The Magic of Amber

by WolfgangNH

Harry was drawn to the DOM to save his godfather, only to see Sirius go through the veil. Desperate, Harry dives in after him, only to find that they are both in a strange new world where science is the new magic and creatures extinct for millions of years are being brought back to life. M for a reason. Harry Potter / Lex Murphy pairing.

13. A Gut Feel

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: Thank you to all my awesome readers for coming back to the next instalment, and hopefully those new to this story.

Today's story: Harry's gut feel of things pans out…

-oOo-

Chapter 13

-oOo-

August 10, 1993

Isla Nublar, Costa Rica

"John, I'm not recommending this today," Ray said.

"You told me last night that you have been able to catalogue all the dinosaurs now," John Hammond said back.

"I said we were well on our way. We have been able to confirm about fifty percent and have counted two extra edomontosaurus that were two years old. We didn't release any into the park at that time. Until the new code is implemented to automatically update the count, I can't be positive," Ray replied. "I'm also concerned about the fence controls. Nedry found another bug last night and I am having them manually controlled from the backup control room. If something goes wrong, we could lose power to a single paddock, or the whole island."

"I don't like this either, John. The raptors have been testing the fences again. I know you want a proper tour, but we need to be careful," Muldoon put in.

"We need to have this tour and we need to show that everything is alright. We are scheduled to open next August, but if we lose some of our big investors, then Jurassic Park will never open. What do we do with the dinosaurs if we can't pay the bills[1] ?" Hammond put to them.

They were all quiet for a moment when Benning spoke up. "The lysine contingency."

The clack of a cane hitting the floor echoed in the control room. "No. I will not let all these years of work go to waste. Harry and Sirius will be with them. I just trust Alexis and my family with them. I want you to stay just out of sight," John said to Muldoon.

The man frowned. "I don't like this, John. Not until we confirm if the dinosaurs are breeding or not. We also need to confirm which ones are. It could be catastrophic if one of the carnivores were to have extras. The raptors would be wors[2] e of all."

"Timmons and his team are going to go down to the ankylosaurs today and figure this out. I don't want anyone hurt," John said. "Where is Nedry? He's supposed to be working."

"He took Dennis to the backup control room. Something about monitoring the systems while the new code is trialled on the redundant server so as not to risk the main systems. He says most of the fibreoptics will be busy for a while. When they reset the main system, he said that the phones and some other systems will go down for a bit, but the fences will stay up," Ray assured them.

Benning shook his head. "This better go smoothly."

"I had the controls for the Visitor Center and the cars transferred to the backup control centre as well. Nedry said once everything is ready, he may have to cycle the backup computers, but not until we know the main system is working," Ray informed them.

"As long as we don't lose control. I don't know why we didn't include the backup systems in the original plans," Benning said.

"I told you we needed a way to ensure the little darlings don't escape," Muldoon replied.

The door to the control room opened up. Lynne stepped in. "Am I interrupting something?"

John could see that his daughter was still upset over all this. She really had a hang-up about what they were doing and what it meant for her faith. He sighed. "Not at all, Lynne. Gentlemen, I want the cars ready for nine. How are Alexis and Timothy? Settling in nicely?" he asked his [3] daughter.

The three men behind him didn't look as pleased but could tell that the boss had spoken.

"The kids are fine, though she talked to me about something she overheard last night. Is there something going on with the dinosaurs we saw yesterday? Are you sure it's safe for us to take this tour?" she asked.

"Positive. The forecast is calling for storms on and off, but Muldoon assures me that overcast skies bring out the dinosaurs more," he told his daughter, moving her towards the door. "Just relax for the day. I can assure you that we are not doing anything else than cloning dinosaurs."

She frowned. "But dad, they have been dead for millions of years. How did you get more dinosaurs than you let go? You still haven't explained that."

"It's being looked into, but you know I can't give you those details unless you want to work here," he told her. John had denied little to his daughter over the years, but the secrets of InGen and Jurassic Park were not ones he was willing to easily give out.

"Perhaps," she said, as though starting to come around.

"Just focus on what we have here. Alexis is coming to stay so she can train with Harry and Sirius, and she will help Harry with his normal studies. Just relax, Lynne. Everything will be alright," he soothed her.

Lynne was bothered. "I don't know, dad. This place doesn't seem that safe. What is going on with the fences and computers?"

"It's nothing. Where did you hear that?"

"Harry and Lex overheard some people last night. If it's anything to do about computers you know Lex is all over that," she told him.

"Everything is fine, Lynne. I'll talk with Harry and Alexis. They probably just overheard and misunderstood. Just some bug fixes. They are being worked on. Don't worry about it," John told her.

She gave him a look that she didn't believe him. "I'm staying here today, dad. I want to go over what you were talking about with Dr Malcolm and Donald. Unless you can prove this place is safe, I think Lex would most likely be better at home."

"Lynne, we all talked about this. It's not safe for Alexis to do that until she learns to control her magic. You told me last night about how she made Timothy's water splash into his face when he was teasing her last week," John said.

Her lips pursed. "It's still not right in some ways."

"She will be taken care of here. As you said, she has her boyfriend, who is proving to be a good young man and someone I trust Alexis with," John assuaged.

-oOo-

Just down the road...

Sirius had the wands lain out. They were able to salvage one-hundred and sixteen. Lex was eyeing them. "How do I do this," she asked.

"No bloody clue," Sirius said. "The last time I bought a wand, some crazy old man used a magical tape measure on me and then just guessed, I'm pretty sure, as to which one might work."

Harry laughed. "Ollivander was a little crazy. That tape measure also started to measure some weird things."

There was a barking laugh from Sirius and Lex looked at them a little dubiously. "Do I want to know?" Lex asked.

"I figure you are already getting a good measure of Harry's more weird things," Sirius said with a grin. Both teens got the innuendo and looked a little flustered. Harry was thinking of her hands last night...

"Right, just try to move your hand over the wands. If you feel something, pick it up. If it likes you, you should see sparks like when you held my wand on Martha's Vineyard," Harry suggested.

"I'm sure you saw sparks," Sirius grinned.

"Bloody fucking mutt," Harry groused.

"We haven't gone that far... yet," Lex said with an uncertain smile towards Harry. The way his eyes widened she was sure she had his attention for later.

Sirius let out another barking laugh. "I like this one."

"You would," Harry said, his face a little flush.

She started to run her hand over all the wands on the table in Sirius apartment. They were due up the hill in a little bit and thought this might be a good time for her to pick out a wand. Harry seemed concerned still from yesterday and didn't want her unprotected. She found it sweet how he wanted to protect her, but she wasn't going to be weak.

As her hand moved over the wands, it seemed to reach down about halfway through. It was a light-coloured wand with some stars on it. She picked it up. It felt a little warm in her hand, and some weak sparks flew out. "I don't think that's it," Mr Black told her.

"Put that to the side and try again," Harry encouraged.

She did, and a moment later, she came across another light colour wood wand. When she picked this one up, it felt like there was a power it drew from her. Bright yellow sparks flew out. "How does that feel?"

She held it for a moment, flicking it. Something that looked like a ball of wind shot out and hit the wall. She gave out a surprised shriek and dropped the wand. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"Sometimes. That was a good match, from what I can tell. There are two others with that light wood. Fir, I think. No clue what the core is," Sirius told her.

"Is that good?" she asked.

"It's brilliant," Harry told her.

Sirius shrugged. "I'm not a wand maker. Maybe we have a book or two on it? I don't know how to detect what is in the wand," Sirius answered. "I just found your next class assignment, pup."

Lex giggled. "Why does he call you pup?"

"Yeah, the mutt thinks he's funny at times," Harry said without much enthusiasm. "You really mean for me to dig through the books?"

"What else are you going to do? Besides, I hear that wand making is heavy on runes, creatures and charms. Three good NEWT subjects there," Sirius shot back.

"What are newts? You mean like those slimy little lizard things?" Lex asked, picking the wand up again. She liked how it felt in her hand.

"NEWT. Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. It's like a Muggle A-level," Harry told her.

She looked even more confused. "A-levels?"

"You know, the final exam and certification when you get done with secondary," Harry said, not understand what he had said.

Sirius laughed at them. "I'm not sure she understands you, pup."

"I still don't know why you call him pup," Alexis countered. "And I don't know what you mean about A-levels. Secondary, you mean high school?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. You want to show her, Sirius?" Harry asked.

She gave Harry another confused look. "Show me what?"

Harry motioned towards Sirius. With the sound of a few cracking bones, Mr Black changed from a man to a huge black dog in just a few seconds. When he barked, Lex jumped back. "Holy fuck!"

Harry laughed as she fell back against him. His arms wrapped around her, and she grabbed them. "He's all bark," Harry told her.

If she hadn't seen Mr Black change, she would never have known it was him. The giant black dog barked again, lopping over to her to lick her hand. "Ewe! That's gross."

The dog made a sound like laughter.

"He did that on purpose, didn't he?" Lex accused.

"I bet he did," Harry laughed. "We call him Padfoot when he's like this. You should change back, Sirius. Mr Hammond will want us up there in about a half hour and we need to have Yvonne drive us."

Padfoot backed up, then started to change. There was the sound of cracking bones or popping joints before Mr Black was standing up again. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck. "Right. I'm supposed to be the responsible one. You two go snog while I clean this up."

Lex knew what that meant. She eyed Harry but didn't think they would have enough time. "So, I just get to keep this now?" she asked, twirling the wand.

"All yours, poppet... hmm, that doesn't have the right ring to it," Sirius said.

"You call me a bitch and I'll sic Harry after you," she warned.

Sirius laughed as he pulled on the edge of the canvas they were keeping the wands in. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Harry pulled out his own wand and took a piece of leather out of a pocket of his cargo shorts. "Don't worry, he doesn't want to be neutered. Invuldure?" Harry asked.

"That's just inhumane. Sounds about right, though. I won't be able to put any disillusionment charms on. That dragon hide is too old to really take much magic," Sirius replied.

She shot a curious look to Harry. He just gave a cheeky grin and said, "Invuldure."

His wand touched the leather, and a few seconds later there was a holster like Harry had on his arm. "It's not the best, but it will do," Harry said, picking it up to investigate it before handing it to her.

"Won't everyone see this?" she asked him.

"Nah, I can still do a notice-me-not on it and that should keep normal people from seeing your wand," Sirius said, rolling up the canvas and handling it gently to not damage the wands.

"Can you show me how to put this on?" Lex asked her boyfriend. She liked being able to say she had a boyfriend.

"Sure," Harry replied, reaching over her. By the time he showed her how to strap it on and she put the wand into it, missing the feel of it in her hand, Mr Black had gotten the rest of the wands packed up.

"By the way, where did you get all the wands?" she asked.

"Hogwarts. It was part of the stuff we recovered from the Chamber of Secrets I told you about," Harry answered.

"Speaking of which, I finally found a buyer for all the coins. Can you believe they are offering more than three-hundred thousand pounds? I think if I melted them, it would be worth about ninety thousand, but apparently, they are very rare coins," Sirius said.

Harry looked at him. "Is that wise? What if someone finds out where they came from?"

Sirius shook his head. "I have a lawyer claiming they were dug out of a field in Wiltshire. I buried a few there in case anyone goes looking."

"How much is that in dollars," she asked.

"About half a million, I think," Sirius replied.

"I'll get an account setup for you with one of those credit card things so you have funds when you need, Harry," Sirius told him.

"Sure," he said.

When they got up to the centre, there were three SUV's painted white and red with the Jurassic Park logo on the hood and sides. Harry stopped to look at them for a moment. "Is that what they are driving us in today?" Lex asked as Sirius continued on.

"They are electrical and run off the track in the ground. I didn't know they were ready yet," Harry told her.

Lex looked very intrigued. "Really? How are they doing that? Radio control or something else? Where's the computer that controls the car?"

"You two coming or staying out here to snog?" Sirius called from the door.

"Snog," Harry called back snarkily, earning a laugh from Sirius.

Lex looked up to him, her brow raised. "You know I'm not going to keep making out with you all the time, right?" Even though right now all she wanted to do was grab Harry's shirt and pull him to her as she leaned against the car.

"He thinks you will," Harry said. Harry gave her a quick kiss that caused her to pout when he pulled away. "Let's go inside. I'm sure you can talk to Mr Arnold about this."

"Oh, is he the one who designed these?" she asked excitedly.

"I know he was on the project," Harry replied. She took his hand as Sirius held the doors open for him.

Most everyone else was in the atrium. Tim was with grandpa and mom. Drs Sattler and Grant were talking with Drs Timmons and Harding. Sirius had walked over to Muldoon and two of the security guards. "Can we go talk to Mr Arnold?"

"Maybe."

"Ah, the last of our tourist today," grandpa said in a happy voice. "Alexis. Harry. Come over here. You are all going to go on our main attraction. A tour of all the dinosaurs."

Grandpa was trying to sell everything. "If you would all move out to the cars, we have a tour setup to see all our dinosaurs on the island. The day is supposed to be overcast because of a tropical storm passing north of us, so you should be able to see everything we have to offer. Tomorrow, for anyone that wants, we will have a treetop zipline tour that will take you over the edge of the main valley."

She saw Harry raise his eyebrow. "What are you surprised about?"

"I thought the ziplines were only half done," he whispered to him.

Dr Grant came over to him. "Harry, I was hoping you would sit with me today. I would love to pick your brain more about what you have seen."

"I would too," Dr Sattler added. "Dr Harding was mentioning how the stegosaurs and triceratops get sick every six to eight weeks?"

Lex held his hand, not wanting to be separated.

"Sirius, did I hear that you thought this was dangerous?" Dr Malcolm asked, moving over to him.

"Of course. I would love that. I wanted to ask a few questions about your theory on how the dinosaurs died out," Harry said.

"Oh, Dr Grant says it was a huge asteroid in his book," Timmy said, coming up to them. "But some others think it was volcanoes."

"Get lost, Timmy," she snarked, not wanting to have her hyperactive brother tagging along with her all day.

"Lex, please keep an eye on him. I'm going to be staying behind with grandpa," her mother told them.

She tried not to roll her eyes. Harry made a stifled laugh. "What? I like your brother," Harry said when she gave him the stink eye.

"You don't live with him. Come on, Timmy," she said.

Dr Sattler gave a soft laugh. "My brother was annoying at that age too."

She gave a grateful look to the woman.

They piled into two of the cars. She sat in the middle in the back, since she thought she could justify just about sitting in Harry's lap. Timmy was talking a mile a minute with Dr Grant. Behind them, Mr Genaro, Sirius and Dr Malcom got into the car. She saw Muldoon and the two guards with him walk off towards the side of the building.

"You all enjoy the tour. It's fully automated. Oh, that is the voice of Richard Kylie. Spared no expense," grandpa said jovially as the door closed.

"Welcome to the tour today. I'll be your guide as we go through a world long dead but brought back to life for your education and enjoyment," a voice said.

Lex looked towards the front seat. "Is that a touch screen?" She leaned forward.

Dr Grant leaned back as Dr Sattler chuckle. "I heard you really enjoy computers."

"I like to dabble," she said.

"Lex calls herself a hacker," Tim shot out. "Is that a Struthiomimus?"

"Gallimimus," Harry told him, looking out the window as the car started.

"Are there Struthiomimus here? No one has told me all the species you have yet," Dr Grant asked.

"Depends on where we are. In the North Paddock, just by the aviary, you have Gallimimus, Parasaurolophus and a Stegosaurus herd. In the valley there are Diplodocus, Brachiosaurs, Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus and Edomontosaurus. On the far side of the valley are the tyrannosaurs. There is a small Hypsilophodon exhibit just on the north edge of the valley. Compsognathus are left to wander the island, but they like to stay mostly in the herbivore paddocks, not really bothering anyone, but they love to eat birds and clean up a lot of the droppings," he said.

"Oh, that's gross," Lex commented.

"Wicked," Tim countered.

Dr Grant shook his head. "What else? We only got to see the triceratops and stegosaurs yesterday."

"They are in the grassland paddock with some brachiosaurs. Just next to them are the dilophosaurus. Then you have the velociraptors. Mr Benning says the aviary should be done in January, then I think two pterosaur species will be released, but I don't know what type. Dr Wu says he has a few more that might be ready for next year," Harry informed them.

"Thirteen species. That is impressive," Dr Sattler said.

"How long before we see the dinosaurs?" Tim asked as they left the centre.

"Not long," Harry said.

"... Welcome to Jurassic Park," the voice from the interactive system said as they approached a two-story tall set of doors.

-oOo-

Control Room...

Dennis Nedry had never been a very physical man, nor had he been very popular, people friendly, or even cared[4] if he was people friendly. What Dennis Nedry was, was a brilliant computer programmer and hardware engineer. Some had called him a genius in school.

In the late seventies and early eighties, he had started with the IBM teams that were still playing with bios programming and the origins of what is now known as operating systems. Since then, he had started his own company, and then was absorbed into a larger software design company. As such, Cambridge Analytical Computers had allowed him to maintain his own team and lead some of their largest projects. His issue was that he liked to live large, and often burned through project budgets and his own finances faster than he could earn it.

That was where he found himself as he sat at his desk in the Control Room of a place that should be impossible. To get here though, he had underbid this job by about a half-million dollars and had cut some corners. Thinking that he was done, he had already bid out two other jobs and accepted one of them. Unfortunately, Nedry hadn't paid attention to the fine print on the contract for InGen Corporation and found himself in the middle of the Pacific, dealing with an irate customer and upset that the latest Pentagon contract was being handled by another team, and not him.

This bitterness, and his general disposition on life, had led him to contact someone about what was going on here.

His partner, Richard James, would help him to steal some of the secrets here. In return, they would split a million dollars, potentially more if they could get everything the new client wanted. After that, he would disappear to Brazil or Argentina. He could live well for a long time on that type of money.

Well, that had been the plan.

The one thing that Dennis had not counted on was the way some of his shortcuts would be found out.

"Dennis, you signed off on these tests. Where is the rest of the code?" Ray asked.

"It's not my issue. My programmer in Cambridge said it was done. I passed the required tests. What's the issue?" he shot back.

"The system is not working the way specifications said it would," Ray shot back. "We need the rest of the program for the vision recognition system, the automation of the feeding blocks and upgrades to the power systems."

"Dennis, we are relying on you to keep everyone here safe. If there is another issue, InGen will have no choice but to take your company to court," John Hammond said.

"Thanks, dad. I never realized how important this was," Dennis sarcastically replied, his eyes rolling. Sarcasm had always been a defence, and he was good enough at his job that he got away with it.

"I don't think you realize. We didn't tell you the last time you were here, but two workers were killed over a month ago when your subroutines overloaded three transformers. That list is the priority. Complete your fixes on the power grid. Get the vision software working the way it is supposed to. Then the other safety items on the list before you do anything else," Ray instructed.

Dennis looked at the list. It was over a hundred and thirty items. "Many of these will be fixed with the Park Control version three-point-three-three. I can start the upgrade now, but it will take several hours for it to load and for Richard and me to configure it, then I figure it will take the next three days to make sure everything is working the way it is supposed to. We'll make sure the power grid is the priority, but the vision system program will need to wait. I have to contact Cambridge and get the copy of the full program."

"That's fine. You have the time with the secondary control room staffed. You aren't to start the main frame shutdown until after two. The cars need to be back, and all our people have been instructed to be at designated safe areas by then," Ray ordered.

Dennis huffed. "You do know that we will need to cycle the secondary controls as soon as the main frame is back up. Both computer systems need the upgrade to talk to each other."

"What do you mean you need to shut down the secondary?" Benning asked.

"I gave you the schedule. Once the primary systems are back up this evening, I need to do the same with the backup system. There will be a two to three hour window this afternoon when only the backup systems are operational, and then the same window for the primary systems. I expect we will be done by about ten or so," Dennis told them. What he didn't say was that there was about a twenty-minute window when both systems would have to be down. He would tell them they had to man the breakers when he started to work on the changeover. He needed that time to get the copies of the files, and possibly embryos, to the north helicopter pad. The safe areas would be nowhere near there and all the radar and phone systems would be down during that time.

"We can't afford any mess ups on this," John said, rapping his cane on the floor. "Are you sure we can't delay this for a few days?"

"I wouldn't recommend it, John," Ray said. "We've had four events in the last month that almost caused the same cascade that brought the fences down in June. We need that fixed right away."

Hammond sighed.

"Mr Hammond, they are getting to the first enclosure," Marcy called out.

"Get it done as fast as possible," Hammond ordered.

Dennis wiped his brow as the others in the control room all turned to the screens. He had a few hours to ensure everything was setup and that Richard was ready. He would be the one to pick things up and take them to the helicopter.

Sure that no one was paying attention, he clicked on the blinking icon on his task bar. Clicking it open, he saw that the computer was ready for the next disk. Pressing a button on the computer, a three-and-a-quarter floppy disk was ejected from the drive. He looked around as he pocketed it and put another in. He would have preferred to use a CD-ROM disk, but the computer logs would record that. The logs were setup to not record any data transferred to a floppy disk.

He had to make sure all this was transferred before they shut down the main system and most logs would be deleted.

-oOo-

Outside the Tyrannosaur Paddock...

Tim was just about bouncing the entire car with how excited he was. They had seen the Hypsilophodons. The cars stopped at an overlook into the valley where they could see the Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Parasaurolophus. The Ankylosaurs and Edomontosaurus were nowhere to be seen.

Now, they parked alongside the fence that looked out into the open grassy area of the Tyrannosaur paddock.

Dr Grant had moved to look out the other side, leaning over Dr Sattler. Lex was looking over Timmy's shoulder. Harry was doing his best to scan the trees. "Over there," he said in a low voice, pointing out the back of the car towards the lagoon.

"Where?" Dr Grant asked excitedly.

"What do you see? Is it the big one?" Tim asked excitedly.

"Quiet down," Harry ordered in a hush tone. The car windows were open, and he didn't want to disturb anything. A goat was drinking out of the lagoon and about ten yards back, in the large ferns, Harry could make out the snout of Rexy just poking out.

He couldn't see Romilda. He wasn't really expecting too. He knew she had eaten a cow yesterday and would probably not want to hunt for another day or two.

"Where?" Lex asked, moving to look over the seat.

"Just inside the ferns. Rexy is poking her snout out," Harry told them.

"Oh, just there," Dr Sattler pointed, trying to guide Dr Grants attention.

Tim stilled. "Is he going to kill the goat?" he asked. Harry could hear a tinge of excitement.

Lex leaned back into Harry's chest. "He's going to eat the goat?"

"He is a she, and she is a carnivore," Harry said.

Dr Grant chuckled. "You can't suppress sixty-five million years of instinct."

"Wicked," Timmy said.

They waited about another minute, no one talking, when Lex suddenly jerked, pushing herself even further into him as the nine-foot-tall Rexy suddenly burst from the giant ferns. The goat was still drinking and was slow to react. Its head shot up when Rexy had already halved the distance. It bleated out and went to run up the slope of the lagoon.

Rexy didn't make a sound as she closed the last few feet. Her head jerked to the side, her jaws opening and closing as fast as they could. Even from the cars they could hear the crunching of the head and neck bones as her jaws caught the goat. For good measure, she tossed her head, flinging the goat about until it moved like a rag doll.

Lex screamed, turning to bury herself in Harry's chest. He instinctually wrapped his arms around her.

"Incredible," Dr Grant said in a hushed tone.

"It's like a crocodile how it shakes the goat," Dr Sattler said.

"Wicked," Tim said again.

There was a roar from further in the paddock. Rexy shot her head up, the goat hanging from her mouth. After a second, she turned and bolted back into the undergrowth, carrying her prize with her.

"The king of the dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, has been found to be a hunter, and scavenger when needed. It's hunting style is more of an ambush hunter, which was a surprise finding due to their size," the speaker said.

The cars suddenly jerked into motion.

"You know, I think I want to apply for a job here," Dr Grant said.

"What about the dig site?" Dr Sattler said, a teasing tone in her voice.

"Ericks can handle that. To stay here and study this," he said, motioning towards the fences as they drove past to move down the valley.

Dr Sattler gave him an indulgent smile as they both sat back down in the front seat. "I would love to study those plants. There are no ferns like that anywhere I know."

"I don't like those dinosaurs," Lex said. Harry tightened his hold on her.

"It's alright, Lex. They are just doing what they know how," Harry assured her.

"Can we watch the tyrannosaurus rex hunt another goat?" Tim asked, looking excited.

Dr Grant chuckled.

-oOo-

Visitor Center

Lynne sat in her father's office going over the reports and documentation he had given her. She had never thought that all this would be possible. Her mother would have loved this, and she had to wonder if her mother had known, or if her father had not told her.

As she picked up the next folder, she could see it was a thick report by Dr Malcolm about the feasibility of introducing extinct organisms to the modern day. Opening it, she immersed herself into the forward. Mentions of Dr Grant was prominent, as were a half dozen other palaeontologists, biologists and mathematicians, including Lockwood and a Dr Bones.

She recognized that name but couldn't place why.

It was a nicely written forward that spanned twelve pages and went into the base methodology and modelling of these extinct ecosystems and how chaos theory would apply. As much as she believed in God and the church, at her core she was a mathematician and scientist. She was a mix of her mother and father.

Diving into her core profession, she took out a pad and pencil and started to take notes from the report and pulled in others as she went through this. She would not let her daughter stay at a place she thought was dangerous, but at the same time, Lex was not safe to really come home until she learned to control this new side of her.

As she thought about it and read the report, devouring the equations and tables, her mind started to wander. As it did, her notes started to become scribbles. The scribbles into half-coherent equations. Half-coherent equations into ones that delved into probabilities of how Lex was magical. Where there others? How could you predict it? Why didn't Lex show any signs before a few weeks ago?

As she became engrossed in the pad, forgetting the other reports around her, she started to come to one conclusion. She turned around to find a report she had seen but disregarded. It was one by Benjamin from just a week or two ago.

Opening it, the first paragraph caught her attention:

-o-

To InGen Head of Research and Governance:

Regarding the case of Harry Potter and Sirius Black, the research team is starting to come to the conclusion that certain properties of the 'magic' that has now been detected in the amber, some dinosaurs and eleven people now, seems to have been 'activated' by exposure to an active magical source. Before that exposure, all magic seems to be inert, or hibernating...

-o-

Lynne took in a deep breath.

According to Benjamin, magic is an inherent part of whatever it inhabits.

Being exposed to an active magical source, like Harry or Sirius, could cause the hibernating magic to awaken.

She let out a long breath.

This meant Lex had always had the ability.

This had Lynne thinking back to that night in college. She had been quite drunk. Out with a few friends. She could vaguely remember a sexy British accent. A guy with black hair and grey eyes. That had been it.

As she thought about it, she thought about Lex. Her daughter was very beautiful. She had the blonde hair and blue eyes that Lynne and Lex's grandmother had. But Lex's features were a little more defined, more aristocratic than her own.

As she thought about it, that pit that had been growing in her stomach for months came back. It brought back memories of her visit to England over a spring break. Memories of that alcohol filled night when she slept with a man that had a sexy British accent, acted like some type of cop and had black hair and grey eyes. She couldn't remember his name, or if she had even asked it. The issue was, Sirius reminded her an awful lot of that man.

She had asked her father about Sirius after she had found out about Lex. The original Sirius Black had died in nineteen-eighty-three. This one was still alive but had only come into this world a few months ago. Even if Lex's father was Sirius Black, the Sirius she was coming to know was a different man. One she was finding attractive with his humour and the way he looked out for Harry.

Her brain was still processing the report as she thought until she suddenly stopped.

Blinking a few times, she went back two pages:

Since the team has started to track the interactions of the original subjects and learning that Alexis Murphy has become an active magical source, we have found several other individuals that have shown the same progress, though not to the extent that Alexis Murphy has. Most show detectable levels but are ten percent or less of the three subjects showing active magic.

Confirmed cases of elevated electromagnetic emissions in the same wavelength as the original subjects, Harry Potter and Sirius Black, have been raised to nine other cases. These include Dr Bones, her daughter (Susan Bones), Hermione Granger, (the identified friend of Harry Potter), three workers from Costa Rica (Hernando Desoto, Jose Verona, Jesus Escobar) and Dr Murphy and her two children, Alexis and Timothy...

Lynne stared at the two paragraphs.

"Oh, fuck," she muttered.

-oOo-

Backup Control Center, Geothermal Plant, by the Raptor Paddock

Richard took out another floppy disk, furtively looking around at the other three people in the room. He was not made for this spy shit and felt like he was constantly being watched.

The pager at his side went off again.

He looked down to the message.

On way. Expect arrival around 14:00 EST

Richards eyes grew wide. He looked at his watch. It was about eleven. This meant they would be to the island about noon. He had told them the events would start about two, but not to arrive until after nine PM.

"Oh fuck," he said under his breath.

"Is something going wrong with the loading of the software," a woman asked from before him. He looked at the slightly overweight brunette. She was still good looking but had been all over him in a bad way since he had arrived to keep on schedule.

"No, nothing, Bonnie," he said a little surprised. "I just forgot a few disks with Dennis. I'm going to need to go get them."

He lied, but he knew his voice sounded strained.

Richard was trying to figure a way to signal the stupid helicopter pilot from BioSyn that they were coming too early. The issue was, he needed a phone line off the island, and they were all tied up right now.

Bonnie eyed him. "Incompetent," she muttered, turning back to her screen.

Richard sighed and opened up a private message screen to Dennis.

URGENT! Package is coming early. Start objective.

He pressed send and then got up. "How do I get back to the main lodge?"

Bonnie huffed and the other two pretended not to notice. "Go ask the guard to take you back. Hurry though. The tour is still out there, and we need to make sure everything is good to go on schedule."

"No problem. I won't be long and most of the updates are loaded now," Richard assured her.

He walked out of the backup control centre. It was down a long rock passage with eight turbines humming close by as the hot waters from below turned them. This was the main power plant for the island, and he had worked hard with Dennis to make sure their backdoor program didn't do anything to interfere with this place, or the fences. He didn't want to meet any of the nastier animals that he had heard about here.

-oOo-

Visitor Center...

"That was totally wicked!" Tim called out as Mr Hammond came out of the building to greet them. "We got to see Rexy hunt a goat, the stegosaurus came right up to the fences, and we saw the raptors, but they didn't go after the cow."

Mr Hammond laughed as Tim ran up to him and hugged him.

Lex still looked a little green from watching Rexy. She had enjoyed the herbivores.

"I have to admit, John, what you have done here is spectacular," Dr Grant told Mr Hammond.

"Thank you, Alan. If you all want, lunch is in the restaurant. This afternoon we have the veterinarians and the scientists available for you to talk with and tomorrow you can go back out into the field for a while before you head back to the mainland," Mr Hammond told them.

Dr Malcolm had pursed lips while Sirius had a grin on his face. Harry suspected that Sirius had been needling Dr Malcolm. Mr Genaro walked up to Hammond. "John, we are going to make a fortune with this place."

Mr Hammond chuckled as Tim tried to talk his grandfather's ear off.

"Let's go get some lunch," Harry said to Lex.

"I think I'm going to be a vegetarian for now on," she told him, putting her head on his shoulder.

Harry tried not to laugh. She had been more shaken than he thought.

"I don't get it," Dr Malcolm said quietly.

Harry ignored him to lead Lex to the restaurant.

The meal was half done when Mr Benning came in. He whispered something to Mr Hammond. Mr Hammond caught their attention. "If you excuse me, I have something to attend for a little bit. Dr Timmons will show you to the clinic after lunch. If anyone doesn't want to go, you can stay here in the Visitor Center."

Harry looked at Hammond and Benning curiously as the older man hustled out of his seat, his cane thumping loudly as he moved faster than Harry had ever seen.

Everyone else followed the action.

"What's up with him?" Dr Malcolm asked, looking a little more animated.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Dr Timmons said. "Once you are done, we can go to the clinic and rearing pens. They are just at the edge of the Centre here. We don't have anything there now, but we will soon. Six raptors were hatched yesterday, and the other eggs should hatch soon. We'll move the raptors to the rearing pens in about three weeks."

"I want to see the babies," Tim exclaimed.

Harry was still frowning as he looked at the doors. The feeling he had since yesterday of something going wrong was growing. Lex's hand slipped into his. "You okay?" she asked as most everyone else turned back to Timmons and Harding as they talked about the dinosaurs.

Dr Malcolm was paying particular attention to Harry at the moment, as was Sirius.

"Are you done?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Sirius, I'm going to go find Muldoon," Harry told him.

"Is there an issue?" Dr Malcolm asked.

"I don't know," he said without thinking. "Come on."

Lex got up. Sirius went to also and Harry turned to him. "I think you should stay with this lot."

There was some unsaid thing between them. Harry could see the curious look in his godfather's eyes. Harry tried to impress on him he felt uncomfortable about something. After a few seconds, Sirius nodded. "Sure. I haven't seen the babies yet."

"Are you going to the control room?" Dr Malcolm asked, putting his napkin on his plate.

"I was going to check the security offices first," he said, even though the Control Room was where he was heading.

"Maybe I'll come with you. I haven't seen the bowels of this place yet."

"Are you sure, Ian? Harry could just be looking for some time to snog his girlfriend," Sirius distracted with a wink.

"I'd like to find my mom too," Lex said.

Dr Malcolm chuckled. "Ah, yes. Young love. Or any love. I am a big proponent of love. Just ask my three ex-wives," the man said with a caddish grin.

"Oh, do tell. I always love a good love story," Sirius said. "Any children?

Harry was incredibly thankful that Sirius was his godfather as Lex and him made it out of the restaurant.

"Your godfather really needs to find a woman. I get the sense he is living his love life through us," Lex said with a giggle.

Harry shook his head. "He hasn't had an easy life. Maybe he'll settle down when he grows up," Harry replied.

She laughed. "When," she agreed.

As they walked by the round windows looking into the control room, Harry could see Mr Hammond pounding his cane into the ground. There looked to be some type of argument between him, Benning and Mr Arnold as they stood at Nedry's messy desk. The other controllers were spread throughout the room. Marcy and Gary were at a closet door. Wires and computer components could be seen in the closet. Thomas was at a computer.

"This doesn't look right," Lex said.

"No, it doesn't," Harry agreed.

He went to put his card in the door and noticed that none of the lights were on. On a suspicion, he pushed the handle down and the door opened.

"Find him," Mr Hammond said. "Call the backup control room again."

"I can't, John. All the phone lines and fibreoptics are down. Nedry was supposed to wait. I can't tell you what is going on in Jurassic Park right now," Mr Arnold said, his hands moving across the keyboard faster than Harry could follow.

"When did this all happen? We were watching the tour from here less than an hour ago," Mr Hammond demanded.

"About forty minutes ago. Nedry went out to meet his guy, James, I think, and he never came back. That was about an hour ago. Then a general warning went out for everyone to get to a safe location through the automated alarm system, which were somehow shut off here in the Center, and then systems all shut down. I thought it was just something to do with the upgrade, but... GAAAHHHH! I hate this hacking crap! He's locked us out of the mainframe, and I can't get hold of anyone. None of the radio towers are working to bounce the signals to talk with the far side of the island," Mr Arnold said in an aggravated tone.

Mr Hammond put a hand over his mouth.

Lex and Harry just stood there, listening. He had a feeling if he spoke up, they would be thrown out.

"John, we don't know what is going on. I can only account for the people in the Center right now. We have forty people I have no clue where they are. I want to send Muldoon out to do a check and find out why the radio tower at the far end isn't working. The last radar from the National Weather Service indicated some strong storms coming in for the afternoon and we can't afford anyone getting hurt if a fence is knocked out again," Mr Benning said.

"Ray, we think we found something in the secondary server," Thomas said.

"Let me see," Ray replied, getting up.

Harry caught Lex looking at the now abandoned computer. A picture of Nedry wagging a finger could be seen. He let go of her hand as she moved towards the computer.

"I can go get Muldoon and head out with him," Harry spoke up.

Hammond and Benning suddenly turned to him. "Harry, when did you get here?"

"Absolutely not!" Benning ordered. "I will not have a sixteen-year-old tramping around the island right now."

"I can handle myself," Harry said defiantly.

"You are only a child, and I still don't think that you aren't trying to sabotage something," Benning said.

Harry could hear Lex starting to type away at the keyboard.

"Robert, that is enough. Harry has done nothing to betray us. That being said, I don't want you out in the park either, but we need someone to go down and tell Muldoon to head out. He's been getting three jeeps ready with gear. Can you please go down to the garage and tell him to go?" Mr Hammond said.

"Got it!" Lex suddenly exclaimed.

Her grandfather started, as though he hadn't even realized that she was there.

"What are you doing here!" Benning snapped. "Get away from that computer."

"What just happened out here? Half the communications just went green," Mr Arnold said.

Lex had a huge smile on her face. "I got through the lockdown routine. That must have freed things up. See, the cameras are working again." She pointed to the screens on the big wall.

They all turned to look. Harry's heart plunged at the first screen he looked at. He could see a view of the raptors cage. Four of them had made it onto the fencing overhanging the moat. The last was pacing in the background, as though nervous to follow the others. They moved unsteadily on the metal piping. They still had a fifteen-foot-high metal wire fence above them. As he looked, the realization hit him. "Bloody fuck! The fences are off."

They all looked in horror for a moment before Harry started to move. He had to get to Muldoon now!

-oOo-

Next Chapter: Disaster… or just a setback?