Jurassic Park (25 page)

    Then he screwed the base of the can shut and twisted the top. There was a hiss of releasing gas inside, and the can frosted in his hands. Dodgson had said there was enough coolant to last thirty-six hours. More than enough time to get back to San José.

    Nedry left the freezer, returned to the main lab. He dropped the can back in his bag, zipped it shut.

    He went back into the hallway. The theft had taken less than two minutes. He could imagine the consternation upstairs in the control room, as they began to realize what had happened. All their security codes were scrambled, and all their phone lines were jammed. Without his help, it would take hours to untangle the mess-but in just a few minutes Nedry would he back in the control room, setting things right.

    And no one would ever suspect what he had done.

    Grinning, Dennis Nedry walked down to the ground floor, nodded to the guard, and continued downstairs to the basement. Passing the neat lines of electric Land Cruisers, he went to the gasoline-powered Jeep parked against the wall. He climbed into it, noticing some odd gray tubing on the passenger seat. It looked almost like a rocket launcher, he thought, as he turned the ignition key and started the Jeep.

    Nedry glanced at his watch. From here, into the park, and three minutes straight to the east dock. Three minutes from there back to the control room.

    Piece of cake.

"Damn it!" Arnold said, punching buttons on the console. "It's all screwed up.

    Muldoon was standing at the windows, looking out at the park. The lights had gone out all over the island, except in the immediate area around the main buildings. He saw a few staff personnel hurrying to get out of the rain, but no one seemed to realize anything was wrong. Muldoon looked over at the visitor lodge, where the lights burned brightly.

    "Uh-oh," Arnold said. "We have real trouble."

    "What's that?" Muldoon said. He turned away from the window, and so he didn't see the Jeep drive out of the underground garage and head east along the maintenance road into the park.

    "That idiot Nedry turned off the security systems," Arnold said. "The whole building's opened up. None of the doors are locked any more."

    "I'll notify the guards," Muldoon said.

    "That's the least of it," Arnold said. "When you turn off the security, you turn off all the peripheral fences as well."

    "The fences?" Muldoon said.

    "The electrical fences," Arnold said. "They're off, all over the island."

    "You mean . . ."

    "That's right," Arnold said. "The animals can get out now." Arnold lit a cigarette. "Probably nothing will happen, but you never know. . . ."

    Muldoon started toward the door. "I better drive out and bring in the people in those two Land Cruisers," he said. "Just in case."

    Muldoon quickly went downstairs to the garage. He wasn't really worried about the fences going down. Most of the dinosaurs had been in their paddocks for nine months or more, and they had brushed up against the fences more than once, with notable results. Muldoon knew how quickly animals learned to avoid shock stimuli. You could train a laboratory pigeon with just two or three stimulation events. So it was unlikely the dinosaurs would now approach the fences.

    Muldoon was more concerned about what the people in the cars would do. He didn't want them getting out of the Land Cruisers, because once the power came back on, the cars would start moving again, whether the people were inside them or not. They might be left behind. Of course, in the rain it was unlikely they would leave the cars. But, still ... you never knew. . . .

    He reached the garage and hurried toward the Jeep. It was lucky, he thought, that he had had the foresight to put the launcher in it. He could start right out, and he out there in-

    It was gone!

    "What the hell?" Muldoon stared at the empty parking space, astonished.

    The Jeep was gone!

    What the hell was happening?

FOURTH ITERATION

[picture]

"Inevitably, underlying instabilities begin to appear."

IAN MALCOLM

The Main Road

Rain drummed loudly on the roof of the Land Cruiser. Tim felt the night-vision goggles pressing heavily on his forehead. He reached for the knob near his ear and adjusted the intensity. There was a brief phosphorescent flare, and then, in shades of electronic green and black, he could see the Land Cruiser behind, with Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm inside. Neat!

    Dr. Grant was staring out the front windshield toward him. Tim saw him pick up the radio from the dash. There was a burst of static, and then he heard Dr. Grant's voice: "Can you see us back here?"

    Tim picked up the radio from Ed Regis. "I see you."

    "Everything all right?"

    "We're fine, Dr. Grant."

    "Stay in the car."

    "We will. Don't Worry." He clicked the radio off.

    Ed Regis snorted. "It's pouring down rain. Of course we'll stay in the car," he muttered.

    Tim turned to look at the foliage at the side of the road. Through the goggles, the foliage was a bright electronic green, and beyond he could see sections of the green grid pattern of the fence. The Land Cruisers were stopped on the downslope of a hill, which must mean they were someplace near the tyrannosaur area. It would be amazing to see a tyrannosaur with these night-vision goggles. A real thrill. Maybe the tyrannosaur would come to the fence and look over at them. Tim wondered if its eyes would glow in the dark when he saw them. That would be neat.

    But he didn't see anything, and eventually he stopped looking. Everyone in the cars fell silent. The rain thrummed on the roof of the car. Sheets of water streamed down over the sides of the windows. It was hard for Tim to see out, even with the goggles.

    "How long have we been sitting here?" Malcolm asked.

    "I don't know. Four or five minutes."

    "I wonder what the problem is."

    "Maybe a short circuit from the rain."

    "But it happened before the rain really started."

    There was another silence. In a tense voice, Lex said, "But there's no lightning, right?" She had always been afraid of lightning, and she now sat nervously squeezing her leather mitt in her hands.

    Dr. Grant said, "What was that? We didn't quite read that."

    "Just my sister talking."

    "Oh."

    Tim again scanned the foliage, but saw nothing. Certainly nothing as big as a tyrannosaur. He began to wonder if the tyrannosaurs came out at night. Were they nocturnal animals? Tim wasn't sure if he had ever read that. He had the feeling that tyrannosaurs were all-weather, day or night animals. The time of day didn't matter to a tyrannosaur.

    The rain continued to pour.

    "Hell of a rain," Ed Regis said. "It's really coming down."

    Lex said, "I'm hungry."

    "I know that, Lex," Regis said, "but we're stuck here, sweetie. The cars run on electricity in buried cables in the road."

    "Stuck for how long?"

    "Until they fix the electricity."

    Listening to the sound of the rain, Tim felt himself growing sleepy. He yawned, and turned to look at the palm trees on the left side of the road, and was startled by a sudden tbump as the ground shook. He swung back just in time to catch a glimpse of a dark shape as it swiftly crossed the road between the two cars.

    "Jesus! "

    "What was it?"

    "It was huge, it was big as the car-"

    "Tim! Are you there?"

    He picked up the radio. "Yes, I'm here."

    "Did you see it, Tim?"

    "No," Tim said. "I missed it."

    "What the hell was it?" Malcolm said.

    "Are you wearing the night-vision goggles, Tim?"

    "Yes. I'll watch," Tim said.

    "Was it the tyrannosaur?" Ed Regis asked.

    "I don't think so. It was in the road."

    "But you didn't see it?" Ed Regis said.

    "No. "

    Tim felt had that he had missed seeing the animal whatever it was.

    There was a sudden white crack of lightning, and his night goggles flared bright green. He blinked his eyes and started counting. "One one thousand . . . two one thousand . . ."

    The thunder crashed, deafeningly loud and very close. Lex began to cry. "Oh, no . . ."

    "Take it easy, honey," Ed Regis said. "It's just lightning."

    Tim scanned the side of the road. The rain was coming down bard now, shaking the leaves with hammering drops. It made everything move. Everything seemed alive. He scanned the leaves. . . .

    He stopped. There was something beyond the leaves.

    Tim looked up, higher.

    Behind the foliage, beyond the fence, he saw a thick body with a pebbled, grainy surface like the bark of a tree. But it wasn't a tree. He continued to look higher, sweeping the goggles upward-

    He saw the huge head of the tyrannosaurus. Just standing there, looking over the fence at the two Land Cruisers. The lightning flashed again, and the big animal rolled its head and bellowed in the glaring light. Then darkness, and silence again, and the pounding rain.

    "Tim?"

    "Yes, Dr. Grant."

    "You see what it is?"

    "Yes, Dr. Grant."

    Tim had the sense that Dr. Grant was trying to talk in a way that wouldn't upset his sister.

    "What's going on right now?"

    "Nothing," Tim said, watching the tyrannosaur through his night goggles. "Just standing on the other side of the fence."

    "I can't see much from here, Tim."

    "I can see fine, Dr. Grant. It's just standing there."

    "Okay."

    Lex continued to cry, snuffling.

    There was another pause. Tim watched the tyrannosaur. The head was huge! The animal looked from one vehicle to another. Then back again. It seemed to stare right at Tim.

    In the goggles, the eyes glowed bright green.

    Tim felt a chill, but then, as he looked down the animal's body, moving down from the massive head and jaws, he saw the smaller, muscular forelimb. It waved in the air and then it gripped the fence.

    "Jesus Christ," Ed Regis said, staring out the window.

The greatest preditor the world has ever known. The most fearsome attack in human history. Somewhere in the back of his publicist's brain, Ed Regis was still writing copy. But he could feel his knees begin to shake uncontrollably, his trousers flapping like flags, Jesus, he was frightened. He didn't want to be here. Alone among all the people in the two cars, Ed Regis knew what a dinosaur attack was like. He knew what happened to people. He had seen the mangled bodies that resulted from a raptor attack. He could picture it in his mind. And this was a rex! Much, much bigger! The greatest meat-eater that ever walked the earth!

    Jesus.

    When the tyrannosaur roared it was terrifying, a scream from some other world. Ed Regis felt the spreading warmth in his trousers. He'd peed in his pants. He was simultaneously embarrassed and terrified. But he knew he had to do something. He couldn't just stay here. He had to do something. Something. His hands were shaking, trembling against the dash.

    "Jesus Christ," he said again.

"Bad language," Lex said, wagging her finger at him.

    Tim heard the sound of a door opening, and he swung his head away from the tyrannosaur-the night-vision goggles streaked laterally-in time to see Ed Regis stepping out through the open door, ducking his head in the rain.

    "Hey," Lex said, "where are you going?"

    Ed Regis just turned and ran in the opposite direction from the tyrannosaur, disappearing into the woods. The door to the Land Cruiser hung open; the paneling was getting wet.

    "He left!" Lex said. "Where did he go? He left us alone!"

    "Shut the door," Tim said, but she had started to scream, "He left us! He left us!"

    "Tim, what's going on?" It was Dr. Grant, on the radio. "Tim?"

    Tim leaned forward and tried to shut the door. From the back seat, he couldn't reach the handle. He looked back at the tyrannosaur as lightning flashed again, momentarily silhouetting the huge black shape against the white-flaring sky.

    "Tim, what's happening?"

    "He left us, he left us!"

    Tim blinked to recover his vision. When he looked again, the tyrannosaur was standing there, exactly as before, motionless and huge. Rain dripped from its jaws. The forelimb gripped the fence. . . .

    And then Tim realized: the tyrannosaur was holding on to the fence! The fence wasn't electrified any more!

    "Lex, close the door!"

    The radio crackled. "Tim!"

    "I'm here, Dr. Grant."

    "What's going on?"

    "Regis ran away," Tim said.

    "He what?"

    "He ran away. I think he saw that the fence isn't electrified," Tim said.

    "The fence isn't electrified?" Malcolm said, over the radio. "Did he say the fence isn't electrified?"

    "Lex," Tim said, "close the door. " But Lex was screaming, "He left us, he left us!" in a steady, monotonous wail, and there was nothing for Tim to do but climb out of the back door, into the slashing rain, and shut the door for her. Thunder rumbled, and the lightning flashed again. Tim looked up and saw the tyrannosaur crashing down the cyclone fence with a giant hind limb.

    "Timmy!"

    He jumped back in and slammed the door, the sound lost in the tbunderclap.

    The radio: "Tim! Are you there?"

    He grabbed the radio. "I'm here." He turned to Lex. "Lock the doors. Get in the middle of the car. And shut up."

    Outside, the tyrannosaur rolled its head and took an awkward step forward. The claws of its feet had caught in the grid of the flattened fence. Lex saw the animal finally, and became silent, still. She watched with wide eyes.

    Radio crackle. "Tim."