CHAPTER FOUR
YOU'RE THE NEW GUY, RIGHT?
I roll over the next morning to the sound of the coffee machine whirring behind a closed door. It took me a moment to register that another person was in my unit, all the events of yesterday slowly trickling back into the front of my mind.
I lay still for a while, watching a small colourful bird ruffle its feathers on my porch. Harsh dawn sunlight had already lit up the jungle and pulled steam up from the ground like weeds, suggesting today was going to be scorchingly hot. Meaning, the raptors were going to be in a shit mood. Meaning, Owen was going to be in a shit mood.
Fantastic.
Tumbling out of the purple sheets, stretching awkwardly as I plant my feet down, I quietly made way for the kitchen, opening the closed door softly and stepping out into the hallway.
To my surprise, Alex was wide awake and dressed, perched awkwardly behind the breakfast bar counter. He looked much better dressed for the compound in worn cargo pants, scuffed Doc Martens and a crumpled grey t-shirt. Even more surprisingly, he wasn't flicking through papers or a tablet. He sat with a book wedged beneath his elbow, watching the orange sun rise slowly over the jungle from the sliding doors.
My foot creaks under a floorboard, his head flinching in my direction. His shoulders sunk down into a hunch the moment he saw me, a little hair falling over the side of his face. He looked almost frightened. 'Morning,' he mumbles, so quietly that I could have barely registered it.
I'd thought about it a lot last night. I'd stared at the ceiling long enough that I had considered phoning Owen to ask if I had been too harsh on him, even if I already knew the answer myself. He had been sent to an entirely remote island for an insane internship with no one his age around him, and the only person that was had made him wash mould-ridden walls on his first day. Alex had probably never seen a dinosaur in his life up until now. He was still probably yet to see one.
Actions skim when they are light, sink when they are heavy. Those strange, comforting words I had once read or heard somewhere long ago, but seem to recall when a reminder was needed.
I cleared my throat. 'Morning,' I reply softly.
I tiptoe quietly into the kitchen and started making my own breakfast, the clattering and clinking of utensils filling the silence. Awkwardness hung over the kitchen like a string of bunted fabric. He'd occasionally stifle a yawn, smoothing down his hair with a quick ruffle. Sunlight crawled across the floor, clinging to the bookshelves and couch and coffee table.
'How'd you sleep?' I ask him after a while.
'Um, good I guess,' I he replies plainly. He glances down to the tops of his shoes underneath the kitchen bench.
You must have been a real bitch, I thought to myself myself. I bit my lip, thinking back to my feud with Claire a couple of days ago.
'You've got a real attitude problem Laura, you know that?'
I could salvage this. I think. It suddenly dawned on me how unprepared I was to have a conversation with someone my age, and it threw me off balance a bit. I couldn't actually remember the last time it had happened. For a millisecond, something in the back of my brain whispered that it had probably never actually happened. I clear my throat again.
'You uh, hear any dinosaurs throughout the night?' I ask hopefully.
He nods slightly. 'A few brontosauruses I think. I'm probably wrong, though.'
'No actually, their paddock is pretty close to here,' I reply. 'There's a few trees out front that you can climb and be able to see them.'
'Really?'
'Yep.'
A little relief begun to tint Alex's cheeks, shoulders relaxing into our budding conversation. Before I could think, I slid a mug of fresh coffee towards his empty one awkwardly, hoping he would actually drink it. To my mild relief, he accepted it with a grateful smile.
I mean, it was only for what, three days? I could manage that. I'd put up with Uncle Victor hovering over Owen and I for almost my entire life, and compared to him, Alex was utterly harmless. He was a near-grad student. It might do mine and Owen's ego some good to finally have someone to show the arena off to, and that maybe Owen was right about the whole "having some my age" comment.
More importantly, if this went well, Claire would back off. I almost daydreamed about the concept of never having to go up to the resort again; to not see her as often as I had with all these inspections these last several weeks.
'So uh, how often do you come down to Isla Nublar to um, do all this stuff?' Alex asks me. He takes a quick bite out of the cold piece of toast in front of him.
I put down my coffee. 'All year,' I say.
He stopped chewing, swallowing harshly. 'Wait, you live here?'
I nod, chuckling a little. 'Claire didn't tell you that?'
He looked at me in disbelief, crumbs littering his upper lip. 'She told me you were my age but I didn't know you... you know. I thought you'd be at a college or something.'
'Yeah, I wish,' I mumble. I hadn't been to a proper school a day in my life. I prop myself onto the bench.
He looks fascinated. 'How long have you been here?'
'Since I was six or seven when I moved here with my Uncle.'
'For real?'
I nod. 'I was homeschooled for a while until Owen finally let me help out around the compound with IBRIS when I turned sixteen.'
'Do you train them as well?'
"Well, Delta is my raptor that I work with one on one. Owen works on building a bond with Blue and trains the entire pack. I just tag along. I've gotta be a little more careful than Owen.'
'Why's that?'
The words start to come a little easier with talk of the arena. I pick at them carefully, cautious of over-explaining. 'Raptors are sorta tricky in the sense that they fundamentally trust the first figure they see when they hatch,' I say. 'So Owen imprinted on them when they were born. I was still allowed to start interacting with them when they were only a couple of weeks old, but still. There's not that maternal trust like they have with Owen.'
'And they actually respond to him?'
'Yeah. Not always though. They're very unpredictable animals, and it's a brand new field of intelligence work, so we're pretty in the dark with most of it. But, if you catch em' on a good day, they're amazing to watch.'
Alex had his chin propped up on his palm, listening intently to everything I was saying. I wasn't gonna lie, this felt great. I couldn't remember the last time I got to gush to somebody new about our raptors. Somebody who had somewhat of an idea of animal-related intelligence and wasn't directly working for Ingen or one of Masrani's marketers. That being said, a part of me couldn't help but wonder why his Father hadn't told him all about them if he was sending his son here. Hoskins was always asking for reports, which were most likely for the board. They'd want any chance to show off the fact they'd harnessed primeval intelligence.
'So, Owen... is he your Dad?'
A bout of sadness began bobbing in me at his question, the eagerness of talking about our raptors fading away. I took a tiny sip of coffee. I hadn't put enough milk in it. The bitterness sept into my tongue uncomfortably. 'My real Dad passed away when I was little,' I say. 'Both of my parents, actually. Car accident in the rain.'
Alex's face fell, broad shoulders slumping forward a little. 'I- I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to pry or anything.'
I gave him a small smile. 'It's cool,' I say. 'I don't remember much about them, so it doesn't really bother me.'
He gazes at me sadly. 'Did they like it here?'
I swirl the last remnants of cold coffee around the bottom of the mug, watching it sway and slosh. 'I don't think they ever actually saw it,' I tell him. 'I um, moved here with my Uncle shortly after they died. I lived at his place for like a year after they died, or supposedly I did. With my Aunt.'
And what did it matter? I was safe here, with protection away from my Uncle, and whatever had been the reason why we'd moved here in the first place. I couldn't remember anything of value about my life before it. Why bother digging if you knew there'd be nothing good to find?
I put the mug down onto the bench, hopping back down to the floor, pushing it away, back into the cloudy nothingness where all of it lived, or so I believed it did. 'Anyway, it's almost nine. I'd better be getting ready so we can head off.'
I flick off the appliances in the kitchen, making my way to my room. As I strode past my helmet and beaten leather jacket draped over an armchair, I stop to turn to Alex.
'Have you ever ridden a motorbike before?' I ask him.
He looks at the jacket, then back at me, eyes wide with curiosity. 'Dad lends me his Harley-Davidson sometimes,' he replies with a slight grin.
There wasn't much to be said on the drive to the compound. Alex had kept his hands on my shoulders, quietly admiring the passing greenery as we sped down the path, turning off towards the metal infrastructure. I'd taken secret relief in our conversation going well this morning, even if it meant touching on some subjects I willed myself to never spend time on, for the sake of me being where I was.
As I roll the bike to a stop in the quiet arena grounds, I notice Owen was mid-conversation with a plump, bearded man as they walked down the metal stairs towards the entrance to the raptor pit. I clamber off the bike, squinting to listen.
"... you think, that the eighth richest man in the world is only into oil, telecom, and family fun parks? he's so diversified he doesn't even know what he owns..." barks an all recognisable, irritable voice.
'How long has Ingen been practising this pitch?' Owen calls back in response.
'Since the day we hired you outta the Navy. You knew the end game.'
The tone. Like nails to a chalkboard. I roll my eyes, muttering under my breath. Alex who was oblivious to the severity of the conversation, fresh helmet hair poking up on top of his head, raises a brow lightly. 'Everything okay?'
'Yeah,' I assure, waving it off. 'I'll uh, be back in a sec. Just wait here.'
He shrugs politely. 'All good.'
I stride across the grounds towards the two of them. In his simple Ingen branded security outfit, I could see now that he'd lost some of his tan, meaning he'd been back in San Diego for a while. Making more deals and money moves with Ingen over his insane obsession with the training regime of our raptors. Weird prick.
'What are you doing here,' I snap, blocking his path to follow Owen into the pen.
'Same reason you are, sweetheart,' he replies with a grin. I bent down under the gate, Owen temporarily locking it behind me until he pissed off. 'Just havin' a chat with ya stand in old man. How's my girl this morning?'
'Shut up,' I spit.
Victor Hoskins laces his arms through the metal bars, his eyes sparkling with a menacing blend of avarice and ambition. 'Aren't you gonna ask me about San Diego?'
'That would imply that I care,' I say flatly, hanging up my beaten jacket on its hook. I stand beside Owen with crossed arms.
He grins at Owen. 'These animals,' he continues, all his ideas brimming in his tone. 'Can replace thousands of boots on the ground. How many lives would that save?' A greedy smile spreads across the man's pudgy face, moustache twitching. 'War is apart of nature.'
Apart of nature. I snort, shaking my head. There was a myriad of reasons why my Uncle could be considered a psychopath, but that comment just about summed it up with a neat little bow.
He pushes on, talking with his hands as much as his mouth. 'Look around, Owen, Laura. I'm telling you. Every living thing in this jungle is trying to murder the other. Mother Nature's way of testing her creations. Refining the pecking order. War is a struggle, and struggle breeds greatness. Without that, we end up with places like this, charge seven bucks a soda.'
Whatever the conversation had been about before I'd gotten here, I don't think context would have fixed the absolute nonsense tumbling out of his mouth.
'Do you hear yourself when you talk?' Owen asks him.
Hoskins kept his gaze on us. 'This is gonna happen. With or without you. Both of you. Progress always wins, man.'
'Well, maybe progress should lose for once,' Owen replies simply.
I bite down on the inside of my cheek, disgusted at the tiny bout of sadness ebbing at the very bottom of my chest to see him carrying on this way. 'War draws circles, Hoskins, not conclusions.' I gesture out to the grounds beyond us all. 'You can't fight man made unpredictability with gut instinct that's existed for millions of years.'
My Uncle shakes his head, laughing to himself. 'And when did you get so philosophical?' he taunts. He nods impressively at Owen. 'I thought she dumped the books for this circus?'
Neither of us were able to bitterly respond; the loud clang of a metal gate echoed through the compound, the shrieking of a pig ringing through the arena behind us. A small dart of pale pink zooms through the monstera foliage, rustling wildly. I squint up at the metal runway complex above, a flustered intern hurrying around the perimeter with a wooden rod hoisted above him.
'What the-?' Owen mumbles to himself.
'Pig loose!' the intern is shouting hopelessly. 'Pig loose! Guys! Pig loose!'
As in the pigs we use for training? I walk up to the gate. 'Hey!' I bark to the runway above. 'What's going on up there?'
Too high to hear me, the intern dipped the rod down into the raptor pit, attempting to capture the tiny pig running in circles around the bark.
From the corner of my eye, a ball of green whirled in the direction of the pig, snatching it up and racing away. In one swift motion, a tail knocked the rod away from the bark floor, the interns hand still grasped around the stick. He let out a gut-wrenching scream, his entire body flipping over the rails and plummeting into the pit with a horrible crash. The attention of Blue, Echo, Charlie and Delta snapped on to the commotion.
Before I had time to even process what had happened in front of us, Owen was instinctive, opening the gate and scrambling underneath.
'OWEN!' I shout, lunging after him.
But I was far too late in those split two seconds. Owen had scuttled across the bark to the interns aid, holding out his arms.
'No, no, hold your fire!' he panics to the security guards above them, their tasers at the ready. 'Hold your fire! Do NOT fire!'
Blue let out a shrill at the sudden human invading their paddock. Owen held up his palms tentatively. 'Put twelve amps in these animals they're never gonna trust me again.'
The worker quickly dragged himself and his injuries to the gate so that I could heave him inside. Owen was watching the raptors for his life, limbs barely hovering in motion not to cause any riots between them.
'Owen, get back in here!' I hiss. I knew what he was trying to do, and I couldn't confidently say it was going to work. Not after Delta's illness putting her out of action for two weeks. It was too fresh. Entirely unpredictable. 'It's not worth it!'
Owen ignores me, holding out his palms to stand his ground. Delta, Echo, Charlie and Blue all snaked in closer to Owen, their beady eyes glistening as they formed a semi-circle stance around him. 'Blue, stand down,' he warns. Blue eased back, snarling and shrieking.
'Delta, I see you, back up,' he presses. Delta shrills.
'Charlie,'he warns. 'Stay right there.'
All four raptors stayed put, lightly hissing at Owen as he slowly backed towards the gate. No patterned attack co-ordinations, no chattering amongst themselves. All four raptors together, listening to him. Actually responding to his commands.
'Holy shit,' I whisper under my breath.
'Okay,' he says gently. 'Gooood.'
He lowers a hand. 'Close the gate.'
'Are you crazy!?' I quip back.
'Just trust me.'
Hesitating in a moment with so much to lose, I lunge forward to the green button labelled 'CLOSE' and pushed it. The metal gate slowly lowered to the ground. Owen stood, unmoving. The gate was barely big enough to fit me, let alone him.
At the last possible second, Owen spun on his heels and effortlessly flipped under the gate, bark chips flying everywhere as the gate came clattering down onto the ground. The raptors cry out in annoyance as they crashed into metal gate, missing out on a meal by milliseconds. Both he and the intern sat out of breath, Owen in disbelief that he'd been able to manage that situation.
'Fucking hell,' I say shakily, giving him a hand, pushing back to urge to grab him into a hug. 'Are you alright?'
'Yeah I'm fine,' he says breathlessly, dusting saw dust off from his chest. 'You?'
I nodded dryly in response, although I wasn't quite sure if I was. Regardless, I silently will it down.
The lanky man before our feet was panting, frightened eyes bulging out of the blue beanie hanging low over his head. I'd never seen him around up until today. I wondered if he was even meant to be here after a stunt like that.
'You're the new guy, right?' Owen asks him.
The man swallows harshly, unresponsive.
'Ever wonder why there was a job opening?' Owen chuckles.
The intern nodded feverishly, unsure of whether to laugh at his joke.
Owen offers him a small smile. 'Just don't ever turn your back on the cage,' he says.
Delta had her claws poking through the bars, snarling at the potential meal that had just been stolen from her.
'Hey,' I snap at her, staring her down. She flickers her glare over at me, retracting away from the gate with a hiss.
Owen and I turn to my Uncle, who had watched the entire situation unfold up close. I had completely forgotten he was standing there. He beams at me with a knowing smile and a twinkle deeply embedded in his irises. The man freed his arms from loop around the gate with a single raise of a brow, strutting away before a word could be said. Owen clenches his jaw, repressing what I'd imagine to be a very fluorescent display of colourful language.
'What the hell was he talking to you about before I got here?' I ask him.
Owen doesn't reply to me. He just kept gazing off into the distance, displeasure etched into his expression. 'Owen?'
'Nothing for you to worry about just yet,' he replies. 'The man is bat shit crazy and it only gets worse every time he comes crawling down here.' He shakes his head. 'He thinks the whole world revolves around that company.'
I watch as Uncle Victor stride pass somebody I had completely forgotten about. My stomach shrivels tightly. Alex. Still sat rigid on the back of my bike. His gleaming skin now slick with horror as he registered what he'd just seen before he'd even gotten a chance to go near the raptors, mouth parted open in shock. Then it hit me, dragging my stomach down even further. That was the first time he'd seen a dinosaur. Ever.
We'd ruined someone's first dinosaur experience.
'Oh god,' I groan.
'Could of been worse,' Owen reassures. 'A lot worse.'
He turns to the intern still sprawled across on the bark. 'You're not hurt, are you?'
'Nah, I'm alright,' the intern squeaked, still clutching his ankle. 'Just need to walk it off I guess.'
One physically traumatised intern and one mentally traumatised intern within the first ten minutes of the day. Great. I hung my head, thinking of all the paperwork Owen would be dealt if she ever found out about somebody falling into the raptor arena. 'Claire is going to kill us.'
Owen rests a worn hand on my shoulder. 'What she doesn't know won't kill her,' he says. 'But.. probably best to introduce Harvard boy to em' tomorrow.'