunter and hybrid were now inches from the other's face.
"Oh, you mean like you?" Pet quickly replied with. That struck a chord with Derek and he clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes on her. "As I recall, you too were hired by InGen to hunt me down. Funny how that worked out, huh?" She growled and snorted.
The two people stood there, glaring at the other in anger. "I don't trust him here," Derek retorted. "What's to say he isn't a spy for InGen or something? After all, he just came from working at one of their zoos."
Terrence brought a paper towel wadded up in his hand from his swelling lip. "I quit working for the zoo after Peter Ludlow hired me to hunt down Pet. I didn't like the cloak and dagger motif being adopted by the company and got out of there. I've been working in Kenya with an anti-poaching patrol." He licked at the sore spot, wincing at the sting he got in return. "Anyone got some ice I can put on this?"
Derek scoffed. "I remember what you did to Uncle Rob. The collar? That was some low bullshit and you knew it!"
Pet shifted her weight to her other foot to block Derek's view of Terrence. "If you're going to blame anyone for that, then blame me. Not him! He did that because I told him to. He told me InGen needed sufficient proof I was dead if I wasn't brought in alive. Giving him my collar to give to those morons was the first thing that popped into my head."
The office trailer went quiet. Derek sat down on one of the kitchen bar's stools and buried his face in his hands. Muldoon spoke. "Well now that that's out of the way…" he brought his watch off his nephew and gazed at Terrence. "Mind telling the others what you told me?" The first person Terrence gawked at was Billy, questionably. Muldoon saw this. "It's alright. He already knows plenty about Pet and InGen wanting her dead."
Terrence nodded and licked his lip again. Boy did it sting! "While I was at Mr. Hammond's funeral, I overheard Sir Benjamin Lockwood talking to someone named Simon Masrani."
Pet's brow furrowed. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
Muldoon took it upon himself to answer. "His father was one of John's closest friends. You met the both of them at the zoo, once, when they came to visit."
The hybrid thought back and her eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh!" Then her eyes sunk in regret. "Oh. What about him?"
Terrence continued. "Apparently he's looking to buy InGen and merge it with his family's corporation."
Pet was taken back. "He can do that?"
Derek answered through his hands. "He's currently the eleventh richest person in the world. He can do whatever the hell he wants."
Terrence arched a brow. "You know him?"
"Not personally, no." Derek lifted his head to stare at the latest arrival. "But I know how his type can be, and if he's looking to buy InGen it's only a matter of time before he finds out about Pet."
Again, Terrence pushed to continue. "Which might be sooner than we'd like." He looked between Muldoon and the saddened hybrid. "I heard him asking Sir Lockwood about you. Well, not so much you by name but as he explained, Hammond's greatest accomplishment. Now I know Sir Lockwood told him some stuff to try and get him off the topic, but…" Terrence shook his head, "I can't say for sure if it was enough. Like that asshole over there said," he shook a finger at Derek, "it's only a matter of before he finds out about Pet."
The hybrid exhaled a labored breath. "He seemed so nice when I met him all those years ago."
Derek cut in. "Exactly, all those years ago. People change, Pet, and sometimes not for the best."
Billy could tell the hybrid was even more worry stricken and gently took her hands in his.
Evening fell upon the excavation and with it, a newfound tension in those who knew and worried about Pet's safety. Terrence was getting settled in the top bunk above Muldoon's bottom one much to Derek's extreme dislike. Pet was sitting on the foot of her bed and lost on what to think. There was a knot in her gut and a weight on her chest she couldn't shake no matter what she tried. A hot shower didn't work, neither did two beers and a shot or three of Muldoon's whiskey. That whole 'liquor before beer, in the clear – beer before liquor, never sicker' didn't seem to have an impact on the hybrid. She already felt sick to her stomach before turning her insides into an alcohol mixer.
Seated next to her was Billy trying to relax her. "I'm sure everything will be okay. He'll find the reports from that guy that hired Derek and see you're dead."
Pet had her hands steepled in front of her face and didn't blink in her distant staring. "Not how I see it. He'll see Terrence's report of my being dead with 'proof', then find Ludlow's stating otherwise after his trip to Isla Sorna. I'm sure there's this big ass neon sticky note on some folder floating around the executives' offices that says they suspect I'm still alive." She heavily sighed. "I made sure their second hunting party wasn't about to leave that island and I know Robert's posse wasn't about to say anything." Finally, she blinked. "At least, I hope. Robert wouldn't bring just anyone on a rescue mission he thought would have a big mouth and tell all. I have no idea if Virgil had contact with anyone on mainland or not."
Billy was confused. "Virgil?"
"The poacher bastard InGen hired."
"Ah."
"If he was talking to someone, there's no telling what he told them…If he said he found me alive or that he had Robert and pals beaten up and held hostage. If he did then I can only imagine what will happen."
Billy frowned. "They haven't found you, yet, so that's a good thing. Right?"
"Yet being the key word. InGen is resourceful."
Billy turned Pet's head to face him. "Whether or not this new guy tries anything, I do know there are people here who won't let anything happen to you." He smiled and caressed her face.
The two met in a light kiss that deepened soon afterwards. The two sat there, enthralled in the other and unaware the direction things were going until Terrence calling for her interrupted them.
"Pet, er, Veronica?"
Billy looked at the woman now straddling his lap and wondered when she did that. Pet snorted in annoyance. "Yeah, Terrence, what?" She got off Billy's lap and opened her bedroom door to see what he wanted. He was standing in the bunkroom's doorway.
He opened his mouth to answer, but loudly yelped instead of talking. Terrence jumped and reached behind him where the source of a sharp pain came from. There, he felt what he easily recognized as a tranquilizer dart in his backside and plucked it out. He looked at the tiny object just before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Pet stared wide eyed at the drugged man and snorted. "Derek!"
She heard him laughing in the bunkroom. "Sorry, not sorry!"
Muldoon, stretched out on his bunk, looked over at his nephew. "What in the bloody dazes is that thing doing loaded anyway?"
"Incase Pet was having another bitch moment." Derek's brown eyes noticed the hybrid stepping over Terrence's motionless form and smiled mischievously. "I guess this thing's trigger is looser than I thought."
Pet snarled at the bounty hunter and tapped a sickle claw on the linoleum of Quarantine's floor both impatiently and threateningly.
