Chapter 3

Driving Me Crazy

They were all three sitting at a small painted table in the corner of the café, not far from a lake. At first glance they looked like any other group at the café. On closer inspection, it became clear how tense the air was.

Rouge drank her beer from the bottle, draining it quickly as she watched the two men in front of her. Vector seemed to look please to be with them, as if he had won some sort of victory to be sitting at the table. Shadow looked weary- well more weary than usual that is – like a parent who has spent too much time with a hyperactive child.

Come to think of it. Hyperactive child was pretty close in terms of describing Vector Levine.

"You want to know what I've hear?" Levine said. "I've heard that a couple of year's back, a company named InGen genetically engineered some dinosaurs and put them on an island in Costa Rica. However, something went wrong, a lot of people were killed, and the dinosaurs were destroyed. Now nobody will talk about it, because of some legal angle. The Costa Rican government does not want to hurt tourism. Therefore, nobody will talk. That is what I've heard."

Shadow stared at him, hard. "And you believe that?"

"Not at first, I didn't," Levine admitted, "But the thing is, I keep hearing it. The rumors keep floating around. Supposedly you, Sonic Grant, Shelly Sattler, and a few other people were there."

"Well did you ask Grant about it?"

"I asked him, last year, at a conference in Apotos. He said it was absurd. He said it was impossible to genetically engineer dinosaurs, because there was no DNA samples."

Shadow nodded slowly.

"Is that what you say?" Levine asked, drinking his beer. "I mean, you know Grant, don't you?"

"No. I never met him."

Levine was watching the ebony hedgehog closely. "So it's not true then?"

Shadow sighed. "Yes, it's not true. Grant is correct, as far as I have heard there is no dinosaur DNA to be found. Genetic dinosaurs are just one of many absurd rumors floating around."

"You're saying InGen's dinosaurs are a myth."

"Of course they are. They have to be. Do you think it's possible to genetically engineer a dinosaur?"

"The experts all tell me it's not."

"And they are right," Shadow said. He glanced at Rouge, as if for confirmation. She said nothing, just drank her beer.

The truth was, Rouge knew something more about the dinosaur rumors. She had noticed the suspicions, like everyone. However, her dad had been in Costa Rica at the time, coincidentally working for InGen, so she had given him a call. Where he ultimately denied the rumors.

Rouge had flown down after hearing of Malcolm's condition. He was a close friend why wouldn't she? Once after surgery, Malcolm had been delirious, mumbling nonsense from pain medication. And he had been seemingly fearful, twisting in the bed, repeating the names of several kinds of –well of dinosaurs. Rouge had asked the nurse about it; she said he was like that after every operation. The hospital staff assumed it was a drug-induced fantasy – yet it seemed to Harding that Malcolm was reliving some terrifying actual experience. The feeling was heightened by the shortened, familiar way Malcolm referred to the dinosaurs. He called them "raptors" and "compys" and "trikes." He seemed especially fearful of the raptors. The "rex" as he would call it, would come in a close second.

Later, when he was back home, she had asked him about his delirium. He had just shrugged it off, giving her a pat on the shoulder, making a bad joke – "At least I didn't mention other woman, did I?" Then he made some comment about having been a dinosaur nut as a kid, and how illness made you regress. His whole attitude was elaborately indifferent, as if it was all unimportant; she had the distinct feeling he was being evasive. However, she wasn't inclined to push it; those were the days when she was in love with him, her attitude indulgent.

Now he was looking at her in a questioning way, as if to ask if she was going to contradict him. Rouge just raised an eyebrow, and stared back. He must have his reasons. She could wait him out.

Deep down inside, she prayed however, the wait would not want to be long. Because, she knew, she knew Shadow held the truth in there. And she just wanted to know, but a little bit of her was hoping. Just a small fraction of her prayed, that those dinosaurs rumors could possibly be true. But the truth was at the moment locked tight, so she would wait.

As long as it takes.

Levine leaned forward across the table and said, "So the InGen story is entirely untrue?"

Shadow stared at him with steely red eyes, "Entirely untrue," he said sternly, "Entirely untrue."

Shadow had been denying the speculation for three years. By now, he was getting good at it; his weariness was no longer affected but genuine. In the aftermath, everyone involved had moved quickly to quash the story. Agreements were made to never speak to one another about the "incident". Everyone was told to head their separate ways, with all relations to InGen severed. InGen wanted to limit its liability. The Costa Rican government wanted to preserve its reputation. And the individual scientists had been bound by nondisclosure agreements, abetted later by generous grants to continue their silence. In Malcolm's case, two years of medical bills had been paid.

As timed passed, interest in the story waned. InGen was long since bankrupt; the principle investors in Europe and Asia had taken their losses. Although the company's physical assets, the buildings and the lad equipment would be sold. The core technology, that had been developed would, they decided, never be sold. In short, the InGen chapter was closed.

There was nothing more to say.

"So there's no truth to it," Levine said, biting into his slice of apple pie. "To tell you the truth, Dr. Malcolm, that makes me feel better."

"Why?" Shadow asked cautiously.

"Because that means the remnants that keep turning up in Costa Rica must be real. Real dinosaurs. I've got a friend from Yale down there, a field biologist, and he says he's seen them. I believe him."

Shadow shrugged. "I doubt," he said, "that any more animals will turn up in Costa Rica."

"It's true there haven't been any for almost a year now. But if more show up, I'm going down there. And in the interim, I am going to outfit and expedition. I've been giving a lot of thought how it should be done. I think special vehicles should be involved don't you? I'll assemble a team, perhaps including Dr. Harding. Would you be interested Dr. Harding? I….."

Shadow shook his head almost immediately after hearing Harding.

"You think I'm wasting my time," Levine said.

"I do, yes."

"But suppose- just hear me out – that animals start to show up again."

"Never going to happen."

"But suppose they did?" Levine said. "Would you be interested in helping me? To plan an expedition?"

Shadow sighed finishing his meal. Christ was there no getting rid of the man? He pushed his plate aside. He stared at Levine. "Yes."

Levine opened his mouth, but Shadow held up a hand, "However, you may only keep me in touch, until, if ever, these animals did show up again. Then I might be interested in helping you."

"Great!" Levine his face lighting up, "That's all I wanted to know."

Outside, in the bright sunlight. Shadow walked with Rouge towards Shadow's old- but well kept- black Hudson. Levine climbed into a bright-red Ferrari, waved happily, and roared off.

"You think it will ever happen?" Rouge Harding asked. "That these, ah, animals will start to show up again?"

"No," Shadow said, "I am quite sure they never will."

"You sound hopeful," she noted,

He shook his head, and got awkwardly in the car, his leg was sore and aching, and he grimaced in pain as he swung it under the steering wheel. Rouge gave him a sad look before climbing in beside him. He glanced at her, and turned the key in the ignition. They drove back to the Institute in silence.

The following day, she went back to Africa. During the next eighteen months, she had a rough sense of Levine's progress, since from time to time he called her about field protocols, or vehicle tires, or the best anesthetic to use on animals in the wild. Sometimes she got a call from an assistant.

From Malcolm she heard nothing at all, although he sent her a card on her birthday. It arrived a month late. He had scrawled at the bottom, "Have a happy birthday. Be glad you're nowhere near him. He's driving me crazy."

2. A.M in an old diner in the darkest reaches of Santa Fe, Metal Dodgson sipped his coffee, contemplating how he would kill the pesky fly currently bumping the light above him.

Bzzz, Tap.

Fly swatter.

Bzzz, Tap.

Bug Spray

Bzzz, Tap.

Rolled up newspaper.

Ding, a ling.

A restaurant bell. –Wait that wasn't right. Metal looked up, as a tall grey, lanky rabbit with an eye patch on his left eye, stepped into the diner.

Jack Ludlow.

Since Metal was fired from Biosyn five years ago, after his contact failed to deliver the embryos, it was then that Ludlow had come to him. Ludlow had been paying Metal five hundred a day, to follow the people he was sure were present for the Costa Rica incident.

Boring as hell, the job was. All of the scientists had jobs duller than watching grass grown. Like the paleobotanist Sattler whose specialty was prehistoric pollen grains. Metal had sat through one of her lectures as Berkeley, and had barely been able to stay awake. Slide after slide of little pale shapes that looked like cotton balls, while she nattered on about polysaccharide bonding angles and crap like that. Chaos it was boring.

Ludlow sat down in the seat across from him. Raising a hand to order coffee from the waitress. The rabbit insisted on always having his meetings in the middle of the night. And always at the same damn diner. The coffee was horrible, but being paid five hundred a day made Metal learn not to complain.

Ludlow glared at him, "I haven't got all night," he said. "Let's get started.

"Right," Metal said. He opened a large envelope, pulling out sheets and photos, handing them over as he talked.

"Sonic Grant: paleontologist, one of the leading experts in the field. He famous for his work in Montana State. At the moment, he's on leave of absence and is now in Paris, lecturing on the latest dinosaur finds. Apparently he has some new ideas about tyrannosaurs being scavengers, and-"

"Next," Ludlow said.

"Shelly Sattler," Metal said, pushing across a photo. "Botanist, used to be involved with Grant. Was going to be married but, boyfriend was cheating on her so….Spends half of her time lecturing at the university in Berkeley. Spends the res of her time at home, because-"

"Go on, go on."

"Mighty Gennaro, former lawyer for InGen, now a boxing and weights coach in South Dakota. Big Hammond, is still running InGen company….Barely. Charmy Wu, is now currently running a ice cream shop in Nevada, and married." Metal explained, "Ivo Nedry is…..deceased. Then there are the kids-"

"Anybody contact them? Anybody from InGen?"

"No, no contact. The boy, Miles, or Tails as he goes by. Its starting collage, training in system programming and computer mechanics. The girl Cream is starting prep school. Hammond filed for protection after the incident."

Ludlow sighed, rubbing his eye, "Anything else."

"That's it."

"Nothing? Nothing at all? No Site B?"

"Site B," Metal inquired.

"Yes, Site B." Ludlow said, "My uncle knows about it, I'm sure. But he won't tell me anything."

"What is it?"

"If you hear anything about it," Ludlow said, "Tell me. What about Malcolm. What about Levine? Are they still friends?

Metal scoffed as he checked his notes, " I doubt friends are the proper term. They spent some time together about a year ago. But Malcolm hasn't been to Santa Fe recently. He is currently in Berkeley. He seems to have lost contact with Levine."

Ludlow sighed, "Keep track of Malcolm, see if he knows anymore about Levine." He leaned back in the booth seat. Running his finger gently across the coffee cup.

"I'll find out what they're up to sooner or later"

Mike Bowman felt like a hero when they finally reached the beach: a two-mile crescent of white sand utterly deserted. His yacht bobbed up and down in the water a few meters of shore. Attendants were setting up a small table, on the beach, preparing it for lunch. Everything here was just perfect.

Bowman, a thirty-six-year-old real estate developer from Dallas, had come to Costa Rica with his wife and daughter for a two-week holiday. The trip had actually been his wife's idea; for weeks, Ella had filled his ear about the wonderful national parks of Costa Rica, and how good it would be for their daughter, Tina to see them. Then, when they had arrived, it turned out Ella had an appointment to see a plastic surgeon in San José. That was the first Mike had heard about the excellent and inexpensive plastic surgery available in Costa Rica, and all the private clinics in San José.

Naturally they had a huge fight. Mike felt like Ella had lied to him, and she had. And he put his foot down on this plastic surgery business. Anyway, it was ridiculous, Ella was only thirty, and she was a beautiful woman. Hell, she had been Homecoming Queen her senior year, and that was not even ten years earlier. But Ella tended to be insecure, and worried. And it seemed in recent years she had mostly worried about losing her looks.

That, and everything else.

Ella patted her stomach after changing into her swimsuit, saying, "Honestly, I don't know how, I'm going to get this weight off."

"You look great, hon." Actually, he felt that she was too thin, but as a husband, he had learned not to mention things like that.

Tina was already bounding down the beach. She was only 11, plenty of energy.

"Don't forget your sunscreen!" Ella called.

"Later," Tina shouted over her shoulder. "I'm going to see if there's a sloth."

Ella Bowman looked around at the beach, and the trees. "You think she's all right?"

"Honey, this is a deserted island." Mike said.

"What about snakes?"

"Oh, for God's sake," Mike sighed. "There are no snakes on a beach."

"Well, there might be…."

"Honey," he said firmly. "Snakes are cold-blooded. They're reptiles. They can't control their body temperature. It's ninety degrees on that sand. If a snake came out, it'd be cooked. Believe me. There's no snakes on the beach." He watched his daughter scamper away, and smiled. "Let her go. Let her have a good time."

Tina ran till she was exhausted, and then threw herself down onto the sand beneath the shade of the palm trees. In this part of the beach, the palm trees overhung a gnarled tangle of mangrove roots, which blocked any attempt to penetrate inland. Tina sat in the sand, looking around.

In the sand, some of the three-toed bird tracks were small, and so faint they could hardly be seen. Other tracks were oddly large, and cut deeper in the sand. Tina stared at them idly when she heard a chirping noise, followed by a rustling of the mangrove thicket behind her.

Slowly standing and turning around, she gave a small gasp of surprise as the oddest looking lizard jumped out of the bushes. The lizard stood up on its hind legs, balancing on its thick tail, and stared at her. It was almost a foot tall, dark green with brown stripes along its back.

Tina thought it was cute .Sort of like a big salamander. She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers at it.

The lizard didn't seemed frightened. It came toward her, walking upright on its hind legs, hardly bigger than a chicken. And like a chicken it bobbed its head as it walked. Tina thought it would make a wonderful pet.

She suspected it wanted food. The lizard seemed rather tame and just stared at her. Slowly, Tina extended her hand, palm open, to show she didn't have any food.

The lizard paused, cocked his head, and chirped.

"Sorry," Tina said, "I don't have anything."

And then, without warning, the lizard jumped up onto her outstretched hand. Tina could feel its little toes pinching the skin of her palm, and she felt the surprising weight of the animal's body pressing her arm down. She giggled as it chirped once more.

And then the lizard scrambled up her arm, toward her face.

"I just wish I could see her," Ella said, squinting in the sunlight, "That's all. Just see her."

"I'm sure she is fine," Mike said, taking a bite off his lunch, it was delicious. Not like Ella would eat any of it.

"You don't think she'd leave the beach?" Ella said.

"No, hon, I don't."

"I feel so isolated here," Ella said.

"I though that's what you wanted." Mike said.

"I did."

"Well then, what's the problem?"

"I just wish I could see her, is all." Ella sighed.

Then, from down the beach, carried by the wind, they heard their daughter's voice. She was screaming.

It's up it's up it's finally up!

WOOOOOHHOOO!

I swore to myself I'd get this chapter up tonight or else and by golly I did!

*Victory dance* I finally got the bloody chapter up! And it took forver! I am so sorry. Summer has been as busy as can be, from birthday's to weddings to being sick. So it's up. You can read it now! Yay! I hope it's not too ...lame. So I'll see you...hopefully sooner than this last time. For the next chapter. I'm gonna skip out on My Blue Sky My Sunset until i get a few more chapters of this up.

Thanks for you amazing patience skills! You are all amazing!