"So, can you please answer me? Who is this Henry Wu?"

Jocelyne hated being cut off from the conversation. The six scientists in the room seemed to know what she was talking about, but she didn't know the name at all.

In the end, it was Ellie who spoke: "Wu is... an old acquaintance of ours"

"A troublemaker" Ian grumbled.

Jocelyne ignored him. "How do you know him?"

"He used to work with Hammond… before Ingen collapsed" Ellie replied.

This time the name was by no means alien to Jocelyne. Everyone knew John Hammond, the man who had long been a big shot in finance.

"Of course you have never heard of him. Wu's work wasn't known to the public" Ellie explained. "As you surely know, before going bankrupt Ingen was specializing in genetics. Hammond hoped to use DNA from different animals to solve environmental problems. Yes, in short... replace the current nature with one capable of resisting climate change and pollution"

"A pathetic dream" Ian murmured.

"I can agree on this. Replacing the life that mother nature created with another is... insane" Mitch grumbled. "But what does Wu have to do with all this?"

"Do you know him too?" Jocelyne asked.

"Only of fame. Before he went to work for Ingen, he had helped map a good portion of the human genome. He was considered a brilliant mind. But after he went to work for Hammond, nothing more was heard of him" Mitch explained.

"I told you, his work was not known to the public" Ellie continued. "Me, Alan and Ian know him because we met him when Hammond took us to see his best creation"

"Best creation?" Jocelyne repeated confused.

"The Indominus rex" Ellie said.

Jocelyne's heart leapt: "He created...!?"

"Yes" Ellie confirmed. "And we all know how it ended"

Jocelyne swallowed. Everyone knew that story. The Indominus rex was a hybrid dinosaur created many years earlier by Ingen using the genomes of various dinosaurs. At the time it was a masterpiece of genetic engineering. Hammond had exhibited it in Mega Beast Park, but the Indominus had escaped and caused a disaster, and only with great effort was he able to take it down. That incident cost Ingen bankruptcy. "Why on earth would he have created such a dangerous creature?"

"Because contrary to popular belief, the Indominus rex wasn't designed to be an attraction" Ellie explained. "Hammond's plan was to expose it for funding so that we could start mass production. He wanted to replace large carnivores like the t-rex and giganotosaurus with that. And it wasn't the only one: they also had other projects in the pipeline"

Jocelyne felt that the situation was becoming more and more surreal. "Other projects?" she whispered. Wasn't a single hybrid dinosaur enough?

"They wanted to use stegosaurus and triceratops DNA to create a hybrid called stegoceratops" Alan muttered as he spoke. "Then they wanted to use diplodocus and ankylosaurus DNA to create an ankylodocus. And again, they wanted to make a spinoraptor, created by the union of velociraptor and spinosaurus. A malusaurus, with ceratosaurus and acrocanthosaurus DNA. A scorpius rex, created with velociraptor DNA and poisonous frog. A dilophoraptor, with dilophosaurus and utahraptor DNA. A spinoceratops, with spinosaurus and triceratops DNA. A kentrankylosaurus, with kentrosaurus and ankylosaurus DNA. A stiracoceratops, consisting of diabloceratops, stiracosaurus, lambesaurus, and sauropelta. And then still other hybrids, such as a baryonyx hybridized with a concavenator and a deinocheirus, a hybrid based on rugops, yutirannus and cassowary, and a mixture of dilophosaurus, carnotaur and nothronycus..."

"Did they want to create all these hybrids?" Jocelyne was shocked. Only the Indominus rex, when it fled, had been devastating: what would so many hybrid creatures have caused? "But why?"

"We told you before: Hammond wanted to repopulate the planet's biosphere" Ellie said. "Not the one of the three still virgin continents, but the one of the two continents where humans currently reside. Hammond wanted to prevent climate change from causing the extinction of life and consequently the extinction of humanity, so he had decided to make life stronger. These hybrids were designed to withstand extreme weather conditions, from scorching heat to absolute cold. Ingen was also trying to create plants that could survive with little water and very few resources. In practice, Hammond intended to rebuild the biosphere so that it could withstand the planetary disaster that humanity was, and still is, causing"

"Unfortunately he underestimated the power of hybrids" Alan continued. "The Indominus rex revealed features that no one had foreseen. He knew how to blend in, decrease body temperature, and had a high intelligence... and this led to the disaster that we all know. After that event, Ingen went bankrupt, and Hammond became convinced that it wasn't a good idea to play with nature, so she gave up on hybrids and genetics and focused on funding environmental movements to preserve existing life, rather than create another that he could not control"

"What about Wu?" Jocelyne asked. "What happened to him?"

"Hammond dismissed him, but he didn't give up" Ellie explained. "Sometime after the events of Mega Beast Park, Hammond invited us to his house for a 'reunion'. Let's say he really wanted to apologize to us. He also told us a story that wasn't known to the public: Wu hadn't disappeared, but he was hired by Hammond's nephew, Ludlow"

"That worm, with the help of another guy, a certain Eli Mills, had decided to go back to genetics. Their intent was to create hybrid dinosaurs and sell them at a high price to revive Ingen" Ian explained. "Wu was tasked with creating a prototype, a perfect dinosaur that would grab the attention of the public, and to do so Mills gave him the DNA of the Indominus rex. With it, Wu created the ultimate biological weapon, a monster called Indoraptor"

Jocelyne felt a shiver go down her spine. Her name alone was enough to frighten her, even though she didn't know why. "Indoraptor?" she whispered.

"A perfect predator created by the union of the most dangerous creatures on the planet, systematically designed to hunt and kill. Ludlow and Mills wanted to expose it to an illegal auction for collectors, but it didn't end well for them" Alan explained. "Hammond had begun to suspect his nephew and confided his doubts to the police. So the police broke into the auction and raided. Unfortunately, in that chaos the Indoraptor broke free and killed almost everyone present before finally being shot down, including Eli Mills"

"Ludlow wasn't there, so he survived" Ian explained. "He was also quick enough to wipe out all the evidence that incriminated him. On the contrary, it raised doubts among the shareholders of Ingen that Hammond was behind it all, even if there was no evidence, and he was able to wrest from him what little power he had left. Ingen kept that event a secret and managed to prevent the authorities from speaking. However, this was not the end. The genetic material of the Indoraptor was recovered by other big multinational that saw the power of genetic as a way to increase their profits. A part of that DNA went to Energyne society. Thanks to that, they started to play God, and that resulted in the Rampage incident"

"The Rampage incident?" Jocelyne was shocked. The Rampage incident happened less than a decade before: apparently, the Energyne society created a virus that caused a rapid mutation in any creature that it infected. For a mistake a gorilla, a wolf and a crocodile were infected and they had grown to enormous dimensions and became extremely aggressive. They destroy half of the city of Rampage before the army was able to kill them all. Jocelyne couldn't believe that incident was related to the Mega Beast Park's incident. Apparently, there were much more story that people didn't know.

"After that disaster, in less than a month the NMWA declared genetic manipulation illegal and ordered the destruction of the remains of the Indominus rex, the Indoraptor and any other monster created, as well as the elimination of all related research" Ian concluded. "This, combined with the costs of genetics, meant that those who had thought of following in Hammond's footsteps gave up on the idea. After that event, however, Wu disappeared into thin air, and since then no one has known anything about him"

Jocelyne was shocked by that revelation. She didn't expect the name Henry Wu to have such a history behind him!

"If you knew, why were you remain silent?" Jamie asked for her.

"Because they forced us" Ellie replied. "When Ludlow found out that Hammond had told us everything he tried to coax us into silence. We initially refused, but the threats soon became concrete. Alan and I pulled back, too scared to continue, and Ian… well, telling the truth cost him everything. Ingen made him pass for a madman"

"It should be a trend among multinationals..." Robert grumbled. He could understand what Ian had been through because the Reiden had treated him the same way.

Jocelyne was immersed in his thoughts. Finally all the pieces were falling into place. She now understood why just hearing about Henry Wu had worried the three scientists so much. "I guess it's clear what happened next: Wu was hired by the Reiden Global"

"Very likely" Ian replied. "If there was anyone who could create the Mother Cell, it was surely him. Wu had no rivals in the field of genetics"

"And do you think he would have done it?"

Ian, Alan and Ellie looked at each other with worried eyes, then the woman spoke: "Wu was really a... complicated person. He wanted to 'fix the world', but he didn't care what the costs involved" she said. "Wu wasn't a bad person, but he wasn't a man of great moral principles either. He had only one desire, which was to avoid the destruction of the planet by humanity. How, he didn't care. Making the dinosaurs intelligent, from his point of view, may have been a way of forcing humanity to change, and thus avoiding the collapse of the biosphere. So... yes, I have no doubt that if he had had the opportunity to create the Mother Cell he wouldn't have thought twice to do it"

Alan and Ian nodded at Ellie's words. It was clear that everyone had the same thought.

Jocelyne rubbed her chin. "Well... it can't be said that he was completely wrong, even if this plan still seems a bit crazy to me" she said. In some way she could empathize with this Wu: she more than anyone knew that humanity was very reluctant to change, and that if it continued with its current lifestyle it would only notice the mistake when it would have been too late. Trying to replicate the biosphere wasn't a bad idea... and in a strange way it wasn't even making dinosaurs intelligent. Either way, life would struggle to resist. However, the consequences would have been unpredictable and potentially far more damaging than global warming.

"Because it is crazy" Ian grumbled. "Manipulating nature is never a good idea. There are balances that must be respected. Unleashing such a large-scale change... I don't even want to think about what disaster it could bring"

Jocelyne also agreed on this. "Anyway, now we have a lead" she said. "We know where the secret Raiding facility is located and we know who works there. Now we just have to capture Henry Wu and get a precious confession"

"We have the Reiden data archive. Is not sufficient?" Jamie asked.

"Unfortunately no. The Reiden is too powerful to be defeated by a data store. Other than the fact that we would have to admit that we committed a crime to obtain it, we have no proof that it is genuine. For the Reiden it would be enough to delete its data archive to be able to say that we have invented everything. If we're going to indict them, we need more concrete evidence" Jocelyne said. "We need the research, the experiments, and a confession from Henry Wu himself. And to get them we have to sneak into the secret Reiden facility"

"How? The borders are closed" Mitch reminded her. "If the dinosaurs find out that we have entered their territory without permission, they won't react positively. It would be a violation of the peace treaties"

"I'll take care of the dinosaurs. With a little luck and a little bit of gab, I'll get them to let us pass" Jocelyne replied. "The problem is rather how to conquer this kind of fortress"

"If soldiers are the problem, you could call back your father's militia, or at least some of it" Jackson suggested.

But Jocelyne shook her head. "My communications are still intercepted, I'm sure of it. I can't ask my father to send me his militias. Furthermore, this wouldn't go unnoticed. This operation must be done in secret" she replied. "And in any case, the soldiers aren't a problem. I have enough money to put together a professional team even without my father's support. No, the problem is rather being able to get through naval checks. With the borders closed we will have many problems even just to find someone willing to sail to Maakanar"

With the current situation underway, all naval routes to Maakanar had been closed. Being able to get past them without being stopped was almost impossible. In addition, intelligent dinosaurs did not have a good reputation: finding someone willing to break the naval blockade and take them to the lions' den was an almost impossible task.

Suddenly Ian let out a laugh. "Well, maybe we're worrying about nothing. All we need to get around this is a rich man with a lot of hooks. And since the person responsible for all this is Henry Wu, I think it is right to pay a visit to an old friend"

The others looked at him in amazement. "You are saying…"

"You got it right" Ian said with a smirk. "Let's go see John Hammond"