Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
Bustle in Site D:
- March of the Wheatley Cavalcade - Michael Giacchino, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Up to 00:35).
- Numenor prepares - Bear McCreary, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One, Episode Five: Partings) (Up to 02:00).
-o-
When the group arrived the following day at the Farm shortly before six o'clock, the estate was already in full effervescence while the sun was rising. It looked like a military base on the day of a major operation. Shortly after crossing the gate and the crossroads, the minibus passed a group of mercenaries trotting in the opposite direction and further on, many participants in the operation were coming and going between the camp and the hacienda. When it arrived by the latter, it had to let an ACU pickup pass, driving towards the Cretaceous Plain, while to the west, one of the flying cranes took off and headed north, to the station where the train was waiting for its passengers.
As he had just cleared his place at the camp, Valentine took his luggage to the hacienda and put it alongside those of his colleagues in one of the rooms prepared for this purpose. Thus, he would carry on with his various tasks without having to worry about his belongings, as some employees were going to be tasked with transporting them to the Arcadia or to the Anne B, one of Jurassic World's former supply ships and which InGen was also bringing back to the United States, intending to sell it. Once it was done, Valentine headed for the exit, but while he crossed the courtyard, Jocelyn hailed him:
"Valentine?"
He turned and greeted her:
"Hello, Jocelyn. How are you?"
"I'll get by, thank you. Ready for the big trip?"
"I have to."
"Since we will both be very busy today, I don't know if we'll see each other again and I wanted to say goodbye in case we don't. I…"
She paused, struggling to find words, and Valentine looked at her carefully, wondering what she meant. Then she ended her awkward silence with a sigh and moved forward to hug him. Valentine's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh…" he said before wrapping his arms around her hesitantly.
"Have a safe trip," she wished him. "Thanks for staying cool in these crazy times…"
Watching the scene from the canteen, Austin rolled his eyes and shook his head, thinking that Site D's manager was ridiculous.
On their side, the couple, the DPG trio and the keepers had done the same thing as Valentine and left their luggage in the keepers' office.
"We have ten hours to put the animals on the train!" Juan reminded them as they left the office. "Let's go!"
"The Shitpiercer awaits," Horatio added, pronouncing the nickname they gave to the train due of its size and its role as an animal carrier (1).
"Let's hope there is no cock-up," Nala said.
"Let's touch some wood," Allison added, putting her hand on the closest wooden element.
Joining the temps just outside the Ark, the various teams then headed to their respective sectors, and whereas Owen went to the Predators' Camp with Marisol's and Allison's team, keen to oversee the smooth running of Blue's transportation, Claire went to help Pasqual and Alfredo at the paddocks near the old farm, Alexander mixed with the first team who accepted him, Zia joined one in particular need of vets, since Brice had told her at the party that he didn't need her help, as Maribel was there if needed.
In the morning, the veterinarian went from sector to sector, checking that the temp veterinarians were working correctly and intervening where he had to. He was not the only one to walk through one end of the estate to the other, as Franklin, exempt from the most physical tasks, did the same, seeking footage for the DPG documentary.
Around eight o'clock, vehicles began to leave the estate and among them were, among others, the Gallimimus' and Dryosaurus' livestock trucks as well as several cars pulling horse trailers, which contained certain species of small herbivores. Unlike the others, those didn't go to the station but went directly to InGen's port facility by road with a small escort. The trucks that left for the station returned to the estate a little later, in order to take other transport containers, cages or crates.
The vehicles exited not through the eastern gate, which was soon besieged by journalists thirsty for footage of the estate's interior, but through the western gate, which was more discreet and opened almost directly onto the woods. The first convoy had not crossed anyone on the road between the Farm and the station, as the local authorities had blocked all access to the road to facilitate InGen's operation. After all, as Enrique Ordonez had implied during his visit more than a week earlier, the sooner the animals left, the better it would be for him and many townsfolk.
But whereas some stayed at home or at work waiting for it to happen, many were taken by curiosity and wanted to see the convoys, parking their vehicles before the signs or site barriers placed across the roads and going beyond them on foot to reach the edge of the one taken by InGen's convoys. The police reacted by tasking officers to watch those onlookers and prevent them from going on the road, but as the onlookers flocked, including tourists, families and even single children who had reached the place by bicycle from the town, the canton's police, which was going to be overwhelmed if things went on like this, considered calling for reinforcements.
Shortly after, an InGen Security officer accompanied by one of Wheatley's forces and several of the latter's subordinates, went to give new instructions to a group of Site D guards waiting near several of the division's vehicles.
"Okay, guys. I have a mission for you. I don't know if you've been listening to the radio, but the cops' roadblocks were useless and we now have a whole bunch of schmucks on the roadside. Torres asked Mr. Wheatley to reinforce the convoys' escort with his men and they will need drivers and chaperones."
As the two officers began to form teams, Valentine, who was part of the group of guards, frowned upon noticing that the English bruiser, Theo, was among the mercenaries.
"…Theo, go with him," Wheatley's officer ordered, pointing at Valentine.
The Englishman nodded and walked towards the Texan but the latter stepped back.
"I refuse to team up with a little girl killer!" He protested indignantly.
Theo stopped and sighed.
"Fuck…" he growled in a low, husky voice.
The InGen officer looked at Theo and then at Wheatley's officer with wide eyes.
"Woah! What the hell is this?" he asked. "I want some explanations!"
Wheatley's officer took InGen's aside and they quietly talked while the guards eyed Theo warily.
"What's that little girl story?" asked one of them, a young woman with a tight bun of brown hair. "Because if we have to take a psychopath with us..."
One of Theo's comrades, a bald man about the same age and sporting only a thin goatee on his chin, joined them and explained his case to them, speaking in a low voice, as if to not be heard by him or at least as little as possible.
"He won't talk about it, so I'll do it for him. It will be better I think… It was an accident. Theo was part of the British anti-riot police. Like his job asked him, he was called one day for a demonstration. Except that things escalated and it ended up being such a mess that bystanders were caught by the chaos. While charging at protesters, Theo's shield accidentally met a girl. She died instantly. You can imagine the parents were pissed… Theo narrowly avoided prison but he lost his job and his wife left him. He fought in the Irak War before joining the riot police so that helped him find odd jobs like this one and leave England behind. That's it... As long as you keep your distance with him and avoid uttering the words girl and shield in his presence, it should be alright..."
The InGen guards nodded and the officers returned, changing the teams in order to not put Theo with Valentine. The last thing they needed was for a fight to break out between members of both factions, especially since problems soon piled up.
"Uh… We have a little problem between kilometres four and five," someone said in English on the radio. "Protesters are blocking the road..."
-o-
Notes
(*) It's also a reference to the Snowpiercer, the gigantic train from the eponymous graphic novel series by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette and its film adaptation by Bong Joon-ho.