19
8 – The visit
Very logically, the visit begins by the scientific space, situated at the ground floor of the main building : the laboratory of genetics, the zones of study then the room with incubators. In the passage, Nicolas gets acquainted with Bryan Narrow, the paleontologist of the park.
- This man will be a big help for you, announces Owen. He is going to teach you the criteria of recognition of the various kind of animals of the reserve.
Around them, small dinosaurs of various species, been born recently, stir under the warmed domes.
The visit of this sector ends by a passage in the infirmary. An Ankylosaurus, hurt in a leg, is in the course of care.
- I believed that you let the nature express itself freely, if I remember well the articles which I read about this island, says Nicolas, a little surprised ?
- You are theoretically right but, you see, certain species are represented only by a small number of individuals. Then, we are obliged to cheat a little if we want to keep them. It is the case of this animal. We have only three Ankylosauruses, and new born are far too young to be now released. They certainly would be devoured.
Both men reach then the top of the building, which they join by a monumental staircase.
- We added two more floors to this building, explains Owen. It accounts six, from now on. The first one is not open to the public. That's where is the control room where we were earlier, the computer room, the video surveillance terminal, the armory and the place where we store the individual equipments, and I certainly forget other rooms. We reach it by the coded door which the sentinel opened for you when you arrived.
The following three floors are dedicated to the hotel, with approximately 200 chambers by floor, offering, in the choice, a view on the park or on the sea.
And both last ones are reserved for the professionals. The fifth shelters a hall of projection and two amphitheaters, and the last one has meeting rooms of any sizes, intended for seminars or for the business rendez-vous which need a certain discretion.
Restaurants are below, not very far from labs. We can choose between a buffet or establishments of various nationalities and a gastronomic space.
Both men come down again and go out in the street, still deserted.
- When do you plan to open, asks the Frenchman ?
- Just after the bad season, which approaches very quickly.
Owen stops.
- On this side, at the end of the street, he says, stretching his arm, there is always the basin of the enormous Mosasaurus.
« We considerably strengthened the safety to avoid any risk.
- You did not have too much trouble keeping him alive all these years and doing all the modifications without it attacks the workers ?
- To tell the truth, no. It did not give any problem to us, but pterosaurs. After their escape of the aviary, most were shot down, but some went to take refuge on the cliffs which line the ocean. We had all the difficulties of the world to eliminate them.
- To eliminate them?
- Yes. They had no more their place in a reserve where animals move freely. They would have had all the possibilities to go out of it and attack the visitors. It is an eventuality which we could not accept. In principle, they have all disappeared. Nevertheless, we make regularly patrols to verify.
Both men go up quietly the street, turning the back on the basin of the marine reptile. In front of them, a gigantic two-storeyed building blocks the passage.
- Do not trust there, says Owen. You do not see all this building because it also have a basement. We reconstituted there a rain forest of the Jurassic in which the visitors can walk and be next to livened up dinosaurs. The air party is a museum which shelters Harvey Harper's collections, whom you saw just now, enriched by donations of private individuals or museums which confided us a party of their surpluses. I think that this gigantic collection will fascinate young and adult people. A party of the second floor is dedicated to the rotating exposures. The first one, already in position, is dedicated to theropodes.
- That is ?
- Carnivorous bipeds such as the Tyrannosaurus, the Ceratosaurus, the Allosaurus or smallest ones as the Velociraptor or the Compsognathus.
« We shall visit another time, because we have many things to be seen and, after lunch, we have to return to the control room, where our employers will wait for us.
« Do you see villas hung on the side of the hill on our right, dominating the park ? There are thirty. They are intended for an well-to-do clientele who wishes to avoid the crowd. At present, they are almost quite empty and the last occupants go away this evening, as long as weather conditions are still favorable.
« I suggest you interesting us now in what will be from now on your field of activity and, to start with, I propose to discover the observation posts. They are intended for the scientific study and will not be proposed to the public, for obvious reasons of difficulties of access, as you are going to be able to realize it. »
Returned in the main building, both men come down in the basements reserved, for the main part, to the service. Reached at the foot of the staircase, they are in front of two identical doors. By means of his swipe card, Owen unbolts one. They penetrate into a tunnel where a kind of tip truck on eight places waits for them.
As soon as they sit, the machine starts, at low speed, following the rails fixed to the ground.
After a while relatively long, the machine begins slowing down. It arrives in a vaster zone and lines up along a quay ended with a staircase in its extremity.
Both friends borrow it and go back up towards the surface. They soon arrive in a circular room, about six meters diameter, covered by a translucent dome. All around are arranged tables and chairs. Plugs and RJ 45 are also installed.
Owen approaches an electronic device which he lights. Immediately, on the screen, appears a card of the park with points of color which move.
- We are in one of the fixed observation posts, he specifies. There are two, where two trains carry like the one that you took. The second is implanted in a more forest zone.
« The dome which recovers us is made with armored glass, almost unbreakable. It outside surface is covered with an opaque layer. The animals which surround us cannot see us and take this site for a rock furthermore.
« All the dinosaurs are equipped with an electronic chips as cows in the breedings. They are thus identified individually.
« On this screen, you can see carnivorous in red and herbivorous in green. I know, we did not too much sprain ourselves for the choice of colors ! Both letters next to the point indicate us the concerned species.
« We are here. We can know, of a simple glance, which animals are nearby and in which direction they move.
« Look, a group of Diplodocus comes towards us, slightly on our right. This screen avoids us bursting our eyes to try to see what takes place all around.
« The big herbivores are not still visible. They are doubtless in the hollow of the ground. Nevertheless, thanks to this device, we already know that they are soon going to appear.
Nicolas looks in the indicated direction.
- I still see nothing, he eventually tells.
- Wait ! It is the affair of a handful of seconds. The first individual is very close by now.
Actually, a head emerges from the ground. It tosses weakly at the rate of the step of the impressive saurian. Then it rises little by little and the body appears gradually.
The animal grows, increases so that it never seems to have to stop.
The Frenchman is impressed. Of course ! He read books on dinosaurs. He was amazed in front of their insane characteristics. But this past admiration has nothing to do with what he feels now. He looks, fascinated, the enormous mass which parades now in front of him, quietly. Just behind, other individuals already appear. It's a whole herd which passes at the moment, making vibrate the ground in a crash of thunder.
- Surprising, is not it, says Owen.
Nicolas hears him hardly. He has eyes riveted on the hallucinating show which offers itself to him and leaves him open-mouthed.
- Sorry to break the spell, pursues his friend, but we have to go there, now.
Of a precise movement, he switches off the screen.
- You see, he says, all our machines are equipped with this type of screen. It allows to localize the predators and to measure the risk which they represent when we have to intervene in the park. The control room can also post all the island on the big screen, if necessary.
The journey of return is almost silently made. Nicolas has difficulty in convincing himself of the reality of what he has just seen.
Returned in the street, the American goes back on the word.
- Recover, amigo, you saw nothing yet ! I am going to show you our material of intervention then we shall go to take a walk in the park, but on surface, this time.
- And animals will let us do it ?
- With the machines which we have, we risk nothing. You are going to be able to judge it by yourself.
Both men go to an enormous shed. Owen unbolts a small door with his badge and penetrates inside. To every person who he meets, guard or worker, he takes care of presenting his friend.
Here, he pursues, it is our domain, away from prying eyes.
They reach in an enormous hall where are tidied up two helicopters.
- We can intervene by air or ground traffic. Here, we have a helicopter of attack, type "Apache", and another one, a Pave Low, for the transport of equipment or big animals. The two gigantic doors that you see in front of us open on the platform of flight.
« In the floor below are vehicles. The shed where they are parked, almost as big as this one, is divided into two. On one side, the light vehicles, the jeep, the small vans or the minibus, among which some are equipped with a 12.7 machine gun and, on the other side, more powerful vehicles that I am going to make you discover.
Having come down by an enormous lift, both men penetrate into the surrounding wall where are impeccably tidied up four armored vehicles. The fifth place, marked on the ground, is free.
- We have two eight wheels drive vehicles for the transport of troops, pursues Owen. They carry as well an intervention team or a group of workers. The machine at the bottom is a recovery tank. It serves above all to fetch wounded or sick dinosaurs, which it transports on this trailer which you see, with three axles, equipped with a removable glazed dome. We close it during the route to protect the animal of predator's possible attack. It also takes the young individuals when we have to release them. Numerous species live in groups or in herds.
« In these cases, it is better than the newcomer is freed in their immediate neighborhood, to facilitate his coverage by the older individuals.
« This modified heavy tank stays finally. In fact, we have two exemplars of it : the second waits for us in the exit gate for the visit. The driver is already ready. We replaced the turret by an armored glass dome, as the one that you saw in the observation post, because they are before all vehicles of observation, even if they possess a machine gun next to the cockpit.
- How were you able to get all these vehicles yourselves, says Nicolas, admiring ?
- As he indicated to you before, Harvey Harper is general of reserve. He is besides very influential in the military circles. He was thus able to get himself firstly these vehicles of reform.
« Lord Mordegan and Toshiro Nakagoshi refurbished them and delivered them to us. Maintenance crews are very effective and this equipment is then very reliable.
« But I have enough spoken ! Let us be going to make a tour !
Owen opens the reinforced door and precedes his friend inside the airlock, where the second tank with glass dome waits for them.
- You see, he says, no risk so that an animal gets into the tourist zone. If, by opening the outside door, a dinosaur was in the area, he could not go farther than here.
« Door panels, behind us, are foolproof and they are locked when the others are opened.
« The light vehicles of the other shed also pass by this way, except when they go to control the surrounding wall of the park. In this case, they exit through a small side door directly into the path that we have built between the concrete wall and reinforced mesh. This one makes the tour of the island and allows to move in complete safety.
« By the way, I introduce you to Asensio. He will be our driver.
- You are Asensio Tolores, asks immediately the Frenchman, the brother of Magdalena ?
- Yes, senor, she warned me of your arrival. Welcome ! If you need anything, do not hesitate to appeal to me !
- You know " the tigress ", says the American with a quietly ironic air ? And she did not tear your eyes off ?
Nicolas does not answer. He sees again the soft face at the time of his departure.
Without further delay, both men climb in the armored vehicle of which Asensio started the engine.
The gigantic doors open and the machine penetrates into the park.
- Generally, says Owen, we avoid, as far as possible, to disturb the animals. We do not pass in the middle of the herds and, when individuals approach too much near, we stop engines and wait that they passed.
The machine advances heavily on the track, in the middle of the dinosaurs that slowly move aside in its path.
- You see, pursues the American, on our right, these sorts of ostriches without feathers, they are Gallimimus.
" Further on, you can see two magnificent Brachiosaurus, which stand their head at about fourteen meters high. On our left, you have, in the foreground, three Stegosauruses and, just behind, Triceratopses. All these animals live together without too much problem.
Suddenly, the tank stands still and the engine stops.
- A problem, Asensio, asks for Owen ?
- No, not at all. But we have a Tyrannosaurus in approximately six hundred meters at nine o'clock, and it comes straight ahead on us.
- It is our Grandpa !
- Grandpa, says Nicolas, surprised ?
- Yes ! It is in the park since the beginning. It is one of the oldest specimens. This is why we so call it. But, in fact, we do not know the longevity of these animals. Maybe, it is still very young.
« But I do not see its female.
- It is just behind us, unless one hundred and fifty meters.
Both passengers turn the head and perceive the second Tyrannosaurus, which moves without haste.
Quickly, the numerous herbivores went away but the big predators are not apparently in hunting.
- Wait, says sudden Owen, I forgot to connect the screen.
He presses a button and a device ignites in front of them.
- It is the same as the one that I showed to you in the fixed post. The yellow point identifies the location of the tank. And we see clearly the red points, on the side, which indicate our both théropodes.
- And this third red point marked DI, asks Nicolas ?
- Devil, swears his friend ! Here it is again, that one !
« It is a Dilophosaurus and it does not like our machines. In a little moment, it will jump on the tank, unfold its collar and spit its poison. It does that every time, as soon as it locates us. But we found the parade, I am going to show you.
After a few moments of wait, a small dinosaur suddenly jumps up on the armored car and begins its operation of intimidation.
- Now, says Owen !
He makes turn a small steering wheel fixed in front of him.
Immediately, a relatively short tube, situated outside of the dome, change its orientation and turns in the direction of the intruder.
Then he presses on a button.
A powerful water jet is thrown on the face of the animal which, surprised, retreats.
- Bingo ! As you see, it is very simple. But this moron has not understood the lesson yet.
All this time, both Tyrannosauruses paraded, the one in front of the tank and the other one behind it, without worrying more about it.
- They do not seem to pay attention to us, says Nicolas.
- You know, when we are stopped like now, we are, neither more nor less, a static element of their environment, therefore without interest.
- And you are never attacked?
- It happened several times, at the beginning. Personally, I have attended chargeable to a Triceratops which did not accept our presence on its territory. The shock has been impressive, to such a point that it broke one of its horns. Since then, he avoids us carefully.
« This heavy tank in which we are exceed thirty tons and its center of gravity is placed very low. So it is very difficult to move it and, more, to reverse it. So we are not too scared. And then, animals are now used to us.
Both Tyrannosauruses now disappeared. The vehicle resumes quietly its way.
After a while, it arrives in a wide valley. In front of them, some Pachycéphalosauruses run away.
At the edge of a grove, a flock of Parasaurolophuses, raised on their hind legs, pulls off the branches of the trees.
Farther, Iguanodons penetrate in a forest which looks very different from its neighbours.
- Here begin mister Nagakoshi's garden, specifies Owen, a massif of about one hundred hectares constituted by plants which lived in the secondary era. We want to know if herbivores will prefer them to our current vegetation.
"We have specially created a nursery that allows us to raise and then gradually plant ancient species among those of today.
And we took advantage of it to create an arboretum aimed at the general public.
« But, in fact, that is what I wanted to show you, pursues the American.
The tank is arrested next to a vertical element of big diameter, which vaguely looks like a tree.
- We chose, he pursues, not to mix the tourists with animals. So, so that the first ones can observe the second ones without risk, we imagined two different systems. We are at the moment below the first one. It is a heightened course which the visitors can browse freely on foot. At regular intervals, we have implanted elements of this type. They are truncated cone-shaped pillars ending at the top with a ring through which a rigid glass tube passes. The walkers can thus see animals situated below them and even the biggest, such as the Brachiosaurus, can pass freely, the purpose being to disturb dinosaurs the least possible.
This airway is equipped with a moving sidewalk, for the children and the people with reduced mobility. To stop a moment, it is enough to leave it while approaching the lateral walls. By this system, each can manage his course at its pace. Also, we shall propose two circuits, a small of five kilometers and a long of ten.
« Arrived at a crossing, the visitors will thus have the choice : either return directly by crossing the forest zone, or continue the exploration.
- All this system has to consume a considerable energy, because I suppose that the tube must be air-conditioned ?
- You are right, but it has no importance because all the roof of this big path is covered with photovoltaic panels. Here, everything functions with solar energy, plentiful and free.
Owen stops one moment to speak.
- Damn, he says suddenly, I thought that we could leave the tank to go to see on foot our second device of visit, but it will not be possible.
- Why ?
- Because of them !
Three small bipeds have stopped in the border of a clump of trees, and stare at the stopped vehicle.
- They do not look very impressive !
- Do not trust there. They are Coeluruses. They are not very tall but are carnivorous. Individually, they do not represent a big danger for us. But they go hunting in bands to attack bigger preys. I do not want to serve as lunch to them. We see three but doubtless they are twenty or twenty five, the others being masked by trees.
« Moreover, look ! On the monitor screen, the red points marked CO are really many.
« Too bad, pursues Owen ! We shall see everything from here, but you are going to have to use your sharp vision. Have a glance on the left ! You are going to perceive a monorail fixed in height to concrete pillars with a camouflage painting.
- I see it, says Nicolas.
- Hey well, we are going to make circulate light trains which can transport each about one hundred people.
« The journey is fifty kilometers long. Vehicles will move with a speed of thirty kilometers per hour and will slow down at regular intervals to allow the passengers to observe animals, to film them or to take photos of them.
« We shall make one of these machines leave approximately every five minutes. As they are all scheduled in the same way, they will not catch.
- And, if one of them grave out of order ?
- No problem. They are all equipped, in front as in the back, with electromagnets. If one of them stops, the following one will come to hang on and will tow both. The passengers will notice practically nothing because the visit will continue.
- And in case of general breakdown?
- Every train is equipped with a thermal power-driven generator which develops enough power to bring back the machine. We can start it from the PC of surveillance by WiFi.
- You thought of everything!
- I do not think so. If what you have described us is confirmed, we will have to deal with unwanted visitors and this was not planned.
Owen looks at his watch.
- It's time to return. We shall just have time enough to eat something quickly because we have to be back in the control room at thirty past two pm. Our employers want to make a last briefing before leaving and they go away at sixteen o'clock pm.
« Asensio, we return !
- Okay ! I'm doing a U-turn.
On the way, they meet a group of Styracosauruses, then some Stegosauruses.
Nicolas feels a little lost.
He wonders how he will be able to recognize all these animals
- Have you a lot of species in this park, he finishes to say ?
Around thirty, at the moment. Most date the first park and, for many of them, we have no more the possibility of recreating them, because we no longer have the necessary informations. But our scientists "create" us regularly new species. It is necessary to say that they make an exceptional work.
« The main proportion of the animals is constituted by herbivores as most of those that we met.
« We have also two couples of big predators : the Tyrannosauruses which you saw and Allosauruses. Each of them occupies a different zone of the park. So, they never meet.
« We have then medium-sized carnivorous, Herrerasaurus and Deinonichus, and small as Coelurus. It is necessary to add our old Dilophosaurus. It is a former because it was already there during the time of John Hammond. It is alone and will have no successor. When people of In Gen left places, they took the embryos and all the folders. Having no information about it, we have never managed to recreate it. Anyway, our scientists are very sceptical about it. According to the skeletons found during excavations, the Dilophosaurus had two ridges but no collar. We also have a doubt on its capacity to spit some poison, but, especially, it was 2,50 meters high and 6 meters long.
Compared to the real one, ours is very small. A hypothesis is that the researchers have found only a partial DNA and then have completed it with that of the lizard with ruffle of Australia. That would explain the decrease of size.
« Just to say that ours was the first one and will be the last one of this kind. That is why we have a particular affection for it, even if it is always dangerous and if it is a damned pain in the neck.
« Look, moreover, when you speak of the devil ! Here it is !
Indeed, emerging from a group of bushes, Dilophosaurus rushes back to the tank and, like the first time, he is greeted by a powerful jet of water in the face that cuts him in his run-up.
- It is incredible, pursues Owen ! Since the time, it still did not understand.
« Well ! I end. We have finally some omnivorous and scavengers which serve in particular to clean the park.
- Pity, says Nicolas ! All these strange creatures, all these unpronounceable names, it is too much for me !
- Be reassured, you will learn fast ! Furthermore, we edited a guide of the present species, aimed at the visitors. I shall give you an exemplary later.
The shed, main entrances of which open slowly, is now in sight.
The tank penetrates immediately into the sieve.
The doors situated behind it close, then those placed in front of it open.
The armoured vehicle returns then to its location. The two men go out of it and quickly go back to the main street.
They walk along the "Dinosaur Farm", a space dedicated to children where toddlers can rub shoulders with herbivorous saurian babies, those babies who will become giants later.
Finally, they penetrate into the self-service.
The meal is fast and almost silent.
Nevertheless, Nicolas is worried. He eventually speaks.
- When you spoke to me about carnivorous, you did not speak to me about those that I saw on the island which occupies Trevor.
- It is normal. The Indominus Rex was unique and, as I told you, a real monster, in every sense of the word. This type of mercantile imaginating has been definitively given up.
- And the others, the Veloci… ?
- The Velociraptors ? There is not any more.
- Nevertheless, if I have understood well what have said the young lady just now …
- Claire Dearing ?
- Yes, if I understood well, there have been some here and you were even their trainer.
- Yes indeed, there were several specimens here in the past but we are no longer able to recreate them any more. Only In Gen knows the method.
« They were four and I was not their trainer. I had some kind of pact with them.
- And what did they become ?
- They were massacred by the Indominus Rex, to protect me. Only one survived : Blue, a female, my preferred.
- Where is it, now ?
- I do not know. When everything was ended, when the monster was dead and the quiet came back, we stayed one facing the other, and looked each other, without moving.
« I did not tell anything to it. I did not find the words.
« Even no one thank you.
« Then it turned away and left.
" Since then, this souvenir haunts me. What a moron I have been ! What would it have cost me to have a soft word, an affectionate movement. I am sure that Blue was waiting for it.
« I never saw it again.
« I skimmed all the park, examined all the corpses, studied all the skeletons.
- Maybe is it still alive ?
- I really would like ! But nothing is less certain. Velociraptors live and go hunting in group. And it was alone. I do not know if an individual of this species can continue so. Especially that it was a long time ago, now.
« This impression to have spoiled something important, to have lost it, poisoned me the life and I never really have been cured of it.
- I know about what you speak, says Nicolas. Neither do I, I never really have been cured of Cleo's loss. You know the story. Useless to tell it once again.
The end of the meal takes place silently, each of both men being lost in his own memories.