A few days later, Malcolm headed to San Diego. He was able to contact Eddie Carr about the new plan.
At Eddie's manufacturing plant, Malcolm explained to Eddie how they would have to leave earlier than planned.
"You can't shave three days off my deadline, expect everything to be ready." Eddie said. "I'm not fully supplied. I haven't field-tested any of this."
"What's the point of giving her a mobile radio telephone if it doesn't even work." Malcolm said. It was a relatively recent invention of Eddie's, and it was still in prototype stages. "What's the matter with this?"
"Could be anything: solar flares, thunderstorms, maybe she even turned it off."
Malcolm and Eddie walked past two trailers that were connected with a canvas cover. The vehicle was a heavily customized 1937 Hunt Housecar, painted in a jungle camouflage scheme. The Housecar had been fitted with a radio, a medical lab in the second trailer, barred windows, and safety glass. The housecar was also customized to be much larger than others its type. Besides the custom housecar, the team would also be traveling in two similarly painted 1937 Chevy Suburbans. One fitted with a glass roof. Both with barred windows.
"I need half-air on, on the tires here, guys." Eddie instructed his mechanics.
"Maybe she doesn't know how to use it?" Malcolm said, referring to the phone.
"What, are you kidding me? She's mailed me refinements on fifty percent of the plans for this stuff." Eddie said.
Malcolm began banging the radio telephone against the trailer.
"Ow, ow, ow." Eddie winced. He absolutely hated technology being abused. "Don't do that, don't do that. You gotta baby it a little bit. You gotta love it."
"I'll love it when it works." Malcolm muttered.
"It'll work when you love it. Let me see it." Eddie said.
Suddenly, a 1934 Chevy Sedan pulled into the garage.
"Coming along, Eddie?" Malcolm asked.
"I don't usually. I don't like the field much. But in this case, I can't resist."
A man exited the sedan. "Thanks for the two-minute warning, Eddie." The man said.
"Nick Van Owen." Eddie explained. "This is Ian Malcolm. Nick's our photojournalist."
"How do you do?" Ian greeted.
"Ian's our...Ian." Eddie said.
"What's your background? War correspondent?"
"Yeah. Combat, National Geographic, you name it. When I was with National Geographic, I was in Turkey, the Kingdom of Iraq, all over China. Thanks." One of Eddie's mechanics took Nick's camera equipment. "Do some volunteer work with the Sierra Club once in a while." Nick continued.
"The Sierra Club. What drew you there?" Malcolm asked.
"Women." Nick said, smiling. "Eighty percent female, Sierra Club."
"Noble." Malolm said, with a bit of sarcasm.
"Yeah, well, noble was last year." Nick said, carrying more equipment out of his sedan. "This year, I'm getting paid. Hammond's check cleared, or I wouln't be going on this wild goose chase."
"Uh, where you're going is the only place in the world where the geese chase you." Malcolm stated.
A girl suddenly ran into the garage, yelling "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" She ran up and embraced Malcolm in a hug. "Oh, Kelly, my honey!" Malcolm said laughing. Kelly Malcolm was the youngest daughter of Malcolm. She was African-American, and Malcolm and his second wife got married in Michigan, one of the few places interracial marriages were legal. After divorcing, Malcolm took Kelly to San Diego to live. Malcolm received a lot of negative reactions from people. Though there were a few who commended him on being a single father.
"You found it. What took you so long?"
"Sorry, I couldn't get a cab." Kelly explained.
"Sweetie, that's okay." Malcolm said. "Now listen, I gotta tell you, uh, something. I gotta talk to you."
Eddie took Malcolm to an upstairs office where Kelly and him could talk privately. Malcolm explained to Kelly she would be staying with a family friend.
"I don't even know this woman." Kelly said.
"What are you talking about, it's Karen. You've known her for ten years." Malcolm explained.
"She doesn't even have a radio. She's such a troglodyte." Kelly said.
"Cruel, but good word use." Malcolm said.
"Why can't I stay with Sarah?" Kelly said.
"Uh, because, Sarah is out of town." Malcolm said. "Karen's fantastic. though. She said she'd take you horseback riding, the motion pictures. You're going to have a fantastic time."
"Stop saying "fantastic"." Kelly said. "Where are you going anyway?"
"Uh, it's only for a few days." Malcolm explained. "But I wouldn't be going if it wasn't, uh, wasn't really important."
"I'm your daughter all the time, you know." Kelly said. "You can't just abandon me whenever opportunity knocks."
"Gee, that hurts my feelings." Malcolm said. "Did your mom tell you to say that?"
Over an intercom, Eddie said, "Dr. Malcolm, downstairs, please."
"Uh, you know, sweetie," Malcolm said, "I know we've had some hard going, but in the last couple of years, we've really started to work things out. Hasn't it been better?"
"Yeah, but I want you to crack on me a little bit," Kelly said, "Ground me or something, send me to my room. You never do any of that stuff."
"Well, why would I?" Malcolm said. "'Cause you turned out to be so, uh, so beautiful, and brilliant, and powerful, and funny, and generous. The queen, the goddess, my inspiration."
"Dr. Malcolm." Eddie said on the intercom, his voice more urgent.
"I could come with you." Kelly said. "I could be your research assistant, like I was in Austin."
"This is nothing like Austin." Malcolm said, in a serious tone. "Uh, but, anyway, you got your own stuff. You got your track and field competition. You've been training for that for months."
"Track and field?" Kelly asked, "I scrubbed out, dad. I got cut from the team. Thanks for knowing." She walked over to the office window.
"Oh, I'm sorry, honey." Malcolm said calmly. "I, uh, I know how much that meant to you."
Kelly turned around, "You like to have kids, but you just don't want to be with them, do you?"
"Hey, I'm not the one who dumped you here and split for Paris," Malcolm slammed a desk drawer shut. "So don't take it out on me."
"Dr. Malcolm, downstairs." Eddie said again on the intercom.
"Honey., I'm...sorry. I'm sorry." Malcolm said softly. "Uh, hey, you want some good parental advice, don't listen to me. Don't listen to me."
Malcolm walked out of the office. Malcolm found Eddie standing by what appeared to be a small platform with a metal fence and roof.
"How're we doin' here?" Eddie said to his engineers.
"Specs say it can't deform at twelve-thousand P.S.I., so we're just gonna test it." The engineer said.
"Well, let's clear. Are we clear?" Eddie said.
"What is this?" Malcolm asked.
"A high hide." Eddie said over the noise of the platform being hauled into the air by a winch. "A high hide. You know, you go up and you hide, high. It goes up to where the trees are and keeps the researchers out of harm's way."
"Uh, actually, it'd put them at a very convenient biting height." Malcolm commented. "Um, what's the time? Do you have the time?"
"Do I have the time, why?" Eddie asked.
"We're leaving in three hours." Malcolm said.
"Three hours? Woah, woah, woah, woah."
As Malcolm and Eddie discussed the plans, Kelly came over to the housecar. She got inside and looked around.
"This is so cool." Kelly said. As she explored further into the custom-made trailers, she saw a map taped to a wall. It was a map of Costa Rica and the Pacific coast. At the far corner of the map was a small archipelago of small islands. The middle island, which was also the largest was named "Isla Sorna".