CHAPTER 9 – GAP

GAP; Genetics Advancement Program.

That's what it stood for; impressive title, I know. Once Harding and the staff at the park reported problems with the animal's behaviour in the park setting, we had to go back to the drawing board, looking at where we'd filled in the gaps in their genetic code with RANA DNA.

It was a pain in the ass from the very beginning, and management bore down on us like vampires, screaming for them to get it right. Millions of dollars were pouring into the research for these animals; they wanted it done right, and quickly.

But after a while I began to see the upside to it. We could continue to manipulate their code, releasing the new code in each generation to see the new effects. We introduced everything we could think of to make production more efficient and successful; growth accelerations, a wide array of small changes which made each species unique and patentable; like a brand name for the company.

One of the most notable changes was the faulty enzyme for producing the amino acid lysine. It was a backup procedure designed to keep all the animals in the park under our absolute control; if they weren't fed lysine within a few days they'd simply fall unconscious, slip into a coma and expire. There was nothing violent or unethical; they were by definition our property, and they would slip away seamlessly.

But we still decided to keep it low profile. Nobody, except my personal team and the high ranking staff members, along with the administration board knew about the version numbers at all. And the GAP program was restricted to just me, my personal genetics team of six people, and Mr. Hammond.

GAP was our ultimate backup. It was our insurance policy for everything which we had done. After years of manipulating the code, we found that massive amounts of the genetic coding in the animals were identical. And therefore we only had to concentrate on the differences in the code for each species. GAP was the saved encrypted information for each species, and all the changes which we had made to improve their behaviour.

This was kept on the highest level of security on the park system, at Hammond's private mansion, and in a vault at the InGen headquarters in New York.

By 1992, we had reached version three for several species. And I was considering version four. I and Kyle Sanders used to meet often to discuss the problems at hand to consider whether we should move onto the next version.

It was one of the only decision making powers we had.

Henry Wu, 1995

Henry Wu

November 19th, 1992

Cantina, Visitor Centre, Isla Nublar

Wu rubbed his eyes as he stared down at the thick manila envelope which lay on the table in front of him in the dim light. He peered at the half eaten carrot cake which lay next to it, and licked his lips. He cut another slice, and ate some more as he opened the file, and read the title.

JURASSIC PARK – VERSION 4.0 PROPOSITION

CANDIDATES: TYRANNOSAURUS, VELOCIRAPTOR, HADROSAURUS, TRICERATOPS, STEGOSAURUS.

PRIMARY CAUSE: BEHAVIOURAL DEFECTS, AGGRESSION, SKIN CONDITIONS, BOWEL DYSFUNCTION.

He didn't bother reading any more than the summary; he was too tired. He had been working more than eighteen hours straight in the laboratory. They had endured a spill of their bio chemicals in the genetics lab today, and had had to get a full decontamination unit in to clear the place out. It was a nightmare, and would put them back several weeks. The chemicals were very dangerous; some were poisons, which could kill any known organisms within a second.

So now, stuck with nothing else to do for the next few days while the lab equipment was disposed of and replaced, he sat at in the emptying, dimly lit Cantina down the hall from the control room, opposite Kyle Sanders.

"Pure and simple this time," Sanders was saying, taking a gulp of cold coffee, looking over his shoulder.

Behind them, a few tables away, Arnold, Harding and Anderson were eating together. Smoke drifted upwards from Arnold's cigarette. But they weren't listening; they were laughing and talking about the weekend.

"What do you mean?" Wu said, wiping crumbs off his day-old lab coat.

"Do you actually think it's necessary to move on to another version of animal; I mean, we've solved all of the major problems that we faced, administration is happy about patenting issues, and even Muldoon's satisfied with the lysine contingency. Do we really need to bother with all of this stuff? I mean, it's not like we don't have work to do around here."

Wu paused for a moment, and gestured for a second to think as he chewed.

The Tyrannosaurs had gum infections all the time – even though they were still not sure on that one, as they didn't know how their food supply of conventional animals would affect with physiology. The Stegosaurs came down sick with some bowel infection every six weeks or so, with diarrhoea, unconsciousness, laboured breathing and a whole host of other problems. The Hadrosaurs were still screwed; Sanders had seen it himself; slamming against the fences and everything.

But the main reason he wanted to change the code was because of the Raptors. The admin board didn't have to be on this island, and they didn't understand the dangers that they posed. They were just too aggressive; it was obvious that they enjoyed murder. And they were fast, far too fast.

"Yes," he said, "we need to move onto version four."