Another puzzle piece.
What did I overhear Drucker say in the elevator?
Something about “can you make this happen for me”?
Was she cutting a deal with someone?
I guess it wasn’t so bad that Grayson joined me after all. But should I suspect him and Teller more or less, especially since he’s being so open about all of this?
Not the time to sort it out.
We make it to the bottom level and press ourselves against the wall. I think, furiously, for some kind of plan. The best I can come up with is to try to lead the thing down into the bunker below the hotel. It’s twisty down there. If I can outrun it and lose it, then make it back out and shut the door, it’ll be trapped. I could plant Grayson by the door and have him ready to close it behind me.
But what if Grayson decides to just close it and walk away?
Again, cameras are off. Cover stories are easy. I’ll be nothing but rag and bone.
I feel a little twinge in my back pocket, and pat it to check that the zip ties are still there.
And they aren’t.
I thought I just had them. Did I check before we made our way down here? Not that I was going to wrestle this thing to the ground, but it felt good to know I had them. Must have dropped them and didn’t notice. I consider another Retronim, but figure at this point I’m just asking for an OD.
“What’s the plan?” Grayson asks.
“Lure it into the basement, try to lock it in there.”
“That’s a dumb plan.”
“You’re a dumb plan.”
“If I have a clear shot I’m going to take it.”
“You will not.”
“Hey.” He makes eye contact with me. “Try to stop me.” Then he stalks off down the hall, and I move after him, eyeing the hallway with the basement door, which is sitting open. That part of the plan, at least, is still on the table.
At the next corner Grayson stops, throwing himself against the wall, and gives me a harsh look. Guess he found it. I slide against the wall too and listen. I can hear it. Something heavy padding on the carpet.
Grayson peeks around the corner and sets his grip on the gun. I grab his arm, try to stop him, but he’s fast—throwing me off him at the same moment he dives into the open space. He gets a bead with both hands and fires, the gunshot making my ears hum.
I turn the corner just in time to see the dinosaur collapsing into a heap on the ground. Looks like he got it right in the head.
“Like I said, dumb plan,” he says. “This one was better.”
In response, I smack the gun out of his hand and put my fist into the soft part of his throat.
End suffering my ass.
He falters, coughing, and I step back and throw a push kick into his sternum, hard and high enough to knock him off his feet. He hits the ground and I move toward him but he puts his foot up, throwing jab kicks to keep me from getting too close. He nearly catches me in the knee and I hop back, which gives him enough time to scramble to his feet as he clutches his throat.
“What the fuck?” he asks, hacking.
“I said we weren’t firing guns in here,” I tell him.
“You said no firing guns where it would put someone at risk.” He points to the dead raptor. “There was no one at risk with that shot.”
I feel the weight of the gun in the back of my pants. And again, I think that maybe I should just put one in his head. Save myself the trouble. I can feel it bubbling inside me, that want, to destroy him, to see him bleed, and even Mena’s voice can’t get through.
I’m reaching for the gun when I hear “What happened?”
It’s Doctor Gottlieb and a group of scientists from the CDC. Probably—and somewhat stupidly—drawn from the security of their room by the sound of the gunshot. I remove my hand from the gun, but I’m pretty sure Grayson sees that I was going for it, which doesn’t help my case.
Gottlieb marches up to me and demands a status update. So I tell her that we’ve got one dead dinosaur down here, another lashed upstairs, and a third in the freezer. Which Mbaye is going to be pissed about because that thing will probably have started eating through the supplies.
“Good lord,” Gottlieb says, pressing her hands into her face. Then she turns to a young woman with a severe ponytail. “Go get the tranq kit.”
“The CDC carries tranqs?” I ask.
“Brought one along just in case,” she says. “I thought you said these things were babies.”
“They were. But with time acting the way it is…”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
I tell her about the clock, the ovens, the sun setting. She listens intently, nodding her head along, and finally shrugs. “I’m not a physicist. Someone else can figure that out. We just have to secure these things.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“I’ve had three research labs call already asking that we hand them over,” she says.
“Pick someplace humane,” I tell her. “Someplace that isn’t going to rip them apart, okay?”
She gives me a long stare, and then a little nod. Who knows if she’ll follow through on it? At least I said it. Grayson is already gone and a few of the CDC scientists are kneeling around the dead dinosaur, examining it, taking swabs, so I leave them to it and head upstairs. People are outside now, some TEA agents, a few guests and staff. There’s a cloth over Reg’s body, already soaked with blood. Brandon is standing over it and gives me a little side-eye as I walk past.
There are a lot of things to say in this moment, but looking down at the body, one thing springs to mind, and even though I know it’s wrong, it’s the thing that comes out of my mouth: “That’s going to be hell to clean up.”
He turns to me, his face twisted. “Really?”
“Look, just, calm down, okay…”
Brandon takes one of his little candies out, undoing the crinkle paper around it, and pops it in his mouth. He shakes his head. “You just can’t turn it off,” he says, as he strides away, dropping the wrapper on the floor.
Fine. Whatever. Let him go. I head to the security room, where I find Nik and Allyn. Doctor Tamworth is wrapping Allyn’s arm in gauze, a med kit upended on the holo table.
“How’s the arm?” I ask.
Allyn shakes his head. “Still wondering if I need a rabies shot or something.”
“All the CDC tests thus far have deemed everything to be safe, but I’ll run a full blood workup,” Tamworth says.
“I know, I know, I’m just being funny,” Allyn says. Then he looks at me. “Thank you for shocking me nearly to death.”
“You’re welcome.” I stroll over to the video array, which Nik is reviewing. “We back on?”
“Yeah,” he says. “No idea what happened. You and Allyn went out and it blanked on me. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to do.”
Ruby’s voice fills the room, coming from the video console. “It seems the raptor got the best of me. I’m pleased to see that you’re still in one piece, January.”
I have to turn toward the wall so no one can see the smile that erupts on my face. “Way to get yourself killed, dummy. Is there another unit you can download into?”
“Handling the data transfer now.”