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"Hey," Tim said, "look at this" He held out ait, Grant found a compressed-air pistol and a cloth belt that held darts There were six darts in all, each as thick as his finger Labeled MORO-709
"Good Work, Tiun in his trousers
"Is it a tranquilizer gun?"
"I&039;d say so"
"What about the boat?" Lex said
"I think it&039;s on the dock," Grant said They started down the road Grant carried the oars on his shoulder "I hope it&039;s a big raft," Lex said, "because I can&039;t swim"
"Don&039;t worry," he said
"Maybe we can catch some fish," she said
They walked down the road with the sloping e up on both sides of the sound, but Grant could not see where it was co from
"Are you sure there&039;s a raft down here?" Lex said, wrinkling her nose
"Probably," Grant said
The rhyth beca, buzzing sound When they reached the end of the road, at the edge of the small concrete dock, Grant froze in shock
The tyrannosaur was right there
It was sitting upright in the shade of a tree, its hind legs stretched out in front Its eyes were open but it was not ently with each snorting sound The buzzing ca over its face and slack jaws, its bloody fangs, and the red haunch of a killed hadrosaur that lay on its side behind the tyrannosaur
The tyrannosaur was only twenty yards away Grant felt sure itanimal did not respond It just sat there It took hi up, but asleep
He signaled to Tim and Lex to stay where they were Grant walked slowly forward onto the dock, in full view of the tyrannosaur The big ani softly
Near the end of the dock, a wooden shed was painted green to blend with the foliage Grant quietly unlatched the door and looked inside He saw a half-dozen orange life vests hanging on the wall, several rolls of wire- rubber cubes sitting on the floor The cubes were strapped tight with flat rubber belts
Rafts
He looked back at Lex
She mouthed: No boat
He nodded, Yes
The tyrannosaur raised its foreli around its snout But otherwise it did not move Grant pulled one of the cubes out onto the dock It was surprisingly heavy He freed the straps, found the inflation cylinder With a loud hiss, the rubber began to expand, and then with a hiss-whap! it popped fully open on the dock The sound was fearfully loud in their ears
Grant turned, stared up at the dinosaur
The tyrannosaur grunted, and snorted It began to move Grant braced himself to run, but the aniainst the tree trunk and gave a long, growling belch
Lex looked disgusted, waving her hand in front of her face
Grant was soaked in sweat froed the rubber raft across the dock It flopped into the water with a loud splash
The dinosaur continued to sleep
Grant tied the boat up to the dock, and returned to the shed to take out two life preservers He put these in the boat, and then waved for the kids to come out onto the dock
Pale with fear, Lex waved back, No
He gestured: Yes
The tyrannosaur continued to sleep
Grant stabbed in the air with an eestured for her to get into the raft; then Tiot in and pushed off The raft drifted silently out into the lagoon Grant picked up his paddles and fitted them into the oarlocks They moved farther frohed loudly with relief Then she looked stricken, and put her band over her mouth Her body shook, with h
She always coughed at the wrong times!
"Lex," Ti back toward the shore
She shook her head miserably, and pointed to her throat He knehat she meant: a tickle in her throat What she needed was a drink of water Grant was rowing, and Tim leaned over the side of the raft and scooped his hand in the lagoon, holding his cupped hand toward her
Lex coughed loudly, explosively In Tiunshot
The tyrannosaur yawned lazily, and scratched behind its ear with its hind foot, just like a dog It yawned again It was groggy after its big meal, and it woke up slowly
On the boat, Lex wassounds
"Lex, shut up!" Tim said
"I can&039;t help it," she whispered, and then she coughed again Grant rowed hard, oon
On the shore, the tyrannosaur stumbled to its feet
"I couldn&039;t help it, Timmy!" Lex shrieked miserably "I couldn&039;t help it!"
"Shhhh!"
Grant was rowing as fast as he could
"Anyway, it doesn&039;t h away He can&039;t swim
"Of course he can swim, you little idiot!" Tim shouted at her On the shore, the tyrannosaur stepped off the dock and plunged into the water It oon after them
"Well, how should I know?" she said
"Everybody knows tyrannosaurs can swim! It&039;s in all the books! Anyway, all reptiles can swim!"
"Snakes can&039;t"
"Of course snakes can You idiot!"
"Settle down," Grant said "Hold on to so how the animal swam The tyrannosaur was now chest-deep in the water, but it could hold its big head high above the surface Then Grant realized the ani, because moments later only the very top of the head-the eyes and nostrils-protruded above the surface By then it looked like a crocodile, and it swa tail back and forth, so the water churned behind it Behind the head, Grant saw the huth of tail, as it occasionally broke the surface
Exactly like a crocodile, he thought unhappily The biggest crocodile in the world
"I&039;m sorry, Dr Grant!" Lex wailed "I didn&039;t lanced over his shoulder The lagoon was no more than a hundred yards wide here, and they had almost reached the center If he continued, the water would becoain, and he wouldthe boat around, and began to row north
"What are you doing?"
The tyrannosaur was now just a few yards away Grant could hear its sharp snorting breaths as it came closer Grant looked at the paddles in his hands, but they were light plastic-not weapons at all
The tyrannosaur threw its head back and opened its jaide, showing rows of curved teeth, and then in a greatthe rubber gunwale, the huge skull slapping down, the raft rocking away on the crest of the splash
The tyrannosaur sank below the surface, leaving gurgling bubbles The lagoon was still Lex gripped the gunwale handles and looked back
"Did he drown?"
"No," Grant said He saw bubbles-then a faint ripple along the surface-co on!" he shouted, as the head bucked up beneath the rubber, bending the boat and lifting it into the air, spinning theain
"Do so!"
Grant pulled the air pistol out of his belt It looked pitifully small in his hands, but there was the chance that, if he shot the animal in a sensitive spot, in the eye or the nose-
The tyrannosaur surfaced beside the boat, opened its jaws, and roared Grant aiht, and smacked into the cheek The tyrannosaur shook its head, and roared again
And suddenly they heard an answering roar, floating across the water toward the back, Grant saw the juvenile T-rex on the shore, crouched over the killed sauropod, clai the kill as its own The juvenile slashed at the carcass, then raised its head high and bellowed The big tyrannosaur saw it, too, and the response was ily toward the shore
"He&039;s going away!" Lex squealed, clapping her hands "He&039;s going away! Naah-naah-na-na-naah! Stupid dinosaur!"
Fro tyrannosaur burst fro from its enormous body as it raced up the hill past the dock The juvenile ducked its head and fled, its jaws still filled with ragged flesh
The big tyrannosaur chased it, racing past the dead sauropod, disappearing over the hill They heard its final threatening bellow, and then the raft oon, to the river
Exhausted fro He couldn&039;t catch his breath He lay gasping in the raft
"Are you okay, Dr Grant?" Lex asked
"From now on, will you just do what I tell you?"
&039;Oh-kay, " she sighed, as if he had just made the most unreasonable demand in the world She trailed her ar," she said
"I&039;m tired," Grant said
"Then how co?"
Grant sat up She was right The raft drifted steadily north "Therethem north, toward the hotel He looked at his watch and was astonished to see it was fifteen minutes past seven Only fifteen minutes had passed since he had last looked at his watch It seemed like two hours
Grant lay back against the rubber gunwales, closed his eyes, and slept
FIFTH ITERATION
[picture]
"Flaws in the system will now become severe"
IAN MALCOM
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Gennaro sat in the Jeep and listened to the buzzing of the flies, and stared at the distant pal in the heat He was astonished by what looked like a battleground: the grass was tra palreat washes of blood in the grass, and on the rocky outcropping to their right
Sitting beside hi the hadrosaurs" He took another drink of whiskey, and capped the bottle "Damn lot of flies," he said
They waited, and watched
Gennaro dru for?"
Muldoon didn&039;t answer immediately "The rex is out there so sun "And we don&039;t have any weapons worth a damn"
"We&039;re in a Jeep"
"Oh, he can outrun the Jeep, Mr Gennaro," Muldoon said, shaking his head "Once we leave this road and go onto open terrain, the best we can do in a four-wheel drive is thirty, forty ht down No proble out there now You ready to live dangerously?"
"Sure," Gennaro said
Muldoon started the engine, and at the sudden sound, two srass directly ahead Muldoon put the car in gear He drove in a wide circle around the tra concentric circles until he finally came to the place in the field where the little othnielians had been Then he got out and walked forward in the grass, away from the Jeep He stopped as a dense cloud of flies lifted into the air
"What is it?" Gennaro called
"Bring the radio," Muldoon said
Gennaro climbed out of the Jeep and hurried forward Even from a distance he could smell the sour-sweet odor of early decay He saw a dark shape in the grass, crusted with blood, legs askew
"Young hadrosaur," Muldoon said, staring down at the carcass "The whole herd staht it down"
"How do you know?" Gennaro said The flesh was ragged from many bites
"You can tell from the excreta," Muldoon said "See those chalky white bits there in the grass? That&039;s hadro spoor Uric acid e rass-"that&039;s tyrannosaur spoor"
"How do you know the tyrannosaur didn&039;t come later?"
"The bite pattern," Muldoon said "See those little ones there?" He pointed along the belly "Those are from the othys Those bites haven&039;t bled They&039;re posters Othys did that But the hadro was brought down by a bite on the neck-you see the big slash there, above the shoulder blades-and that&039;s the T-rex, no question"
Gennaro bent over the carcass, staring at the aard, trampled limbs with a sense of unreality Beside him, Muldoon flicked on his radio "Control "