Chapter 15: Project: Lagoon
Hammond made his way down the hallway, but rather than turning and entering the Control Room, he continued and walked past the offices, coming to a large conference room. He opened the door, and walked into the room, and was met by the gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes. Sitting around this table were the highest ranking construction managers and architects that were hired by INGEN to work on various structures and areas of the park. Hammond walked over and stood in front of a small presentation podium, and addressed the assembly of workers.
"Hello everybody," he said with a big welcoming smile.
"Welcome to the Jurassic Park team. My name is John Hammond, creator and founder. I have called you here today because I have a very special project for you all. In one of the Paddocks, we will be housing a large number of animals, and because of this fact, the Paddock needs a source of water or as we like to call it, a lagoon. Any questions so far?"
"How big are the animals that you need a lagoon built specifically for this one Paddock?" asked a grumpy looking man, hands across his chest. He was sitting in the chair that was at the end of the table, directly across from the podium John was speaking from.
"Well," thought Hammond, "Some of these animals, when fully grown will reach heights of about fifteen feet, some even more than that. It is imperative that this lagoon be completed, as the Paddock where it needs to be built will be the first Paddock that our visitors see."
The man sat up in his chair when Hammond said fifteen feet.
"No animal, aside from the giraffe can reach the height of fifteen feet, fully grown or not. What kind of park are you constructing here?" he asked, almost challenging Hammond to a stare down.
Starting to get annoyed with the man's tone and questions, Hammond decided that for his sake he needed to end this little meeting.
"Don't worry about that, worry about the lagoon that I need for you to make. I will give you one hour in this room to come up with the plans. After one hour's time, you will go to the Paddock and make this lagoon. I have some other matters to attend to, so your hour starts now, and I will be back, and I expect the plans to be completed," he said gruffly.
He turned away from the group of contractors and left the room, shaking his head at the attitude from the one worker. Hammond made his way down the hallway and entered the Control Room once again.
Arnold turned his head at Hammond's entrance, and put out the butt of the cigarette he had as Hammond got closer.
"Hello John, can I help you?" he asked, typing on his computer.
Over to the side Nedry was furiously typing on his own computer, using the other monitors to keep up the overall progress of his work. Already there were problems with the fences and vast amount of systems in the Visitor Center alone, so his job finally kicked in as the debugger on the INGEN technical staff. Not that he was happy about it. He hadn't voiced it yet, but in his opinion, he was being far underpaid for someone in his position. Compared to Arnold and some of the other major computer programmers that set up shop all over the country, but particularly in the United States, he was making thousands less.
Hammond smiled as he neared Arnold.
"How is our girl?" he asked squinting his eyes at the one security camera.
"She's fine. She's been exploring the Paddock, getting a feel for it. One of the workers' dropped a goat into her Paddock before and she successfully hunted it down and ate about half of it. I imagine that should keep her for a while more. With more observation, Harding will be able to get a feeding cycle figured out. Quick question for you though. You said the cars are coming tomorrow?"
Hammond nodded.
"Yes that's right. That was the earliest we could send the airlift. Is there a problem?" he asked frowning.
"No, no, I was just making sure, because we still need to install all of the tour program information, and having those gas powered jeeps will help Harding and Muldoon deal with problems with the animals," he answered, unwrapping a piece of gum.
Hammond pushes a button on the camera, getting a better look at the Rex when the sound of the door opening pulled him from the screen.
"Mr. Hammond! Mr. Hammond! You have to come to the nursery, it's an emergency!"
Hammond turned around and saw that one of the lab technicians was all out of breath and red in the face.
"What's the matter?" he asked, walking toward the scientist.
"I don't know, they told me to come find you. Dr. Wu says it is something that needs your attention," he stuttered, still catching his breath.
Hammond turned to Arnold.
"I'll be back in a little while, just keep the camera trained on the Rex."
Arnold nodded, and as Hammond walked away, spit the gum out and lit up another cigarette.
Hammond walked out of the control room, following the nervous technician.