Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
The party at the keepers' office:
- The Chalice Passed - Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (starting from 00:49).
-o-
During the afternoon, other preparations and exercises were carried out. The transport cages and containers that had not yet been brought to their sectors were transported there, and a whole platoon of drivers arrived at the estate, bringing with them the last vehicles needed, both transport vehicles and jeeps and even some armored personnel carriers in the colours of InGen Security, and by the meadow where the group had seen the fleet of trucks the day of their arrival, a few flying cranes landed.
While the day drew to a close, a final vehicle of the corporation arrived on the estate, flying over the pastures and woods of the eastern slopes of the Ismaloya Mountains on the way. Said vehicle was a white Agusta A-109 helicopter with blue stripes, inbound from the regional headquarters, located in the América Free Zone, a business district located between San José and the city of Alajuela. Like the Boeing Chinooks the day before, it landed in the large meadow near the bungalows and disembarked its eight passengers. Among them were regional director Pedro Merced, Edward Torres, and Alistair Iger, who came to represent the board.
The latter had traded his usual suit for a shirt and canvas pants much more comfortable in the tropics and when he got off the aircraft, he put on his sunglasses and looked at Jocelyn, who had been waiting for their arrival. She shook hands with the passengers who got out before him, including those of Merced and Torres, and when the public relations manager stepped onto the grass too, he turned to Site D's manager and spread his arms wide in a friendly way.
"Jocelyn!"
"Ali!" She replied with a slight smile.
While the other passengers made their way to the hacienda, they hugged and exchanged a few words before joining the other newcomers at the hacienda, where bedrooms had been assigned to them. Jocelyn waited for Alistair to come down and then they went for a walk in the estate. He noticed that she was tense and that she smelled quite a bit of tobacco, more so than the last time he had seen her.
She's so stressed she's smoking like a chimney, InGen's spokesman thought.
"Hey, you're not looking good?" he inquired.
"Oh, it's nothing. Work's stress,' she replied with a shifty look.
He nodded and looked at the paddocks on either side of the path they were walking on. To their right was the Asian Plain and to their left was the Marsh.
"Stay strong! It's the final push. We will finally get out of this crisis without having to prostitute ourselves. Baby-face and Milka will be screwed!"
"Milka?" Jocelyn repeated, unaware of who he was referring to while she knew that Baby-face was an allusion to the Biosyn's CEO, Lewis Dodgson, whose soft features hid the deceit of his soul.
"Swiss. Fat cow. You know who I'm talking about?"
"Oh yes. Grendel…"
"I heard it was a free-for-all last night," Alistair said after a silence. "I assume that Claire and Mr. Grady acted like smartasses?"
"Stop, let's not talk about that. The only one who behaved properly was Valentine."
"Valentine?"
"Valentine Taylor, one of the guards. He had done me a favor so I offered him to have dinner with us."
"OK, cool."
Hearing yelps, Jocelyn turned her head to the right and saw the Triceratops getting impatient by their barn's door. She sighed.
"I hope all of this will be over soon because I'm sick of it," she declared. "Between the antics of some of our guests, the employees here who barely respect me, Ordonez who's being a pain in the ass, and Jerry's whining… I'm at the end of my rope…"
"Things aren't going well with him?" he asked, worried.
"Oh, we keep fighting. He's always whining for a yes or a no..."
Alistair shrugged a bit.
"I always thought he was a pussy," he said. "No offense, huh?"
"Not at all, Ali. Not at all… And you, how are things going on your side?"
The Public Relations manager laughed.
"Oh… My daughter keeps calling me a crook and a cartoon villain. What did she say to me recently? Ah yes, that I was a black Goebbels. Do you realize? She compared me to a fucking high-ranking Nazi!"
"How did you react?"
"I grounded her for an entire week. I thought that would teach her. That said, I don't blame her. Youths aren't very smart at her age, that shall pass... Adolescence is the worst period for a parent. You'll find out when your kids would have grown."
"That's not very encouraging..."
"I prefer to warn you so that you can be ready."
Arriving at the Jurassic Plain, they noticed the presence of a cattle truck and four other transport trucks parked near the sauropods barn's loading bay, which allowed the animals to go inside the vehicles without having to take ramps. Within the paddock itself, the team in charge of the sector, led by Aura and Inès, was busy rounding up the twenty or so dryosaurs which also lived there to bring them inside the building. They usually went in on their own but sensing that something was afoot, the animals were more nervous and less cooperative. Having anticipated that this might happen and desiring to intervene in the paddock safely, the keepers had locked the male Apatosaurus and the stegosaurs in the adjoining corrals or their stalls inside the barn earlier. Thus, the team formed a crescent around the dryosaurs and clapped while moving forward, gradually narrowing the crescent and pushing the animals back toward the entrance to the corridor that led to their stalls. When one of the dryosaurs moved away from the group and tried to scoot towards the other end of the paddock, two security guards aboard a two-seater motorcycle equipped with a sidecar intercepted it and the dryosaur, intimidated by the sound of the engine and the screams, returned to its herd.
Further away, the female and young apatosaurs watched the ongoing operation with placidity. Unlike the dryosaurs and the majority of stegosaurs, they were not going to leave the next day but later in the week and were going to be sent to the United States by air, in gigantic cargo planes.
Near the fence, Franklin had set up his tripod and camera, filming the keepers and the animals. A few steps from him, Edward Torres and Pedro Merced were also watching the operations.
"Claire and Owen not only pissed me off, but they also stuck their nose into our business," Jocelyn said.
"Yeah, Ed told me about this. He said he made the necessary arrangements," he informed her. "If Lockwood told them to snoop, there's going to be a fight with Susan."
"I don't think it's Lockwood. If it was him, they would have just sent an email once they got back to their hotel. However, they talked to a suspicious guy in an inn downtown. I'm scared, Ali. Not only they're probably spies but they are ruthless and Claire is downright mad. I thought she was going to attack me last night. She forced me to look at her horrible gash… That maniac needs to be sent not in jail but in an asylum."
"Don't worry. Sooner or later, she'll screw up again and end up in court. Even if Lockwood continues to support her, I doubt she'll get through. She will soon be nothing but a bad memory for you. Nothing more."
Once all the animals had returned to their night buildings or paddocks, the keepers and veterinarians returned to camp for dinner. However, unlike most other evenings, the minibus did not leave once the employees had finished their day. Some keepers had indeed organized a small party at the Ark to celebrate the animals' departure and they had invited the couple and the DPG trio. The couple accepted, as did Zia and Franklin, but Alexander, due to the fact the keepers liked the fallen park director more than him and that they had only invited him out of politeness, declined and preferred to call a taxi to return directly to town.
As he walked alone along the Oaks driveway, he passed several cars coming from outside the estate, those of Enrique Ordonez, other local councillors, and high-ranking members of the local police and the province's Public Force, all invited by Jocelyn to a dinner she was hosting at the hacienda with the InGen executives.
Thus, the couple and the two remaining members of the DPG had dinner at the big tent with the keepers and then went to their office, where the party was taking place. Jocelyn didn't know about it and when Franklin asked a question on that matter, Juan replied that she didn't have to know and that she had the dinner with the other executives and the local councillors to manage first. The head keeper also added that the party had been prepared a bit in secret and that guards had to be bribed to smuggle kegs of beer inside the estate. And Juan was not the only key Site D employee present at this evening because Brice arrived shortly after, mingling with the others. The vet said he would have been willing to demonstrate the Bretons' legendary tolerance to alcohol but that he couldn't, preferring to remain sober should he be called for an intervention during the night. Austin quickly passed at the party, taking a look at it before leaving, not without asking the attendees to not overindulge in alcohols and not use drugs or he would have them sleep with the carnotaurs. Neither he nor the vet were willing to tell Jocelyn about the evening, with the ACU commander even claiming he was too lazy for that. In addition to the keepers and Brice, there were also several workers, a few administration employees and even guards and ACU troopers supposedly off duty. At one point, Owen was even surprised to see two of Wheatley's mercenaries, none other than Fanny Oven and Danny McLagen, join them for a while. When asked if other mercenaries intended to join them, she replied that her comrades were having their own little party at the bungalows, given for the birthday of Stan, one of their comrades, and that they wouldn't probably come there, especially since the InGen Security soldiers were watching them, as if they feared there would be misbehaviours. Shortly after, Fanny was seen outside by the kitchen door, smoking a joint with Horatio and Vinny.
"Yeah! The trip, California and it will be over," Pasqual told Alfredo a little later while they were getting some fresh air outside, not far from the office's glass door which opened on the parking lot. "Only a month left."
"You can talk. You're retiring right after," his colleague replied. "You're getting back to your parrots..."
"Who'd have thought? I won't totally leave dinosaurs behind me. So, have you found a job for the few years left before you retire too?"
"Yes. I'm going to work on my brother-in-law's farm."
"The one who lives in Guanacaste, right?"
"Yes."
Pasqual nodded thoughtfully.
"Thinking about it, does your brother-in-law know the Rodriguez?" he asked shortly after.
"Those who supplied the island with beef? Oh maybe, I never asked him. But they're indeed from the same area."
"I thought about it because we were talking about the Camp kids this morning with Marisol and the others. Damn, the Rodriguez must have been really worried for their girl. I wouldn't have liked to be in their shoes."
"It's been quite an odyssey that she, her comrades and Jeanie, may she rest in peace, had… Jesus, they made it to Isla Sorna on their means. It was almost too late when the riders of the Grey Guard found them..."
"It's a miracle ... Fortunately for the four who survived, all of that is behind them. The Fall is going to follow others like a shadow until the end of their life..."
People shouted behind them.
"One!"
They turned around and saw the others crowded around Claire and Suraj, their Indian colleague. Each had a full glass of beer in hand.
"Two! Three! Go!"
The two contestants raised their glasses to their mouths and began to drink the contents. Suraj turned out to be the fastest, swallowing the beer like if it was whey, and by the time Claire finished the first third of her beer, he was already halfway through. But suddenly, as he reached his last third, he staggered and even spilled a few drops on the floor, and by the time he regained balance and put his glass back to his mouth, Claire was down to the last quarter of her glass, having accelerated the pace of her gulps. She finished a few seconds before him, put her glass on top of the nearest piece of furniture and the others applauded her.
"And the winner is Claire!" Vinny announced.
Satisfied with her victory and as she had no such fun for a long time, she let out a shout of euphoria.
So that everyone could have a minimum of sleep, the party ended at 11:00 p.m. and while most were returning to the camp, the minibus brought its usual passengers back to town. Some, such as Zia and Franklin, had left a little earlier and the two DPG members had been taken back to the hotel by Benito the guard when he returned home.
Claire and Owen, drunk as lords, had a bit of trouble getting into the minibus and sitting into the back seat, and they spent the trip singing Johnny Cash's Jackson together, with him covering the lyrics of the famous singer and her those of June Carter, her partner. They were surprised when the minibus slowed down and stopped.
"Guys! You arrived!" the driver announced.
"Already?!" Claire exclaimed after hiccupping.
She looked outside and recognized the white walls of the Cañada de las águilas and its lawn.
"Oh, indeed!" She realized.
She and Owen got up with difficulty and headed for the exit.
"After a while, crocodiles!" He said to the other passengers.
"Don't forget, it's a quarter to six tomorrow!" Pasqual reminded them.
"We'll break down your room's door if you don't get up!" Marisol joked.
"We'll drag you out of bed naked if necessary!" Alfredo added.
Laughing, the couple got out of the minibus and staggered towards the hotel entrance, not noticing at all that a big jeep with an unusual logo had parked across the street during the day. The logo depicted an armadillo whose shell's bands were each a different colour, like a rainbow, but what would have caught their attention if they had turned around and looked at it up close would have been the license plate, which was from San José metropolitan area and not Burgo Nuevo or any nearby town.
The couple entered the hotel and went up to their room. While they were exhausted, Claire thought she had done well to tell Basil and Sybil that they would be leaving early the next day, and to pay in advance for their stay. The hotel owners had just told her to put the keys on the counter when they would leave. Having anticipated that they would be home late, they had even packed most of their luggage, keeping outside only the bare necessities and their clothes for the next day. At the base of the bed, over their underwear, was a black singlet and cargo pants for him, and a white tank top and green cargo pants for her.
They undressed, had a shower together, and crawled into bed, where they snuggled and almost immediately drifted off to sleep. A long day awaited them.
-o-
Notes
About Sammy Rodriguez:
Like some probably noticed, I decided to make Sammy a costarican. In Netflix's show, it's stated that she's part of the camp's pilot group because her family supply Jurassic World with bovine meat. However, Mainland Costa Rica, which is a way closer to Isla Nublar than Texas (where Sammy is from in the show), also has cattle ranches. I therefore thought that it would have been less expensive for InGen and Masrani Global to import meat from mainland Costa Rica than Texas (to reach Nublar, a ship transporting cattle would have first to cross the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, the Canal of Panama, and then sail northwards along the centramerican coast... which is a bit long). Moreover, it puts a Costa Rican in the camp's group (and mitigate the lack of representation of Costa Rica and its inhabitants in the canon of Spielberg films. For a saga whose stories are set mostly on territories which belongs to that country, I always thought it was a bit of a shame).