Chapter 5: The Field Trip Begins

San Jose', Costa Rica

The crowded docks, a clutter of ships and shanty towns with its weatherbeaten buildings, and odd assortment of livestock running free -- a donkey, goats, chickens, etc. A cab drove onto the docks. Devlin hopped out. He was well-dressed for the trip, in a shabby sort of way. Jack emerged carrying only a single, battered suitcase. On the other side of the car came Jimmy, Jack's assistant and apprentice paleontologist - 18, bright-eyed, ready for anything.

Jack stared at a large ocean liner that rose above them.

"Is this the ship?" he asked Devlin.

"Not exactly..." he answered. "It's actually this one over here."

Devlin strode towards a rusty battered fishing trawler on the other side of the wharf. This was "La Empresa".

"I know what you're thinkin'," he said. "But it looks...much better up close."

Devlin looked down at Jack's one suitcase. "You only brought that one suitcase?" he asked.

"Everything I own is in this briefcase," Jack suggested. "Everything important that is."

Jimmy himself only brought a few vague essentials. That is, essentials for a paleontologist. "Listen Jack, I really appreciate you bringing me along." Jimmy thanked.

"Are you kidding me?" said Jack. "I wouldn't deny my favorite assistant a great opportunity, especially an opportunity like this."

Jimmy smiled.

"Haul away..." shouted a man in Spanish.

Rough-looking Spanish sailors were working hard to get the boat under way. Hurried activity everywhere, crates being loaded, equipment being cleaned and maintained. Devlin crossed and talked to Mark and Lenny, part of his film crew, who stood next to some state-of-the-art filming gear.

"Is this all of the equipment? This is all of it? We're taking the Canon and Sony? Good. You got all the lenses - you got the two and the six? Get it on board, fellas. Come on."

Devlin called across to a figure who was supervising the loading of the ship.

"Aguado! Cast off! Trim the sails - raise the anchor - start the engine, whatever the hell it is you do."

Aguado was a short and stout Costa Rican man. He had greying hair, with several streaks of black in his salt-and-pepper mustache.

"Nothin' doin'," said Aguado. "We're still waiting on the manifesto."

"What? Who? English - please!" Devlin exclaimed.

"Paperwork, Mr. Devlin." the Costa Rican answered.

Devlin was growing impatient. "Weather reports say there's a significant stormfront coming in toward the island chain and I want to beat it there. I'll give you another thousand to leave right now."

"You haven't given me the first thousand yet."

Devlin glanced at Jack, frustrated and embarrassed.

"Can't we discuss this later?"

As Devlin querelled with Aguado, Jack spotted a tall man, early fifties, clad in reptile leathers and with the diamond hard look of a cobra. This guy was a man's man - Australian outback - African savannah, he was that guy. We was helping to load a crate of what looked like weapons up onto the deck.

After taking a break from arguing, Devlin led Jack toward the man.

"This is Charles Monroe..." Devlin introduced. "...great African big game hunter. And he's going with us. He'll be coming along as our protector."

"Protector?" Jack asked, a bit confused.

"Well, if Mr. Devlin here is to be believed, some of the animals we'll be encountering won't be as...'friendly'...as we are."

Jack extended his hand, as did Monroe.

Even without looking at the man's outward appearance, Jack could immediately tell that Monroe was a guy's guy. His handshake was strong. He let Jack know exactly where he stood in the whole scheme of things. Just a handshake. He didn't have to say much.

"So are you ready for this expedition, Mr. Turner?

"Sure..." Jack answered dumbly. What could he say? That a childhood dream of his was about to come true? To this guy?

"Nervous?" he questioned.

"Nervous - no. Why? Should I be?" Jack asked.

"It isn't every man who would take such a risk."

Jack was slightly taken aback by the ambiguity of the man's statement.

"Why don't I show Mr. Turner to his cabin?" Colin suggested.

"Wonderful idea, thank you, Colin." Devlin said.

"Jack, if you'd just - Hi, I'm Colin, Lance's assistant."

Devlin turned back to the stubborn Costa Rican captain, pulling his check book from his jacket pocket.

"Two thousand - it's a deal...Will you take a check?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No," Devlin said in a smart-alecy tone.

"Two-thousand it is." declared Aguado dryly.

"Alright, c'mon guys!" Devlin shouted. "Let's get this field trip on the road!"

Colin began to lead Jack away. Jimmy was struggling behind, marveling at the ship and the coming expedition in general. "This is gonna be some field trip," he thought.

As Jack made his way to the boat ramp, he noticed a pretty face among the crew. She was about Jack's age, dressed in a set of tight-fitting kaki fatigues, with a pair of sunglasses perched on the end of her button nose, and she had her long blonde hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. His first thought was that she looked like a sexy jungle librarian. He cursed himself for it afterwards.

She was jotting something down in a large notebook she was toting with her. Without looking, she bumped into a crate which sent her notebook flying to the ground.

Reflexively, Jack bent down to pick it up, dropping his suitcase. As he went down, his hand met hers.

"Oh, well hello!" she said in a sweet voice.

"Hi," Jack said sheepishly. "You seemed to have dropped this."

"Yeah," she laughed. "I'm such a clutz."

Jack laughed.

"I've seen worse at the digsite, believe me."

"Oh, that's right! You're Jack Turner. Carrie Connelly. I'm a reporter for National Geographic."

She reached out her hand and gave him a very warm greeting. Maybe a little too warm. Her firm handshake let him know that she was a self-assured, profesional who had risen to the top of her speciality. But her smile suggested that, under the right circumstances, she could be one nimble little minx.

"Carrie Connelly. I'm very familiar with your work. You have a great eye. I read your work on the Nzinu tribe in West Africa. I liked it, I liked it alot. You have a talent for capturing the human condition. You printed one of our articles last year. Remember?"

"Yes, of course I remember! It's certainly gained momentum in the scientific community."

"Thank God for that. If it and other's like it hadn't, then all the work put into making dinosaurs seem more birdlike would have been wasted." Jack explained.

"The emergence of the Velociraptor as a cold and calculating hunter, capable of coordinating group attacks with surprising efficiency, has frightened more than a few people in the community." Carrie varified.

"Oh well that credit goes to Dr. Alan Grant, not me. But I tend agree with you."

"Oh yes, you studied under him, am I right?"

"Yes. He was very encouraging to me. He was my inspiration."

"I think that's so sweet." Carrie commented.

Jack smiled.

Devlin came over to the two. Perfect timing.

"Oh, good! You two have met! Well, you'll be working very closely together on this project."

Jack smiled again. This was good news. Devlin went back to supervise the loading of the equipment and in general to bark orders.

Jack and Carrie gathered their things and made their way to the ramp.

"So," Jack began. "...has your background always been wildlife?"

"Yeah. Wildlife, and a bit of combat. I was in the Congo, Corto Maltese, all over Croatia. Did some volunteer work for Rwanda once in a while."

"That's incredible."

"Yeah well, incredible was last year, honey. This year is much different. In any case, I'm used to field work by now. Flora, fauna, the whole she-bang."

"Me too," Jack answered. "Although my kind of field work takes place in a closed environment with a bunch of screaming kids running around pretending to be prehistoric reptiles. That counts as fauna in my book."

Carrie laughed.

The two followed Colin and the others up the gangway.

Beefy sailors continued to load crates and equipment onto the deck.

Carrie lifted her sunglasses so she could take a good long look at Jack. Her eyes traveled slowly from his hiking boots up to his dirty blond hair, scrutinizing every inch of him, sizing him up.

As Jack moved further away, Jimmy walked up and introduced himself to Carrie.

"So, your friend over there," she began. "What's he like? I mean in real life?"

"I've spent a lot of time with him over this last year at the excavation site. And it was a wild ride. He's unpredictable, a dreamer." Jimmy answered.

And it was the right answer.

Jack made his way below to the cabins.

"Jack! Come on in! Let me introduce you to the crew! This is Lenny - our cameraman..." he pointed to a heavy-set man in glasses.

Jack reached out to shake Lenny's hand.

"And this is Mark, our sound guy." he pointed to a wiry man in his early thirties.

As the crew got underway, La Empresa began to pull away from the docks.

It floated away from the port, passing the other ships as it steered for open sea.

After getting himself settled, as well as Jimmy, Jack emerged from the ship interior and walked to the rail of the ship. Carrie stepped up behind Jack.

"So how does it feel?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he questioned.

"You've been around bones all this time. What do you think it will be like seeing the real thing?"

"Well, paleontology certainly can't even begin to offer the answers we're about to uncover. Novelists and artists who dreamed a vision of the Mezozoic era could only attempt these questions with their imaginations. We scientists have only bones. Not as entertaining as fiction, but absolutely fact without prejudice."

"You can talk," Carrie said suddenly, without thinking. "I don't know how to say it. You're just articulate. You say everything that I think, that I feel. It's exciting. It's exciting that you can actually see the real thing. You know that, I find it terrifying..and exciting at the same time."

"I know, it's really exciting." Jack concurred.

"And scary."

"And scary."

"When people try to discover things that others wouldn't dare - -"

"It's an adventure."

"An adventure."

They both stood at the rail, watching the port of San Jose' shrink into the distance.

La Empresa made for open water, and then - the ocean, away from land, away from safety, throwing caution to the winds, towards it's much-conceiled destination.

The expedition had begun.