Project Orpheus: A Tale of Blood and Feathers

Chapter 19: The Lie

"Orenda, we've got a bigger problem." Came Alex's voice.

"Bigger? Yes, I know, Shakespeare got out."

"More than just him. He seemed to have let all the others out too. We have a Class B Outbreak."

Orenda cursed and growled. "That damn fool! He lied! I knew he lied!"

"Wait, Chester didn't tell you?" Alex's voice was sharp and surprised.

"No, of course he didn't," Orenda grumbled, "he wants to hide this failure from the tour group."

"That gigantic ass." Noh sneered.

"I'm sorry, what?" Michael said, pale as a sheet.

"Is the enclosure damaged?" Orenda asked.

"They used the maintenance entrance, not the main gate. It's all torn up but it's repairable."

"Get on it. Your mission is to contain the escapees. Me and Noh will keep things from getting worse."

"Got it."

She put the walkie back down and took in a deep breath. She needed to breathe. She needed to stay focused. This was not an unstoppable mess. Especially with all of Noh's procedures and protocols.

"Figures," Myrtle said smugly, "that all your effort and money wasn't able to buy our security."

Noh clenched her fist, taking out her cellphone as if to avoid having to address that..

"Andrew? You there? Good, good, yes, good. We've got a problem. Activate the trackers, and tell me where all the deinonychus are."

A moment of silence, before she snapped back at the phone, "Noo, I want you to send them to Warques- OF COURSE SEND THEM TO THE APP! Do it now! We've got a Class B Breach!"

She hung up the phone, and flicked through it.

"Do you wanna chew Chester out, Doc, or should I?" Orenda asked, a smile on her face.

"You do it. I will literally choke him through the phone if I talk to him now." After a few more swipes on her phone, she bellowed, "Charles! Get us to the generator, now. We've got an error there, and our buddies are closing in."

Charles shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am, my orders were to continue the to-"

"OVERRIDE! Keycode 27-DT." Noh said with the ferocity of a tiger.

Charles' eyes seemed to change, dilating and constricting for a moment, before he gave a happy smile. "Yep yep, the power generator! Right away, ma'am!"

And he sped off from the paddock and to one of the employee only gates, which opened as they went through it.

"So, let me get this straight. We went into one of the paddocks, and in so doing we allowed the dinosaurs to escape?" Michael asked. "And we are not freaking out about this?!"

"We are!" Noh and Orenda both shouted. "Now be quiet, I have a call to make."

Orenda took out her cellphone and furiously dialed in Chester's number. Chester took a while to answer. Every ring of the phone was another frustration for her, and when he finally did answer, he had his cheerful tone on.

"Orenda! Darling! Is everything okay?"

"I told you not to call me that, and I told you to tell me if something went wrong. Why do you insist on lying?!"

"Ly-ying? About what?"

"I know the deinonychus are out, Noh's checked their position and they're sure as hell not in their cage. I was wondering how you expected me to handle this situation if you didn't tell us about it?!"