Chapter 21: Paddock Attack
A week or so had passed without any incidents or breakthroughs. The construction of the lagoon was in its beginning stages, the bedrock having been blown through to make a concrete base that would allow for no leakage of water. Being that the lagoon was man-made, it would have a natural water source in the rich rainfall that the tropical island was known for. The construction crews were working fourteen hour days to get the lagoon finished, and they were making significant progress.
The lab technicians were working just as hard and the populations of the animals in Jurassic Park were starting to increase, and for some of the animals even stabilize. Some of the animals, like the Dilophosaurus and Brachiosaurus had low counts in the beginning, many of the offspring not surviving even though the version numbers were updated and the genome engineered more stably.
Amidst all the good though, something not quite right seemed to be afoot. Ever since placing that eighth raptor, something just did not sit well with Muldoon. It might have been that final glare she gave him. It might have been their behavior in their nursery. Whatever it was though, it had Muldoon on edge. This was also reflected in his behavior. Muldoon spent much more of his time in the Control Room, watching the security cameras of the raptor Paddock. He would occasionally make notes for himself about what he witnessed on the cameras, and kept these notes to himself.
He personally oversaw their feeding schedules, and made sure was there when they were dropping off the animal. Things went fine for a week or so. The next time they went to feed the animals, he noticed that only five raptors came to eat. The next day, only four. Finally, on the third day, only three raptors came to eat.
Wondering what was going on and paranoid about the situation, Muldoon went back to the security cameras and reviewed them, going back each day to see if he could figure out what was going on. After a few hours of searching through the footage, he found what he was looking for, even though it disturbed him to no end. In the clearing of the Paddock, where the main security camera was set up, a fight occurred. Each day, there was fighting, and each day a few raptors were killed. Competition between animals is not unheard of, but they don't usually kill each other. Using the zoom and rewind functions on the security camera, he finally figured out what had happened. A week after introducing the big female, she took over the pride. The raptors that were slowly disappearing were the older females that were either challenging her for dominance, or they were defending their dominance from her as a younger raptor. She was a vicious fighter though. From what the camera evidence provided, the raptor wasted no time and went for the throat of her enemies, ripping it out the throat and digging the toe claw into the chest of her enemy.
Muldoon sat back in the chair and sighed when he heard the door to the Control Room slide open.
"What do you mean there are three raptors remaining? What in the bloody hell happened to all of them?" an older accented voice exclaimed.
"I don't know sir, we had the computer run a population count and that is what came up."
Muldoon swung the chair around and saw Hammond walking up to the control panel with Arnold following.
"They are killing each other John. There were too many in one space and they fought over who was going to be in charge."
"That can't be natural." Hammond said, huffing.
"Nothing about these animals is natural," Muldoon retorted, standing up from the chair.
Muldoon walked out of the room and joined the workers who were going out to feed the animals.
They loaded the cow into one of the jeeps and made their way to the Paddock, using the maintenance and feeder back roads to get to the area. They started to open the gate when a blurred object ran at the fence and than backed off with a shower of sparks. The worker looked around wide eyed and backed off of the fence.
"What in the bloody hell was that?" Muldoon asked, cocking his rifle and walking around. He saw the burn mark in the ground from where the electricity was activated.
He heard the familiar snarling and looked up into a grove of bushes and saw a pair of eyes looking back at him. In another flash, an object down the fence bolted at the fence, and once again backed off after the shower of sparks.
"My god…..they are testing the fences. How are they that intelligent," he said out loud to no one in particular.
The workers looked at him, not knowing what to do. Every time they got close to the fence to put the steer in the Paddock, they ran at the Paddock fences.
"Let them starve for now. We have to get back to the Visitor Center," he said in Spanish, to which the workers quickly agreed to.
Driving back, Muldoon was thinking about what had happened. Trying to come with ideas to solve the problem was harder than he thought it would be. If Hammond was not going to kill the animals, they needed to make sure they were in a place that they could not figure out a way to get out of.
Muldoon got back to the center and walked into the Control Room where Arnold and Hammond were sitting down talking.
"Robert," Hammond said, looking up.
"We saw the whole thing. You were right, those animals are too dangerous for the tour. We need to do something about them. Arnold here thinks that we should make a separate containment facility. Do you agree?"
Muldoon just nodded, knowing that Hammond knew how he felt about these animals.
"Okay than, that is settled. I will contact mainland and start getting plan bids from builders. For now though, as long as they don't get out, everything will be fine. Just keep an eye on them," he said, smiling and standing up.
He slowly limped out of the room, leaving it in silence.