Jurassic Wildflower (A Jurassic World AU)

Prologue

Rose took a breath and lit the flare in her hand. She held it over her head. "Over here you overgrown lizard!"

The Indominus Rex whipped towards her, orange eyes sharp, and let out a threatening snarl.

"What do you want?" Rose asked as she strode into the room.

A severe-looking woman by the name of Agent Rosaline Leanne turned to look at her. "I see our good friend Doctor Watson never bothered to teach you any manners."

"This is not about my etiquette," Rose said, already walking towards the large window that made up one wall of the room. "What has Doctor Wu cooked up in his lab this time?"

"They call it the Indominus Rex."

Rose snorted. "Terrifying."

"It's more dangerous than we anticipated," Agent Leanne said, standing beside her at the window. "Watson wanted you here to check how safe the enclosure is, apparently you're the most skilled trainer we have."

Rose lifted her chin. "Suppose so. What's this thing made of, and if you tell me it's classified, I will just leave and let you deal with this yourself."

Agent Leanne looked her up and down. "Base is a T-rex, the other main components are raptor, Carnotaurus, Allosaurus and Giganotosaurus."

Rose nodded. "How long has she been in this cage?"

"Her whole life."

"With no human or animal interaction?"

"She took one of her carer's arms off, and the others threatened to quit until we installed the crane to feed her."

"She's been isolated her whole life, and her only positive relationship is with that crane?" Rose watched for movement in the dense forest and saw none. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's gone mad."

"These are animals," Agent Leanne said. "They don't go mad."

"Tell that to the claw marks in the wall," Rose said, nodding at the marks gouged into the wall of the enclosure.

Agent Leanne stiffened. She whipped around to glare at the technician nearby. "Scan the paddock, now!"

"Yes, ma'am," the technician stammered, tapping on the screen in front of him.

Rose watched the scan progress, searching every part of the enclosure for heat signatures. When the scan came up empty, she set her jaw. "I'll go in, someone call control and find her tracking implant, if she's escaped, that'll tell us where she is."

"I'm coming with you," Agent Leanne said unexpectedly. When she caught Rose's surprised expression she added, "Doctor Watson would kill me if I let you go in there alone."

Rose shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"Wait, wait," said the technician, listening to something in his earpiece. His brows furrowed. "She's in the paddock. Her tracking implant is there."

Rose considered this for a moment. "I want a complete report of what that dinosaur is made of. Now."

Agent Leanne nodded at the technician and he turned back to his device, still muttering into his earpiece. After a moment, he handed a tablet to Rose.

Rose skim-read the file. "There," she said, pointing to a spot on the screen. "Tree frogs can change their body temperature to avoid snakes that see heat signatures. I'm guessing that wasn't intentional?"