The kid sure had some powerful lungs. I bet you could hear her scream from the other end of the park.

"Shhh!" I hissed to the little girl. "I'm friendly!"

Her scream abruptly morphed into a quizzical dog sound. Her pouty lips clapped shut, eyebrows knitting together.

I waved my claw and smiled the best I could. "My name is Albert. What's your name?"

The girl's eyes bugged out. "You can talk?"

I nodded, pointing to the ground. "Hey, you dropped your doll."

She quickly snatched it up. "You're a Velociraptor, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "Last time I checked."

"You're supposed to be the size of a turkey. With feathers."

I stared at the bumps on my elbows like I'd just noticed them for the first time in my life. "Umm...I'm also made in a lab?"

"Are you going to disembowel me?"

I frowned at the big hook claws on my feet. "That...sounds messy. And you're adorable, so I'd rather not. Did you want me to disembowel you?"

She gave me a violent shake of her head.

"Cassie!" the hunter called.

The girl's eyes darted back and forth.

Raising her voice, she shouted, "Whattie?"

Then, to me, "Quick! Hide!"

I wasted no time darting into the underbrush.

The hunter rushed up to the girl, gun at the ready. His hat popped off his head, dangling from his throat by a string. "Cassie, you shouldn't be out here. We're in the middle of a hurricane."

"I was waiting on the tram."

Rain dampened the man's hair to the sides of his face. "Sugar, the park isn't open. No one's going to come...I heard you scream. Did you see a carnivorous dinosaur come through here?"

Cassie nodded, but didn't utter a syllable.

The man's gaze narrowed. "Where did she get off to?"

Looking dead serious, the girl pointed away from me, in the direction of the giant wooden gate. My jaw dropped in startled surprise.

The man grabbed her hand. "C'mon, sweetie. Let me get you to the storm shelter."

He only moved a foot before his radio crackled.

"Muldoon..." Hammond's voice. Note: Extra crackly because of the storm. An entire sentence got lost in the lightning. "...Did you find Albert?"

The man pushed the talk button, pressing his face into the receiver. He did have to contend with a great deal of noise. "On her trail. Let you know when I get her."

"Put that on the back burner for the moment. Dennis Nedry has priority. With the mainframe..." The storm reduced the rest of the thought to static. "...Fences..." Crackle crackle hiss. "He isn't at the building. Someone said we're missing a Jeep."

Muldoon swore under his breath. "You did say this man is overweight and out of shape, did you not?"

I swallowed hard. That sounded like a description of that large man I saw on the camera feed!

"I'm sorry, you're breaking up," Hammond replied.

"Never mind. My Jeep is up by the front entrance. Can you have someone drive it around back for me?"

Hammond's response came as garbled static. More subvocal cursing ushered from Muldoon's mouth.

The man knelt before the child, gesturing to the visitor's center. "Hurry up that way and ask an adult to direct you to the storm shelter. Daddy has some work to do."

Cassie gave her father a solemn nod, but when the man sprinted up the grassy slope, she didn't go anywhere.

The man stopped in mid-stride and glanced back, gesturing frantically toward the building. "Now missy!" he mouthed.

Cassie did as instructed, rushing up toward the employee break area.

She paused, watching her dad.

Clearly having other things on his mind, Muldoon hadn't given his daughter a second look. He wanted that Jeep.

Cassie turned heel and ran back to me.

Nearly out of breath, she gasped, hands on her knees, "You owe me, Albert."

I stared. "What...do I owe?"

Cassie recovered her breathing. "I want a dinosaur back ride."

I furrowed my eyebrow ridges. "I...don't understand."

"What's to understand? I want to ride on your back."

I scowled at her. "No."

"Please."

"No way."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"Still no."

She crossed her arms indignantly. "Fine. I'll tell dad, and he'll shoot you full of tranquilizers and put you back in your cage."

I shrieked in frustration.

"Can't you go any faster?" the child complained.

I'd been humoring her by playing horsie through the field behind the building, running circles around a herd of Stegosaurs. Lady Elaine, Maria, Bob Vila, Nigel...first time I'd seen them up close. Normally I'd just watch them from my window.

The rain came down in sheets, but Cassie wore a raincoat. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Slightly unpleasant, having a pair of sweaty little hands throttling your neck.

"The sign next to the Raptor paddock says you can run at speeds up to fifty miles an hour."

I paused to catch my breath. "Sorry to disappoint you, I have a treadmill, but I spend most my time reading and playing with dolls."

"You're a dinosaur, and you play with dolls?"

"I have a human brain."

"...Okay." By her tone, you would have thought I'd just told her I had an incurable disease.

"I got dinosaurs and Ninja Turtles. I like your dolly. What's her name?"

"Suzie," she groaned in annoyance. "She's a Best Buddies doll. Take me to the big gate."

I swallowed hard. "But that's where the T-Rex lives!"

"It's in a cage. You're a dinosaur. Deal."

"But the fences! The power has been going out!"

"Albert. You're a dinosaur. You've got a million years of dinosaur instinct. Use it."

"I am! It's telling me not to go near the T-Rex!"

"I can tell you're the ancestor of a chicken. You're a coward. A coward that plays with dolls."

I shrieked at her. "Are you trying to goad me into eating you? It's working!"

I must have shrieked a little too loudly, for Cassie shrank down, clutching my back tightly. "Please don't."

She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the first bite.

My heart filled with inexplicable tender feelings. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just don't want to go in that place. Anyways, human meat is disgusting. It's worse than eating asparagus."

Cassie giggled.

In a mothering tone, I added, "Your father is right. The weather is getting bad. You need to get to a storm shelter."

"You're just scared of the T-Rex."

My temper flared up again. "So what if I am? You know that Nedry person your father is looking for? I saw Dilophosaurs carrying away his body! It's not safe for humans, or me!"

"Wait! You know where Nedry is?"

"Um...maybe?"

"Then you've got to go in there! My daddy's looking for him! You want him to get tore up by a T-Rex or blown away in the storm?"

I paused in thought, wondering if that wouldn't be so bad.

"Please, you've got to do this!" She reached down and squeezed my claw. "C'mon! Be brave! I believe in you!...You want to be safe in your cage, or do you want to explore?"

I kinda did want to explore, but I liked being safe, and Mr. Muldoon getting attacked by a T-Rex...

"Umm..."

"If you don't do this, I'm, I'm going to cry!"

"Please," I stammered. "Don't do that."

But then the waterworks came on. "You've got to help my daddy!" she wailed. "He's the only daddy I've got!"

Rubbing my face in frustration, I padded down the road with her on my back. The crying came to an abrupt stop.

We found the massive gate closed.

"Okay," I stammered. "That's it. We should go back now."

"Wait. How are you at climbing?"

Not so good, actually. I made a few attempts, with and without her on my back. I also tried jumping. She absolutely loved that, giggling and whooping as she gripped me around the neck and shoulders.

It turns out the door opened in response to a device attached to the bottom of the Range Rovers. When they passed over the section of track, a lever activated a switch. Since we didn't actually possess a Range Rover, it took us several moments to figure out how to deceive the machinery.

I nearly broke my teeth pulling on the bar, but a set of giant red lights flashed from towers alongside the gate, and the huge thing groaned open.

Cassie squeezed her legs against my sides. "Giddyap."