Page 22 (1/2)

"Admit it, you missed"

"Yeah," Muldoon said He sighed "I hts My fault I should have checked it, after it was out all last night Let&039;s go back and get more canisters"

The Jeep headed north, toward the hotel Muldoon picked up the radio "Control"

"Yes," Arnold said

"We&039;re heading back to base"

The river was now very narrow, and flowing swiftly The raft was going faster all the ti to feel like an amusement park ride

"Whee!" Lex yelled, holding on to the gunwale "Faster, faster!"

Grant squinted, looking forward The river was still narrow and dark, but farther ahead he could see the trees ended, and there was bright sunlight beyond, and a distant roaring sound The river seemed to end abruptly in a peculiar flat line

The raft was going still faster, rushing forward

Grant grabbed for his paddles

"What is it?"

"It&039;s a waterfall," Grant said

The raft swept out of the overhanging darkness into brilliant ht, and raced forward on the swift current toward the lip of the waterfall The roar was loud in their ears Grant paddled as strongly as he could, but he only succeeded in spinning the boat in circles It continued inexorably toward the lip

Lex leaned toward him "I can&039;t swim!" Grant saw that she did not have her life vest clasped, but there was nothing he could do about it; with frightening speed, they cae, and the roar of the waterfall seemed to fill the world Grant jaht at the lip; the rubber raft shuddered in the current, but they did not go over Grant strained against the oar and, looking over the edge, saw the sheer drop of fifty feet down to the surging pool below

And standing in the surging pool, waiting for them, was the tyrannosaur

Lex was screa in panic, and then the boat spun, and the rear end dropped away, spilling thely Grant flailed his arms in the air, and the world went suddenly silent and slow

It see e jacket, falling alongside hi down at the bottom; he had time to observe the frozen white sheet of the waterfall; he had ti pool beneath him as he fell slowly, silently toward it

Then, with a stinging slap, Grant plunged into cold water, surrounded by white boiling bubbles He tu of the tyrannosaur as he irled past it, swept down through the pool and out into the stream beyond Grant swaht a branch, and finally pulled hied himself on his belly onto the rocks, and looked at the river just in time to see the brown rubber raft tu the current, and he reached out and pulled hi, onto the shore beside him

Grant turned back to the waterfall, and saw the tyrannosaur plunge its head straight down into the water of the pool at his feet The great head shook, splashing water to either side It had so between its teeth

And then the tyrannosaur lifted its head back up Dangling froe life vest

A moment later, Lex bobbed to the surface beside the dinosaur&039;s long tail She lay face down in the water, her little body swept downstreaed into the water after her, was again i torrent A moment later, he pulled her up onto the rocks, a heavy, lifeless weight Her face was gray Water poured from her mouth

Grant bent over her to give her reen liquid and coughed again Her eyelids fluttered "Hi," she said She smiled weakly "We did it"

Tiain "Will you stop it? What&039;re you crying for?"

"Because"

"We orried about you," Grant said S down the river The tyrannosaur was tearing up the life vest Still turned away froht turn and see themCome on, kids," he said

"Where are we going?" Lex said, coughing

"Co place Downstrea no protection Upstream was the dinosaur Then Grant saw a dirt path by the river It seemed to lead up toward the waterfall

And in the dirt he saw the clear i up the path

The tyrannosaur finally turned around, growling and looking out toward the grassy plain It seeotten away

It was looking for the ferns that lined the riverbanks Cautiously, he led the back"

"I know"

They were closer to the waterfall now, the roar much louder The rocks beca h a cloud The path see water, but as they came closer, they saw that it actually went behind the waterfall

The tyrannosaur was still looking downstrea the path to the waterfall, and had al water when Grant saw the tyrannosaur turn Then they were completely behind the waterfall, and Grant was unable to see out through the silver sheet

Grant looked around in surprise There was a little recess here, hardly larger than a closet, and filled withet, and cold

"Did he see us?" Lex said She had to shout over the noise of the falling water "Where are we? What is this place? Did he see us?"

"Just aat the equipment This was clearly park machinery And there must be electricity to run it, so perhaps there was also a telephone for co the filters and pipes

"What are you doing?" Lex shouted

"Looking for a telephone" It was now nearly 10:00 am They had just a little more than an hour to contact the ship before it reached the mainland

In the back of the recess he found a metal door marked MAINT 04, but it was firside the door he saw a row of metal boxes He opened the boxes one after another, but they contained only switches and ti to open the door

He al it, he found a nine-button keypad, covered with spots of green mold But it looked as if it was a way to open the door, and he had the feeling that on the other side of that door was a phone Scratched in the metal of the box was the number 1023 He punched it in

With a hiss, the door ca doard On the back wall he saw stenciled MAINT VEHICLE 04/22 CHARGER and an arrow pointing down the stairs Could it really mean there was a car? "Coet it," Lex said "I&039; in there"

"Come on, Lex," Tiet it," Lex said "There&039;s no lights or anything I&039;"

"Never ue "Stay here, and I&039;ll be right back"

"Where&039;re you going?" Lex said, suddenly alarh the door It gave an electronic beep, and snapped shut behind hi

Grant was plunged into total darkness After a moment of surprise, he turned to the door and felt its damp surface There was no knob, no latch He turned to the walls on either side of the door, feeling for a switch, a control box, anything at all

There was nothing

He was fighting panic when his fingers closed over a cold e, a flat surfacea flashlight! He clicked it on, and the beaht He looked back at the door, but saw that it would not open He would have to wait for the kids to unlock it Meantime

He started for the steps They were damp and slippery with mold, and he went down carefully Partway down the stairs, he heard a sniffing and the sound of claws scratching on concrete He took out his dart pistol, and proceeded cautiously

The steps bent around the corner, and as he shone his light, an odd reflection glinted back, and then, a moolf cart, and it faced a long tunnel that seelowed by the steering wheel of the car, so perhaps it was charged

Grant heard the sniffing again, and he wheeled and saw a pale shape rise up toward hih the air, its laws open, and without thinking Grant fired The ani hi wildly But the aniet up, and he felt foolish when he saw it

It was a velociraptor, but very young, less than a year old It was about two feet tall, the size of ashallowly, the dart sticking from beneath its jaw There was probably too ht, and Grant pulled the dart out quickly The velociraptor looked at hilazed eyes

Grant had a clear feeling of intelligence froely with the menace he had felt from the adults in the pen He stroked the head of the velociraptor, hoping to calhtly as the tranquilizer took hold And then he saas ajuvenile, and aThis velociraptor had been bred in the wild

Excited by this development, he hurried back up the stairs to the door With his flashlight, he scanned the flat, featureless surface of the door, and the interior walls As he ran his hands over the door, it slowly dawned on him that he was locked inside, and unable to open it, unless the kids had the presence of mind to open it for him He could hear them, faintly, on the other side of the door

"Dr Grant!" Lex shouted, pounding the door "Dr Grant!"

"Take it easy," Tim said "He&039;ll be back"

"But where did he go?"

"Listen, Dr Grant knohat he&039;s doing," Tim said "He&039;ll be back in a minute"

"He should come back now, " Lex said She bunched her fists on her hips, pushed her elboide She starily

And then, with a roar, the tyrannosaur&039;s head burst through the waterfall toward them

Tiaped wide Lex shrieked and threw herself on the ground The head swung back and forth, and pulled out again But Tim could see the shadow of the ani water

He pulled Lex deeper into the recess, just as the jaws burst through again, roaring, the thick tongue flicking in and out rapidly Water sprayed in all directions froain

Lex huddled next to Ti "I hate him," she said She huddled back, but the recess was only a few feet deep, and crammed with machinery There wasn&039;t any place for them to hide

The head caain, but slowly this tiround The tyrannosaur snorted, flaring its nostrils, breathing the air But the eyes were still outside the sheet of water

Tiht: He can&039;t see us He knoe&039;re in here, but he can&039;t see through the water

The tyrannosaur sniffed

"What is he doing?" Lex said again

"Sshhbh"

With a lol, the jaws slowly opened, and the tongue snaked out It was thick and blue-black, with a little forked indentation at the tip It was four feet long, and easily reached back to the far wall of the recess The tongue slid with a rasping scrape over the filter cylinders Tiainst the pipes

The tongue ainst thetheue had ue drew back along the right side of the recess It dragged against Lex&039;s legs

"Ee," Lex said

The tongue stopped It curled, then began to rise like a snake up the side of her body-

"Don&039;t move, " Tim whispered

past her face, then up along Ti around his head Tim squeezed his eyes shut as the slimy muscle covered his face It was hot and wet and it stunk like urine

Wrapped around hi him, very slowly, toward the open laws

"Timmy"

Tim couldn&039;t answer; his ue He could see, but he couldn&039;t talk Lex tugged at his hand

"Coue dragged hi breath on his legs Lex was tugging at him but she was no o of her and pressed the tongue with both hands, trying to shove it over his head He couldn&039;t round but he was dragged forward anyway

Lex had wrapped her ar to hi to see stars A kind of peacefulness overcaed along

Timmy?"

And then suddenly the tongue relaxed, and uncoiled Tiusting white foaround The jaws slapped shut, biting down on the tongue Dark blood gushed out, ed breaths

"What&039;s he doing?" Lex cried

And then slowly, very slowly, the head began to slide backward, out of the recess, leaving a long scrape in the mud And finally it disappeared entirely, and they could see only the silver sheet of falling water

Control

"Okay," Arnold said, in the control roorinned as he lit a final cigarette and cru the park back in order Now all they had to do was go out and move it

"Son of a bitch," Muldoon said, looking at the ot him after all" He turned to Gennaro "It just took him an hour to feel it"

Henry Wu frowned at the screen "But he could drown, in that position"

"He won&039;t drown," Muldoon said "Never seen an animal that was harder to kill"

"I think we have to go out and move him," Arnold said,

"We will," Muldoon said He didn&039;t sound enthusiastic

"That&039;s a valuable animal"

"I know it&039;s a valuable animal," Muldoon said

Arnold turned to Gennaro He couldn&039;t resist a moment of triumph "I&039;d point out to you," he said, "that the park is now completely back to nor to happen We are coain"

Gennaro pointed to the screen behind Arnold&039;s head and said, "What&039;s that?"

Arnold turned It was the system status box, in the upper corner of the screen Ordinarily it was e yellow: AUX PWR LOW For a moment, he didn&039;t understand Why should auxiliary power be low? They were running on ht perhaps it was just a routine status check on the auxiliary power, perhaps a check on the fuel tank levels or the battery charge

"Henry," Arnold said to Wu "Look at this"

Wu said, "Why are you running on auxiliary power?"

"I&039;m not," Arnold said

"It looks like you are"