Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 4: Malcolm's Book Signing
A/N: Welcome back everyone, I hope you've been enjoying the story so far. This chapter is going to feature several characters that fans of Jurassic Park should be familiar with. I hope you enjoy it.
Sitting in a chair next to a small table, a man takes his pen and neatly writes the words: Ian Malcolm on the front page of a book entitled The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Yes, this is the famous Dr. Ian Malcolm who survived not one, but two Jurassic Park related encounters in the past. Along with Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Degler (her pre-marriage name was Sattler), Malcolm was invited to Isla Nublar in 1993 because John Hammond was hoping he'd endorse it. After the incident, he did no such thing and wrote a book about the incident which he appropriately entitled, Jurassic Park. It wasn't an exact retelling, as he did add a few things, but the overall plot is the same as what really happened. The second time he had a Jurassic Park related encounter was in 1997 when John Hammond urged him to join a team that was supposed to go to the island and document the dinosaurs so that he would be able to prevent InGen from exploiting the Isla Sorna's dinosaurs. As I've mentioned before, a Tyrannosaurus escaped and terrorized San Diego before it was returned and Isla Sorna was turned into a nature reserve.
After that incident, Malcolm again wrote a book about the incident he called The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which was the reason he was at the book signing he was attending now in the Middleton Bookstore.
While waiting for another person to walk up to his booth, his wife, Dr. Sarah Malcolm (who used to be known as Sarah Harding before she got married, though she's often referred to by her pre-marriage name) put her hand on her husband's shoulder and said, "I'd say this was a good turn out."
"Oh, definitely," Malcolm answered. It had been quite busy for most of the day, but now that it was lunch time, Malcolm knew it was time for a break. "What do you say we go and have a quick bite to eat?" he asked.
"Sure, why not?" Sarah answered back. Sarah and Malcolm had been dating when Sarah also was part of the expedition to Isla Sorna in 1997. He proposed to her in 1998 and it took off from there. Sarah works at Dr. Alan Grant's fossil digs, but she hasn't been doing that lately due to her recent illness. Now that she was better, she would be going back in a week or two.
They started walking over to the dining area of Middleton Bookstore when Malcolm asked, "With Kelly helping out at that summer camp that our younger kids are attending, it sure frees time doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but it also gets lonely without them. I think–" Sarah was interrupted when the couple heard:
"Hey! Dr. Malcolm!" called a voice from behind. They turned around to see a young man in his early 20's approaching them. The man was thin in form, dressed in khaki shirt and shorts and precise in his movements and manner. Malcolm recognized him as Dr. Richard Levine, a wealthy paleontologist from Dr. Grant's dig site. Levine was the heir of the company that produced the famous Becky Dolls series, and since the dolls sold really well, Levine had a lot of money to go around. In fact, Levine wouldn't really have to work if the dolls continue to sell as well, but he worked at Grant's digs just for the fun of it and for the hope of discovering new and amazing fossil finds.
Levine hadn't been involved with an Jurassic Park Incidents so far, but he had been friends with Malcolm for quite some time, which is why Malcolm choose to add him to his book, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, even though he didn't take part in that event due to his young age at the time.
The couple stopped and gave Levine a chance to catch up. "Hello, Dr. Levine," Malcolm acknowledged.
"What have you been up to?" Sarah asked.
Levine answered after he finished panting from all the running he'd been doing. "Well, other than working at the Grant digs, I've just been doing a bunch of various stuff. How's the book signing going?"
"It was going well," Malcolm told him. "Sarah and I were just about to break for lunch."
Levine nodded and grinned. "Do you have a moment to spare?"
Levine sat in his seat drinking his lemonade next to Malcolm and Sarah. This was an common thing for Levine: popping up unannounced wanting to speak with Malcolm. As he sucked on his straw, he flipped the pages of Malcolm's Jurassic Park.
"Great book, Ian," Levine announced, "really is. But don't you think it's a bit . . . inaccurate?"
Malcolm chuckled. "I prefer the term 'creative license'. I expanded on the story to make it more interesting to the reader. I might release a more accurate word-for-word version later on."
"That's a good idea, but still, considering this was the original book you wrote about the incident, it should be the most accurate version. An example of your creative license is when you imply that John Hammond dies and gets devoured by Compsognathus. We all know very well Hammond's still alive to this day."
"Well, in the book I was attempting to make him a bit more like the 'dark side of Walt Disney', a man who had great power in the world of science and obliviously thought he could control it. That's why I gave him his demise."
"Another instance," Levine continued, "is when you die."
"I state in the second novel that I was only 'partially dead'. The doctors were able to get me back before I actually kicked the bucket."
Levine rolled his eyes. "And you added 12 species that you didn't ever see during your whole time on the island including: Apatosaurus, Hadrosaurus, Cearadactylus, Maiasaura, Othnielia, Hypsilophodon, Procomsognathus, Microceratops, Stegosaurus and others.
"You also switched the ages of the kids, making Lex younger and Tim older, you had Robert Muldoon survive, may he forever rest in peace and–"
"Yes, I added those details and the extra dinosaurs for a more compelling read."
"Dr. Alan Grant's book is much more factual. While we're on the subject, I hadn't even mentioned the Costa Rican Military you wrote about that bombed the island. Costa Rica doesn't even have it's own military!"
"But I kept to the truth that it was bombed."
"Yes, you did. That's really sad though. I mean, if they had listened to Dr. Sorkin and let the dinosaurs live, then we might have had two dinosaur preserves instead of just the one on Isla Sorna."
Malcolm nodded thoughtfully. "They could have."
"Napalm bombs may have destroyed the island," Levine said, "but I can't help but wonder if the Jurassic Park Incident had anything to do with the recent disappearance."
"What are you saying?"
Levine looked into Malcolm's eyes and said, "Isla Nublar was supposed to have been bombed, but, that recent incident when those jet-skiing men disappeared might mean that we don't know the full story. The disappearance happened around the vicinity of where Isla Nublar used to be. Don't you think some smells fishy."
"He's got a point, Honey," Sarah agreed.
Malcolm winced. "True, but anything could have happened," he argued. "A million different things could have happened to them. They could have had a shipwreck and drowned for all we know. We just don't know.
"The Chaos Theory proves the likelihood of just about anything happening. Any certain sequence of events could have caused their disappearance. We just don't know. Human beings tend to go frantic when the slightest event happens."
"Well, I've talked with Lex Murphy and she brought to my attention the chunk of meat that was brought up out of the ocean by the trawler. She showed it to some scientists and they said it was the remnants of a predator that had coughed up the bits of its prey that it couldn't digest. What could have done that?"
"Any-" but Levine didn't let him finish and continued.
"I think that something is up concerning the area where Isla Nublar once stood. Something is definitely up, and I'm determined to find out whatever it is! I think this is worth an expedition."
Malcolm laughed. "That's what I've always liked about you, Levine, you're always joking . . ." Malcolm's voice trailed off when Levine's expression told him that he wasn't joking at all. "So you're really serious."
"Of course I'm serious. Think, if something has survived, this would be an amazing research opportunity. No one has been to reserve on Isla Sorna since 2001 because the government isn't ready to let us study the dinosaurs. Don't you think this is worth investigating?"
Malcolm shrugged. "One incident doesn't prove anything, but . . ."
"Please, Malcolm," Levine pleaded. "If something's out there, we need to know about it. Even if you don't think studying whatever it is is a good idea, you must admit we should know if it's going to be a threat to people. Think of all the human lives we can save by actually knowing what's out there?"
"I still don't think it's worth an expedition. We don't have enough proof. One incident doesn't prove a thing."
Levine decided to try a different approach. "Alright then, let's just say if . . . per chance, more evidence just so happened to come up. Don't you think it would be worth an investigation?"
Malcolm was silent as he contemplated what his friend was telling him. Finally, he answered by saying, "Yes, if, and only if more proof emerges would investigation be a good decision."
"That's all I needed to know," Levine announced as he got up from the table. "It's been nice seeing you both again."
"You too," Malcolm said as Sarah nodded in agreement.
"Catch up with you later." With that, Levine left.
Sarah looked into Malcolm's eyes. She could tell that he was definitely troubled about something. "You think there's a chance something survived, don't you?"
Malcolm nodded. "Yes, I do."
"Then why didn't you say that to Levine?"
"Are you kidding? If I did, he'd start getting overenthusiastic. You know how he is." Sarah gave a brief chortle.
"Yeah, he's like that isn't he?" she added.
"In fact, it's highly likely something could have survived. You know what I've always said: 'Life . . ."
" ' . . . finds a way,' " she finished his sentence before Malcolm continued. "I don't know what could have survived if the island was destroyed."
"The disappearance took place in the water," Sarah pointed out, "so a marine creature might be an option. But I don't know if InGen ever got DNA to clone extinct marine reptiles. After all, a mosquito can't go in the ocean and suck their blood."
Malcolm shrugged and looked at his watch. "Looks like break time's over," he told his wife. "What do you say we go back to our book signing table?"
"Wise idea." She leaned over and kissed him on the lips and the two of them left the dining area.
A/N: Richard Levine is not from the movie version of Jurassic Park. He is actually from the second Jurassic Park book, "The Lost World", so I thought it would be nice to bring him into this story. Also, Malcolm's first book is actually the Jurassic Park book, but is instead written by Malcolm himself instead of Michael Crichton and that's why everyone says it is filled with lots of creative license because the events in the book are very different from the movie! The second book Malcolm wrote in my story called "The Lost World" is more like the second Jurassic Park film. Next week, I intend to introduce you readers to another well-known Jurassic Park character . . .