Chapter 37: System Malfunction


Daniel was checking a few park systems, when suddenly the computer screen went blank.

"What the hell?"

Daniel checked to see if the laptop had somehow gotten unplugged. It was plugged in. As he was trying to figure out what had happened, he noticed that the power meter was still in the lower right hand corner of the screen. The computer was still running, but the entire Isla Norte program was gone. Bodan approached him.

"What is it?"

"The system . . . the system shut down."

"Well, bring it back up."

Daniel looked at Bodan. He had an idea of what had happened to the system, and he knew that Bodan would never understand.

"It's not that easy."

Bodan came closer to Daniel, watching the computer whiz type frantically. Daniel was able to make it into the system BIOS, but couldn't get any farther.

"I think Ethan may have done something. None of my passwords will work."

Jacob had gotten up by now, and was making his way over to Daniel and Bodan. He had a rifle in his hand, swinging it by his side.

"Can't you just fix it?"

Daniel realized that he was the only computer literate person in the room.

"I don't know. I'm working on it."

Envoy stood up.

"Okay, okay, boys. Give Daniel some room, so that he can work out the problems," Envoy said, interrupting.

Bodan and Jacob backed up away from Daniel, as Daniel kept on typing. He tried to follow Ethan's footsteps over the last few hours. Ethan had physically shut down the power in both the Main Control Room and Control Room 2, and then had restarted. This made it impossible for Daniel to bring up any files. After about 15 minutes went by, he looked at his employer and finally spoke.

"Mr. Envoy. Ethan has ran his own program over the top of mine. But he hasn't yet physically turned off the power in Control Room 3, so if I can get there, I'll be able to . . . hopefully get into the computer there and re-install my program over the top of his."

Envoy nodded and looked at Jacob and Bodan.

"One of you should go with him," he said.

Bodan volunteered. He stocked up on firearms and left the room. Daniel grabbed two walkie talkies and quickly followed him. They went down the stairs, to the first floor, and out through the large glass doors. Bodan found the jeep that they had left there, the night before. There were two other jeeps there, as well. They got into it, with Bodan in the driver's seat. He started it, and then he swore, as he started to feel drops of rain coming down on him. For the time of morning, it was darker than usual. The sky was a hazy kind of gray, as a summer storm approached the island.


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Alan and company had made it out of the room. Everyone was in good spirits, knowing that they were to be rescued in less than five hours. Ethan made his way to the front of the group to get their attention.

"Okay, I've written down all the instructions to turn the power off to Control Room 3, and then how to reboot the systems and load my program into memory," Ethan said, handing everyone a sheet of paper.

Alan nodded, as he took the paper. He folded it and put it in a pocket. Everyone else did the same.

"And on the back, is how to open the Pterodactyl Aviary."

"Why would we want to open that?" Lex asked.

"I've attached a high frequency bird repeller to all of the jeeps. Dr. Wu had told me that the device makes the Pterodactyls go crazy with anger. They attack anything close to the device, so I'm hoping that either Bodan or Jacob will try to take a jeep to Control Room 3, after Daniel figures out what I've done."

"Good idea. But won't that just be freeing the Pterodactyls?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, but they don't like very many foods, so I'm hoping that they'll come back to feed. Dr. Wu said they had gotten out once before, when they were smaller. All four of them came back after about a day."

"So, you're going on that? You're just hoping they come back? Wonder if they get free and decide to attack some helpless person on the mainland?" Alan asked.

"Well, we're just going to have to hope for the best. It's the only option I could think of. Bodan is going to have guns and brawn on his side, so I thought I'd even the odds up a little."

Alan nodded.

"Good point. I'm beginning to understand now," he said.

Ethan smiled.

"So, if something should happen to me, someone has to get to that control room and shut it down, " he added.

"I think we need to stay optimistic, Ethan," Ian said.

"You? Optimistic? Wow," Alan said, surprised by Ian's remark.

Ellie hit Alan in the arm. Ian smiled.

"Maybe I'm evolving," Ian commented.

"Maybe we all are," Ellie added, looking at Alan.

Alan smiled. They continued their way down to the first floor of the lodge. Lex was the slowest getting down the stairs again, and this time Alan and Ethan were helping her. Tim laughed to himself, as he watched his sister get assistance from both her first crush and her current one. Ian was in the lead, with Ellie and Jodie right behind him. Jodie was carrying the precious laptop computer. Alan, Lex and Ethan were following behind, with Tim heading up the rear. Ian made his way to the main entrance of the lodge, and opened the giant glass door.

With the door open, the sound of a jeep running could be heard. Ethan tried to warn Ian to close the door back, but he had already done so on his own. It was already too late, though. Bodan had spotted them. He fired off several shots in the air, letting them know he had seen them. When he realized that they weren't surrendering, he started to shoot into the building. The giant glass door shattered, as bullets began whizzing by in every direction.

"What are you doing?" Daniel yelled, ducking in the jeep.

"Capturing them alive is no longer important, Daniel. We need to simply stop them from getting away now. There's no more time for messing around."

"But Mr. Envoy wouldn't ---"

"I don't care. Shut up and get out of the jeep, Daniel."

Daniel was very afraid of Bodan, so he did what he was told. Bodan was already running toward the front entrance of the lodge. Daniel ran after him. Bodan slowed down, as he reached the door. He looked at Daniel.

"Stay here for a minute. Radio Envoy and tell him to send Jacob down here quickly. When you're finished, come back in here."

"Okay," Daniel said, putting the walkie talkie to his mouth.

"Oh, and Daniel?" Bodan asked. Daniel looked up at him. "Get a damn gun from the jeep before you wander in here."

Daniel nodded, as Bodan went into the lodge cautiously, his gun drawn.

When Bodan started shooting at the glass doors, it forced the group to split up. Glass was flying everywhere, when Alan grabbed Ellie and pushed her to the left. Ethan pushed Lex and Jodie to the right, and Ian followed them. Tim just dove to the ground, as a stray bullet hit him. Lex saw her brother hit the floor, holding his neck.

"Timmy!" She yelled.

Ian turned around to see Tim on the floor. He hurried to him, but as he did he yelled to Ethan.

"Get Jodie and Lex out of here!"

Ethan nodded and quickly urged Lex into moving. She did, with a little protest, but she knew they had to take cover. Bodan was most likely coming in after them. Ethan had taken the laptop from Jodie, and thought that she was following them. She wasn't. She was just standing there, in disbelief, as she watched Ian get to Tim.

Ian bent down to check on the young boy.

"You okay?"

Tim looked up at him. Ian could see that he was bleeding from the neck, but it didn't look too serious.

"I think I've been shot," Tim said in shock.

"I see that, but it looks as though it's just a graze. There's no real damage."

"You sure? It hurts like hell," Tim said.

"Pretty sure. Come on. Let's get out of here before Bodan crashes the party."

Tim nodded and let Ian help him up. They quickly made their way to the right, following where Ethan and Lex had gone. Ian had turned Jodie around and persuaded her to go in a nice manner. She nodded, giving him no trouble.


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Alan and Ellie ran to one of the side entrances on the west side of the lodge. As Alan was running, he heard Ian's voice on the walkie talkie, that was attached to his belt. On the run, he grabbed it and pushed the button down.

"Yeah?"

"Alan. Ethan and Lex are on their way to the third floor. Tim, Jodie and I are on the second floor. We're all okay. Where are you?"

"Can't Bodan hear our conversation?" Alan asked.

"No. Ethan altered these radios, so that we're talking on a different frequency. Don't worry about it."

"We're on the first floor, near one of the entrances to the west."

Alan suddenly heard Ethan's voice.

"Alan, go outside, there should be a jeep parked right there. You don't need a key. All of the jeeps are rigged to just start when you turn the ignition. Get to Control Room 3 and restart the power."

Alan was sure that he wouldn't be able to restart any kind of computer, but Ellie was with him, so he knew she could do it.

"Okay. I'll let you know when we're done it."

"Okay," Ethan said.

Alan attached the walkie talkie back to his belt, while he and Ellie headed for the door. There was a jeep outside, just like Ethan had said. After a quick look around, they made a dash for it.


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Just as Daniel was coming into the lodge, Bodan was coming back out. He almost ran into the confused Daniel.

"Where are they?"

"They've scattered. But I heard a jeep starting from somewhere out here. Did you see anything?"

"No. I wasn't really looking, though. I was talking with Jacob. He's on his way out. He was worried about leaving Mr. Envoy alone, but he's coming."

"Envoy can take care of himself," Bodan said, as he started to walk around, counting how many jeeps were still there. There were three to start with, and there were still three. He was very puzzled. Then, off in the distance, he could see a jeep moving at a very high rate of speed, toward the dinosaur portion of the park.

"Oh, shit. Daniel. Get in the damn jeep. Our friends are making a run for Control Room 3."

Daniel nodded, as the two of them ran toward the jeep.