Ian Malcolm set the coffee pot on, as he waved to the students at the Santa Fe Institute. He was nearing retirement age here, and maybe if he was lucky in a few years he could turn in his badge and key, making time for living a comfortable life. At least, that had been the plan. But plans changed, as he felt the machine rumble a bit, he heard the news flicker to life. One of the graduate students had changed the channel.
"Simon Masrani dead due to a tragic accident-" He froze, as he found himself glued to the screen. The film was warning of graphic moments in the footage, that people with sensitive stomachs were advised to turn away. A student moved to change the channel, but Malcolm held out a hand to stop him, shaking his head.
"What should have been the crowning glory of Masrani Global's Mesozoic Project ended in violence and bloodshed yesterday. Unknown animals attacked the presentation, and managed to kill Simon Masrani, before being subdued. Witnesses report the animals as being Pteranodons, or Pteradactyls."
"Cearadactyls" Malcolm said frowning as he let the coffee pour into his cup from the machine. Several of the students looked at him for a second, but non interrupted him. They all knew who he was. After a while people stopped asking, at least the ones who worked with him every day. Maybe because it got less special after you could see dinosaurs on the mainland.
"-Despite not being recorded as an escaped Sorna species, they are currently being theorized to be from the Mexico escape, although that is currently unconfirmed.-"
Malcolm sighed as his coffee finished dripping, and he stepped to the side, shaking his head. It was happening again. He had tried to tell people, but to no avail. He stepped around the corner, as he saw his private secretary Rachel nod, smiling at him.
"What do you have for me in regards to my appointments today?" He asked, leaning against the desk. He still was limping a bit… he was not a field man any longer, leaving it to the younger kids. He had a life here at the Institute, a wife to go home to, and a respected body of work.
"You have your ten o clock with Richard Levine, and your three o'clock with Professor Roxton." Malcolm thanked her, as he opened the door to his office, swearing lightly under his breath.
Richard was coming here, he had almost forgotten, checking the clock on his office, he saw that it was almost past time for him to arrive to. But thankfully, he was not unprepared, as he stepped around his desk, walking over to the monitor and it would turn to life at the press of a button.
Richard had given him some fascinating information over the course of the past few weeks. Much more than he had thought. To be perfectly honest, he had imagined it was over at the time that they had failed to reach Grady and Dearing. That it was the end, an abortive attempt at a third journey down this rabbit hole.
Because he knew it had never ended well the last few times. But he booted up the file, that email Levine had sent him. He was still looking at it when he heard the knock at his door. Fuck. He thought, as he rubbed his eyes, thinking that he needed something stronger than coffee, as he called for the man to come in and sit down.
Richard Levine nodded, smiling slightly, and he would sit in the opposite chair. Malcolm took a good look at the man as he sat down. He looked tired and worn down, although maybe that could be explained. He was looking forward to hearing it, as he leaned back, sipping at his coffee.
"Good to see you too Richard," He said as he set the coffee down on the table. He was not really sure that he was ready for this conversation. But he had information- they both did. Maybe it was better that they get this over with, set aside whatever things might be in their own past.
"Ian." Richard Smiled mirthlessly, as he adjusted himself in his own seat. He looked around, as if expecting something, but there was something he had on his mind. It was as clear as day. Malcolm sighed, as he would get the monitor adjusted, making sure that he had it ready. "Thanks for making time in your busy schedule. I know that you said you were out of this game…so thank you for addressing one last time."
It was certainly long past time that he would be out of this. Chasing ghosts from the past, that was for sure. Malcolm shook his head, as he gestured for Levine to take a look at the monitor. He set the program running, as he knew that he was glad in that moment they were in the office.
"It was not easy to get what you wanted. The Costa Rican Government does not give up it's secret's easily." That they did not. He had to submit a formal inquiry, as there was a catch involved with the release of the Sorna depositions. They only featured the viewpoint of himself, Sarah, Kelly, Arby, Thorne, and the man who was right across from himself. There was nothing at all about the three other men who had died on the Island.
The three men had worked for a company called Biosyn. Once InGen's competitor in the realm of Bio-engineering, the company had filed for Chapter 11 after a disastrous incident in Mexico just a few years back. They had been responsible for accelerating the pace of Dinosaurs on the mainland. But Levine had told him that had not been their only involvement. They had attempted to steal dinosaurs from a remote village in Costa Rica, and Levine had been there to stop them.
Biosyn was an open and shut case, at least, that was what he had believed. But what Levine had sent him had made him doubt that. Doubt what he believed to be true. Malcolm sighed again.
It had been so much easier, knowing that. But there was something else, he thought. That picture that Levine had taken. "I took a look at the picture you sent me. Two pictures actually…" He blew up the picture on the monitor so that the man could see the first picture. One was a picture of Jessica King, posing for a picture in a garden, smiling broadly. He put another picture, this one was older, it was of a young girl, with a man in his early thirties next to her.
Levine leaned closer in his chair, as he would see what was on screen, rubbing his chin. Malcolm nodded, looking at him as he gestured. "I don't need to say that's Jessica King, Public Relations head of Masrani Global." He nodded, as they both would recognize her pretty well. She was a very public figure after all.
"I've seen that man before." Levine said, as he would lean forward, pointing a finger at the figure of the man next to the girl. Malcolm nodded, as he would type some more, bringing up the database for the Sorna commission.
He had to pull a lot of strings to get here, and his access was conditional. On the basis of the fact that he might only share it with the handful of people that had managed to escape Sorna. The dinosaurs had long since died on Sorna, victims of Dx. The prion disease that Ingen had not been able to deal with. On the Island they had been unable to escape their fate, the self sustaining and circular ecosystem had managed to created a closed loop from which there was no escape.
With the dinosaurs gone, the Costa Ricans had planted stakes in both Islands, after the Mexican incident. They kept to themselves, being very secretive which was only to be expected. It was their country, their rules. They had also managed to study the remains of the animals…and the remains of everything else.
He scrolled through the files, clicking on the section entitled 'Specimens'. There were names of various animals, all of them dead now. In addition, there was also the reports on the five men who had died. Sarah had identified some of them, he remembered. George Baselton, Lewis Dodgson. Eddie Carr. Dieguto There had been a Fifth.
He clicked, flipping through the specimens, and each one had an inventory of items found on the 'persons'. Well, what items had been remaining. In some instance, only one or two bones had ever been recovered.
The skeleton, he had thought he had managed to isolate was the only one that had visible Identification. He nodded, as he paused before he would show Levine this one. Levine was still staring at the picture of the man with the girl, now that it was at half screen.
"I know him. I saw him die on Sorna." His knuckles were white, as Malcolm nodded. He remembered what Levine had told him in the days after they had come back from the Island. How they had shared notes on what had gone on during their own separate journeys on Sorna.
"Yes. Yes you did. But you never knew his name. One of Dodgson's cronies, and we thought then the one that was the most inconsequential of them all." He had been wrong about this. He hated being wrong, even as he would bring up the picture of the evidence.
Sipping more of the coffee, Malcolm felt a bit better. Still, he would click on the picture, even as he would blow it up. The driver's license that had been found in the skeleton of an animal. It had survived because the Velociraptor had died in a building. Maybe it had been one of the last animal's to die, he was not so sure about that.
Side by side, the two pictures. They looked identical , although the one in the license might be seen as a bit younger. Howard King, "Looking through his records, Howard King was employed at Biosyn, and then he abruptly falls off the books right at the same time that we went to Sorna."
He locked eyes with Levine, as the man sighed, but in reality, he felt a coldness. This was not what he expected. The past was being made reality in front of them. Levine gasped slightly. "Oh god. Oh fuck." He was definitely as shocked as Malcolm, as he would show the next piece on the report. Howard King's biography was there.
Now this part, he had just to file for public records. "Look here, right here." He would point out right to where it was listing familial relations. There it was. Ex-Wife…and daughter. Jessica King.
They both stared at it for a long moment. "I'll be damned." Levine and Malcolm said together. The enormity of what their situation was did not escape them, as he would shake his head. It was too much. "I don't get it." Levine said finally. "Why would she- why would she?" Malcolm sighed as he felt at that moment that moment that he would know the answer very soon now.
"It's up to you, Levine. You have to figure this one out." That was what he might say, as he was sure that this was beyond him. The iterations were racking up. Masrani dead, animals that shouldn't still exist… and now Jessica King. There was something in the past that was coming out. Something that had not died when the raptors had snapped her father's neck.