Jurassic City- Chapter 1: Normal Day

CHAPTER ONE: NORMAL DAY
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Cedric burst through the elevator doors, his crystal wristband glowing brightly and Voltaire soon behind him. He stopped to catch his breath; he only woke up a half-hour ago and was worn out from the day's unexpected surprise. Voltaire, on the other hand, was just as frenzic and excited as ever.
What else would you expect from a raptor? In this case, it was technically a Dromaeosaurus.
Cedric leaned against the elevator's window, now facing outside. Oddly enough, Voltaire wasn't the most interesting thing on the planet. For example, the both of them were observing a Ptero' as it glided effortlessly past them, the rider clinging tightly to its reigns. That was the beginning: behind those two laid a menagerie of hovercraft, a vast sea of cityscape, and surprisingly little smog.
Inside their elevator, the observers were unimpressed. It was just their average route to work. The only difference today was that they were late.
Speaking of which, the elevator hummed as it abruptly slowed down. The speakers sounded a soft "ding," and the doors folded open. Cedric and Voltaire ran through the gap and into the corridors. They navigated the long and twisting hallways, trying to be as fast and inconspicuous as possible. At last, they came to a door with a sign above it that said in big, bold letters:

TECHNOLOGY OPERATION MONITORING

A DIVISION OF THE FEDERATION OF THE FERRUS FALCON

He opened the door a slight crack's-width to see inside. He could see the large room that lay behind it. What he saw was an array of desks, each with their own user and computer at attention, organised in a circular pattern around a pad in the center. On this stage, a handful of men in lab coats stood creating three-dimensional figures of light and running calculations. Above them, a complex, holographic map of the city showed locations of about everything that one could possibly find here; mechas, transport craft, GEOrgs, even humans. It was somewhat darker in here than in the hallway- a deep advantage for Cedric.

Cedric went through the door and tried to close it as silently as possible. It was a good thing that everyone in this room was on their own personal computers, otherwise Cedric would stick out like a sore thumb.

Well, he did anyway. This just meant that it wasn't as obvious.

He quietly wandered around the mass of desks and computers, Voltaire at his heels. At last, they both made it to the back of the room where another small desk sat. Cedric sat down in the chair and tried to make it look like he was a busy as possible. Voltaire kept nudging his snout at Cedric's jacket pocket.

"Ah, right," Cedric said. "Sorry about that."

Cedric took a small biscuit out of his pocket and threw it. Voltaire caught it and swallowed it whole. Cedric couldn't help but ruffle the raptor's head feathers a bit.

"If that thing is going to be fed, at least do it somewhere the carpet isn't."

Cedric turned around to see Bodin staring him down. Bodin was a slender man, slightly older than Cedric, and was dressed much more formally than he should have been. His thick, white eyebrows played a striking glare as he looked into Cedric's eyes.

"I thought that we had both looked over the late policies. Had we not?"

Cedric stuttered. "Wha, uh.. YES, yes we did. Of course we had, otherwise I'd be late, wouldn't I?"

"Would you not?"

"Of course not!.. or, yes,.. depending."

"So you would not be late?"

"Yes!"

Conveniently enough, just then, the computer at Cedric's desk said aloud in a monotonous voice ",CEDRIC WILLIAMS signed in T+20 seconds ago."

At this, Bodin's glare faded as he started to wear off. Bodin wasn't exactly notorious for his bad temper as he didn't really have one. "What was it this time?" he asked almost tiredly.

"Voltaire got a little fancy with the power cables again" Cedric responded. "You know raptors."

"Yes," Bodin said. "I do know raptors. I know that there are thousands of raptors just like him all across this city. I know that their owners could probably experience worse problems than a gnawed wire. What I want to know is when those problems happen. If something happened in your sector, we might not have known about it until it was too late."

Here, his tone changed slightly. "You know I don't mean for you to feel reprimended. It's just that I care about you. I don't want people getting hurt. That's all."

Cedric started to feel guilty, listening to Bodin's concern. "I understand. I'm sorry about it, really."

Bodin placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know, I know. Just... try not to be late next time."

Cedric saluted sarcastically with two fingers. "Can do, Bodin."

"Alright. Remember, Cedric, I just want a safe city."

"How can the city be safe with hundred-million-year-old predators stalking it?"

Bodin chuckled to himself and walked off to another employee. He started rounding on him for drinking coffee at his desk.

Cedric just stared as he took a sip of his own. Why was his safety and his own well-being a concern over everyone else's?

He had to think about that later. Right now, he had to get on to monitoring. It was pretty simple. All he did was watch the locations and checked on the high-profile commodities in a certain area.

For four hours until lunch break...

*   *   *

Hours later, Cedric's crystal wristband started vibrating. That was his cue. He stood up out of his chair and whistled for Voltaire. The raptor squeaked to life and jumped on to his feet.

As Cedric started to walk away, however, a message appeared on his computer screen. It flashed the screen and said aloud "CEDRIC WILLIAMS received mail from UNKNOWN." 

He was admittedly a little lost. He did get a lot of mail on an average day, but this was obviously from someone he didn't know. He went back to his screen and clicked on the message bubble. Onscreen appeared a short eMail that still raised a few questions:

1331 Cherokee Street
ASAP
Come alone, Cedric. We have much to discuss.
-KENAZ

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Picture rendered in Photoshop