SITE-B
BOOK 4:
AGE OF THE LOST WORLD
CHAPTER 237
On a remote beach along the western shoreline of Costa Rica, about fifty miles north of the Panama border, rolling waves churned toward the sand. Dense jungle kept the beach secluded and quiet, but at the moment a drone of machinery began to chip away at the natural peace until there was a roar of running engine and wind thrusting sand outward.
Dr. Richard Levine scarcely waited for the helicopter to touch down before she was jumping out onto the beach. "Oh my God." She paused for only a moment. "There!" Her index finger thrust ahead of her, and she ran off. "It's still there, exactly where those campers said it was." Dr. Levine was calling over her shoulder. "Come on, Mr. Benton! We haven't a moment to loose!"
Arby Benton ducked out of the chopper after her and sighed, "that's about the sixth dozenth time she's shouted, look over there! I see it!"
"She's just excited, Arb," Kelly Curtis said in a flat tone as she pushed past him and hustled after Dr. Levine.
"Intriguing was six months ago," Arby grunted. "I don't believe it's ever been exciting, and at this point it's basically just annoying."
"At least we getting paid." One more individual exited the helicopter and set his boots in the sand next to Arby.
Arby shrugged and rolled his eyes at him. "Come on, Diego." He waved forward, and they both trudged off along the beach. "You'd better get out the rubber gloves and face masks. This one looks messy." a moment later he added, "it's probably just another beached porpoise."
Diego nodded as he hiked a large pack higher on his shoulders.
Diego was a young local, twenty years of age. Six months ago he happened to be in the right place at the right time when he bumped into Dr. Levine. At the time he spoke very little english. All he understood was that he was going to carry things, and Dr. Levine was going to pay him to do it.
As Dr. Levine approached the specimen she slowed down to a walk and briefly examined the entire site from twenty feet away.
There was a dark heap tangled in seaweed. The presumed carcass would've been just the size of a large man if not for the presence of what looked like a long stiff tail tapering away from the hindquarters. Flies buzzed all around, and the stench was terrible in the Costa Rican heat.
"My God," Levine said again.
She stepped closer until she was hovering over the mass. Squinting through the cloud of flies she held up her hands. "Gloves!"
Kelly was standing beside her. She turned around and snapped her fingers. "Come on you two!"
Arby and Diego picked up their pace. The helicopter behind them was winding down. As they caught up with Dr. Levine, Diego handed Arby a balled up pair of rubber gloves. Kelly snatched one from him, and they both slid one over Levine's impatient hands. Scarcely a moment later Diego followed up with a paper mask that he looped over the doctor's head, snapping the elastic bands securely behind her messy hair bun that looked something akin to a rat's nest. Beneath the paper mask, and the dirt, sweat, and grime of trudging through dense Costa Rican jungle for the past six months Dr. Levine had an elegant appearance that was still easy to see.
As she knelt beside the carcass the rest of her team put on their own gloves and mask. Kelly pried hers quickly from her face as she had trapped a fly underneath of it. Spitting, she secured it once more.
"Good God, it smells," Arby said.
"It's a dead animal," Kelly shrugged.
"It looks like a big bird, eh?" Diego waved flies from his face.
Kelly and Arby were recent graduates from Berkeley where they had studied paleontology under Dr. Levine. Six months ago rumors began to surface concerning sightings of strange animals in Costa Rica. What most in the scientific community were shrugging off as the development of a modern myth likening to that of the Yeti or The Loch Ness Monster, others had equated to dinosaur sightings.
Dr. Richard Levine was from a wealthy family and had a reputation for being of the eccentric variety. She had no shortage of expendable income which fed this most recent obsession.
Arby was still trying to figure out how he had been talked into going on what he, along with most, considered to be, "an excursion that was insulting to his education."
Kelly would periodically remind him that they were getting a significant sum of money to go along with Dr. Levine's whims. She'd poke him in the ribs and say, "the kind that will pay off our tuition in no time."
Arby Benton was all but entirely prepared to get on the next plane back to California, but what he saw laying in front of him was beginning to challenge that notion.
As Dr. Levine pulled bits of seaweed away from the carcass Arby saw an appendage that was akin to images he'd only seen in drawings. It was scaly and more like a bird's foot than any reptile. It resembled more than anything a set of eagle's talons, though it was much larger than any predatory bird he was aware of. One of the inner most toes was exceptionally large and bore an enormous hooked claw that appeared to be retractable. Beneath the paper mask Arby's jaw began to drop.
"Definitely not a porpoise…"
"Mr. Benton, perhaps you'd like to take some photographs, or were you hoping everyone would just take our word for it?" Dr. Levine didn't look up as she spoke to him. She was captivated by the ankle that her palms cradled.
It was rotting and had been scavenged by all manner of sea creatures. Even as she held it crabs were skittering from beneath the leg. Still there was no question in her mind. What she held in her hands was the foot of a dinosaur.