Operations Building, Workers Village, Isla Sorna: In the executive dining hall attached to the west wing of the building, Lori Ruso felt a little out of her element. The dining hall had originally been meant to entertain VIPs and the InGen Board Members. But with things being what they were, the area was now hardly used. Instead it was available in the rare case some workers wanted to take their meals there to see the beautiful lush jungle and waterfall near the rear of the building that fed the moat.
Either way it was too glamorous for Ruso and her everyman personality and workplace attire. She was wearing slightly dirty coveralls when Sam approached her and sat down opposite her. He was in a dress shirt, tie, and slacks.
"Gee boss, I didn't realize it was formal wear only," commented Lori sarcastically. That got a chuckle out of the Head of Operations.
"Shame," he retorted before pulling out a stuffed envelope and placing it on the table. "How were things up at the Fortress?" the words automatically left his mouth before recalling what had happened and he winced.
"Oh, same old, same old. It was rocking good time," said Lori a little incensed over what happened. "I trust the necessary parties were disciplined."
"Pretty much, yes," Sam agreed while unable to fully meet her gaze.
Lori leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "So where are the Cats? I didn't see them around the Village."
Sam grunted at that. "I had to reassign them to Gerry."
Lori immediately sat back up at that looking at him speechless. "What?! Why did you do that?"
Sam gave a brief shrug. "I figured he was the only one who could have any sort of control over them."
"You cruel, cruel man," Lori snorted as she briefly shook her head in disbelief before leaning back in her chair again. After thinking about it for a few more moments she found she couldn't contain her laughter and it echoed across the dining hall drawing the attention of the few others in the room.
Outskirts of the Island: Martin Gutierrez stood looking at the dinosaur marker which indicated Suchomimus were in the pen they were currently patrolling. Oddly they were on the coast which per Marty's recollection, Suchomimus tended to prefer to live in wetland areas. Yet another example of InGen having made dinosaurs without bothering to do much research on the habitats of them. Alan Grant would have been furious if he found out about this.
But alas no dinosaurs were to be seen past the fence as with some of the other pens. Instead all of the excitement was coming from the group's new arrivals…
"Why do I have to check the fence diagnostics, I didn't volunteer for this," Rebecca Farrah protested as Gerry Harding was coaxing her towards the access point for her remote terminal to plug in.
"Because Sam assigned you to do it," Gerry responded, aggravated. "So if you had an issue with it you should've said something then."
"But…but…," Becky spluttered at being outmaneuvered. "The red and blue lights are blinking isn't that good enough?"
"No it's…,"
"You know, if you don't want to plug your terminal into every fence to see if it actually has power, I can think of another way to test them," Irene 'Rally' Vincent interrupted from her position nearby leaning up against a coconut tree enjoying the shade. The shade hiding a mischievous smile.
Becky paused, suspicious. "How?" she had to ask. Rally walked up to her with May Hopkins who had a similar smile pulling at her lips. Both grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the fence.
"Oh, it's easy," May informed her, clearly in on whatever Rally had planned. "You just need to sit right here and wait a few moments."
The two then placed Becky against the concrete incline leading up to the electrified fence and stepped back admiring their work.
"You're not going to throw me against it are you?" the information analyst demanded suspiciously with narrowed eyes.
Rally pointed her fingers at her chest as if wounded. "Becky, you wound me. We're not murderers. I thought we were friends."
Something was going on, Becky could feel it but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Guess that prove the fences work," May commented gritting her teeth and making herself hoarse trying to hold down a laugh in her throat.
Rally fished around in her travel bag for something and then pulled out a compact mirror.
"Looking sharp, Becks. Tres magnifique," Rally observed in a completely over the top French accent as she handed her the mirror.
"What did…," began Becky before she caught her reflection and screamed. Because of residual electricity coming from the fence lines, Becky's normally wavy brown hair had completely frizzed out from root to tip.
Upon hearing her reaction, Rally and May turned on their heels and ran off down the dirt road laughing. Becky for her part launched herself from the concrete incline and sped off after them ranting and raving.
Gerry Harding watched them go, groaning even more. "What did I do to deserve this?"
The sounds of the trees cracking was heard and the group looked up and into the fenced area to see a pair of Suchomimus stick their heads out, bewildered at the outburst from moments before.
"You and me both, pals," Gerry called up to them as the dinosaurs bellowed an annoyed roar.
Back at the Operation's Center: "And what about Katrice?" asked Lori pointedly with an arched eyebrow and still crossed arms.
"I…still have yet to speak to her," Sam admitted sheepishly. "But anyway, that's not what we're here to discuss."
Lori flapped her lips briefly at his deflection of a response regarding the sweetest girl on the island but sat back up all business.
"Let me guess, island succession?" she figured. On the ride down the mountain, Jake and Henry had told her about their plans to put Carly Carlson in charge of the Dinosaur Revivification Project. It was an idea that she found herself warming up to, as it was a solid choice. But Carly wasn't the only one who would be assuming big responsibilities if disaster occurred.
"That's right," Sam confirmed all business, hence the suit. "The Emergency Disaster Report officially states that in case the Head of Operations is incapacitated or unable to perform their duties that responsibilities then fall to the Head of Production, meaning you."
Lori sighed. "We sure do have one weird company organizational chart as I've said before. Officially, I'm second in command of the island and yet my normal duties have me subservient to Jake and Henry. Not that I'm complaining. I like those two, but they live in a world almost entirely their own when it comes to reviving the dinosaurs that I'll never understand."
"I think that's just the nature of the work we're doing," the Head of Operations figured. "All of this work is experimental and we are largely just the support staff. But the Head Scientists can't be expected to also run island logistics, which puts us regular folk ultimately in charge."
Lori looked at him suspiciously. "With Daniela St. Ives on the island, wouldn't operational jurisdiction fall to her?" she wondered aloud.
Sam looked around to see who else was in the dining area but aside from some workers at the far edges staring off at some apatosaurs half visible above the distant tree lines there was really no one within earshot.
"Lori, what's your honest opinion on Daniela and the Indigo Staff?" he requested. Lori blinked at that and had to think that over for a moment.
"Off the record?" she asked, hesitantly.
Sam lightly shrugged. "If that would make you feel more comfortable."
Lori sighed heavily. "Let me guess, Gerry isn't a big fan of her. At least as far as her being on this island in any sort of a leadership capacity."
"You know I can't officially confirm or deny that," Sam initially informed her bluntly, but then decided Gerry wouldn't care if Lori knew. "But yes, that's basically what he said."
"I agree," stated Lori not bothering to mince words or shy away from her statement. If Sam had had a drink, he probably would've choked on it. To say he was surprised by her reaction was an understatement.
"Well, it's true," Lori admitted with a slight shrug guessing what he was thinking. "Her previous problems on Indigo were nothing compared to the chaos we've had to deal with over here on a regular basis even before the Lockdown. It's not that she's not capable as a leader, but I don't think in a crisis she'll hold up. Especially once the fences fail and the dinosaurs all get out."
"But they will trust you," Sam pointed out with a tip of his head. "I mean we all know there's an unspoken division between the scientific staff and the support staff. Maybe that's my fault in some way for not doing more team building exercises. But the one person who really straddles both worlds is you and the staff in both spheres inherently trust you."
Lori slightly grimaced at having that responsibility thrust on her, but couldn't argue the point being made. For better or worse that's how it was.
*Chime* *Chime*
The grandfather clock on the wall of the dining hall chimed indicating it was 11:00 a.m.
"Hmm, I just realized I'm missing one hell of a staff meeting back at Embryonics Administration," Lori snorted amused. At what Sam couldn't tell.
"Was there a lot that needed to be discussed?" the Head of Operations inquired curious.
"Oh, I don't know about that," Lori offered cryptically in response while still clearly displaying a sense of mirth on her face.
Embryonics Administration: In the board room it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. But still held enough tension that no knife could possibly cut it, perhaps not even a chainsaw.
On one side of the table Laura Sorkin sat with her hands clasped in front of her on the table with a massive Cheshire grin on her face. As opposite the table sat Venn and Chang who had been glaring at her ever since before the meeting began. And that was 15 minute ago…
The other occupants of the room including Jake Whitacre and Henry Wu who both had an expression of resignation that this was how they expected the reunion to go and there wasn't anything they could do to change things. Of the other occupants were a couple of senior staff named Jenkins and Backes. Jenkins was busy toying around with a wooden DNA helix model which he kept taking off various molecules and rearranging them for some reason known only to him. Backes for his part was supposed to be taking minutes for the meeting. But before the meeting started, he'd unashamedly admitted he had a good idea how the meeting was going to go with Sorkin finally reunited with Venn and Chang. So he'd professed he was going to catch up on some sleep and put his head on the table and was already lightly snoring away.
Amongst all this chaos was newcomer Carly Carlson who could only stare at that various conflicting personalities and wonder what she'd gotten herself into with this new promotion in terms of duties.
After a few more minutes passed of dead silence Jake elbowed Henry who sat up with a bright cheery expression on his face.
"Good news everyone, Jake and I decided that Carly will be the one to take over the Dinosaur Revivification Process if we're ever absent for an extended period of time or incapacitated," he reported, pleased.
Now all the other faces in the room turned to stare at them, even Backes who was woken up with a start when Jenkins dropped his DNA model on the table in surprise and it broke into several pieces. Carly for her part turned bright red at the sudden attention and sank down into her chair mortified.
Lori was right, it was an interesting meeting.
Isla Sorna, Eastern Coast: Gerry and his team were now parked and standing around waiting on the sand on one of the many beaches that surrounded the island. The Gunsmith Cats for their part had decided to build a sand castle while Rally and May also tried to figure out how to open up a coconut they'd found on the ground by a nearby palm tree.
"What exactly are we waiting for?" Marty had to ask curious as he leaned against the side of their Humvee and stared out at the waves pushing against the beaches and the rocky outcroppings in the distance.
"You'll see, I think they'll be someone you'll want to talk to," was all Gerry Harding offered as he took a bite of his jerky stick. The label on all the jerky said "Jurassic Jerky" but Marty had to guess (and hope) that was just an internal company label and not because the jerky was made of dinosaur meat.
*Vroom*
The roar of an engine caught their attention as a yellow Ford truck with trailer came racing out of the tree line and onto the beach. It then came to a halt nearby and Marty got a better look at it. The truck had a rear rack on the bed with some accompanying long surfboards on it while the trailer had two equally yellow Sea-Doo jet skis secured to it.
Looking down at the logo on the side of the front door, which while looking identical in design to the Jurassic Park logo, instead of the T-Rex skeleton was a Plesiosaur. And instead of the words "Jurassic Park" it read "Sorna Sea & Rescue".
But anymore reading into the vehicle was interrupted with the doors opening. A blonde woman emerged from the driver's side wearing a red one-piece swimsuit with swim trunks over the bottom. While on the driver's side, a shirtless African-American man also in swim trunks emerged. Both looked to be in their early-30s.
"Hey Gerry, sorry we're late," the woman apologized. "Our work scraping down one of the buoys ran long and then on the ride over here we found a fisherman's net washed up on the beach we had to collect."
"No problem," Gerry said completely understanding before pointing to Marty Gutierrez. "This Martin, the man I spoke to you about."
The woman offered her hand. "Hi, I'm Vicki."
"And I'm Darryl," the African-American man responded as well. Marty shook both their hands before standing back a little in shock.
"You're lifeguards?!" he said a bit incredulously at finding such a mundane position on an island such as this one.
"Hey, people don't rescue themselves from these waters," Vicki offered pleasantly, not feeling offended at all. "We're actually in a bit of a time crunch so please don't mind if we start inventorying our supplies in the trunk bed while we speak with you."
The two moved to the truck as Marty followed them. On the beach, Rally and Minnie May had moved on from the castle and coconut and were now burying a sleeping Becky up to her neck in the sand.
"So where were you before this?" Marty asked with a tilt of his head. Vicki and Darryl shared a brief glance before Darryl looked him in the eye as Vicki pulled out a tackle box and opened it showing various first aid supplies inside in lieu of lures.
"We were both L.A County Lifeguards," he reported. "Vicki and I worked the same beach. InGen hired us after we saved one of their head honchos and their son a couple years back."
"Ah, so like Baywatch," Marty said with a slight bit of a dig. Even down in Costa Rica they got the American syndicated lifeguard show.
Vicki snorted expecting that comparison, hence the look the two lifeguards shared earlier. "Same thing except they never had to deal with extinct 65 million year-old beachgoers."
Turning his attention to the ocean, he couldn't help but notice there was no one in the water.
"So what do you do when you're not lifeguarding?" he asked, not sure how best to word that question. He certainly didn't want to imply he thought they were largely extraneous on the island.
"Looking for tourists," Darryl answered as he popped open the engine compartment on the Sea-Doos and began checking their fluid levels. Now that caught Marty's attention as Gerry figured it would.
"All the way out here in Las Cinco Muertes?" Marty asked still a little skeptical of the concept.
Vicki was now bent down checking the tire pressure on the truck and trailer. "Well, the local fisherman know better than to come here unless their boats break down and the current brings them here. But tourists don't know that," she began as she looked out at the ocean. "Cruise ships pass by here every so often looking for places to disembark passengers for some fun in the sun. Between that and the occasional 'British family on a yacht cruise' stumbling across Site B we have to make regular patrols across the entirety of the island. Because heaven forbid any of them land on this island and make their way inward. We're fortunate to have caught our few tourists on the beaches or else on their way inland."
"Course it used to be a lot easier before they impounded our Scarab because of fuel consumption issues related to the Lockdown," Darryl complained as he closed the engine compartments of the jet skis.
"Scarab?" asked Marty clueless as he briefly paused in writing down some notes.
"Our fast high powered boat which is more designed for the open seas," Vicki clarified as she leaned into the driver's seat and pulled out a photo on the dashboard. Marty looked it and noticed a long and skinny yellow twin engine boat with Vicki and Darryl smiling alongside it. As he thought about it some more, he had vaguely recalled seeing the boat moored to one of the docks out where the Isla Indigo crew had made their home amongst the warehouses out there. He returned the photo to her.
By this point, Becky had woken up and was barking at Rally and May to dig her out of the sand but the two were ignoring her in favor of still trying to crack open their coconut. Everyone else for their part ignored the three of them.
While looking at the beach tracks from Becky's mostly buried body to Rally and May a very important thought crossed Marty's mind.
"How often do you find dinosaur tracks on the beaches leading to the ocean?" he requested. That elicited an uncomfortable pause from Vicki and Darryl who exchanged a glance with Gerry who merely tipped his head that they should answer his question.
"We'll find them every now and then," Vicki confirmed. "We make a note of it and report it back to HQ. They keep everything on file there."
"Are you ever worried dinosaurs are escaping this island?" Marty bluntly asked next. It didn't help that at this point Darryl had opened a secured lockbox and was now inventorying the small cache of weapons the two had for safety reasons adding to the ominous nature of the question.
"No," Vicki continued as she considered her thoughts on the matter. "Because we do also find the occasional corpse on the beaches as well. Anything else would have drowned if they didn't turn back after a few moments of paddling in those waters. Because nothing could survive out there on the open sea and make it to the mainland without some kind of external assistance."
The sun was starting to set and shadows drifted across the area from the trees. A cold breeze began to pick up.
Marty eyed her seriously. "Then how do you explain the A-1 incident?"
Vicki started at him directly in the face. "I can't,"
*Honk* *Honk*
A light noise was heard on the winds and the group all looked out into the distance as an oil tanker was seen passing by on the horizon on its way east towards Costa Rica.