Chapter 46

The Centre Cannot Hold

"So," Edgar said idly, lifting a cobweb covered microscope off of the crumbling desk, turning it over in his hands, "How do we get the data you need?" He looked at the rusting monitor standing a few feet from him; "From the computers in here?"

Wu looked up from the other side of the room, surrounded by a small cloud of dust. They stood in the dimly lit genetics lab; the once bright white strip lighting now a dank yellow glow which flickered intermittently. The room was only twelve feet wide, but was much longer, stretching away into the building, ending with a thick metallic wall which had a steel door built into it. Wu had one of the browning storage cupboards underneath the elaborate tabletops open in front of him, and was inspecting a thick bundle of wires which were taped to the back of the wall, running parallel to the room.

"The files which contain the genetic code for each species on the island are accessible from these terminals here in this room, if the correct user with sufficient clearance logs into the system. But the DX virus research data is stored on the highest level of the system."

Wu paused for a moment, wiping his brow with his sleeve, and then looked skywards before continuing checking the wires for weathering. "In fact, I think I'm the only person still alive that has the access codes to that part of the system."

Edgar nodded, chewing his lip as he looked around.

"Can you access it from here? He said, pushing the power button on the monitor next to him, which creaked loudly. There was a pained whir, and a shudder. And then a slow hum began, and the monitor slowly glowed to life, and the brightly lit blank screen sat flickering before them.

Wu laughed softly. "Right here? You think I'd do secret research in this lab, with all the low-main-techs?"

"The what?" Edgar said, frowning, pulling a crumpled silvery stool from under the bench with a loud scrape, sitting down with a sigh.

"The geneticists who worked here in this lab were just low grade maintenance workers; I'm sure BioSyn knows just like everybody else that all the real work went on at Isla Sorna; that's where I did most of my research. The only reason the DX data was here at all was because I didn't want to stop working on it when I had to be here for the inspection team. Anything that went on in here was just little changes to the code; mostly refinements of the GAP program."

Wu stopped for a moment, and shook his head. "Why am I telling you this?" he said to himself, before standing up and closing the cupboard doors.

Edgar snorted. "Henry, I'm willing to trade loyalties with somebody who's a well known murderer to help save lives. But you're losing me here; what's GAP?"

Wu looked at him for a moment, and then made for the steel door at the far end of the room. "I'll explain it to you in a moment, just help me boot up the servers in the Cryo-Room and then I'll run you through it."

Edgar followed Wu along the room, carefully sidestepping out of the way of large trolleys full of chemicals and dusty workstations which littered the room, all bearing signs of weathering, with strings of cobwebs sprouting from them in all directions.

He walked past a long line of tall, immaculate black machines, which he recognized as gene sequencers. There was a whole row of them; it must have cost a fortune, it would cost millions at the present time, but when InGen was in operations it must have set them back millions of dollars.

They passed a large window at the end of the room, set just before the large steel door. It was grimy, and was scratched heavily from weathering, but it still provided sunlight entry to the room; a shaft of golden light which arced through the air and onto the floor; a stark contrast to the rest of the room.

As Wu passed through it his shadow was thrown in sharp relief against the opposite wall, before he disappeared onto the other side, grabbed the large metal level of the door which served as the handle.

Edgar followed his through, and with a heave Wu pulled the handle laterally, and there was a squeal, and then a plunk. Edgar's ears popped as Wu pulled the door open, revealing a small recess, large enough for several people to stand in.

The walls were made of thick Plexiglas, and as he stepped in he saw that the floor was made of a latticework of metal grating; lying below them was a very large metallic fan blade, spinning slowly, providing a gently breeze. In front of them was another door; an exact copy of the one that they had just come through.

He stepped forwards, and gripped the handle. He grunted as he pulled as hard as he could, trying to open the door. But it wouldn't move. He released it, sighing in frustration.

He looked back at the other door that they had just come through, and saw that Wu was pulling it shut behind them, and it clanged closed with a snap.

"It's an antechamber," he said.

Wu nodded.

Instantly, there was an electronic whir from somewhere above them, and he felt the breeze beneath him intensify as the fan blade began to revolve faster. There was a brief sizzle, and a strip light above them glowed brightly for a second, and then abruptly clicked off again.

Edgar looked at Wu questioningly.

"Vacuum sealed," said Wu, "We're being pressurized and cleaned."

"What do you mean cleaned—?"

An explosive roar emanated from the ceiling, and Edgar suddenly felt his entire body become soaked in a freezing, thin liquid which smelled strongly of a hospital ward. He guessed it was disinfectant. He began to shiver in the cold, and saw his breath was now showing as small puffs of vapour as he exhaled.

The hum became louder suddenly, and Edgar felt a gush of wind soar from the floor, and felt his skin dry out as the liquid evaporated instantly. He was still partially wet around his legs and his head, and his clothes were damp. The hum became louder still, and reached a peak, before the wind gushed once more, very warm this time, which lasted for ten seconds.

With a beep the inner door slid open. Edgar stumbled into the room, his clothes steaming and his body now completely dry.

Wu stepped in after him, shielding a small packaging case in his arms, zipping his rucksack shut as he did so.

"You could have told me that was about to happen," Edgar said, rubbing his burning eyes.

"I did," Wu said, stepping further into the room, running his hands over the metallic surfaces, as if trying to get his bearings.

The entire room was white, and it was around half the size of the genetics lab they had just left. The walls were made up of glass, and he saw that it was slightly elevated, cut off from another, much larger room.

Edgar looked out through the glass walls, and looked down into the larger room. It was very dark, and it was full of small tables, which seemed to be topped with bundles of material which had long since rotted. And something else was down there. He frowned.

"Eggs," said Wu.

He was right. Hundreds of eggshells were mounted on top of the tables. A robotic arm stood sentinel beside each table, the grappling hand stationary and dead. The eggs looked like ostrich eggs, although they did look a little synthetic, as if they were made out of some sort of plastic. Most of them looked pristine, albeit dusty; but a few lay opened, with odd holes in them, like they had been cracked in to.

Beyond the tables, mounted into the concrete back wall was a large glass pane cut in a modernly designed shape. Through it he could just about make out dozens of padded red seats, like a cinema.

Everything around here seemed cleaner and less degraded than the rest of the island; he guessed it was because of the airtight design.

"This place is…"

"Weird?" Wu suggested.

"Yes, it is."

Wu smiled slightly, and rubbed his nose as he turned towards the back of the small room, which was mostly empty, with the exception of a two large shiny cylinders in the centre of the room, several walk-in refrigerators, chemical storage tanks and two massive black server towers which lined the right wall, opposite the glass walls overlooking the hatchery.

Wu walked directly towards the two towers, and pulled out a small shelf, which folded down from the wall unit. It had a small monitor built into it, and a flat, tiny keyboard lined the base of the shelf.

Wu went around to the middle of the two towers, to the gap in which they separated, and reached into the space in between them. His eyes swiveled animatedly as he moved his hand blindly inside the dark space, and then there was a sharp clunk as he pushed an unseen button.

There was a sharp whir, which began to build steadily, the tiny monitor beeping, and glowing, the buttons on the keypad glowing with little green lights.

All over the towers blue and green lights were appearing, blinking and flashing as the machine came to life. Wu walked over to the small shelf, and put down the package that he was carrying in his arms. He put it down carefully, and opened it up, pulling out two blue, flat cuboids which had wires running out of them all over the place. He laid them on top of one another, and then turned to Edgar.

"The servers will take a while to boot up. Come on, I'll show you the GAP," he said, stepping into the airlock.

Wu walked over to the monitor in the genetics lab, and tapped the keyboard of the computer terminal experimentally, which lay in front of the monitor, the keys smeared and illegible from green mold.

For a moment the monitor remained unchanged; and then with a jump half a dozen numbers and letters scrolled onto the screen in quick succession. He smiled slightly. "Unbelievable. Everything here still works, no wonder it cost a fortune."

He hit the return key, and the blank screen was replaced by green writing which scrolled onto the monitor.

Jurassic Park – System Log In – Genetic Lab B-2

User:-

Pass:-

Wu rattled on the keyboard, entering his details, and hit the return key again, and turned to Edgar while they waited, the computer beeping, the text changing.

"I'm sure you're aware that most of DNA is shared by every organism on the planet?" he said.

Edgar nodded. "Sure, humans and chimps differ by around only 0.1%, despite our massive differences."

"Correct," Wu said as a new screen popped up on the screen; a log of some kind, full of notes and entry's. Edgar peered at one of them.

Kyle Sanders – June 13th, 1993

GAP Summary report – Signed and confirmed by chief geneticist Dr. Henry Wu.

Inspection of the recent aberrant behavior exhibited by Triceratops, ID-32, named 'Bourika' indicates that further alterations are required for GAP program 4.0

"This is dated…" Edgar murmured.

"The day of the accident," Wu said, "yes."

Wu typed rapidly on the keyboard, and the summary screen disappeared, and was replaced by an index; a list of code names which Edgar found illegible and impossible to pronounce.

"Even 30% of our own DNA is shared with bacterium," Wu murmured, still typing. "Once we figured this out, we reasoned that as some single celled organisms have remained basically the same for billions of years that contemporary DNA couldn't be that much different to the DNA of the dinosaurs. This aided us at first, as due to the gaps in the gene sequences we lifted from the insects bound in amber, we couldn't clone a living animal. But as almost every gene sequence missing from the code was found in other organisms, we could splice it with contemporary DNA."

Edgar frowned. "As far as I know BioSyn has been trying to get a hold of the data you have here for well over a decade. But I've never heard that there were holes in the DNA."

"Even though the insects were preserved remarkably well, the blood they ingested which belonged to the dinosaurs did undergo some degree of degradation, we suspected it was either from oxidizing compounds or the result of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the Earth's core. Whatever it was, it left the DNA with some gaps in it."

Edgar nodded slowly. "I think I see where you're going with this," he said.

Wu stopped typing, and observed the screen in front of him. It showed some kind of three dimensional visual interface; it looked rather primitive to Edgar, but for something like this to have existed in the early nineties would have meant a very fancy system.

Now he was moving the cursor from one small blue box to another blue box, which were mounted on a larger pink block suspended in cyberspace. In the distance of the interface he could see other pink blocks arranged in a crystalline pattern. The cursor jumped from a central pink block, and travelled for a moment through three dimensional space, and arrived at a smaller one, and a line of text below on the screen read, 'Genetics Sub-System; GAP'.

Wu clicked on it, and the interface disappeared, and the drives whirred underneath the tabletop.

"What's GAP?" Edgar said.

"'GAP' is an acronym for the 'Genetics Advancement Program'. Put basically, the program was initiated in 1989 by me when we discovered how some of the dinosaurs created exhibited deformities, strange behavioural patterns, or how abnormal numbers of still-births occurred. GAP was targeted at the streamlining of the dinosaur DNA, specifically the segments of RANA coding used to fill in the sequence gaps. After years of tinkering with the bases and experimenting with different species of amphibians to complete the dinosaur code, I began to iron out the creases. I released the new codes with each batch of animals cloned, as the most direct practical method of checking that his work was successful. This conformed to the 'grow it and find out' mentality which had been instilled in the company for some time, which was, in hindsight, unwise.

The result of GAP was that the dinosaurs in the park existed in varying stages of development, or as they were commonly referred to by the staff; version numbers. These 'versions' referred to the number of times the code had been altered by me and my geneticists. Most of the dinosaurs alive on Isla Nublar at the time of the incident were around version 3. Some, such as Gallimimus and Triceratops, had turned out better than expected, and had only required two adjustments, resulting in them being left at version 2. However, others had proven more troublesome, such as the Stegosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus, which were in the process of being augmented, and were about to proceed to version 4.

The point being that without this data we would be set back all the way to the beginning, stuck with defunct animals. The DNA streams we could do without if we had to, but GAP was the key.

You see, the thing is that you can replace almost all the DNA with that belonging to other organisms. But everything that we did to improve the code, all the progress we made, was in the GAP program."

Edgar stared at him for a moment, and then nodded slowly.

"What RANA fragments did you use?"

"Amphibians, specifically frogs. They're similar in evolutionary ancestry, and their genomes are somewhat closely related."

"So the dinosaurs are part frog?"

Wu paused for a moment, and then shrugged, and nodded. "Yes, I suppose so. However, most of the genomes we used were identical to the originals."

"How can you tell the difference? I mean, if you cloned them then you'll see what they're like, but you changed their DNA, so they could be different from what they used to be before they became extinct. Since you don't have a frame of reference doesn't that make them a fundamental paradox?"

Wu observed him for a moment, and then nodded, almost appreciatively. "Yes."

The radio crackled sharply, echoing off of the walls. Tim's voice spoke quietly, slowly, and made the very air around them chill.

"Guys," he said, "We have company."

Tim crouched low to the ground, typing as lightly as he could, his eye level just above the tabletop. He crawled over to the terminal next to him, typing rapidly. He hit the return key, and with a dying whir the large strip-lights in the control room died, and he was plunged into darkness, the only light coming from outside in the corridor, and the glow from the monitor in front of him.

He trotted back to the other terminal on his knees, and as fast as he could he began typing again. He reached a screen showing a topographical map of the island. A moment later it had changed to a schematic plan of the visitor centre, with red dots filling its surface, positioned at the divisions between walls. One by one, as Tim typed quickly, the red dots blinked green.

With a clunk the heavy door lock attached to the heavy steel door of the control room snapped into place. Tim sighed, and looked up at the wall running parallel to the corridor outside.

The large windows built into the wall were laced with thin wires for additional strength, but he wasn't encouraged, seeing as one of them had a large gaping hole in it.

A distant memory played before his mind's eye; the grating on the ceiling burst open, the gaping mouth…the teeth.

He stood up cautiously, and walked forwards slowly in the darkened room, padding quietly on the ground. He looked into the corridor; silent and unmoving.

His radio crackled, and with a fit of panic he ran back to the desk, and twisted the power dial, clicking it off. He made his way back over to the window, but as he did so he heard a single, echoing click.

Tim froze, and felt his knees tremble beneath him. He held his breath in his lungs, staring forwards with wide eyes.

Click.

Tim closed his eyes, swearing silently. He braced himself, tensing his muscles, his eyes darting between the door and the hole in the window; he had to seal it.

He looked towards the towers which contained all of the servers which made up the supercomputers, dotted all around the room.

He moved over to the one nearest to the window which bore the large hole, and stood next to it. He hesitated for a moment, not moving, staring out of the window.

And then, building from nothing, was a low, chilling snarl, which floated through the air towards him. The breath in his lungs felt like ice as the clicking sounds resumed.

With a yell Tim ran towards the tower, and collided with it. It gave a metallic groan, and toppled over sideways. Half of the control room was plunged into almost complete darkness as the window bearing the large hole was completely covered by the huge server tower.

There was another snarl, and then a rapid succession of clicks, coming right for the control room. But the sound was irregular; too fast. There were several of them.

The light streaming in from the small circular window built into the thick steel door dimmed for a moment, before the light resumed, heading for the other window.

Tim ran across the room to the server on the opposite side of the room. The clicking sound rapidly built as he slammed into the server, and as the tower fell smashing onto the carpeting floor with a crash he caught a glimpse of dark, brown scaly flesh.

He shivered as there was a muffled impact on the other side of the window, followed by a snarl.

An answering, low pitched snort emanated from the other side of the control room door. Tim stood in almost complete darkness now, gripping the tabletop behind him.

In the gloom he could just about make out the handle of the door slowly move downwards. For a sickening moment he expected the door to swing open; but instead there was simply a deep boom, and a frustrated growl.

For a moment there was silence; the only sound coming from the fans on the computer terminals dotted about the room. A drop of sweat fell from Tim's nose as the clicks resumed, leading away from the control room, down the corridor; towards the genetics lab.

Wu made for the white, wooden door leading into the lab, but as he took his first few steps he froze, and looked over at Edgar, who was a few feet behind him.

In the dimly lit interior of the room, a small clicking sound began to build out of nowhere. It was coming from the corridor in front of them.

A slow, drawn out hiss rose, the air around them vibrating against their ears. The light outside in the corridor lessened for an instant, and then, slowly, a dark shadow crept upwards along the wall.

The shadow paused for a moment, the shape changing as its perpetrator moved, revealing a long, serpentine head. A long slender, S-shaped neck was revealed next, and a large, blocky body. As Wu watched it began to move once more; towards them.

A menacing snarl filtered into the genetics lab, and Wu tensed.

He gave a wave to Edgar, and they silently ducked down behind the dusty, cobweb smothered trolleys bearing biological chemicals and laboratory experiments.

He could no longer see Edgar, hidden behind a trolley a few feet behind him on the left side of the room. Wu himself was behind a trolley on the right side bearing dozens of test tubes. He put himself into the smallest position he could, trying to remain concealed from view of the door.

The clicking came closer still; now just outside the door. The shadow was elongated against the wall outside; the full outline of the body was now visible. The long neck tapered to a body smoothly curved with large muscles. The arms were long, and he could make out the three curved claws on each finger. The thighs were powerful and dangerous looking. Wu strained his eyes, looking at the foot. He swore silently as his eyes picked out the single, long sickle claw on each foot.

Wu blinked for a moment, stricken. He felt a tickle in his nose; a building prickling sensation in his upper nasal passage. He looked on in horror at the dust particles emanating from the trolley next to him, filtering into the air all around him, reflecting off of the sunlight.

He covered his mouth and nose with his hand, tightly clasping his palm over his face. He suppressed the sneeze, tightly squeezing his eyes shut, his eyes watering.

And then, in the silence, he coughed.

He swore inwardly, and in answer, he heard a deep snarl from the other side of the door. The genetics lab was completely open to the corridor; they were exposed.

"Jesus Christ!" he heard Edgar mutter from behind him.

With a slam, the heavily muscled hind limb of the creature impacted the floor around the threshold of the open doorway leading into the genetics lab. Through the shelves of the trolley Wu could just make out a roughly textured, scaly skin covering to the thick leg. On the pivoted foot, he could see the six inch retractable sickle claw, and he felt his heat begin to pound in his chest.

What were they going to do? Anderson and Guiterrez were gone; they'd taken the only weapons, and Tim was in the control room. No help, no radios; nothing—

With a yell Edgar launched to his feet, the stainless steel framed trolley in front of him clashing onto its side, spilling its contents of chemicals all over the floor. Edgar held Anderson's pistol in his hand, and aimed it right at the animal outside the door. Before Wu could react, he fired once, and a whine shot through the air near Wu's head, and then an echoing impact followed swiftly as the bullet impacted the wall.

"Run!" shouted Edgar, pointing towards the airlock at the back of the room.

There was a high pitched, terrible scream of rage, which seemed to cut straight through him as Wu surged to his feet, and ran towards the back of the room.

A moment later he could hear Edgar's footsteps at his heels, and they sprinted forwards, slipping on the floor tiles, sending chemicals and containers everywhere, causing miniature tornadoes in the dust as they careened past.

Behind them, at the doorway, Wu heard an almighty crash, and he dared a split second glance backwards, and he felt his heart wrench inside his chest.

A dark shape took just past the threshold, head lowered. It snarled at them, long and blood-chilling. With a scream it launched off of its hind legs, and took after them.

With a great slide, and a yell, he felt his left foot run away from him as he stepped into a pool of yellowish liquid, and he skidded for a meter along the floor, flailing his arms. For a sickening moment he thought he was going to fall over, and he began to topple sideways. As he fell, he felt a surging force lift him upwards off his feet, and push him forwards. Looking down in fright, he saw Edgar's hand wrapped around his arm, the knuckles white.

He shook free, and pelted onwards.

Wu flew through the shaft of golden sunlight which filtered in through the single window in the room, his shadow arcing up across the wall eerily for an instant.

He heard another gunshot, and ducked instinctively. He heard the bullet ricocheting off the walls, and somewhere in the room he heard the sound of smashing glass.

Wu slammed into the closed airlock door, and he pried at the handle, his fingers slipping off of the damp metal.

"Get it open!" shouted Edgar, who was pattering rapidly with his feet five feet from Wu, trying to decelerate.

Wu pulled the metal bar down, fighting the door handle. With another glance backwards he saw the dark figure racing towards him at astonishing speed; it has traversed over twenty feet in little more than two seconds.

Edgar grabbed the side of the door with Wu, and together they pulled at the frame of the door, hauling it sideways. For an awful moment the door jammed, held together by the vacuum seal.

And then with a squeal it slid open, and they piled inside, slamming against the other door on the other side of the antechamber room.

Wu fought the spinning sensation he felt as he pushed his forehead away from the thick glass of the inner door, and whirled around, lunging to close the outer door.

He was shocked to see the animal less than ten feet from them; it was almost on them. Wu grabbed the handle, and with a yell, he slammed the door shut.

There was a confirming plunk as the vacuum seal activated, and Wu saw the handle on the outer door retract to its original position.

There was a high whine as the fan started up, but it was overshadowed by the heavy thud from the other side of the door as the dark shape collided headlong with the steel door, the brown flesh smearing against the glass.

There was a frustrated snarl, and the creature fell back, stumbling back into the genetics lab.

With a roar the freezing chemical spray covered their bodies, and Wu put his arm up in front of his face to shield his eyes. There was a twin rush of hot air in quick succession, and then the inner door slid open.

They both hurried into the Cryo-Room, and slammed the inner door shut behind them. The locking mechanism slid back into place, and they stood motionless for a moment, looking through the two consecutive small glass windows built into the steel doors, looking back into the genetics lab.

A muffled snarl made it through to their ears, and the creature stumbled back into the golden shaft of light streaming in through the window, and Wu swore as it was fully illuminated before him.

The Velociraptor stood six feet tall, and was nine feet long. Its long head tapered to a thin snout; the jaws full of razor sharp, backwards curving teeth. The sickle claw adorning each feet tapped against the ground in frustration. The dark green, merciless eyes swiveled in the rounded sockets, the vertical pupil locking onto him.

Wu shivered as the piercing glare struck him like a physical blow.

For a moment the Raptor simply stared at him, and then looked at Edgar. It snarled, and charged at the door, and head butted the steel, which resonated loudly.

The Raptor snarled again, and stepped back, seemingly unharmed.

"Fuck me," Edgar whispered slowly, staring at the Raptor, his face pale.

Wu's eyes widened as he looked over at Edgar, and he sensed movement behind him. For a moment he thought there was something in the room with them, but then he saw it was down in the hatchery, illuminated by the spotlights.

Another, larger Raptor stood absolutely still on the other side of the pane of glass, ten feet below them. The dark brown, rough skin glowed in the harsh light; the sickle claw on the foot was raised high in a fixed position. There were no subtle movements, no balance corrections, not even the visible movements of breathing. It was completely still, and it was looking right at him.

And then, almost imperceptibly slowly, the Raptor tilted its head laterally to the side, observing them sideways on.

The hairs all over his body stood on end.

Edgar looked at him for a moment, and then followed his gaze, and saw the second Raptor, and recoiled, further back into the Cryo-Room.

"Fuck me, sideways!" he breathed. "What are they?"

"Velociraptors," Wu said.

Edgar looked from one Raptor to the other, and then looked at Wu. "How dangerous?"

Wu gave a humorless laugh. "You have no idea."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Edgar murmured, glancing back and forth at the Raptors uneasily.

Wu stepped forwards to the pane of glass, looking down at the Raptor in the hatchery below. He began speaking quietly, still staring at the Raptor.

"The Tyrannosaurs, every other carnivores on this island; they're just that. Carnivores; they're just doing what they do. There's no thought, no plans, no evil. But these guys… They'll kill for sport, for fun. In the natural world; they're the villains."

The Raptor snarled up at him, baring its glowing white fangs.

"Careful," Edgar murmured, frowning. "Can't they get through the glass?"

Wu shook his head. "This room borders the hatchery, which was kept at a lower pressure and a different atmospheric concentration. Because this room is vacuum sealed, the glass is built to take the force of the pressure."

Wu paused for a second, and then looked down at the pistol handgun which was held limply in Edgar's hand.

"Where'd you get that?" he said.

Edgar stared for a moment, looked down at the gun in his hand, and then back at Wu. "What?"

"Guiterrez had the gun."

Edgar sniffed, and backed up a few steps. "He must have dropped it somewhere."

"You took it?"

Edgar frowned, and then looked at the Raptors outside the room. "You going to complain?"

"Given the present situation, no…"

Wu approached the large server, and began typing on the small keypad on the shelf, plugging in the first of the portable hard drives.

"How are we going to get out of here when you're done?" Edgar said, standing at the airlock door, looking at the Raptor milling around in the genetics lab.

"We'll worry about that later."

The heavy door of the control room in the geothermal power plant banged open in the gloom, and Guiterrez looked in carefully before entering. Anderson followed a moment later, backing into the room, aiming his rifle outside.

He closed the door behind him, and there was a clunk as the lock slammed into place, sealing them in.

With a click the strip lights on the ceiling flickered to life, the sound of the generator underneath them whirring to life.

Guiterrez walked over to the computer terminal which Tim had used before, and hit the power button. An electronic sizzle sparked over the servers lining the wall at the back of the room, a flash of light illuminating them for a moment, before the drives of the computer whirred, and screen came to life before them. Anderson pulled up a heavily dusted swivel chair, and sat down heavily, resting his feet on the table as Guiterrez gripped the cursor, looking at the screen in front of him.

The screen flashed up, at the main menu; it hadn't logged Tim out of the system. The screen was bright blue, and the InGen logo was printed in the top portion of the monitor.

InGen Geothermal Power Facility

Main Access

Guiterrez looked at the screen in front of him, and then stopped, and frowned. He didn't know what to do next. The computers that he was used to using were novice-compatible, the standard modern operating systems. He wasn't fluent in the command line code language necessary to operate the system.

"I need the radio," he said, holding his hand out.

Anderson reached into his pocket, and rustled around, producing the radio in his palm. He handed it over, flicking the power button on.

Guiterrez took it, and pressed transmit.

"Tim, I need help here; what do I do?"

There was a crackle of static, which quickly dissipated. Guiterrez waited for a moment, but there was nothing; no answer.

"Tim?" Are you there?"

There was still no answer. Anderson frowned, and leaned forwards. He took the radio.

"Wu, you there?"

"Nice to hear from you, Colonel Kurtz," said Edgar's voice.

Anderson's face contorted for a moment, and then he said. "Is Wu with you?"

"I'm here," said Wu's voice over the sound of typing.

"Where's Tim?"

"Beats me, we're in a bit of a bind here."

Anderson frowned, and looked at Guiterrez, who simply shrugged. "Alright, do you know how to operate the systems in the geothermal plant?"

There was a brief pause. "Not really, but try 'Go to radio net. Make sure 'go to' is a single word and that you hyphenate the sentence."

Guiterrez nodded, and slowly typed out the characters on the keyboard.

: Goto_radio-net

He hit the return key. The discs whirred, and then the screen changed.

"I didn't see any radio dish on the roof," Guiterrez said as he waited for the terminal.

"It's on the other side of the plant," Wu said.

The screen became uniform black, and bright green text scrolled onto the monitor rapidly.

Radio Tower Communications Offline

Guiterrez looked at Anderson, who simply looked confused. He simply hit the return button, and he was startled for a moment as the terminal beeped loudly, and the text retracted from the screen, and then new text scrolled on.

Would you like to initialize Radio Communications?

Guiterrez paused for a moment, and then pushed the 'Y' button. Again, the terminal beeped loudly, and the text retracted from the screen, the cursor moving swiftly left across the monitor. A moment later it scrolled back the way it had come, new text following it swiftly.

Power Output Minimal Efficiency – 20%

Would you like to initialize Radio Communications?

Guiterrez made a strange sound, indecisive sound, and looked at Anderson questioningly. Anderson merely shrugged, and pushed the 'Y' button.

"Can't hurt now," he said.

All of a sudden a burst of harsh static burst from a microphone, which lay hidden behind the monitor, shrouded by thick cobwebs.

Guiterrez reached over, and pulled it forwards, brushing the dust away with his fingers, the gleaming metallic sheen glowing in the gloom of the room.

"Hello?" he said into it experimentally. "Hello? Anybody there?"

Anderson pointed at the screen, where long streams of numbers were scrolling across the screen, the integers changing, flicking backwards and forwards.

"What's this?" Guiterrez said, gesturing to the screen.

"I think it's the radio channel measured in Hertz," Anderson said, rubbing his chin with his hand.

For a moment he didn't move, and then he reached over Guiterrez's shoulder, and began typing on the keyboard. Guiterrez frowned as Anderson hit the return key, and the numbers on the screen changed, and then locked on to a frequency.

"What's that?"

"It's the radio frequency of the fleet monitoring the Las Cinco Muertes island chain," Anderson said slowly, staring at the screen.

Guiterrez's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

Anderson looked at him for a moment, and then smiled. "I used to be stationed there. I took part in the navy effort after the San Diego incident."

Guiterrez stared for a moment. "Oh."

Anderson grabbed the microphone, and pressed transmit.

"San Juan approach, this is Major. John Anderson, come in please."

There was a moment silence, and then a southern drawl filtered into the room, the voice crackled and intermittent.

"This is Colonel Terry Davis, how did you get this channel?"

Anderson ignored him. "We are in need of immediate assistance, please help."

"I'm going to ask you to change your broadcast channel immediately, sir…"

"Just listen to me!"

"Listen, we get pranks like this all of the time. You are risking prosecution and jail-time if this is a false call."

Anderson raised his voice. "Listen, pal, I used to be stationed right there with the fleet, and I am requesting your assistance. We are in mortal peril."

The man's demeanor changed slightly.

"What's your location?"

"Isla Nublar, eighty miles north-east of Isla Sorna."

There was a pause. "That island is restricted property, son, now what is this about?"

"An InGen expedition has suffered a major incident, there was several casualties. This island harbors biological hostiles and we require imminent extraction."

Over the radio we could hear muttering voices, and the sound of sailors calling to each other in the background. "We're approximately sixty miles from your position, we'll be there as soon as possible."

Guiterrez grinned. "Hot damn!" he said.

"Air-extraction at the helipad located at the north-west of the island," Anderson said.

"Roger that, Terry Davis out."

There was the blast of a shipping horn in the background, and the sound of crashing waves against the hull of the ship. The sound of hollering sailors carried over as the ship came about.