Jurassic Park (12 page)

Channel 8: Pterosaur Peak

    He found the names irritatingly cute. Grant turned on the television but got only static. He shut it off and went into his bedroom, tossed his suitcase on the bed. Directly over the bed was a large pyramidal skylight. It created a tented feeling, like sleeping under the stars. Unfortunately the glass had to be protected by heavy bars, so that striped shadows fell across the bed.

    Grant paused. He had seen the plans for the lodge, and be didn't remember bars on the skylight. In fact, these bars appeared to be a rather crude addition. A black steel frame had been constructed outside the glass walls, and the bars welded to the frame.

    Puzzled, Grant moved from the bedroom to the living room. His window looked out on the swimming pool.

    "By the way, those ferns are poison," Ellie said, walking into his room. "But did you notice anything about the rooms, Alan?"

    "They changed the plans."

    "I think so, yes." She moved around the room. "The windows are small," she said. "And the glass is tempered, set in a steel frame. The doors are steel-clad. That shouldn't be necessary. And did you see the fence when we came in?"

    Grant nodded. The entire lodge was enclosed within a fence, with bars of incb-thick steel. The fence was gracefully landscaped and painted flat black to resemble wrought iron, but no cosmetic effort could disguise the thickness of the metal, or its twelve-foot height.

    "I don't think the fence was in the plans, either," Ellie said. "It looks to me like they've turned this place into a fortress."

    Grant looked at his watch. "We'll be sure to ask why," he said. "The tour starts in twenty minutes."

When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth

They met in the visitor building: two stories high, and all glass with exposed black anodized girders and supports. Grant found it determinedly high-tech.

    There was a small auditorium dominated by a robot Tyrannosaurus rex, poised menacingly by the entrance to an exhibit area labeled WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH. Farther on were other displays: WHAT IS A DINOSAUR? and THE MESOZOIC WORLD. But the exhibits weren't completed; there were wires and cables all over the floor. Gennaro climbed up on the stage and talked to Grant, Ellie, and Malcolm, his voice echoing slightly in the room.

    Hammond sat in the back, his hands folded across his chest.

    "We're about to tour the facilities," Gennaro said. "I'm sure Mr. Hammond and his staff will show everything in the best light. Before we go, I wanted to review why we are here, and what I need to decide before we leave. Basically, as you all realize by now, this is an island in which genetically engineered dinosaurs have been allowed to move in a natural park-like setting, forming a tourist attraction. The attraction isn't open to tourists yet, but it will be in a year.

    "Now, my question for you is a simple one. Is this island safe? Is it safe for visitors, and is it safely containing the dinosaurs?"

    Gennaro turned down the room lights. "There are two pieces of evidence which we have to deal with. First of all, there is Dr. Grant's identification of a previously unknown dinosaur on the Costa Rican mainland. This dinosaur is known only from a partial fragment. It was found in July of this year, after it supposedly bit an American girl on a beach. Dr. Grant can tell you more later. I've asked for the original fragment, which is in a lab in New York, to be flown here so that we can inspect it directly. Meanwhile, there is a second piece of evidence.

    "Costa Rica has an excellent medical service, and it tracks all kinds of data. Beginning in March, there were reports of lizards biting infants in their cribs-and also, I might add, biting old people who were sleeping soundly. These lizard bites were sporadically reported in coastal villages from Ismaloya to Puntarenas. After March, lizard bites were no longer reported. However, I have this graph from the Public Health Service in San Jos6 of infant mortality in the towns of the west coast earlier this year."

[picture]

    "I direct your attention to two features of this graph," Gennaro said. "First, infant mortality is low in the months of January and February, then spikes in March, then it's low again in April. But from May onward, it is high, right through July, the month the American girl was bitten. The Public Health Service feels that something is now affecting infant mortality, and it is not being reported by the workers in the coastal villages. The second feature is the puzzling biweekly spiking, which seems to suggest some kind of alternating phenomenon is at work."

    The lights came back on. "All right," Gennaro said. "That's the evidence I want explained. Now, are there any-"

    "We can save ourselves a great deal of trouble," Malcolm said. "I'll explain it for you now."

    "You will?" Gennaro said.

    "Yes," Malcolm said. "First of all, animals have very likely gotten off the island."

    "Oh balls," Hammond growled, from the back.

    "And second, the graph from the Public Health Service is almost certainly unrelated to any animals that have escaped."

    Grant said, "How do you know that?"

    "You'll notice that the graph alternates between high and low spikes," Malcolm said. "That is characteristic of many complex systems. For example, water dripping from a tap. If you turn on the faucet lust a little, you'll get a constant drip, drip, drip. But if you open it a little more, so that there's a bit of turbulence in the flow, then you'll get alternating large and small drops. Drip drip . . . Drip drip . . . Like that. You can try it yourself. Turbulence produces alternation-it's a signature. And you will get an alternating graph like this for the spread of any new illness in a community,"

    "But why do you say it isn't caused by escaped dinosaurs?" Grant said.

    "Because it is a nonlinear signature," Malcolm said. "You'd need hundreds of escaped dinosaurs to cause it. And I don't think hundreds of dinosaurs have escaped. So I conclude that some other phenomenon, such as a new variety of flu, is causing the fluctuations you see in the graph."

    Gennaro said, "But you think that dinosaurs have escaped?"

    " Probably, yes."

    "Why?"

    "Because of what you are attempting here. Look, this island is an attempt to re-create a natural environment from the past. To make an isolated world where extinct creatures roam freely.  Correct?"

    "Yes."

    "But from my point of view, such an undertaking is impossible. The mathematics are so self-evident that they don't need to be calculated. It's rather like my asking you whether, on a billion dollars in income, you had to pay tax. You wouldn't need to pull out your calculator to check. You'd know tax was owed. And, similarly, I know overwhelmingly that one cannot successfully duplicate nature in this way, or hope to isolate it."

    "Why not? After all, there are zoos."

    "Zoos don't re-create nature," Malcolm said. "Let's be clear. Zoos take the nature that already exists and modify it very slightly, to create holding pens for animals. Even those minimal modifications often fail. The animals escape with regularity. But a zoo is not a model for this park. This park is attempting something far more ambitious than that. Something much more akin to making a space station on earth."

    Gennaro shook his head. "I don't understand."

    "Well, it's very simple. Except for the air, which flows freely, everything about this park is meant to be isolated. Nothing gets in, nothing out. The animals kept here are never to mix with the greater ecosystems of earth. They are never to escape."

    "And they never have," Hammond snorted.

    "Such isolation is impossible," Malcolm said flatly. "It simply cannot be done."

    "It can. It's done all the time."

    "I beg your pardon," Malcolm said. "But you don't know what you are talking about."

    "You arrogant little snot," Hammond said. He stood, and walked out of the room.

    "Gentlemen, gentlemen," Gennaro said.

    "I'm sorry," Malcolm said, "but the point remains. What we call 'nature' is in fact a complex system of far greater subtlety than we are willing to accept. We make a simplified image of nature and then we botch it up, I'm no environmentalist, but you have to understand what you don't understand. How many times must the point be made? How many times must we see the evidence? We build the Aswan Dam and claim it is going to revitalize the country. Instead, it destroys the fertile Nile Delta, produces parasitic infestation, and wrecks the Egyptian economy. We build the-"

    "Excuse me," Gennaro said. "But I think I hear the helicopter. That's probably the sample for Dr. Grant to look at." He started out of the room. They all followed.

At the foot of the mountain, Gennaro was screaming over the sound of the helicopter. The veins of his neck stood out. "You did what? You invited who?"

    "Take it easy," Hammond said.

    Gennaro screamed, "Are you out of your goddamned mind?"

    "Now, look here," Hammond said, drawing himself up. "I think we have to get something clear-"

    "No," Gennaro said. "No, you get something clear. This is not a social outing. This is not a weekend excursion-"

    "This is my island," Hammond said, "and I can invite whomever I want."

    "This is a serious investigation of your island because your investors are concerned that it's out of control. We think this is a very dangerous place, and-"

    "You're not going to shut me down, Donald-"

    "I will if I have to-"

    "This is a safe place," Hammond said, "no matter what that damn mathematician is saying-"

    "It's not-"

    "And I'll demonstrate its safety-"

    "And I want you to put them Tight back on that helicopter," Gennaro said.

    "Can't," Hammond said, pointing toward the clouds. "It's already leaving." And, indeed, the sound of the rotors was fading.

    "God damn it," Gennaro said, "don't you see you're needlessly risking-"

    "Ah ah," Hammond said. "Let's continue this later. I don't want to upset the children."

    Grant turned, and saw two children coming down the hillside, led by Ed Regis. There was a bespectacled boy of about eleven, and a girl a few years younger, perhaps seven or eight, her blond hair pushed up under a Mets baseball cap, and a baseball glove slung over her shoulder. The two kids made their way nimbly down the path from the helipad, and stopped some distance from Gennaro and Hammond.

    Low, under his breath, Gennaro said, "Christ."

    "Now, take it easy," Hammond said. "Their parents are getting a divorce, and I want them to have a fun weekend here."

    The girl waved tentatively.

    "Hi, Grandpa," she said. "We're here."

The Tour

Tim Murphy could see at once that something was wrong. His grandfather was in the middle of an argument with the younger, red-faced man opposite him. And the other adults, standing behind, looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. Alexis felt the tension, too, because she hung back, tossing her baseball in the air. He had to push her: "Go on, Lex."

    "Go on yourself, Timmy."

    "Don't be a worm," he said.

    Lex glared at him, but Ed Regis said cheerfully, "I'll introduce you to everybody, and then we can take the tour."

    "I have to go," Lex said.

    "I'll just introduce you first," Ed Regis said.

    "No, I have to go."

    But Ed Regis was already making introductions. First to Grandpa, who kissed them both, and then to the man he was arguing with. This man was muscular and his name was Gennaro. The rest of the introductions Were a blur to Tim. There was a blond woman wearing shorts, and a man with a beard who wore jeans and a Hawaiian shirt. He looked like the outdoors type. Then a fat college kid who had something to do with computers, and finally a thin man in black, who didn't shake hands, but just nodded his head. Tim was trying to organize his impressions, and was looking at the blond woman's legs, when he suddenly realized that he knew who the bearded man was.

    "Your mouth is open," Lex said.

    Tim said, "I know him."

    "Oh sure. You just met him."

    "No," Tim said. "I have his book."

    The bearded man said, "What book is that, Tim?"

    "Lost World of the Dinosaurs, " Tim said.

    Alexis snickered. "Daddy says Tim has dinosaurs on the brain," she said.

    Tim hardly heard her. He was thinking of what he knew about Alan Grant. Alan Grant was one of the principal advocates of the theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded. He had done lots of digging at the place called Egg Hill in Montana, which was famous because so many dinosaur eggs had been found there. Professor Grant had found most of the dinosaur eggs that had ever been discovered. He was also a good illustrator, and he drew the pictures for his own books.

    "Dinosaurs on the brain?" the bearded man said. "Well, as a matter of fact, I have that same problem."

    "Dad says dinosaurs are really stupid," Lex said. "He says Tim should get out in the air and play more sports,"

    Tim felt embarrassed. "I thought you had to go," he said.

    "In a minute," Lex said.

    "I thought you were in such a rush."

    "I'm the one who would know, don't you think, Timothy?" she said putting her hands on her hips, copying her mother's most irritating stance.

    "Tell you what," Ed Regis said. "Why don't we all just head on over to the visitor center and we can begin our tour." Everybody started walking. Tim heard Gennaro whisper to his grandfather, "I could kill you for this," and then Tim looked up and saw that Dr Grant had fallen into step beside him.

    "How old are you, Tim?"

    "Eleven."

    "And how long have you been interested in dinosaurs?" Grant asked.

    Tim swallowed. "A while now," he said. He felt nervous to be talking to Dr. Grant. "We go to museums sometimes, when I can talk my family into it. My father."

    "Your father's not especially interested?"