Chapter Text
vi.
Owen hates cars. He grew up riding around on the bed of his mom's truck and the backs of his uncles' motorcycles, and the Navy hadn't done anything to make him like closed vehicles. They were too claustrophobic for Owen's tastes. Too sealed off. You couldn't feel the wind on your face or the road underneath you. Not even Claire's fifty-thousand dollar, climate-controlled, softly-purring hybrid can copy that feeling.
Granted, he's probably being unfair because he's wedged up against the window while Hoskins leans forward from the back seat, crowding into his space. Claire keeps glaring at him and tapping her perfect fingernails against her steering wheel, but Hoskins isn't getting the hint.
(Owen's tempted to teach Hoskins a lesson with his fists, and would if he thought the lesson would stick.)
"What kind of progress have you made?" Hoskins is asking.
Owen keeps his mouth shut.
"Obviously a whole lot, since you're here in one piece. How's their training coming? What kind of drills can you get them to run?"
A muscle works in Owen's jaw. Two weeks ago, Delta finally outgrew Blue and challenged her for the beta position. Blue's Owen's brightest girl, so she managed to put a stop to it, but not before blood had flown. A week before that, Charlie knocked Owen down the stairs in the den and cracked a rib.
"You've taken down an Edmontosaurus, so you can obviously coordinate hunts. What's their responsiveness like? How to you keep them in line? You've had to start using physical discipline, I told you they'd respond better to pain than--"
"Mr. Hoskins," Claire finally snaps. "You are coming along because General Marcus made me bring you. Mr. Grady is coming along because he has valuable insight into the project. If you keep upsetting him, I will have you sent back to Control."
"Look, honey--"
"Hoskins," says Owen, lowly. "Shut up."
Hoskins finally relents, leaning back in his seat. "I want a report on those raptors, Grady."
Well, good luck getting one. Owen doesn't say anything else for the rest of the drive. He's on edge. He's been on edge since early November, when whatever's out on this part of the island starting raising a ruckus.
Whatever it is puts the girls on edge too. They've been restless lately, irritable, quick to snap at each other and at Owen. They're constantly looking towards the north side of the island and talking amongst themselves. Blue especially seems to be uneasy. She spends all night prowling around the den, calling warning calls at whatever's out there, marking her pack's territory.
If they didn't respect Owen as much as they do, the raptors would've have gone off to investigate already. Owen keeps them pretty far away from their new enclosure and the Research Corridor as a general rule--he's not sure he can stop Delta from going after construction workers and lab techs--but they're curious, and concerned.
He took Delta and Blue yesterday evening. They swam around the north side of the island--watching Velociraptors swim, incidentally, is fucking hilarious, they look like drunk dogs--to avoid any potential snack food and slunk through the jungle. Owen found three paddocks. One had a young male spino, who smelled the raptors and started posturing like a teenage boy, another had a small herd of Pelecanimimus, which Delta had to be bodily hauled away from, and the third had sixty-foot walls and the stink of dead things plastered to the concrete.
Whatever was inside had heard them, and it had roared. It sounded like a rex, at first. That was the roaring and screaming Owen had been hearing for weeks. But underneath that, it sounded... different. Strange. It wasn't until Blue had howled back, nearly shaking with fury, that Owen realized that that whatever was in Paddock Eleven was wrong.
It sounded like a Velociraptor.
Owen doesn't know of any animal that sounds like a raptor but a raptor. Maybe Wu had finally stopped pretending and created a full Utahraptor? Or an Achillobator, but Owen isn't sure any dromoaesaurid he knows of could be big enough to make a sound like that.
He doesn't like it.
"Usually we fly out here," Claire says, pulling the car to a stop in front of Paddock Eleven. It doesn't look half so ominous in the daylight, but Owen still doesn't like it. He can smell rotting carcasses drifting over on the wind. "So. What I'm about to show you is top-secret. Hoskins knows, and my Control staff knows, but Paddock Eleven is Jurassic World's most closely-guarded secret to date."
"You should tell all of these workers to clear out," Owen says, gesturing at the construction staff that's milling around, adding metal struts and more concrete to the wall. They don't want what's in there getting out.
"Why?"
"Blue doesn't like me being out on my own," Owen says. "She'll probably stay put, but she might not." And where she goes, Delta goes, and if anyone's going to take a bite out of a construction worker, it's Delta.
"She'd track you here?" Hoskins says. "From how far? Six, seven miles?"
Only two and a half, but Owen ignores him. If he pretends Hoskins doesn't exist, maybe he won't want to rip his throat out.
Claire deliberates for a moment, but she finally nods and calls to the foreman. Owen's filled with a rush of affection. Four months of whispering through fences has made Claire a lot more likely to trust his judgment, and vice versa.
"Every few years, Jurassic World's profit margin stagnates," Claire explains, leading Owen and Hoskins up a flight of concrete and metal stairs. "We're not doing too badly, but operating costs are always rising, so every two or three years we open a new attraction to boost attendance. This time, the Board wanted us to up the wow factor."
"They're dinosaurs," Owen says, thinking of Blue. "Wow enough."
Claire shrugs. "Not according to our focus groups. So the Board talked to Simon and Simon talked to Dr. Wu, and now we have our first genetically-modified hybrid. We're calling it the Indominus rex."
"Indominus rex," Owen repeats. The hair on the back of his neck sticks up. He doesn't like the sound of this at all. "Are you shittin' me?"
"Sounds better than Piatnitzkysaurus," Claire says. She opens the door and holds it for him. She doesn’t look it, but Owen can tell that she’s nervous.
With a sinking feeling in his gut, Owen steels himself and steps inside after her.
---
Claire leads Owen and Hoskins into the viewing room with anxiety tying her stomach into knots. Why does the Indominus sound like a Velociraptor? Henry never told Claire what's in it--she knows the base genome is from a Tyrannosaurus rex, because when Henry does things he doesn't do them by halves, but the rest of its code is classified.
She can tell Owen's on edge too, in some kind of wild, barely-restrained way that has his eyes darting to check all the corners and his hands curling into loose fists. She takes a deep breath.
"The Indominus rex is the result of ten years of genetic experimentation," Claire explains. "Its base genome is derived from a T-rex. This one is about a year and a half old."
"What's the rest of it?" Owen steps up to the glass, eyes scanning the dark trees. "How big is it?"
"Right now, forty feet long. It'll be bigger than a rex once it's done growing. The rest of its code is classified."
"You mean you have no idea," Owen murmurs, shading his eyes. "Where is it?"
"It's shy," Claire says. She turns to a technician. "Drop a steer, please."
The tech obliges. A hook, slab of meat dangling, creaks its way over the enclosure.
"You feed it with that?"
"Yes. There was a... problem, early on. It learned where the food was coming from and started attacking the handlers. In the interest of safety, we started feeding it with the hook." That had been a nightmare--her entire Indominus staff had threatened to quit. The whole project was months behind schedule because of similar incidences.
And if this thing is part Velociraptor, or something like it, Claire's starting to see why they've had such trouble.
What were you thinking, Henry?
"There it is," Hoskins says suddenly, pointing. He looks positively gleeful. The Indominus shifts behind the trees, white hide rippling. It's considering whether or not to eat.
"She knows we're here," Owen says quietly. He holds very still. "Can she see us?"
"They tell me it has a thermal sense, like a snake," Claire says. The animal's tried to break the glass when people have been standing around before.
"What the fuck," Owen breathes. He doesn't take his eyes off the animal, orienting himself so that it can look right at him. "Is she all by herself?"
"There was a sibling," Claire says. "She ate it."
"You raised this animal in isolation?"
"We didn't really have another choice. What, should I have scheduled playdates?"
"Too late now." Claire can't see Owen's face directly, but she can see his reflection in the glass. He looks horrified. "Does anyone feed her? Interact with her?"
"No," Claire says, impatient now. "It's a wild animal, Owen. It's already tried to attack people. We can't let anyone near it. It's too dangerous."
"It's part Velociraptor," Owen says, low and urgent. "Raptors are social animals. All of the problems they had with the original packs on Nublar and Sorna were because the animals were basically sociopathic. Raised in isolation. They didn't have any social skills or any idea how to behave, so they were hyperaggressive and hyperpedatory. They ate each other, for god's sake."
"It doesn't look like a raptor," Claire says doubtfully. The Indominus is coming out in the open now, apparently deciding that food is worth the scrutiny. It looks like Rexy. Bone-white, with more spines and crocodile teeth, but like a T-rex. The only thing that looks remotely like a raptor are its arms and claws.
"One way to find out," Owen says, and cups his hands around his mouth.
"Wait," Claire says, reaching out, "don't, Owen, you don't know what it's going to do--"
Owen barks, harsh and scraping, the sound unnaturally loud in the small room. The Indominus swings its great head around to stare at him. Owen barks again, then three times in rapid succession, ending with a warbling call that steams in front of the glass.
The Indominus holds very still for a second, and then it warbles back.
Holy fucking shit, Claire thinks.
Owen barks at it again, then turns to Claire. He's white under his tan. "Claire," he says, "what the fuck have you done?"
Claire opens her mouth to answer, but her explanation is lost, because the Indominus bellows loudly, louder than a T-rex, louder than the mosa, louder than anything Claire's ever heard, and throws its whole body against the glass.
The impact tosses Claire off of her feet. Hoskins swears and collapses back against the far wall. Owen lurches back but manages to stay upright, dropping into a low crouch. The glass is still intact, thank god. It's made from the same material the gyrospheres are made of. It's meant to withstand a kick from an Edmontosaurus or a collision with a bull trike.
"What the fuck, Grady," Hoskins snarls, rising to his feet.
"We gotta go," says Owen. He doesn't take his eyes off the Indominus. "We gotta go now. Claire, back up out the door. Go real slow. She's confused."
"What did you do?" Claire says, shakily climbing to her feet too. "What did--what did it say?"
"I'm not a perfect translator."
"But?"
"But," Owen allows, "she ain't happy. Now get out of here."
Claire takes a step back, then another, not taking her eyes off Owen or the Indominus. The animal draws back from the glass, shakes its head, and repeats the warbling call. Its tail swipes through the air and cracks against a tree.
"Don't you dare open your mouth, Grady," Hoskins says warningly. "I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but--"
The Indominus charges again, slamming its head into the glass. Claire manages to stay upright this time. Hoskins topples backwards and Owen drops down to all fours, teeth bared. "Get out of here," he shouts. “This animal’s insane! It’ll kill you!” The Indominus bellows and slams its head against the glass again, and again, and again. Spider web cracks have started to appear.
Hoskins curses and scrambles out the door, followed by the panicking technician. Claire hits the floor again, thrown back a few feet by the Indominus' impact. Owen stays where he is, staring down the dinosaur, every muscle rigid and straining.
"Go!" He shouts.
"I'm not leaving you!" Claire shouts back. "Come on, it's going to break the glass. We have to go!"
Like it can hear and understand her--and maybe it can, if it's part raptor, what was Henry thinking--the Indominus roars again, eyes flashing, and slams its head into the glass. Its horns punch through at last, and when the animal pulls away, shards of glass fall down into the enclosure below.
The Indominus snorts, backing up. It makes the low warbling sound in its throat again, almost sweetly. One more hit and the glass is done for.
"Go," Owen says again. "I'll be fine, Claire. Get out of here--"
"She's not one of your damn raptors!"
"You think I don't know that?"
"You're not going to be able to reason with it, Owen, come on, it'll eat you!" Claire climbs to her feet again and steps forward, reaching out for the back of Owen's shirt. She doesn't give a damn if he's six two and a good fifty or sixty pounds heavier than Claire. She'll drag him outside and then kick his ass for being so fucking stupid, so self-centered, thinking he's so smart--
The Indominus charges again, throwing its whole body against the glass, and the viewing box pitches under Claire's feet, glass shattering. The Indominus claws its way past the glass. Its huge muzzle can barely fit into the box. The weight of it drags at the floor, sending Claire scrambling backwards against gravity as everything begins to tilt and shift.
"Claire!" Owen roars.
Claire pitches forward, scrabbling for purchase on the sliding, tilting floor, and then she's suddenly in empty air. The last thing she sees is Owen dodging claws on his way down after her, and the Indominus, screaming and tearing at the walls around her.
---
Claire wakes up in a world that's all white. Light bears down on her and pricks the back of her eyes. Her mouth feels like it's full of rust. "Where--?" She mumbles, and then remembers it all in a rush, the Indominus, Owen, Hoskins turning and running. She remembers--
"Owen," she gasps, sitting upright. "Where's Owen?"
"Easy, Claire." Simon's there, a hand on her shoulder. His face is kind and concerned. "Easy, it's alright. You're alright."
"I'm fine," Claire says, though she feels like she got hit with a sack of bricks. "Where's Owen? We--" Fell, she realizes. They fell into the Indominus' cage.
"Mr. Grady is also alright," Simon says. "He is in custody, Claire. Everything is fine."
"Wait, custody?" Claire makes to stand but can't quite make her legs work. She's shaking. Her skirt is ripped and there are dirt stains ground into her elbows. How did we not die? "Why the hell is he in custody? He didn't do anything."
"Mr. Grady tried to free the Indominus rex," Simon says slowly, kindly, like he thinks Claire hit her head on the way down. She hit everything else, but not her head. Claire's fine. Pissed, a little shaken, but fine. Everything's fine. She'll get it back under control in a few minutes, turn Owen loose with his animals, and everything will be fine. "It's under control, by the way. ACU was able to tranquilize the animal and rescue the both of you from its enclosure. You're lucky they were so close by."
That doesn't make any sense, but Claire can't figure out why just yet. "He didn't try to free it," Claire says. "He thought--he thought it was part raptor, and wanted to test his theory. It is, Simon. I don't know what Henry was thinking, but he cooked up a Velociraptor hybrid, and it's insane--"
"It's quite impressive, yes." Simon grins. "I hadn't seen her before today, did you know? She's magnificent. Terrifying. Just what we wanted."
"You wanted a raptor hybrid?" Claire asks, incredulous. "Owen says that there’s something wrong with it. It wasn't socialized correctly. He says it’s insane. Not insane like cool, insane like insane."
"Mr. Grady invited the animal to attack when he called out to it," Simon says, grin fading. "Mr. Hoskins was quite clear that the animal did not become aggressive until Mr. Grady started making noise."
"He wasn't telling it to attack," Claire says. She's feeling a little stronger now, and stands up. She wobbles, but stays upright. Awesome. Step one, find my shoes. Step two, find Owen.
"How do you know? That's the problem, Claire. Mr. Grady has learned how to communicate with these animals."
"He doesn't speak Velociraptor," Claire snaps. "They're animals. They don't have complex language. Yes, they communicate, but not in a way we can learn to translate. Owen can make some of their sounds. Yes, it's partly how he controls them, but it's not exact. He didn't tell the Indominus to break the glass and attack us."
"How do you know?" Simon spreads his hands helplessly. "I want to trust Mr. Grady's intentions, Claire. He seems like a good man. But something incited the Indominus to attack the glass."
Claire thinks of its eyes. "I think Owen's right," she says. "I think it's insane. It cannibalized its sibling, Simon. That's not normal."
"Cannibalism happens in reptiles all the time," Simon says dismissively. "And that was months ago. If you were concerned, why didn't you bring your concerns to me then? It's too late now. The Indominus is nearly fully grown. She'll go on exhibit next year."
Claire doesn't have the words to explain to Simon how she feels. When the Indominus ate its sister, Claire didn't know. She didn't know anything. The Indominus was just a frustrating project forced onto her by an overambitious Board and an overeager Henry. It was something to do, something to solve. A problem. An exercise in park management. Claire had measured its development in to-do lists and checked-off boxes.
Is the cage secure? Check. Is the asset eating? Check. Is the asset healthy? Check. Are the people working with and around the asset safe? Check. Will the public be safe around the asset? Check.
She didn't think about its behavioral development. Why would she? She's not a behavioral scientist. She doesn't know the markers of proper dinosaur development. All of the carnivores are violent and aggressive. They all look for ways to escape. She thought the Indominus was normal.
But now she's seen how the raptors interact with Owen. They're not safe--she still remembers picking teeth out of Owen's shoulder--but they're not throwing themselves against the bars of the Fence trying to maul Claire's guests either.
"Simon, you need to let Owen go. He didn't do anything wrong. It attacked us. It's attacked the glass before. It's dangerous."
"Claire," Simon says, but she cuts him off.
"Owen Grady is not at fault," she says firmly. Things are finally making sense now. Pieces are falling into place. "Did you ever stop and ask yourself why ACU was so close by? I didn’t call for them. I didn't order them out there. Who told you that Owen tried to free the Indominus?"
She can see the realization dawning in Simon's eyes. "Hoskins," he says.
"I'm glad ACU was close by," Claire says. "They probably saved our lives. But I did not put them there."
"Are you saying Hoskins intentionally upset the Indominus? To, what, prove a point? Get you to trust him?"
Shit, I'm starting to sound as paranoid as Owen, Claire thinks. "I think," she says carefully, "that there's more to this situation than meets the eye. You need to let Owen go. I'll talk to him. He can explain what happened."
She sounds crazy. Claire knows she does. But years of professional and personal trust win out, and Simon nods. "Very well," he says. "Mr. Grady should have the opportunity to explain himself, at least. Are you sure you're alright? You had a nasty fall. The doctors tell me it's a miracle you didn't break anything."
"I'm fine," Claire mutters. "I run on aspirin and caffeine anyway, what's a few more pills going to do to me?"
---
They're halfway to Control when Claire gets the call.
"Claire," Lowery says, tremulous, "the thermal imaging scans came back from Paddock Eleven. The Indominus isn't in there."
---
"It fooled the cameras," Simon says, torn between wonder and horror. "How could it do that? They're state of the art."
"I don't know," Viv says tearfully. "We scanned the paddock twice and it didn't show up."
Claire stares at the big monitor, a dim sense of panic cutting through her headache and settling into her bones. The Indominus hadn't shown up on thermal imaging, so the techs working to repair the damage done to the viewing box had called Control in a panic and gone down to examine the paddock.
They had found claw marks gouged into the concrete wall of its enclosure going all the way up, like the animal had clawed its way over the top. A couple of techs had gone in to investigate, only to find that the Indominus was still in the enclosure. It had regulated its temperature to hide from the sensors. It had devoured one tech and when the other had fled, the Indominus burst through the massive door and out into the park.
Claire keeps thinking, How does it know what thermal sensors are?
"A concern for a later time," Simon says forcefully. "Has ACU been dispatched?"
Viv shakes her head.
"Send them out," says Simon. "Nonlethals only. They're trained for this. This was an eventuality, people. Let's not panic and forget how well we've prepared for this."
Something in Simon's tone calms Claire down a little. He's not worried. It's her job to be worried when he isn't, but he is confident in their ability to reign in this disaster, so Claire will be too. She's troubled by the Indominus' intelligence--a raptor, it's basically a very large, very bloodthirsty raptor--but when they get it back in containment, they can build it a bigger, better enclosure and prevent it from ever getting out again.
"Recall everyone north of the resort," Claire says. "Close the Valley. The Indominus is four miles from the nearest exhibit. We've got that window to put it down." The Control room responds to Claire beautifully, everyone dashing into damage control mode.
"Everything will be fine," Simon assures her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Henry."
"What about Owen?"
Simon thinks for a moment. "Let him out," he decides. "Hoskins will no doubt be preoccupied with this anyway. We can discuss his actions later. He's the raptor expert. He might be able to help us bring the Indominus back in."
Claire nods, relieved. "Will do," she says, and goes.
---
Jurassic World doesn't have a jail per say. They don't have a police force. But theft is a huge problem, as is vandalism and trespassing--honestly, the number of morons who try and get into the Spinosaurus enclosure is astounding--so around five or six years ago Claire built Park Security a nice little complex near the resort and had a floor set aside for criminal containment.
Everyone calls it the Naughty Corner jokingly. Claire doesn't really get why--seriously, breaking into the Spinosaurus enclosure isn't naughty, it's stupid and illegal--but Park Security isn't really her division so she lets it happen.
This is where they're keeping Owen.
"Take me up to Mr. Grady, please," Claire says, signing the check-in sheet.
"Raptor Guy?" Saul Gingrich, the park's oldest employee, squints at Claire. He's eighty-four. Claire's been trying to coax him into retirement for the better part of her time at Jurassic World, but Saul just laughs and waves her off.
"Yes," she says. "There's been a misunderstanding. Mr. Grady's free to go."
Saul shrugs. "If you say so. You better hope that Hoskins fella's not up there, though. He's been a real prick about keeping Raptor Guy locked up tight. I told him we're not a real jail, but he wouldn't listen."
Claire's slightly gratified to hear that someone else thinks that Hoskins is a douche, and smiles. "Thanks," she says. "I can let myself up, Saul."
Saul waves at her and returns to his puzzle book. Nothing seems to rattle Saul. He goes toe to toe with pissed-off suburban parents and entitled teenagers on a regular basis. He's got nerves of steel.
Claire takes the stairs two at a time, wincing. Her whole left side is pretty bruised. She doesn't remember hitting the ground in Paddock Eleven, but she must have landed on that side. (She watched the security footage. It had been strange to watch the Indominus come into the viewing box on camera. It didn't look real. She saw herself topple down into the paddock, Owen falling behind her, and they looked like toys.
It had only been ACU coming in over the walls with heavy-duty tranqs that saved Claire and Owen from getting trampled to death. The Indominus had been distracted and tried to follow ACU around the paddock. It was as far away from them as it could get when it had finally gone down.)
"Claire," Owen says, as soon as Claire opens the door into his little holding cell. He stands up and makes like he wants to cross over to her, but stops himself. "You okay?"
"More or less. You?" Claire looks him up and down appraisingly. He has a cut on his forehead and he has his left arm tucked against his chest, but other than that he looks alright.
"Be better if I wasn't stuck in here," he says darkly. "Claire, I swear I didn't tell the Indominus to attack. Even if I did she's not trained, she wouldn't have known what I was telling her to do, and I wouldn't put anyone in danger like that--"
Claire holds up a hand. "Relax. I don't think you set the Indominus on anyone. You're an idiot, but you're not stupid." She pauses. "Hoskins is telling everyone that you were trying to free it."
She doesn't think that Owen would. Call her naïve, but she really doesn't think he'd let the Indominus out. He let the raptors out, but he’s basically their father. He'd been reasonably sure of his ability to keep them in line.
He'd been almost scared of the Indominus.
His expression confirms Claire's suspicions. "That animal should be put down," he says. "She's insane. She's the animal equivalent of a sociopath. I'd never let her out."
"That's what I thought," Claire says, relieved. "Why did she attack us? She's done it before, but she's given up after a few hits. This time she was--"
"Pissed?" Owen shrugs and winces. "I don't know why she attacked. The call I used is a parent-call. I use it with the girls all the time and they come running for snacks and scratches, not to bite my fucking head off. The Indominus has no idea what she is. What else is she mixed with?"
"I don't know," Claire says truthfully. "Henry--Dr. Wu--wouldn't tell us. Simon's with him now trying to get answers, but whenever I asked he always told me it was an InGen secret."
"Seems to be a lot of those," Owen mutters, and Claire can't say she disagrees. She's worried by how much is coming to light that she didn't know about, and can't control. Months ago, Owen told her that InGen had more power and influence than she thought. He's turning out to be right.
"Why does it matter?"
"What she's made of will influence her behavior. If she's rex and raptor, she'll be a predator. If she's sociopathic--and I think she is, no juvenile attacks its parent like that, and properly socialized pack animals don't eat their siblings--she'll be a hyperpredator. Depending on what else she's mixed with, that can change. The shape of her jaw looks like a sucho, so she might be piscivorous, but if she’s been raised on steer flanks her whole life, she won’t know to hunt for fish. She’ll hunt for meat instead."
"I don't know," Claire says honestly. "Simon will tell me once he knows, but right now we just don't know. He sent nonlethals after her, so we'll get the chance to study her behavior, but--"
"Wait," Owen says, very slowly, "what?"
"The Indominus escaped," Claire says. "She--I don't know. She tricked the thermal imaging sensors and set a trap. She set a trap for the techs working on repairing the box and got out. She's in the Research Corridor now. ACU's gone after her."
"With nonlethals?" Owen's face goes white again. "Claire, you have to tell them to kill it. It's too dangerous to have in the park. It will kill people."
"It's not my call," Claire says. "Mr. Masrani said--"
"Oh, no one gives a shit what Mr. Masrani says," Owen growls. "Everyone knows that you run the park, Claire. They'll listen to you. Tell them to put it down. Before it's too late."
"Hey," Claire says, bristling, "Simon Masrani built this park--"
"And he did a very good job. I'm not saying he's not the boss, or that he's not a good guy or whatever, but you work here. Every day. He doesn't. Half of the staff hasn't even seen him before." Owen sighs. "I met him because he heard that my first clutch of raptors died, and he wanted to make sure that I was alright. The rest of the handlers? The ACU guys? He's just a name. You're the one we see every day."
"While I appreciate the vote of confidence--” Claire starts, but Owen cuts her off.
"You trust me, right?"
Claire looks at Owen for a long second. Do I? Yes, she does. He hasn't lied to her. They've been working together for months now. Owen's blunt and unprofessional and weird, but he's always been honest. "Yes," she finally says. "I trust you."
"Then you have to listen to me. The Indominus rex needs to be put down. I don’t care how much money InGen's sunk into this thing. She's part raptor, and she's insane. She has none of the learned behaviors that my animals have. She doesn't know what she is. And she is gonna do exactly what the raptors in Jurassic Park did, which is kill everything. And she's big enough to do it. You have to put her down before she kills anyone."
Owen's face is open and earnest and serious. He's telling the truth. He really believes that the Indominus is more dangerous than anything else in the park.
"Okay," Claire says, deciding to bow to Owen's experience. "Alright, I'll pass down the order. I'll deal with the fallout. Come on, let's get you out of here. If you tell Simon exactly what you told me, he'll understand. He's not an idiot."
"I didn't say he was," Owen mutters, but the look on his face tells Claire that he thinks they're all idiots, and he thinks they're all going to die.
---
They arrive in Control, Claire dirty and sore, Owen white-faced and bloody, in time to see the Indominus wipe out the ACU team sent after her.
"She dug out her tracker," Claire says, hand pressed over her mouth.
"She remembered where they put it," Owen says, just as horrified.
After that, no one argues with Claire when she authorizes the use of lethal weapons. Hamada's dead. Lee's dead. All of ACU's most experienced personnel are dead in the jungle.
"Where's it going now?" Claire asks, looking around. No one seems to want to meet her eyes. Lowery finally looks up. He looks like he wants to vomit. Viv is crying.
"My guess?" says Owen. "The Valley. If she's thermo-sensitive, she'll go for the apatis."
"Valley's been closed," Lowery says, and everyone lets out their breath in relief.
"Make sure the Fences are up and running," Owen barks. "It's weaker near the Valley, easier to break through." Claire lets him snap orders and gives herself ten seconds to panic, then takes a deep breath.
Her phone rings. Karen's face flashes across the screen. Claire frowns.
"Hello?"
"Claire? Hi. Are the boys with you? I can't get a hold of Zach, I just wanted to make sure they're having a good time, I--"
"Zach and Gray are with my assistant, Zara," Claire cuts in, feeling guilty. She's forgotten all about her nephews in this mess. To be fair, she can blame it on falling twenty-five feet into a carnivorous dinosaur enclosure, but they're still her nephews. "Something came up at work and I had to deal with it, but don't worry, I'm sure they're fine."
Karen starts to cry, which Claire doesn't know how to deal with right now, so she promises her sister that she'll go and find Zach and Gray immediately and they'll start having good, wholesome family fun. Just as soon as Claire's people kill the murderous dinosaur currently running rampant through her park.
Owen seems to have the Control room well in hand--military guys, always posturing--so Claire calls Zara, who tells Claire that she misplaced her nephews, and that's when Claire starts to get worried. They're fine, she tells herself. We called everyone back an hour ago, they're fine.
She calls Zach.
"--nt Claire?"
"Zach!" She says, absurdly grateful. "Thank god. Are you back at the resort?"
"--Claire?"
"Zach," Claire says, loudly and clearly, "Zach, listen to me. Where are you? You need to get yourself and your brother back to the resort, okay? Where are you?"
"--lley," Zach says, garbled. "--Claire?"
The phone cuts out. Claire has worked in this park for almost a decade and she's never, ever had a call drop. Her stomach plummets.
"Lowery!" She snaps. "Are all the gyrospheres out of the Valley?"
"Of course they are," says Lowery, immediately switching the screen over. "What, you think I can't do my job? All the 'spheres are--oh." There's one gyrosphere moving on the map, deep into the Valley.
Zach and Gray. Claire dives for Viv's headpiece, but Park Security snaps at her that they've got too much to do already getting people back to the resort and out of the park to chase down one gyrosphere, that they'd get to it when they'd get to it, and Claire feels like crying.
"Need help?" Owen says, concerned.
"My nephews," Claire begins. "They're still in the Valley. I don't know why they didn't come back, but I have to go get them--"
"I'll come," Owen says instantly, and Claire's temporarily winded by a momentary rush of affection. "How old are they?"
"No idea, doesn't matter," Claire says. "Let's go. Quickly."
Owen looks at her like she's crazy, but he goes.
Claire quietly adds him to her list of people who will be receiving houses for Christmas, and prays that her nephews are alright.
---
Gray wants to go home. He knew they should've gone back when Jimmy Fallon told them too. If they had, they wouldn't be stumbling through the jungle, wet and shaking. They wouldn't be searching the trees for that big dinosaur, waiting for it to show up and kill them.
Gray's mom tells him that he shouldn't brag, but he's something of a dinosaur expert. He's loved dinosaurs since he was three years old. He's read dozens of books, watched every movie he could get his hands on, and spent hours reading Dr. Grant's and Dr. Harding's work on the Internet.
He has no idea what kind of dinosaur attacked him and Zach. Some kind of saurischian theropod, he thinks, maybe a relative of the Tyrannosaurus, though it had horns like a Carnotaurus and weird arms and hands, and it could open its mouth wide like a snake.
Gray shivers just remembering it. He's never been so scared in his life. If he knew what it was he could tell Zach and they could make a plan to avoid it, but he doesn’t know. He wants to go home. They shouldn't have even come to Jurassic World. They're only here because Mom and Dad are getting divorced and they feel really bad about it.
Tired and scared, Gray kicks at a clump of dirt. "How much further?" He whines. He hates whining--Zach says it makes him sound like a little baby, and he's not a baby--but this time Zach just ruffles his hair and says, "Not much further, little bro. We'll find something."
Gray nods and sticks close to Zach. He listens hard, but doesn't hear anything. The theropod that attacked them had been loud. They would hear it coming, right? It wouldn't be able to sneak up on them again, not if they were listening for it.
That'll be my job, Gray decides. I'll listen for the dinosaur so Zach can find us a way out of this.
"Look!" Zach says, and grins. He points through the dense trees. Gray squints.
"I don't see anything," he says.
"Look closer."
Gray does, squinting, and then he sees it. There's a building in the middle of the trees, old and crumbling. It's draped with vines and leaves. "It's the old visitor center," Gray realizes. "From the first park."
"Awesome," Zach says, and confidently walks forward, but Gray sees something moving the trees and grabs his brother's arm. "Dude, what? We're safe! We can hide in here for a little while, I'll bet there's like, a radio in there or something--"
"Zach," Gray says softly, "look."
A dinosaur comes prowling out of the jungle, head cocked to the side. It's maybe six feet tall and at least twice as long. Its skin is gray and pebbled, like a lizard's, and it has a blue stripe running down its body from its eye sockets to the tip of its powerful balancing tail.
Saurischian, Gray thinks almost critically, noticing its feet. The innermost talon on each foot is curved upwards, like a sickle. Theropoda. Dromaeosauridae.
"Stay behind me," Zach says, stepping in front of Gray and holding his arms out.
"Doesn't matter." Gray points a shaking finger at the trees. Another dinosaur comes out, head held close to the ground. This one is bright green. Another comes from the other side, its body striped orange and brown, and a fourth comes from behind them, smaller than the others and a duller green.
The four dromaeosaurids chirp. They sound like birds. They all have yellow eyes and three long-clawed fingers on each hand. The biggest, greenest one hisses.
"Gray," Zach says, "what kind of dinosaurs are these? They're not meat-eaters, right?"
Gray looks at the blue-striped one, and it cocks its head. Its sickle claw scratches at the ground. It opens its mouth, revealing dozens of pointy white teeth, and screeches. The cry is taken up by the other three, rising to a screaming pitch before tapering off, and Gray presses up against his brother, terrified.
"V-velociraptors," he whispers. "They're Velociraptors."