A NEW HOPE

6 - The Suite Life

The snoring wouldn't stop. For an hour, Derek had been asleep in his seat of InGen's Learjet 35A with his head lopping around when the aircraft hit turbulence. Why the snoring? Pet simmered in a pool of her agitation. She sat across from his rear facing seat, arms crossed over her chest, and hissed a snort.

Occasionally she would kick him in the leg to wake him up or at least stop the snoring, but it only worked for a few mere moments. After that, he'd nod back off and resume snoring as though nothing had happened.

Simon, seated next to Pet from across the aisle, expected her to completely lose her temper and attack the snoozing man. He was even willing to put a hefty amount of money on that bet, he believed it so much. It was because of, it kept him on edge and jumpy every time the woman made a noise or moved in the slightest.

An idea occurred to Pet. Raptor like eyes cut over to a bag of unopened salted peanuts sitting on the table nearby. Simon didn't like the scheming smile on her face as she reached for the bag and opened it. She then took a single peanut and popped it into Derek's open mouth.

One good snore and right down his throat it went. Simon coughed back a restrained laugh and nonchalantly looked out the aircraft window.

Derek looked from the drool covered peanut in his hand and to the hybrid. There was a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Really?"

Her grin deepened. "At least it got you to stop snoring."


Thirty minutes later, orange from the setting sun filled the aircraft's cabin. Simon peered out of the window and glanced out at the approaching skyline of the Palo Alto and San Jose area. He smiled. "We're here."

Pet grumbled and shifted in her seat to see for herself. Judging by the encroaching lateness of the hour, it made no sense to conduct tests of any type at that time. "What time are these blood tests supposed to be?"

Simon turned his focus over to the questioning hybrid. "Pardon? Oh, right. Yes. The blood tests. First thing tomorrow morning. Once we land, I have transportation waiting to take you two to a nice hotel where I have made reservations. Hopefully the accommodations are to your liking."

Pet questioned, "Will we be staying in separate rooms?"

"Rooms?" Simon lightly laughed. "My dear Veronica, I reserved you and your friend suites."


Derek dropped his duffle bag at his feet in awe when studying the spacious and very spoiling features of the suite. "I can get used to traveling like this."

The room was lengthy and spacious and decorated in a beige, cream and tan colored scheme. A wide screen TV centered between two large windows sat on a mahogany stand along the far, outer wall. A beige couch and two matching chairs circled around a glass coffee table was in front of it, a basket plentiful of offered snacks sitting on the table.

Derek huffed a slight laugh. "I wonder what the bedroom looks like."

Pet studied her own room as the billionaire beamed joyously beside her. She blinked in momentary speechlessness. Then her mouth remembered how to form words. "Why are you doing all of this for me?" She met his kind features, her brow dropping from being overwhelmed by his constant kindness. "Are you still trying to butter me up to say yes to working at your park? And please don't give me that 'because you've been through a lot' excuse. I've heard enough of it."

Simon laughed off the question and statement, though he did have hopes she would eventually say yes to working at the park. "Does it really surprise you to find someone willing to help you?"

"Yes, actually. You don't even know me. You didn't know me before pushing to find a cure for me! You didn't know me when rushing off to the island to help rescue me! You still don't know me now!"

"I know enough," was calmly given in response. "I've learned a good deal about you from the years of reports from John Hammond's zoo, reports given by Jurassic Park's survivors as well as by the survivors of the expedition teams some years back. Even Dr. Jacobs has had plenty to say about you."

Pet grimaced. "Because that's not stalker-ish, at all." She sat her suitcase down on a couch and looked around the suite a bit more. "This place is wonderful, though. I never thought I'd ever get to stay in a suite." She stepped over to the window and pulled the beige curtains aside to examine the city below the eighth-floor window. "I never got a chance to travel much. John never took me with him when he went places. I mostly just stayed behind. Leaving Kenya for the islands was my first time really traveling. I don't count going to Mombasa. Those were usually just day trips Robert would bring me along on. I guess people were just afraid I'd embarrass them."

Simon joined the young woman by the window and admired how her face seemed to glow in the last sunrays of the evening. For the past few years, he became so used to seeing that mud speckled, tangle haired young woman in the picture that to see her as she was now still surprised him. The things those eyes had seen. It was a wonder why she wasn't more ravenous after being forced to rely on her animal instincts to survive.

"Or maybe they just wanted to protect you."

Pet turned her head to look at the suited man next to her. There was a warmth and gentleness in his dark eyes as well as something else the hybrid was uncomfortable with. Why did he keep looking at her like that? While he wasn't a bad looking guy, there was no way she could see him the same way she thought he was seeing her. She was happy with Grant at the dig site and refused to leave or give that up. Blue-green eyes went back to the city skyline.

Simon continued. "Will you join me for dinner?"

The hairs on the back of Pet's neck stood on end. She wanted to say no, but her stomach flopping over itself with the reminder of the last time she actually ate was too much to ignore. Knowing his deep pockets, he had an expensive restaurant in mind. The thought of a juicy steak clawed at the back of her mind and she felt guilty for it, given her present company. No doubt the incredible insult that would come off as. She frowned.


Pet's jaw dropped at the listed prices for appetizers on the restaurant's menu and calmly closed it, pushing it aside. Derek's face contorted into an amused confusion watching her. Her reaction was either in part to the prices, item names which even he could barely pronounce or the item descriptions. Even he was a bit squeamish about a couple of the appetizers. Whatever happened to the usual items like cheese sticks or fried onion blossoms? Suddenly he was missing his favorite drunk finger food at Catfish's bar and grill.

Derek skimmed the menu items and found something appealing. A cutlet of steak always sounded good. He closed the menu, smiling, and looked to Pet. "Know what you want?"

Her blue green eyes looked to her good friend, questioning him on whether or not he was serious. "I don't even know what some of this stuff is."

"That's why you ask."

Pet lowered her gaze. "I'll stick with a soup and salad. I'm trying not to go over a hundred dollars in dinner."

Simon, still deciding on what he wanted, mindlessly waved a hand dismissively. "Think nothing about the cost. My treat. Have whatever you like."

Derek opened his menu to the steak section. "There's three different types of steak, Pet. Twelve ounce, sixteen and eighteen. I'm sure if you asked, they could bring it out still mooing with the hooves attached." Pet was abashed and at a loss for words. Did he have no sense of respect?

The hybrid blinked and opened her menu back up to study the steak selection for herself. "Oh, hey look, a twelve-ounce steak costs about as much as your car, Derek. A sixteen-ounce costs about as much as a travel home and hey, if you happen to have enough spare change laying around for a mansion in the country, you can get the eighteen ounces."

Simon gazed up from his menu to intently study the hybrid. "A bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?" He closed his menu and sat it down beside his water glass. "I assure you, the food is well worth the cost." He could see how uncomfortable the hybrid was and felt a bit guilty because of it. "Surely this isn't your first time in a restaurant such as this?"

The hybrid stared in disbelief at the man. "It's not that, Mr. Masrani. There's, um…" she stopped, unsure how to explain herself. Pet decided to drop it before it started. The thought of how to pursue the conversation topic without being offensive made the hybrid feel awkward. "Prior to this, my nicest dinner experience was a place Alan took me to back in Montana and even then, this place makes that look like the dollar menu of a fast food joint." Simon lowered his brow at the woman in contemplation. "The cost of one appetizer, here, is about how much I spend for an appetizer, dinner plate and desert at my favorite Italian restaurant..."

Even though the dinner was meant to be a treat from the man who could more than easily pay for it all with the spare change laying in the floorboard of his car, it still didn't feel right to Pet to get whatever she wanted. Even if the steak was incredibly appealing.


After dinner, Pet and Derek returned to their rooms. She plopped down on the couch and heaved a troubled sigh. There was too much going on in her mind to relax if even in the least. Ever since that afternoon and the mention of having to go to the lab at InGen, the woman had been lost in thought. She was genuinely scared and that wasn't something common for her. Despite what Simon told her about being under his protection, she still felt uncertain about going into the heart of the company that tried to kill her in the past. She'd feel a lot better if Muldoon was there.

Thinking about her guardian and closest friend also not coming along for the trip made Pet further depressed. Was his assisting in planning out the new park paddocks that important that he couldn't stop for a couple days to join her? It wasn't like him to be so dismissive and unconcerned about her business. Of all the people she figured wanting to go along on the trip, it'd have been him. Nope. As he explained to her, he needed to figure out and finish the things he was asked to help with for the new park.

Making up her mind, Pet got off the couch and went across the hall to Derek's suite room. She could hear him cussing at the TV like he normally did when playing a video game. A loud belch interrupted the tangents, the hybrid hanging her head.

She knocked a few times on the door, each time getting louder, before she finally got an answer. Derek met Pet's unimpressed gaze and awkwardly smiled. "Hi...I guess. What's up?" Pet pushed past him and settled herself on the end of the couch. "Please, come in and make yourself comfortable," he smarted off and closed the door.

The blue-green eyes of the woman studied the glass table where glass with ice and whiskey sat. Next to it was a small, empty liquor bottle. "I see you found the mini bar."

"Hell, yeah I did!" Derek laughed. "It's awesome. Hey, uh, if you don't want anything from your mini bar-

"I'll cut you," Pet interrupted.

"You got it."

Pet looked at the TV to see Derek playing a car racing game. This was going to be a long night. Trying to talk to him while he drank and gamed was not going to happen. Might as well wait and bring up the topic tomorrow when the conditions were more favorable.


Next morning, the quiet air was shattered by the room's phone obnoxiously ringing. Pet mumbled under her breath and started slapping a hand around on the night stand for the alarm clock. Constant hitting on the alarm wasn't turning it off, Pet groaning. It was the room's phone going off.

Pet forced her head off the much too comfortable pillow to look for the phone. Sure enough, the red notification light on the phone was blinking in conjunction to the ringing. She answered it, groggily asking, "Hello?"

The much too cheerful voice of Simon answered back. "Good morning, Veronica!"

Pet rolled her eyes and groaned to herself. He sounded way too happy for her liking. "What..."

"In an hour and a half, personal transportation will be arriving at the hotel to bring you and Derek to the InGen headquarters."

She opened her eyes to lazily look over at the alarm, its red digital numbers reading six AM. "It's too early. Can't I snooze for just a little while longer?"

"There is a board meeting this morning at eight-o-clock I want you to be present for."

That woke Pet up. Her eyes instantly enlarged and she sat straight up in horror. "What? No! Mr. Masrani, I can't! Why?"

"I plan on announcing my decision to press forward with the construction of the new park."

"Okay? I don't need to be there for that!" Pet brought her knees to her chest and rested her chin atop their blanketed forms. "Are you sure you're not trying to kill me?"

The man only laughed in response. "The vise president of InGen, Mr. Winston, will be meeting you with the personal transport. He's expressed his interest in meeting you, Veronica."

Pet fell backwards onto her pillows, and groaned behind a clawed hand over her face.


An hour and a half later, the two people were downstairs and watching a limo pull up. It came to a stop beneath the hotel's overhang and the chauffeur got out, opening the back-passenger door. Out stepped an African American man adorned in a well-tailored light grey suit. His salted goatee upturned with a smile when observing the nervous young woman.

"Ms. Hammond?" the man questioned. "My name is Xavier Winston. I'm the vice president of InGen. I believe Mr. Masrani informed you I would be personally greeting you?"

Pet nodded. "That's right."

Derek analyzed the man from where he stood close to the hybrid. This guy looked more like a quarterback for a pro football team than a company desk jockey.

Mr. Winston motioned to the limo. "Shall we, then? Mr. Masrani is expecting us."

Pet did, followed closely by Derek. He wasn't about to let her out of an arm's reach. Meanwhile, he kept a hand close to his right side should he need to reach for his pistol holstered behind him. Once settled inside the limo, the driver left the hotel.

Pet watched the passing by scenery and was amazed. Palo Alto was so much bigger than she thought. Her blue-green eyes hardly blinked when darting between windows to see everything she could of the surrounding city. Sky scrapers rose high above the streets and some of the nearby buildings as their reflective surfaces mirrored the morning sun and sky.

Shopping malls, restaurants and other miscellaneous stores quickly grabbed the hybrid's attention. All of her wanted to go into those places, if not just to look around. Maybe do some shopping, too, should time permit. She suddenly desired to sit in a coffee shop, sipping on an iced mocha coffee and eating a chocolate frosted donut. So much she suddenly wanted to do, all of which she had longed to do in a personal quest to feel more normal.

Seated across from her was the vice president. "I'm glad to see you safe after all these years." His speaking made Pet turn her watch over to him. "After all I've heard about you, I've been looking forward to finally meeting you."

Pet furrowed her brow. "Weren't you one of the executives that tried to kill me?"

Winston shook his head humorously. "No. I had no part or knowledge in the dealings of Mr. Stevens some years back. There were a few of us, actually, that were left out of the loop. It's because we do not share the same views as those as others within the company."

Derek was skeptical. "Uh huh."

A sly grin brightened the older man's face. "Not to worry, though. Mr. Masrani is going to see to it that changes. He doesn't want to risk his hopeful changes for InGen because of a handful of cut throats."

Derek scoffed. "I'd rather shoot someone in their face than cut their throat."

Pet smirked. "I have no issue cutting someone's throat."

A devious smile filled Derek's face. "As you've been known to do."

Mr. Winston knew what these two people were getting at and was further humored. "Now I see why Mr. Masrani is so smitten with you, Ms. Hammond. You do have a feisty spirit."

"That's not all that's feisty about her," Derek joked. A sharp backhand to the gut had him coughing and wincing in his seat.

The car approached the InGen headquarters and Pet sunk into her seat in dread. She didn't care about the blood tests or whatever other tests Jacobs was wanting to do. It was going into the building she had always felt was her death that worried her.

Derek, too, saw this. He prided himself in being decent at reading people and sometimes, Pet was overly obvious in what she was thinking. "Hey," he quietly said. "It'll be alright. You've got me here, remember?"

She gulped. "You do have your pistol with you, right?"

There was that devious smile, again. "Which caliber?"

The smile on Mr. Winston's face dropped. Was this guy serious?