Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park #1)

Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park #1) Page 26

    Around the room, the monitors showed quickly changing views of different parts of the park, Most of the images were misty gray, because of the exterior fog, but one showed the outside of the lodge, with a raptor on the roof, and then another switched to an image in bright sunlight, showing the bow of a ship, bright sunlight-

    "What was that?" Tim said, leaning forward.

    "What?"

    "That picture!"

    But the image had already changed, and now they were seeing the inside of the lodge, one room after another, and then he saw Malcolm, lying in a bed-

    "Stop it," Lex said. "I see them!"

    Tim touched the screen in several places, and got submenus. Then more submenus.

    "Wait," Lex said. "You're confusing it. . . ."

    "Will you shut up! You don't know anything about computers!"

    Now he had a list of monitors on the screen. One of them was marked SAFARI LODGE: LV2-4. Another was REMOTE: SHIPBOARD (VND). He pressed the screen several times.

    Video images came up on monitors around the room. One showed the bow of the supply ship, and the ocean ahead. In the distance, Tim saw land-buildings along a shore, and a harbor. He recognized the harbor because he had flown over it in the helicopter the day before. It was Puntarenas. The ship seemed to be just minutes from landing.

    But his attention was drawn by the next screen, which showed the roof of the safari lodge, in gray mist. The raptors were mostly bidden behind the pyramids, but their heads bobbed up and down, coming into view.

    And then, on the third monitor, he could see inside a room. Malcolm was lying in a bed, and Ellie stood next to him. They were both looking upward. As they watched, Muldoon walked into the room, and joined them, looking up with an expression of concern.

    "They see us," Lex said.

    "I don't think so."

    The radio crackled. On the screen, Muldoon lifted the radio to his lips. "Hello, Tim?"

    "I'm here," Tim said.

    "Ah, we haven't got a whole lot of time," Muldoon said, dully. "Better get that power grid on." And then Tim heard the raptors snarl, and saw one of the long heads duck down through the glass, briefly entering the picture from the top, snapping its jaws.

    Hurry, Timmy!" Lex said. "Get the power on!"

    The Grid

    Tim suddenly found himself lost in a tangled series of monitor control screens, as he tried to get back to the main screen. Most systems had a single button or a single command to return to the previous screen, or to the main menu. But this system did not-or at least he didn't know it. Also, he was certain that help commands had been built into the system, but he couldn't find them, either, and Lex was jumping up and down and shouting in his ear, making him nervous.

    Finally he got the main screen back. He wasn't sure what he had done, but it was back. He paused, looking for a command.

    "Do something, Timmy!"

    "Will you shut up? I'm trying to get help." He pushed TEMPLATE-MAIN. The screen filled with a complicated diagram, with interconnecting boxes and arrows.

    No good. No good.

    He pushed COMMON INTERFACE. The screen shifted:

    [picture]

    "What's that?" Lex said. "Why aren't you turning on the power, Timmy?"

    He ignored her. Maybe help on this system was called "Info." He pushed INFO.

    [picture]

    "Tim-ee," Lex wailed, but he had already pushed FIND. He got another useless window. He pushed GO BACK.

    On the radio, he heard Muldoon say, "How's it coming, Tim?" He didn't bother to answer. Frantic, he pushed buttons one after another.

    Suddenly, without warning, the main screen was back.

    [picture]

    He studied the screen. ELECTRICAL MAIN and SETGRIDS DNL both looked like they might have something to do with grids. He noticed that SAFETY/HEALTH and CRITICAL LOCKS might be important, too. He heard the growl of the raptors. He had to make a choice. He pressed SETGRIDS DNL, and groaned when he saw it:

    [picture]

    He didn't know what to do. He pushed STANDARD PARAMETERS.

    STANDARD PARAMETERS

    Park Grids        B4-C6 Outer Grids C2-D2

    Zoological Grids      BB-07 Pen Grids   R4-R4

    Lodge Grids     F4-D4 Maint Grids E5-L6

    Main Grids        C4-G7 Sensor Grids     D5-G4

    Utility Grids    AH-B5 Core Grids  Al-Cl

    Circuit Integrity Not Tested

    Security Grids Remain Automatic

    Tim shook his head in frustration. It took him a moment to realize that he had just gotten valuable information. He now knew the grid coordinates for the lodge! He pushed grid F4.

    POWER GRID F4 (SAFARI LODCE)

    COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505

    (POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.

    Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.11)

    "It's not working," Lex said.

    "I know!" He pushed another button. The screen flashed again.

    POWER GRID D4 (SAFARI LODCE)

    COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505

    (POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.

    Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.1 1)

    Tim tried to stay calm, to think it through. For some reason he was getting a consistent error message whenever he tried to turn on a grid. It was saying the power was incompatible with the command he was giving. But what did that mean? Why was power incompatible?

    "Timmy . . ." Lex said, tugging at his arm.

    'Not now, Lex."

    "Yes, now, " she said, and she pulled him away from the screen and the console. And then he heard the snarling of raptors.

    It was coming from the hallway.

    In the skylight above Malcolm's bed, the raptors had almost bitten through the second metal bar. They could now poke their heads entirely through the shattered glass, and lunge and snarl at the people below. Then after a moment they would pull back, and resume chewing on the metal.

    Malcolm said, "It won't be long now. Three, four minutes." He pressed the button on the radio: "Tim, are you there? Tim?"

    There was no answer.

    Tim slipped out the door and saw the velociraptor, down at the far end of the corridor, standing by the balcony, He stared in astonishment. How had it gotten out of the freezer?

    Then, as he watched, a second raptor suddenly appeared on the balcony, and he understood. The raptor hadn't come from the freezer at all. It had come from outside. It had jumped from the ground below. The second raptor landed silently, perfectly balanced on the railing. Tim couldn't believe it. The big animal had jumped ten feet straight up. More than ten feet. Their legs must be incredibly powerful.

    Lex whispered, "I thought you said they couldn't-"

    "Ssshh." Tim was trying to think, but he watched with a kind of fascinated dread as the third raptor leapt to the balcony. The animals milled aimlessly in the corridor for a moment, and then they began to move forward in single file. Coming toward him and Lex.

    Quietly, Tim pushed against the door at his back, to re-enter the control room. But the door was stuck. He pushed harder.

    "We're locked out," Lex whispered. "Look." She pointed to the slot for the security card alongside the door. A bright red dot glowed. Somehow the security doors had been activated. "You idiot, you locked us out!"

    Tim looked down the corridor. He saw several more doors, but each had a red light glowing alongside. That meant all the doors were locked. There was nowhere they could go.

    Then he saw a slumped shape on the floor at the far end of the corridor. It was a dead guard. A white security card was clipped to his belt.

    "Come on," he whispered. They ran for the guard. Tim got the card, and turned back. But of course the raptors had seen them. They snarled, and blocked the way back to the control room. They began to spread apart, fanning out in the hallway to surround Tim and Lex. Their heads began to duck rhythmically.

    They were going to attack.

    Tim did the only thing he could do. Using the card, he opened the nearest door off the hallway and pushed Lex through. As the door began to close slowly behind them, the raptors hissed and charged.

    Lodge

    Ian Malcolm drew each breath as if it might be his last. He watched the raptors with dull eyes. Harding took his blood pressure, frowned, took it again. Ellie Sattler was wrapped in a blanket, shivering and cold. Muldoon sat on the floor, propped against the wall. Hammond was staring upward, not speaking. They all listened to the radio.

    "What happened to Tim?" Hammond said. "Still no word?"

    "I don't know."

    Malcolm said, "Ugly, aren't they. Truly ugly."

    Hammond shook his head. "Who could have imagined it would turn out this way."

    Ellie said, "Apparently Malcolm did."

    "I didn't imagine it," Malcolm said. "I calculated it."

    Hammond sighed. "No more of this, please. He's been saying 'I told you so' for hours. But nobody ever wanted this to happen."

    "It isn't a matter of wanting it or not," Malcolm said, eyes closed. He spoke slowly, through the drugs. "It's a matter of what you think you can accomplish. When the hunter goes out in the rain forest to seek food for his family, does he expect to control nature? No. He imagines that nature is beyond him. Beyond his understanding. Beyond his control. Maybe he prays to nature, to the fertility of the forest that provides for him. He prays because he knows he doesn't control it. He's at the mercy of it.

    "But you decide you won't be at the mercy of nature. You decide you'll control nature, and from that moment on you're in deep trouble, because you can't do it. Yet you have made systems that require you to do it. And you can't do it-and you never have-and you never will. Don't confuse things. You can make a boat, but you can't make the ocean. You can make an airplane, but you can't make the air. Your powers are much less than your dreams of reason would have you believe."

    "He's lost me," Hammond said, with a sigh, "Where did Tim go? He seemed such a responsible boy."

    "I'm sure he's trying to get control of the situation," Malcolm said. "Like everybody else."

    "And Grant, too. What happened to Grant?"

    Grant reached the rear door to the visitor center, the same door he had left twenty minutes before. He tugged on the handle: it was locked. Then he saw the little red light. The security doors were reactivated! Damn! He ran around to the front of the building, and went through the shattered front doors into the main lobby, stopping by the guard desk where he had been earlier. He could hear the dry hiss of his radio. He went to the kitchen, looking for the kids, but the kitchen door was open, the kids gone.

    He went upstairs but came to the glass panel marked CLOSED AREA and the door was locked. He needed a security card to go farther.

    Grant couldn't get in.

    From somewhere inside the hallway, he heard the raptors snarling.

    The leathery reptile skin touched Tim's face, the claws tore his shirt, and Tim fell onto his back, shrieking in fright.

    "Timmy!" Lex yelled.

    Tim scrambled to his feet again. The baby velociraptor perched on his shoulder, chirping and squeaking in panic. Tim and Lex were in the white nursery. There were toys on the floor: a rolling yellow ball, a doll, a plastic rattle.

    "It's the baby raptor," Lex said, pointing to the animal gripping Tim's shoulder.

    The little raptor burrowed its head into Tim's neck. The poor thing was probably starving, Tim thought.

    Lex came closer and the baby hopped onto her shoulder. It rubbed against her neck. "Why is it doing that?" she said. "Is it scared?"

    "I don't know," Tim said.

    She passed the raptor back to Tim. The baby was chirping and squeaking, and hopping up and down on his shoulder excitedly. It kept looking around, head moving quickly. No doubt about it, the little thing was worked up and-

    "Tim," Lex whispered.

    The door to the hallway laadn't closed behind them after they entered the nursery. Now the big velociraptors were coming through. First one, then a second one.

    Clearly agitated, the baby chirped and bounced on Tim's shoulder. Tim knew he had to get away. Maybe the baby would distract them. After all, it was a baby raptor. He plucked the little animal from his shoulder and threw it across the room. The baby scurried between the legs of the adults. The first raptor lowered its snout, sniffed at the baby delicately,

    Tim took Lex's hand, and pulled her deeper into the nursery. He had to find a door, a way to get out-

    There was a high piercing shriek. Tim looked back to see the baby in the jaws of the adult. A second velociraptor came forward and tore at the limbs of the infant, trying to pull it from the mouth of the first. The two raptors fought over the baby as it squealed. Blood splattered in large drops onto the floor.

    "They ate him," Lex said.

    The raptors fought over the remains of the baby, rearing back and butting heads. Tim found a door-it was unlocked-and went through, pulling Lex after him.

    They were in another room, and from the deep green glow he realized it was the deserted DNA-extraction laboratory, the rows of stereo microscopes abandoned, the high-resolution screens showing frozen, giant black-and-white images of insects. The flies and gnats that had bitten dinosaurs millions of years ago, sucking the blood that now had been used to re-create dinosaurs in the park. They ran through the laboratory, and Tim could hear the snorts and snarls of the raptors, pursuing them, coming closer, and then he went to the back of the lab and through a door that must have had an alarm, because in the narrow corridor an intermittent siren sounded shrilly, and the lights overhead flashed on and off. Running down the corridor, Tim was plunged into darkness-then light again-then darkness. Over the sound of the alarm, he heard the raptors snort as they pursued him. Lex was whimpering and moaning. Tim saw another door ahead, with the blue biohazard sign, and he slammed into the door, and moved beyond it, and suddenly he collided with something big and Lex shrieked in terror.

    "Take it easy, kids," a voice said.

    Tim blinked in disbelief. Standing above him was Dr. Grant. And next to him was Mr. Gennaro.

    Outside in the hallway, it had taken Grant nearly two minutes to realize that the dead guard down in the lobby probably had a security card. He'd gone back and gotten it, and entered the upper corridor, moving quickly down the hallway. He had followed the sound of the raptors and found them fighting in the nursery. He was sure the kids would have gone to the next room, and had immediately run to the extractions lab.

    And there he'd met the kids.

    Now the raptors were coming toward them. The animals seemed momentarily hesitant, surprised by the appearance of more people.

    Grant pushed the kids into Gennaro's arms and said, "Take them back someplace safe."

    "But-"

    "Through there," Grant said, pointing over his shoulder to a far door. "Take them to the control room, if you can. You should all be safe there."

    "What are you going to do?" Gennaro said.

    The raptors stood near the door. Grant noticed that they waited until all the animals were together, and then they moved forward, as a group. Pack hunters. He shivered.

    "I have a plan," Grant said. "Now go on."

    Gennaro led the kids away. The raptors continued slowly toward Grant, moving past the supercomputers, past the screens that still blinked endless sequences of computer-deciphered code. The raptors came forward without hesitation, sniffing the floor, repeatedly ducking their heads.

    Grant heard the door click behind him and glanced over his shoulder. Everybody was standing on the other side of the glass door, watching him. Gennaro shook his head.

    Grant knew what it meant. There was no door to the control room beyond. Gennaro and the kids were trapped in there.

    It was up to him now.

    Grant moved slowly, edging around the laboratory, leading the raptors away from Gennaro and the kids. He could see another door, nearer the front, which was marked TO LABORATORY. Whatever that meant. He had an idea, and he hoped he was right. The door had a blue biohazard sign. The raptors were coming closer. Grant turned and slammed into the door, and moved beyond it, into a deep, warm silence.

    He turned.

    Yes.

    He was where he wanted to be, in the hatchery: beneath infrared lights, long tables, with rows of eggs and a low clinging mist. The rockers on the tables clicked and whirred in a steady motion. The mist poured over the sides of the tables and drifted to the floor, where it disappeared, evaporated.

    Grant ran directly to the rear of the hatchery, into a glass-walled laboratory with ultraviolet light. His clothing glowed blue. He looked around at the glass reagents, beakers full of pipettes, glass dishes . . . all delicate laboratory equipment.

    The raptors entered the room, cautiously at first, sniffing the humid air, looking at the long rocking tables of eggs. The lead animal wiped its bloody jaws with the back of its forearm. Silently the raptors passed between the long tables. The animals moved through the room in a coordinated way, ducking from time to time to peer beneath the tables.

    They were looking for him.

    Grant crouched, and moved to the back of the laboratory, looked up, and saw the metal hood marked with a skull and crossbones. A sign said CAUTION BIOGENIC TOXINS A4 PRECAUTIONS REQUIRED. Grant remembered that Regis had said they were powerful poisons. Only a few molecules would kill instantaneously. . . .

    The hood lay flush against the surface of the lab table. Grant could not slip his hand under it. He tried to open it, but there was no door, no handle, no way that he could see. . . . Grant rose slowly, and glanced back at the main room. The raptors were still moving among the tables.

    He turned to the hood. He saw an odd metal fixture sunk into the surface of the table. It looked like an outdoor electrical outlet with a round cover. He flipped up the cover, saw a button, pressed it.

    With a soft hiss, the hood slid upward, to the ceiling.

    He saw glass shelves above him, and rows of bottles marked with a skull and crossbones. He peered at the labels: CCK-5 5 . . . TETPA-ALPHA SECRETIN . . . THYMOLEVIN X-1612. . . . The fluids glowed pale green in the ultraviolet light. Nearby he saw a glass dish with syringes in it. The syringes were small, each containing a tiny amount of green glowing fluid. Crouched in the blue darkness, Grant reached for the dish of syringes. The needles on the syringes were capped in plastic. He removed one cap, pulling it off with his teeth. He looked at the thin needle.

    He moved forward. Toward the raptors.

    He had devoted his whole life to studying dinosaurs. Now he would see how much he really knew. Velociraptors were small carnivorous dinosaurs, like oviraptors and dromaeosaurs, animals that were long thought to steal eggs. Just as certain modern birds ate the eggs of other birds, Grant had always assumed that velociraptors would eat dinosaur eggs if they could.

    He crept forward to the nearest egg table in the hatchery. Slowly he reached up into the mist and took a large egg from the rocking table. The egg was almost the size of a football, cream-colored with faint pink speckling. He held the egg carefully while he stuck the needle through the shell, and injected the contents of the syringe. The egg glowed faint blue.

    Grant bent down again. Beneath the table, he saw the legs of the raptors, and the mist pouring down from the tabletops. He rolled the glowing egg along the floor, toward the raptors. The raptors looked up, hearing the faint rumble as the egg rolled, and jerked their heads around. Then they resumed their slow stalking search.

    The egg stopped several yards from the nearest raptor.

    Damn!

    Grant did it all again: quietly reaching up for an egg, bringing it down, injecting it, and rolling it toward the raptors. This time, the egg came to rest by the foot of one velociraptor. It rocked gently, clicking against the big toe claw.

    The raptor looked down in surprise at this new gift. It bent over and sniffed the glowing egg. It rolled the egg with its snout along the floor for a moment.

    And ignored it.

    The velociraptor stood upright again, and slowly moved on, continuing to search.

    It wasn't working.

    Grant reached for a third egg, and injected it with a fresh syringe. He held the glowing egg in his hands, and rolled it again. But he rolled this one fast, like a bowling ball. The egg rattled across the floor loudly.

    One of the animals heard the sound-ducked down-saw it coming and instinctively chased the moving object, gliding swiftly among the tables to intercept the egg as it rolled. The big jaws snapped down and bit into it, crushing the shell.

    The raptor stood, pale albumen dripping from its jaws. It licked its lips noisily, and snorted. It bit again, and lapped the egg from the floor. But it didn't seem to be in the least distressed. It bent over to eat again from the broken egg. Grant looked down to see what would happen. . . .

    From across the room, the raptor saw him. It was looking right at him.

    The velociraptor snarled menacingly. It moved toward Grant, crossing the room in long, incredibly swift strides. Grant was shocked to see it happening and froze in panic, when suddenly the animal made a gasping, gurgling sound and the big body pitched forward onto the ground. The heavy tail thumped the floor in spasms. The raptor continued to make choking sounds, punctuated by intermittent loud shrieks. Foam bubbled from its mouth. The head flopped back and forth. The tail slammed and thumped.

    That's one, Grant thought.

    But it wasn't dying very fast. It seemed to take forever to die. Grant reached up for another egg-and saw that the other raptors in the room were frozen in mid-action. They listened to the sound of the dying animal. One cocked its head, then another, and another. The first animal moved to look at the fallen raptor.

    The dying raptor was now twitching, the whole body shaking on the floor. It made pitiful moans. So much foam bubbled from its mouth that Grant could hardly see the head any more. It flopped on the floor and moaned again.

    The second raptor bent over the fallen animal, examining it. It appeared to be puzzled by these death throes. Cautiously, it looked at the foaming head, then moved down to the twitching neck, the heaving ribs, the legs. . . .

    And it took a bite from the hind leg.

    The dying animal snarled, and suddenly lifted its head and twisted, sinking its teeth into the neck of its attacker.

    That's two, Grant thought.

    But the standing animal wrenched free. Blood flowed from its neck. It struck out with its hind claws, and with a single swift movement ripped open the belly of the fallen animal. Coils of intestine fell out like fat snakes. The screams of the dying raptor filled the room. The attacker turned away, as if fighting was suddenly too much trouble.

    It crossed the room, ducked down, and came up with a glowing egg! Grant watched as the raptor bit into it, the glowing material dripping down its chin.

    That makes two.

    The second raptor was stricken almost instantly, coughing and pitching forward. As it fell, it knocked over a table. Dozens of eggs rolled everywhere across the floor. Grant looked at them in dismay.

    There was still a third raptor left.

    Grant had one more syringe. With so many eggs rolling on the floor, he would have to do something else. He was trying to decide what to do when the last animal snorted irritably. Grant looked up-the raptor had spotted him.

    The final raptor did not move for a long time, it just stared. And then it slowly, quietly came forward. Stalking him. Bobbing up and down, looking first beneath the tables, then above them. It moved deliberately, cautiously, with none of the swiftness that it had displayed in a pack. A solitary animal now, it was careful. It never took its eyes off Grant. Grant looked around quickly. There was nowhere for him to hide. Nothing for him to do . . .

    Grant's gaze was fixed on the raptor, moving slowly laterally. Grant moved, too. He tried to keep as many tables as he could between himself and the advancing animal. Slowly . . . slowly ... he moved to the left. . . .

    The raptor advanced in the dark red gloom of the hatchery. Its breath came in soft hisses, through flared nostrils.

    Grant felt eggs breaking beneath his feet, the yolk sticking to the soles of his shoes. He crouched down, felt the bulge of the radio in his pocket.

    The radio.

    He pulled it from his pocket and turned it on.

    "Hello. This is Grant."

    "Alan?" Ellie's voice. "Alan?"

    "Listen," he said softly. "Just talk."

    "Alan, is that you?"

    "Talk," he said again, and he pushed the radio across the floor, away from him, toward the advancing raptor.

    He crouched behind a table leg, and waited.

    "Alan, Speak to me, please."

    Then a crackle, and silence. The radio remained silent. The raptor advanced, Soft hissing breath.

    The radio was still silent.

    What was the matter with her! Didn't she understand? In the darkness, the raptor came closer,

    ". . . Alan?"

    The tinny voice from the radio made the big animal pause. It sniffed the air, as if sensing someone else in the room.

    "Alan, it's me. I don't know if you can hear me."

    The raptor now turned away from Grant, and moved toward the radio.

    "Alan . . . please . . ."

    Why hadn't he pushed the radio farther away? The raptor was going toward it, but it was close. The big foot came down very near him. Grant could see the pebbled skin, the soft green glow. The streaks of dried blood on the curved claw. He could smell the strong reptile odor.

    "Alan, listen to me. . . . Alan?"

    The raptor bent over, poked at the radio on the floor, tentatively. Its body was turned away from Grant. The big tail was right above Grant's head. Grant reached up and jabbed the syringe deep into the flesh of the tail, and injected the poison.

    The velociraptor snarled and jumped. With frightening speed it swung back toward Grant, jaws wide. It snapped, its jaws closing on the table leg, and jerked its head up. The table was knocked away, and Grant fell back, now completely exposed. The raptor loomed over him, rising up, its head banging into the infrared lights above, making them swing crazily.

    "Alan?"

    The raptor reared back, and lifted its clawed foot to kick. Grant rolled, and the foot slammed down, just missing him. He felt a searing sharp pain along his shoulder blades, the sudden warm flow of blood over his shirt. He rolled across the floor, crushing eggs, smearing his hands, his face. The raptor kicked again, smashing down on the radio, spattering sparks. It snarled in rage, and kicked a third time, and Grant came to the wall, nowhere else to go, and the animal raised its foot a final time.

    And toppled backward.

    The animal was wheezing. Foam came from its mouth.

    Gennaro and the kids came into the room. Grant signaled them to stay back. The girl looked at the dying animal and said softly, "Wow."

    Gennaro helped Grant to his feet. They all turned, and ran for the control room.

    Control

    Tim was astonished to find the screen in the control room was now flashing on and off. Lex said, "What happened?"

    [picture]

    Tim saw Dr. Grant staring at the screen, and gingerly moving his hand toward the keyboard. "I don't know about computers," Grant said, shaking his head.

    But Tim was already sliding into the seat. He touched the screen rapidly. On the video monitors, he could see the boat moving closer to Puntarenas. It was now only about two hundred yards from the dock. On the other monitor, he saw the lodge, with the raptors hanging down from the ceiling. On the radio, he heard their snarls.