Page 20 (2/2)
Gennaro bent over the carcass, staring at the aard, trampled limbs with a sense of unreality Beside him, Muldoon flicked on his radio "Control "
"Yes," John Arnold said, over the radio
"We got another hadro dead Juvenile" Muldoon bent down aht foot A number was tattooed there, "Specimen is number HD/09"
The radio crackled "I&039;ve got so for you," Arnold said
"Oh? What&039;s that?"
"I found Nedry"
The Jeep burst through the line of pal the east road and cale river It was hot in this area of the park, the jungle close and fetid around the with the computer monitor in the Jeep, which noed a rid lines "They found him up on remote video," he said "Sector 1104 is just ahead"
Farther up the road, Gennaro saw a concrete barrier, and the Jeep parked alongside it "Heturnoff," Muldoon said "The little bastard"
"What&039;d he take?" Gennaro asked
"Wu says fifteen embryos Knohat that&039;s worth?"
Gennaro shook his head
"Somewhere between two and tenstakes"
As they ca beside the car The body was indistinct and green-but then green shapes scattered away, as the Jeep pulled to a stop
"Compys," Muldoon said "The compys found hinathids, delicate little predators no larger than ducks, stood at the edge of the jungle, chittering excitedly as the men climbed out of the car
Dennis Nedry lay on his back, the chubby boyish face now red and bloated Flies buzzed around the gaping led-the intestines torn open, one leg chewed through Gennaro turned away quickly, to look at the little cos a short distance away and watched the ered hands, he noticed They wiped their faces and chins, giving them an eerily human quality which-
"I&039;ll be damned," Muldoon said "Wasn&039;t the compys"
"What?"
Muldoon was shaking his head "See these blotches? On his shirt and his face? Smell that sweet smell like old, dried vomit?"
Gennaro rolled his eyes He smelled it
"That&039;s dilo saliva," Muldoon said "Spit froe on the corneas, all that redness In the eyes it&039;s painful but not fatal You&039;ve got about two hours to wash it out with the antivenin; we keep it all around the park, just in case Not that it mattered to this bastard They blinded hio Maybe there&039;s justice in the world after all"
The proconatbids squeaked and hopped up and down as Gennaro opened the back door and took out grayand a stainless-steel case "It&039;s all still there," he said He handed two dark cylinders to Gennaro
"What&039;re these?" Gennaro said
"Just what they look like," Muldoon said "Rockets" As Gennaro backed away, he said, "Watch it-you don&039;t want to step in so"
Gennaro stepped carefully over Nedry&039;s body Muldoon carried the tubing to the other Jeep, and placed it in the back He clio"
"What about hi to the body
"What about his to do" He put the car in gear Looking back, Gennaro saw the co One jumped up and squatted on Nedry&039;s open mouth as it nibbled the flesh of his nose
The jungle river became narrower The banks closed in on both sides until the trees and foliage overhanging the banks h above to block out the sun Ti dinosaurs leaping a the branches But mostly it was silent, the air hot and still beneath the canopy of trees
Grant looked at his watch It was eight o&039;clock
They drifted along peacefully, a, they see faster than before Awake now, Grant lay on his back and stared up at the branches overhead In the how, he saw her reaching up
"Hey, wbat&039;re you doing?" he said
"You think we can eat these berries?" She pointed to the trees Soh to touch Tiht red berries on the branches
"No," Grant said
"Why? Those little dinosaurs are eating the in the branches
"No, Lex"
She sighed, dissatisfied with his authority "I wish Daddy was here," she said "Daddy always knohat to do"
"What&039;re you talking about?" Tim said "He never knohat to do"
"Yes, he does," she sighed Lex stared at the trees as they slid past, their big roots twisting toward the water&039;s edge "Just because you&039;re not his favorite"
Ti
"But don&039;t worry, Daddy likes you, too Even if you&039;re into computers and not sports"
"Dad&039;s a real sports nut," Tim explained to Grant
Grant nodded Up in the branches, small pale yellow dinosaurs, barely two feet tall, hopped from tree to tree They had beaky heads, like parrots "You knohat they call those?" Tim said "Microceratops"
"Big deal," Lex said
"I thought you ht be interested"
"Only very young boys," she said, "are interested in dinosaurs"
"Says who?"
"Daddy"
Tim started to yell, but Grant raised his band "Kids," he said, "shut up"
"Why?" Lex said, "I can do what I want, if I-"
Then she fell silent, because she heard it, too It was a bloodcurdling shriek, from somewhere downriver
Well, where the hell is the da into the radio "Because we don&039;t see hi out at the trarass where the hadrosaurs had stampeded The tyrannosaur was nowhere to be found
"Checking now," Arnold said, and clicked off
Muldoon turned to Gennaro "Checking now," he repeated sarcastically "Why the hell didn&039;t he check before? Why didn&039;t he keep track of him?"
"I don&039;t know," Gennaro said
"He&039;s not showing up," Arnold said, a moment later
"What do youup?"
"He&039;s not on thehim"
"Hell," Muldoon said "So much for the motion sensors You see Grant and the kids?"
"Motion sensors aren&039;t finding them, either"
"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Muldoon said
"Wait," Arnold said
"Look! Look!"
Directly ahead, the big dome of the aviary rose above them Grant had seen it only from a distance; now he realized it was enoreodesic struts shone dully through the light h a ton Then, as they calass-just struts A thininside the elements
"It isn&039;t finished," Lex said
"I think it&039;s meant to be open like that," Grant said
"Then all the birds can fly out"
"Not if they&039;re big birds," Grant said
The river carried thee of the dome They stared upward Now they were inside the do down the river But &039;thin h above them that it was hardly visible in the mist Grant said, "I seee here" Mo over the tops of the trees to the north
"You want to stop?" Tim said
"Maybe there&039;s a phone Or motion sensors" Grant steered toward the shore "We need to try to contact the control roo late"
They cla on the muddy bank, and Grant hauled the raft out of the water Then he tied the rope to a tree and they set off, through a dense forest of palm trees
Aviary
"I just don&039;t understand," John Arnold said, speaking into the phone "I don&039;t see the rex, and I don&039;t see Grant and the kids anywhere, either"
He sat in front of the consoles and gulped another cup of coffee All around him, the control room was streith paper plates and half-eaten sandwiches Arnold was exhausted It was 8:00 am on Saturday In the fourteen hours since Nedry destroyed the computer that ran Jurassic Park, Arnold had patiently pulled systems back on line, one after another "All the park syste I&039;ve called for a doctor for you"
On the other end of the line, Malcole "But you&039;re having trouble with the motion sensors?"
"Well, I&039; for"
"Like the rex?"
"He&039;s not reading at all now He started north about twenty oon, and then I lost hiain"
"And you can&039;t find Grant and the kids?"
"No"
"I think it&039;s quite simple," Malcolm said "The motion sensors cover an inadequate area"
"Inadequate?" Arnold bristled "They cover ninety-two-"
"Ninety-two percent of the land area, I re areas up on the board, I think you&039;ll find that the eight percent is topologically unified, uous In essence, an animal can move freely anywhere in the park and escape detection, by following a le river or the beaches or whatever"
"Even if that were so," Arnold said, "the animals are too stupid to know that"
"It&039;s not clear how stupid the animals are," Malcolm said
"You think that&039;s what Grant and the kids are doing?" Arnold said
"Definitely not," Malcolain "Grant&039;s no fool He clearly wants to be detected by you He and the kids are probably waving at every ht But maybe they have other problems we don&039;t know about Or maybe they&039;re on the river"
"I can&039;t iine they&039;d be on the river The banks are very narrow It&039;s i there"
"Would the river bring them all the way back here?"
"Yes, but it&039;s not the safest way to go, because it passes through the aviary"
"Why wasn&039;t the aviary on the tour?" Malcolm said
"We&039;ve had probleinally the park was intended to have a treetop lodge built high above the ground, where visitors could observe the pterodactyls at flight level We&039;ve got four dactyls in the aviary now-actually, they&039;re cearadactyls, which are big fish-eating dactyls"
"What about them?"
"Well, while we finished the lodge, we put the dactyls in the aviary to accli mistake It turns out our fish-hunters are territorial"
"Territorial?"
"Fiercely territorial," Arnold said "They fight a themselves for territory-and they&039;ll attack any other animal that comes into the area they&039;ve marked out"
"Attack?"
"It&039;s ilide to the top of the aviary, fold up their wings, and dive A thirty-pound aniround like a ton of bricks They were knocking the work them up pretty badly"
"That doesn&039;t injure the dactyls?"