Jurassic Park

"I'm hungry…"

"Just a minute."

They were detailed topographical charts for the main area of the island, where they now were. According to this, the lagoon narrowed into the river they had seen earlier, which twisted northward… right through the aviary… and on to within a half-mile of the visitor lodge.

He flipped back through the pages. How to get to the lagoon? According to the plans, there should be a door at the back of the building they were in. Grant looked up, and saw it, recessed back in the concrete wall. The door was wide enough for a car. Opening it, he saw a paved road ru

"Hey," Tim said, "look at this." He held out a metal case to Grant.

Opening it, Grant found a compressed-air pistol and a cloth belt that held darts. There were six darts in all, each as thick as his finger. Labeled MORO-709.

"Good Work, Tim." He slung the belt around his shoulder, and stuck the gun in his trousers.

"Is it a tranquilizer gun?"

"I'd say so."

"What about the boat?" Lex said.

"I think it's on the dock," Grant said. They started down the road. Grant carried the oars on his shoulder. "I hope it's a big raft," Lex said, "because I can't swim."

"Don't worry," he said.

"Maybe we can catch some fish," she said.

They walked down the road with the sloping embankment rising up on both sides of them. They heard a deep rhythmic snorting sound, but Grant could not see where it was coming from.

"Are you sure there's a raft down here?" Lex said, wrinkling her nose.

"Probably," Grant said.

The rhythmic snorting became louder as they walked, but they also heard a steady droning, buzzing sound. When they reached the end of the road, at the edge of the small concrete dock, Grant froze in shock.

The tyra

It was sitting upright in the shade of a tree, its hind legs stretched out in front. Its eyes were open but it was not moving, except for its head, which lifted and fell gently with each snorting sound. The buzzing came from the clouds of flies that surrounded it, crawling over its face and slack jaws, its bloody fangs, and the red haunch of a killed hadrosaur that lay on its side behind the tyra

The tyra

He signaled to Tim and Lex to stay where they were. Grant walked slowly forward onto the dock, in full view of the tyra

Near the end of the dock, a wooden shed was painted green to blend with the foliage. Grant quietly unlatched the door and looked inside. He saw a half-dozen orange life vests hanging on the wall, several rolls of wire-mesh fencing, some coils of rope, and twob ig rubber cubes sitting on the floor. The cubes were strapped tight with flat rubber belts.

Rafts.

He looked back at Lex.

She mouthed: No boat

He nodded, Yes.

The tyra

Grant turned, stared up at the dinosaur.

The tyra

Lex looked disgusted, waving her hand in front of her face.

Grant was soaked in sweat from the tension. He dragged the rubber raft across the dock. It flopped into the water with a loud splash.

The dinosaur continued to sleep.

Grant tied the boat up to the dock, and returned to the shed to take out two life preservers. He put these in the boat, and then waved for the kids to come out onto the dock.

Pale with fear, Lex waved back, No.

He gestured: Yes.

The tyra

Grant stabbed in the air with an emphatic finger. Lex came silently, and he gestured for her to get into the raft; then Tim got in, and they both put on their life vests. Grant got in and pushed off. The raft drifted silently out into the lagoon. Grant picked up his paddles and fitted them into the oarlocks. They moved farther from the dock.

Lex sat back, and sighed loudly with relief. Then she looked stricken, and put her band over her mouth. Her body shook, with muffled sounds: she was suppressing a cough.

She always coughed at the wrong times!

"Lex," Tim whispered fiercely, looking back toward the shore.

She shook her head miserably, and pointed to her throat. He knew what she meant: a tickle in her throat. What she needed was a drink of water. Grant was rowing, and Tim leaned over the side of the raft and scooped his hand in the lagoon, holding his cupped hand toward her.

Lex coughed loudly, explosively. In Tim's ears, the sound echoed across the water like a gunshot.

The tyra

On the boat, Lex was making little gargling sounds.

"Lex, shut up!" Tim said.

"I can't help it," she whispered, and then she coughed again. Grant rowed hard, moving the raft powerfully into the center of the lagoon.

On the shore, the tyra

"I couldn't help it, Timmy!" Lex shrieked miserably. "I couldn't help it!"

"Shhhh!"

Grant was rowing as fast as he could.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter," she said. "We're far enough away. He can't swim.

"Of course he can swim, you little idiot!" Tim shouted at her. On the shore, the tyra

"Well, how should I know?" she said.

"Everybody knows tyra

"Snakes can't."

"Of course snakes can. You idiot!"

"Settle down," Grant said. "Hold on to something!" Grant was watching the tyra

Exactly like a crocodile, he thought unhappily. The biggest crocodile in the world.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Grant!" Lex wailed. "I didn't mean it!"

Grant glanced over his shoulder. The lagoon was no more than a hundred yards wide here, and they had almost reached the center. If he continued, the water would become shallow again. The tyra

"What are you doing?"

The tyra

The tyra

The tyra

"Did he drown?"

"No," Grant said. He saw bubbles-then a faint ripple along the surface-coming toward the boat-

"Hang on!" he shouted, as the head bucked up beneath the rubber, bending the boat and lifting it into the air, spi

"Do something!" Alexis screamed. "Do something!"

Grant pulled the air pistol out of his belt. It looked pitifully small in his hands, but there was the chance that, if he shot the animal in a sensitive spot, in the eye or the nose-

The tyra

And suddenly they heard an answering roar, floating across the water toward them.

Looking back, Grant saw the juvenile T-rex on the shore, crouched over the killed sauropod, claiming the kill as its own. The juvenile slashed at the carcass, then raised its head high and bellowed. The big tyra

"He's going away!" Lex squealed, clapping her hands. "He's going away! Naah-naah-na-na-naah! Stupid dinosaur!"

From the shore, the juvenile roared defiantly. Enraged, the big tyra

The big tyra

Exhausted from rowing, Grant collapsed back, his chest heaving. He couldn't catch his breath. He lay gasping in the raft.

"Are you okay, Dr. Grant?" Lex asked.

"From now on, will you just do what I tell you?"

'Oh-kay, " she sighed, as if he had just made the most unreasonable demand in the world. She trailed her arm in the water for a while. "You stopped rowing," she said.