4
Later that day, Karen went in search of Owen. She found him playing video games with her younger son in the living room. When she cleared her throat, Gray paused the game and they both turned their attention to her.
"Owen, I have a question, and I'm asking you to please answer honestly."
The former raptor trainer furrowed his brow. "Okay…I'll do my best."
"How likely is it that any of the dinosaurs will make it all the way to Wisconsin before they're rounded up?"
"Very unlikely," Owen assured her. "These animals aren't used to having unlimited space to run around in. The herbivores will probably congregate and be pretty easy to locate." He winced. "And the carnivores...well, they won't be in any hurry as long as there's a food supply."
Karen swallowed at the implication. She turned to Gray. "Honey, do you think you could find your dinosaur books in the basement?"
He sat up, frowning. "Probably. Why?"
"I was thinking it might be a good idea to do a little research on the dinosaurs that escaped." Her cheeks turned faintly pink. "Just in case."
"I can go look for them," Gray offered.
Owen stretched, climbing to his feet. "I'll come with you."
The door to the basement was located in the kitchen. Gray flicked a light switch and led the way down a creaky set of stairs to the unfinished space, crowded with boxes and old sports equipment. An ancient treadmill was swathed in cobwebs in one corner and a fake Christmas tree dominated a second.
"They're down here somewhere," Gray grimaced. "But when my dad moved out, a lot of stuff got pushed around."
Owen took in the chaos and scratched his head. "Well, okay. Let's get crackin.'"
They split up, each tackling half of the room. Some of the boxes were labeled, but many were not. Owen found a bin of baby clothes and a shoebox filled with photos, but no books.
Finally, Gray emerged from a corner with dust in his hair and a cardboard box in his arms.
"I think this is it." He balanced the carton on the bottom step and curled his fingers under the flaps, easily breaking through the masking tape. They were greeted by the image of a T-rex roaring from the cover of a National Geographic magazine. Gray jumped and then laughed shakily. "Yeah, this is it."
Owen squeezed his shoulder and scooped the box into his arms. "C'mon. Let's get these upstairs."
:
Karen sorted the books into two piles; those written when fossils were the closest anyone got to seeing a dinosaur, and those written after the de-extinction.
"I think I'll start with this one," she joked, holding up a copy of Dinosaurs For Dummies by Alan Grant.
"This isn't exactly the summer reading I had in mind." Zach wrinkled his nose as he thumbed through a Jurassic encyclopedia.
Maisie stared at the book in her hands—a study about the wonders and possibilities of genetic experimentation. Quietly, she backed out of the group and slipped up the stairs.
"What's going on?" Claire asked, sliding onto the couch.
"Mom wants us all to be dinosaur experts," Gray explained, filling his mouth with popcorn.
Karen shot him a disapproving look. "That's not what I said. I just think it would be useful to build up some basic knowledge. I mean, most of what I know about dinosaurs I learned from those Land Before Time movies you used to like so much."
"I called stegosauruses 'spiketails' until I was eight," Gray recalled.
Claire broke in. "Well, I think it's a good idea. We're not going to be able to keep our minds off of all this anyway, so we might as well be productive."
"Spoken like a true Type A," Owen declared, grinning when Claire stuck out her tongue.
Karen pawed at the stack on the coffee table, pulling out a thin paperback with a lot of pictures. She reached for her notebook.
"Okay. Let's start with the gallimimus."
:
After some time, Claire noticed Maisie was missing. Concerned, she climbed the stairs and knocked on the closed bedroom door.
"Maisie? Sweetie?" When there was no response, she eased the door open. Maisie was sitting on the side of the bed, her back to Claire. "Maisie?"
She stepped further into the room and noticed the book resting on the pillow, opened to a passage about the inevitability of human cloning. She flipped it over and was not surprised to see Henry Wu's name staring up at her in block letters from the cover.
"Why were you reading this?"
Maisie shrugged. "I thought it might give me some answers about why I was created. Like maybe I'm supposed to cure cancer someday." She laughed hollowly.
Claire's heart sank. She'd known this conversation was going to happen at some point, but she'd counted on Owen being there. She sat down.
"Maisie, you don't need to have a bigger purpose. You're just a kid."
"I was made in a lab," Maisie spat. "I'm pretty sure that makes me a freak."
"You are not a freak," Claire said, aghast. "Why would you even think that?" When Maisie didn't reply, she pressed. "Do you think the dinosaurs are freaks?"
"Only the Indoraptor."
"And it was genetically modified. Its DNA came from any number of sources. Can you jump unusually high? Camouflage?"
"No."
"Exactly. Because you're not some experiment cooked up in a lab. You're a person. You are here because your grandfather had so much love in his heart, and he needed to give it to someone."
"Except he wasn't even my grandfather!"
Claire stroked her hair. "The only thing that matters is what he meant to you, and what you meant to him."
Maisie snorted. "He didn't even love me. He loved…the other me. The real me."
"You are the real you," Claire insisted. "Listen, he might have recycled DNA, but your genetic makeup doesn't define who you are. You are your own person, Maisie, and your grandfather knew that. And he loved you. Maisie, he loved you. Deep down, you know that's true."
Maisie was silent for a long moment. Finally, she released a heavy sigh and nodded toward the book on her pillow.
"Do you think he knows about me?" She was clearly referring to Wu.
Claire pursed her lips. "No, and he is never going to find out."
"He doesn't seem to care much about cloning. What I've found is mostly about creating new life forms by using parts of existing creatures. It's kind of frightening."
Claire spoke carefully. "I worked with Henry Wu for years. For him, it's all about the act of creation. He doesn't care about money, but he also doesn't particularly care who or what he has to manipulate to get results. And as far as I know, he's never really cared about applying his research to help other people. Henry's a very intelligent man, but he's missing something you definitely have."
"What's that?"
"Heart. Maisie, you saved those dinosaurs. And you weren't thinking about their scientific value to the world when you did it. You couldn't bear to see them suffer, because they are living creatures. You cared about them. There's nothing more human than that."
Maisie stared at the floor. "I think I'm just going to rest for a little while."
Claire recognized the dismissal for what it was.
"Okay." Instinctively, she leaned over and kissed the little girl on the head, squeezing her once. Then she made her way out of the room, pausing only to collect Wu's book.
She stepped into the hallway, pulling the door shut and leaning back against it.
"Aunt Claire?"
She jumped as Gray materialized from the shadows, his eyes wide in the fading light.
"What was Maisie talking about, being made in a lab?"