A NEW HOPE

11 - The Scheming Never Stops

Insufferable phone ringing slowly pried Pet from her heavy slumber. A clawed hand slammed down on the phone, the hybrid answering it. "Yeah..."

"Good morning, Veronica!"

Even mostly asleep, Pet recognized that foreign-accented voice. "Damn it, Simon," she grumbled. "I hate you, sometimes," and fought with aggressively hanging the phone back up.

Thirty minutes later, she and Derek were standing outside as the limo pulled up to them. Chuck opened the back passenger door for them before placing their belongings and shopping bags into the trunk.

Smiling, brown eyes of the suited billionaire greeted them. He could tell the two people weren't very willing to be awake if their bloodshot eyes were anything to go by. "Good morning, everyone!" No one answered. "I take it you two had a late-night?"

Derek lazily nodded. "I phoned in a favor to a bouncer friend so Pet could get her first time partying in the big city experience."

Simon smile slipped a bit. "I see. Did you at least have fun?"

"For the most part." Pet stifled back a yawn and nodded. "Except the part of being scared I was about to get busted for having no ID."

Chuck got back into the driver's seat and put the luxury car in motion. Pet leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, she was being woken up by Derek elbowing her in the side. "C'mon, we're here." Pet wasn't even aware she fell asleep and so quickly.

She crawled out of the limo's backseat and followed Simon to where InGen's Learjet 35A waited. She claimed a seat, reclined it, and stretched out to get comfortable. No matter how she positioned herself, there was no easing the crick in her neck brought on from sleeping in the car.

She massaged her neck and groaned. "I can't wait to be back in my own bed."

Derek snorted a laugh. "Yeah, right. You just can't wait to be back in Dr. Grant's bed."

"Same thing." The hybrid smiled and closed the window blind closest to her.

"If you say so."

Simon stood in the aisle towards the front of the plane and spoke. "I will not be returning to Montana with the two of you this time. I have an important business meeting this afternoon. Apparently, the original construction team signed on to help build the park backed out of the deal, yesterday. Something about the area being unsafe..."

Derek scoffed. "Who would've thought that?"

Pet snickered. "Then I suggest getting a team together that's stupid enough to go down there and corral the animals so the construction team can do their thing." She massaged her neck again.

Simon smiled mischievously. "Oh don't worry, I started working on that this morning as soon as I received the news."

Pet cracked an eye open and glared at the pleased with himself billionaire. "What about planning out the paddocks? I didn't think Robert was finished with that, yet."

"When I last spoke with him, he and Mr. Mitchell were almost done." A boyish excitement filled the man's eyes. "Hopefully the plans will be completed by the end of the week, so I can forward them to the construction company."

Derek questioned, next. "What about your dinosaur corralling dream team?"

"While I aim to have a qualified team assembled shortly," Simon briefly glanced at the fluster faced hybrid, "their departure will not be any time soon. Should the construction team decide to stay on board for this endeavor, it will still take them some time to accumulate the required materials and the amounts needed." He folded his hands behind him and rocked on his loafered heels. "If everything goes according to plan, I'd like to have my park up and running within the next two to three years."

Derek cut in. "Might take longer than that, going by the scale of the paddocks and overall size of the park."

"Possibly, but one can still hope, right?" Simon laughed joyously to himself and clapped his hands together. "Which reminds me, before construction begins and the roundup team dispatched, I was going to make a trip down to Isla Nublar to get a better feel of the place. If anyone would care to join-"

"Nope," Derek quickly exclaimed.

"Fuck no," Pet barked. "I've had enough of those islands to last me three lifetimes. I don't care how much you offer to pay me; my ass is never going back to those islands. Ever!"

Simon merely smiled at the woman's vocal statement.

Derek didn't like the look on the wealthy man's face. "I can already tell you, Dr. Grant will definitely say no, too. Same with Uncle Rob. Although Terrence might. He's stupid enough to say yes to something asinine like that."

"Understandable, but the offer is there should anyone decide they're interested. In the meantime, think about it and let me know."

Pet laughed out loud. "Still a no!"

Simon's smile still didn't falter. "Before I forget. Veronica, as soon as I learn more about your request, I'll call you."

Pet gave a thumb's up and watched the suited man exit the aircraft. Derek shook his head. "He's up to something, whatever it is." But Pet had a very good idea what it was the billionaire was planning.


An hour into the flight, Pet was dead asleep enough to not care about Derek's snoring. The trip seemed so much quicker going back to the dig site then it did leaving. Sleeping most of the way helped, of course.

The landing was a bit rougher than their arrival to San Jose had been, making Pet's already hurting head throb a bit more.

Derek was the first off the plane. He took a deep inhalation Montana's late morning air and exhaled. "You know, thinking about it... do we even have a way back to the dig site?" The group visually scanned the tarmac for a helicopter and found nothing. Not even a vehicle awaiting their arrival to take them back to the excavation could be found. "Crap." He planted his hands on his hips. "Seems like your sugar daddy is all about the big entrances, but not so much on the way outs."


Muldoon carefully placed the clear plastic ruler between two dots, roughly three inches apart on the map, and penciled in a light line between them. Standing next to him was Terrence, tilting his head when thinking about the measurements. "Think three-hundred yards will be enough distance for the gate entrance? I mean, fairly large animals are going to be transported in and out through there."

The older man pushed aside the ruler and stick eraser to get a better look at the entirety of the map. "It's more than enough. Any sick or injured animal too big to be transported, like the Brachiosaur and like-sized species, will have to be treated on-site. As far as animals being transported into the paddock go, they're going to have to be within the length, height, and weight restrictions."

Both men stared at the map, Terrence about to point out something when the satellite phone rang. Muldoon had been keeping it nearby since Derek and Pet left and reached behind him on the kitchen counter to answer it. "Hello?"

Derek answered. "Hey, Uncle Rob."

"Where's Pet and what did that wanker do to her? Is she alright?"

Terrence trimmed his gaze down on the man, gesturing to the bunk room on whether he needed to get a gun or few. Muldoon held up a hand to put the man on pause.

Derek sarcastically continued. "Gee, thanks for caring! Yeah, I'm doing great, by the way!" He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Pet's fine. She's here beside me and unharmed. Just don't ask her about yesterday's examinations." He started to snicker when seeing the woman's spiteful stare shift to a raptor's. "They stuck it in her-"

Pet yelled, "Will you shut up!" and ripped the phone away from the man. "Yes, Robert, I'm fine." She swatted Derek's hand away from her. "Hey, if you or anyone else aren't too busy, can you come get us at the airport?"

Derek hollered into the phone, "I think she means the Old Fossil!"

Pet shoved the man's face away from the phone and tried to resume in a composed tone of voice. "We're stuck here without a ride and could use a pickup."

"She's missing her man meat and needs a fix!" This time, Derek received an elbow in the gut.

The woman hissed a screech in annoyance. "Sometime soon would be nice, too."

Derek coughed and wheezed out, "She means the manly fix, not the pickup."

Wrestling around and a profane tangent could be heard through the other line of the phone, Muldoon sighing. Quickly afterward, the phone was hung up, the man unsure if intentional or accidental in the fighting. Either way, he ended the call and sat the phone down on the kitchen cabinet.

Terrence continued to point to the bunk room. "Should I get the Remington, .30-06 or will a pistol suffice? Maybe your buddy Roland will let us borrow his Nitro."

Muldoon shook his head. "Pet and Derek are at the airport needing to get picked up." He tossed the pencil onto the large, table-sized map of Isla Nublar and disappeared into the bunk room. When he emerged, he had his boots on with the Jeep's keys in one hand and his wallet in the other.

A trail of dirt was kicked up in his wake when striding to the white canopy set up over the fossil excavation. By now, after sitting out for so long and enduring the weather, it had now become a light tan, color. Standing beneath it and giving a lesson to the volunteers was the site's lead scientist.

There was no mistaking the excitement in every inch of his being when involved with his work. From the higher than normal pitched, expressive tone of voice, the way he waved his hands around in his explaining to the boyish sparkle in his eye, there was no mistaking this man loved his job.

Grant was so caught up in his educational rambling that he didn't immediately notice the ex-game warden standing off to the side and towards the back of the gathered around volunteers. In his glancing around at the many faces intently listening to his every word did he notice the familiar grey eyes patiently waiting.

Muldoon politely interrupted. "Apologies, Doctor, but Veronica called. She and Derek have just arrived back and are needing to be picked up at the airport."

A smile stretched across Grant's dirt splotched face. He didn't feel comfortable with the hybrid being gone for so long, especially when it involved going into InGen's immediate grasp. To hear she was back safely brought him great relief. "I take it you're headed that way, now?"

Muldoon nodded. "I am."

Billy stood up from where he knelt beside the fossil. "I can take over if you want to go along."

As if he needed to be told a second time. Grant professionally excused himself from his lecturing and joined Muldoon in his venturing towards the red Jeep.