Nick van Owen awoke slowly. Exausted, he rolled over in bed and checked the clock on the bedside table. 10:30. He was still tired, but he still ought to get up. Nick stumbled to his feet and stumbled out of the bedroom of his three room apartment. He was on the 46th floor, but even at this hight he could hear the hustle and bustle of streets far below. Nick pulled open the refrigerator and pulled out the pizza leftover from two nights ago, and the orange juice. He sat down at the table and ate quietly. He flipped the TV on, but didn't really pay attention. He was thinking about what he was going to do today. These last few weeks had been really boring. Nick really wanted somthing to do.
The truth was, an asingment was near impossible. As a photographer, Nick knew that for at last two consecutive months out of the year, you sit on your ass doing nothing. It was inevidable. Some people enjoyed the time off, so they could stay in one place. Nick on the other hand enjoyed flying halfway around the world each day. Photographing and videotaping anything from speeches to prisoners to elephants. The down season was just plain dull. He had caught up on all his paperwork in the first week. Anything job related was out of the question. Suddently, the phone buzzed. Nick picked it up, and the sucurity gaurd asked him if he was expecting a visitor. He wasn't, but Nick told the gaurd to send him up anyway. Nick put the phone down and waited by the door. It wasn't long before there was a heavy knock. Nick pulled the door open, and gasped.
"Jeremy!" Nick cried happily. "Great to see you Nick" the man said as the two embraced. Jeremy Stevenson was Nick's best friend in high school and college. Toghether, they had attended many anti-animal testing rallies, and helped create awarness on their own. IT was how they met, and they had been friends ever since. Unfourtunatly, Nick's photography carrer caused him to never be able to settle down, and the two had drifted apart. "Have a seat, is there anything I can get you?" Nick asked polietly. "No thanks" Jeremy replied. "So what brings you to Washington DC?" Nick asked, pouring himself anouther glass of orange juice. "You!" Jeremy exclaimed, "And I'll get right to the point."
Nick sat down at the table opposite Jeremy, and looked forward. "Yesterday, the news leaked that the government is planning on completly destroying Isla Sorna. Bombing it. After the incident with Eric Kirby, people have changed their minds about the island, finding the dinosaurs far too dangorous to exist." Nick shook his head. He had gotten of Isla Sorna five years before by the skin of his teeth, but that did not change his mind that the dinosaurs are living creatures that only exist due to the greed of man, and should not suffer because of somthing they had nothing to do with. "So," Jeremy continued, "I'm organizing a team of people to go down to the island and camp out. With people on the island, the island cannot be destroyed. The team will stay there until an agreement can be reached. Same treehugging idea we used to use in college." Nick nodded. He could see what Jeremy was getting at. "So you want me to go?" he asked. "Yes," Jeremy said, "If you can. I can only assume that your as paranoid about the island as Grant and Malcolm. I mean, no offense." Nick smiled. "None taken" he said, standing up. Nick wandered over to the framed photograph on the wall of his apartment, the first image he took of the Stegosaurs on Isla Sorna. "Ok" he said, "I'll go."
Joe Cooper taped the speaker, trying to hear more. But there was silence. The transmition was dead. He cursed under his breath. "Colonel Baselton, we have lost contact" he said to the other man in the room. Cooper was the man that was claimed not to exist. He was the man who bugged the homes and buisnesses of Americans for government use. His specialty was predicting protest riots, and he had been succesful finding this one, although it was pure chance. He had been tracking this man Jeremy Stevenson for the past several days. So far he had recruited a paleontologist and a vetrinarian, and now this photographer, Nick van Owen.They were not the only people he talked too of coarse, a great deal of people had turned him down. "What do you suggest we do?" Cooper asked, turing to Baselton. "There's only one thing we can do" the colonel said, "Go get those people off the island before it's too late. Cooper, pack up. Were leaving in 24 hours."
