When Jocelyn came down to the canteen at ten to seven, Brice and Austin were already there. No wonder, the veterinarian being often first and last at the table, liking to stay there for a long time. Soon after, Juan and Valentine joined them, as did the DPG trio and the couple who returned from Burgo Nuevo. They, along with Jocelyn's four colleagues, had washed and swapped their work clothes for more casual ones. Due to the evening's relative coolness, both Claire and Owen wore black leather jackets, which they took off when they arrived and put on the backs of the chairs they chose. While he was wearing a polo shirt, also black, she was wearing a red T-shirt and hadn't forgotten to put on her fake skin silicone glove and her half-mask.
Black, red, white. Like a venomous snake, Jocelyn thought, considering Claire as the element which had the largest chances of ruining the dinner.
Finally, Wheatley arrived last, dressed just like at this arrival and the only thing he did was leaving his weapons, cap and sunglasses in the bungalow where he was staying with his officers. The mercenary recognized Owen, Juan and Brice, as the three men had been on Nublar in the first part of Operation Fallen Kingdom, and he greeted those he hadn't met.
Then, they all chose their chairs around a large table that had been prepared and on which were already the plates, cutlery, glasses, two carafes of water, a bottle of rum, as well as two plates of Bocas. . Jocelyn took a seat at the table's end closest to the kitchen, as if to preside over the dinner, with Austin on her left and Valentine on her right. On the same side as that of the ACU commander, back to the patio, Wheatley, Franklin, Claire and Owen also sat, while on the side of the security guard, back to the court, Brice, Alexander, Zia and Juan also sat.
While drinking rum and eating Bocas, they talked about the Operation's progress and what would happen next, but also lighter topics. While Jocelyn was pleased to see that the atmosphere, without being friendly between all, remained decent, the cooks brought the main course, consisting of braised oxtail bathing in a sauce with pieces of tomatoes, carrots and onions, forming a hearty stew that looked tasty to the hungry diners, and two large salad bowls containing white rice were also placed on the table.
"… The guy was as stupid as an Edaphosaurus (1)," Juan told Owen while putting rice on his plate.
"Ah the edaphosaurs…," Brice said with contempt. "They were always roaring and strutting around, showing off while they were nothing but fatsos with the charisma of a rotten oyster and a pain in everyone's ass."
"I remember the one which wanted to lash out at one of the Ampelosaurus (2) for some stupid reason, a few days after the incursions in the lab and the Lagoon...," Owen narrated. "You should have seen it, charging the ampelo with the same fervor and stupidity as a flabby inquisitor attacking a taller and stronger heretic", he told Claire and the DPG members. "The ampelo sent our poor edaph flying, and it fell on its side among mud and shit. You should have seen its face. What a moron..."
"Was it still alive? Were you able to get it out of this mess?" Zia inquired.
"We were too late. The Saurosuchus (3), which was wandering nearby, rushed on it and turned it into shreds," the Raptor Whisperer told her.
"But that's horrible," Franklin said.
"Oh well, that was post-fall Nublar," Owen replied with a sigh. "What should I say?"
"Which ones were those edaphosaurs?" Wheatley asked them.
"The herbivorous version of the dimetrodons. You know, the big quadrupedal lizards with the huge sail on their backs," the vet described, taking the care of simplifying his description and avoiding mentioning that Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon weren't lizards but mammalian reptiles, a word which would have confused Wheatley.
"Ah, I see…," the mercenary said.
"Yeah, if we had had to elect a King of Morons among Jurassic World's collection, it would have won with an African dictator score," Owen added.
"It makes you wonder how the species endured during the Permian," Juan wondered. "I think it might not be a bad thing that this species is once again extinct, few liked them. It shall give a nice break to everyone."
"In the meantime, they're still gone," Alexander said seriously while sorting the contents of his plate. "I think it's not a topic on which we should joke".
"We're kidding Alexander, alright," Owen sighed. "Are you familiar with the concept of humor?"
"It also bothers us that we couldn't save them," Brice added. "But we have to admit that they were dumbasses and a huge pain in the ass. We were just less attached to them than to other animals, that's all."
"And those weren't the only ones you weren't so attached to…" Zia said in a low voice.
But the veterinarian had heard her mumble.
"You were saying, Zia?"
"Nothing," she replied, as she didn't want to trigger an argument.
From the end of the table, Jocelyn then noticed that Alexander had separated the meat from the vegetables.
"Is something wrong with the meat, Alexander?" She inquired
"I don't eat meat. I'm vegan," the DPG founder replied.
"Ah. I forgot…," the Farm manager apologized.
"Give your pieces to someone," Juan suggested to Alexander. "It would be a shame to spoil such good meat."
"Yeah, give it here...," Brice volunteered.
The veterinarian passed his plate to his table neighbour, who moved his pieces of meat inside it.
"Thank you," the Breton said.
As he was cutting his vegetables, Alexander looked up at Wheatley.
"So you and your company participated in Operation Fallen Kingdom?"
"Yeah. And I lost men in the process. Godforsaken island...," the mercenary grumbled before swallowing a sip of rum.
"Okay," Alexander said awkwardly.
Realizing that Wheatley didn't have the best opinion on the animals, he decided to not continue the conversation.
"Have you heard about this encephalitis epidemic on the coast?" Juan suddenly asked the diners.
"On the coast?" Claire repeated. "Where?"
"Nicoya Peninsula," the head keeper replied.
"Is it viral?" Zia asked.
"No one knows for the moment. Epidemiologists only know that the disease seems to mainly affect the inhabitants of rural areas, people in contact with animals, cattle. And it's a real encephalitis: severe headache, mental confusion, fever, delirium."
"Deadly?" Franklin inquired with a hint of concern.
"So far the illness doesn't seem too severe and it lasts about three weeks. But the public authorities remain worried. This country depends on tourism, nobody wants to hear rumors about an unknown disease, as if it isn't enough that some of our animals are messing around in some areas already..."
"Thinking about it," Owen recalled, "aren't the Compys and the Ornitholestes loose exactly in the Nicoya Peninsula?"
"Yes," Juan confirmed. "It just recalled that".
"When did this epidemic start?"
"Last year, in March."
"Shortly after the Ornitholestes' attack in Bahia Anesco..."
"The one where a baby was abducted and where the mother was almost eaten alive by the Compys?" Wheatley asked.
"Exactly," Owen replied.
"What a horrible story…," Jocelyn commented. "Do you think there is a link between the encephalitis and the attacks?"
"Birds carry all sorts of viruses," Zia shrugged. "They are known vectors. It's therefore not unreasonable to think that the same is true for dinosaurs and to establish a causal relationship."
"If this encephalitis isn't contagious and that the dinosaurs are its vectors, that would mean that its spread depends on them," Owen added. "That would explain why it is still confined to the eastern part of the peninsula. The Compys' invasion just have to be stopped."
"Actually, it was also recorded here, at the Farm," the DPG vet told him, "but humans weren't those touched."
Brice, who was looking at his plate, raised his head and turned it towards her.
"Some animals had it?" Claire asked.
Zia nodded.
"Yes. If I believe some health records, the same symptoms appeared in some of them, soon after their arrival here. Brice can confirm this."
The couple then looked at the French vet.
"Yes, it's true that we had some cases within a month after the Fall. Mostly carnivores were touched," he admitted. "We didn't know what was happening to them. We panicked a little at first but with fever medication, we managed to calm the symptoms. Moreover, most cases were mild. The animals just looked more tired than usual and they recovered in two weeks. They seem to be more resistant to this encephalitis than the people of the Nicoya Peninsula anyway, if theirs and the one observed here are the same."
"You still lost all of your remaining Camptosaurus and Stenonychosaurus during that period," Zia reminded him.
"Hence my use of the word most. I'm well aware that some of the animals died. It's not like I haven't been at their bedside…," Site D's vet retorted, annoyed. "Not to mention the mound in the field which is there to remind me of that every day..."
"We would have liked to have known about it…," Owen reproached him. "Luckily Blue didn't get it. You would have heard from me otherwise..."
"So the encephalitis likely came from Nublar...," Juan concluded. "It wasn't there when the Fall occurred and I don't remember that anyone had it during the operation. How did it appear?"
"Who knows?" Brice shrugged.
"Unless this is another case covered up by the board?" Claire said, making Jocelyn's eyes roll.
At that moment, Zia noticed that Wheatley, until then busy mixing the rice with the vegetables and the meat on his plate so it can soak up with the sauce, had slowly raised his head when Juan mentioned the lack of case among the operation's participants, that the mercenary was now looking in Jocelyn's direction and that the ACU commander stared at him for a moment. Right in front of Austin, Valentine was absentmindedly munching his food, as if he had remembered something important.
"In any case, it must have spread across the island thanks to the predators," Juan supposed. Some encephalitis spread through the consumption of contaminated meat. For example, it would have needed for patient zero to get devoured by a predator and that the latter has transmitted it to other animals through bites, causing a domino effect at the end of which the encephalitis has spread across the island, including among the Compys and the Ornitholestes which now lives in the Nicoya Peninsula."
"If this is the case, the Five Deaths should be warned," Owen worried. "Some animals from Nublar migrated there. Including occasional scavengers."
"The pterosaurs and the Ichthyornis have been there for over a year," Brice pointed out. "The encephalitis may already be there."
"So what are you waiting for to inform the government or the WDMC? The 12th of Never?" The Raptor Whisperer asked.
"Owen, you can imagine that at a little more than a month from the sale, we cannot allow the spreading of some rumor about animals contaminated by the same disease encountered in the Nicoya Peninsula," Jocelyn replied. "Our operation would be disrupted and..."
"… InGen would lose money because of delays and so on," Claire finished. "Don't bother, Jocelyn. I know those arguments by heart."
"The Lockwood Foundation would also be impacted in this scenario," the manager retorted. "I doubt that Mr. Lockwood and Elijah would appreciate if you make them lose money. I've heard that their support is important to you. It would be silly to lose it for such unimportant reasons... You are free to inform the competent authorities, but only after the shipping of the animals to their new homes. Not before."
Owen and Claire both smirked. Why were they still surprised by InGen's negligence?
"Unimportant reasons… Uh, we're talking about a potential epidemic within an ecosystem of high scientific value," Zia pointed out to the manager. "Who knows what it can cause, even if it is more or less benign?"
After a brief silence, Wheatley spoke:
"Haven't you been once in the Five Deaths, Brice? Among the savages?"
"Yes, for an internship dedicated to wild dinosaurs. Well, it's like Brittany except it's hot all year round. There are pinnipeds, the coasts are magnificent, the forests are lush, the food is excellent but it rains often, there are birds who can't stop screaming, diehards who are resistant to change..."
"And alcoholics," Claire added jokingly.
"You would feel at home there then?" Austin quipped.
And Jocelyn too…, he thought.
"Where? In the Five Deaths or in Brittany?" The fallen park director asked.
"Both."
"I'm sure you would like to see me exiled to an island lost in the middle of the ocean," she retorted, "like bloody Napoleon."
"Since we're talking about those, Masrani really pissed us off when he handed the Five Deaths and their animals over," Austin said.
"I can't imagine the damage if InGen and Masrani Global had to deal with the crisis the archipelago was experiencing alongside Jurassic World's construction and the Saurian Wars," Owen said.
"Yeah, Masrani would have helped himself on Sorna to fill Jurassic World," Claire added.
"I very much doubt it," Alexander retorted.
"He would have found an excuse to make a good impression but he would have done it anyway," she insisted, "even if it meant breaking his promise to Hammond."
"The ecosystem would have collapsed in a few years. A world where the Five Deaths no longer have any wild dinosaurs would be a very sad one," Owen said.
"In the meantime, no ecosystem in the Five Deaths would have meant no Grey Guard," Austin said. "No Grey Guard, no insurgency on Nublar, and a less disastrous outcome for the Fall."
"Especially less disastrous for InGen Security," Claire corrected him. "And don't worry, Lynton would have found other guinea pigs for her experiment with the Indominus, be sure of that. Probably you and your team by the way..."
The ACU commander chuckled.
"All of this is nothing but a conspiracy theory invented by murderers and traitors to justify their bloody crusade," he replied.
"Do you know what's also a theory?" Brice added. "Human DNA in the Indominus' makeup..."
The table suddenly fell silent and while the majority looked at him as if he had just let a flatulence escape, Claire and Owen stared intensely at him, knowing that this wasn't a theory, not at all, much to her dismay.
"What? Don't you look at Youtube comments or hang out on discussion platforms?" Site D's veterinarian asked them, surprised by their looks. "Many are talking about it..."
"This is ludicrous," Jocelyn said with great scepticism.
"The comments you talked about. Under whose videos were they? Byron Fratelli's?" Franklin asked.
"Certainly not him," Owen replied. "Talking about sensitive topics like the Indominus' genetic makeup is not his thing."
"Byron Fratelli? Who is this guy?" Wheatley asked.
"A young man who owns a Youtube channel where he talks about our parks, animals, everything related and a bit of the company itself," Austin told him. "Byron the milker as I like to call him... The Jurassic franchise was his channel's cash cow."
"Isn't he the one who makes ten-minute long videos based on two poor lines of news?" Zia asked.
"Yes," the ACU commander confirmed. "And he keeps going on and on about the same topics."
"I think that his videos are silly," she said.
"And the ugly CGI dinosaurs and the roars at the start of each video are so annoying...," Brice added. "That kind of slacker pisses me off..."
"He also has an audience mostly made of gullible kids and he dares to defend InGen no matter what…," Claire grumbled.
"I wonder what he's going to do once the sale will be over?" Juan said.
"He could cover Claire's trial," Austin suggested.
"I hope not," the fallen park director replied.
"Don't worry," her boyfriend told her. "If he badmouth you, I'm gonna pay him a little visit and smash his face in. I already suspect him of being Iger's whore..."
"Yeah sure," Austin scoffed. "You like to say that so-and-so are the board's whores or dogs but you are Claire's own dog. And hitting a poor helpless geek, what a fine example for youth!"
"I was joking for fuck's sake! I'm not going to hit him," Owen retorted. "Just shake him a little bit..."
"These youtubers seem to take the same route as journalists," Wheatley stated. "They will either be unemployed or be whores..."
"Jeez, don't you think you're going a little hard there?" Jocelyn pointed out to him, a little shocked by those words. "Saying that all journalists are whores..."
"Sheep," Claire said suddenly. "Many fans of the Jurassic franchise are spineless sheep. One day, you are like a queen in their eyes but the next, you are hardly better than a whore, all because they lap up everything their shepherds say and did not think about stopping a moment to think instead of following the herd. Well, that's when they're not busy with faction squabbles. Between the fundamentalists who revere John Hammond like a god and swear only by the first park..."
"Nublar or San Diego? Zia asked.
"Nublar of course. There are also those who considered Jurassic World to be the best park in the whole world even though everything wasn't perfect, far from it… The Awesomebros who don't like feathered dinosaurs and who would like the dinosaurs to be like those of the toys that they had when they were in diapers… Those who are a little bit materialistic and are obsessed with the toys, even past the age of thirty… Those who insist that dinosaurs are for children and that the park shouldn't have occasionally shown or talked about the harsh realities of nature… Those who jerk off in front of everything genetic-related and Wu's work... Those who were there just for the gossips, the behind-the-scenes stories that could be straight out of some telenovelas etc. Among those, there were some who had a strange cult about me. Probably because of the glamourous aura that followed me when I took up my post..."
"If there's one thing that bothers me about the fans," Juan started, "it's that it's often the same ones that are put forward and that are being listened to with attention."
"Those are a sort of an exclusive club that you can integrate only by meeting certain criteria," Owen said. "While some end up fast-tracked into it in a year or less, others toil for years and receive little to no recognition..."
"Yes. An elite, mostly Anglo-Saxon," the head keeper summarised.
"An aristocracy even," Brice said, "and like the Habsburgs, there is a certain consanguinity. In terms of opinions but also cultural as you have implied, Juan. Take their fanzine for example. Every year, it's always the same guys who get interviews, with most of them being Yanks. Couldn't they interview Costa Rican, French, Indian, Russian, Japanese or Chinese fans for a change, just to have a little more diversity?"
At the pronunciation of the word diversity, Alexander looked up but before he could say anything the vet added:
"Real diversity."
"Of course not. It's well known that every non-Anglo-Saxon community is full of toxic people," the head keeper retorted, not without irony, remembering a story that his son had told him some time ago about an online discussion platform.
"I wonder what they're going to do now, with the park being gone?" Jocelyn wondered.
"I'm wondering the same thing," Claire said. "Mickey's suckers are rubbing their hands with glee in the meantime, as their beloved company lost a notable rival in the theme parks field. It's regrettable that we can't blame them for the Fall...," she added before swallowing a sip of rum.
"Stop, I'm imagining a guy under Mount Sibo and screaming "Mickey akbar! Mickey akbar!" before blowing himself up and triggering an eruption," Valentine told them, making most of his eating companions laugh, with the notable exception of Alexander.
"Or one in a Mickey Mouse costume making the Indominus escape," the ACU commander added before imitating the voice of the big-eared mouse, "Oh oh. It's funny ... Have fun, big lizard! Oh oh… Claire Dearing can try to stop me. I'm gonna fuck that bitch to death. Oh oh… InGen will burn in Hell! Oh oh ... Ah, I can't wait to tell Goofy and Minnie about all this. Oh oh…""
"All this reminds me of that South Park special episode…," Claire sighed.
She noticed that Owen had turned towards Austin and was giving him an unfriendly look, even though he knew he was only joking. He mustn't have liked that the commander's version of Mickey said such odious words about her. She appreciated that her boyfriend was so willing to defend her honour, but she put her hand on his wrist and gently massaged it with her thumb, as if to tell him that it was okay and that he could relax.
Having noticed this tension, Jocelyn returned to the previous topic:
"Disney still has a few rivals. There are the Universal parks, the Six Flags..."
"Please Jocelyn, not the Six Flags," Claire told her. "There is nothing blander than them."
"Aren't there Warner Bros parks as well?" Brice asked. "I think there is one in Germany. I went there with some friends one summer when I was a student."
"There was. It was sold in the meantime," Claire informed him.
"I would have said the SeaWorld parks, but they're no match for Disney," Valentine proposed.
"As long as you don't mention the Parc Spirou," Site D's veterinarian told him before giggling.
A moment of silence ensued as the others looked at each other confusedly, wondering what was triggering his hilarity. The only one who understood the reference was Claire, who smirked.
"Another of your typical French references which only you can laugh at...," Austin complained.
"What's so funny about this park?" Valentine finally asked.
"Well, it's so crappy that even Jurassic World during and just after the Fall was a better place to visit," Brice replied. "On the matter of French theme parks, Disney's biggest rival in France is the Puy du Fou. Aside from Claire, who knows it?"
He got only negative answers.
"Anybody? A pity… Compared to his fans, those of Jurassic World are a bunch of Philistines."
"How many are those Puy du Fou fans?" Austin inquired. "A few thousand? Even if they were hundreds of thousands, they would be nothing compared to the millions of fans that Jurassic World had."
"The important, my friend, is not the number but the quality," the vet said.
"I think I've heard of it. Isn't it a right-wing park?" Alexander said.
"Why would you give a rat's ass about it if it's the case?" Claire retorted.
"Isn't the Puy du Fou where you applied for, Brice?" Jocelyn asked.
"Indeed," he replied. "Birds of prey, lions, horses and farm animals will be almost like a vacation after all those years at InGen."
"And just after your arrival, the Roman legionaries, knights, musketeers and Vikings go berserk and start attacking the audience, with you saying, "Shit. Here we go again...," Claire joked.
"Like in Westworld," Owen said with a sneer.
"Isn't Westworld just a Puy du Fou for adults?" The veterinarian said. "No, the worst that can happen there, if we only take into account elements internal to the park, is a strike. They're actors, not robots. It would really stink to high heaven if the first start to get replaced with hyperrealistic androids..."
"A violent uprising in a theme park involving nutcases with swords and horses…," Austin summed up. "We're familiar with that at InGen."
"The presence of Grey Guard troops on Nublar never inspired trust in me," Alexander said.
"Me neither," recognized Valentine. "They looked like they were straight out of Game of Thrones..."
"And some say that a lot of them are fascists...," the DPG founder added.
"Do you know any of them personally?" Owen asked him.
"No but…"
"So what?" The Raptor Whisperer curtly interrupted him. "Do you really know that some are fascists?"
"I read in a recent article that they tend to brutally treat their prisoners," Alexander continued, "and that during the early 2000s crisis, torture and summary executions of poachers and mercenaries by the guards were common in the Five Deaths. We are talking about violations of basic human rights."
"Regardless if there are violations of human rights or not, we must admit that they guard the archipelago with a certain efficiency," Claire recognized. "Aren't you satisfied that the animals of these islands are protected?"
"Not when there is a violation of basic human rights," replied the DPG founder.
"You have to know what you want."
"Have you heard of the Whitfords?" Wheatley asked.
"Weren't they a couple of trophy hunters who disappeared on Sorna a little less than twenty years ago?" Zia replied.
"Yes. Mitch and Tiff Whitford... I met them during a hunt in Zimbabwe in 1992. They had just got married and it was their honeymoon..."
Realizing that the mercenary was a trophy hunter too, or at least in the past, the DPG members began to consider him with suspicion and being at the same table as him made them feel uneasy. As for Owen and Juan, they had learned about it back on Nublar but were also far from seeing the mercenary as a friend.
"They knew what to expect before going to Sorna," the Raptor Whisperer said. "Those assholes didn't listen, endangered other people's lives and paid for it by getting eaten. They got what he deserved and that's all."
"You've got quite a nerve for saying such things, Owen," Wheatley told him. "Had the Whitfords been more than simple acquaintances and if I hadn't seen you in action on the island, this dinner would have taken another turn, believe me. The Fall has shown that your backward barbarian friends can be just as bloodthirsty as some of the dinosaurs. How many people have been captured by the guards, held captive in secret prisons, tortured, even raped and then sacrificed to dark heathen gods or savagely executed before their bodies were thrown to the wildlife? I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that Tiff had suffered such a horrible fate, instead of accidentally stumbling upon some Baryonyxes like the Grey Guards claim."
"You have a lot of imagination Ken...," Owen retorted. "You should write fiction once you retire."
"And we barely talked about the mutineers during the Fall…" Austin said. "Which shows that the rest is far from innocent. I even read that they inflicted the blood eagle to a poacher leader years ago."
"The blood eagle?" Franklin repeated.
"A method of ritual execution that was allegedly practiced during the Dark Ages by Claire's barbarian ancestors. It consists in opening the ribs from..."
"Yes, I know what it is," the IT technician interrupted him, while his appetite was really put to the test by the topics being discussed and the palpable tensions around the table. "I watched Vikings."
"We're eating," Jocelyn reprimanded them. "Stop talking about such horrible things, please."
"If Costa Rica keeps hesitating about the Five Deaths and how to manage them, it will soon have a rogue state off its coast," the ACU commander continued. "The UN would have already been forced to demand the dissolution of the Grey Guard if the latter wasn't backed by some members of the Security Council and several other foreign countries."
"A rogue state? Come on Joel, you're going a little bit too far," Juan told him. "To hear you, one could think that Caer Draig is some pirates' lair, like Nassau three hundred years ago. The Grey Guard is only there because Costa Rica doesn't have an army."
"And what represents Costa Rica's sovereignty in the Five Deaths? Some poor cop and a small wooden shack with the Costa Rican flag in front of it, in the middle of a fortress full of what's basically foreign mercenaries. Do you know who else was too dependent on foreign mercenaries? Carthage. And it ended badly for her… You shall see the day when the Grey Guards declare that the Five Deaths are theirs and no one else's. Your country will lose the archipelago first, then Nublar and only God knows what after..."
"The balkanization you are referring to started when InGen bought Sorna and then Nublar," Claire pointed out, "so…"
"Tell me Joel, who are your so reliable and objective sources?" Owen asked. "Iger's propaganda department officially called Public Relations? The CIA, who wish for the end of the Grey Guard so US corporations can exploit the Five Deaths' resources, and who, according to some, had Bleidd Pennant assassinated because he defied them?"
"You're not very objective either, Owen," Austin retorted. "You have friends and former sexual partners in the Guard."
"As one of prime targets of what Owen aptly called a propaganda department,'' Claire interjected, "allow me to express an opinion that you might find more objective. At least, this is what I hope. My history with the Grey Guard wasn't the happiest since despite Arnold Mountbatten's warnings, I screwed up by making bad decisions and alienated the guards and their captain, Hamada. May he rest in peace…"
As she spoke of Captain Hamada, memories of the Fall came back to her and she paused, feeling a terrible sensation in her chest, as if some cold and gaunt hand was closing around her heart. She saw herself in that hallway among the ruins of Jurassic Park's Visitor Center, with Hamada lying in front of her, dying and begging her to put an end to his suffering. She remembered him gripping her wrist to guide a dagger's blade straight into his heart. His blood staining the blade and her hands...
"As for the Slayers…," she resumed after a moment of silence. "Gregor Sherman, their leader, seemed nice to me when I met him during the Long Night, but when I learned what he and his men did, you can imagine that my opinion changed considerably and that their death, as horrible it might have been at the hands of the Grey Guards, ended up leaving me indifferent. If I had been in the guards' shoes, if I had learned that comrades and friends had been brutally murdered, I think I would have done the same..."
"Me too," Owen added.
"You approve the ambush and the murder of about forty people? How dare you?" Alexander said, offended. "That said, you must get along well with them, as they and you are both edgelords."
"You weren't on Nublar during the Fall, Alexander. Shut up," the Raptor Whisperer snapped at him.
"Maybe it's not such a bad thing that the insurgency happened," Claire continued. "With InGen no longer having an elite black ops commando, I have the impression that it can harm less and that I can sleep easier. Am I wrong, Joel?"
"What do I know, Claire?" The latter retorted with irritation. "I'm nothing but the Farm's security overseer and the ACU commander. You should ask that question to Torres instead. It's none of my business..."
"Let's talk about something else please," Jocelyn proposed, annoyed by the recent conversations and the various innuendos and provocations made by some. "My father was definitely right. We should never talk about politics at the table."
"It's fortunate that we're not talking about the elections," Wheatley added. "Otherwise, I fear that the cutlery will start to fly..."
"Arguments ruin my appetite," Franklin confessed, wishing they went to Aurelio's, one of Burgo Nuevo's restaurants, instead of this dinner.
"He is sensitive. He doesn't like when people yell," Zia whispered to the couple in a slightly mocking way.
The IT technician sighed.
"I know I'm a delicate person, a numbskull, a failed clone of Moss from The IT Crowd, and that I bloody suck when it comes to dinosaurs but damn, you're not forced to belittle me in front of everyone, Zia!" He complained. "You can be such a hick sometimes…"
"Oh, but I was kidding, Franklin," she assured him. "You little faggot...", she added teasingly and in a low voice.
"Zia," Alexander reprimanded her.
"You know I have the right to say faggot jokingly? It's like the N-word privilege when you're black."
Alexander then turned with alacrity to Austin, who hadn't reacted.
"Why are you looking at me?" He asked the DPG founder. "She can say the word nigger, if the usage is appropriate. I don't give a fuck, I'm above that kind of bullshit..."
"All of that is very interesting," Brice began, speaking with his mouth half full, "but you see young lady, the problem is that we don't care if you're into mussels rather than sausages."
"I won't let you," Zia retorted, offended by the veterinarian's lack of manners.
"She's right, Brice," Jocelyn said to her colleague. "You're not being taught good manners in Vannes (4)?"
"Well, there are a lot of pigs in Brittany," Claire added.
"How do you know this, along with the fact that Brice's compatriots are alcoholics? Have you ever been to France, Claire?" The manager asked.
"Well, she did business with the Delords," the vet replied.
"Who?"
"The family who run the zoo in central France to which we sold animals a few years ago… Yes, there is some alcoholism issues in Brittany here and there but it's not as catastrophic as in Chtis (5), those tuning-loving subhumans. Speaking of alcohol, Caer Draig is like Rennes (6) but much nicer-looking and with fewer gutter punks. Dieu merci…," Brice continued, once again leaving the rest of the table behind with references that only a person who knew France well would understand. "You've got quite a few drinking sessions there, so much that some are tasked with picking up those sleeping outside before they start to get eaten... You see, Geosternbergias and compys don't make the difference between a dead guy and one sleeping it off."
"Cities with serious alcohol problems should have some of these creatures then," Wheatley suggested jokingly.
"Except that they would also eat the bums," Juan retorted.
"And good luck for stopping a Compy invasion in a big city like Los Angeles, Paris, Mumbai, Shanghai or even San José," Owen added.
"More than twenty years ago, we thought we could prevent an eventual dinosaur uncontrolled proliferation with the lysine solution," Claire said, "but the thing was bloody useless, with even Wu and his teams thinking "Fuck that shit!" and removing that dependency in the later generations of animals. Things were more or less fine when the animals were on islands but we have to admit that Burgo Nuevo, the Lockwood Estate and all of the animals' future destinations are less isolated places."
"You must be aware that we wouldn't like that to happen," Austin said. "It would be bad for the company image and capture operations are expensive."
"If the animals escape into the wild…", Juan worried.
"Oh, come on. You sound like that mathematician in the media…," Wheatley scoffed. "You know, the one who survived the dinosaurs twice?"
"Ian Malcolm?" Alexander said. "That Hari Seldon (7) wannabee is nothing but a pseudoscientist."
"Just your average preacher of the end of world," the mercenary added. "People like this have existed since ages..."
A moment of silence ensued during which Jocelyn saw the DPG founder move on his chair and open his mouth, as if he wanted to speak.
"Do you want to say something, Alexander?" She asked.
"No, it was nothing…," he replied after giving the couple a quick nervous look.
"Don't be shy," the manager said kindly. "Speak freely..."
"Big mistake…" Owen whispered to his girlfriend.
Alexander cleared his throat and spoke:
"I was thinking of the speech that John Hammond made after the San Diego incident… After everything that has happened since, I wonder if the best thing is not to send them to other parks but to let them live freely."
"Oh for God's sake...", Juan sighed in Spanish and in a low voice.
"But Alexander, you know that is impossible, for a whole lot of reasons," Jocelyn said. "InGen cannot let its animals go like that. They belong to us and..."
"… You created them, patented them etc.…" Owen added. "This speech has been repeated for more than twenty years. We know the song."
"If we don't sell those animals," the manager said, "InGen will fail and a lot of people will lose their jobs. I hope you are aware of this, Alexander."
"Even if we could let them go, that doesn't mean we should," Owen added.
"I think that most of the people around this table agree that sending these animals to other parks is the best solution," Brice said. "Except for Ken who doesn't care and just wants his check..."
"Old Hammond's speech was nice but between speeches and reality, there is an entire world," Juan said. "If we had applied his speech to the letter, there would be almost no dinosaurs left in the Five Deaths as we speak."
"I don't want to sound mean, but I especially think that he didn't care much since he knew that he was dying," Brice added. "He must have been thinking: After me, the flood!"
"Let's imagine a scenario in which Jurassic World collapsed years before the eruption of Mount Sibo and InGen didn't retrieve the animals following the park's fall for x or y reason," Claire began, "but that Alexander wants to save them, because the Sibo threatens to erupt and destroy the whole island or some bullshit…"
"It would have made a good plot for a movie," Brice interrupted. "You should send the idea to Hollywood."
"Free-roaming dinosaurs and erupting volcanoes? It would have been hell if we had to go to Nublar," Franklin said. "I would have needed to be taken by force there I think and I would have been such a burden that some would have been tempted to throw me to the first encountered carnivore."
"Let's say that the Alexander of this scenario ends up having one or more funders," the fallen park director resumed, "manages to mount the expedition, land on Nublar and capture a certain number of animals, all without being betrayed by the mercenaries hired as muscles, since dinosaurs could be sold for a lot of money on the black market..."
She was interrupted again, this time with a slight noise to her right, that of a quiet laugh from Wheatley.
"Let's suppose the mission is not deviated from its objective and is a success," she continued without paying attention, "where would you put the animals, Alexander? Even if we could, I think that Guillaume Vuillier explained to you why the Five Deaths were a no-no."
"I don't know... Other islands..."
"As long as they are not volcanic too, otherwise we would have to start all this mess all over again," the mercenary said.
"Except that islands safe on a geological standpoint, with a climate suitable for dinosaurs, large enough and preferably uninhabited... aren't numerous," Juan pointed out. "And that's without mentioning the ecological impact, islands being often biodiversity hotspots..."
"Well, on the mainland then...," the DPG founder concluded with a somewhat hesitant voice.
His words were greeted by a sudden silence, which prevailed for a moment in the canteen, before being suddenly broken when the couple burst out into laughter together. Juan and Brice joined them in their hilarity, as did Austin, Wheatley and Valentine soon after, and even Jocelyn couldn't help but smirk while Zia and Franklin were torn, feeling bad for their colleague and friend on one hand but thinking he was going a little too far on the other.
"And where on the mainland?" Owen asked.
"As far away from humans as possible," Alexander replied.
"In the last pieces of wilderness then...," the Raptor Whisperer concluded. "And once they're brought there, what do we do? We let the carnivores eat all the wolves, bears, beavers, bison, mustangs and deer? Let the sauropods raze the forests? Our wildlife already has many problems... Releasing dinosaurs into our ecosystems or leaving them free could be the ecological equivalent of Christopher Columbus's arrival in America. Take the idea of the mammoth's reintroduction in the Russian tundra: It's causing controversy even though they disappeared from mainland Eurasia only ten thousand years ago..."
"But dinosaurs have the right to be free," the DPG founder insisted.
"The freedom of some ends where that of others begins, in this case the freedom to live peacefully in one's homeland without seeing it being invaded by alien newcomers who will become dominant..."
"Whoa, your speech reeks of far right ideology," Alexander interrupted him.
"I was going to add that some of my ancestors actually suffered following the arrival of immigrants with destructive tendencies. Come on, Alexander, don't tell me that you consider the indigenous populations who resisted their displacement and slaughter during the glorious construction of our country as a bunch of intolerant and anti-progress fascists?"
Finding this speech about the United States' history ridiculous, Wheatley smirked and shook his head.
"Oh," the DPG founder stammered, unsettled by Owen's precisions. "I…"
"How he broke you...," Claire mocked him. "By the way, how are your Paiute cousins, Owen?"
"They are fine, thank you. Chip got a job and Asta's daughter passed her exams. She will enter high school next September."
"Let's get back to our discussion, Owen," Alexander suggested, "you mentioned Mustangs a few moments ago, but weren't they brought to America by the Spaniards? They are an exogenous species and yet they are perfectly integrated into the Great Plains ecosystem."
"There is a huge difference between mustangs and dinosaurs," replied the Raptor Whisperer with a sigh, starting to lose patience. "The first Mustangs were indeed horses from Europe, but tens of thousands of years ago there were several species of wild equines in North America. The Mustangs have only reclaimed a vacant place in the ecosystem. You will agree that between two different species of equines separated by only tens of thousands of years and on the other the Mustang and the Parasaurolophus for example, separated by more than seventy million years, there is a whole world. Twenty thousand years is nothing but small potatoes next to that."
"So what? We keep them locked up?"
"Our dinosaurs are phantoms," Juan declared, "as majestic as they are, as alive as they are. We brought them into a world that is no longer made for them, and we have a responsibility to keep them isolated and out of reach from our ecosystem. It's not a question of rights but of responsibility."
"I respect your opinion," Alexander replied, looking at Owen and the head keeper, "though to be honest, I'm surprised by the lack of consideration you have for the animals."
"Excuse me?!" The Raptor Whisperer replied in an offended tone while the head keeper was facepalming.
"You're the one saying that to them?" Brice asked Alexander. "That people accuse me of that kind of stuff, fine, but them?! You're quite a piss taker, my friend! They were risking their lives saving the animals from the park's ruins while you were probably sipping a Starbucks in San Francisco. No, but be careful! By dint of picking a quarrel with people like this, you'll end up in deep trouble one day. And one question: Where did you get your keeper diploma? In a Christmas cracker?"
"No, he got it thanks to mom and dad," Owen said scornfully. "Jonas told me."
As he was about to tell about his experience with the raptors on Nublar, including the most tragic parts, Claire stopped him by gently putting her hand on his arm.
"Don't bother with him, honey…," she whispered to him.
She then turned to Alexander.
"Alexander…" the fallen park director began with a sigh. "I think you should stop trying to say things. First, you're tiring yourself, and you have no idea what it does to others. When you do it, it's really creeping us out... I think we could kill you. Out of grief, mind you!"
"She's kinda right, that kind of reasoning is dangerous," Austin said while the DPG founder was giving a dark look to the couple, and especially to Claire who had just humiliated him. "As we speak, some eco-terrorist organizations might be planning the sabotage of this operation, with its members genuinely believing that dinosaurs have the right to be free, with the rest not mattering."
"We had that kind of idiots in Europe, who released American minks and Red-eared turtles in the wild," Brice explained. "Upshot: Today it's our minks and turtles that are suffering from the "good" intentions of those kinds of people. Does the concept of invasive species speak to you Alexander? I don't know how it goes in the United States, but in France, you learn that in high school."
"You don't even have to learn that in high school. A minimum of culture and common sense are enough," Austin added.
"However, Brice, there is a difference between minks and turtles on one side and multi-ton dinosaurs on the other," Wheatley said. "They are bigger and do not multiply as easily. If the dinos end up being a real problem, just put a price on their heads. Many hunters would be happy to take care of them. Especially in America," he added, making the DPG members cringe.
"At which cost? You're in a good position to be aware that tracking dinosaurs isn't a walk in the park, Ken," Owen told him. "And having half-drunk guys bumping off everything is a solution I dislike. Human solutions must be considered instead."
"I would like to talk about the eventuality of a sabotage that Joel mentioned," Jocelyn proposed "I urge everyone to be very vigilant in the coming days and report any suspicious behavior to Joel or me so that we can take action in time and prevent some people's fears from becoming true. We must work hand in hand."
Wheatley chuckled.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Wheatley?"
"When you want everyone to work hand in hand as you say, you should avoid keeping your little secrets to yourself," the mercenary replied. "I've been fooled once..."
While everyone else at the table, including Jocelyn, wondered what he was talking about, Zia spoke:
"I have to admit that I agree. It's like that story of missing compys..."
"Zia…" Alexander reprimanded her, as he didn't want to be caught in the middle of a possible argument between his colleague and Site D's veterinarian.
"No no…," Wheatley said. "Let her ask the sore questions."
"What's that story?" Jocelyn asked her.
"A few days ago, I found out that seven Compsognathus suddenly died during the night, early last year," the DPG vet replied. "I read the reports. Those were oddly poor in details, but I remember that it was specified that the bodies had been taken off-site."
"Is that true, Brice?" The manager inquired.
"Those were the dead compys I told you about, Jocelyn…," the vet said. "Pedro had found them dead in their cages one morning. Fearing that they had caught some germ and that there could be an epidemic outbreak, I took the decision of removing the bodies and keeping them in the veterinary wing until someone picked them up for incineration."
"You couldn't incinerate them here?" Claire asked.
"No. There was once an incinerator in the lab, but it was shipped to Nublar fifteen years ago. Fortunately, we had someone outside who was willing to incinerate them for us and they were taken to his place. Period."
"Who was that someone?" Zia asked, in a tone a bit too inquisitive to InGen employees' taste.
"A guy from an incinerator in San José licensed in the incineration of biological and medical waste. People from the security division took them away. Some people would have been tempted to steal them..."
Listening to the conversation with great interest, the couple then noticed that Juan held his right fist against his mouth and twirled his fork with his left hand while seeming absent-minded. The ongoing conversation was making him nervous. Of course, Brice was his colleague and friend and he appreciated Zia but did he knew things about those Compsognathus?
"I saw Pedro in the meantime," Zia said. "When I told him about this matter, he didn't seem very comfortable."
"He wasn't because he knew that he screwed up that time, that's all!" Brice said, irritated. "Even though they were just compys, we're still talking about a loss of several million dollars for the sale, as a single compy is worth a million. Yes, a compy is expensive and they're nothing but small fry within our collection. It's a loss that could have been avoided if Pedro had been more vigilant. I'm willing to be patient, young lady, but there is a line! If you continue to imply that I'm involved in some sort of traffic or something like this, I will send you back to the keepers."
"Young lady… Young lady… I would point out that I'm barely younger than Mrs. Hodgson," Zia retorted.
"Enough!" Jocelyn said. "If you have any scores to settle, it will be outside. Please don't spoil other people's meals. What I just said applies to everyone."
The two vets sighed and turned away from each other to resume their meal. Jocelyn believed for a moment the effectiveness of her call to order when silence returned. And then Claire intervened:
"Well, that compys story seems quite intriguing to say the least... Between this, the bodies of the other animals which died here being dumped in a mass grave in the middle of the fields when it's not very straight, the broken down equipment... That's nice, Jocelyn. I think that the report I will send to Mr. Lockwood is going to be very interesting."
"And whose fault are the budget restrictions, eh?" Jocelyn snapped back at the fallen park director. "When you bring the downfall of an entire empire, you usually avoid being so full of yourself!"
During this last exchange, Alexander's eyes had looked first at Jocelyn and then at Claire. Seeing the latter not saying another word, he believed that the Farm's manager had succeeded in silencing her and shaking her wall of false assurance. Noticing a breach and eager to take his revenge on Claire for the humiliation experienced earlier, he rushed into it and spoke to the fallen park director:
"Didn't the fall of Jurassic World find its origins in a tasteless joke you made about Henry Wu at a soirée years ago?"
"Oh, get off your high horse a little, you moralizing white knight!" Austin told him, thinking that the DPG founder had quite the nerve to talk this way about a dramatic event he had not experienced.
"Alexander, you're making a fool of yourself," Claire retorted.
"Do you think that the Fall wouldn't have happened if everyone had been beautiful, everyone had been nice?" Brice asked the DPG founder. "The Sibo didn't decide to wake up just because Claire made a bit of a daring joke while she was drunk!"
"What was that joke she made?" Wheatley asked, curious.
"A story about friends' circle that Wu likes to widen if we believe some witnesses...," the Frenchman recalled. "It reminds me a bit of that Fry's condom joke, which is the Anglo-Saxon variant of a joke we have in France about one of our TV hosts. Note that we also have our own variant, which concerns Mark…," he added, managing to get a smile from Juan.
"What is this Fry joke?" Franklin asked, looking strangely at the vet. "Sounds like it's from Videogames. com's 18+ forum."
"You never heard of it?" Valentine asked him, surprised. "So, how do you think Stephen Fry (8) takes his condom off?"
"I have no idea," the IT technician replied, fearing the answer.
"By…"
"Valentine," Jocelyn interrupted, a little coldly she realized the next moment. "We're eating."
"And those jokes are so gross..." Alexander said disdainfully. "To get back to a more serious topic, I wonder how some here manage to sit at the same table as Claire... Valentine, Brice, Juan, Owen… How can you tolerate her when her actions brought chaos to your lives?"
"Who are you to imply that we shouldn't tolerate her?" Juan snapped at him. "Who are you?! We were on Nublar during the Fall, not you! So it's up to us to be willing to have dinner with her if we wish."
Brice then turned to the DPG founder and looked him straight in the eye.
"No, but did you listen to me earlier? You're going to get hit before you could react," he warned him. "I'm saying that for you, now. I don't care. However, if you need to hit him," he added to the couple who were glaring at Alexander, "do it away from the table please. If someone ruins my plate, I'm going to punch him or her in the face."
"No one shall hit anyone! You're not savages for fuck's sake!" Jocelyn said angrily while Franklin and Zia nervously eyed the couple and their co-worker. "If ever some dare to use physical violence, I shall order Joel and Valentine to send them to spend the night in the Marsh. They are going to sleep on the straw, that will teach them!"
"Yeah yeah…" the ACU commander said with little conviction, as he was more amused by the situation than anything else.
"Oh no, not the Marsh!" The veterinarian complained. "The Niger stinks and the Ouranos fart."
"So calm down," Austin said. "Because if I have to call my guys to get the brawlers under control..."
"I knew that this dinner was going to suck. I wanted to eat at Aurelio's…," Franklin whispered as, out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Claire's fingers tense.
"Please, Alex," Zia said. "Leave her alone. Some would like the calm to return..."
"How can you think she's cool?" The DPG founder asked his two colleagues in a disappointed tone. "She doesn't deserve your friendship. Zia, it was because of her that you couldn't fulfill your dream… She is untrustworthy. Didn't she tell you that she almost killed someone with her own hands during the Fall?"
"Yeah. Actually that's right," Austin recalled. "We had completely forgotten... It must also be said that so many things happened during it..."
"Who has she…," Zia began.
"Doctor Ivan Preston, Wu's right-hand man," Claire replied in a weak voice, her eyes riveted on her plate.
"Right-hand man and boyfriend," the ACU commander clarified. "She's lucky he didn't press charges. Yet..."
"I heard you almost threw him off a balcony," Alexander added. "The joke mentioned a few moments ago and this act says a lot about you..."
"Are you implying that I'm homophobic, Alexander? I've slept with women you know," Claire retorted, raising a surprised look from Zia. "But unlike some on social media, I don't make a big deal out of it and consider myself interesting enough so that I don't have to use my sexuality as the main argument to define myself."
"I don't want to say some bullshit but I'm not sure that the Mariposa's hookers can be taken into consideration," Austin said. "But I'm not gay, so what do I know…," he added, looking at Zia, as if he wanted an answer from her and was trying to improve the climate around the table in his own way.
Owen's eyes widened, surprised that the ACU commander knows about Claire's past visits to the brothel. However, thinking about it, it was not impossible that InGen Security had spied a little bit on Claire during her stays on the mainland, in order to ensure that a key employee like her was not involved in any shady business. Thus, Austin must have been told about those visits by a colleague from the division or he might have looked at her file himself.
Ignoring the revelation he had just made, and knowing that it was only a matter of time before it leaked out, she looked up, turned to Alexander, put her hands on the table and slowly leaned forward.
"Listen to me, you nasty little pyjak (9)..," She said, looking him in the eyes. "If you ever make another inappropriate remark about me or provoke me again gratuitously, I shall go for your throat and choke you like a chicken! I hope that I won't get to that because you see, my prosthesis is stronger than the hand it replaces, so much that I'm afraid of crushing your vocal cords with it if I get to such extremities. Thinking about it, it will give us a nice break though..."
"Alexander. Be quiet, like a mouse…," Owen growled.
Intimidated by the couple, Alexander remained silent and finally looked down. He resumed his meal soon after and avoided all eye contact with Claire or Owen. Next to the DPG founder, Zia did not know what to think of everything she had learned about the couple during this meal, whether it was their daring positions on certain topics like the acts of violence perpetrated by the Grey Guards or the latest revelations made about Claire, especially the fact that she almost killed Wu's right-hand man. Clearly, Claire Dearing was a very ambiguous woman, capable of both goodness and brutality. She and Owen were a compelling and charismatic but ruthless couple and Zia could easily imagine them at the helm of a pirate galleon or leading a group of outlaws in a Western.
"Whether you're homophobic or not, you're still a nutcase," Jocelyn said. "A nutcase and a liar."
"I had my share of responsibility in the Fall," the fallen park director admitted, "but I wasn't the one who hid from everyone that Mount Sibo was going to erupt! It wasn't I who turned the Indominus into a genocidal monster with near-human intelligence! I tried to limit the damage but I failed! You're happy?"
"Aren't you also the one who faced the Indominus on that bridge and defeated it before the mosasaur grabbed it?" Jocelyn asked curtly. "Because if you want to tell tales, go the whole hog!"
"Claire Dearing the dragon slayer… Yes, I've heard about that theory," Austin added. "If some hadn't pulled out their cellphones or cameras, I would have been tempted to believe that the Ghost of Nublar was nothing more than a fairy tale. If you were that Ghost, Claire, who could prove it? Owen, your doggie? Not a very objective witness… Those traitors called the Grey Guards? Only if they recognized you... And you're not in the few pictures we have of the fight between the T rex and the Indominus. Even if it was true, no one would believe it. And it's not some netizen's crackpot theory which will try to persuade people of the opposite."
"And what if some sort of censorship happened in the meanwhile?" Owen raised. "That the footage where she could be distinguished have been deleted? People shouldn't have started to see her as a hero, otherwise they would have looked for someone else responsible for the Fall and turned to the board. InGen still needs her as a scapegoat..."
"Oh please Owen, you're making a fool of yourself for trying to pass off your bitch for the new Joan of Arc," the Farm's manager retorted. "I really think that she went hiding in a hole when the Indominus invaded Burroughs and that she was found like that, with a missing arm. Who knows? Maybe she scarred herself in an attempt to arouse compassion?"
"You asked for it!" Claire exclaimed, infuriated.
She stood up abruptly and removed her fake skin silicone glove, revealing her prosthesis to those who hadn't seen it yet, including Jocelyn who shuddered, as the artificial hand had a skeletal appearance to her eyes. When Claire then grabbed the bottom of her T-shirt to pull it up, some exchanged surprised looks and in an uncertain voice, Valentine asked her:
"Uh, what are you doing?"
She didn't answer, put her T-shirt on the back of her chair and as most were looking at the large scar that crossed her chest and disappeared under her bra, as well as the one on her left side, inflicted by a sword's blade and that only Owen knew to be a trace of her suicide attempt during the Fall, she put her hands behind her bun and began to undo the strap of her half mask.
Jocelyn swallowed and looked away.
"I don't want to see that…"
Claire finally removed her half-mask from her face, put it down next to her plate, and then went to stand at the nearest end of the table, between Owen and Juan. From there, she showed her long gash to all the diners.
"What a horror show…," Alexander said with a grimace.
He hiccupped in surprise when Zia suddenly nudged him in the ribs.
Claire suddenly slammed the table with her hands and putting them on top of it, she leaned forward, as if to better display her scars. Her furious eyes focused on Alexander, Austin and Jocelyn in particular.
"Do those scars belong to a coward?!" She scolded, speaking in an even deeper voice than usual. "Do they?!"
Looking around the table, Claire looked at the reactions of everyone except Owen. Juan, Brice, Zia and Valentine were looking at her in silence and she saw in their eyes that it was not a very pleasant sight she was giving them but they still maintained eye contact, a sign of respect. After a moment's hesitation, Franklin raised his head and looked at her too. He swallowed when he saw her gash but he dared to confront her terrible gaze.
He is much braver than he thinks he is, she observed. More than Alexander anyway.
The latter wasn't even looking at her and seemed to have suddenly taken a strong interest in his cutlery, which he skimmed nervously with his fingertips while he waited for the situation to evolve.
He is a hopeless case. I don't give a shit about that loser anymore!
As for Wheatley, he was in no way disturbed and while giving the fallen park director a neutral gaze, his eyes looked at the scars.
He must have seen worse in his career.
To the mercenary's right, Austin was sipping his glass of rum as he was looking at her, but his smug expression was gone.
Opposite of Claire, Jocelyn kept her head sideways, with her eyes looking at the tiles to Valentine's left.
"Do they, Jocelyn?!" The fallen park director asked her severely, still in the same voice tone.
Having no response from the Farm's manager, Claire then started to move, passing slowly behind Owen, Franklin, Wheatley and then Austin while looking at those sitting opposite of them and Jocelyn. Even though she was only wearing a bra above the waist, none of them looked at her lustfully.
"Do they?!" She repeated.
Jocelyn still didn't respond and kept her head sideways while remaining still. She was frozen out of fear.
"Look at me!"
As Jocelyn wasn't reacting, Claire stepped forward and grabbed her chin with her prosthetic hand.
"Leave me alone, you monster!" The Farm's manager protested after jumping at the hand's cold touch.
Fearing she might hurt Jocelyn, Valentine stood up.
"Hey, let her go!" He ordered her.
But Austin stopped him with a hand gesture while keeping his eyes on the two women. He was ready to step in if necessary.
"Keep calm," Wheatley said to Valentine. "Let those ladies sort their issues out."
Claire didn't back down and turned Jocelyn's chin towards her to force her to look at her.
"Answer me!" She commanded forcefully as she leaned over her, towering above her like a large theropod about to grab a small prey.
Jocelyn's eyes first met the prosthesis, and looked up to where it was attached to the arm, before passing on the chest, where they plunged between the breasts. They lingered on the right breast before following the scar there to the upper part of the breastbone and beyond, eventually reaching the face and what was there. Jocelyn shuddered and winced at the sight of the red and deep gash and scar tissue that accompanied it. Amidst Claire's skin as white as a dairyperson's shit, it evoked her a lava-filled chasm in the middle of a snowy tundra. Finally, Jocelyn dared to go up to Claire's cold green eyes, which reminded her of those of a reptile, and the predatory gaze the infamous Queen of the Ashes gave her made her yield.
"I don't know!" She finally answered, all trembling.
"Of course you don't know!" Claire retorted. "You have no idea how much I suffered, no idea of the sacrifices I made... Be careful, Jocelyn. This face could soon be yours if you're not careful."
"Is that a threat?!" Jocelyn asked in a frightened voice.
"No, a warning."
Claire's voice had slightly softened and although she did not show it, she herself had been frightened by the one she had adopted since she had taken off her mask, as it recalled her of the deep and booming voice with which the Indominus spoke in her nightmares, a voice that had probably been influenced by those of various speaking animals and fantastic creatures in some films she had seen.
The fallen park director finally took her hand off Jocelyn's chin and returned to her chair.
"That's it, Darth Vader. Put your shirt back on," Austin taunted the fallen park director when she passed by him.
"Do as he says and put this mask back on your face, dammit! You're ruining our appetites," Jocelyn begged her, still shaking while she couldn't help but to compare Claire to some ghetto thugs due to the aggressiveness she had shown and the fact that she had walked around the table shirtless.
"I shall put it back on, out of decorum, but only if you promise to not provoke me again for the rest of the dinner," Claire replied as she put her T-shirt back on.
"Alright!" The Farm's manager conceded.
"Thank you," Claire said coldly while putting on her fake skin silicone glove.
Then she grabbed her half-mask, put it back over her gash, much to Jocelyn and Alexander's relief, and proceeded to finish her plate while Wheatley slowly nodded in admiration, impressed by Claire's show of force. Jocelyn turned to Austin:
"Joel. Send a message to the driver. I want them to leave as soon as the dinner is over," she said quietly.
"Very well."
Still shaken, she grabbed her glass and swallowed the rest of rum that remained.
Soon after, while a deafening silence ruled at the table, the cooks left the kitchen, bringing the dessert.
"Ah, here's dessert!" Brice announced as the dessert plates were placed on the table. "Coconut flan, I think I'll miss it..."
"But how do you manage to still be hungry after that disaster of a dinner?!" Jocelyn asked him. "Didn't seeing her gash ruined your appetite?"
"You know, I've seen some gross stuff in my veterinarian career. Some James Bond villain's scar won't prevent me from eating my coconut flan."
"You don't give a fuck about anything anyway! That's why you're pissing off once the operation is over while the company has yet to be rebuilt...," she scolded him.
"Rebuild? What do you want to rebuild? Sometimes, I wonder if I shouldn't have done the same thing as Jonas, Kate, Barry and so many others, and jumping ship before getting into trouble..."
As if she believed he had just confessed that he wasn't innocent, Zia turned to the vet but said nothing. In addition, Brice was looking at the woozy manager.
"Oh but why this face? Don't worry, I'm going to remember you when I'll be back in France, my little Jocelyn," he said affectionately.
The vet then looked around the table and saw that several had not yet started to eat their slices of flan.
"However guys, please eat," he suggested. "The cook isn't going to be happy otherwise... And it's good moreover," he added after swallowing a spoonful.
But as they were about to touch their shares, Jocelyn grew impatient:
"Eat, for Christ's sake!"
Looking at her, Brice noticed that she hadn't touched her part either.
"Jocelyn. That goes for you too."
The manager sniffed, sighed, and then decided to attack her flan with her spoon.
A few seconds later, Valentine cleared her throat and spoke, wishing to avoid the return of the deafening silence that prevailed before the dessert's arrival.
"Has anyone seen Game of Thrones' last season?" He asked in a hesitant voice.
"Yeah, let's talk about Game of Thrones," Claire replied sarcastically. "Long Night, dragons, mad queen, warlords, mad scientist, betrayals, violence, innocents dying by the dozen here and there ... It will bring back good memories to some..."
"Yeah, besides the last season was shit," Brice stated. "As soon as that dumbass half-stuttered "no elephants, your grace", I knew that it was going to be rotten as fuck."
"Eh, I don't think it was that bad...," Austin said.
"What? You're joking, right?!" The vet cried.
And another heated discussion ensued, this time about the famous fantasy saga and its controversial eighth season. While some defended it, others were ripping it apart and things got stormy when some began to show their support for certain characters.
"Please, shut up! Shut up!" Jocelyn yelled, at her wits' end, before looking at Wheatley, who was one of the few who had not taken part in the ongoing debate and who seemed to be wondering if he should have slept before accepting InGen's offer."
"There's no doubt about it, as soon as there is some dessert, the meal is immediately warmer," he declared.
-o-
Notes
(1) Edaphosaurus: Herbivorous synapsid from the Permian period. It's known for its sailed back and as a synapsid, this animal is more related to modern mammals than to lizards or dinosaurs.
(2) Ampelosaurus: Armoured sauropod from the late Cretaceous and hailing from Southern France.
(3) Saurosuchus: A large Rauisuchian from the Triassic period.
(4) Vannes: A Breton city and administrative centre of the Morbihan department.
(5) Chtis: People from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
(6) Rennes: The capital of Brittany.
(7) Hari Seldon: Mathematician from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.
(8) Stephen Fry: British writer, humorist, actor and director.
(9) Pyjak: Simian-like creature from the Mass Effect video game series.