` I waved to Hector as he flew off in the Sea King back to where the Challenger was anchored. From the air, the island was smaller than the others of the archipelago.

"Bakker Institute this Inspection one. We've landed. What's your status over?"

In the files, Dodgson's' assistant sent over the security, and staff wouldn't respond unless we used the code name for the facility (Bakker Institute) and declare ourselves as (Inspection 1) letting them know we are Authorized to be here.

There was no response. I repeated myself twice before looking at Loni and LB. The skies were cloudy, but there was no storm to interfere with transmission. On a high bluff, the helipad sat on a flat patch of land. The land sloped down into a long valley. In the valley below, I could see the guard post. The lights were out and there was no vehicle.

The files said there was a guard posted here at all times. I didn't like it. No guard, radio silence from the facility, and worse, no sign of the other team Biosyn had sent before us. I turned to face the others. "LB take point. Loni keep hailing the facility. I'll bring up the rear."

LB nodded and led us down the steep slope to the guard post below. We stop to investigate the guard post. It was a square concrete structure with a single door and impact glass. The room inside was empty save for a desk, chair and landline mounted to the wall. I check the door. It swung open. Unlocked? I walked over to the landline and picked it up. Dead. No dial tone. I replaced the receiver and checked the desk. It was empty save for a playboy in the bottom drawer and a penlight in the top.

I shook my head at my team and motioned for us to keep moving. The facility was a few kilometers away. We decided against taking a vehicle in case this was a hostage situation. No demands had been made. But they could be holding the researcher's hostage to get at the research. Genetic power was on the rise. The Jurassic Park and San Diego incidents scared the governments of the world with the potential disasters they could have caused. But they inspired the private sector into action.

If genetic power could bring dinosaurs back, what else could it do? It wouldn't surprise me if this whole thing was a very nasty bit of corporate espionage gone wrong.

In the distance, we could see the facility. The floodlights which were always supposed to be on were off. I couldn't see lights on through any of the windows. The entire facility was dark. Many warning bells and red flags were going off in my head.

"LB, let's pick up the pace. I want us in and out fast." I whispered over our com link. He gave me a thumbs up and hurried his pace.

We reached the facility in an hour and what I saw did nothing to quiet my nerves. The windows were shutters by inch thick steel. The doors were magnetically locked. and as far as I could see, there was no way in or out of the facility.

"Challenger, this is Rescue one."

"Go ahead Rescue one."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I need you to look over those specs for the facility. The whole place is in lockdown. We need a way in."

"Roger that. Rescue one. Sit tight."

I gave the building another worried once over. My every instinct was screaming at me to run away. But JJ Muldoon never just walked away from a job. Besides, I had people counting on me.

"Rescue one. It looks like the only way in is through a service hatch at the top of the building."

I sighed. "Challenger. How are we supposed to do that?"

"There's a service ladder at the back of the building."

"Roger that Challenger." I motioned for LB to take point again.

We ran around the back of the building and found a metal ladder that stretched to the top of the building. A gate locked by a padlock prevented its use. Luckily, we came prepared for such incidents. We took out a pair of bolt cutters and cut off the padlock.

We opened the gate and quickly climbed the ladder to the top of the building. They locked the service hatch with another padlock. We broke it and lifted the hatch. Another ladder led into a darkened room. We shone a light in to see a maintenance room. Along one wall was a rock of tools. Propped up against another wall were gas tanks for welding, mops, and brooms leaning against one corner.

I attached the light to the barrel of my automatic and covered Loni and LB as they descended the stairs and swept the room for hostiles. They gave me a thumbs up and I climbed down the ladder to join them. The door to the maintenance room wasn't magnetically locked. It wasn't locked at all. Beyond the door was a dark hallway. The floor and ceiling were white tiled.

LB was the rear guard, and I took point. I memorized the specs for the inside of the building and it slightly embarrassed me. I didn't bother to memorize the specs for the outside. Down the hall was the first of the ten labs in this building.

Through the glass partition, I could see the lab was empty. I shone the beam of my light in the lab. Inside was a mess. It looked like the researchers ran out in a panic and didn't care what they had knocked over on their way out.

"What could have sent them into a panic?" Loni asked.

"Maybe a bioagent? Some virus or poison gas they developed?" LB guessed.

I shook my head. "No, if they were dealing with poison gas or bio-weapons, these labs would be airtight. Something else happened here."

The other four labs on this floor were the same empty, with a clear sign of panic from the researchers. We were passing by the last lab on the floor when I heard a thrilling sound from the lab. I motioned for us to stop and listen again. I waited with my heart pounding. When I heard nothing, I was about to move on when the trilling came again. It echoed ominously in the darkened room.

I motioned to the others, and we entered the lab, guns up, lights scanning the shadows. Something scurried past my beam. It was small and dark, about the size of a terrier, maybe a little bigger. "On your left!" I whisper shouted to LB. He acknowledged with a quick whistle.

A shadow left from the floor at LB. The two struggled in the dark, his flashlight dancing around as he fought whatever was attacking him. Loni shone her light on it. It was a dinosaur! No doubt about it. It was black and grey and had its teeth sunk deep into LB's arm. Any other man would have been screaming. Not LB. I drew my knife from my belt and rushed forward, driving it into the skull of the fucking lizard. It went limp after a second and I hauled the heavy body off LB.

I helped him to sit down. Loni rushed over and disaffected his wound before bandaging it up. Loni placed a hand to Lb's forehead and frowned. "You're burning up."

He shook his head. "I feel fuzzy."

"This dinosaur might be venomous," Loni suggested.

"There's an infirmary on the first floor. They might carry anti-venom if they made these things." I said, throwing him over my shoulder. He complained, but I wasn't listening. With the power out, the only way we had to reach the first floor was the stairs. We ran down the hall and burst through the door to the stairwell. Before we made it down the first flight of stairs, an ominous trilling echoed from above us and below us.