I was impressed with how much equipment Dr. Richards had managed to squeeze into his tent. All sorts of microscopes and test tubes filled the space.
"Arbor, hand me the syringe," he instructed and he handled the egg with latex gloves. I obliged and eagerly observed the process. I had worked with Dr. Richards since I became his intern almost five years ago, fresh out of college. I looked up to him, I had idolized him, and now we were equals. Each working as partners on the same team.
"This breed of dinosaur is an-,"
"Anchiceratops," I interrupted. Dr. Richards smiled and chuckled to himself. He set the egg down in an incubator removed his gloves. He crossed his arms and leaned against a table while studying me.
"Can I trust you with something, Arbor?" he questioned.
"Anything," I vowed.
"This is highly classified, I wasn't even supposed to know about it. But I do have ears on the inside," he wasn't making eye contact with me, he was looking at the egg.
"The government wants this island cleaned for purposes other than being environmentally friendly. They don't want anything on it which could interfere with their experiments," he continued. I was frowning at this point, I didn't like where this was headed.
"They are going to reintroduce dinosaurs to the island, their scientists will observe how their ecosystem works and functions. The outside world will have no knowledge of this,"
"Is that bad, just having the dinosaurs exist here in peace?" I asked in confusion.
"It gets worse. Bit by bit, the scientists will introduce new elements to the environment, to see how the dinosaurs will react. To see if they will evolve. Now I don't know if this plan will carry through or not, but one thing they want to test out, is how humans will survive in a prehistoric world,"
"What?" I shrilled. "Are volunteers just gonna waltz on over here and wave signs saying 'eat me! eat me'!"
"This whole mission is classified as you know, so I have a feeling it will be less volunteers and more...unfortunate souls,"
"What are you going to do about it?" I whispered.
"I am going to do everything I can to prevent them from getting ahold of the dinosaurs genetics," he promised. My eyes flickered over to the egg.
"I won't kill it, but I will hide it and let nature take its course - without human intervention,"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I need you to help me with this. The eggs can't stay on Isla Nublar. You need to transport them to a neighboring island. Isla Ciaru,"
"How many eggs have you found so far?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.
"Forty eight. Forty nine including this one," he sighed.
"What are the species?"
"I can't list them all off the top of my head. Mostly herbivores. Some carnivores...I just need to know if you can help me with this,"
"I'll do what I can," I said, although I didn't want too. Dr. Richard grasped my shoulder.
"Take care of yourself, Arbor. I'll have you and your crew deposit the eggs within the week. But listen closely, once you get the eggs on Isla Ciaru you get off that island," Dr. Richard warned, his voice was dangerously low. I nodded and stepped out of his tent to mull things over. I was sweating from the stress of evening thinking about all of this. I headed over to my own tent to sleep on it.
