Chapter 7
A Plan
"You're out of your mind," Dr. Ian Malcolm stated, shaking his head as he sat on the bed in his hotel room. "We just got back, and now you're going to go back into the lion's den?"
"There are two people, one of them that I know, there," Dr. Jack Thorne told him.
"Yeah, messing with Richard's equipment in the hide," Malcolm iterated. "What a shame."
"This has nothing to do with Richard," Thorne told him. "I'm not even taking him back. He has to get Kelly and Arby back to their families."
Malcolm nodded. "And you have a company to run."
"I have people taking care of Mobile Field Systems," Thorne told him. "In fact, they're throwing together some equipment and vehicles as we speak. I'm going to have a team down here to help me retrieve them."
Malcolm stood up and moved over to Thorne, glancing to the bathroom, hearing the shower turn off. Apparently Sarah was finally about finished. He needed to pee and had been holding it in for what felt like ages. "Who is this guy to you?"
"Dr. Ben Hildebrand, Archeologist," Thorne replied. "One of my best clients."
"Kinda strange that he of all people is on that island," Malcolm commented. "Not to mention the fact that anyone would be there at all now. We didn't tell anybody where we were going, and -"
"Well, our booking agent, Mr. Jenkins, knew," Thorne reminded him. "And there's no knowing who Dr. Dodgson's people told."
Malcolm sighed. "That's something I was going to handle when I got back to the states."
"What was?" Sarah asked, completely nude as she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair. "Oh!" She turned and quickly moved back into the bathroom. "Didn't know you were here, Doc!"
Thorne chuckled. "It's alright. You don't have anything I haven't seen before." He looked back to Malcolm. "Are you going to take on his company?"
"Biosyn is something I can't do alone," Malcolm said. "But I have some connections. There is a chance that they could try to hit that island again. It might not be extremely likely, but it's possible. I have to cover all of my bases."
Sarah stepped back out of the bathroom, fixing a button down shirt. "I'll help you with that, Ian. It's the least I can do since Dodgson tried to kill me."
Malcolm smiled lightly to her. "I appreciate that." He looked back to Thorne. "So if you're here to ask us to come with you back to Sorna, I don't think I'm going to be doing that. My leg is killing me. Running from dinosaurs again doesn't sound very appealing."
Thorne smiled. "I wasn't going to ask. I wanted to make sure people other than Richard knew where I was going. I can't trust that he'll mount a rescue if something goes wrong. I can at least rely on you two."
Malcolm nodded. "Understood… You are going to at least have more than one of your employees this time, right?"
Thorne sighed. "Three. It was hard convincing any of them after I mentioned that Eddie didn't make it, but these guys are the best."
Malcolm shrugged. "Then why didn't they go with us?"
"Ian!" Sarah scolded.
Malcolm sighed. "I'm just asking."
"It's fine, Sarah," Thorne told her. "I relied too heavily on my equipment. I was sloppy, and I won't make that same mistake again."
"No," Malcolm stated, matter-of-factly. "You're making all new ones."
Moving out of the hotel room, Thorne strode down the hallway, stopping at a bank of payphones. He pulled the receiver from one of them and placed coins before dialing.
"Udesky," a voice said from the other end of the line.
"It's Jack," Thorne said. "How's it coming, Huford?"
"Getting the plane loaded as we speak," Udesky responded. "Nothing to worry about, Doc. It's going to be a walk in the park."