Jurassic Park (48 page)

    Of course! he thought. He had touched the screen. It was a touch screen! The red lights around the edges must be infrared sensors. Tim had never seen such a screen, but he'd read about them in magazines. He touched

    RESET/REVERT.

    Instantly the screen changed. He got a new message:

THE COMPUTER IS NOW RESET

MAKE YOUR SELECTION FROM THE MAIN SCREEN

    Over the radio, they heard the sound of raptors snarling. "I want to see," Lex said. "You should try VIEW."

    "No, Lex."

    "Well, I want VIEW," she said. And before he could grab her hand, she had pressed VIEW. The screen changed.

[picture]

    "Uh-oh," she said.

    "Lex, will you cut it out?"

    "Look!" she said. "it worked! Ha!"

    Around the room, the monitors showed quickly changing views of different parts of the park, Most of the images were misty gray, because of the exterior fog, but one showed the outside of the lodge, with a raptor on the roof, and then another switched to an image in bright sunlight, showing the bow of a ship, bright sunlight-

    "What was that?" Tim said, leaning forward.

    "What?"

    "That picture!"

    But the image had already changed, and now they were seeing the inside of the lodge, one room after another, and then he saw Malcolm, lying in a bed-

    "Stop it," Lex said. "I see them!"

    Tim touched the screen in several places, and got submenus. Then more submenus.

    "Wait," Lex said. "You're confusing it. . . ."

    "Will you shut up! You don't know anything about computers!"

    Now he had a list of monitors on the screen. One of them was marked SAFARI LODGE: LV2-4. Another was REMOTE: SHIPBOARD (VND). He pressed the screen several times.

    Video images came up on monitors around the room. One showed the bow of the supply ship, and the ocean ahead. In the distance, Tim saw land-buildings along a shore, and a harbor. He recognized the harbor because he had flown over it in the helicopter the day before. It was Puntarenas. The ship seemed to be just minutes from landing.

    But his attention was drawn by the next screen, which showed the roof of the safari lodge, in gray mist. The raptors were mostly bidden behind the pyramids, but their heads bobbed up and down, coming into view.

    And then, on the third monitor, he could see inside a room. Malcolm was lying in a bed, and Ellie stood next to him. They were both looking upward. As they watched, Muldoon walked into the room, and joined them, looking up with an expression of concern.

    "They see us," Lex said.

    "I don't think so."

    The radio crackled. On the screen, Muldoon lifted the radio to his lips. "Hello, Tim?"

    "I'm here," Tim said.

    "Ah, we haven't got a whole lot of time," Muldoon said, dully. "Better get that power grid on." And then Tim heard the raptors snarl, and saw one of the long heads duck down through the glass, briefly entering the picture from the top, snapping its jaws.

    Hurry, Timmy!" Lex said. "Get the power on!"

The Grid

Tim suddenly found himself lost in a tangled series of monitor control screens, as he tried to get back to the main screen. Most systems had a single button or a single command to return to the previous screen, or to the main menu. But this system did not-or at least he didn't know it. Also, he was certain that help commands had been built into the system, but he couldn't find them, either, and Lex was jumping up and down and shouting in his ear, making him nervous.

    Finally he got the main screen back. He wasn't sure what he had done, but it was back. He paused, looking for a command.

    "Do something, Timmy!"

    "Will you shut up? I'm trying to get help." He pushed TEMPLATE-MAIN. The screen filled with a complicated diagram, with interconnecting boxes and arrows.

    No good. No good.

    He pushed COMMON INTERFACE. The screen shifted:

[picture]

    "What's that?" Lex said. "Why aren't you turning on the power, Timmy?"

    He ignored her. Maybe help on this system was called "Info." He pushed INFO.

[picture]

    "Tim-ee," Lex wailed, but he had already pushed FIND. He got another useless window. He pushed GO BACK.

    On the radio, he heard Muldoon say, "How's it coming, Tim?" He didn't bother to answer. Frantic, he pushed buttons one after another.

    Suddenly, without warning, the main screen was back.

[picture]

    He studied the screen. ELECTRICAL MAIN and SETGRIDS DNL both looked like they might have something to do with grids. He noticed that SAFETY/HEALTH and CRITICAL LOCKS might be important, too. He heard the growl of the raptors. He had to make a choice. He pressed SETGRIDS DNL, and groaned when he saw it:

[picture]

    He didn't know what to do. He pushed STANDARD PARAMETERS.

    STANDARD PARAMETERS

    Park Grids                B4-C6 Outer Grids C2-D2

    Zoological Grids          BB-07 Pen Grids   R4-R4

    Lodge Grids         F4-D4 Maint Grids E5-L6

    Main Grids                C4-G7 Sensor Grids      D5-G4

    Utility Grids       AH-B5 Core Grids  Al-Cl

    Circuit Integrity Not Tested

     Security Grids Remain Automatic

    Tim shook his head in frustration. It took him a moment to realize that he had just gotten valuable information. He now knew the grid coordinates for the lodge! He pushed grid F4.

    POWER GRID F4 (SAFARI LODCE)

    COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505

    (POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.

    Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.11)

    "It's not working," Lex said.

    "I know!" He pushed another button. The screen flashed again.

    POWER GRID D4 (SAFARI LODCE)

    COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505

    (POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.

    Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.1 1)

    Tim tried to stay calm, to think it through. For some reason he was getting a consistent error message whenever he tried to turn on a grid. It was saying the power was incompatible with the command he was giving. But what did that mean? Why was power incompatible?

    "Timmy . . ." Lex said, tugging at his arm.

    'Not now, Lex."

    "Yes, now, " she said, and she pulled him away from the screen and the console. And then he heard the snarling of raptors.

    It was coming from the hallway.

In the skylight above Malcolm's bed, the raptors had almost bitten through the second metal bar. They could now poke their heads entirely through the shattered glass, and lunge and snarl at the people below. Then after a moment they would pull back, and resume chewing on the metal.

    Malcolm said, "It won't be long now. Three, four minutes." He pressed the button on the radio: "Tim, are you there? Tim?"

    There was no answer.

Tim slipped out the door and saw the velociraptor, down at the far end of the corridor, standing by the balcony, He stared in astonishment. How had it gotten out of the freezer?

    Then, as he watched, a second raptor suddenly appeared on the balcony, and he understood. The raptor hadn't come from the freezer at all. It had come from outside. It had jumped from the ground below. The second raptor landed silently, perfectly balanced on the railing. Tim couldn't believe it. The big animal had jumped ten feet straight up. More than ten feet. Their legs must be incredibly powerful.

    Lex whispered, "I thought you said they couldn't-"

    "Ssshh." Tim was trying to think, but he watched with a kind of fascinated dread as the third raptor leapt to the balcony. The animals milled aimlessly in the corridor for a moment, and then they began to move forward in single file. Coming toward him and Lex.

    Quietly, Tim pushed against the door at his back, to re-enter the control room. But the door was stuck. He pushed harder.

    "We're locked out," Lex whispered. "Look." She pointed to the slot for the security card alongside the door. A bright red dot glowed. Somehow the security doors had been activated. "You idiot, you locked us out!"

    Tim looked down the corridor. He saw several more doors, but each had a red light glowing alongside. That meant all the doors were locked. There was nowhere they could go.

    Then he saw a slumped shape on the floor at the far end of the corridor. It was a dead guard. A white security card was clipped to his belt.

    "Come on," he whispered. They ran for the guard. Tim got the card, and turned back. But of course the raptors had seen them. They snarled, and blocked the way back to the control room. They began to spread apart, fanning out in the hallway to surround Tim and Lex. Their heads began to duck rhythmically.

    They were going to attack.

    Tim did the only thing he could do. Using the card, he opened the nearest door off the hallway and pushed Lex through. As the door began to close slowly behind them, the raptors hissed and charged.

Lodge

Ian Malcolm drew each breath as if it might be his last. He watched the raptors with dull eyes. Harding took his blood pressure, frowned, took it again. Ellie Sattler was wrapped in a blanket, shivering and cold. Muldoon sat on the floor, propped against the wall. Hammond was staring upward, not speaking. They all listened to the radio.

    "What happened to Tim?" Hammond said. "Still no word?"

    "I don't know."

    Malcolm said, "Ugly, aren't they. Truly ugly."

    Hammond shook his head. "Who could have imagined it would turn out this way."

    Ellie said, "Apparently Malcolm did."

    "I didn't imagine it," Malcolm said. "I calculated it."

    Hammond sighed. "No more of this, please. He's been saying 'I told you so' for hours. But nobody ever wanted this to happen."

    "It isn't a matter of wanting it or not," Malcolm said, eyes closed. He spoke slowly, through the drugs. "It's a matter of what you think you can accomplish. When the hunter goes out in the rain forest to seek food for his family, does he expect to control nature? No. He imagines that nature is beyond him. Beyond his understanding. Beyond his control. Maybe he prays to nature, to the fertility of the forest that provides for him. He prays because he knows he doesn't control it. He's at the mercy of it.

    "But you decide you won't be at the mercy of nature. You decide you'll control nature, and from that moment on you're in deep trouble, because you can't do it. Yet you have made systems that require you to do it. And you can't do it-and you never have-and you never will. Don't confuse things. You can make a boat, but you can't make the ocean. You can make an airplane, but you can't make the air. Your powers are much less than your dreams of reason would have you believe."

    "He's lost me," Hammond said, with a sigh, "Where did Tim go? He seemed such a responsible boy."

    "I'm sure he's trying to get control of the situation," Malcolm said. "Like everybody else."

    "And Grant, too. What happened to Grant?"

Grant reached the rear door to the visitor center, the same door he had left twenty minutes before. He tugged on the handle: it was locked. Then he saw the little red light. The security doors were reactivated! Damn! He ran around to the front of the building, and went through the shattered front doors into the main lobby, stopping by the guard desk where he had been earlier. He could hear the dry hiss of his radio. He went to the kitchen, looking for the kids, but the kitchen door was open, the kids gone.

    He went upstairs but came to the glass panel marked CLOSED AREA and the door was locked. He needed a security card to go farther.

    Grant couldn't get in.

    From somewhere inside the hallway, he heard the raptors snarling.

The leathery reptile skin touched Tim's face, the claws tore his shirt, and Tim fell onto his back, shrieking in fright.

    "Timmy!" Lex yelled.

    Tim scrambled to his feet again. The baby velociraptor perched on his shoulder, chirping and squeaking in panic. Tim and Lex were in the white nursery. There were toys on the floor: a rolling yellow ball, a doll, a plastic rattle.

    "It's the baby raptor," Lex said, pointing to the animal gripping Tim's shoulder.

    The little raptor burrowed its head into Tim's neck. The poor thing was probably starving, Tim thought.

    Lex came closer and the baby hopped onto her shoulder. It rubbed against her neck. "Why is it doing that?" she said. "Is it scared?"

    "I don't know," Tim said.

    She passed the raptor back to Tim. The baby was chirping and squeaking, and hopping up and down on his shoulder excitedly. It kept looking around, head moving quickly. No doubt about it, the little thing was worked up and-

    "Tim," Lex whispered.

    The door to the hallway laadn't closed behind them after they entered the nursery. Now the big velociraptors were coming through. First one, then a second one.

    Clearly agitated, the baby chirped and bounced on Tim's shoulder. Tim knew he had to get away. Maybe the baby would distract them. After all, it was a baby raptor. He plucked the little animal from his shoulder and threw it across the room. The baby scurried between the legs of the adults. The first raptor lowered its snout, sniffed at the baby delicately,

    Tim took Lex's hand, and pulled her deeper into the nursery. He had to find a door, a way to get out-

    There was a high piercing shriek. Tim looked back to see the baby in the jaws of the adult. A second velociraptor came forward and tore at the limbs of the infant, trying to pull it from the mouth of the first. The two raptors fought over the baby as it squealed. Blood splattered in large drops onto the floor.