Jessica King sat back in her office chair, as she'd sip at the glass of wine in her hand. She had just finished watching the footage from the incident and had already replayed it for a second and third time. It just seemed to get more and more intense each time she replayed it. Setting her glass down, she took a moment to look out the window, at the nicely clipped manicured lawn of the Masrani campus.
Standing up, she'd take a moment to look at her reflection in the mirror. Jessica King was a brunette woman in her late thirties,and she'd spent most of her life crossing the glass ceiling as much as she'd been allowed. Jessica had been recruited by Simon Masrani straight out of Graduate School, as he'd seen her potential. Back then, she had not seen much future in a communications major, although Masrani had seen different.
He'd helped her, getting her set up on a track on the public relations team. Small projects at first, maybe working on a campaign here, and a partner track there. Watching and waiting to see how she did. Jessica had found that she was hungry to make her mark on the world, and this was the perfect venue. After all, it had made for a good story to play out in the press. A girl who'd lost her father at a young age, and had to make her way out by herself. That had been the story that she'd told.
That she'd believed…at least until everything came out. Before the Costa Rican commissions had told the truth, provided with the testimonies of the other survivors of the incidents. Her father had not died on a business trip. She looked to her side as she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she said with a smile as she was already crossing her arms. Her tone though was all business, even as she was already feeling like things were coming along at a splendid pace.
The door swung open, and Eli Mills walked in the door, casually, as he would sit down on the chair. Jessica however, would not acknowledge him right away, seeing his reflection in the window, as she spoke. They had been so used to doing this discreetly, that it was a wonder he was able to do it now. Plausible deniability, that was the word for it, she thought. Still, if anyone were to bring this up, she would deny it to the end.
Well, hopefully it would not come to that…
"You got something for me," She said it simply, her tone steely cold, with only a hint of warmth at the back of it. She would look down at the green of the campus, at the people going about their daily lives. Masrani had been smart enough to move his place of business to a relatively dinosaur free area. Still, she could see the lights from the security fences blinking somewhere past the buildings, carefully hidden as they were by the foliage.
Mills nodded, as he took a slip of paper from his pocket and placed it on the desk. She could see the numbers written on it from here, and she made no move to take it. "We did very well. Something on the order of sixty million dollars." He smiled, as he made himself more comfortable on his chair. Maybe just a bit too comfortable, as Jessica rolled her eyes. "That slip goes to an offshore account-" She knew how it worked, as she finally turned sideways to look at him.
"You're still here," she said as she would blink at him. Not surprised though, as she would figure that meant he had something to tell her. Something that was worth the risk of being seen in person. Not that she was overtly worried. They had a cover story for this, Mills was her cousin if anyone asked.
"Yes. Sorry about that. I just thought it was important that you should know that we had a very interesting guest at our little event the other weekend." He seemed bemused, as he would gesture with his head towards a name written on the back side of the slip of paper. It was clearly copied neatly, with a item number and amount right next to it. She looked down, as she felt an eyebrow arch. Well, now wasn't that something, she thought.
"You let him in." She said as she would sigh, unsure what his game was here. "When you asked for a proper venue to do it in, I gave you one-couldn't you at least give me a heads up about this?" Jessica had been on the fence about that- but Mills had reassured her that it would never get back to her. Not that she used that place often anymore. It was unnecessary, she thought.
"He bought something though. So that's a plus. Traceable. If he tries to say anything, he's also going to be liable." Mills was right, as Jessica's eyes followed the line to the animal that was listed. Wow…that was…something. More to the point, she felt that she was left with a bit more questions than answers.
Maybe it was the stress of everything getting along in her legitimate business, but she was also finding herself impatient. The preserve could wait, a bit. There were only a few pieces that remained in her way, and she would figure out just how to get them. This was an additional complication, but she would work it out. She always did.
Placing the sheet down, she sighed, as she swiveled the monitor around to face him. The computer was showing the Carnotaurus, the news had been all over it. Particularly as the camera was rolling, they had dubbed it 'the invisible bull'. Bad for Masrani, but maybe good for them. "Well. Maybe not exactly what you wanted, but it got results," Mills said as he studied the footage for a second.
Her eyes flickered up to him. "I don't need to know exactly what you did. But this was sloppy, it's left…unfinished." She said, as she watched the tape reel out with Owen and Claire driving away as the camera fizzled out. The news had blurred out the bodies, although they had not done a great job of obscuring all the blood on the floor, it was still very visible, and some had gotten on the camera lens as well.
"Maybe. But it's left us an opportunity." Jessica nodded, as she would pick up from her own train of thought. She had been thinking of many scenarios of how this day would occur. Not that she had any special connection to Grady, but Claire? Oh yes she could still be useful. Jessica was under no illusions. She would need the woman to get to where she was planning to go. She was not disposable until that moment.
She could see Mills was waiting, as she smiled again. Chuckling as she picked up the glass of wine, sipping it slowly, as she picked up another sheet. It was a draft of something that she had been working on. Mills leaned over, as he would read it.
"It is now time to reconsider the methods of containment for the Mesozoic Project. Perhaps it is time to have Grady replaced as head of the IBRIS unit." He looked up at her. "So you're making your move now. After all this time."
She nodded, brushing her hair to the side as she placed a hand on the desk. "More like taking advantage of an opportunity. Clearly Grady has proven himself unable to contain animals in two separate times-" she knew that the media wouldn't care about the circumstances, that was the great thing about being public relations. To her, the facts were exactly what they could make it.
They all knew that bad things usually happened in threes, although in their case, they did not intend to wait. There was something else there that was about to happen, as she had plans set in motion. "So do you need me to do anything or?" Mills seemed pensieve to some respect, and she could understand that. She had asked him here for a particular reason… as she was folding the paper over, she had a look in her eyes. A slight curl of her lip again, as she had an idea.
"You have the rest of this list? I need to study it…" she really could feel it dawning on him too as he seemed to straighten up there. Straightening and smoothing out his suit, as she would lean forward against the desk. Looking around, as she would figure that it would have to come to this.
"I can get it…" Mills said, as he would scratch his head, clearly still confused what her intent was. That was perfectly fine, she didn't need him to understand. She just needed him to put the pieces in place. It had taken her a long time to get them together, to get here…but she was ready for what she needed to do.
"Good. Because that- that is our problem. And we're going to be the same people to fix it." She felt confident in that, very much so as she would stand back up, readjusting herself. "Just within the next week should be fine," she said as she would press a button, as her secretary appeared to open the door for them. Mills stood up as well, as she would shake his hand. "Look forward to seeing what comes of your project. We look forward to great things from you," she said, feeling a great sense of anticipation as she watched him go.