The screeching of the raptors rang throughout the clearing as we approached their cage.
"Dr. Grant!" Hammond called out. "As I was saying, we laid on lunch for you before you set out into the park. Our gourmet chef Alejandro-"
"What are they doing?" Dad cut him off as a crane began to swing up and over to the cage.
"Oh," Hammond looked up at the cow now in sight. "Feeding them. Alejandro's, uh, prepared a delightful menu for us: Chilean sea bass, I believe. Uh, shall we?"
Dad ignored him and went up the steps to watch the feeding. The rest of us followed, though we all were reluctant to watch what was sure to be a gore fest.
The cow began to let out alarmed mooing as it descended further into the cage. Loud, and heavy rasping breathing was heard soon after the trees began to shake, slightly at first and then violently. The breathing quickly turned into loud and ferocious roaring as ripping sounded, followed shortly by the cow shrieking. Bile rose up in my throat as I caught a glimpse of the cows leg being torn off. I didn't want to watch this anymore, yet I couldn't find it in myself to turn away.
"They should all be destroyed," a man said as he joined us on the platform. Finally I tore my gaze away to look at him.
"Aha! Robert. Robert Muldoon, my game warden from Kenya," Hammond said. "Bit of an alarmist, I'm afraid, but knows more about raptors than anyone."
Dad made his way over. "What kind of metabolism do they have? What's their growth rate?"
"They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal. I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move-"
"Fast for a biped?" I asked.
"Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles per hour, if they ever got out in the open. And they're astonishing jumpers."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's why we're taking extreme precautions," Hammond cut in quickly. Turning back to Ellie and Donald he continued. "The viewing area down here..."
"Do they show intelligence?" Dad was asking as I came up beside him to listen in. Across from me, Ian seemed to be listening to both conversations intently. "With their brain cavity, we assumed that-"
"They're extremely intelligent," Muldoon answered. "Even problem-solving intelligence, especially the big one. We bred eight raptors originally, but she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one, when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came."
"The fences are all electrified, though, right?" Ellie asked.
"That's right, but they never attack the same place twice," Muldoon said. "They were testing the fences for weakness systematically. They remember."
The crane hummed as it resurfaced from the trees, now broken and falling apart. Blood dripped off of the blue canvas, which was already torn to shreds. (have you noticed that the harness was clean when it resurfaced in the movie? It's bothered me because with the amount of damage it suffered there should have been something on it.)
"Yes. Well. Who's hungry?" Hammond asked lightly.
~line break~
While the food looked good, I could only stare at the fish blankly. After watching the raptors have their own "gourmet" meal, I didn't think I could even bare to have mine.
"None of these attractions are ready yet, of course, but the park will open with the basic tour you're about to take," Hammond was saying. "And then other rides will come on-line six or twelve months after that. Absolutely spectacular. Spared no expense."
"And we can charge anything we want: 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day. And people will pay it," Donald spoke up excited. I rolled my eyes, no one in their right minds would pay that sort of price for a day- no matter how amazing the sight would be. "And then there's merchandise. I can personally advise-"
"Donald. Donald," Hammond cut in. "This park was not built to cater only for the super rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals."
"Sure. They will," Donald said. "We'll have, uh, a coupon day or something."
"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, um... staggers me," Ian spoke up.
"Well, thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little different than you and I had feared," Donald said.
"Yeah. They're a lot worse."
"Now wait a second. We haven't even seen the park yet, and you-"
"No, Donald, Donald, Donald, let him talk. I want to hear every viewpoint, I really do," Hammond said.
"Yeah. Don't you see the danger, uh, John, inherent in what you're doing here?" Ian asked. "Genetic power's the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that's found his dad's gun."
"It's hardly appropriate to start hurling generalizations-" Donald tried to protest.
"I-I-if I may," Ian pressed on. "Um, I'll tell you what the problem with the scientific power that you're using here. Uh, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses and accomplished something as fast as you could, and before you even know what you had, you patented it, packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunch box. And now you're selling it. You wanna sell it. Well-"
"I, I don't think you're giving us our due credit," Hammond protested. "Our scientists have done things which nobody's done before."
"Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should."
"Condors. Condors are on the verge of extinction," Hammond said. "If I were to-"
"No!"
"No, no. If I was to create a flock of condors, you wouldn't have anything to say."
"Hold on, no, ok. I'm sorry, but condors and dinosaurs aren't even remotely comparable. Condors are nearly extinct because of man, dinosaurs became extinct because of natural selection," I said in a rush. Everyone had turned to look at me, causing my face to flush, but I pressed on. "What you've done here is great, props to you. But it's dangerous. You've made dangerous animals here, mixed in with peaceful ones. I mean, we know now that the raptors have already tried to escape. What would happen if it's the grand opening and they bust out? All those people- it'd be a "all you can eat" buffet to them!" I sat back and took a breath. "You asked for a "teens opinion", and there it is."
"She's right," Ellie said. "The main question, though, is: How can you know anything about an extinct ecosystem? And therefore, how could you ever assume that you can control it You have plants in this building that are poisonous. You picked them because they looked good; but these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in, and they'll defend themselves, violently, if necessary."
Hammond looked around with a victimized look. "Dr. Grant, if there's one person here who could appreciate what I'm trying to do here-"
Dad took a breath. "The world has changed so radically, and we're all running to catch up. I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but look, dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution, have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea of what to expect?"
"I don't believe it. I don't believe it," Hammond exclaimed. "You're meant to come down here and defend me against these characters and the only one I've got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer!"
"Thank you," Donald said.
I sighed and leaned over to Dad as a waiter came over to Hammond. "What was the point of bringing us if he's not going to listen to us?"
Before Dad could respond, Hammond stood up. "Well. They're here."
That's it for this chapter. The next one will be them going into the park. Anyways, let me know what you think!