Clawen ♡ Second Time's the Charm

Chapter 7: One by One

The elevator doors opened and Claire rushed inside the control room with Owen at her heels. People turned to face them but no one met their eyes. Claire took a deep breath and nodded.

"Everyone needs to stay calm," she reassured the room as she made her way toward Lowery and Vivian, two of the core control room workers.

"Where is she now?" Claire asked Lowery, pertaining to the Indominus. Lowery gestured at his screen where they could see the dinosaur's location.

"She's traveling real fast," Lowery said anxiously. "And she's headed toward one of the attractions." Claire nodded, thinking critically. Perhaps they could lure her back to her paddock with a helicopter...

But just as she opened her mouth, the elevator doors opened and Mr. Masrani strode in. He nodded grimly at Claire and stood beside her.

"I came here as soon as I heard," he said, diving immediately into his plan. "We need to contain her before she attacks anyone. I need someone to contact ACU right away. Tell them that this is a non-lethal operation. They will know how to handle it from there." Claire and Owen shared a look when they heard "non-lethal." Before Vivian could get a hold of ACU, Claire stepped in.

"We can't send them there with merely non-lethals. The Indominus will easily overpower them. Her skin is too thick for the tranquilizers to do much," Claire explained.

Lowery nodded along thoughtfully while Vivian brought her finger down from her earpiece, listening carefully. However, Mr. Masrani wasn't open to other ideas; the stress and fear spurred him to the edge of impatience.

"We have twenty six million dollars invested in that asset. We can't just kill it! ACU is highly trained in handling assets, even the more problematic ones. The men will be fine. Vivian, go on and tell them," he said curtly. Claire felt as if she had been unjustly reprimanded by her boss in front of all these other people. She clenched her jaw and continued.

"We cannot send them out there with non-lethals-" she began insistently.

"It has already been decided." Mr. Masrani cut her off as he nodded sharply at Vivian. Claire reddened and dug her nails into the palms of her hands. How dare he? I don't care if I am his subordinate; I am the one thinking straight between the two of us!

She felt Owen move behind her and she took a deep breath, feeling slightly more comforted by the warmth radiating off of him.

A few moments later, ACU's cameras appeared on the large screen at the front of the room. All eyes fell upon the screen. They watched as the men climbed out of two Jeeps and fanned out in a circle. Slowly advancing with taser spears and tranquilizer rifles, they held back as their commander, Katashi Hamada, approached a shallow stream and knelt down beside something bloody that was lying on a rock. He picked it up and held it out to his camera.

"Blood's not clotted yet. She must be near," he muttered, inspecting the object carefully.

In the control room, Mr. Masrani stared at the bloody clump in Hamada's gloved hand. "What is that?" he pondered aloud. Claire was wondering the same thing.

"That's her tracking implant," Owen replied gravely. "She must have remembered where they put it in when she was young." Claire felt a cold fear gnawing at her insides. That right there proved that the Indominus was extremely intelligent. Those men stood no chance against her.

Crack!

Everyone in the control room flinched while the ACU men looked up slowly in horror while raising their weapons. Claire trembled and could only watch as the shrubbery behind the men shifted and changed color.

"It can camouflage!" Hamada screamed. It was the last thing he ever said. After that, everything was a blur, with men shouting as they died, the Indominus roaring in fury.

Beeeep!  Beeeep!

Claire gasped as, one by one, the moving blue lines monitoring the men's heart rates were replaced by a single unmoving red line. One by one, the cameras on the screen turned dark. One by one, the Indominus destroyed the last grains of hope.
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