2: MAIN COMPOUND
April 1994:
"Hang on, Dr. Dodgson," the pilot said through his headset. "The wind shears here are very strong this time of year."
Dodgson looked out of the chopper window at the trees and cliff face of the valley around him. The chopper rocked back and forth in the wind like a cradle with a baby. The area they were attempting to land at was the last surviving usable chopper pad on the entire island of Isla Nublar. The pad itself was built almost five miles from the Visitor's Center and Lodge. It was also built on the river at the bottom of a waterfall. According to the maps Dodgson had of the place, the waterfall spilled out from an isolated lagoon that formed from a spring.
There was a thump as the chopper landed on the pad and then the sound of the blades began to fade. Before thirty seconds had passed, Dodgson had unbuckled his safety belt and stepped out of the chopper, ducking to make sure he didn't get his head taken off. As he approached the edge of the pad he looked south to the inside of the island.
At this distance there wasn't much to see, but he did see at least one apatosaur head looking in his direction. There was no telling how many of the original dinosaurs still remained. Dodgson couldn't remember how many dinosaurs the island originally contained, but he did remember that it was close to two hundred and forty. God only knew how many there were now and Dodgson didn't care. He was there for eggs and any DNA that could be obtained by any other means.
In a document that Dodgson procured, a document never made public, it was stated that there were at least fifteen species of dinosaurs on the island. And there was always a batch of unknowns. Dodgson wished he had known about the unknowns before Nedry had tried to get him his embryos. He would have tried to make that fat bastard get him some of their DNA material as well.
And the document also stated that the dinosaurs had begun to breed. In testimony given by survivors, they stated that at least five of the species had started to breed.
Dodgson watched as a jeep raced up a path to the helipad. It was delayed briefly as two men let it through the large electrified fence. Dodgson had sent a team of men in to secure the island from the pad to the Visitor's Center. He was informed of their progress from time to time. He looked over and could see a section of the fence that had been repaired. A large power generator had also been setup just on the other side of the fence, so as not to take up space on the helipad side.
"Ah, Dodgson. How goes it?" asked the driver of the jeep as he stopped next to him. Dodgson recognized the driver as his chief of security for Biosyn, Mike Epson.
"Fine, fine. Is everything ready?"
Epson nodded. "Everything is setup as per your instructions. A team just brought back two eggs."
"Oh? What species?" Dodgson asked as he got in next to Epson.
"Velociraptor."
Epson and Dodgson passed through the electrified fence and were on their way to the Visitors Center. Dodgson looked over his shoulder and watched as the helipad disappeared into the jungle behind them then turned and faced forward. The setting sun cast rays through the leaves in a surrealistic fashion. To some, this would be paradise.
Occasionally he caught glimpses of people in the trees. Men dressed mostly in green and green tones and with large weapons. Dodgson recognized the weapons as lightning rifles. Epson had designed rifles that would act like cattle prods, except that the rifles could send out an electrical bolt up to one hundred feet and at a charge of over half a million volts. It was the most advanced version of a taser or prod ever developed and only Biosyn had them.
The only hope was that it would drive back dinosaurs, and according to some of the reports he received from the teams on this island the rifles worked - at least on the small and medium sized dinos. One report mentioned an incident where two men had driven off five velociraptors after being cornered in a small room. However, the rifle had yet to be used on the large creatures, such as a full-grown stegosaurus or tyrannosaurus.
"Yeah," Epson continued, "the raptor pen is part of the Visitor's Center complex. We thought we were going to have to go all the way down to the south beach where the raptors were last seen, but it turns out that there was a nest of unfertilized eggs that weren't destroyed when the military bombed the place."
Christ, Dodgson thought, was Epson going to talk all the way to the Visitor's Center? He knew he had a reason for avoiding him back in America, and maybe this was it.
"And it seems that they never sent in ground troops. We would have found definite remains from something like that and there don't appear to be any. The only deaths here have been natural, which means that we will have better luck in getting eggs and DNA and whatnot."
Upon arrival at the Visitor's Center Dodgson and Epson were met by a stocky, muscular, young man with wild blonde hair. Dodgson couldn't remember the man's name but recognized him as one of Epson's men.
"Ah, Doctor Dodgson, welcome to Isla Nublar."
Dodgson climbed out of the jeep and went into the Visitor's Center while Epson stayed behind to talk to the young man.
"Anything new?"
"No, sir. We have men out collecting specimens of the maiasaurs, stegosaurs, and hypsys. We'll send the teams back out for more specimens when they return."
"Excellent. Nice job."
Epson joined Dodgson in the rotunda of the Visitor's Center. Dodgson was looking around, studying the area. Dodgson remembered the reports of how the raptors had gotten inside. There should be glass and carnage everywhere, but it was all clean except for scratches in the once shiny floor.
"There was glass everywhere when we arrived. Also several bodies, both animal and human. If you want to see the control room I'll show you."
Dodgson turned and looked at Epson.
"You mean you have this place working?"
"Partially," Epson waved his arm up the stairs and walked with Dodgson up to the second floor and down a hallway to a room with a glass wall. Inside Dodgson could see several banks of computers and a large electronic map of the island mounted on one wall in everyone's line of sight. There was a large red circle just to the left of the center of the island and a fat red dot inside of that. Epson pushed at the door to the room and it swung freely open, allowing Dodgson and him to enter.
"When they left this island before they just let the generator run until it was out of fuel. However, they left enough behind in sealed drums so that we could get the generator running for a few hours. We have power to run the park, but there's a problem with the fences. Most have been trampled or trees have grown through them. When we go to start them up they short out and shutdown. They built in a safety precaution so that we have to manually start the systems individually. So, instead of wasting time and manpower, my men and I just cleared the fences around the Visitor's Center area - the main compound as InGen called it."
"That's fine. I'm not interested in this island anyway. I just want the specimens and then to get out of here."
Epson looked at his watch.
"It'll be dark in less than hour. We've setup sleeping quarters in the lodge. Nobody will work after dark on this island unless it is either at the helipad or in the main compound."
"When will you start in the morning?"
"Just before dawn. We'll probably get up at about five and start preparing just after we eat. Would you like me to wake you up before we leave?"
"No."
"Are you hungry?"
Dodgson hadn't been hungry before. He wanted to come here and check the progress of everything first hand. Now that was over, he realized that he was indeed hungry. Ravenous in fact.
Dodgson and Epson sat at a table in the lunchroom. One wall had been a glass pictorial of a dinosaur in the forest. It was impossible to tell which dinosaur now, as it too had been broken - only part of the forest remained.
"So, tell me Doctor Dodgson, why did you come here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you could have monitored our progress just fine from the mainland. You didn't even have to leave America to know what we were doing. All you had to do was give us a call."
"I prefer to handle my business with a personal touch. If you want things done right, you either do it yourself, or you supervise it. Right now, I'm supervising."
That was only half the truth, but Epson seemed to buy it. The other half is that after that fat bastard Nedry, Dodgson didn't trust anyone to do anything without trying to stab him in the back. He wanted to always be on hand to prevent just such an event. Dodgson knew that someday that it might get him killed, but it was a risk he had to take.
Dodgson stood up and went into the rotunda just as six men, each wearing thick camo clothes, walked through from the back with a large styrofoam chest. As soon as they spotted Dodgson and Epson, they stopped and made their way over.
Epson pointed to the crate.
"Are those the samples?"
One of the men nodded. "Yes, sir. Even got two extra samples. Rex had killed a Hadrosaur and we ran across it on our way to he triceratops. And, of course, we ran across a herd of compys eating it."
"Excellent. Just wheel it in to the freezer and we'll take it to the helipad tomorrow."
One of the men rolled the crate down a hall while the other five went out a door toward the lodge.
"Well, shall I show you your cabin?" Epson asked Dodgson.
Dodgson sat on the edge of his bed, wondering what to do. He had nothing to read and no work to speak of, so he laid back and closed his eyes. He hoped everything was going to work as he planned. Dodgson could improvise lightning fast, but hated to do so. And why the hell did the perimeter lights have to be so damn bright. There were no curtains in the room and it was as bright as day. Anyway, it didn't matter since they were leaving tomorrow.
Dodgson awoke and looked over at his clock: three in the morning. He sat up in bed. Something had awoken him, but he couldn't place what it was. He didn't have to go to the bathroom. He didn't hear any noise from outside, so he didn't think it was that. However, the lights outside had been turned off and his room was now completely dark except for the light that came in under the door from the hall and the light from his beside clock. Maybe that was it.
Dodgson laid back and closed his eyes and was almost asleep when he was startled awake again, and this time by a noise. It sounded like duct tape being pulled from the roll. Were they doing work out in the hall, Dodgson wondered. Why the hell would they be working on this place anyway? It's not like they were planning on living here.
Dodgson got up to see what was going on when he heard a thump and a scraping sound against the wall between the hall and his room. What the hell now? Had someone fallen off a ladder?
Dodgson reached for the door handle, but paused as he heard a snuffling sound. Had the dinosaurs gotten into the compound? Dodgson looked down at the light coming beneath his door. He could see shadows moving there. Something was definitely out there. Slowly, cautiously, - and to his amazement - silently opened the door and peeked out.
There was a raptor standing just outside his door, and it appeared to be eating something. But fortune smiled on Dodgson; the raptor was turned away from him. And there was a lightning rifle on the floor just within arm reach.
After staring at the raptor in stunned silence, Dodgson bent down and picked the rifle up slowly. As he did so he saw that what the raptor as eating was one of the six guys that brought the crate in earlier. It was in fact the man that walked over and spoke to them. May the poor man rest in peace, thought Dodgson as he pointed the rifle at the raptor and pulled the trigger.
The rifle didn't fire. All it did was whine in an increasing pitch. And attract the raptor's attention. The raptor - he, she, it Dodgson actually wondered - turned and gave a small roar, as if to say 'fuck you, it didn't work and now I'll kill you too'.
"Yeah, fuck you too," Dodgson said as the raptor took one step toward him - then was hit with a bolt from now charged rifle and collapsed onto the ground with a small growl and lay there twitching for a minute before becoming still.
