Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
At the laboratory:
- Indy Negotiates — John Williams, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.
Wheatley's mercenaries and Rankin takes over the estate:
- The Lannisters Send Their Regards — Ramin Djawadi, Game of Thrones: Season 3.
The brawl in the laboratory:
- The Nightclub Brawl — John Williams, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.
-o-
"Claire, it's over…" Mills sighed. "You failed. Elsa's death is an unfortunate setback, but the delivery won't be cancelled. It was just delayed and tonight an Indoraptor will still leave the estate."
Realizing that he, and probably Lynton, had ordered the execution of some Plan B, Wu and Maya looked at the Lockwood Foundation's manager with shocked expressions.
"You intend to give Ruedi to the French?!" The geneticist exclaimed. "This is madness, Eli! This animal is not sane! You want him to slaughter his new owners? If he wasn't important as a control subject, I would have had him euthanized!"
Owen shook his head, thinking that said plan B was not only dangerous but also very stupid.
"Besides, he's a male," he added. "I thought the buyer knew that Elsa was a female. How are you going to explain that to her?"
"We'll tell her he's trans. It's currently trendy and our dinosaurs have always been a bit gender fluid as the kids say," Lynton replied half-jokingly before turning to the bay window, briefly following the security guard who was taking the footbridge by the office-relaxation area.
It was the one she had sent for a glass of gin, or at least a goblet since he hadn't found a glass in the gym. The guard walked past the elevator, into the changing room, but as he crossed the threshold of the lab door, a dark figure slipped up behind him and knocked him unconscious with the butt of his pistol. The guard dropped the goblet and collapsed face down.
"My gin!" Lynton exclaimed, unpleasantly surprised when she heard a splashing sound.
She wanted to turn around but she wasn't allowed to do that in time because the man who had just knocked out the security guard immediately rushed towards her and pointed the barrel of his gun behind her head. When the other guard and Maya wanted to stop him, the man said:
"Not so fast. Think twice before you act... You don't want this floor splashed with something other than some drink."
Recognizing his French accent, InGen's CEO sneered.
"Mr. Vuillier ... So you are indeed their accomplice. I was right to distrust you from the start."
"The feeling is mutual," the Frenchman replied.
Then, he pulled her back to move her away from Mills, Maya and the remaining guard.
"Free their family," the WDMC director demanded. "And you and Professor Wu shall be released."
"Otherwise what? Are you going to shoot me?" Lynton asked. "Are you able to do that though? Killing a thug in a Third World country in the line of duty is one thing, murdering an old lady in the United States while on an illegal mission is another."
"No. But I don't promise a pleasant time."
Lynton sighed and then looked at Mills.
"Since it's kind of your fault, Eli, you're going to bring their son and Mr. Grady's mother. Then, let them go out by the tunnel..."
"So they can fall into an ambush at its exit?" The WDMC director raised. "No, here's what we're going to do. You're going to let us leave the manor and the estate and we'll go to Eureka. There, the exchange will take place in front of the police station, in full view of all. You will have an hour and a quarter to bring Mrs. Grady and her grandson there. If they're ever late and/or hurt or if you screw us over, you're in for big trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Enough to make this evening's victory short-lived. Not only have my subordinates been instructed to notify the police if I don't return to San Francisco, but I have a friend at the FBI who knows I was going to be snooping here. If you proceed to the exchange in time and promise to not harm Mrs. Dearing, Mr. Grady and their loved ones again, I will shut up about what I saw here. Is that understood?"
Lynton was silent for a moment, looking thoughtful, and then said:
"That's all? Are you really going to shut up? You like to make it look like you're a trustworthy man, but is that the case?"
She suddenly changed the subject.
"Didn't you wonder how I got your home address, Mr. Vuillier?"
"I did."
"A common acquaintance gave it to me."
"Who?" The WDMC director asked dryly, fearing the presence of a mole within his agency.
"What? A man as intelligent as you has not guessed it yet? She is a lovely person whom you have seen several times over the past month. You met her in a certain Scottish pub in San Francisco. Thirtyish, redhead… You know who I'm talking about."
Realizing who Lynton's agent was, Guillaume tilted his head slightly, cringed, and sighed.
"Margaretha…"
"Miss Charteris is one of our secretaries. I chose her after studying your behavior at the reception last March," InGen's CEO revealed before looking at Claire. "I handed you a tantalizing pot of honey and you rushed on it like a gluttonous bear."
At that moment, Guillaume saw Claire look at him strangely for a moment and Owen stared at him intently like a wolf.
"And that's not all. Margaretha saw him in the company of Jeff Rossiter," the businesswoman added.
"Rossiter?" Claire repeated suspiciously. "Biosyn's former CEO?"
"Yes. Miss Charteris saw them exchanging envelopes. I wonder what they contained. Claire. Mr Grady. Can you really trust your new friend? Does he collaborate with you without having some secret agenda?"
"I'll stop you right now! I am not in collusion with Rossiter or Biosyn!" The WDMC director rebuked.
"If you're not on their payroll, then what were you talking about?" Lynton asked sardonically.
Aware that he had to win back the couple's trust right away, Guillaume knew he had to be honest, even if it risked hampering his investigation.
"Rossiter put me on a lead, that of some Bethany project."
"Bethany? Never heard of," InGen's CEO shrugged. "What did you discover?"
"That Benjamin Lockwood was behind the disappearance of the scientists involved in the project. Professor Wu knew some of them, all specialists in human genetics. They were murdered eight years ago by the same man, one of your Slayers."
Wu began to stare intently at Vuillier and Lynton.
"My Slayers? They served InGen as a whole and Benjamin was its CEO at the time, not me," she pointed out. "I admit that I directly tasked the Slayers with some matters on a few occasions, but I'm afraid I had nothing to do with that case. You will ask your questions to Benjamin, if you ever have the opportunity..."
Guillaume had noticed that Mills had tensed up as soon as they broached the topic of the Bethany project. Maybe Lynton didn't know anything about it, but he, who not only was the manager of the Lockwood Foundation but was already working for it when the scientists were liquidated, must have some information.
"You know, don't you, Mills?"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" the businessman denied.
At the same time, Claire and Owen's eyes turned to the locker room. The first wanted to warn Guillaume by murmuring with her lips, but Mills occupied all his attention.
"What's the Bethany project? Why were the scientists murdered? Tell me!" The WDMC director insisted.
"Pose ton arme et éloignes-toi d'elle, Guillaume. Je n'hésiterais pas à tirer," a female voice suddenly ordered him behind his back.
Hearing the safety of a pistol being removed, he obeyed, releasing Lynton before dropping his gun and sighing. If he hadn't wasted time talking about Margaretha, Rossiter and the Bethany project, he and the couple would probably be heading out with their hostages. Defeated, he looked at his friend, who was standing at the entrance to the lab and the security guard came running to subdue him while Vanessa and another guard pulled the one knocked out by Guillaume into a corner to wake him up.
"Mrs. De Mafart," Lynton said to the newcomer in a grateful tone.
"How did you get here?" Mills asked, alarmed.
"Do I need to remind you the nature of my profession?" The DGSE agent replied, stepping forward to join them.
Understanding her insinuation, the security guard wanted to point his weapon at her but Lynton prevented him with a wave of her hand.
"Don't worry, the few guards I met are still alive," De Mafart added before crouching down to grab the weapon of her father's friend.
The geneticists looked at De Mafart.
"Another French?!" Tenold exclaimed. "No, but it's an invasion or what? Between Karim, Brice Le Goff at the camp, this Vuillier and her... Haven't you noticed that we are in the heights and not in the middle of a swamp? There are not many frogs here! Go lower."
Of course, the DGSE agent ignored him and looked at Lynton.
"The truck didn't show up at the gate," she told her. "What the hell is going on? My patience has limits!"
On their screens, De Mafart's two colleagues saw the hostage-taking.
"Il y a une couille dans le pâté là?!" Hunebelle exclaimed into his colleague's earpiece.
"Ce n'est pas une couille qu'il y a mais deux et le phallus qui va avec," Prieur added.
The French agent then noticed that Maya's face was ruddy and wet.
"Mrs. Harris. Where is your animal?"
The trainer shook her head, then glared at the couple. De Mafart understood what happened. She remained silent for a moment.
"I hope you had a back-up plan. What was it?" She finally asked Mills and Lynton.
The manager of the Lockwood Foundation began to stammer out the beginning of a response.
"Uh. So actually..."
But Guillaume interrupted him.
"They plan to give you a control individual, mentally unstable according to Wu!" He warned his compatriot in their mother tongue.
She looked him in the eyes briefly before directing them to Wu.
"Professor Wu. Is it true that the second Indoraptor is deranged?"
"Yes," replied the geneticist.
"Is the risk it represents greater than the benefits of the project we were planning for Elsa?"
He swallowed.
"He is. Unleashed, he could slaughter an entire research center."
De Mafart nodded slightly, then burst out laughing. She turned to Mills and Lynton before looking at Wu again.
"Do you have any embryos?"
He nodded.
"I want several. As well as all the equipment necessary for their development. And as originally agreed, Mrs. Harris will come with us."
Mills protested:
"But the deal was only about one ind…"
"Be quiet, Eli!" Lynton cut him off. "We are going to prepare all this, Mrs. De Mafart."
"Please do, unless I have to help you get rid of these two pains in the ass?" The DGSE agent said with annoyance.
InGen's CEO cleared her throat, looked at Guillaume, and then at the couple.
"Counter-offer," she said to Claire and Owen. "Release Wu or something will happen to Mr. Vuillier."
With a hand gesture, Lynton ordered the guard to punch the WDMC director in the abdomen.
"If you comply, I promise to release your son and his grandmother," she added.
"What would become of us?" Claire asked.
"You will be handed over to the police. Armed robbery and hostage taking are after all sufficient motives for a prolonged stay in prison. Of course, we will make sure to hide the existence of this place by disguising the truth a little."
The fallen park director grimaced and groaned.
"You should have listened to me when I suggested that you stay away from InGen's business," Lynton told her calmly. "You are at our mercy now."
Claire exchanged a look with Guillaume, then with Owen, who nodded. She then grabbed Wu by the arm, dragged him towards Lynton and Mills, and finally let go of him, quite brutally, almost throwing him at Lynton's feet.
"Take back your dog," Claire grumbled, while her betrothed followed her closely.
Lynton immediately ordered the guards in the bunker to subdue them but Maya reached the couple first and landed a heavy punch in Owen's face. The trainer looked at Claire.
"It's very nice of you to try to protect him, but I know he's the one who killed her," she told him. "Asshole!" She added angrily towards Owen.
The trainer then grabbed her baseball bat but just as she was about to strike the Raptor Whisperer with it, Lynton stopped her.
"Mrs. Harris! Go help your colleagues. We can arrange a private moment between you two later if you wish."
Maya let out a groan, put down her bat and joined the freed geneticists. Lynton suddenly clapped her hands.
"Come on! You heard Mrs. De Mafart? So obey!"
"Put whatever she wants in the truck," Mills added.
The businessman then called out to the nearest guard.
"Tell those downstairs to leave Ruedi in his cage."
Until then waiting on the other side of the bunker, Vlad, Judas and Alf came to join their colleagues in the laboratory. While the pockets of the three hostage takers were being emptied, InGen's CEO then turned to the DGSE agent, who was tapping her foot.
"I'm glad we found some common ground, Mrs. De Mafart," she said in an unctuous manner while the geneticists and a few guards prepared the requested pieces of equipment.
"You were lucky! Con and passion make compassion I suppose," the Frenchwoman answered dismissively. "If I didn't attach great importance to this mission, I would have cancelled the exchange. You tried to fuck me with that other Indoraptor, and conning me amounts to con the government of which I am the instrument. Wars broke out for lesser motives, and it seems to me that you have enough enemies. I will inform my superiors about this incident. In the future, be more careful."
De Mafart then turned to the couple and the WDMC director. She looked at them contemptuously.
"So it was you three who almost screwed up my mission? You're good to be fichés S!"
She stared at Claire.
"T'en pinces pour ça, Guillaume?" The DGSE agent asked to her compatriot. "Beurk. Avant j'aurais compris, mais là…"
Claire then replied in French in a mocking tone.
"Well, you're a secret service agent but you can't stand the sight of a gash? No but come on!"
"Comme elle t'as cassée…" Hunebelle laughed in De Mafart's earpiece.
Irritated, the agent grabbed Claire's chin and raised it.
"I assume Guillaume is the brain, and your boyfriend is the muscle. That would make you, a fucking disgraced theme park manager, the leader? It's ridiculous. I would advise you to not be a smartass, I've been in the army."
"I slew a ten-ton dinosaur. And you?"
"Yeah, sure! And I am Joan of Arc!"
"Yes for the nationality, the physique and the martial aspect but for the greatness and the heroism? Not so much, because you don't even look like a real heroine and are closer to those rich pricks we often see in stories set in schools. Basically Drago Malfoy with a pair of tits and a cunt."
While Hunebelle was laughing in the van, De Mafart hit Claire in the face with the butt of her pistol.
"Chienne arrogante…"
In response to the action of the WDMC agent, Owen became angry and he was only narrowly restrained by the guards. While the Raptor Whisper glared at her, grimacing, reminding De Mafart of a dog about to attack, she turned away from them.
"You will not get away with it Sophie!" Guillaume said to her.
"What are you going to do? Have me arrested? By the time you contact the police, if they let you out of here, I would already be far from here and I will be untouchable once back in France."
"So what? Are you going to leave me at the mercy of these assholes and pretend you didn't see me?"
"Sorry Guillaume, but I serve the interests of France, nothing else."
"No, you serve the interests of its government. There's a difference. Many French will want to hang you if they learn that you helped importing monsters in their country."
He sighed.
"You disappoint me, Sophie..."
He shook his head and then added:
"No, actually, I always thought you were a bit of a bitch. I was hoping that you would gain wisdom and stop acting like a duchess, but it was in vain..."
"And I always wondered how my father could like a guy like you...," she retorted. "You're both remnants of a dying world though... A new one is rising and I intend to have a place in it!"
In the opposite part of the lab, Wu came to see Lynton.
"You're going to hand them over to the police?" he asked in a flat voice. "Right?"
InGen's CEO looked at their three prisoners.
"Not sure…"
The geneticist's eyes widened in fear.
"Not sure? You don't think about...?"
"Yeah, I'm considering it. It will take a huge thorn out of our side. You care about their life? I thought you lived in fear of seeing Claire show up one day to carry out her revenge... Let me remind you that she had a gun on your head earlier and that she almost threw your boy pussy from a balcony during the Fall. You will be more serene knowing she is dead. Had your roles had been reversed, she would be right now dragging you to the Dungeon, to feed you to your own creation."
"But Mr. Vuillier said that..."
"That the police and the FBI might show up should he disappear? I'm not deaf, Henry," she cut him off. "But until then, we can once again bribe the right people. So let me deal with the dangers threatening InGen and focus instead on opening the safe and getting out the Indoraptor embryos," she added before walking away.
Wu let out an anguished sigh.
"Oh God…"
His gaze then met Maya's, who was close enough to have heard their conversation.
"Maya, don't you think this is going too far?"
She said nothing and instead went to help prepare the equipment. At the same moment, Wheatley's men started their offensive.
Taken by surprise, the guards near the tents were quickly neutralized. In the dining tent, Franklin and Alexander, who had just begun a serious conversation about the former's discomfort, heard sounds of struggle. Worried, they looked for a way out but the young man pulled his colleague by the arm, dragging him under the nearest table, lifting its tablecloth before disappearing behind. Closer to the entrance of the tent, there was a third person, a taxi driver who, until then, had been quietly waiting for her client, one of the buyers who didn't intend to stay too late. Seeing the two DPG members hiding, she wanted to do the same. One of the mercenaries entered the dining tent at that moment and saw her.
"Hey! Don't move!" The newcomer hissed before rushing towards her.
But from her bag, she pulled out a pepper spray and sprayed the mercenary's face. The man took a step or two back and then started screaming and gesticulating, inadvertently kicking the driver who lost her balance and let her spray slip out of her hands and roll in the grass. While the mercenary was still bothered by the capsaicin he had received in his eyes, she got up and wanted to rush towards the nearest exit but alerted by the screams of his comrade, a second mercenary had entered and caught her. The tablecloths falling quite low, they did not see Franklin and Alexander, who were almost holding their breath in order to not be heard. While the mercenaries rounded up in the dining tent the disarmed or unconscious guards, the caterer and his team, the servants and anyone they had caught near the tents, the IT technician and the DPG founder waited.
Meanwhile, Manny, Fanny and a few other mercenaries entered the auction marquee, weapons in hand, interrupting Alistair Iger in the middle of his speech.
"Uh .. is that part of the program?" Cabot Finch worried when he saw the newcomers.
As the gathering gasped in surprise and fear, Manny strode straight to the platform.
"Change of program, ladies and gentlemen!" he announced. "I'm afraid the evening will last longer than expected! Unfortunately, we have to keep all of you here!"
His men then turned on the gathering and those on the platform.
"Hands up!" They shouted. "And don't move!"
InGen's management and the buyers obeyed, raising their arms while Manny and another mercenary chased off the platform's occupants. Noticing that Lord Clayton still hadn't returned to his seat, Xun Sung turned to her assistant.
"Have you seen Lord Clayton?" She asked her in Chinese.
The assistant answered with a shrug.
"Where's that twat?" Dinosaurs City's director added.
"Silence!" One of the mercenaries ordered.
The English aristocrat was on the outskirts of the village of caravans and prefabs when half a dozen mercenaries attacked the camp from the south and east. The alarm was sounded and following the directions of one of the guards, Lord Clayton ran to the basin's gate and passed through it, heading for the central enclosures, dropping his jacket on the way. Keepers and veterinarians also converged there, taking shelter in the secondary enclosure of one of the large herbivores, delimited by a high palisade which would hide them from the attackers. Those inside the control station barricaded themselves and desperately called for reinforcements but no one answered. Facing the mercenaries' advance, the guards, led by George Lambert, abandoned the village and entrenched themselves inside the basin for a better defence, firing on the attackers from the watchtowers and the catwalk above the main gate. Leading the mercenaries, Mickey told his subordinates to not advance any further and to stay covered. Between the mercenaries' positions and the large gate, several guards were laying on the ground.
At the opposite end of the basin, Dorian Faraday and Marion Grewal had scaled the perimeter fence and were now crossing the carnivore sector on their way to the core area. As for Rankin and Bentley, they were moving furtively towards the control station.
The team that entered the tunnel, consisting of four mercenaries, came in sight of the truck and the loading platform, but one of the guards, sent to the Dungeon by Lynton to see what his two colleagues were doing, saw them. Realizing it wasn't Torres' men, he lunged for a button to close the large gate.
"Intruders!" he shouted.
While the gate lowered and two of his colleagues and one of the guards rushed out of the lab, the guard watched for the approaching intruders while keeping cover. To his surprise, they didn't advance, staying close to the tunnel's opening, and they didn't even fire, letting the large gate close and the guard lock a smaller door built within it.
In the lab, everyone was struck with confusion, and Wu, who had walked towards the Braindead poster, froze. Accusing looks were cast at Guillaume.
"It's happening! The FBI found us!" Giles exclaimed, panicked.
"L'assaut domie a commencé!" Karim added.
But Mills turned to De Mafart.
"Did you come alone?!" he questioned her.
"Eli!" Lynton hissed.
"Yes!" the DGSE agent replied, irritated by the suspicion of the Lockwood foundation's manager. "If those intruders were my partners, I'd already have my gun pointed at one of you. Your men must repel them! If InGen fails to be reliable, consider the contract void!"
Then she went out into the changing room and crossed her arms, indicating to them that she was not going to intervene, that they had to do without her, and that if the bunker was about to be taken, she would leave the place before being caught by the attackers.
Lynton looked around the room. Apart from her, Eli, De Mafart, the geneticists, the couple and Guillaume Vuillier, there was still Maya, two guards in charge of watching the hostage takers, as well as the security guard knocked out by the WDMC director. Seeing that he regained consciousness, InGen's CEO decided to send the ex-soldier and the two guards to support those at the gate to maximize the chances of repelling the ongoing assault, and they obeyed. Thus, Claire, Owen and Guillaume were left under the sole supervision of the guard, who was still a little groggy.
"Shouldn't we evacuate?" One of the geneticists asked.
"You forgot how to behave in the event of an attack?!" Lynton scolded him.
While some of the geneticists carried tables to the exits, the others looked for hiding places, mainly in the back of the laboratory.
"Uh, with all due respect, ma'am, but that's not a high school shooting. These guys are here for our research, not to shoot on easy targets!" Tenold pointed out. "We should get away! Because putting up with two hostage-takings in a single evening..."
"He's not wrong, you know…" Mills quavered.
"Shut up!" InGen's CEO said. "We will remain hidden here until those brigands are stopped!"
Wanting to call Torres, she pulled out her phone.
"There is no signal!" she exclaimed the next moment.
Suddenly, the lights went out, increasing the feeling of anxiety among the laboratory's occupants.
"They've cut the power!" Someone realized
"Don't panic. The emergency lights will come on soon," Wu said.
They soon began to hear gunshots, causing some gasps among the geneticists. Maya and the guards had just made a sortie and the scientists hoped that they would return quickly and safely. As announced by Wu, the light eventually returned to the laboratory, the office-relaxation area and the control room, albeit dimly while the lower level remained in darkness. Taking advantage of the panic reigning around them and the guard's condition, the couple and Guillaume chose this moment to rush on the latter. With relative ease, they managed to neutralize him, knocking him out again, and while the WDMC director took his pistol, Claire rushed to grab Maya's bat lying nearby. Then, she and Owen made their way to Wu, with her intimidating those in her path with the bat.
"Move away, you rats!" she growled.
Under the helpless eyes of the geneticists, Mills and Lynton, who fumed at the situation spiralling out of her control, the couple put their hands on Wu and Owen picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder and carrying him in the opposite direction in the same way as an ape-like beast kidnapping a damsel in a pulp story. But Ivan, Alf, Vlad, Judas and a few others did not sit idly by and rushed towards them. The former, full of hatred for the fallen park director, even grabbed a scalpel and threw it straight at her face but Claire deflected it with the bat before glaring at Wu's boyfriend.
Ahead, Guillaume was about to reach the door of the changing room when De Mafart opened it first and returned to the laboratory, blocking the trio's way. The WDMC director stopped, hesitating.
"You'll have to walk over me if you want to get out," the DGSE agent told him.
"Guillaume!" Owen suddenly barked.
He stepped aside, yielding the way to the keeper while De Mafart stood her ground, raising her fists and her eyes scanning the trio, trying to predict their movements.
But just before she could lunge forward to hit the Raptor Whisperer, he spun around sharply and the Frenchwoman was hit in the head by Wu's flailing legs. Surprised, she lost her balance and fell. Guillaume immediately rushed into the doorway, pistol in hand, and Owen followed him. The latter suddenly heard Claire fall and let out a grunt. He turned and saw that De Mafart had tripped his girlfriend by grabbing her calf as she passed by. Seeing the fallen park director in a vulnerable situation and exhorted by Lynton, their pursuers grew bolder and rushed in her direction, with Mills, that opportunistic jackal, joining them.
"Get out!" Claire shouted to her two companions before being overwhelmed.
"Shove a bottle in her ass!" A female scientist exclaimed, completely hysterical following the consumption of alcohol or narcotics.
Owen categorically refused to leave his betrothed behind. Still keeping Wu on his shoulder, he turned and rushed to her aid, screaming in his advance while Claire tried to fend off her attackers with kicks. Before Mills could took the bat, Owen charged him, shoving him to the side with a powerful shoulder slam before grabbing the bat. But the geneticists immediately took advantage of this to catch Wu and go after the Raptor Whisperer, leaving Claire with De Mafart, who was on top of her. With a powerful knee to the crotch, the fallen director managed to push away the DGSE agent, who moaned in pain and uttered a very audible curse. Claire then rolled to the side, kicked De Mafart in the chin to stun her, and scrambled to her feet, grabbing the closest assailant to punch him in the face. Meanwhile, Guillaume had joined the fray but too late as the geneticists had managed to take Wu from Owen's shoulder.
However, freed from the weight exerted by the geneticist on his shoulder and one of his arms now free, the Raptor Whisperer's movements ended up being less impeded and two of the scientists fell to the ground while the others stepped back at the sight of the bat, which was brandished like a club. Out of the corner of his eye, Owen then saw Mills trying to attack Claire from behind. He warned her.
"Claire!"
She suddenly raised her free fist, and her knuckles hit the businessman's nose and glasses, breaking them. Sore, Mills took a few steps back and just when he wanted to lunge at her, Owen tossed the bat at Claire, lunged at the manager of the Lockwood foundation, overpowered him in two or three movements, grabbed his arm and twisted it. Witnessing the scene and not fighting, Giles and Nicole chanted quietly:
"Break his arm! Break his arm! Break his arm!"
Next to them, Karim was laughing loudly.
"Help!" Mills groaned pathetically.
But while Lynton and everyone else looking toward the changing room's door froze, a voice suddenly thundered:
"Hey, we're not bothering you?!"
The brawlers all paused and noticed a black-clad man in the doorway, with the barrel of his assault rifle pointed in their direction. Coming from the opposite side of the bunker, two other men equipped in a similar way were taking the catwalk.
"Come on, recess is over! Put down your weapons and hands up!" The mercenary ordered.
While the twenty or so defenders of the basin's defenders and the mercenaries had been looking at each other defiantly for a few minutes, a voice came from the loudspeakers:
"Mr. Lambert! Tell your men to put down their weapons, open the gate and surrender!" Jeremy Rankin ordered.
Realizing that the control station had been taken, George froze and looked at his closest subordinate.
"Who's talking?!" He then asked aloud.
"I'm just a contractor working for one of InGen's many enemies. You probably want to ask "Which one exactly?" Biosyn? Grendel? Mantah? Lung? Some ecoterrorist organization? A government agency?" Rankin listed. "Charles Dance or another anti-InGen celebrity?" He added jokingly. "It absolutely doesn't fucking matter. You have been abandoned and those who could have broken the siege are… unavailable. Obey Mr. Lambert or we start to shoot down employees! Don't have their blood on your hands..."
Seeing that the mercenaries had not advanced to grab the wounded guards, George feared the worst and turned around. He saw four people walking up the main aisle towards them, and two of them had their hands on their heads. George recognized them. It was Juan Baró and Brice Le Goff, held up by Faraday and Grewal. Somehow, Rankin's two subordinates had quickly found the keepers and veterinarians' refuge.
"Do as he says, sir," one of the guards suddenly said to his superior.
George turned his head and saw a gun barrel pointed at him by the one who had spoken to him. Among the defenders, two other guards drew their weapons and aimed them at their closest colleagues. George looked at these traitors with a confused but mostly pained look and witnessing the scene through the surveillance cameras, Rankin chuckled.
"See how fragile the loyalty of InGen employees is. Hardly surprising when you see how management treats them. A divided house cannot stand. Mr. Bentley did a fine job of persuading these men to join us. That drunkard might have a future… Unlike InGen, which has rotted too much from the inside. Tonight, it will not see its salvation but its annihilation!"
Convinced that all was lost, George threw his gun on the catwalk and his men did the same. They then opened the gate and let the traitors and mercenaries take them prisoner.
"Who are you?!" Lynton asked one of the mercenaries.
"The questions will come later, Mrs. Lynton, and it will be up to us to ask them! In the meantime, you will wait nicely in this room," he replied, pointing to the office section.
The mercenaries who reached the laboratory, three in number, then hastened to separate their hostages into two groups. One, consisting of Wu, Ivan, Karim, Giles and six other scientists, remained in the lab under the care of one of the mercenaries; the other, made up of Nicole, Tenold and seven other scientists, Alf Herriott, Mills, Lynton, De Mafart, Guillaume, Owen and Claire, was taken by the other two to the office-relaxation area.
"The first one who'll try some crazy stunt will regret it." The mercenary at the back of the line warned them. "The estate is under our control now, any resistance is futile."
As they took the catwalk, the hostages of the second group saw Maya, Vanessa and a second guard surrounded at the bunker's entrance by the other four mercenaries. Although they couldn't see that, they guessed that the other defenders were lying on the ground, lifeless.
The line arrived at the offices' door and the mercenary at its head opened it, starting to push the hostages one by one inside the room. When it was Claire's turn, she nearly bumped into De Mafart and wanting to make her pay for the painful blow to her crotch, the DGSE agent tripped the fallen park director, who almost fell. But witnessing the scene, Owen hailed De Mafart:
"Hey! Blondie!"
She barely had time to look at him when he punched her in the face. De Mafart recoiled, lost her balance and fell on her posterior.
"Oh la patate de forain!" She heard Hunebelle comment in her earpiece, which the hurried mercenaries hadn't noticed.
"Try to hurt my wife again and I'll make you regret it, espèce de connasse!" The Raptor Whisperer said to the DGSE agent, with him pronouncing the last words with a heavy accent. "My gallantry has limits!"
"Nice patriarchal punch!" Claire told him.
"A bit gratuitous though," Guillaume commented. "She rather deserved a big slap. It would have been more humiliating you see..."
The WDMC director having been one of the last in the line, the mercenaries closed the door and while one returned to the laboratory, the other waited for the surviving defenders, whom their comrades were escorting.
"There's no point in fighting each other right now because we're all in the same boat, whether we like it or not..." Guillaume pointed out while looking at their jailers.
De Mafart, still on the ground, put her hand to her bloody nose and glared at Owen.
"Jesus fuck, you broke my nose, Connard le barbant!" she exclaimed.
After looking at the other group of hostages, Guillaume then approached her and said:
"You'll tell Jupiter and Castagnette they can dream on for their new toy. I think those guys intend to steal it."
In the lab, Wu and his subordinates were now at the mercy of two mercenaries, a fat medium-sized one and a tall thin one.
"I assume you know why we're here?" The fat one asked.
"Yes," Wu said.
"Where is your research on the Indoraptor kept? You'd better answer or otherwise we'll gun down your colleagues one by one."
Then the lean mercenary grabbed Ivan.
"And this one is very likely to be the first..." the fat one added.
"Don't hurt them, please," Wu pleaded with the mercenaries. "They are in a safe."
The DGSE agent adjusted her half-broken glasses and straightened up immediately, heading for the bay window by the meeting table. But Owen stood in her way.
"Tss... Tss... You think we'll let you see where the safe is? You can dream on, huh!"
"No, but I know it's behind the poster, you dumb boor!" She retorted. "And even if I didn't know, nothing would have stopped me from asking them," she added, referring to Lynton, Mills and the geneticists locked up with them.
"Come on, Owen. Don't waste your time with her," Claire suggested.
Owen listened and followed her to Wu's office, snarling at the French agent on the way. She finally had access to the bay window but sighed in frustration because Maya and two other surviving defenders, escorted by the mercenaries who neutralized them, were taking the mezzanine, passing in front of the laboratory, inside which the fat mercenary was looking for the safe.
"Do we intervene or not, Nicolas?" Hunebelle asked into De Mafart's ear piece.
"We do not have enough information on the current situation. I'm afraid it's best to wait. She can handle herself in the meantime," Prieur declared.
Just as the third group turned to take the catwalk, the mercenary guarding the door came into position in front of De Mafart, blocking her view.
"Ha! Ha!" Owen scoffed quietly.
Groaning in frustration, she decided to go to the relaxation part of the room, then occupied by Lynton, Mills, Alf and the geneticists, who were glued to the bay by the couch.
"Move over, excuse yourself," she said while fighting her way through the latter.
"Hey!" One of the scientists protested.
"Make room for her!" Lynton ordered them with a half sigh.
"Christian, can you get the radio communications of those guys?" Prieur asked.
De Mafart was reassured to know that Besson had taken the initiative to leave before the mercenary offensive. He was much more useful at the van than at the estate's gates.
"I'm doing that right now. Luckily we took a headset which works with radio waves. I just hope they won't stumble upon our canal...," Besson replied in his nasal and singing southern accent. "Can you still hear us Sophie? Give us a sign if you do."
The DGSE agent tilted her head to look at her hands and discreetly gave a thumbs up.
"Good," her colleague said.
The guarding mercenary opened the door to let Maya, Vanessa and the other guard in and Claire waited for these three to pass before making a discreet sign to Guillaume, asking him to come.
"Where's your bag?" She whispered to him.
"I hid it in the stairs near the changing room," he said quietly.
"And your flash drive?"
"It's on me, where they wouldn't think to search…"
She cringed in disgust.
"Yuk... You can put your flash drive wherever you want but not in my laptop's port, I'm warning you."
"No, it's in one of my socks."
"Ah, you scared me. To say that I probably could have done the same with the tracer, it would have more pleasant... Santagar, that naughty rascal, will hear from me if we survive this evening. I'll teach him to steal his ideas from Metal Gear…"
On the other side of the bunker, four of the mercenaries were starting to climb down the spiral staircase.
"We didn't see a safe," the fat mercenary said. "No need to try to save time."
"It's behind that poster!" Wu clarified, pointing to the Braindead poster.
The mercenary came and tore it away, revealing a safe in a niche. He studied it and noted that they had to enter a code on a keypad to open it.
"The code!" he demanded.
In the other part of the room, Lynton was sitting with Mills at the table near the kitchenette, tapping her foot nervously as many thoughts preoccupied her.
"I can't let that happen!" She exclaimed before standing up. "Come, Eli!"
He followed her towards the offices, occupied by the couple and Guillaume Vuillier. If those huge pain in the ass hadn't been there, Elsa would already be on the road and the contract with the French government would be saved, even with the ongoing hostage crisis as Sophie De Mafart would have already left the estate. Even if the mercenaries claimed to have taken control of the estate, Lynton, the rest of InGen's elite and Mills just had grin and bear it and wait for the intervention of troops sent urgently by Palo Alto, or otherwise those of the authorities, who would be told of the situation sooner or later, and then to hope that the criminals would be arrested in time, before they deliver Wu's research to their backer.
"I agree with what Mr Vuillier said," Lynton said, drawing the attention of their three enemies. "We are now in the same boat. No one in this room wants those men, whoever they are, to get away with Wu's research. We must stop them before it's too late."
"How? There are half a dozen armed men in the bunker, and probably many more outside," Guillaume pointed out. "I'm afraid you have to hope for an eventual police intervention. And they would probably discover this place."
Facing the WDMC director's passivity, InGen's CEO turned to Claire and Owen.
"Claire, Mr. Grady. Help us end this hostage situation and I will order that your son and Mrs. Grady be returned to you safe and sound, that InGen gives you generous indemnification and that we drop our charges. I am even ready to reintegrate you within the company and give you good positions, with many advantages. And I would ask… no, demand that Eli provide the support which Benjamin promised! Understood, Eli?
"Yeah," he replied hesitantly.
Claire chuckled.
"Go to hell, you and the rest of the board! It's too late for apologies. The damage is done, you can't offer anything and above all, your word is worth nothing!" she replied.
"If you think we're going to act like John McClane for you, you're barking at the wrong tree!" Owen added.
InGen's CEO sighed.
"You heard that, Mr. Vuillier? You can't tell me that I didn't proposed any solution..."
"A solution? More like an insult!" Claire retorted.
"The code!" The fat mercenary repeated when confronted to Wu's silence and hesitation.
"Stéphanie de Monaco!" Karim suddenly shouted.
His colleagues gave him an insistent look, begging him to shut up and behave himself.
"The code, Professor!" The skinny mercenary hissed. "Or you can say goodbye to him!"
When the barrel of his gun rested against Ivan's temple, his shaking grew in intensity and Wu saw a tear roll down his cheek.
"Stéphanie de Monaco!" Karim repeated.
"Shut up!" The fat one growled.
Leaving his comrade to grab hold of Ivan, the lean man advanced towards Karim and brandished the butt of his rifle above his head.
"Say some crap again and you're going to be in deep trouble!"
"Pas taper!" the drugged geneticist moaned.
Wu cleared his throat loudly.
"Here's the code: Zero…"
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the quartet of mercenaries had split up. One had gone to watch the entrance to the bunker and the other three had entered the Dungeon, intending to find their leader, fearing that he encountered some problem which delayed him. Scanning their surroundings with the torches of their rifles, they first found one of the guards in the aisle, then their leader in the first cell they saw. Opposite, the door leading to the other cell was open.
"Sir!" The squad leader exclaimed when he saw Wheatley.
As one of his subordinates went to inspect Humperdoo's cell, he and the other approached Wheatley and saw all the blood around and on him, as well as the mutilations that he suffered. At their feet, they saw a broken syringe and all the blood it contained had leaked out.
"Jesus…" one of the mercenaries whispered while fear gripped them.
The squad leader knelt beside their company's leader and looked for a pulse, as if there was a chance he was still clinging to life despite the severity of his injuries. It was of course in vain.
"We can't do anything for him," he said.
He then set about looking for the test tubes which Wheatley's kit had also contained, and which had rolled away during the brief struggle between him and Ruedi. Their comrade came back from the other room.
"The other cell is empty!" He informed them.
"The thing which did this to him isn't far," the squad leader said, sweeping the floor with his flashlight. "We take the sample and we clear off."
"Hmm…"
None of them having uttered that sound more appropriate for a tasty meal or an enriching discussion, the three mercenaries looked at each other briefly, before turning to the aisle facing Ruedi's cell. They saw that it was describing a turn further away. The one behind the Hmm... had to be hidden behind while the Indoraptors had to be even further away. The squad leader resumed his search, dropping the test tube he had come to find because it was empty. He looked for the one which should have contained the saliva.
"Is someone there?" One of his subordinates asked aloud while looking down the hallway, before realizing the idiocy of his question.
He got an answer.
"Hmm…"
This time the sound had been even more eerie and ominous and looking closer they saw a pair of rangers sticking out of the corner, those of the other guard, who had been dragged there by one of InGen's monsters. No one could hide by the end of the aisle and have fun with the mercenaries while being so close to the Indoraptors.
What the fuck is going on?!
Then there was an exhalation noise similar to that of a horse snorting, confirming the animal... or the monstrous nature of the being hidden behind the wall.
The squad leader eventually found the second test tube and grabbed it.
"I got it! Let's move!"
He left the cell and while a bipedal and hunchbacked creature with asymmetrical arms and protofeathers on the top of the skull, the elbows and the spine, advanced in the corridor, the three mercenaries fell back towards the Dungeon's entrance. Once outside, they would call for reinforcements and decide what to do with the Indoraptors. Would they kill them? Capture them for their backer? Or leave them in the Dungeon and just leave, letting the manor's occupants deal with them?
But no sooner had they returned to the antechamber than they ended up facing a pair of parted jaws surmounted by a black melon. Hitherto camouflaged against the freezer, Ruedi had chosen this moment to reveal himself and close his trap on the mercenaries.
The fat mercenary pressed the zero key and then looked at InGen's chief geneticist.
"Next?! Hurry up!"
"Three...one...nine..."
Before Wu could reveal the last two numbers, screams and gunshots were heard and everyone in the bunker froze as the noise came from the Dungeon. A few seconds later, silence returned and the mercenaries feared the worst for their comrades.
-o-
Author's note:
We're quite advanced in the story now, with only one quarter left. However, the publishing will be interrupted as I have to write (and translate) what remains (the last chapters have already been written but I have to deal with the rest of the Lockwood Incident). I originally intended to do that in the last few months but I've been quite busy with a personal project.
I would really like to know what you think of this story so far. Please, share any thought you have about it in the reviews section and if you liked it, leave a like. Feedback is the salary of fanfic writers.
If you want to be informed when the publishing will resume (probably in a few months), make sure to click on the follow button. In the meantime, you can check the detailed pitch of my Dominion rewrite I recently shared if you like to.
Thank you again for reading.