Ed Regis beamed at the small news pool before him. Regis was in his element, the consummate showman. The press conference he had called were still taking their seats but it looked like the gang was all here. CNN, CBS, NBC, FOX, BBC… all the major news syndicates had sent representatives and Regis new them all. He had worked as PR Manager for Disney originally and knew how to play to the crowd. He rubbed his hands together gleefully at the thought of their faces when he unveiled the animals to them.
However Regis' smile faded somewhat when he caught sight of a petite woman with bleached blonde hair in a brown suit coat and mini skirt. Desiree Thompkins was a reporter for News Week and very much the Lois Lane sort of woman. She was a woman that would go to any lengths for a story and had won two Pulitzer prizes for her "hard hitting journalism". Of course Regis new better. Desiree was a spin doctor and a total bitch. The facts didn't matter as long as the story were compelling and she coul make or break a new campaign. Politicians quivered whenever Desiree walked in a room, and she greatly enjoyed the sense of power that gave her.
Regis had crossed swords with Desiree several times in the past and the two were perpetual antagonists. If there was any dirt to dig up it was a fair bet that Desiree would find it and Regis knew that she probably had made up her mind already in regards to Jurassic Park and that made him nervous. She was the sort of woman that Regis hated, mostly because he could never decide if he'd rather fuck her or strangle her. Desiree said something to her camera man, shot Regis a snarky smirk and sat herself down in the front row.
"Ladies and Gentlemen… Welcome! Welcome to Jurassic Park." Regis said spreading his arms behind the podium, "Let me tell you a story about a man named John Hammond. I man with a dream of a beautiful park where all the children of the world could come to see living biological attractions so astounding that it would capture their imaginations for a lifetime. It would be a feeling that transcended mere amusement, something that was tangible. Something they could see and touch. Well today, John Hammond's dream will come true. The tour you are about to take is a momentous occasion, you will be the first guests to see the new expansion to Jurassic Park, the most advanced theme park in the entire world. What you will see, no one beyond Jurassic Park employees have ever seen. I personally guarantee what you will see will drive you out of your minds."
Desiree watched Regis, he was laying it on thick. She recognized the candor but she wasn't buying the hype. This park had gain notoriety recently with their cloning of the Baiji dolphin which was the only reason Desiree was sitting here now. She didn't remotely care about the "Dino Disneyland" as her editor had put it. She had her story already in mind, "International Genetics Technology Seeks to Draw Attention Away From GMO Grain Scandal". It had a nice ring to it, she thought, and better still it would make Regis squirm.
Regis talked for a little while longer, but deferred on questions until after their tour. He said that they would have lots more questions after the ride than before. Then they were chivied out of the welcome center and out into the Coasta Rican heat. They boarded several hybrid SUV's and drove through the streets of the amusement park.
Desiree looked languidly out of the window of her car as Regis' voice came out of the Bluetooth speaker system plugged into the stereo system. She was bored, looking out of the windows at all the sun burned tourists with their super excited kids wearing dinosaur t-shirts. The vehicles traveled around through the park, Regis pointing out the various rides and attractions, before they headed north. Soon they were immersed in lush jungle and then before them the trees cleared before them and they saw a huge gateway with torches in brackets on either side, it read "Jurassic Park" across the top. It loomed up above the vehicles and opened automatically as they approached.
"Psh." Desiree snorted as they drove through the gateway, "What is this, King Kong?"
The cars pulled around to an artfully arranged building and the press representatives got out. The building was a sort of concrete amphitheater with high walls and hanging buttresses for support. It was a huge structure and there was a replica of a T-Rex skeleton carved into the wall of the building. When they disembarked, the reporters were greeted at the entrance by a man in a red long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up, jeans and a safari hat.
"Hi everybody." Gerry Harding said tipping his hat to the reporters, "My name is Gerry Harding and I'm Vice President of Product here in Jurassic Park. What your about to see usually comes at the end of our tour, but Mr. Regis wanted to start you guys off with our best foot forward. If you will please follow me up to the observatory, we'll introduce you to Mona."
Desiree walked through the short patch of mud near the vehicles as though it were toxic ooze and didn't return Harding's smile.
"So what's the deal Ed?" She asked in a bitchy sort of voice, "Why can't you just TELL us why we're wandering around in the jungle like this? It's a million degrees out here! Gawd!"
Harding grimaced at Regis as he followed Desiree up the stairs to the observatory.
"Right little ray of sunshine isn't she?" Harding as Regis as he passed.
"You have no idea." Regis said with an eye roll as he went up the stairs.
Regis entered the observatory, which was a small cavernous sort of room with long but narrow window, curving around one side. The window was thick acrylic and was deep set into the curving concrete wall, through it they could see about twenty feet of cleared space and then thick humid jungle. A low mist rose from the steaming jungle and hung in the air amidst the trees.
"What are we supposed to be looking at?" Desiree asked, her arms crossed over her chest and her hip stuck out.
Before Regis could answer there was a mechanical whirring sound, a trap door opened in the clearing below them and an elevator platform raised into view. Draped across the platform was a dead cow carcass, freshly slaughtered.
"Oh that's charming." Desiree said wrinkling her nose.
The crowd of reporters were muttering to themselves when suddenly silence fell. The observation platform had shaken slightly, then again and again. The shaking was subtle but distinguishable, and it continued again and again, growing closer. Then the sound stopped, silence fell over the room. Regis smiled and watched as one by one the members of the press stared out of the window, their eyes growing huge.
Regis looked out of the window as well. At first he didn't see anything, but then realized that he was looking in the wrong place. He raised his eyes slowly up and up and then he saw it. There was a head behind the foliage, a huge head with heavily veiled eyes under boney brow ridges. A pair of piercingly bright ice blue eyes gleamed unblinking under the brow ridges and the skin of the head was pebbled and blood red. Nostrils, big enough for a man to put his full fist into sniffed the air tentatively.
And then, slowly, almost tentatively the dinosaur stepped from the cover of the trees. The reporters took several steps back, some of them swore under their breath, terror written clear across their faces.
"Sweet Jesus!" Desiree breathed, her eyes wide as saucers. "W- What the fuck is that thing?!"
By this time the animal had moved completely into the open and slowly, as though it were checking if the coast were clear, the Tyrannosaurus Rex moved to the carcass. The beast was enormous, the size and weight of a city bus, its body was covered in short somewhat fluffy brown and black feathers and white down covered its belly, but the head was completely naked of feathers. All in all, it looked like some monstrous bird, a condor of unparalleled size. In two strides the big dinosaur had crossed to the carcass and, stooping, it opened its huge jaws, exposing teeth the size of bananas. The big Rex seized one of the cow's legs in its maw and with a single twitch of the head, tore the leg free as easily as tearing the wings off a fly. It swallowed the leg whole, bones crunching under the pressure of the monstrous bite.
Suddenly, the rex's head snapped up and it stared straight at the observation room. Regis knew that the animal couldn't see them, it was one way treated and camouflaged from the other side so that the dinosaur couldn't see in. Still, he felt a thrill shoot through him at the fierce glare of those blue eyes. The rex was swiveling its head back and forth, as though it were listening and then it opened it's terrible mouth… and roared!
Even through the thick acrylic, the sound was deafening. A bellowing rumbling blast, like the call of a bird magnified many hundreds of times. At this the press lost it completely, many of them scrambled away from the window in sheer panic. Desiree fell over as she tried to scramble away from the window and screamed with her hands over her ears.
The rex was still turning its head from side to side, listening for any response to its challenge but there was none. There was a long pause and then the T- rex bent down seized the remains of the carcass in its jaws and lifted it high into the air and in a moment it had returned to the jungle in a swish of tail feathers.
"Mona Lisa, everyone!" Regis said, trying to keep the quaver out of his voice. Even though he had known they were completely safe, the rex roar had still shaken him badly. "If you'll come with me back to the cars, we'll explore some of the other paddocks here in Jurassic Park."
As they exited, Regis looked over to see Gerry Harding, barely containing a smile to the side of the stairs.
"Jesus Gerry," Regis said standing next to him watching the shell-shocked reports climb back into the cars. Desiree in particular looked like she had just seen a ghost and was visibly shaking as she maneuvered back down the stairs. "When I said I wanted a good entrance, I didn't expect that! How did you get her to roar like that?"
Harding laughed.
"Oh it wasn't hard, I just played some recorded rex noises and she thought there was another rex in her turf. She wasn't about to let that stand so she issued a challenge."
"I didn't hear anything." Regis said, perplexed.
"No, well you wouldn't." Harding said leaning back with his hands in his pockets, "Tyrannosaurs communicate sub sonically like crocodiles or elephants, it's way too low for human ears to hear. But she heard it no problem."
"No kidding, I thought Desiree was about to piss herself she was so scared."
"So it was worth it then?" Harding asked with a smirk
"Totally!" Regis laughed.