Note: Next update may be late but should be up by the 10th at the latest.
With Nic off doing work, Eric decided to take the safari tour on his own. A specially equipped van would carry him and 5 other tourists, plus 2 staff members, across the plains and through the jungle. It would basically be a tour of the island without actual entrance into any exhibits.
He'd get a glimpse of the Gyrosphere Valley, drive past the aviary, see the kayaks floating down the river, and learn more about the history of the island and the park. And if he was lucky, he'd get to see a wide variety of dinosaurs!
Thankfully, he'd managed to sign up for the last seat on the next tour and was now standing at the starting point, waiting for the van. The rest of the group consisted of a trio of college-aged friends, a teenaged boy, and his younger brother. The younger kid reminded him of Nic in some ways, way too smart for his own good; he spouted off random facts about the dinosaurs, about the trip, and about the van that would take them around the island.
When the van finally drove up, Eric went in last and took the last seat in the back row with the two brothers.
"What's your favourite dinosaur?"
Eric grinned at the younger boy. "Diplodocus."
The kid started rambling off facts about the dinosaur as the van pulled away.
"Welcome to the Jurassic Safari, your introduction to Jurassic World!" the guide's chipper voice came over the speakers as the van took off.
Paddock 11 peeked through the trees down the road as Nic approached. While it hadn't been entirely unexpected she would be called in - remaining on the island as the only qualified tech for the control systems was part of the agreement for her vacation - it still sucked to be called in so early on in her time off. It didn't exactly bode well for the rest of her vacation.
Not to mention Eric was running around unsupervised with an all-access pass. He'd already tried to add 'raptor pen' to his itinerary, what the hell was he going to get into unsupervised?
She grinned at the memory of hopping onto his back on Main Street and finally grabbing his phone from him. Some older woman tried to shame them for their behaviour - acting like children *gasp* in public! - but they ignored her and kept going.
After everything that had happened, she hadn't realized just how much she needed someone like Eric around. Someone to have fun with!
As she neared the paddock, she realized the walls were higher and saw construction workers straddling beams and cement as they raised them further. Whatever they were keeping in there, whatever the Indominus Rex was, it was clearly bigger than they'd been expecting. Not that Nic would know - every time she came by the paddock, the thing was hiding in the foliage. All she'd ever managed to catch a glimpse of was an eye here or there, maybe the swish of a tail and shaking leaves.
She pulled to a stop next to the metal stairs that led up to the control room. Reaching into the back seat, she grabbed her kit, then went up the stairs.
Inside, she saw a workman by the controls going through a backpack and another workman by the glass doing repairs.
"You here to fix the systems?" the guy digging in his backpack asked.
"Yeah," she said, reaching a hand out to him. "Nic."
The guy laughed. "I'm Nick, too."
"Clearly long lost twins then," Nic said, smiling.
Nick waved a hand over toward the server closet. "Computers are over there, let me know if you need anything."
Nic already knew where they were, it wasn't her first visit, but the guy was nice enough, so she just smiled and thanked him. Her curiosity got the better of her, so she asked, "You see what they're keeping in there?"
While the name Indominus Rex sounded like a ridiculous marketing ploy, she still couldn't help but think whatever it was must be pretty bad given the enclosure surrounding it.
Nick's face fell with a wince as he glanced out the windows. "Mr. Masrani says it's gonna give even the parents nightmares and I can't disagree. The thing's terrifying, looks right through you."
Looking sidelong out the window, she winced and tried to get a glimpse of the thing. Not a single branch in the paddock moved as she stared into it. No eyes visible. Nothing. Wherever it was, it was hidden well.
"Right," she breathed, trying to shake the feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Might as well get to work, then."
"Good luck," Nick said.
She gave him a smile she didn't feel and turned back to the server closet.
"We've been prebooking tickets for months," Claire said as they pulled up to the paddock. "If you approve of the paddock, we'll open in a little over 3 weeks."
The fact that they were still building up the walls and the thing was inside, whatever it was, didn't sit right with Owen. The way they just went ahead and made this thing without consideration for how big it would get had him starting off this 'inspection' on the wrong foot already.
"Prebooking for what?" he muttered as he got out of the car. The walls were reinforced, from what he could see. But if they were already 40 feet high, that would cover even Rexy. Yet they were still building. An uneasy feeling settled into the pit of his stomach.
"The park needs a new attraction every few years," Claire explained, leading the way to a set of stairs going up the side, "to reinvigorate public interest. Kind of like the space program."
At that moment, the door opened and Owen saw Nic at the top of the stairs. Her posture went rigid when her eyes locked with his. It had been months since they'd spoken, nearly a year since he'd been a total asshole to her. At most they'd probably said half a dozen words to one another all year.
"All fixed?" Claire asked as Nic descended the stairs.
Nic finally looked away from him and said, "No, I need to check the control panels out here. Server room looks fine, though. If we can't figure it out, you may need to engage the manual locks while I reboot."
At least they had manual locking. One point for the precautions taken ahead of time, he supposed.
"Is this likely to happen again?" Claire sighed.
Nic shook her head. "Until I know what's going on, I can't say for sure one way or another." She hoisted her gear bag over her shoulder. "I'll figure it out, then write up a post mortem for you, we can do a lessons learned and make sure it doesn't happen again. Or at least minimize the chances."
"Keep me informed," Claire said.
"Will do." With another quick, hesitant look in his direction, she walked off around the paddock. In that brief moment, her eyes seemed to drill right through him.
Shit, he was going to have to at least talk to her. Barry was right, he didn't know a damn thing about her apart from a handful of assumptions. And she was actually kind of pretty, even if she wasn't his usual type.
Maybe later on he could show up at her apartment with flowers or something. At least apologize for being an asshole.
"Anyway," Claire said, leading the way up the stairs.
Owen pulled his attention away from Nic and followed, trying not to think about her eyes. Were they always that bright?
"Corporate felt genetic modification would up the 'wow' factor," Claire said.
"They're dinosaurs," Owen scoffed. Kids these days were so damn spoiled - especially if actual live dinosaurs weren't impressive! "'Wow' enough."
"Not according to our focus groups," Claire said. "The Indominus Rex makes us relevant again."
Laughter shot out of him before he could stop it. "The what?"
"We needed something scary and easy to pronounce," Claire replied. "Indominus Rex won the focus group polling. Besides, you should hear a four-year-old try to say 'Archaeornithomimus'."
"You should hear you try to say it," Owen shot back, still chuckling at the stupid name. "Indominus Rex…."
He nearly walked into her as she stopped and glared at him, arms crossed. "Are you done?"
Owen bit down on his smile and gestured toward the door. A soft chuckle escaped him as she turned around and climbed the last steps, still talking about that stupid-ass name. Inside the control room was a small desk with touchscreen controls and a workman operating them.
On the far side, floor to ceiling windows - one of them recently replaced, he noticed - and more touchscreens for the tourists observing the animal. Another workman was cleaning up the mess around the recently replaced window.
"So, what's it made of?" he asked, crossing to stand at the windows. The foliage in the paddock was thick and he couldn't see any sign of movement inside.
"It's…classified," Claire said.
Classified. This wasn't the goddamn military, it was a theme park. "You made the animal and you don't know what it is?"
"All I can tell you is that the base genome is Tyrannosaurus Rex," Claire replied.
Owen muttered under his breath about how out of touch executives were. "You want me to advise you on this damn thing, I kind of need to know what it is," he muttered.
"Look," she sighed behind him, "the lab delivers us assets, and we show them to the public." In the reflection in the glass, he watched her cross over to the controls and the worker.
Clearly she either didn't know or wasn't going to tell him, so he tried a new angle, "Okay, so why'd you replace the glass?"
Claire stopped in her tracks, then turned to face him with the fakest smile he'd ever seen as he looked over his shoulder at her. "It…tried to break the glass."
The beginnings of a headache pricked at the edge of his consciousness. "And you think it's a good idea to just…bring people here? In under a month?"
When Claire scoffed at him, he struggled to tamp down on the urge to start a fight. This whole idea was stupid, absolutely idiotic. And they were just ready to drop people in the middle of it all?
"Can we drop a steer?" Claire asked the worker.
The guy nodded and a crane extended out into the paddock with a slab of meat attached, slowly lowering the already dead meat into the paddock. Nothing to stimulate her, but four grey walls, a bit of foliage, and a crane that dropped already-dead game into her enclosure. Whatever the dinosaur was, she had to be going crazy with the urge to hunt, the need for some kind of stimulation.
Shaking his head, Owen asked, "How long has she been in there?"
"All its life," Claire replied, coming to stand next to him.
"Never seen anything outside of these walls?" Owen asked, incredulous. These people never learn.
"Well, we can't exactly walk it, can we?" Claire shot back.
"And you feed it with that thing?" he exclaimed, pointing to the crane.
Claire sighed and put her hands on her hips as she turned to face him, annoyance plain as day on her face. "Is there a problem here, Mr. Grady?"
"Animals raised in isolation aren't exactly the most functional," he muttered, staring into the paddock. No sign of movement. Honestly, though, if he were in that animal's place, a slab of meat on a stick wouldn't entice him either.
"Your raptors are born in captivity," Claire shot back. How was she not understanding that this was bad? Bad for the animal and bad for every living thing on that island if it got out.
"With siblings," he said. "They learn social skills. And I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust." Owen sighed as he continued to search the paddock, then pointed toward the crane. "The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food."
Even though he wasn't looking at her, he could practically hear Claire roll her eyes. "So she needs a friend? We should schedule play dates? That sort of thing?"
"Probably not a good idea," he grumbled. "Probably not a good idea to open this paddock to tourists either."
Claire let out an irritable grunt, then tapped on the glass. "Where is it?"
Owen shook his head - how the hell did she run a theme park full of animals and never learn to not tap on the damn glass?
He couldn't help himself, though; the sarcasm eked out of its own volition. "What, is it in the basement? Is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room."
"It was just here," Claire muttered. "We were just here!" With another angry growl, she crossed the room to the controls while Owen walked slowly along the glass.
No movement in the paddock, no tail showing through the green, not even an eye carefully watching them.
He reached the end of the windows and as he started to turn around, he noticed the claw marks in the walls.
"Oh, shit," he hissed.
Behind him, alarms sounded, echoing off the walls.
The worker finally spoke up. "That doesn't make any sense. These doors haven't been opened in weeks."
Owen pointed at the scratched up wall. "Were those claw marks always there?"
"You think it-?" Claire cut off mid-sentence, and he turned to see her staring aghast at the scratches. "Oh god! She has an implant in her back! I can track it from the control room!" Without another word, she ran full-tilt from the room.
All signs pointed to whatever was in there managing to escape and Nic was out there alone.
"Shit." Owen grabbed the worker by the window; the guy looked scared shitless. "There's a woman outside, brown hair, bunch of techie stuff, go get her and bring her back in here! Go!" He shoved the guy toward the door, then looked at the other worker. "How do we get in there?"