Chapter 24: A Foul Wind Blows in.

With Mr. Kanyota and his associates out of the office, John had the opportunity to get some actual work done. He began by working on the first round of insurance and evaluation forms for the park. As soon as he started, though, as if by some sudden cue, Ray Arnold's voice came blaring over the loud speaker.

"John Hammond, please report to the control room, John Hammond please report to the control room"

John sighed and closed the folder that he was holding open. The front of the folder said "Insurance policy."

He slowly got up and grabbed his cane, clicking it across the floor as he made his way out of his office and down the long hallway, finding the Control Room. He slid his id card down the side and the doors opened allowing him entrance. He noticed that Muldoon and Arnold were having a conversation while leaning over one of the computer monitors.

"What's the problem?" he asked, walking up behind them, surprising Arnold.
"National Weather Service is tracking a tropical storm about thirty miles west of us. The storm center has not dissipated or changed course. It's going to hit us," he said grimly.

"Are you positive?" Hammond asked, fixing his glasses on his nose and leaning over the computer screen and the weather pattern printout.

"85% sure, it's on a direct course. It would have to swing to the right or left for it to miss us," Muldoon answered, still looking at the figures.

Hammond turned away, thinking.

"Well, what should we do? Ray?" he asked, turning back around to look at his programmer.

Arnold exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke and rubbed out the cigarette butt.

"We have two options. We can do nothing, let the storm come and hit, and evaluate the damages for future knowledge. With no active guests in the park an animal getting out is not a high risk security situation. The only animals that can really do damage are the raptors. The fencing units are solid though, they have been constructed to withstand the elements, and a little storm shouldn't topple them."

"What's the second option?" Hammond asked, without giving him a chance to just keep speaking.

"Second option is we go through all of the buildings and tie everything down, which is too much work for the amount of employees we have. I say we just wait out the storm, and after we see what happens this time, we can devise our emergency plans for the future."

Hammond didn't look quite convinced, but a few seconds later nodded, realizing that weather was one thing that he didn't consider when he chose the island. He knew that it was going to be rainy, and hot most of the time, but he never considered tornados, hurricanes, and tropical storms.

"Sir, the storm still has about an hour E.T.A. so you should go back to what you were doing; we just wanted you to be aware that a storm was on the way." Muldoon added, nodding his head.

Hammond looked at the two men for a second or two, and decided that they were right. Worrying about it now would do nothing for him, and once they saw the power of these storms, they could make better decisions in the future when the elements attacked. He knew there would be natural obstacles; he just hoped that they didn't occur too frequently.

He sighed and left the Control Room, heading back in the direction of his office. He opened the door, and turned the computer back on. He pressed the intercom button on the wall, and activated the link to the Control Room.

"Arnold, will you please send the weather reports to my computer," he asked into the speaker, releasing the button.

Without an answer, a bunch of pictures appeared on his monitor, colored grids of the island and the impending weather. He knew what he was looking at when the picture appeared, and he sighed again, staring at the group of clouds.

He turned his head back to the folder he was working with, and continued writing on the page where he stopped. He worked diligently for about half an hour, before the distraction of the computer monitor was able to pull his attention from the paperwork he was attempting to complete. As the hour was beginning to wear down, he could see from the picture that the storm center was actually shifting! The weather clouds had begun swinging south, dissipating and not presenting a threat. Finally, the hour turned and the storm was completely gone off the radar.

Hammond chuckled with joy, and closed out the pictures on his computer screen. He didn't even need to go back to the control room, the crisis was averted.