SWNOVELS Chapter THE SURVIVORS OF ISLE OF THE NOBLE
The Survivors Of Isle of the Noble
At the end of the previous summer, Ezra Ferrell, and Davin and Dae Jeong received worldwide attention when they were found to be the lone survivors of the Isle of the Noble disaster and corporate sabotage. After showering and shaving, they were paraded in front of the press for days until Dae insisted he must return to work and the boys to school. Davin and Ezra became famous overnight and the twenty-two-year-olds were nicknamed the Noble Isle Survivor Bachelors in the media and tabloids. Davin suffered the brunt of the attention, not only for his good looks, but because he had fixed the famous Dr. Dale Cane’s work; his Genosaurs lived.
They were not expelled from their master’s degree Paleontology programs as they feared when they failed to return for the start of the fall semester. The university welcomed them and their fame back with open arms. Upon receiving a huge grant from Neimad Global and a request for them to graduate as soon as possible so they could return to working on the Cretaceous Creatures Restoration Project, the university also granted both their master’s and doctorate degrees based on their work on Isle of the Noble. They both wrote multiple thesis papers on the Genosaurs throughout the remaining fall semester, and lectured for the university’s paleontology, genetics, and environmental studies departments bringing in much needed donations and increased enrollment to the small university.
However, their expertise was so specialized they both had no choice but to work for Neimad Global after their winter graduation. They were hired with a substantial signing bonus in addition to their survivor’s settlement. Their only stipulation was Davin be allowed to run the research department while Ezra managed the care of the growing Genosaurs and designed the island’s habitats. Ezra also demanded they be allowed to find or vet the startup staff for Cretaceous Creatures themselves, insisting no one would seek the best interest of the Genosaurs more than them.
By Asian New Year, they were picking out land on Isle of the Noble as part of the compensation for their near deaths, and paying for their homes to be built with their enormous signing bonuses. Davin and Ezra got out of a jeep at the coordinates Kars gave them. It was a good location. Davin liked the slope of the land to a creek through the forest below which bent toward the beach in the distance.
“Wow! What a view!” Davin exclaimed.
However, Ezra looked at it from a tactical perspective. “With the creek on two sides, it will be like a moat, but with the forest this close I’m going to have to create a defensible perimeter.”
“I thought the same,” Kars said as he stepped out of the forest. “It does offer egress to the ocean and the valley in the other direction.”
Unrolling a map of the island on the hood of the jeep, Ezra pointed to a place in the forest where they hunkered down for a month before their trip into the past. “I am going to put the supply depot in the old lab. Over there, will be the airfield. The town is already starting up. Mr. Neimad is building a hotel and apartment condominiums at the big cove. Your house will be in the center of a forested greenbelt, Kars, but where do you want the Habitats?”
Kars scowled then tapped the map. It was the valley near the quarry.“I need to stay close to the tomb.”
“Dude, no one is getting into there, and they won’t start excavating amber and bones again for a long time,” Ezra assured him.
“I know, but since my memory came back, I realized Damien is alive somewhere.” Kars stared toward the sea. “If I can feel him, he can feel me.”
Ezra pulled a tube out of the jeep and unrolled a blueprint. “You know the almost unbreakable stone you showed me in the past? I want to build a bunker between the houses. I am building us a Plan B and I am going to need you to do it.”
Kars studied the drawings, nodding. “When do we start?”
“Tomorrow. Oh, and you are hired.” Davin announced, handing Kars a thick folder. “My friend Jon finished your identity history, here’s the paperwork. Welcome to the Cretaceous Creatures research division, Dr. Adams. We are glad to have a herpetologist such as you become our new Director of Genosaur Habitats.”
End of Spring…
The Jaguar sat in Lord Damien Adam Neimad’s office while he was going over his latest plans with a group of his followers. Darcy rolled her eyes when Dr. Matilda Azoni sneered at her. Matilda was sitting in the seat directly to Lord Damien’s right, she thought it was a place of honor while Darcy was sitting in a comfortable leather chair away from the table, as though she was being punished. Only Darcy knew it wasn’t, because she already knew their lord’s plans for the next ten years. This meeting was for his ‘trained monkeys’ as Darcy liked to think of them.
Damien announced, “I have let the two college students who fixed Dr. Dale Cane’s work run the program for long enough and it is time to turn their Genosaurs into a profitable enterprise. Matilda will soon take over the Cretaceous Research facility on Isle of the Noble.” Many clapped politely, but he did not reveal to the others that it was also to verify his brother was on the island.
As Damien’s shills talked about their climate alteration plans and food production manipulation projects which would begin in the next season, Darcy counted the number of those in the room or participating via electronic means and reminded herself of each of their weaknesses and how best to kill them in the way they feared most.
Yes, they are all just trained monkeys, but I am the jaguar in their midst, and our Lord Damien is a dragon, she thought.
Matilda stayed after the meeting to fawn over Lord Damien, who allowed it because it amused him. It disgusted Darcy the way Matilda still acted like a schoolgirl with a crush. Matilda didn’t even know how far beneath their lord she was, and that she wanted to be his queen was laughable.
“So, what’s your name this month, jungle kitty?” Matilda asked mockingly.
“Chara short for Charlotte is all you need to know, Chief Research Officer Azoni,” she answered coolly, slurring Matilda’s new title derisively.
“Well, Chara short for Charlotte, are you doing anything interesting or still playing with your pretty little flowers?” Matilda thought she was mocking Darcy, who changed from studying to be a medical doctor to botany for reasons Matilda didn’t know while they were in college together.
“I’ve developed an orchid which can cause an anaphylactic reaction in a specific person but is harmless to everyone else. Much more of an accomplishment than simply taking over management of a division created by someone else’s work,” Darcy retorted smoothly, fingering the Genosaur Research folder in a bored manner. “Anything is better than babysitting a bunch of coffee drinking, dinosaur freaks living out a second childhood by making pets out of giant lizards, She-mutt.”
Matilda’s eyes flew wide at the insult, but Damien laughed.
“There, there, girls, no fighting. You both have made very valuable contributions to Neimad Global, more than others. Now if you will excuse us, She-wolf. The Jaguar and I have her most recent assignment to discuss,” Damien purred smoothly. Matilda left after a few more minutes of fawning.
“What about your brother, my lord?” Darcy asked. Her record as an assassin couldn’t be considered blemished if the one person who hadn’t died was nearly immortal.
Turning, Damien smirked, declaring, “I am going to let my brother and his friends live a while longer… They can do the work and I will reap the profit. Have you found Dr. Daisy Cane?”
“I have checked all her still living acquaintances from her time working for the Generals Taylor. She is sheltering with none of them. Are you certain she is the one who attempted to blow you up?” Darcy asked even though she already knew the answer.
“Yes. She is a thorn and I want her found.” Damien handed her a dossier. “And send the Goshawk to deal with the journalist. Jerry is failing to counter the hacker brother’s skill. I want that family erased. No survivors.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Davin’s phone rang and he answered it with a glance at Ezra. “Hey, Jon, what’s up?” He sat up straighter. “Dude, I swear to you, our Genosaurs have nothing to do with the plague.” He paused then his jaw dropped. “Ohgawd, I am so sorry about your brother and his family,” Davin responded to Jon, then whispered to Ezra, “Someone killed Jon’s brother and his family then shot up his apartment.”
Ezra’s eyes widen as he muttered back, gesturing, “Tell him to get here.”
“Listen to me… Just… just get here, we’ll hide you until we can figure this out. Can you get across the country? No? Okay. Listen don’t tell anyone where you are… Ummm, uhh… What’s the closest dinosaur fossil dig or something?” Davin waited, listening. He recognized the name of the place. “No, don’t go there, it is too remote… Yeah, go there. I’ll call when I get close. Hang on, buddy. I’m coming to get you. Bye.”
Davin stared at Ezra, and revealed, “Jon’s hitchhiking across country. He’s going to meet me in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Someone is trying to kill him because he has been hacking government and corporate servers for his brother’s investigative reports. He doesn’t know what got his brother killed, but they are after him too.” Davin slammed his hand on the desk, swearing, “It’s my fault.”
“His brother was into some sketchy, conspiracy theory stuff,” Ezra tried to divert Davin’s self-blame.
Davin bowed his head, “When I visited and asked him to create Kars identity, I may have told him about Damien and Kars.”
“Why would you do that?” Ezra demanded hotly.
“I was staying at his place and screamed myself awake. It freaked him out. After I told him what happened, he told me his brother was chasing this guy they thought might be some kind of mutant semi-immortal who controlled several companies with ties to governments, a major assassins’ guild, and a crime syndicate or two. They thought the guy had been alive for at least four-hundred years.” Davin rolled his lips in and bit them between his teeth before adding, “I thought they were chasing Damien, so I told him and his brother everything I knew.”
Ezra pinched between his eyes in a gesture so similar to Kars, Davin wondered how much time they spent together while he was away for lectures, digs, and Cretaceous Research business then Ezra complained, “You should have told me you had Jon looking into Damien. He could have been killed.”
“I’m sorry,” accepting the blame, Davin sagged.
“I’m going instead of you. If Damien did kill his family and is trying to kill him, you need to stay here where you are safe.”
Summer…
Dr. Ezra Ferrel got out of his red sports car in front of an enormous white building which looked like a giant eight-sided snowflake from the air. Its arms were surrounded by pens of Genosaurs. He entered in through the security checkpoint. In one of the labs, he found Dr. Davin Jeong bent over a computerized microscope and genetic sequencer. It was where his best friend seemed to spend every weekend since Neimad Global restarted the Cretaceous research department and turned Isle of the Noble from a purely research facility to the world’s most exclusive wildlife preserve.
“C’mom man. It’s lunch time on! A! Sat-tur-day! Why are you here?” Annunciating each syllable, Ezra could hardly contain his excitement. “The new CRO doesn’t pay us to work weekends.”
Davin barely moved, he responded in his usual grumpy tone, “Where else would I be since Neimad Global bought our PhDs? Go away, I’m working.” Annoyed because Ezra was too excited for some reason Davin didn’t understand, Davin tried to ignore him.
“First of all, we earned those degrees, you more than me with your big brain. I just got mine from living with Kars in the past, and taking care of Chuyi, Spike, and Winter.” Ezra leaned back against the desk.
“You earned yours. You noticed things about the environment the dinosaurs lived in that I didn’t,” Davin said as he stretched. “They wouldn’t survive my work without yours or Kars’s… I just worry about what he did to them then. I’m still writing down everything I remember, but I feel like I forgot so much.”
In a low voice, Ezra insisted, “Look, it’s been a year. We got feelers out. If you-know-who shows up, we’ll hear about it.” He pulled on Davin’s arm, and continued louder, “Now, let’s go get some lunch, I’ve got a surprise for you! Come on!”
Davin was unable to resist his oldest friend’s enthusiasm, “Fine, fine. I’m at a dead end anyway. I’m coming, you… you monkey!” He called his best friend the worst insult he could that wasn’t profanity. Ever since his family vacation to visit ancient Buddhist temples in Thailand, Davin hated monkeys.
Ezra walked ahead of him. “You’re going to be so surprised.”
He was practically singing which was very annoying to Davin who hated surprises. Ezra knew this which was why he loved dumping them on his best friend. While Ezra speed-walked, Davin was forced to stop in front of the gift shop, while yet another tour group passed. As the Genosaurs grew, Neimad Global’s Research Island became more and more famous. The tourists arrived every weekend to see them.
A cheerful tour guide was repeating the spiel. “After today’s tour, we hopefully may catch our head Genosaur developer and researcher, Dr. David Jeong in the lab.”
Reaching up to rub his newly grown beard, and hide his face, Davin turned away to face the gift shop, knowing if he was recognized he would never get to lunch, and his stomach wanted food.
“Later, there will be a question and answer with Habitats Director Kars Adams. The researchers who started our Cretaceous venture are usually here every day. They are so devoted to our amazing Genosaurs… Please, follow me.”
In the reflection of the glass, he noticed he looked older than his twenty-three years. He saw something in the gift shop mirror that made his heart stop. DAMIEN. He blinked and looked again; it was just the reflection of a tee-shirt printed with the company logo: NEIMAD above Cretaceous Research Resource Center and GLOBAL below.
He made himself breathe slowly. Damn PTSD, I freak out too easily, he thought, but he couldn’t help feeling Damien was looking over his shoulder like a malevolent shadow. His nightmares meant he slept less than he ever had; worse than his nightmares were the dreams about Milady, who sacrificed herself to imprison Damien. Sometimes he could still smell her cooking, or the scent of chocolate and oranges.
Ezra waited for him, looking concerned, and asked, “Dude, you’re so pale, are you okay?”
Davin, hating his paranoia, answered, “Just get me some food, I’m starting to see things.”
In Ezra’s car, they headed toward Seacove; a town built to deal with the weekend tourist and weekday workers. The sun shone gloriously in the autumn sky.
Finally, Davin asked, “Where’s Kars?”
“He’s meeting us at...” Ezra stopped talking suddenly, then slapped one hand over his mouth. “Nope.”
“At where?”
“It’s a surprise,” Ezra sang happily.
“Omigawd, I hate you.”
“But I lurve you.” Ezra laughed then asked, “Did he tell you he might get promoted?”
Davin worried aloud, “That could be a problem.”
Ezra shook his head, “The identity your friend Jon set up for him seems to be holding up to the security checks. I think it will be okay... and we’re here.”
They parked in front of a new cafe, The Cookie Jar, and next to Kars’s motor bike. The air smelled of familiar cookies and coffee, too familiar. Davin’s heart felt like it stopped.
“Ohgawd. Are you freaking kidding me?!” Davin exclaimed, staring in the window at Kars, wearing a backwards baseball cap to cover his ears. He was waving excitedly from a table; a very familiar face was taking his order. She looked like the last Mazoni.