3 - Secrets and Business
There was a hazy smog over Santa Fe as a station wagon slowly pulled up outside of a block of flats. The engine remained running as two figures left the car, the driver staying put. The smaller of the two figures swung a rucksack over his shoulder as he pointed up towards the flats.
“In here. It’s Flat 27a we’re after, Howard. Now come on, we can’t waste time.”
The two men made their way up to the block entrance, the smaller man pulling a keycard from the rucksack. “Here she is,” he said as he showed the device to his companion. “I’m told this will get us access into any part of this complex we want.”
“You sure this’ll work, Lewis? This sorta thing has caught us out in the past.”
“The guys who made it seemed to think so... Only one way to find out.”
He slipped the keycard into the receiver; a green light flashed and the door swung open.
“We’re in,” the smaller man said. “Good thing, too. I paid good money for this.” With that the pair stepped inside, heading towards 27a. Again, the same keycard was used to open the flat door, and the two men entered.
They surveyed the apartment and the first thing they noticed was how unnaturally neat the flat was. Everything was pristine. Surfaces were polished and placemats set square on coffee tables. Clearly, the owner of this apartment was a man who took order to the extreme; someone who was very much set in his ways.
“Jesus,” Lewis Dodgson uttered. “Levine is one hell of a clean freak.” He grimaced. “Okay. Let’s not stay any longer than we have to. Hide those microphones in every corner of this place – I’ll go see if I can find anything.” Dodgson handed the rucksack to the other man.
“Right,” Howard King responded in kind, producing the recording equipment from the bag. “These should do the trick. They’re some of the best mics you can get for the price we paid.”
“So you said when you first got them,” Dodgson replied. “Still, glad to hear it as ever; it’s not like we can afford any more cut corners. Let’s hope the little fellas do their job and we get what we need.”
“They will, they will,” King said as he placed the small devices discreetly around the flat. As he did so, Dodgson took a quick look around the main living area. There was clearly nothing of interest: everything was too neat and clean. There were no journals, no papers, nothing of that sort. He continued his search and promptly found a study. He peered inside and the sight that met him was promising: a computer sat against the far wall, beneath a world map with numerous pins and scribbles on it. Stacked around the computer and in boxes along the study walls were thousands of academic journals, each labelled and arranged in some semblance of order. But what really caught his eye, as he ventured further into the small room, were two folders on the computer desk. One was labelled InGen, the words And Site B?! scrawled beneath this title. Dodgson smiled. Surely the information he needed would be in here. He glanced over at the other folder, his smile fading into a warped look of curiosity. The second folder was simply labelled as BioSyn.
“BioSyn?... What’s he got on us?” Dodgson spoke to himself as he picked up the BioSyn folder, flicking through it. The first few documents were not important to him, and were nothing new; simply general information of the company itself. What followed was a document of prominent figures relating to BioSyn – including himself, King, and George Baselton, who was waiting in the car. He couldn’t help but read through these files.
“Lewis Dodgson. Director of Research at BioSyn Genetics. Likely to be the mastermind behind BioSyn’s well-known industrial espionage... Suggested hiring Baselton to fix company’s image... Is claimed to have been involved with the death of Dennis Nedry in 1993 [no further information]...” He sighed. “That fat bastard.” Dodgson continued looking through the file and was horrified to see private BioSyn files, in full display, in this folder. He cursed loudly, prompting King to enter the study.
“Everything okay?”
“Fucking Nedry!” he spat, thrusting the folder towards King. “You see this, Howard? These are BioSyn’s expenditure reports between August 1990 and August 1993. This should not be something that Levine was able to get a hold of.” He drew a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I knew Nedry was no good. Honestly. First, he fails us as IT-security-tech-whatever, and then he goes and fucking dies on that island.”
King said nothing. He raised an eyebrow, turning back to his work.
“Get some photos of these pages,” Dodgson called to him as he turned back to review the contents of the second folder. InGen. Surely, he thought, surely there would be something of use in here. Levine must know something. He began to leaf through, seeing very similar files and printouts to that of the previous folder. Expenditure reports. Detailed files on workers, important figures, purchase and sales figures. He couldn’t help but smile – what Levine had been doing was very illegal and with this knowledge Dodgson could easily have him locked up.
Of course, that would be if he himself hadn’t broken the law by fashioning a false keycard, forcing entry onto somebody else’s property and planting microphones all over their flat, let alone the years of ‘redeveloping’ other genetic companies’ designs and ideas, as he liked to call it. He was in no position to bring Levine’s misdeeds to the attention of the authorities lest he jeopardise himself.
“Hey, Howard, how you getting on—“
Dodgson cut himself off. He’d absent-mindedly been flicking through the folder and had now reached a map, showing the western coast of Costa Rica and little more, aside from a chain of five islands that had been circled in a red marker. They were about two hundred miles off of the Costa Rica coast and although completely unnamed on the map, the red marker pen gave this away: The Five Deaths. Beneath this scrawl came another; SITE B???
“Looks like we hit gold,” King said, peering over Dodgson’s shoulder.
“Yeah...” Dodgson nodded, his eyes never leaving the map. He turned the page and was presented with satellite images of each island. The images were heavily annotated, Levine’s musings and theories scrawled across the picture. “Certainly dedicated,” he said aloud, peering ever closer at the images. “I think these are the islands Rod said Levine was on about last night.”
“...Rod?”
“Christ, Howard. Rodriguez. The guy who flew Levine about in Costa Rica. The guy who was present when they destroyed the dino-corpse. The guy who demanded a lot of my money when I asked him to spy for us.”
“Look here,” King said, pointing to an annotation and changing the subject, keen to avoid another of Dodgson’s endless rants. “Says ‘refer to InGen Site B Legend: InGen PC.’ Looks like he’s got hold of an old InGen computer. A lot of these notes don’t make any sense, but with the reference material – the InGen PC files – we’d be able to work this out. Lewis, if we’re gonna do this, we’ll need that computer.”
“No,” Dodgson replied. “We’ll wait. He’s gonna come back here with that pony he’s been talking to... They’ll talk. Rod said Levine made plans. He’ll show her the PC – it’s all part of his theories – and unknowingly, he’ll reveal everything to us.” He turned to King. “You done planting the ‘phones?”
“All sorted. Only put a few down over the place – they’ll pick up everything in this flat. Walls are paper-thin and those mics are good.” King pointed to a portrait on the wall. “See anything out of place by that picture?”
“No.”
“Good. There’s a microphone just behind the frame. You’d never see them unless you went looking for them. They’re tiny, but powerful.”
Dodgson nodded. “Did you get photos of some pages from the BioSyn folder?”
“Yeah, I’ll get some photos of these maps too.”
Dodgson smiled, picking up his rucksack. “Let’s get out of here.” Once King had finished taking photos, the duo made their way out of the flat, being careful not to disturb anything lest Levine become suspicious later on. They locked up and made their way downstairs towards the car.
“All good?” Baselton asked as the pair got in.
“Oh yes,” Dodgson replied. “We got some pretty good evidence – he’d narrowed it down to one of five islands and a little later we’ll find out which one we’re headed for.”
“You mean you didn’t actually find out?”
“Not right now we didn’t but soon, George. He’ll spill his can of beans. I told Howard this earlier: from what Rod told me, he’d planned to speak to that pony about it today. Rod said that he heard Levine saying she was some super-genius, or something. They’ll work it out, and we’ll be listening.” Dodgson got a cigar from his pocket. “Why I hired you to un-fuck BioSyn, I have no idea. With thinking and contacts like this, I could have done it. You lawyers, all the same.”
“Probably because you were too busy stealing other people’s shit,” Baselton cursed under his breath. “So, where are the files?”
“All on that,” Dodgson answered. He gestured towards King’s camera.
“So... you still don’t know for sure which island it is, and you don’t have any physical copies of the notes—”
“No, of course we don’t. Do you have half a brain? If we just marched into his flat and stole two files and a computer, he might just notice, do you not think? We can’t afford to raise any alarm bells. Not one. If all goes to plan, we’ll listen in on Levine’s conversation tonight and find out where we’re headed. Then we go there, get some dinosaur eggs, and get off the island before he’s even thought about going. Once we have our eggs I couldn’t give two shits what he gets up to because finally, for once, we’ll be a step ahead of anyone else. And that, my good men, will be worth all of this effort.” Dodgson smiled. “Right, let’s go. I’ll call Rod later and thank him for playing his part. Anyway, I want a drink, and then we should get back here for five o’ clock sharp.”
The car coughed into life and pulled away as the sun began to paint a red hue in the sky.
* * * *
Malcolm was pacing anxiously up and down his office. It was a large room, the walls adorned with beautiful oak panelling and shelves of books. Hidden amongst the thousands of works on chaos theory – many of which he’d written himself – were books about palaeontology, about dinosaurs. These were few and far between indeed but did not go unnoticed by one Doctor Sarah Harding, herself curled up on an armchair in the office’s far corner.
Harding had not long since returned from an expedition to Africa, where she led a small team and shadowed a pride of lions. She was a gifted animal behaviourist and her job demanded that she extensively travel the world – as such, she didn’t often find herself at home. In this instance she had returned for two weeks, allowing for some much-needed respite.
Spending time at home allowed Harding to see those close to her heart and that included the man pacing impatiently before her. The two had met in the late 1980s and had instantly connected but it was only until late 1993 that they found themselves more than friends. Malcolm had returned from a ‘business venture’ as he put it in a critical condition and Harding was by his side near every day, acting as his carer. With her aid, he had recovered well and was back to near full-health within three months.
Harding knew that Malcolm was a difficult character to be around at the best of times, or so most others thought. She found him easy to connect to and one of life’s more interesting characters. But despite this, even she noticed a difference in his character following his accident in ’93. He became shorter-tempered and much more work-obsessed, to the point of straining their relationship – needless to say, Harding had struggled to keep her head above the water. But numerous arguments and discussions later, and the pair were ironing out the creases and seeing their bond through.
One thing, however, remained the same: Malcolm’s sudden interest in dinosaurs. Once out of the infirmary and back in the States he had immediately set to studying the prehistoric creatures, amassing as many encyclopaedias and works as he could. When he could walk, he would spend time in museums, staring idly at the great skeletons. For the most part his obsession was something of a non-issue to his academic peers but Harding picked up on the subtleties of it; she suspected something more than a sudden interest. She had asked him numerous times about what happened in ’93 but each time he would brush it aside. He would say that it ‘wasn’t important’ or ‘did not require discussion’.
What Malcolm did not know was what he had said to her during his time in the infirmary. In his stay he suffered numerous panic attacks – bordering on genuine hallucinations – wailing about them ‘coming to get him’ and ‘hunt him down’. On two occasions, and only two, he had yelled ‘raptors’ before mindlessly rambling. Clearly he was unaware of what he’d screamed during these phases, and Harding had kept quiet about it; rather than put him on the spotlight she figured he’d come clean in his own time.
Nearly three years later and Malcolm still hadn’t opened up about 1993. Harding felt, however, that perhaps he might finally reveal the truth sooner than he imagined doing: they were waiting on a sample sent to him by Richard Levine who himself had claimed to have found a ‘dinosaur corpse’. Levine had insisted Malcolm send the sample to a laboratory for testing and despite thinking the idea ridiculous, he sent it on nonetheless.
And now the couple were waiting for the sample to return. Harding was taking it in her stride whilst Malcolm had not stopped pacing, running his hands together at random intervals. Harding was quickly finding him to be distracting and annoying.
“Ian, sit down...”
“I’ll pace if I want to,” he bit back in an attempted playful manner although it came out a lot sharper than intended. “Anyway, it’d do my leg good to keep it moving.”
“You walk plenty enough. Just sit down for a bit! It’ll be here any time now.”
Malcolm paused mid-stride, ready to retaliate. He quickly decided against doing so, unable to find the words, and continued to pace. “There’s a lot riding on this sample,” he said simply. “Levine has made some quite, well... interesting claims...”
“So you said before,” Harding mumbled as she left Malcolm to impatiently hover. Doing her best to ignore his annoying habit she turned to the other soul in the room, who had herself kept very quiet. “Sure is different back here than out in Kenya, huh?”
From the adjacent corner of the office a soft voice emanated as Fluttershy looked up. “Oh yes,” she hummed. “It’s, umm, definitely safer here.”
“I’m not sure about safer,” Harding began with a giggle. She nodded towards Malcolm. “Remember there’s an ape loose in the office set to explode at any time—”
“What – I – I am no ape!” Malcolm barked in reply as both Harding and Fluttershy shared a laugh. “It’s not my fault if this godforsaken sample is taking its time getting here.” He shook his head, cracking a slight smile. “Ape. Really?...”
“Love you really, Ian,” Harding sang as she leaned over, pulling a book from the shelves. She nodded to herself as she opened the dinosaur encyclopaedia, glancing quickly at Fluttershy who seemed more than happy to flick through a photo scrapbook she’d made on their African expedition.
For a while the only sounds that could be heard was the clock on the desk ticking away and Malcolm continuing to pace. To the two females it was a relaxed, peaceful silence but to Malcolm it was deafening. He needed the test results, and he needed them now.
He continued to wait impatiently.
After an indeterminable passage of time the office phone rang and Malcolm was at it within an instant. “Hello? It’s here? Yes, yes, send it in,” and with that he set the phone down. The door to the office swung open, all heads in the room turning, and a young lab assistant walked in; she had a small cooler-box in her right hand and a dossier of notes under her left arm.
“Good evening Doctor Malcolm,” she said allowing herself in. “Hello,” she smiled to Harding and Fluttershy. “I’m Doctor Elizabeth Gelman and I’m based at the New Mexico State University. I assume you know why I’m here,” she continued setting the cooler-box on the desk. Opening the dossier, she handed it directly to Malcolm. “Well, this sample... Quite simply put, it’s not like anything we’ve really seen before.”
“I see,” Malcolm replied slowly. He looked towards the file, taking a long look at the various graphs and tables presented on the first page as Harding and Fluttershy joined him behind the desk, themselves looking at the pages before them.
“I shan’t bore you with all the biological details Doctor Malcolm, but in short the sample tells us this: firstly, the superficial epidermis layers are very much akin to that of a lizard. Here, if you look at this image,” she said reaching across to the dossier, flicking through it and presenting the trio with a photograph of cells, “you can see a structure that heavily suggests this animal was some sort of lacerta, perhaps.” Gelman allowed the three to take in the information as they studied the image. “However, we were able to extract a miniscule blood sample from this piece of flesh and that does not suggest that this animal was a lizard or reptile. Let us move on” – more pages turned until Gelman came across another image and circled a region of it with her finger– “here you see the blood vessels. They are surrounded with smoother fibres. This is typical of a warm-blooded animal.”
“But there are warm-blooded reptiles out there, are there not?” Harding was quick to add.
“Very, very few, yes. But by going even deeper again we can definitely count out any of these species.” Gelman turned the page, showing a microscopic image of blood cells. “The entire image you see before you does not suggest this was a lizard of any form. Look here. The red blood cells are nucleated, something characteristic of birds. The haemoglobin is atypical in nature – a lizard’s base pair differs entirely from this.”
There was silence as the information was processed, the four in the office all staring at the dossier. Finally Malcolm spoke, holding up the cooler-box. “So, uh, it’s safe to assume that none of your team know what this sample belonged to, then.”
“No, the sample doesn’t match anything we’ve ever studied before. Clearly it shares similarities with plenty of other animal groups. As I said it has characteristics of reptiles, and that of birds. Much of the cell structure suggests this was an avian form, but of course no bird has skin like this.”
“Indeed.” Malcolm was curt and offered a nod as he opened the cooler-box, taking a closer look at the sample. When it had first arrived on his desk it came with an attached note, clearly from an excited Levine. His note had made it very clear that this sample was from a dinosaur and that it should be sent to a laboratory if there was any doubt. As much as Malcolm had wanted to throw the sample out of the window or destroy it as soon as he possibly could he did not, instead following the note’s instruction and sending it to the State University – that way, at least it was anywhere else but on his office desk.
He had taken it from its casing when it had arrived and took a brief look at it. As he pulled the plastic bag from the cooler-box Levine had sent it in he was met with a mottled grey / green cut of animal flesh; initially searching intensely for evidence that it belonged to anything but a dinosaur Malcolm had slowly come to realise that Levine had no reason to lie to him. No, Levine - despite his loathsome qualities - would never lie, and he also somehow knew exactly who was witness to the events on Isla Nublar. With this knowledge, it was impossible for this sample to belong to any other creature.
Malcolm had felt his face drain. He thought all of this was behind him after the extended hospital stay. He’d made it quite clear to Levine that he wanted nothing to do with any of this and yet three weeks after his lecture interruption, the events of mid 1993 were making a big comeback in his life--
“Doctor Malcolm, do you know what this is?” Gelman drew him from his inner thoughts as she looked intently at him, her eyes narrowed.
For the briefest moment Malcolm panicked, getting caught up in the moment before quickly assuming his stoic character. He had no reason to doubt himself; numerous times since the Incident he’d had to cover up what had happened and today would be no different. With a confident smile, he spoke. “I have no idea.”
Silence.
“...Right,” Gelman finally said as a way of filling the uncomfortable pause. “Well, I – do you think you could get another sample? Could you head to Site B soon?”
“Site – Site B?”
“Yes,” she replied slowly, cocking her head. “There was a tag on the sample, embossed with the lettering ‘Site B’ on its side. You won’t be able to see it just by looking; it’s so small and very well-embedded in the epidermis. It was a small tag. Was the animal that this specimen came from an adult?”
“So I am told.”
“Okay. Well, the size of the tag implies it had been there since this animal was very young. Very young. The tag itself is incredibly weathered and its age goes some way to explaining that but it doesn’t explain all of its wear. What I’m saying is that something else is to blame. We’ve seen it before on other samples: animals living in more hostile environments might have a much more weathered tag than that of animals in captivity. Like, for example, a volcanic atmosphere – the acidic concentration surrounding a volcanic site will weather the tags more than normal atmospheric conditions.”
Malcolm nodded.
“Something else of interest surrounding the tag: it’s filled with near-microscopic radio transceivers, which of course means that this animal was being tracked. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been tagged, that simply wouldn’t add up. Now, coupled with the fact that the animal has almost certainly had it since a young age it seems logical to deduce that somebody, somewhere, was raising this animal – and presumably others like it.” Gelman paused, once again sending a determined look towards Malcolm. “I will ask again. Do you know what animal this is?”
“No.” Malcolm made nothing more of it; there was a pause. Fluttershy and Harding were also now looking his way, almost expecting something more from him.
“Err... Well, that’s all we have from the sample,” Gelman finished awkwardly. Gesturing towards the notes, she pressed on. “I’ll leave the dossier and the sample with you. Remember, if you can, get us another sample and we should be able to find out more. In the meantime, if you have any questions or any information at all, you know where we are. Don’t hesitate to get in touch. Goodnight everyone,” and with that, Elizabeth Gelman took her leave.
Malcolm waited, stock-still, until he could no longer hear her footsteps along the corridor outside before collapsing heavily into his chair, visibly blanching. He took deep breaths as Harding quickly began massaging his shoulders, Fluttershy giving the pair some room.
“I, uhh...” Malcolm took more deep breaths. He was distressed; he felt dizzy. Levine’s sample had brought with it an unexpected feeling of dread and acute terror – the memories of the Incident were once again becoming a reality.
Sensing the academic’s growing discomfort, Fluttershy looked up, speaking softly. “Do you, umm, want me to go?”
“No, you’re okay Flutters,” Harding replied equally as softly. “In fact, I think you might want to stay for this...” She turned her attention back to her beau. “Ian... I’m about to ask you something and I don’t want you to panic. Okay?”
“Fine,” he uttered. His voice was strained.
“This sample has something to do with your injury in ’93, doesn’t it?”
The room fell painfully silent. Malcolm had stopped taking deep breaths, Harding awaited a response, and Fluttershy just stared awkwardly at the couple before her.
“Y-yes,” he croaked in response. Closing his eyes, Malcolm drew another deep breath through his nose, visibly calming himself. “Okay. I guess it’s time I finally came clean on what happened.” He turned up to look at his partner, a great nervousness drawn across his features. “I’ll tell you everything I know. I hope you can forgive me for not having said anything before.”
It wasn’t often that Harding saw Ian open up like this. She was one of very few people to see this side of the stoic, obtuse Ian Malcolm that most others perceived him to be. He was, underneath his steely front, an emotional man who needed support and love, just like anyone else.
Harding planted a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Take your time, we’ll be listening,” she said with a smile. He looked as if his panic had passed. Harding moved round to the front of desk and occupied one of the seats, patting the other. “Come on Flutters, looks like Ian’s gonna tell us a story.”
“You’re sure you don’t mind me being here? I can let you two have some privacy if you want—”
“Nonsense,” Malcolm interrupted. “You’ve probably heard too much by now anyway.” He drew a breath. “Not to mention if I asked you to leave, Sarah would tell you not to listen to me and stay anyway.”
Fluttershy looked over to Harding who was nodding with a grin on her face. She smiled in return and turned her attention back to Malcolm who cleared his throat, and began.
“Levine was right about there being a Lost World.”
“I knew it,” Harding uttered as she nodded slowly. Fluttershy, on the other hand, remained clueless and stared blankly at the couple.
“Erm, excuse me Doctor Malcolm... A what?”
“A Lost World,” Harding explained. “Ian’s been studying things like this recently... It’s a theoretical concept about extinct animals still surviving on some isolated spot. Like, an island, populated with—”
“Dinosaurs,” Malcolm finished. At that, Fluttershy’s eyes widened.
“D-dinosaurs?”
Fluttershy squeaked, and promptly hid her face from view behind her mane – she knew all too well what dinosaurs were despite her short time on Earth. Her main focus during her research missions was that of the natural world and its wildlife, both alive and extinct. For the most part, she spent her time at various zoos around the planet, learning about breeding programs and the numerous species that populated the globe. She’d seen lemurs hopping about being fed by their keepers, bears wandering about in the shade, crocodiles lazing in the afternoon sun. On her most recent visit to Earth she’d been lucky enough to accompany Harding on a mission to the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya, studying lions, elephants, hippos, and other exotic species. It was an opportunity Fluttershy hadn’t expected but she certainly wasn’t about to decline a chance for field research. She’d accepted the offer happily and had an excellent time alongside Harding. Her natural ability to work with animals had come into play numerous times and she was able to steer the team out of trouble, a skill of which Harding admired greatly.
In the downtime between her bigger adventures, Fluttershy would meet with the other Elements wherever and whenever they could, spending a week or so together. The six of them would do as many different things as they could and this included visiting museums, something which Twilight took a particular interest in.
Fluttershy remembered the first time the six of them trotted into a dinosaur exhibit. They had been visiting the American Museum of Natural History and were winding their way through the displays, taking everything in. They had moved slowly and purposefully through the museum, Twilight in particular absorbing what information she could. For all six of them, it had been a truly insightful day.
Then they reached the fourth floor of the building. They moved through some more displays until finally, presented before them in great numbers, were skeletons. All six of the Elements had gasped as they slowly entered the hall filled with the remains, displayed in different poses. The first thing that hit them all was the sheer size of the skeletons. The skulls, the thigh-bones... The teeth...
Immediately the six friends immersed themselves in these creatures – the dinosaurs – and spent hours in the two skeleton halls, learning what they could.
It was in those two halls that they were introduced to the great graceful sauropods which would herd together and graze, much like enormous cows. They learned about the Triceratops which would challenge each other for mating rights and dominance with their impressive horns and frills.
They learned about the vicious killers. The Velociraptors, which would hunt in packs and use their speed to their advantage. The Tyrannosaurus Rex, which loomed above most other predators and likely could crush anything with its bite.
Truly, these animals were astounding. The six of them each enjoyed studying these skeletons that day, but only Fluttershy and Twilight would return to the natural history museums, spending hours talking about what these creatures might have looked like and how they might have behaved.
One thing they both agreed on, however, is that they were each thankful animals like this did not exist in the modern day, either on Earth or in Equestria. True, their home realm had equally exotic, massive, dangerous creatures that roamed there but none quite like these ancient beasts, and certainly not as numerous as the dinosaurs. Froggy Bottom Bogg played host to a single hydra; a manticore or two could be found in the Everfree Forest, and hordes of thirty or so dragons could be found dotted across the wider Equestrian supercontinent. In contrast, dinosaurs were said to be found across the entire planet in huge numbers at the peak of their existence.
The larger skeletons were truly quite imposing, particularly those of the bigger carnivores. This, coupled with the fact that huge numbers of these animals existed was an intimidating prospect – both Twilight and Fluttershy were in a respectful awe of them.
Fluttershy would sometimes still find the skeletons scary in their own right – not so much for what they were, but what they had been: living, breathing, massive beasts. Beasts that happened to look a lot like Equestrian dragons...
And to be fronted with the knowledge that there were dinosaurs still living on Earth filled her with a newfound terror.
Malcolm continued, drawing Fluttershy from her thoughts. “In 1993 I went with an attorney from law firm ‘Cowan, Swain and Ross’ to partake in an inspection of a proposed tourist attraction. Me, the lawyer, Doctor Alan Grant and his then-partner, Doctor Ellie Sattler. Now Sarah, I believe you’ll know the name Isla Nublar. Small island some 120 miles off of the Costa Rican coast.”
“Yeah...” She tripped over her own thoughts. “I – the one that Levine was saying you went to – oh my God, he really was right...”
“And so are a lot of other people.” Malcolm grimaced. “The ‘rumours’ are true. There was a biological park constructed at Isla Nublar by InGen, a biogenetics organisation – it was to be called ‘Jurassic Park’. The intention was for it to become a dinosaur zoo, to display dinosaurs...”
Both Sarah and Fluttershy watched Malcolm, his eyes glazing over as he recalled the events that took place. “I told Hammond – InGen CEO – that the place would fail. And it – and it did. The mainframe was jeopardised. The power went off... The dinosaurs broke free. We were attacked.” He blinked, pausing. “My leg was injured by the resident Tyrannosaurus.”
Immediately images of the Tyrannosaurus skeleton filled Fluttershy’s mind. She couldn’t imagine seeing the thing alive...
“I don’t recall much past that. For the remainder of the stay I was locked in the visitor centre, drugged up on morphine. I do remember lying there, looking up at the ceiling of my little room. There was a window on top, and electrified bars atop the glass. I remember looking up as three Velociraptors scrabbled furiously at the window, trying to break in. Trying to kill us. But they didn’t. The power came on and we were safe until the helicopter arrived.”
Silence.
“Apparently quite a lot of people were killed, including Hammond. It – it all started with the death of a dock hand, some young man who we only ever knew as ‘Jophery’...We were sent to inspect this park at InGen’s investors wish, following his death, and... And after that day, InGen was doomed.”
Harding was amazed. She knew Malcolm had been through something horrible and she was beginning to think it had something to do with animals of sorts. But here he was, four years on, still alive and kicking after an incident so life-threatening and dangerous. Not to mention that mental and emotional weight that must have carried over; he had been witness to a scientific breakthrough, the likes of which humankind had never seen before.
“That explains a lot about your time in the infirmary in Costa Rica,” she blurted out.
“Ah, yes,” he mumbled. “The raptor visions...”
“So you do remember, then,” she confirmed. “There were nights where I’d need to stay with you all night and calm you down. You went mad, screaming and cowering from... something. They said you were delirious, that you were just suffering a mental trauma, but it all seemed too real to me. Like you’d actually been through that. And now... I know you have,” Harding finished, reaching out and grabbing his hand. “To come through something like that takes real strength, Ian.”
Malcolm smiled, nodding once. And with that, the office was once again immersed in silence.
“...Doctor Malcolm?”
Fluttershy drew the couple out of their moment, both looking her way. She was looking up at them wide-eyed and a little shaken, but pressing.
“What are they like? The dinosaurs...?”
Malcolm shifted in his seat. “Uhh...” He struggled to find the right words. “They’re – they’re, well... big. Even the smaller ones... I didn’t really see much of them. When we arrived, Hammond took us to see a mixed group of herbivores as an introduction. I can tell you that seeing them for the first time in that way was really quite something. Quite magical, for sure.” He allowed a pause. “I only really got up close and personal to bigger animals that wanted to – to kill me, sadly.” His demeanour had darkened. “Raptors are far more cunning than you could ever picture, or so I am told. Seeing them trying to break in and kill us in the visitor centre... They are impish; evil. And the Tyrannosaurus... Nothing on this world, or indeed, any other –” he nodded towards Fluttershy – “can prepare anyone for seeing an adult, pissed-off Tyrannosaurus. Nothing.”
For a moment, nobody knew quite what to say and the office revelled again in silence until finally, Harding looked up. “Ian... Why didn’t you go public about all this? Why not tell the world? I understand InGen wouldn’t want people to know, especially after the incident, but – there’s a chance for people to learn from this. Not to mention that InGen is no more, so...”
“I had to,” he replied simply. “Much though I wanted to reveal everything to the world, we couldn’t. We had to sign legal documents binding us to secrecy – not between us and InGen, but between us and the United Nations. Between the world. This is an international secret. To be honest I’ve broken a lot of laws just telling you two about it now.” He sighed tiredly. “Thank you for looking after me, Sarah.”
“I had to,” she replied, imitating the man before her. She smiled.
Malcolm grinned in response as he slowly stood. “So, there you have it; that’s what happened in ’93. That’s why I was hospitalised... But now, we have a more pressing issue on our hands. The sample of Levine’s is almost definitely a dinosaur sample. I didn’t want to believe it when he first got in touch but after seeing it, and those lab results... No doubt in my mind. But – but it does beg the question, where are these new dinosaur carcasses coming from? It can’t be Isla Nublar, that island was levelled by the air force just as we left. They bombed it to the ground. And we all now know that somewhere, there is a ‘Site B’. I suppose InGen must have had another island where they nurtured most of the dinosaurs, then had them shipped over to Jurassic Park. These ‘aberrant forms’ must be washing up on the Costa Rican beaches from this other island.” Malcolm paused, picking up the sample cooler-box. He inspected it closely as he spoke. “I have a feeling that Levine is onto something with that. I don’t know exactly what he knows or how he knows it but I imagine I’ll be getting a lot of calls from him soon...
“Nonetheless, I can tell you both this, now, straight away: if he does follow through with his crackpot idea of going to find this ‘Site B’, I will not be joining him. Absolutely no way.”
****
The sea was gentle and the sun warm as Duke Grigorii nursed his fifth whiskey of the afternoon. The morning had been far too intense for his liking since arriving on Earth – almost immediately after arriving he was escorted into a limousine and driven for two hours to a harbour, all the while being asked endless questions by his escort.
Grigorii did not like too many questions. He much preferred to ask them, if he had to talk at all, but Tsar Gavrel had insisted Grigorii make the deal on his behalf. Quite why, Grigorii was unable to work it out. He chalked it up to the King of All Griffons’ sheer laziness – loyal though he was to his Tsar, Gavrel had a reputation for getting others to carry out his tasks for him.
As Grigorii put away his sixth whiskey, he pondered for a moment. The very fact that Gavrel had selected him to go to Earth and talk business proved some level of trust between the King and his prince – something which Grigorii grew ever prouder of. Irritating though he found the humans, and much though he began to strongly dislike their realm, he held his head high and powered through – za tsarya.
Still. It wasn’t all too bad. The humans had laid on endless whiskeys and this yacht was extremely nice. Perhaps Grigorii would volunteer for more business meetings in the future...
He slammed the empty whiskey glass down on the table as a human approached him. Grigorii took the meek man’s features in as he approached; he was well-dressed but annoyingly mild-mannered, seeming to hover towards the table in awkward silence. He was bald and the Griffon emissary watched as the man corrected his glasses.
“Grigorii Glebovich—”
“Duke Grigorii to you,” he cut in.
“Oh, of course. My apologies, sir.” Grigorii watched apathetically as the man sat down opposite him, setting his briefcase down and extending an arm. “My name is Peter Ludlow, CEO of International Genetics Technologies.”
Grigorii nodded once.
Ludlow coughed awkwardly before springing into action. “I shan’t bore you with unnecessary details,” he began, “so I shall jump to the issue at cause: we wish to finally convince you and your Tsardom that construction of a new attraction in your kingdom would be the economic boost you desire...”
Grigorii had heard those words before – this had been a proposition long in the making. Before leaving the Griffon Kingdom, the Tsar had met with him many times to discuss InGen’s offer. Word spoke of their desire to construct some sort of awe-inspiring zoo in the Griffon Kingdom, not only establishing ‘friendly working relations’ between the two species but also, as Ludlow had just put it, ‘hope to provide the Griffon Kingdom with an economic boost’. Grigorii and the Tsar had spoken at great depth about the offer and what it meant. It was true that the Griffon Empire was near-crippled economically; times had been hard for a very long time and this possible business venture did seem like a way out. On the other side, it presented a few issues: why choose Griffons? The Tsar had been quick to highlight that ponies and humans had already established relations, so surely it would have made sense to construct this new zoo in Equestria. Aside that, there were issues of costing and payment, transport of animals and, above all, what these animals actually were.
In his final meeting before heading to Earth, the Tsar had revealed that the animals of InGen’s biological parks were said to be resurrected creatures...
“...So, what are your thoughts?” Grigorii was drawn from his thoughts and he looked up at the man. Ludlow had clearly spoken for quite some time and was now anticipating some sort of answer.
The Griffon prince adjusted his wings. “I think that before any sort of deal can be made, you need to tell me everything there is to know.” Grigorii set his talons on the table surface, clicking them slowly. “What makes these animals so ‘special’? I am sure you know of the magical creatures from our realm.”
“I was hoping you’d ask such a question,” Ludlow replied with a smirk. He opened the briefcase, producing a document. “Take a look at this.”
Grigorii carefully picked up the document, casting his eye over it. He wasn’t much of a reader but the document was brief and immediately striking, the words ‘Jurassic Park’ jumping out from the top of the page. He looked up at Ludlow, an eyebrow cocked.
“I hope all is to your liking, Duke.”
Grigorii said nothing as he scanned the document. Despite his stoic appearance, he became ever more intrigued as he took in the information before him.
‘List of species currently inhabiting Jurassic Park
Tyrannosaurus Rex – 2
Velociraptor – 10
Triceratops – 5...’
Grigorii’s beak warped into an acute smile.
“Dinosaurs,” he said simply. It was true that he knew little about humanity, but since first contact was established with Earth he had learnt the basics. He, alongside the ruling elite of the Griffon Tsardom, also paid close attention to the ponies and their findings – the Equestrians had learnt much, and were more than keen to share their findings. Amongst their detailed reports were those of deadly creatures – a particular interest of the Tsar’s – which had included dinosaurs.
“Yes,” he continued aloud. “Most pleasing.”
With a wry smile and a nod, Ludlow continued. “Excellent, I’m glad. I had imagined this would be to your liking. Now, perhaps – if you could” – he gestured, off the yacht’s port side – “cast your eyes here, please. I think you’ll like what you see.”
Grigorii followed Ludlow’s gesture, looking toward the beachhead near where the yacht had docked. It was perhaps one and a half kilometres away, so features were visible but a strain on the eyes. “Here,” came Ludlow’s voice as Grigorii received a pair of binoculars. Putting them to his eyes, he looked.
His beak fell open.
There, on the beach, staring cautiously but intently at their position was a beast unlike any he’d ever seen. The creature was stood tall upon its hind legs, three toes splayed out wide. Even from this distance Grigorii could tell the animal was huge. Certainly not on the scale of the largest Equestrian beasts, but for Earth, this thing was big. And its presence... Grigorii had seen some monsters in his time, but whatever was staring coldly back at him sent a chill to his wingtips.
“The big ones tend not to venture out to the beaches,” Ludlow’s voice came. “We lured him out with the promise of a meal in anticipation of your visit. Do you see that, in his jaws? Watch closely.”
Grigorii took another look. “Yes,” he said. There, hanging from the monster’s jaws; a smaller creature, clearly freshly slain. The larger animal’s face was bloodied, the ooze dripping from the hanging corpse. He watched with great curiosity as the larger animal lazily moved its head back, holding its prey up high – and then, with a flick and a snap of its mighty jaws, it swallowed its meal whole.
“Fascinating,” Grigorii uttered, his gaze never leaving the large beast. After standing for a short while, he saw the creature turn around slowly, taking in its impressive bulk, muscular tail and surprisingly short arms.
With that, the animal pushed its way back into the undergrowth, and was gone.
Grigorii felt a hand on his shoulder. Lowering the binoculars, he focussed his gaze on Ludlow. “Perhaps,” he began slowly, “we can now enter negotiations. The Tsar will be most pleased with this.”
“Excellent”, Ludlow replied with a wry smile. “Come, please follow me below deck. We’ll begin work now, if that suits...”
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Ludlow! Ludlow! We've got Ludlow here!!
See? Nobody cares.
:)
Oh really, Malcom? *Knowing smile*
-
Building in the Gryphon lands likely would hold purpose two-fold:
1. given their nation is on the verge of economic collapse, it should be relatively cheap to build the 'dino-zoo' there.
2. Not needing to find a way to dodge both the laws both of earth's nations, and those in Equestria.
Given that gold and gems are probably more valuable to humans than to the locals of Magic-verse, they could make a huge amount more's worth of profit simply by gathering up the currency paid out for admission, melting it down, and shipping it home in bars to sell. There's probably more to it than that, but all else I can think of is exotic hunting from the dragons. They'd be about the only ones that could outright afford to have their own dinosaur grown in a lab for their sport.
8764549
The problem with that is that if InGen takes too much gold/gems as payment back to earth, they could cause the market for those things to collapse, thus sending them back to square one.
On the other hand, it would be super cheap to build on Griffons land like you said, and they would probably fair better when the dinos get out of their cages.
great, so you went with the dark Hammond
I much perfer the movie version. and right now this seems more book then movie
so...this take place after the first Jurassic park?