The Dinosaur Man
"RRRRROW! GRRRRRR!"
Charlie Degler was playing with his favorite toy dinosaurs in his sandbox.
Dr. Alan Grant laughed and squat next to him.
He picked up the two toy dinosaurs and lectured Charlie.
"Oh, actually, Charlie, those two are herbivores. They wouldn't be interested in fighting each other. But these. See, these are carnivores. And this one here. See its claws? This one here uses its claws to gouge at the throat of its opponent..."
Grant could see that little Charlie was only frightened by the look on his face.
Grant's old friend: Ellie Sattler who was now married and was known as Ellie Sattler-Degler spoke up.
"Uh, Alan. He's three. Wait till he's five."
"Oh, right. Sorry, Charlie."
Ellie laughed as she held baby Sam in her arms.
"Too bad you didn't have kids, Alan."
"The thing is, Ellie. I don't to say this in front of neither of them," he whispered, "even though I got used to looking after them for a day or two back on Isla Nublar, there's no way I'd do it for any longer."
They both laughed.
There was then a car engine revving and stopping and a slam on the door sounded.
"That must be Mark," said Ellie.
A well-dressed businessman, obviously Ellie's husband: Mark Degler came into view.
"Hi, honey. I'm home."
"Hey, babe. How was your day?"
"It was alright. A few problems occurred here and there but other then that. It was a good day."
"Glad to hear that. I would like you to meet Dr. Alan Grant. My old colleague. He and I studied fossils together."
"Ah. So you're Grant, huh. Ellie's told me all about you. Pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mark."
And they shook hands.
Charlie ran up to his father with his two toy dinosaurs.
"Daddy, daddy, this is the herbivore and that's the dinosaur man."
He pointed to Grant as The Dinosaur Man.
Ellie and Mark laughed
Grant smiled uncomfortably.
That evening after dinner, Ellie and Mark were sitting down sipping coffee while Grant went up to the birdcage to remind himself to the Deglers' pet parrot.
"What's my name? Come on, Jack, say it. Is my name Alan? Is my name Alan?"
The parrot didn't reply.
Ellie giggled in delight.
Grant sighed.
"He used to know me."
"It's been six years, Alan."
Grant gave the parrot a cookie and went back to the table.
"More coffee," said Mark.
"Yes, please," said Ellie.
As Mark poured more coffee, Ellie spoke up.
"Mark's working at the State Department, right Mark?"
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do work at the State Department."
"What do you do there?" asked Grant curiously.
Mark sat down and laughed.
"I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you."
There was an uncomfortable silence.
Sam's crying echoed from upstairs.
Mark left the table and headed for the kitchen.
Grant and Ellie had some time alone to talk.
"So what are you working on now, Alan?"
"We have a new site in Montana. At least until the money runs out."
"Anything good?"
"Raptors mostly."
"My favorite."
Grant realized that Ellie was one of the few people he could talk to about this so he leaned forward.
"Do you remember the sounds they made?"
"I try not to."
"We've done cranial scans, and raptors actually had a quite sophisticated resonating chamber. I have a theory that their ability to vocalize is the key to their social intelligence. The way they can work together as a team."
"You think they could talk to each other?"
"To a degree we never imagined."
"Wow!" gasped Ellie in amazement.
A while later, Grant and Ellie were out on the Deglers' driveway looking out at the sight of the suburban street.
It was time for Alan to leave.
He headed to his car and stood near it.
"Good luck with the fund raising," said Ellie.
"It was never easy, but before Jurassic Park, you could find money. Somewhere. Now fossils are out. Everyone wants to see a real live dinosaur," said Grant.
"Times change Alan. But you're the still the best. I mean that."
"The last of my breed."
There was a short silence.
"Well," said Grant, "I'd better get going."
"Let me know if I can help, Alan. You're bad about asking for help, but please ask me. Anything, anytime."
Grant thought about what Ellie said, knowing that he would never need her help in any cases.
"Okay. Goodbye, Ellie."
"Goodbye, Alan."
And they gave each other a friendly hug.
Grant got into his car and started the engine.
Ellie knocked on the window so he rolled it down.
"When I met you, I thought that one day millions of years ago, all the dinosaurs became extinct. Wiped out. But you told me otherwise. When conditions changed, dinosaurs changed. They became other things. They evolved," said Ellie.
"A well-accepted theory," said Grant.
"Alan, don't be afraid to evolve."
"Yep," he said then he closed the window and waved goodbye.
Ellie waved back and watched as he drove off.
Fossil Speech
Next day, Grant spoke on the microphone at his audience through an audotorium.
It was the last stop on his fund-raising tour, a public lecture hosted by a foundation.
There were scientists and students there, but also a lot of dinosaur fans, some even with costumes.
Grant finished his speech to what was a full house.
Some attendees were grabbing their coats and sneaking out.
Grant wasn't the exciting guest speaker they were all expecting.
A new black and white slide came up.
"It's through the painstaking study of the interior chamber in multiple specimens that we can determine this exciting correlation between the larynx and the upper plate. That lets us theorize that the raptor might have been capable of bird like vocalizations. Which as you can imagine, would be a tremendous breakthrough."
There was a huge round of applause.
The sympostium leader stood up and said "thank you very much Dr. Grant. Now does anyone have a question?"
Nearly every hand goes up. Grant sighed. He didn't seem very surprised.
"Fine. Fine," he said and spoke over the microphone "does anyone not have a question to do with Jurassic Park?"
Everyone's hands went down, except for one male student.
"Yes, sir."
"Your theory on raptors is good and all, but isn't all this conjecture kind of moot?" said the student, "I mean, once the U.N. and Costa Rica and everyone decides how to handle the second island, scientists will just go in and look for themselves."
"Isn't paleontology itself in danger of extinction?" said a scientist from the audience.
"No," said Grant, "and let me be perfectly clear on this point. Dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago. What's left of them is fossilized in stone the actual scientists spend years to undercover. What John Hammond and InGen created are theme park monsters. Nothing more, nothing less."
"You're saying you wouldn't want to study them if you had the chance?" said another student from the crowd.
"No force on this earth or in heaven could get me on that island."
Grant said this with great pleasure and spoke proudly of it.
While exiting the auditorium, he felt very pleased with himself.
"Isla Sorna," he said to himself, "those fools think that dinosaurs still exist after what happened back there on Isla Sorna. Yet I wouldn't even waste my time to try and study if they even exist."
Then he got into his car and took off.
Mercenaries
A huge red circle was sprayed over a row of cracked glass.
A tall man with blond hair ran from the cockpit of a wrecked plane to join his buddies near missile launcher.
"Yo, Cooper, Nash. I got it."
"Got it, Max?" they both called.
"Yeah."
He kneeled down behind them and looked at back at the other man running from another plane.
"Udesky, time to ignite that wrecked plane," called Cooper, Nash and Max together.
"Showtime," Udesky panted and joined his three buddies behind the missile launcher.
Back in the plane where Udesky ran out, the satellite phone rang.
"Boss, phone," called Cooper.
"I know," called a voice from the cockpit.
A tough looking man with a two-fisted shape jumped down from the cockpit and picked up the satellite phone before it rang again.
"Rocco Mullins speaking."
"Paul Roby here. Are you men ready, Mr. Mullins?" said a voice over the phone.
"Oh, yes sir. Absolutely," said Mullins as he walked out of the plane.
"Are they prepared?"
"Yes, sir. Of course. They're four of the best men you could possibly ask for."
"Have you worked with them?"
"Yes, sir, Mr. Roby. I've worked with these men plenty of times and I've got to thank you for recommending the whole lot of us."
"Sure they're that experienced, Mr. Mullins?"
He watched as Udesky fired the missile at the wrecked plane.
"Yes, sir. Nothing to worry about. It's gonna be a walk in the park."
"Good. Gotta get going, now, Mr. Mullins."
"Yes, bye, Mr. Roby. And good luck with hiring your guide."
He hang up the phone and took a deep breath as he stood proudly in amazement behind Udesky, Cooper, Nash and Max.