Part 1: The Hunter from Mombasa
“Who is that exactly? That does not look like a Hunter to me.” Peter Levell was silent as he sat in his chair at the large rectangular table surrounded by men in suits. His fingertips were pressed together in front of himself as his elbows rested on the table. The meeting room they all sat in darkened now, a large white screen displayed a picture produced by the machine within the table. “That my dear colleague is Robert Tembo, son of Santano Tembo, nephew to Roland Tembo who raised him after his brother passed away.”
The group of men looked quietly at the image on the screen, the majority most definitely had their doubts. From looking at the picture, Robert Tembo looked nothing like a Hunter but rather someone you would find on the S.W.A.T team. “Oh he is a Hunter of that there is little doubt, his uncles taught him everything. You are correct however, he is not a full time hunter, he does in fact work for law enforcement in San Diego. He has lived out there ever since his uncle passed away three years ago.”
There was a resounding collective of sighs from the table of suits, it didn’t seem like none of them were too overly impressed. “So let me get this straight, you want this man to head up our private expedition? We don’t need a muscle bound policeman, we need someone who can track down our missing associates.” Peter Levell placed a hand over his head in a ‘i got a headache’ manner. That was the problem with old trust funders, they questioned everything when they knew the bare essentials.
In truth he was quite tired of the job in which he had been trusted with by his late Uncle Peter Ludlow. After the San Diego incident many things had changed within their world. Aside from the known reality that dinosaurs existed, the company that had created them, thus creating the event which caused innocent death, was on its last legs. Peter Levell did not cherish the position he was forced into, trying to save this company from complete bankruptcy. In fact, he would just as soon let it fail, he wanted nothing more to do with these animals given his uncle's death.
His uncle was greedy and like most greedy men he died chasing after his payday. Peter Levell was nothing like that man, in fact he had spent most of his life trying to ascend beyond the poverty he was born into. Reality was often harsh, especially for the poor. It was that same reality more or less that brought him to Ingen, there was no denying that against all odds.. He needed Ingen as much as they needed him right now. “Gentleman, there is a reality we have to face here. Against better judgment, you seven decided on a course of action, a course of action which has backfired on you. Due to this I was brought back in to rectify this situation by any means I find necessary.”
Peter looked at the men in suits with a rather distasteful eye as he walked slowly around the table, their chairs swiveling with him as he placed his hands behind his back. “After the incident, lawsuits came flooding into this company like water from a broken dam. This was far from the first incident considering what happened on the first island. The only difference between the two is that this one is public knowledge, there was no chance of hiding away while giving out subtle money settlements to the victims.”
Peter kept his slow pace around the table as he continued: “The entire world's eye is on this company right now, waiting patiently for the final hammerstrike. Your own children are still being interviewed because of the San Diego incident and it happened fifteen years ago to the day. This company is on its last leg and against all logic you made a decision…” Peter stopped his slow walk as he regained his place at the head of the table and eye’d every man there.
“A desperate stupid decision to save this company from its final fate. You broke laws and regulations, in secret, and you have risked more innocent life, you have in a ‘sense’ started writing the final chapter for Ingen. I am not here because I want to be, my uncle was an asshole who left my mother, his sister, and me to rot. I am not here for you or this company, I am here for my own reasons and it just so happens that my reasons just barely coincide with yours.”
There was a collective of grim expressions as Peter glared at the seven suits, his implications unsettling to them. “This company has a reputation and it's not that it brought back extinct ancient creatures, it's that it has caused more deaths than any company in existence. We stand on the edge of a knife because you seven decided to send people, actual people to an island of prehistoric animals for an ill advised payday.”
Each man sat their eyes staring at the table, the scolding becoming quite obvious now. “If this becomes public knowledge, then you will be on a street corner with a cup in one hand and a sign in the other. Against my better judgment I am here to “FIX” this problem, and if there is one thing I will not tolerate right now, it's you even daring to question my plan to do that. The only reason I am even bothering to loop you in is out of whatever small amount of respect I feel necessary to afford you.”
The implications were quite clear and the stakes in which were being played. The seven suits made no such attempt to say anything further. To Peter he found a certain satisfaction in their silence. “I am here because you failed, I will clean up this mess and if possible I will stop this company from going belly up. I wasn’t brought on because of my winning personality but because when it comes to business I am shrewd and calculated, end of story. If there are no questions, I will proceed with detailing my plan. None of the suits made any movement to speak, that was exactly what Peter wanted. “Than gentleman, let me continue with my plan so you can return to your mansions while you still have them to return to.”
“Mr. Tembo, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Forgive me if I interrupted anything important but I wanted to come here in person to talk with you.” Peter levell spoke matter of factly as he raised his hand to the large man sitting across from him. He felt the large hand grab his own as both men squeezed tightly looking each other in the eye. There was a slight hesitation as neither one of them released their grip or said anything but merely stared at each other.
“Your not what I expected.” Robert spoke the words almost casually as he looked at Peter Levell up and down releasing his strong grip. Peter Levell appeared to be a thirty year old man who was rather stocky and quite built. He was wearing a pair of timberland boots, cut off Khakis and an old hawaiian special over his upper body. A pair of aviators and an old wide brimmed hat. The man did not seem like a fancy pants business man like he had expected, no suit, no shit haircuts, in fact this man had what seemed to be a messy medium length cut under his hat of dark brown hair.
“I get that a lot, I was never much one for the corporate look. The spoon I was born with in my mouth was made of old wood and often splintered my tongue so I am used to a more casual look.” Robert managed a small laugh at that, even though he hated the company this man worked for he could not help but like this man at least in a small way. Unlike the suits his uncle had worked for, this one seemed more down to earth. “Before anything else I would like to extend my condolences on the passing of your Uncle Roland Tembo. Growing up he was without a doubt one of my idols. He was the toughest man I knew of and his many stories and exploits of hunts were fantastic.”
Robert was taken aback as he eyed Peter Levell. In all honesty he couldn’t tell if Peter was sucking up with that remark or genuine. The man seemed to spot Robert's distrust however and spoke more on it: “I apologize if that was a bit forward, but I grew up hearing tales of the man who brought down the worlds greatest predator to ever live. I had no father so I tried to model myself after many great men, one of those men was the great Mombasa Hunter. Tough, smart, honest, I even wanted to become a hunter for a long time but my mother, god love her, would have had a coronary if I did something so dangerous. Though given my current predicament she may still just yet suffer from one.”
Robert could aught but notice the way Peter’s face sank when he mentioned his mother. A kind of sadness came into his early age. It was momentary but Peter regained his casual smile hiding away the all too brief moment of mysterious emotion. “Thank you, to be honest I didn’t know how I would feel talking to a man who worked for the company my father loathed until the day he died. But you don’t seem like a man who belongs to that company, at least not to me.”
Peter merely nodded his head in complete agreement as his face took on an angrier expression for a moment. “If I had my choice I would let Ingen burn like it deserves… but… well there are circumstances where I can’t do that. I would speak of them but I do not speak of personal issues with strangers, even i’m not that open. All I can say is the proposal I have for you has nothing to do with those animals or trying to bring any back or so forth like it was before, it's about human life.”
Robert leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, a moment later a pretty waitress came to the table. “Can I get you two anything to drink? Maybe an appetizer?” Peter smiled with a shake of his head as Robert did the same. “Not at the moment, perhaps a little later, my dear.” The server smiled and nodded to them both before heading for another table. “There's been an incident… About five days ago a team of Ingen Scientists went missing on Isla Sorna. From what I've been told which isn’t much, they were attempting to obtain blood samples from each species on the island. Communications were lost due to what we believe is interference from a large storm that is heading into the area.”
Robert listened silently allowing Peter to say what he needed to say, he could do that much at least given he had taken a liking to the man. “There is no way of knowing if their communications were lost to the storm or something else. You know well the animals that roam that island. If there is trouble on the island I want to get them off before that storm hits. A storm like this is lethal, and will no doubt erase any evidence of their passing if it be equipment malfunction or something worse. I am not a man prone to quick action, I prefer to plan and go over the plan many times before I exact it. But time is running out and to my dismay I don’t have that luxury.”
Peter went silent, Robert said nothing as he was fairly certain the man was going to say something more. “If I can be frank with you, you're my only option. You're a great hunter like your uncle was and like your uncle, you have been to the island.” Roland felt his forehead crease as his eye’s hardened up slightly, not being a man who was easily caught off guard, he was taken aback. “How did you know I went to the island? No one knows that…” Peter reached next to the table and pulled out what appeared to be satellite images from his bag and pushed them across the table.
“After my uncle died during the San Diego incident, his place on the board was given to me. While I did not want the position, I took advantage of it and enacted safety protocols concerning passage to the island. I did not want another incident to occur or would be poachers coming to the island. I wanted to keep it safe and untouched by human interference.” Robert pulled the image to himself as he saw himself on the beach head of Isla Sorna, clear as day. In another he saw the boat that he had taken a ride on and various other images documenting different points in his journey.
“Under normal circumstances I would have had you stopped before you ever reached the island.. However, given who you were, I let you proceed even if it was against my better judgment. Given what you lost on that island though…” Robert took a deep breath as he passed the images back to Peter. Putting his hand up, he stopped Peter at the pass before he could continue what he was going to say. He did not want to go into his reasons for going to the island nor did he want to recall what happened after he reached it.
“I apologize, I should not have tried to bring up a personal subject like that.” Peter took the images off the table and placed them back into his bag. “Whatever your reasons are yours, as mine are to me. That said, I won’t lie, the current incident is in my part my fault, I became too relaxed around those snakes on the Ingen board. That's partly why I am here trying to remedy it, and to do that I need your help. I don’t know what I might offer to you, but if you choose to help, whatever you want, I will give it to you if I can provide it.”
It was hard not to notice the slight desperation that came into Peter’s eyes as he offered a rather open-ended compensation for his agreeing to help. Robert thought on it for a couple moments taking in a couple deep breaths and letting them out. Peter was hiding something, he could tell, there was something else he wanted out of this and he was pretty certain it had to do with the personal reasons he wouldn’t disclose earlier. But the question was, what could this man possibly want on that island? “If I said no… what would your recourse be?” Again, Robert saw the look of desperation pass through Peter’s face like a sudden pain.
“There is no recourse, regardless of your answer, in two days I am going to Isla Sorna.” Surprise after surprise, this man was good at that, was he really going to this island with whatever team he was throwing together? Peter must have seen the look of surprise in Robert's face as he spoke: “I can’t take back what has happened to your family, no more than I can erase the fact that I am related to a man who has long since become the face of death. But I am going to that island and bringing those people back, if I can, and I know they would have a much better chance if the team had you on it.”
Robert played the wedding ring on the gold chain he wore on his neck quietly while he considered Peter’s words. Neither of them spoke for a short while, the waitress would reammerge long enough for them to get a couple drinks. The same drink Robert took a small sip from before setting it back on the table. After another drawl of silence, Robert did finally speak. “I can’t. I don’t want to ever return to that island Mr. Levell. I am sorry if that’s not what you want to hear but, regardless, this just isn’t my problem. I really do wish you luck though, and hope you can get those people safely out.”
Peter nodded his head with a small but audible sigh before letting his smile reform on his face, albeit, a bit defeated now. “I understand Mr. Tembo, if I had ever been there before, I am almost positive I would never want to go back either. Thanks for seeing me on such short notice, again, I am sorry for your uncle's passing and hope you will find peace in it. Here, if by any chance you change your mind, this is where I will be.” Peter pulled out a slip of paper from his shirt pocket and slid it across the table along with what appeared to be a folded fifty dollar bill. “For the drinks and a nice dinner if you want one, I do enjoy the porter at this particular restaurant.”
Peter got up and retrieved his bag from the ground, rummaging inside of it, he would pull out a small black leather bound glasses case and slid it across the table. “I wanted to return these, Don’t ask how they came to be in my possession, just know that I always meant to give them to you, alas I wished it could have been under more normal circumstances but just in case I don’t come back.” Peter pulled the brim of his hat down in a gentle gesture and departed. Robert looked at the case for a couple minutes before he eventually picked it up and opened it. He looked back up suddenly to locate Peter but he was already gone. Picking up his drink he downed the entire thing in one go as he sighed deeply to himself, placing a hand over his head he closed his eyes leaning back in his chair. “Damn it…”
Hari
