Chapter Four:
Flaws
a/n: it's a-me! we're finally going to get to the good stuff (a.k.a. dinosaurs). I hope everyone watched "Jurassic Park" when it was on amc this weekend and wept at all the appropriate scenes.
"You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me!"
Misty Malcolm, still hungry and a tad riled up from the verbal altercation she had partaken in, watched as the lawyer's already ruddy complexion became downright Bardolphian with fury. He had practically latched himself onto John Hammond and was barking into the elderly man's ear like a deranged drill sergeant. It was quite entertaining, even if she didn't know why Donald Gennaro was about to decapitate Hammond.
"You made a great point back there, sweetie." Misty glanced up and immediately blushed as she found herself face to face with Doctor Sattler. Speech alluded her.
"Uh… uh, uh- - thank you. Thank you, but- - wow, I was just latching onto-onto your comment about the, uh, the extinct ecosystem, how there's no way to control it," Misty stammered, painfully aware of her own ineptness. She turned the corner, still step in step with the older woman, and looked down at the lower level. The Tyrannosaurus model seemed oddly fragile from above, as if a single mote of dust could obliterate it.
"Don't doubt yourself, Misty. You're very smart. We need more girls like you who aren't afraid to like science," Ellie said with a near imperceptible sigh of resentment. She had seen far too many female spirits snuffed out over the course of her life. If she hadn't lowered her head and dug in her heels, she would have joined the score of girls too disturbed by the male monopoly on science and math to pursue their dreams.
Ellie heard voices rising ahead of them. She smiled grimly at the girl and squeezed her shoulder matronly. "We better see what the trouble is."
"Yeah…" Misty said. In that moment, she would have boarded the next helicopter back to California if it meant Ellie Sattler could become her new stepmother.
The two women returned to the group, or, rather, Gennaro and Hammond brawling passionately while Alan and Ian maintained a safe distance. "You told me this was a business trip! Not a-a… vacation! You think this is a game? I could ruin InGen, John! One phone call! One phone call and you'd be ruined!"
Hammond slammed his cane down with enough force to snap the sturdy thing in half. "Oh- - come off it, Donald! What harm are two children going to cause? Their parents are going through a nasty divorce- - I even told you that!- - and I thought they could use a fun weekend to distract them! And you would never ruin InGen, would you? My company's been writing your checks, haven't they? Don't bite the hand that feeds you, my dear boy."
Children? Two children? Here? Misty twisted to the front doors, which were promptly thrust open by none other than Hammond's grandchildren. The prospect of sharing her experience with a pair of spoiled kids curled her lip in revulsion. Dealing with children beyond the realm of her half-siblings was not exactly a hobby of hers.
"Grandpa!" The blond siblings nimbly dashed up the spiral staircase and all but tackled their exceedingly frail grandfather. Misty had a horrible vision of John Hammond breaking every bone in his body. Hammond didn't seem to mind their excitement though; he enveloped the children and pressed their heads to his chest with unprecedented affection. No sooner had they received their hugs did the two begin to prattle on exuberantly.
"We missed you!" the girl exclaimed. She looked about twelve and was wearing a violet Mets cap; the fabric was still starchy with newness.
"Thank you for the presents, Grandpa!" her brother added. He was younger, around eight or nine, and had a thick, glossy book clutched in one hand.
"Yeah, we loved the presents! They were great!"
Misty snuck a glimpse of her traveling companions: Alan Grant was staring down at the family reunion with palpable contempt, while his fiancée beamed. Ian smirked down at his dismayed daughter and gave her unruly ponytail a playful yank. "Look, Misty. Bastard Extraordinaire ordered you some friends."
She contorted her visage into a rictus of unparalleled agony. "Father of mine. Please tell me that these children will be sent to bed soon because, so help me, if I'm enrolled to entertain them, I'll probably saddle up a Velociraptor and order fire on this place. Not kidding. Not even kidding."
"You love kids," Ian insisted as they began to make their way down the steps. "Everyone does."
"And everyone loves cupcakes, even though they clog your arteries and, eventually, induce death. I like Kelly and Roger because I have to, and because I'm slowly- - but surely!- - corrupting Roger with a love for dinosaurs." Misty held the front door open for Ian and consulted her digital wristwatch. Almost five. She briefly wondered if their resort accommodations would be half as opulent as the Visitor's Center. It had been years since she had stayed anywhere beyond the realm of embarrassingly shabby motels.
Ian grabbed his daughter by her broad shoulders and shook her gently. "You love them. Or, at least, you're going to."
"What do you mean?" She peered at the railed stretch of dirt road winding around the Visitor's Center and, eventually, into the verdant jungle. Two ostentatious Land Cruisers made their way up the track, both without drivers. Misty watched the two insufferably endearing children explore the vehicles and had a sudden, atrocious thought. "Dad, please tell me you're not gonna do what I think you're gonna do."
"Sorry, honey." He dropped a kiss on her brow.
"Please! I won't make a sound! I just want to hear what they have to say about the park!" Misty begged. The note of desperation in her own voice disgusted her, but she had never been one to avoid a dramatic moment. She clasped her hands together as if possessed by some religious spirit and threw herself against him. "Please!"
"On the way back, maybe. But I've got important business things to do." Like make sure Doctor Sattler has some company in case her boyfriend swoons again at the sight of a big lizard.
Misty pouted unabashedly and thundered down the building's front steps. She had been anticipating a mature, intelligent conversation with the doctors as they toured the park, not awkward silence with a pair of kids. Not to mention the lawyer, whose company was no more pleasant than having one's teeth drilled.
She climbed into the first Jeep's driver's seat and immediately began rummaging through her backpack for the book she had brought- - Doctor Grant's book, to be exact. It was her favorite among her tomes on the subject. His perspective on the creatures was so novel and intuitive, which, in itself, was like a breath of fresh air in the otherwise stuffy and stagnant paleontology world. Having his words guide her through the park would be almost as wonderful as being the in the same car as him.
Almost.
The CD-ROM began to reiterate programmed instructions in a man's soothing tenor. "Please do not exit the vehicle until the tour is complete and the vehicle has come to a complete stop. Please keep arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Children under the age of ten should be accompanied by an adult."
"That's you," the girl said from the backseat, poking her brother. Misty made a mental note to at least learn their names during their time together.
"Jesus… just like Disney World," Gennaro remarked.
"Stop it, Lex!"
"Oh, come on Timmy, I'm just kidding."
Misty had a distinct vision of her younger self buckled into the backseat of her third stepmother's minivan and engaged in a strikingly similar argument with her half-sister, Kelly. That particular squabble had gone on for the better part of a half hour and could have persisted had their stepmother not threatened to confiscate everything they loved and held dear. She briefly wondered if such a punishment held any weight around here.
The pair of Jeeps roared to life: it was time to go. Finally! A rush of jubilancy unparalleled by any of her museum trips or lecture tapes swept through Misty and she felt herself quivering with anticipation. She reached into her pocket for her inhaler, nervously fingering its nozzle as the vehicle prepared itself for the journey ahead.
"What kind of dinosaurs are we going to see now?" Lex was saying from the backseat (yes! Misty had gotten their names without any awkward prying).
The steering wheel twisted on its programmed axle and the Land Cruiser complied. "Hey, lookit!" Tim exclaimed. "A ghost!"
"Oh, no! It's driving!"
They rounded the corner at a leisurely pace, allowing the guests just enough time to agonize over what they would see. The roadway's track rattled like a roller coaster's cart as it ascended the first and highest peak. Gennaro examined the contemporary CD-ROM and self-operating wheel, and laughed uncertainly. "Wake up and join the future, right?"
Misty didn't bother supplying an answer. They were approaching the front gates.
Two wooden slabs, framed by wicker torches ablaze with synthetic flames, appeared on the horizon. Above it in orange letters- - Jurassic Park. The set-up was vaguely surreal: like the façade to a Disney World ride instead of the only thing separating seven people from a veritable land before time. As if sensing its occupants' enthusiasm, the Jeeps lulled forward and sped toward the gates, which opened in compliance.
They were in the park.
"Voicing your tour is Richard Kiley! Spared no expense!" Hammond exclaimed from the car's dashboard speaker. His voice was tinny and distant. Misty wondered why he hadn't accompanied them on the tour. Perhaps dinosaurs had lost a bit of magic for him, had become as common as field horses or milk cows. The thought saddened her greatly. Once the park was opened to the public, dinosaurs would no longer be creatures of mystery and majesty. They would become entirely and incurably ordinary.
That didn't stop her from twisting around in her seat and peering into the interior of the rear Jeep. Her father was holding up five fingers.
"To your right, you will see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour. They're called Dilophosaurus," Richard Kiley announced, sounding remarkably unimpressed. His listeners, however, immediately descended into a child-like state of fervor.
Gennaro, who had been rambling about the safety issues to whoever would listen, was nearly crushed by Misty as she hurled herself against the passenger window. One knee pinning the man to his seat, she pressed her hands against the glass and peered into the enclosure. They had stopped on a low rise, which ran astride to a leafy plain bordered by tall, wide-armed trees. A sliver of a brook babbled tranquilly through it.
In the rear Jeep, Alan dropped his map at the mention of Dilophosaurus and shared a brief celebratory gasp with Ellie. They both rushed to the windows. Ian spared the empty pen a passing glance before reaching into his pocket and extracting his silver flask. He was in for a long tour.
"Miss Malcolm? Your knee?" Gennaro said curtly. She blushed at her carelessness and removed the offending joint before consulting the window again. "What're we looking for?"
"Dilophosaurus," Tim replied. He was elbowing Lex for a decent view and she wouldn't move, even though she had told him in the helicopter she didn't even like dinosaurs. "Move, Lex!"
"You move!"
"Guys…" Misty warned. For a moment, she had entirely forgotten that the children in the backseat weren't Kelly and Roger. It amazed her how kids could have the exact same argument, no matter what the circumstances.
A view of the enclosure wasn't the issue, however: there were no Dilophosaurus in sight. Misty adjusted her glasses and scanned the treetops where the species occasionally gathered. Nothing. The ground was free of claw prints, the earth undisturbed. "Damn… there's no sign of 'em."
Grant had also come to the realization that there was neither hide nor hair of Dilophosaur to be found. What a shame, too. He had always wanted to see one and compare their height to a Compy. To his disappointment, the Land Cruisers began to trundle away from the pen and towards their next destination. "Damn!" he said, slamming his palm against the paneling.
"It's okay, honey. Maybe next time."
.
.
"Vehicle headlights are running and don't respond. Those shouldn't be running off the car's battery."
Raymond Arnold tapped his pen against the fingerprint-clouded screen of his monitor and shook his head in awe. "Item one-fifty-two on today's glitch list. We've got all the problems of a major theme park and a major zoo, and the computer's not even on its feet yet."
The Visitor Center was home to an impressively well-equipped Control Room, which- - in turn- - was home to Ray Arnold, Dennis Nedry, and, at the moment, Hammond and Muldoon. Arnold was no stranger to Hammond, who could write all sorts of zeroes on a check, but Muldoon's visits were increasingly few and far between. It was a shame too: Arnold could at least tolerate Muldoon. Nedry on the other hand…
Arnold and Nedry were as different as any two men could be. Where Arnold was thin and swarthy, Nedry was overweight and pale, especially in the Control Room's dim overhead light. Of course, there was also the issue of personality: Arnold liked to keep to himself, while Nedry had no qualms in sharing exactly what was on his mind with Hammond. Today- - Showcase Day, no less- - was no exception.
"Nedry… our lives are in your hands and you have butter fingers?" Hammond asked disapprovingly. When lecturing, the elderly man sounded more like a sitcom father than the CEO of the world's largest bioengineering corporation.
The large man turned in his rubber-padded swivel chair and tossed his employer a sarcastic chuckle. "I'm totally unappreciated in my time! We can run the whole park from this room, with minimal staff, for up to three days. You think that kinda automation is easy? Or cheap? You know anybody who can network eight connection machines and debug two million lines of code for what I bid for this job? 'Cause if you can, I'd love to see you try!"
Hammond, who was perched on the carpeted staircase leading out of the room and up into the touring theater, ascended another step so he could have the height advantage in the situation. "I'm sorry about your financial problems Dennis- - I really am- - but they are your problems."
"Oh, you're right John, you're absolutely right!" Nedry laughed dryly. "Everything's my problem."
The man's cane came down with a familiar clunk. "I will not get drawn into another financial debate with you, Dennis. I really will not."
"Hardly any debate at all… my mistakes…"
"I don't blame people for their mistakes. But I do ask that they pay for them."
Nedry rolled his eyes and toasted his Coke to Hammond. "Thanks, Dad."
Arnold waited for the show to conclude before rolling himself around the ledge of his desk. "Dennis. The headlights."
He excused his co-worker with a nonplussed wave of his hand. "Yeah, I'll debug the tour program when they get back, okay?" Nedry noticed Arnold's agitated expression and soured. "Okay?! It'll eat a lot of computer cycles; parts of the system may go down for a while- - don't blame me. If I am playing… losing my memory…"
"Quiet, all of you!" Muldoon snapped from the video monitors. Onscreen, the pair of Jeeps were creeping towards a rather familiar fence. "They're approaching the Tyrannosaur paddock."
.
.
"The mighty Tyrannosaurus arose late in dinosaur history. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for a hundred and fifty million years, but it wasn't until the last- -"
"Will you shut that damn thing off?" Alan demanded. He had known what paddock it was before the Jeeps had even ascended the high ridge overlooking the grassy plains and gnarled, prehistoric trees. The road and vegetation were divided by a fifteen foot high fence bedecked in ominous "DANGER!" signs and electrical alarms planted every few yards.
Ellie flipped the CD-ROM's switch, plunging the vehicle into tense silence. Ian appreciated the sudden lack of Richard Kiley and used the lull to his advantage. Ticking the thoughts on his fingers, he mused aloud. "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs…"
"Dinosaurs… eat man. Woman inherits the Earth," Ellie concluded confidently. Her male traveling companions acknowledged her with appropriately frightened expressions. Pleased with their reaction, she moved past them for a better view of the Rex enclosure.
The radio crackled. "Hold on," Arnold said, "we'll try to tempt the Rex."
In the paddock, the artificial earth opened up and a small crate was hydraulically lifted from underground storage. Once out in the open, the cage's bars slid down into their slots and its occupant, a plump goat, was left to its own devices. The baffled creature was tied to a stake and bleating plaintively.
Once Lex saw just what was being delivered to the Rex, she felt a flutter of panic. "What's gonna happen to him? Is it gonna eat the goat?!"
Tim was in heaven. "Excellent!"
"What's the matter, kid?" Gennaro asked absently as he gazed at the display with quiet intrigue. "Never had lamb chops before?"
Lex lifted her chin, silently demanding at least a fraction of respect. "I happen to be a vegetarian."
Misty smiled. She had once attempted vegetarianism, only to be swayed back into an omnivore lifestyle once it was explicated that her options were limited to leftover meatloaf or nothing. Besides, her family subsisted on ham sandwiches. "It'll be okay. The Rex'll probably just get it in one gulp. No blood or anything."
All of the color had drained from Lex's face.
In the rear Jeep, Alan was growing impatient again. The dearth of Dilophosaurus could be tolerated, but Hammond had promised them a T-Rex and- - dammit!- - he wanted a T-Rex. Once he gave the subject some thought though, the Rex's absence was obvious. "T-Rex doesn't want to be fed. It wants to hunt."
His observation couldn't be debated. After all, the Rex was, indeed, a no show. Even the goat had laid down in boredom. When the Jeeps finally pulled away, everyone was jointly disillusioned and more than a little irritated by the tour so far. Ian seemed to be the only one not upset. "Ahh… You see? The Tyrannosaur doesn't follow set patterns or park schedules. It's the essence of Chaos."
Ellie turned in the passenger seat and faced him. If she couldn't see dinosaurs, Ian's pleasantly benign rambling would serve well as a time-killer between exhibits. "Ya know, I'm still not clear on Chaos."
I've blinded her with Chaos, Ian thought proudly. "Oh, oh- - it simply deals with unpredictability in complex situations. It's only principle is-is the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park, you get rain instead of sunshine."
The blonde woman stared blankly at her new teacher a moment before waving a hand over her head. "Whoosh!"
He chuckled and lovingly fondled one of her soft bangs. "Did I- - I did a fly by, I went too fast. Here- - hand me that big glass of water. We're gonna conduct an experiment." Ian took the plastic cup, dipped a fingertip into its tepid depths, and took Ellie's smooth hand in his own. "Make like hieroglyphics. Now watch the way the drop of water falls on your hand."
The minute droplet quavered, then slid down her hilt and through the valley of her knuckles. Both were so focused on the water that they failed to notice Grant sit bolt upright. A bulky figure was outstretched in the fields they were passing, something decidedly inhuman.
Malcolm mentally catalogued the direction of the drop and wetted his finger again. "Ready? Freeze your hand. Now I'm going to do the same thing from the exact same place. Which way is the drop going to roll off?"
"Uh… same way." This time, the bead rolled onto her thumb.
"It changed. And why? Because, and here is the principle of tiny variations- - the orientations of the hairs- -"
"Alan, listen to this!" Ellie insisted. Her fiancé continued to stare out the window, trying to distinguish the shape and ignore the grandiose flirting taking place next to him.
"- - on your hand, the amount of blood distending in your vessels, imperfections in your skin- -"
She giggled and tilted her head. "Oh, imperfections?"
"Microscopic- - never repeat, and vastly affect the outcome. That's what?"
"Unpredictability?"
He took her hand and pulled out the heaviest artillery in his "charming arsenal". At this rate, he'd be escorting her back to California. "And even if we haven't seen it yet, I'm quite sure it's going on in this park right now."
Alan had endured enough of Ian's complete and utter bullshit, as well as agonizing over what was sprawled out in the unfenced grazing area. He opened his door and leapt out of the moving vehicle without bothering to ensure he wasn't being watched. Ian laughed uproariously as the paleontologist bolted towards the brush. "There! See? I'm right again!"
He hadn't really been that envious. Had he? Alan had never been the jealous type: sullen and prone to glowering, sure, but not one to challenge any man who dared to lay their eyes on her. After all, abandoning the Jeep was downright theatrical. "Alan? Alan!"
Ian watched, amused, as Ellie climbed over the seats and followed Alan into the green beyond. "There's another example! See? Here I am now, by myself, talking to myself- - that-that's the Chaos Theory. I'm the only one who knows what's going on…"
Oh, well. It was rather lonely without Ellie's company. He jumped out rather gracefully, considering the recent and copious amount of alcohol he had poured into his system, and was met by Misty. She was far too caught up in the drama to detect the inebriated glint in his dark eyes. "What's going on, Dad? The kids said they saw Doctor Grant jump out- - what'd you say?! Did you actually drive a man to jump out of a moving car?"
"I think he saw something nerdy and lost his shit, honey." Ian grabbed his daughter by the hand and tailed after the group. She tugged him along until they were in step with Doctor Grant, who was moving along like a demented man. They weren't the only ones eager to catch up with him.
Tim broke away from his sister and hurried over to the doctor in the hopes he wouldn't be shut out yet again. "So there's this other book by this guy named Bakker and he says that the dinosaurs died of a bunch of diseases. He definitely didn't say they turned to birds."
"Anyone else think we shouldn't be out here?" Gennaro called out from the pack's rear. The rocky path they were traversing seemed abandoned and if Hammond caught them trespassing, the outcome would probably be less than pleasant (not to mention nonrefundable). Once again, he was totally snubbed; the group pressed onwards.
"And his book was a lot fatter than yours, it was like- - this." Tim held out Grant's own text as a demonstration. Grant made a noise of disinterest.
"Yours was fully illustrated, honey," Ellie reminded him.
Lex stumbled over a tree root that had squirmed out of the earth and almost fell. Grant seized her forearm intuitively, keeping her on her feet. "You okay?"
The girl glanced down at their fingers, which had become intertwined, and beamed widely. Ellie and Misty caught one another's attention, their eyes communicating what needn't be said: He's quite popular among the Murphys, isn't he?
"Whoa, whoa… everyone stay here." Alan wrestled his hand free of Lex's grip and advanced toward the mysterious creature partially buried in the tall, wind-weathered grass. Not even three seconds passed before Tim started after him, deaf to his sister's objections. He waded through the foliage and saw the figment for what it was- - a Triceratops.
He was looking down at a living, breathing Triceratops.
a/n: *throws keyboard out the window* OH MY GOD. Jesus Christ, the last part of this chapter was basically scene-to-page and it was awful and oh my GOD please excuse this chapter, pretend this shit never happened, because I literally only care about what occurs after the T-Rex attack. Oh my God, I'm not even going to edit this I'm just going to bury myself instead k bye