Up ahead, the gates to the main park came into view and Nic relaxed a little. That thing was still out there, but at least safety was in sight. Not to mention she was eager to get out of the awkward car ride with Owen. Neither of them had spoken a single word since leaving the paddock.

And she still wasn't sure if he was being intentionally flirty or if she was misinterpreting an attempt to calm her down after the Indominus.

Even if he had been flirting, after everything that happened, would she be receptive to it? Would she want him to flirt with her? A year ago, the answer would've been an emphatic yes. But after everything that had happened….

"Why the hell didn't you go to the control room?"

Nic shook her head and glanced sidelong at Owen. He was white-knuckling the wheel and his lips were pursed as he kept his eyes on the road ahead. "Huh?" Very articulate, she chastised herself.

Owen sighed, but none of the tension she saw was released with the breath. He was a solid wall of taut muscles and a tight grip, his jaw clamped so tight she was half-convinced pieces of tooth would spurt from his mouth when he spoke. "I told that worker to get you to safety."

Nic blinked. "What worker?" Then she remembered the guy getting into his truck. "He left."

Finally, he looked over at her, anger pulling at the corners of his eyes. "What?"

"He…I saw Claire run to her car, then the other guy…he took off," she said. "Got into his truck and left. I thought…. I mean, I just figured if…." She shook her head again and stared back out the window. "Guess it was stupid to assume he would've told me if something was wrong," she said, half-laughing in disbelief.

From the corner of her eye she saw his grip tighten on the steering wheel as he pushed out a hard breath.

The guards atop the gate acknowledged their arrival as soon as they were closer, and the gates began slowly opening.

Almost the second the car came to a stop, Owen jumped out and stormed off in the direction of the main control room, leaving Nic alone in the garage.

The elevator doors closed, taking Owen up to the Control Room, and he just barely managed to avoid punching out the control panel. Those arrogant sons of bitches made a whole new dinosaur with zero regard for its well-being or the well-being of anyone in the park! And whatever the fuck it was made of, that damn thing set up its own escape.

Yet somehow the park was still open!

He and Nic were nearly an hors d'oeuvre for the thing, but no, just let the tourists roam freely in the park!

Not to mention that asshole worker who couldn't be bothered to listen to him and get Nic to safety. She could've been eaten, but that asshole only cared about himself!

A frustrated growl escaped him just as the elevator doors opened, and he stormed out right past the guard who was trying to wrangle him.

"What the hell happened out there?" he shouted. "There are thermal cameras all over that paddock, she did NOT just disappear!" The guard put an arm around him and Owen shoved him away; he wasn't in the mood for some two-bit asshole in a suit to push him around!

Claire sighed then finally turned to face him, not anywhere near as worried as she should be. "It must've been some kind of…technical malfunction," she said, glancing at a couple of the technicians with an irritated grimace before turning back to the monitors.

"Were you not watching?" He took a few steps closer, not sure if he was trying to be intimidating or just needed to move. "She marked up that wall as a distraction! She wanted us to think she'd escaped!"

"Hold on," she hissed, turning back to him. "We are talking about an animal here!"

"A highly intelligent animal!" he growled. She had no right to be pissed at him after what he and Nic just went through! "And while you were driving off, Nic and I were nearly snacks for her!"

"Four hundred meters to the beacon," a redheaded woman at the communications station called out. He was pretty sure he'd heard her name before, but he couldn't recall it.

Then her words sank in as he looked up at the monitors finally. They were going after the Indominus. With people. "You're going after her with non-lethals?" he breathed.

Masrani spoke up, pointing to the monitors. Until then, Owen hadn't even noticed him in the room. "We have twenty six million dollars invested in that asset, we can't just kill it," he said a little too calmly.

Owen blinked slowly and shook his head, trying to push past his disbelief. The pure arrogance! "Those men are gonna die," he warned. Did nobody give a shit they were sending actual people out after that thing? And without proper weapons!

"Three hundred meters to the beacon," the woman announced.

Pressing his lips into a fine line, he stepped forward. "You need to call this mission off. Right now!"

"They're right on top of it," another worker said.

"Call it off, right now!" Owen snarled.

"You are not in control here!" Claire snapped.

Owen bit back on a snarky comment and watched the screens, his stomach sinking further with each step Asset Containment took. They approached a river and the lead bent to pick something up. A piece of flesh. With the tracking beacon still blinking in pools of flesh, blood, and tissue.

"Blood's not clotted yet," the leader muttered into his comms. "It's close."

"What is that?" Masrani asked, staring at the screen with his arms crossed. For all the world, he looked like he was watching an interesting TV show and not about to witness the live deaths of his own employees.

"Her tracking implant," Owen said, stepping closer to the screen. "She clawed it out." This was another trap. Just like the one she'd set at the paddock. And it was far too late to get those people out now.

Owen looked around the regular employees who'd be forced to watch the massacre, and grimaced. He remembered the look on Nic's face as they hid under the truck, the fear in her eyes.

At least she hadn't followed him to the Control Room. Small miracles.

On the screen, droplets of blood dripped onto the team lead's arm and he slowly stood, looking around. Another camera showed him looking bewildered before the branches next to him moved and the Indominus stalked out of the bushes.

"IT CAN CAMOUFLAGE!" he shouted.

That was how she'd set the trap in the paddock, he realized. What the hell had they used to make her?

Owen clamped down on the urge to hit something as he watched the screens. One by one, the team was taken out by the Indominus. Stomped on, eaten, thrown violently into the trees, skewered with razor sharp claws….

Screams and shouts and sickening crunches echoed in the Control Room, along with the haunting beep of the ACU team flatlining one after another.

Maybe now Masrani would realize just what he'd done, what kind of mistake he'd made by sending them in unprepared. Hell, they were all unprepared - not one of them knew what they were up against! And he half-suspected even Masrani didn't know what it was made of.

Owen turned slowly to face Masrani, taking in the horrified faces of everyone in the control room. Masrani had his hands clasped in front of his mouth as he seemed to consider what he'd just witnessed.

And it pissed Owen off.

He'd warned Masrani! Warned him to get them out of there! And he hadn't listened!

The old park succumbed to arrogance and Jurassic World was right on its heels.

"Son of a bitch," Owen bit out softly. None of these people deserved the trauma they'd just had forced upon them.

He was done with corporate bullshit.

"Evacuate the island," he muttered, bringing his eyes from the workers to Masrani slowly.

His words seemed to startle Claire out of her daze. "We'd never reopen," she said softly.

"People would live!" he snapped before shifting his gaze back to Masrani. "You made this genetic hybrid, raised her in captivity without a thought for her well-being or anyone else's! She's seeing all this for the first time and she doesn't even know what she is. She will kill everything that moves!"

Masrani finally looked at him. "You think the animal is contemplating its own existence?"

Willful stupidity. That was the only way Owen could describe what he was witnessing. "She's learning where she fits on the food chain," he said, barely suppressing his anger. "And I'm not sure you want her to figure that out." Owen took another step closer to Masrani. "Asset containment can use live ammunition in an emergency situation." Thank god he'd actually managed to retain something in that torturously dry employee guide. "You have an M134 in your armoury." That he wasn't technically supposed to know about. "So put it on a chopper and go smoke this thing!"

Claire stepped forward in front of Masrani. "We have families here!"

"You should've thought of that before you made the damn thing!" Owen was getting real sick of this corporate shit.

He turned back to the monitors, back to the last reminders of the employees whose lives were less important than twenty six million dollars.

And he saw Nic on one of the monitors, in the garage.

What the hell was she still doing there?

Did she…just steal a set of keys? Why would she need keys?

Nic smiled sweetly at someone, then pulled the keys out and started searching for the matching car.

"You have got to be kidding me," he groaned.

"Mr. Grady, if you're not gonna help, there is no reason for you to be here," Claire said a little too calmly.

Corporate more worried about money than lives.

Nic about to do something stupid, from the looks of it.

The anger rushed through him and he finally lashed out at the nearest desk, knocking its contents to the ground.

Owen stomped back toward the elevator, but paused next to Masrani. "I would have a word with your people in the lab. Because that thing out there? That's no dinosaur," he warned.

Then he stalked back into the elevator, willing it to go faster.

When she found the CCTV footage showing the Jurassic Safari bus leave with Eric on it - without returning - Nic panicked. After everything, she couldn't lose the one person who'd always been on her side and stood up for her, the one person who made her feel like she was worth something.

She tried calling Eric's phone, but no answer.

Another call.

Straight to voicemail.

The last tour left around when she would've arrived at the Indominus Paddock. That meant that they would be near the ankylosaur herds.

If she hurried, she'd have enough time to get out there and direct the van back.

Nic glanced around and saw a row of workers with car keys hanging from their belts. Pushing down on the queasy feeling in her gut, she put on her best smile and approached them as she turned her phone off.

"Excuse me," she said to the nearest worker. A big burly man she recognized, but whose name she'd forgotten. "I'm having some troubles with the CCTV systems - could you call up to the office for me and get another tech down?" She held up her phone. "Battery died."

"Sure thing," he said. The way he leered at her made her even more nauseated, but she tamped down on it and thanked him.

Then promptly stole his keys as soon as his back was turned.

All she had to do was figure out what car they were for. That couldn't be too hard - press the key, see which car honks. Then again, she didn't want to get caught, so she might have to be more subtle. And just her luck the key didn't have a number on it.

It was time to get creative.

She went back to the workstation she was at and started scanning the CCTV back again, this time following the burly idiot. He wandered through the garage, stopping to talk to the other men around, hitting on female staff, and generally behaving like a pig. Until he got out of his car.

Number ten!

Nic cut the feed with a triumphant grin, then went back to the line of cars.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Owen's voice startled her and she turned just in time to see him storming toward her. Every muscle she could see was tensed, his brow was pinched, and his eyes were…shit they were intense!

"We just got clear of that damn thing and you're here ready to - what, go fix someone's laptop?" he hissed quietly as he neared.

"Is that what you think of me?" she hissed back. "We escape that thing and I just go about my day like nothing happened?"

Owen pursed his lips and held a hand out, flexing his fingers. "Give me the keys."

Great, not only did he think she was a poor choice of soulmate, he thought she was a damn dog he could order around. Or one of his raptors. "Gonna use your damn clicker on me next?" she snapped. When he tried to grab the keys, she pulled them sharply behind her back.

"I'm trying to stop you from doing something stupid!" he shot back. "Clearly someone's gotta do it!"

Nic laughed bitterly. After the way he'd treated her, Owen had no leg to stand on when it came to stupid. "You're the foremost expert on stupid!"

"Owen!" Claire's voice interrupted before he could respond.

Instead, he pursed his lips, muttered something under his breath that Nic didn't quite catch, and turned to face Claire as she ran toward them. Her fancy heels had been swapped out for running shoes - probably a wise choice, given the slippery texture of the floors she was sprinting across.

"My nephews," she panted as she slowed to a stop.

Owen's face scrunched up. "Huh?"

"They're out on the Safari and -."

"My cousin's on the same tour, I'm on my way to the Safari van," Nic interrupted, stepping around Owen and dangling the keys out toward Claire. And away from Owen.

"Like hell you are!" Owen bit out.

Not wanting to start again, Nic ignored him and asked, "How old are your nephews?"

Claire sputtered, then gestured with her hand to her own height. "Uh, the…the older one, he's…he's high school age." Her hand dropped a couple of feet. "And the younger…he's…um…he's…a few years…."

"You don't know how old your nephews are?"

Nic whipped around and glared at Owen. "Not helping!"

Owen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, then held out his hand again. "Just give me the damn keys!"

"Car number ten," she said, looking back at their boss.

Claire took a deep breath. "Right. Ten." Then she walked off toward the car, chin held high.

Nic walked around Owen, then glanced over her shoulder when he didn't follow. "You coming?"

If looks could kill, Nic was pretty sure Owen would've just assassinated her brutally. "You gonna give me the damn keys?" he groused, grabbing a rifle off the walls and shouldering it.

"How are you gonna shoot if you're driving?" she shot back, nodding toward the weapon. Sure, technically she could probably shoot at the Indominus if it chased them - the thing was a big enough target - but she wasn't about to tell Owen that.

Was she terrified? Absolutely.

But this time she was driving them, not Owen. Her stubbornness had firmly engaged and not even her fear could disengage it.

It briefly occurred to her that this might be making things worse between her and Owen. Not that it could get much worse than barely speaking to each other. Or dismissively calling her a mousy IT girl.

"Are you two coming?" Claire called, snapping Nic out of her thoughts. When Nic looked back at her, she was already halfway in the passenger seat.

Without checking if Owen was following, Nic jogged over to the car and got in the driver's side. Relief flooded her when she heard the door shut behind her. At least they had someone with a hell of a lot more hands-on experience with dinosaurs than an IT nerd and an executive.

As she started the car and backed out of the garage, she saw Owen in the backseat pointedly not looking at her. She could only imagine the awkwardness would get a hell of a lot worse with Eric in the backseat with Owen. Maybe she should've let him drive after all.