Chapter Text
broad-shouldered beasts
So I took you to the city for the night
To dance under dizzy silver lights
But for a moment, you were wild.
The first thing Simon built on Isla Nublar was a cell phone tower. The second through forty-eight things he built were cages. The fact that he took the time to do things in this order--communication and connection first, everything else after--appealed to Claire, so when he offered her a job running his new amusement park back when she was wrapping up her third degree, Claire accepted.
There are now four cell towers on Nublar, and no one gets as much use out of them as Claire. She calls Corporate. She conferences with the Board. She fields irritated demands from trainers and brokers with InGen. She listens to her nephews wish her Merry Christmas and consoles her sister through her collapsing marriage. She even takes the time to personally talk to disgruntled guests once or twice a week.
Simon gives her a new phone every holiday. She racks up more minutes and texts than an entire high school. Her phone rings, and rings, and rings, and Claire always answers.
"Dearing," she says, phone tucked between her cheek and her shoulder. The blouse she's chosen is a soft, warm amber. Her jacket is bone white. She does up the buttons one-handed, the other applying lipstick.
There's a crackle and a long stretch of quiet on the other end of the line. "Dearing," she repeats.
"Yeah," a voice finally crackles back. "This is Vic Hoskins. I'm gonna need you to come take a look at something. Paddock Ten." He hangs up.
Claire huffs, annoyed, and steps into her shoes. Hoskins is always like that and it drives her crazy. She knows that it grates on him, the dictionary definition of "unnecessary machismo," to have a woman as his boss, but it grates on her to have a man like him as her head of security, so she takes her time, grabs a muffin before she heads out the door and climbs into her car.
"Paddock Ten," she mutters to herself. "What's in Paddock Ten?"
She's halfway to the Research Corridor when she remembers that Paddock Ten is the Velociraptor paddock, and she suddenly is a lot more motivated to get there.
---
The Velociraptors--four of them, four vicious, bloodthirsty murder lizards--have been missing for at least three hours. Their handlers usually arrive at six for the morning feed and to make sure the raptors didn't kill each other in the middle of the night, Hoskins explains. Barry du Vallon, one of the handlers, arrived this morning and found the animals, along with their senior handler, gone.
The gate is still open, and there are tracks leading into the jungle.
Hoskins also explains that InGen was literally only a few days away from removing the raptors and giving them to military personnel on Isla Sorna, to "finally prove they're worth nine fucking mil a pop, or to scrap the project before we sink any more money into Grady's tequila tab."
Claire is not military, and she's never been military, but she has been running Jurassic World successfully, without a single guest casualty, since it opened seven years ago. She knows what "scraping a project" is code for.
"Did you tell Mr. Grady this?" she asks. She can't take her eyes off the open gate. Velociraptors. Claire has read every account from the survivors of Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna that she could get her hands on. She's very, very aware of how bad this situation could get if it's not handled correctly.
"Well, yeah, but--"
Claire holds up a hand. Nods. Takes a deep, calming breath, and dials the number for ACU. "This is Claire Dearing," she says. "Commander Hamada? Mobilize your people. We have four assets out of containment in RC." She pauses.
There are a variety of codes in place for this kind of situation. One through ten are all for the herbivores. Eleven is if the Tyrannosaurus gets loose again. The raptors, if she remembers correctly--and she always, always does--are fifteen.
"Code fifteen," she says, clearly.
Hamada, to his credit, reacts with only a sharp intake of breath. "Ma'am," he says.
"Use of lethal force is authorized," Claire says. Hoskins opens his mouth, and she holds a hand up again. "Recapture is preferable, but lethal force is authorized if it the assets pose a significant threat to your people."
"They kill somebody?"
"Their handler, Owen Grady, is missing."
"You want us to bring medical?"
Both Claire and Hamada know that Owen Grady is dead. "If you think it's advisable," she finally says. "I would prefer they stay near the guests." Just in case.
Hamada gets it. "Ma'am," he says, and ends the call.
Claire calls Lowery next and snaps, "Code fifteen. Keep all guests in the resorts for now. We're closing for the rest of the week. Issue whatever compensation you have to. And get Hamada the locations of the Velociraptors.
"Code fifteen," Lowery whines weakly, but does as he's told. "Raptors look like they're still in Research. Moving along the Fence. What about--"
"Link up with ACU," Claire says. "I'm on the way."
That done, she turns to Hoskins.
"You can't kill those animals!" he barks. Claire raises an eyebrow.
"It is not my job to tell Mr. Masrani and Dr. Wu what they can and can't cook up in the lab," she says. "It is also not up to me to tell InGen what they can and can't do in Research.
"However, I have been against the raptor project since it started, and you and I both know what those things are capable of. I will not have them loose in my park, Mr. Hoskins."
"They're InGen property!"
"And you are no longer InGen's liason here, Mr. Hoskins."
That stops him cold. Hoskins rises to his full height, eyes shining with fury. "You think you can fire me?"
"You're an idiot," she tells him flatly. "What did you think was going to happen when you told Owen Grady what you were going to do to his animals?"
"Owen didn't do this," the other handler, Barry, says sharply. "He knows how dangerous the raptors are."
Claire knows that Grady knew. He had shown her some of his scars once, back when he kept trying to get her to go out with him. He had dozens. Most were small, relatively harmless, but several had been deep and fresh.
"This was an accident," Claire says. "I'm not saying Mr. Grady let them out on purpose. I think he was upset, and he made a mistake. The raptors took advantage of an opportunity." This is what Dr. Grant said would happen when you made him consult, she doesn't add.
The other handler allows that.
"You can't fire me," Hoskins snarls again.
"Your office will need to be cleaned out today, Mr. Hoskins. I'll have a helicopter sent for you tomorrow morning. If you are not on it, you will be removed by force."
Claire can hear the ACU trucks rumbling down the road. "Mr. du Vallon, I'm sorry for your loss," she says, stiff, and then turns, climbs into her car, and drives away, already calling the Board to explain what is happening and what she's doing about it. She trusts Hamada to handle the situation, and Barry to send Hoskins packing. She knows that most of the handlers have little love for Hoskins.
She puts the memory of Owen Grady, laughing and showing off the scars on his fingers, out of her head.
---
It's not that Claire didn't like Owen. He was funny, she thought, and smart, and handsome enough that she got over the fact that he was helplessly, hopelessly married to his job.
That's what she thought, anyway, when she finally asked him out after a few months of flirtation and sly glances during meetings.
The actual date told her otherwise. (And yes, she did make an itinerary, but it was more of a guideline than a hard plan and what Grady and the rest of the staff didn't understand was just how little free time Claire actually had. She planned it all out to capitalize on what few hours of leisure time she got.)
First, Grady showed up in board shorts and flip-flops. Then he tried to get her to do body shots. Then he talked about his raptors with stars in his eyes and sentiment in his voice and the rest of his short life painted clearly in the air between them, because Claire knew that they would eventually kill him.
Robert Muldoon's journals were eventually recovered from the original park. He was very honest in his assessment of the Velociraptors.
Put them all down, he wrote. Destroy them and never create them again.
Owen Grady wasn't stupid. He had almost as many degrees as Claire. But he let his emotions cloud his judgement.
So Claire called it off. She liked him, really liked him, but she made a point not to let feelings cloud her own judgement and she had enough to worry about already with the park at large. She didn't need to worry about Grady too.
So she didn't, and, as it turns out, she was right.
---
When Claire strides into Control, everyone turns to look at her, eyes wide and faces pale. The room feels heavy, like hushed conversations have been abruptly silenced. Only Lowery and Vivian have the decency to look guilty.
"Everybody take a deep breath," Claire orders. "You have five seconds to panic." She counts down, watches her staff gulp air, and then says, "Focus, people. We have a code fifteen containment breach. Give me status reports."
"Live count at six thousand, one hundred, and eighty-two," Vivian rattles off. Claire remembers with a bolt of relief that it's Sunday, the park's slowest day, and that it's the off season. In September, guest attendance can peak at twenty-five thousand. In July, it rarely reaches ten thousand. "All guests are currently confined to the resorts."
"Open the Boardwalk," Claire says. "Gentle Giants as well. The Mosasaur show can proceed, and schedule a T-rex feeding for one o'clock."
Vivian does.
"We will be closing the park for the rest of the week," Claire continues. "We needed to do some monorail maintenance and put the new security upgrades into Gyrosphere Valley anyway."
The prospect of getting an island full of tourists away from the raptors seems to calm everyone down. Claire gives Vivian a half-smile. "Next?"
"No disturbances reported in any of the other paddocks," Sahira, the handler liaison, adds. "All of the handlers are on high alert." She pauses. "They're all asking about Mr. Grady."
Claire has never lied to her Control staff before. They know everything. She doesn't plan on starting now. "Mr. Grady's status is unknown," she says. "He is missing, but his body has not been found."
Yet.
Sahira nods.
"The raptors' tracking implants put them in Research still," Lowery pipes up helpfully. "On the other side of the Fence from Gyrosphere Valley."
Four small red dots blink reassuringly on the screen.
"Any chance they can get through the Fence into the general park?"
"Nope," says Lowery, and the whole room relaxes. "All entry points have been closed and security's been doubled. We usually don't have the Fence electrified because of how much fucking money it costs to run that thing, but it's going now."
"Good. ACU?"
Marcel, the ACU liaison, raises his head. "ACU is approaching the raptors' location from three sides. They'll be stuck between ACU in the Fence. Hamada expects that recapture will not be difficult."
"Estimated time to contact?"
"Half an hour. Going slow," Marcel explains. "They're keeping a lookout for the missing handler and trying not to spook the raptors."
Half an hour is acceptable. It means that the job will be done right. "Put up a video feed," Claire says. "Has someone alerted Mr. Masrani?"
"On it," says Vivian, who Claire is going to promote, and Claire nods.
"I'm going to speak briefly with Dr. Wu," she says. "Keep me updated. We're prepared for this, people. Let's not panic."
---
Henry is waiting for her in the lab, a pot of tea already brewed and his work set aside. "I hear there's been a problem with the Velociraptors," he says.
"They escaped containment." Henry's tea is strong, just on the right side of bitter, and the cup is warm in Claire's hands. "Thank you."
Henry smiles. "What about Owen Grady? Has he been informed?"
"Mr. Grady's missing. Hoskins claims he let the raptors out after Hoskins told him what InGen planned to do to the animals."
Dr. Wu winces. "For what it's worth, I advised him against that course of action."
"You knew?" Claire is surprised. She's not sure why she's surprised--sometimes it feels like Henry is more attuned to the park and its happenings than she is. One of the benefits of being the only employee who worked in the original park as well, she assumes.
"I created the raptors," Henry says, and there's that note of vicious pride in his voice that he gets whenever he talks about the park's assets. "Hoskins came to me with... some concerns."
"Concerns?"
Henry takes a long, thoughtful drink. "Hoskins felt that Mr. Grady was... neglecting his responsibilities. He feared that he wasn't training the raptors as diligently as he should have been, and that without intervention the raptors would grow too unruly and have to be put down." Henry takes another sip. "He planned on moving the raptors to a compound on Isla Sorna and giving them to a different, more strict trainer. And if they did not show improvement, he wanted to scrap the intelligence experiment."
Claire's glad she fired Hoskins all over again. The fact that he was advised against informing Owen of his decision and proceeded to do so anyway is tantamount to reckless endangerment in Claire's book.
"I warned him that Mr. Grady would react poorly," Henry continues. "Granted, I didn't believe that he would react this poorly, but I also told Hoskins that if the raptors had not responded to training with Mr. Grady, they would be unlikely to do so with anyone."
"Why?"
"Velociraptors are pack animals," Henry explains. "Seventy million years ago, they hunted in packs of three to ten animals, headed by an alpha, usually the biggest and strongest raptor in the group. This is impossible to change at the genetic level and still have a Velociraptor, and at any rate, this batch of animals was designed to be even more pack-oriented. The original pack in the first park was prone to extreme violence and in-fighting. We tried to curb that instict this time around."
"Why?" Why breed the damn things at all?
"Previous experience has taught us that Velociraptors are among the most dangerous animals that we can create here." (Claire had argued as much to the Board, and been overruled.) "InGen was insistent that we test their intelligence, however, so we tried to create as strong of a pack bond as possible in an artificial setting."
"How?"
Henry shrugs. "By having Mr. Grady present at their hatchings and be solely responsible for their care as juveniles, we managed to insert a human into their pack dynamics. The raptors imprinted on Mr. Grady as their parent and their alpha."
"So that they would be more likely to respond to his training as they grew?" Claire says. She understands. That's not the problem. The issue Claire is having is, Why would you do this? They were never going to put the raptors on display for the public. It just wasn't going to happen, not after Dr. Grant's very public warnings. There was no benefit for the park to have them, only risk.
Henry inclines his head. "Exactly. We expected problems, of course, as the raptors grew and began to challenge Mr. Grady for dominance. I was not surprised to hear from Hoskins that they were becoming wild and unruly."
"Are they fully grown?" The raptor project has never been under Claire's purview, and she had avoided the Paddock Ten after deciding that even Owen's spectacular shoulders didn't make up for their personality mismatch.
"The oldest is nearly grown, yes."
"All of the raptors aren't the same age?"
"The oldest was the firstborn in a clutch of five," Dr. Wu says. "All of them shared the same DNA combinations--Velociraptor mongoliensis and Black-throated monitor lizard--but only the oldest survived the first few days. All of her siblings died. We created another clutch with different DNA combinations which survived, but they were born a full six months later."
Claire rubs her forehead. "Is there any chance," she says, and pauses, choosing her words carefully. "Is there any chance that Mr. Grady is still alive, given that he's the alpha?"
Henry smiles gently, and her expression tells Claire that Grady was the alpha. She can't imagine that a human would survive a challenge from a fully-grown raptor, not out in the jungle with no one to help him.
"We engineered these raptors to be more... open to learning," says Henry, "but in no instance did we make them safe."
"Why not?" Claire snaps.
"Their application, from what I understand, was always meant to be military."
Claire opens her mouth to say just what she thinks of that--she isn't opposed to InGen creating assets for military use, it's their millions going into the development, but conducting military research right next to a goddamn petting zoo is the worst idea she's ever heard--but is cut off by her phone, which buzzes sharply.
"Dearing," she says.
"Claire, it's me," says Vivian. "We need you in Control. Um. We need you now."
Claire thanks Dr. Wu, and she goes.
---
When she arrives, the first thing she sees is ACU up on the big screen, all of them grainy and tense, weapons aimed at the dense foliage around them. The second thing she sees in the entire Control Room staff focused on that screen, mouths slack with disbelief.
"Director Dearing is here," Marcel says loudly into his earpiece. "Commander Hamada?"
Slowly, the view on the screen tilts down.
For a second, Claire doesn't understand. Then, on the ground, nestled into a neat cluster on top of some bloody leaves, are four blinking, beeping tracking devices.
And next to them, leading off into the jungle, is a set of bootprints.