JURASSIC PARK III
6 – A Startling Discovery
The group of panicked people eventually came to a stop when they felt their bodies couldn't take any more. Some were leaning against a tree or on their knees to catch their breath. Pet kept her raptor like gaze outward should there be any movement from another predator if not the same one they had been trying to avoid.
Paul breathed out, "That was close," and laughed at their fortune of still being alive.
Grant, however, didn't find the situation amusing. He heaved a breath and straightened his posture. "We wouldn't have been in this situation had you people listened when I said not to land the damn plane!"
He balled up a fist and threw it at Paul, who stumbled backwards and into a vine entangled tree. Amanda rushed to intervene. "No, no! Please don't! Stop, please!"
The senior scientist growled, "It's time you did some explaining, Mr. Kirby." He massaged his sore fist and glowered at the man, dazed and laying on the ground.
Pet grabbed at good friend's arm to prevent him from continuing his physical lashing. She knew it took a lot to push the gentle spirited man to such an extreme breaking point and worried how much further he'd go if not held back. "Honey," she calmed, firming her grip. "Walk away. Just walk away."
Grant gave one last acidic glare to the grounded man and turned, walking away. Amanda helped Paul to his feet, the two looking to the other in silence. She nodded and he pressed his lips together beneath his mustache, nodding as well. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a dark brown leather wallet and flipped it open. He held it outwards for the scientist to take, but Pet took it instead knowing it best to keep some distance between the two people.
She took one look at it and squared her eyes down on Paul. "A kid?" Her watch then darted between the two Kirbys. "I take it he's your son?"
Amanda nodded, Paul explaining. "His name is Eric and yes, he's our son. He's twelve. He's always loved dinosaurs so Amanda and I thought it would be cool for him to actually see some by parasailing around the island. Little did we know..."
Pet handed the wallet to Grant, their eyes meeting. "Why is it, when shit hits the fan there's always a kid involved somewhere?"
Grant rolled his eyes and shook his head when accepting the wallet to take a look at the picture himself. Paul continued to explain. "We called everyone. We did everything we could."
Pet cut in. "Doing everything you could would've been not letting the kid come down here in the first place!"
Grant passed the wallet to Billy, the younger man taking it as Paul rambled on. "No one would help us. The Costa Rican government said this is a no-fly zone. The U.S. Embassy, that's our U.S. Embassy, told us we should accept the inevitable. Can you believe that?"
Billy was completely thrown off by everything he was hearing. "You let a twelve-year-old go parasailing alone?"
"No!" Paul barked out without hesitation.
Amanda spoke up defensively. "He wasn't alone. He was with a friend."
Paul nodded. "Ben Hildebrand."
Both of the Kirbys fell quiet for a moment, Amanda announcing, "Paul and I divorced over a year ago."
Pet snorted in annoyance and shook her head. "And here you told us this little excursion was for an anniversary. Lies. All lies. Was anything you told us true?"
"All right," Grant growled. "Why me?"
Paul took it upon himself to answer. "He said we needed someone who'd been on the island before."
"Yes," Udesky agreed, "but I did not tell you to kidnap somebody!"
"I have never been on this island," Grant stated. He was getting the urge to hit Paul again and this time, he was almost certain Pet wouldn't stop him. Hell, she might even help, judging by the look on her face.
Oblivious of the still impending threat Grant posed, Paul approached him. "Sure, you have. You wrote that book."
Billy almost erupted in laugher at the other man's ignorance and bit out a smile. "That was Isla Nublar. This is Isla Sorna. Site B."
Udesky's eyes widened and jaw dropped in horror. "You mean there are two islands with dinosaurs on them?"
Both Paul and Amanda waved a dismissing hand at the co-pilot. "Stay out of this."
A still amused Billy looked to his infuriated mentor, shaking his head. Pet cut her eyes down on Udesky. "That's usually what site B means...a secondary location."
Grant waved a hand at the hybrid to silence her while directing his attention to the Kirbys. "How long have they been missing?"
Paul glanced backwards to Amanda. "Eight weeks."
The woman nodded. "Almost eight weeks."
"Shit," Pet sighed out. She ran her hands through her hair and mumbled to herself, "Why, why, why, why..." Her words trailed off as she began to pace around in a circle.
Grant looked to the hybrid and then to his protege. "Veronica, Billy...We'll go back to the plane, salvage what we can. Then we make for the coast."
The three people started to walk away, Paul not accepting what he was assuming to be their plan. Going to the coast? To what? Set up camp? "Dr. Grant, we're not leaving this island without our son."
Grant, Billy and Pet turned to glower at the other man, the senior scientist stating, "Then you can go and look for him. Or you can stick with us, as long as you don't hold us up. Either way," He grimly began, "you probably won't get off this island alive."
Paul and Amanda looked in dread to the other, already not liking how that last statement seemed to go along with them already being roughed up after a brutal first encounter with one of the island's titans.
Billy looked to Pet. "Do you remember your way around this place?"
The hybrid snorted a laugh. "Are you serious?"
"Well, I mean it has been a while since you were here last."
"Sweetie," Pet began, tilting her head and resting her hands on her hips. "I worked on this island, tracking and tagging dinosaurs from age fifteen to eighteen. Then, only to turn around and live here alone for another four. So…you tell me."
"I'm going to go with yes."
Pet smirked and nodded. "Stick with me, Boy Scout, and you'll earn your merit badge in Dino Survival." She turned to leave, Grant and Billy going with her.
Udesky visually examined the firm woman head to toe in her passing. Paul approached him, questioning. "So? What do we do?"
Udesky thought himself a decent survivalist, but knew the chances of surviving an island with dinosaurs was dismal should they split up. "We look for your son." He gave a brief backwards glance to the three people striding away, continuing. "In the direction they're going in."
"Excellent," answered Paul, him and Amanda being the first to chase after the others.
"So..." began Paul to the woman he knew as Veronica, trying to keep his distance from Grant during their jungle trek. Judging by the over the shoulder glare he received when rejoining him and his companions, there was still a level of hostility to be mindful of. "Do you think that...whatever it was...will come back?"
Pet answered. "As long as we remain quiet and not draw attention to ourselves, we should be fine."
"Won't it hear us walking? Even talking, like now?"
Billy snorted a laugh. "I think she meant calling out over a bullhorn when talking about drawing attention to ourselves. But if you think talking in regular voices will attract it then I guess you should be quiet then, hmm?"
Grant cracked a smile at his protégé. Hanging around Derek at the dig site, over the past four years, was beginning to rub off on him. Pet slowing in her steps made Grant and Billy come to a halt in theirs followed by the Kirbys and Udesky.
The hybrid spoke. "There's a chance the dinosaur might be at the crash site. After leaving an area known to produce a kill, a carnivore such as that might come back around for more. Stay here and I'll go scout out the area to see if it's clear."
Grant gave another sour look to Paul and Amanda, half expecting either of the two to run off and or do something stupid. Pet hunkered down and wove throughout the foliage for cover the closer she got to the crash site. The residual smell of jet fuel let her know she was getting closer until finally the ravaged fuselage came into view. She didn't immediately see the finned dinosaur, but that didn't mean it wasn't sniffing and poking around somewhere nearby. She continued to search the area.
Eleven-fifteen at night closed in on the mentally exhausted Simon Masrani. It was as though the oil reports never stopped coming in. For every rig and well out there with his company's name on it, there was a monthly report on it. Then came the monthly report for his weather satellite, Glenda, as well as the many other projects and whatnots out there his company was involved in. All of these reports needed to be reviewed and sighed in a timely manner, something he did but didn't mind. It wouldn't be so bad if the reports came in steadily at a time versus the mass load, they almost always tended to be delivered in.
He needed a break. Simon rubbed his tired face and sleep deprived eyes. That's when he remembered the disk. He was almost done watching and listening all of the video and audio files. There were three left, which were all fairly short in length. What would it hurt to take about twelve minutes of his time to finish up the disk's contents?
The disk was popped out of its matte black case and dropped into the CD drive. The password was entered and list of files filled a window on his computer's monitor. He was about to select a file labeled 19930807, seeing how it would have most likely pertained to post events of Jurassic Park, but the final video file's title got his attention more. It was dated 19970726. Curious, the file was selected.
The video's screen was black for a moment before John Hammond's ill worn face came into view. Behind him was his familiar bedroom. Seeing the late jovial man and looking so emotionally drained made Simon's eyes tear up a bit. In his hand was something Simon couldn't quite make out, as he couldn't see the entirety of the object. A piece of paper, maybe?
Hammond began speaking, his voice hoarse and raspy. "It's…been a while since I've done anything like this so please be patient with this old man while I try to get my thoughts together." His gentle blue eyes fell on the object in his hand and his expression appeared further pained in either guilt or grief, Simon wasn't sure. Or maybe, it was just the opposite. There was a faint smile under his white beard. "For years I thought my little Pet was dead, but she's not. She's alive." The object in question was turned and held up to the recording camera. It was the same picture Simon had come across in the stack of folders those many, many nights ago. "A brilliant woman by the name of Sarah Harding took this picture not too long ago during an observation trip to Isla Sorna." Hammond restrained a choked sob. "She's alive. My little Pet… she's alive." The picture was turned back around to look at. "And…she's off that blasted island and in Robert's and nephew's good care. I know Robert will keep her safe. God knows I can't anymore and won't be able to for too much longer." Hammond sighed and wiped his teary eyes with a white handkerchief. "It's why I'm hoping I can trust other good people to do what I can't. I've made arrangements for her to stay with Dr. Alan Grant at his dig site in the Fort Peck Lake area of Montana." Simon's eyes widened in appall and brought a hand to his tense mouth. This whole time… she'd been there this whole time? "I think she'll like it there. It's always been her dream to work alongside him ever since she was a little girl. It's the most I can give her, now, after everything wrong I've done to her in the past…this one…dream come true. Maybe there, she can find the peace and happiness she's longed for in life."
The last words were strained just before Hammond erupted into a coughing fit. The video was abruptly ended, leaving Simon in a whirlwind of questions. Was the hybrid still at the dig site? After all this time of trying to find her, he couldn't wait any longer. He instantly reached for his desk's office phone to call the hangar he normally kept his private plane. He planned to leave first thing in the morning.
Amanda Kirby sighed impatiently. How much longer was this going to take? She crossed her arms over her chest and drummed her fingers against her arm. This was getting ridiculous. "Is she going to come back?"
The two paleontologists gave a questionable glance to the blond woman before looking to one another in mutual contemplation. Paul reassured the best he could. "I'm sure she will. She's just making sure everything is safe, first."
A couple minutes later, the rustling of bushes got the group's attention and they instantly ducked behind a tree should it be danger approaching. Of course, the tree wasn't quite large enough to hide all five of them causing Udesky to crawl under a series of ferns for cover. More rustling of leaves sounding closer revealed Pet, her pausing shy of where she remembered leaving the group to find them gone.
Then she saw Paul peek around the tree. "Let me tell you how bad you are at hiding," she stated.
Out from around the tree the others came, Grant sighing in relief. "We weren't sure what was coming towards us."
Pet stared at him, blinking. "Alan, if it was something dangerous you'd have known and trust me, hiding wouldn't have made a damn difference."
Paul spoke up. "You mean, like that big dinosaur?"
Billy replied. "Nah, something worse."
Paul's eyes widened. "There's something worse out there other than that thing?" He aimed a pointing hand back in the direction they had come from.
"Yeah...her." Billy gave a side nod to Pet, who wasn't amused.
"She doesn't seem so bad." As Paul looked the woman in mention up and down, Udesky couldn't stop staring at her questionable feet.
"You haven't dated her, either." A sharp slap on the shoulder from hybrid made the junior scientist laugh to himself.
"Alright, you two," Grant cut in. "Knock it off."
The group followed the hybrid through the forest, her continuing her jabs at Billy. "Next time that thing comes back, I'm feeding you to it. Maybe then it'll leave us alone as it crawls off and dies painfully of indigestion."
Billy snickered. "You could always just nag at it instead. That'll keep it away."
Grant shook his head. It was almost like having Derek around, except with less sexual innuendos, vulgar language and physical outbursts.
The group came upon the small clearing the plane had gone down in and stopped to visually take in the scene. That had just happened. From the being stuck in a tree, to crashing on the ground, being rolled several yards away and then followed by a towering carnivore had only happened in just a little over an hour's time. And they were still alive. Well, except for those who had been unfortunate to not survive.
Grant instructed. "Salvage only what you can carry. There's no telling how far we'll have to go, how long we'll be stuck here or even what we'll encounter so take only the essentials. Food, water and medical supplies are a must. Any other personal belongings like luggage will only slow us down."
With that, everyone split up to begin picking through the wreckage. Udesky made a beeline for the remnants of the cockpit only to stop in his tracks in disgust. Laying not too far away was what remained of Nash. The urge to be sick rose in his throat, but he managed to fight it back and turned his head away when proceeding forward.
Pet crawled into the fuselage to try and find what she could for salvaging in there. Along the way, she collected the bottles of water she had found and even one of her shoes. No telling where the other was. It was most likely lying about in a mud hole or somewhere else.
Outside and shy of where the fuselage originally fell from the tree, Grant found his back pack. Off to the side was Billy, knelt over his camera bag and assembling his camera for testing. Hopefully it still worked. It cost quite a bit of money and he hadn't had it for very long. Udesky was trying to salvage of what he could of the weaponry...had it not been bent or crushed.
Pet called out, "Ah hah," from with the aircraft remains and crawled out with a collection of items. She had her own backpack slung over a shoulder while carrying one of her boots in one hand and a machete in the other. "Hey Alan, look what I found!"
Udesky saw the item and pointed at it. "Hey, that was Nash's!"
"Not to mean any disrespect to the dead, but I doubt he'll be needing it anytime soon."
Grant approached her. "What all were you able to recover?"
Pet tugged at the draw strings to her pack and opened it. "Some bottles of water, a medical kit...or what was left of it anyway. It was back where the equipment was kept in the tail section and well..." She held up the remaining, broken white box with a red cross visible on the front. "It still has all its contents, just isn't in the best of conditions."
Billy could be heard calling out, "Hey Alan! Come check this out!"
Both Grant and Pet rushed to their friend, the man pausing in strides and back peddling to pick up his hat. The hybrid huffed a laugh and shook her head. They broke past the underbrush to join Billy. There, kneeling beside a large three toed foot print was Billy, the man busy taking pictures of his find.
Grant questioned. "What would you classify it, Billy?"
"Well," the junior scientist began. "It's a super predator." Both Grant and Pet crouched down to get a better look at the foot print while the senior scientist situated his hat back on his head. "A Suchomimus. That snout."
Grant shook his head. He knew were his protégé was going with his guessing. "No, think bigger."
"Baryonyx?"
Good guess, but no. "Not with that sail." The older man held up a large tooth he had found when doing his own supply salvaging. "Spinosaurus aegypticus."
Billy took the tooth from his mentor's hand to study it himself. Just looking at the size comparison of the tooth versus his hand made him feel that much smaller. "I don't remember that on InGen's list."
"Because it wasn't on their list." Grant took back the tooth. "And it makes you wonder what else they were up to."
Pet piped up. "Or Masrani Corporation. Technically, all this belongs to that Simon Masrani guy since he bought up InGen. There's no telling what's been going on, down here, since he took over everything."
Grant heavily sighed, "Great." Not what he was wanting to hear.
The three sat there for a couple seconds to let the thought of what else could be out there sink into their heads. And they were stranded here. The more they sat there, the more their attention was reverted to movement in the corner of their eyes. At first it took a moment to register just what they were seeing. Paul Kirby, a grown man, was having trouble putting on a backpack. He was spinning around in circles where he stood trying to get the second strap.
The scene reminded Pet of a dog chasing its tail. She arched a brow. "Is he really..."
Billy nodded his head. "Yeah."
"How?"
"I have no idea. For someone who's supposed to be an experienced explorer, I'm not so sure about this guy."
The hybrid snorted. "More like a self-proclaimed experienced explorer. He's already lied about his intentions on coming to the island. What else has he lied about?"
The three people got to their feet, Billy suggesting, "How about we find out?"
