The computers hummed indifferently to my plight. Rows of boring science books frowned from the shelves, uncaring.

"Cynthia," I whimpered. "If it's going to be like this, I don't want to hang out with these guys."

"Albert, I've had a talk with these people. You're Hammond's property. All this came directly from John Hammond. That collar was custom made for you. Hammond wants to send you to a special facility off the island once we're done here."

"Wait, how did they know we were going to be over here? We didn'tknow they'd be here!"

"Mister Arnold and Hammond have been talking. It must have been some kind of plausible deniability type thing."

I wiped tears out of my eyes. "I thought you didn't want to go back to civilization! You know, because of the expensive apartments and loans and stuff."

Cynthia swallowed. "Look, Albert. If I get promoted, I'll actually have money to pay all that stuff. I want to make a good impression. If I don't follow my boss's orders, I'm just a squatter on Hammond's property, and all he has to do is send people to...evict me." She patted my head. "Sorry, pal. This is all part of the package. Job security."

"Yeah, but you don't need all that! You can just live off the island!"

"Albert, I'm not Robinson Crusoe. I'll eventually need supply shipments. Plus there's no way in hell I can tend all those dinosaurs at the park by myself, and Hammond wants them maintained. He might sell a few of them off eventually."

I glanced at the rear end of the trailer, loaded with canned goods, bottled water and spare tires. Such trivial things to purchase with the sacrifice of friendship.

I swallowed hard. "Is he going to sell me?"

Cynthia stroked my head. "I really hope not. It'd be real lonely without you."

The bald guy had been standing poised before Zelda with a collar matching my own. To my shock (and some disappointment) my wife meekly offered her neck to the man, allowing herself to be locked in the cruel device.

When I cast her a questioning glance, she growled, "Oooife."

Did she think this just another sort of...wedding ring? Or did she actually comprehend the deep commitment a wife has for her husband, and vice versa? Difficult to say, but I sincerely hoped it had been done out of love, and not some cultural confusion.

"Capture the dinosaur..." the man sang. "That spongy, chewy dinosaur—"

I scowled at him. "Shut up!" Heffalump had the right idea all along. People associated with the park were not to be trusted, no matter how nice they might seem.

"Can I have my game back, please?" the beefy guy asked.

I raised my arm to smash it on the floor, but the moment I did, Baldy whipped out something like a car alarm fob and pushed the button.

Electricity coursed through my neck. The Game Boy hit the carpet with a lot less force than I would have liked.

"Mini taser, built into the collar. She gets out of hand and we can also drop her with a nice tranquilizer dart. The trainer collar is there in case you want to leash up. Still surprised as hell to see this isn't just a made up story. You got a lot of these things on the island?"

Ian gulped. "God, I hope not!...Are those your only collars, or do we have one for...Buttface?"

"Sorry, Doctor Malcolm. Hammond only made plans for the raptors."

I wept.

Cynthia tried to rub my back, but I brushed her hand away. The little guy looked eager to jolt me again, but Cynthia shook her head no. "C'mon, you big baby. It's not like I'm separating you from your family or anything—"

"Technically, you are. You said I'm going to be sold."

The expression on her face didn't deny it. "Well, I'm not doing it. Especially not right now. These guys are on a mission, and I think it'd be useful to have someone with your kind of skills around."

"Sarah did want some help with those tracks," Ian agreed.

"Anyway, just think of it like...putting a collar on the family dog!" When I opened my mouth to argue, she added, "A family dog we spoil a lot. The last thing I want to do is lock you in a cage and forget about you. I officiated over your wedding, for crying out loud!"

I let her rub my back this time.

She swallowed, giving me this look I couldn't read. What was she thinking? Did she really mean what she said? Did it matter what she said, if someone could just go over her head and sell me?

Detecting an unusual scent, and scuffing sounds above me, I looked up, squinting at a ventilation register.

The walnut brown face of a preteen kid stared back at me through the gap. Narrow face, dark hair slicked back in a ponytail.

If I hadn't been forced to wear a torture collar, I probably would have ratted her out, but presently I only cast her a hopeful `Get me out of this thing' look.

The girl retreated into the darkness.

Ian gave me a funny look, reaching into his leather jacket. "You're the Albert...Aren't you? I confess I was looking for a guy. I got a letter for you. It completely slipped my mind until just now (talking dinosaurs tend to have that affect on me)."

I crossed my arms indignantly. "If it's from Mister Hammond, throw it in the trash."

But then I noticed the weird shape and size of the letter, and how it appeared to be made from construction paper. "Wait, let me see that."

"Technically it is from John Hammond, because you don't have a mailing address."

"Park employees have a special mailbox," Cynthia said. "Why wasn't it sent to me?"

"Maybe they didn't know what your box number was. Anyway, park mail service has been suspended." Ian limped over to me with the envelope. Technically, he'd been limping this whole time, but now I really noticed it.

I smiled when I noticed the child's handwriting and the name on the return address. Also, first time I had ever received a real letter (well, except for Valentines and birthday cards from Hammond).

A ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy episode in my life. I savored the moment, hesitating to even break the seal.

At last the anticipation got the better of me, and I carefully tore it open with my claws.

The little girl had sent me a color drawing of me and my extended family, and postcards from Costa Rica and Porta Vallarta, that place they're always talking about on The Love Boat.

Folded inside the drawing, I found a long letter, written in cursive on brown, wide lined paper from a Big Chief notebook. Portions of it bordered on illegibility. I had to re-read a few sections to figure out what it said.

Hi, Albert.

How are you? Im fine. Went too the hospilal to see dad. Hes ok, I gess, accept hes got casts on both leggs, & his arm & he hasta eat w/ his left hand. he sed mom came & fed him 1 time, but then they argue and aferwards he had nurses helpin him insted. How is Zelda& Webby & Butface? how's Cindy? I bet yore havin lotsa fun in The Park, arent you?

"Yeah, I'm having a friggin' blast, kid," I grumped.

Wish I was having fun to. Very boring in the hosp. also boring wen mom took me too her house to stay w/ her, cuz I cudnt stay at hosp overnite. She make me fill out those stupid yello workbooks all the time. Said I mite hafta go back to the city wen school stars again. I axt if I could go bak to see u but she sed no, the aminals are way to dangrus. Not fare at all!

Dark smeary blotches on the paper. Probably tears.

I found a spannish booklit in the hotel. Dunno if you want it ore not, but I rember you bean kinda religis. Here's a page outta it. Let me know if you want the rest.

I turned the sheet over. A devotional from Philippians 1:12-17 had been taped on with a promotional sticker from the hotel.

I don't know how Cassie could have pulled that particular lesson out on purpose, I really don't. I don't even recall her having any Spanish proficiency. All I knew was, somehow, seemingly at random, she had selected a lesson with uncanny relevance to my current situation.

I told mom bout how I was at a dinosaur wedding, but she only laughed & sed she loved how imaginativ I was.

U gotta tell me how you are & how ur doing. You promisd, ok? Dont care if they mark threw it ore not. I miss you, Albert. Hope yore ok and nobody ate you. I love you.

Sincerely,

Cassiopeia Muldoon (that's my full name).

XOXOXOXOXO

P.S. Sorry if my riting isnt good. I rote this in a hurrah. Had 2 get it to Mr. H quik. Encl. are postcards of a cupla places mom and Mr. Hamund's guy took me too. Porta Vayarta was ok. I had enchiladas & chili releno and went shoping. Bin to Cosa Rica before. Was okay. Went to beach and mom had Margaritas.

Also, mom asked me to get the sugar when we were maing cookies and I found a rator claw. Should I keep it, or is it like family to you? I can mail it over so you can bury it if you want me to.

P.P.S. Mom says to make your marriage work, theres gotta be commonigation, so commonigate to Zelda every day, ok? Don't get a Dinosaur Divorce, I know there's other pretty dinosaurs out there, but Zelda is special, ok? Don't be like mom & dad.

I cried, but her letter made me feel a little better.

Cynthia had been reading over my shoulder. "Aww, that's so sweet of her! You should write a thank you note sometime."

I wished I had a pocket to carry this treasured possession, but, unlike the aforementioned Robinson Crusoe, I could not simply swim naked onto a boat and put objects into nonexistent pockets. "Cynthia, keep that letter safe."

The door to the trailer popped open, and Sarah stuck her head in. "Hey, Cynthia. You done with that Velociraptor yet? I need to check these tracks, and we're wasting daylight."

Cynthia asked if this were okay in raptorese.

"You ever played The Adventures of Lolo?" that beefy guy, Nick, asked as I examined the three toed footprints near the trailer. "It's very similar to Kwirk."

I sniffed the ground. "Never heard of it. Sounds interesting."

I think Nick got his muscles from hefting around a video camera like I saw him holding at the present moment. The thing appeared to be one of those movie quality models that weighed a ton. He smacked gum as he recorded me and Zelda tracking.

"Are you actually a cameraman?"

The man puffed out his chest. "I've actually worked a few TV shows and news programs."

"Why are you here instead of filming a movie or something?"

"This is going to pay money in the long run. Plus I'm gonna get some big time recognition for real video footage of dinosaurs."

"Or a huge payoff for keeping it to yourself," Ian muttered.

"Yeah, that too."

As I sniffed and searched the ground, Webby trailed behind me, watching my tracking with wide eyes, imitating me.

Buttface...I guess she'd been worn out by everything...and we hadn't actually slept. We hadn't gone but maybe a half kilometer from the trailer when she laid down on the grass and just watched us go.

When I glanced back a minute later, she lay snoring on her side.

The tracks took me past the sulfur damaged plants, into the healthier, more robust grassland beyond. Eddie the bald guy kept his shiny rifle at the ready, mostly with a suspicious eye turned my way.

They didn't have a deerstalker hat with them, but I had found a baseball. In no hurry to finish the job, I paused to toss it into the air a few times. "Where'd this come from? Got a sports fan in your group?"

"That's Doctor Jutton's." Sarah frowned at me in annoyance. "He was going to come along, but he came down with dysentery at the last minute."

"Don't drink the water," Ian quipped.

The woman put her hands on her hips. "You lose the scent or something?"

I uttered a growling sigh. "I'd track better if I didn't have this thing around my neck."

Cynthia scowled and snatched the baseball out of my claws. "Stop being a crybaby. Nobody's going to use it unless you try to attack people."

"Even if I accidentally break their things?"

She gave me a suspicious look. "And...what do you mean by that? You planning to do something—?"

"I trashed your apartment." I pointed to my collar. "I bet this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't broke your stuff."

"Albert, I assure you this has nothing to do with revenge." She took a swig from a thermos of coffee the team had provided.

"Money, then. You can sell me and replace your things. That's it, isn't it?"

"Albert, even if that were the case, and it's not, Mister Arnold said I might get promoted. I'll probably be able to afford better stuff once they get the park up and running again."

Ian cleared his throat. "Uh...sorry to burst your bubble, but John Hammond's gotten sick of late, and he hasn't been making friends with...The Board. The last I heard, they were trying to vote him out of executorship, and they've been talking about sending those dinosaurs to private collections, or some type of old school zoo that doesn't have the same...luxury amenities, so to speak."

"Dumbo," I whispered in horror.

"You making a crack about my ears? I'm very sensitive about that."

"No. I was referring to...animal cruelty."

"Oh yeah. That. I tend to agree, but, you know, you guys are technically manufactured, which tends to make the public less, how we say, sympathetic."

I cringed, giving Cynthia an uncomfortable glance. She only shrugged.

The tracks led into jungle.

Zelda grew restless. I'm going to look for Heffalump.'

I smirked. "Okay, honey."

She didn't get but a few yards away from us, when Cynthia growled, `Hey, don't wander off' in raptorese.

Zelda snorted in irritation, rejoining the group.

I followed the tracks.

Upon hearing a familiar roar, we all stopped moving.

Although Ian's eyes naturally bulged like Barney Fife, the bulge became more pronounced. "Uh...Cynthia, did you say the...T-Rex is on this island?"

"She waded into the ocean, from what I heard. The Park isn't that far away. I think she's a little big to just drown out there. To her it's probably chest to neck deep in between here and The Park."

"That sounds a little...questionable in geographic terms, but I'll take your word for it." Ian glanced at the bald guy. "Eddie, how big an animal can that gun bring down?"

Eddie proudly listed off the features of his weapon: Landsradt Air Rifle, equipped with Conus Purporascens venom (derived from some kind of...mollusk?). "Acts in two thousandth of a second, faster than nerve induction velocity. The animal is down before they feel the dart."

Sarah watched me sniff and examine the tracks with fascination. "What are you getting? can you describe it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Kinda smells like Triceratops. Herbivore gas and poop. About as exciting as a cow...actually, less exciting than a cow."

Ian gave a sideways grin. "Gee, Albert, tell us how you really feel."

"He's just mad about the collar," Cynthia said.

I straightened from my sniffing position. "Actually, I've been thinking a lot about that Spanish devotional page Cassie sent me...The Apostle Paul was being persecuted, so he sought out the protection of the Roman government. Even though it made for some amazing epistles, it was a boneheaded move. A guy even said, `This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.' Maybe my insisting on following the boat was my Pauline mistake, my appealing to Caesar."

"Albert...I...don't even know what you're talking about."

"The Apostle Paul did that because people were trying to kill him." Nick shifted his movie camera on his shoulder. "You're a dinosaur. Are you saying there's someone trying to kill you?"

Bald Eddie shook his head. "I can't believe you're having a theological debate with a dinosaur."

Ian snickered. "That's the best kind of theological debate. Especially when discussing the subject of evolution."

"Even if I say I don't believe in evolution?"

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion."

"Funny," said Nick. "That's not at all what you said in your book."

"Yeah? Well, this is different. He's a dinosaur...And he's got sharp teeth."

"And I'm also wearing a shock collar."

Ian just looked at Cynthia like `My condolences.'

Zelda tried to leave a second time.

Cynthia again scolded her.

`You're not my husband,' she growled. `I don't have to take orders from you.'

The woman crossed her arms indignantly. "Albert, a little help?"

"She just wants to check on Heffalump."

Cynthia gave me a shifty look. "She can look for your imaginary friend later."

"Cynthia, you know as well as I that Heffalump isn't imaginary."

"I know, I liked playing pretend with you too, but now isn't the time."

Why was she acting like this? Why would she lie? Why would she say that my new best friend never existed?

I began to doubt myself. Was Heffalump imaginary? Did I make him up? What a crazy thing to just...invent!

Sometimes people hallucinate after being placed in a sensory deprivation chamber for long periods of time. I read this one book where this guy saw squirrels purposefully carrying kit bags through the chamber. Me? I had been confined to a cell for several days...

With my face flushing hot, I gave Zelda an apologetic chirp and a growl.

`I thought we had a relationship of mutual respect, where neither one of us is the boss of the other!' Okay, okay, so I'm paraphrasing Zelda a little.

`I know, but human pack leaders tell Cynthia what to do.'

`They can't tell me what to do.'

`They can while we wear these things around our necks...Please tell me you knew about that.'

She...didn't. `These are not...wedding things?'

`Honey, I love you, but no.'

Zelda grabbed the collar with her claws, tried to tear it off, but couldn't. Plus the prongs poked her in the neck when she tried. `How could you let them put these on you?'

`I am not always a smart raptor.'

She let out a whimpering noise, giving Cynthia an indignant glare.

I nuzzled Zelda, but she pushed me away.

"Yeah..." Ian remarked. "Definitely married."

Cynthia's Satphone rang. "Excuse me, guys...I gotta take this."

Nick stared at her. "How are you getting reception? We got that tower set up and we didn't have a signal."

"Dunno." She pointed up. "Maybe the satellite's passing over, or maybe it's less tree cover. You guys keep doing your thing."

I continued on the trail.

Although highly unmotivated to track down this dinosaur and hasten my being...exported somewhere, they more I sniffed the tracks of this creature, the more I...detected something of a...vague familiarity, some...thing I hadn't thought about in years, a fragrance I knew instantly, but couldn't identify with my conscious mind. I wanted to know whose scent this was, and why I recognized them.

I didn't mention this to my companions. If this...creature happened to be a friend, they wouldn't be once they found out the humans' intentions.

We reached a dry stream bed where the tracks disappeared.

"Any idea where they went next?"

I sniffed and marched down the rocks.

The plants in this area...they appeared to have GMOS. Ferns about fifteen feet high, not natural for a modern human-centric world.

Zelda let out an irritated snort. `Why are you delaying so much? The scent is very obvious. I know exactly where it is.'

`The more we hurry, the sooner the humans will send us somewhere we don't want to be.' I explained how we might possibly be sold.

She bared her teeth and snarled. `I'll kill them!'

`Honey, no. Please. Cynthia is still our friend.'

Zelda snorted. `Some friend!'

`I know, but maybe she'll change her mind and let us go free...If you don't try to kill her.'

`So I'll kill the other humans.'

`Honey...You know how I feel about killing humans.'

She cried. `Yes, but we never had them as enemies before.'

`They're not...technically enemies. Especially if you treat them better than they deserve.'

`This is a hard thing, much more confusing than when you rode that motorized thing and that floaty thing on the water.' The cast a look of contempt at Eddie. `I will obey Cynthia, but not these strangers. I am hungry and tired and need to urinate. I am leaving.'

I tried to explain her request to Eddie.

"Tell her she can't leave. She has to stay with the group."

"What if she goes back and hangs out with Cynthia?"

"Cynthia never said anything about that. Besides, two trackers are better than one."

That's what he thinks, I thought. To Zelda, I growled, `He said no.'

`I don't care. I'm leaving.'

She only got a short distance away before Eddie jolted her with the mini taser.

...Well, she didn't have to go to the bathroom anymore.

`I want to kill them,' Zelda snarled.

`Please. Show yourself to be better than them by not doing it.'

As I sniffed the bushes at the edge of the stream bed, the prehistoric palm trees ahead of me shook violently. Eddie readied his gun.

Crash. In stomped a family of Stegosauruses (Stegosaurii?) with their baby. Spiny plates, just like Heffalump. I thought for a moment that the familiar scent had just been due to my familiarity with my mutant friend.

Everyone's gawking. Well, the humans, at least.

Sarah cried, "They're beautiful!" snapping pictures and muttering sciency stuff about the Stegosaurus clan into a little recorder. "Amazing! They keep their young with them instead of abandoning them at the nest!"

I watched them with envy. "Not every dinosaur can be so lucky."

The woman crept closer. A short distance from where the creatures emerged, she discovered a nest of empty eggs, leftovers from the semi-recently hatched. She took pictures.

The Stegosaurus baby lagged behind, staring at the woman in fascination. `Whatcha doin'?'

The woman failed to understand the question and just took the baby's picture.

`Red Sunset! Keep up!' a larger Stegosaurus scolded in Stegosaurus language. `We're not going to carry the river to the nest for you!'

`Yes, Mom.'

As `Junior' hurried to rejoin the pack, Sarah followed close behind, snapping more pictures.

Nick kept a cautious distance as he recorded her."That woman definitely has some guts."

Ian shook his head. "More like...lacking common sense."

I made no comment. I'd been too busy staring at the other big Stegosaurus, the one that wasn't called Mom. "Where have I seen her before?"

Sarah's stealth worked out for her...for a few moments. Unfortunately, she came to the last frame on her camera roll, and the automatic winder kicked in.

`What was that?' gasped a Stegosaurus.

`Mom' glanced back at the woman, and her eyes widened in horror. `Humans!'

The other Stegosaurus swung her spiky tail at the woman.

Sarah dodged and jumped away. When she got up to run, she tripped over a tree root.

Infuriated, the giant charged Sarah's way, rearing up to stomp on her.

I ran up to the Stegosaurus, waving my arms. "Hey! You! Stop!"

The Stegosaur shrank back the moment she noticed me. `Raptor!'

I froze, smiling with my lips closed to conceal my scary teeth. I gave her a slow wave.

The massive female blinked several times. `Do...I...know you?'

`I was about to ask you the same question.'

She lumbered forward and sniffed me. `Weirdo?'

I gawked at her. `How do you know to call me that?'

`We were in the same big shiny place with the tubes and the machinery. You were the only raptor that didn't try to bite me.'

I glanced at the creature's large belly and instantly recognized the funny tangerine blotch. As hatchlings, we used to play and nuzzle up together beneath the heat lamps at night.

`Orange Spider?'

We rubbed noses.

`I see you still know how to speak my language.'

I never really thought about my language fluency until that very moment. `Well...I guess we did go to the same nursery...'

`What are you doing with these humans?'

`Uh, long story...I see you got a family.'

`Yeah. Something weird happened with my cloaca, and I made eggs with another Stegosaurus.' Orange Spider nosed his companion. `Weirdo, this is my mate, Four Light Constellation. Four Lights, this is Weirdo.'

"There are four lights!" I joked.

`What?'

`Nothing. I bet you've never watched Star Trek.'

`I think Four Lights has a cousin named Star Walk...'

Four Lights whiffled hello. `Weirdo! The Nice Raptor? All this time I thought Refreshing River had been telling me a story.'

I snickered. `He's calling himself Refreshing River?'

`We're Stegosauri. We don't name our children after what we look like.'

I frowned. `Oh. Well, my name's not Weirdo either. It's—"

Four Lights glanced back at the humans. `Why are they hiding beneath that dinosaur's leg?'

So...while we'd been chatting, Sarah and the others watched us from...what appeared to be a tree.

The dinosaurs resembled giraffes. I...studied quite a few dinosaurs during the course of my...education, but only later did I get the name for this one, as it appeared in few of the science books and encyclopedias I had in my collection: Makenchiasaurus.

`Move!' the towering creature honked, brushing Ian and Eddie sideways with a casual kick.

A second one of those giraffe things came thundering from the other side.

They wrapped their necks around each other, honking sweet nothings to each other. Nick recorded them.

`Going at it again,' Refreshing River muttered to his mate. `C'mon, honey. Let's go.' He waved goodbye to me with his tail and hurried off, urging Junior to keep up.

The humans stared as the Makenchiasauruses crashed into each other and rolled on the ground.

They...got kind of sloppy, bringing down the jungle around us. We all had to get out of the way to avoid being hit by falling trees and whatnot.

Once at a safe distance, the humans laughed and muttered to each other as they recorded the proceedings.

I and Zelda glanced at each other uncomfortably. I mean, this is obviously another dinosaur's private moment, and we're intruding, but...well, Makenchiasauruses did things differently.

`You...wanna try that sometime?' Zelda growled to me in low tones.

`I don't see how. Our necks aren't that long.'

`You're a smart dinosaur. You can figure it out.'

I blushed. `It...kinda sounds like you're not mad at me anymore.'

The humans decided to return to Base Camp after this. Along the trail, Nick tried to light up, but Sarah scolded him, explaining how they needed to maintain scientific distance and not affect what they're observing with human chemicals or scents of any kind.

Ian argued that, according to Heisenberg, you change what you study by studying it. "...Plus these dinosaurs are cloned with other animal genes spliced in, so we're not going to get a one hundred percent accurate picture...Also, did you see how Albert talked to that Stegosaurus?"

They both stared at me.

I only shrugged. "I haven't seen him in years. I'm sure whatever you find out will be enlightening, even to me."

It appeared as if Sarah wouldn't be using the contraption they had up in the tree, either. She started rambling about studying dinosaur families and habitats, both the herbivores like Refreshing River and finding whether carnivores have families too.

I'm sure everyone would have found this a fascinating idea, but at this point, we noticed clouds of smoke rising from behind the trees, in the general direction of the camp. Nick ran down the trail.

"Fire!" Eddie shouted.

Sarah and Ian raced after them, faces grim and serious.

In all the commotion, they appeared to forget about me and Zelda.

I looked my wife in the eyes, gave a questioning nod toward the trail.

`Let them go,' she purred, rubbing up against my neck.

Zelda attempted to do what she'd seen the Makenchiasaurusesdo, but we had those collars on, and the prongs hurt.

`Ow. I'm sorry, Zelda, I'm sure this would be sexy, but it's these dang collars.'

She sighed, giving me a loving lick to the face.

A moment later, a set of Triceratops horns and an elephant trunk emerged from the nearby foliage. "¿Es seguro salir?"

I shook my head, pointing to my collar.

Heffalump shuddered. "Vi a la gente con que estabas."

"Heffalump, are you really imaginary?"

"¿Cómo?"

"¿Eres realmente imaginario?"

Heffalump pressed his tusk thoughtfully to his chin. "No creo que sea imaginario. Deberías preguntarle a ese roedor al que hice caca."

"Yeah, the pooping was kinda vivid and real. I don't think that...South American guinea pig will ever forget the experience."

"¿Cómo?"

I just gave a dismissive wave. "Never mind."

"...Además, hablé con Cynthia, a menos que ella también esté loca."

I thought about how Cynthia had spoken to Heffalump quite naturally, as if not imaginary at all. "True..."

Heffalump looked at my wife. "¿Crees que soy imaginario?"

Zelda didn't know Spanish, so I had to translate into raptorese.

Zelda licked him on the face. `He tastes real.'

Heffalump blushed. I probably would have gotten jealous, but he's a hybrid Triceratops thing and not a raptor. Plus, as a raptor, she didn't have that much skill using her hands.

Heffalump glanced back and forth, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Los humanos se han ido ahora. Debes esconderte y hacerte `imaginario' como yo."

I shook my head, explaining that, even if I flee, they could tase me from the distance. "No sé qué tipo de rango tienen en esa cosa."

"Apesta ser tú."

All of a sudden, a sonic boom shook the jungle, and C-130 military cargo planes buzzed past the treetops.

We stared as big equipment containers got launched out their cargo bays, breaking tree branches, the larger ones actually felling whole trees as they dropped. Military guys parachute jumped down beside these things.

"¿Que es eso?" Heffalump asked.

"No se."

"No me quedo para averiguar." He disappeared into the jungle.

In retrospect, I probably should have done the same.

[0000]

SPINOFF

[0000]

Okay, so I'm thinking you might be at least a little interested by the golden condor thing I mentioned earlier, so here's a little bonus content for you:

As previously stated, after Mister Arnold and Cassie departed in that helicopter, we returned to Hammond's house and rested for awhile.

We watched The Fugitive, Shawshank Redemption (my picks) and ate dinner. I also found this really neat book on Harry Houdini, and another on magic tricks. Hammond was into that for some reason. I read through them when Cynthia popped in Sommersby and National Velvet.

Despite the non-scary nature of those films, I and Cynthia both screamed when Heffalump suddenly popped out of the pantry.

Cynthia clutched her chest in dramatic fashion once she recognized our friend. "This is the big one, Elizabeth! I'm coming to join you!"

Heffalump stared, failing to comprehend. "¿Cómo?"

"Sanford and Sons," Cynthia explained. "You see how dark it is, and you just magically pop out of the cellar? I'm gonna die!"

"La asustaste,"I explained.

"Disculpe."

"¿Cómo llegaste aquí?"

"Usé el mismo túnel que hizo tu esposa."

Being exhausted, we'd mutually agreed not to investigate the mysterious tunnel Zelda had used to reach the other island until tomorrow morning. This surprise visit, though...

"¿Donde?"

Basic layout: Walk-in kitchen by the (broken) sliding glass door and the pool. In a not-so-efficient design, Hammond's pantry stood past the pinball machines, and the indoor boat dock.

As I mentioned before, we had a good quantity of chest freezers in the pantry, as well as enough dry goods on the shelves to fill a fallout shelter. We'd become acquainted with the place when stuffing it full of supplies from the Visitor Center.

A door at the back opened into a small stairwell leading into a wine cellar. Cynthia and Mister Arnold had gone into this place a couple times during my wedding.

At the far end of that place, we found a wine rack of empty bottles propped open like a door.

Cynthia stared into the dark tunnel beyond. "I always thought there was something suspicious about that rack, especially how it had all that empty space on one side, when the others don't."

Indeed, `The man liked his storage.' We found a small cavern beyond this, crammed with storage crates, big plastic totes, broken exercise equipment, fishing supplies, molding boxes of paperwork, clothes, medical supplies, emergency flares, flashlights, items from the Park gift shop, a wide variety of stuff that a person could use to survive on the island for many years.

The cavern had an actual light switch, the entire area illuminated by mining lights. Power cables ran across the ceiling, some diverting to a generator and a transformer, others branching off toward The Park, perhaps to a power station there, and one I can only presume led to the station on the other island.

To one side of this place, an inclined tunnel descended into pitch black darkness.

"Is...that where he came in?" Cynthia asked.

I relayed the question to Heffalump.

"Si. Muy oscuro, pero tuve ayuda." He trumpeted.

A plump little Hispanic girl with black hair in long Native American style braids lay curled up in a sleeping bag between all those storage containers. Upon hearing the noise, she yawned and sat up, waving to us. "¡Hola! ¿Puedo cenar? Dinner, please!"

Cynthia's face flushed beet red. "Are you freaking kidding me?"