by C. G. Mosley
And then there was Glenn Hardcastle.
Hardcastle took it to a completely different level. He talked down to Dave and made a point to embarrass him in front of other employees. The other employees in turn championed him for it, and Dave was often discouraged with the fact that Eric seemed to look the other way when it happened. Dave knew why, of course. Glenn Hardcastle was probably the most valuable employee with the company, and to make matters worse, he knew it.
Hardcastle had a great deal of experience with nearly every dinosaur on the island. Eric had his ways of dealing with him, and everyone on the island knew that Glenn had a way of getting under his skin at times (ironically something else he was championed for among his colleagues), but despite any issues he had with him, Eric always stopped short of any kind of disciplinary action against him. The unfortunate reality was that if the company lost Glenn Hardcastle, it would be a major setback. Major setbacks usually equated to a major loss of money.
As soon as Glenn noticed Dave’s entrance, he smiled a sly grin at him and tipped his hat back a bit. The tension that filled the room was almost immediate and it seemed to smother Dave. He considered turning back and leaving, but he knew that would do nothing but reinforce Hardcastle’s perception that he was intimidated by him. He was, of course, but there was no way in hell he’d ever admit it. And besides, there was a matter he needed to discuss with Hardcastle. This moment would be as good a time as any.
Dave strode toward the fridge, never even giving Glenn a passing glance. He opened the door and reached inside to retrieve a canned lemon iced tea. This made Hardcastle snicker, and he took another quick swig of his beer. Dave cracked open his can of tea and took a swig of his own. The two men stood in silence for a long, awkward moment.
“Glenn, I’ve got something I need to tell you,” Dave said, finally deciding the blunter he was about this matter, the better.
Hardcastle squinted at Dave and gave a sideways smirk. “Oh, you do?” he said. “Well hang on just a second…let me take a seat.”
Hardcastle pulled a chair out from the nearby table and plopped down. He took another pull from his beer and then rather forcefully slammed the bottle down on the table.
Dave felt it was best if he remained standing. “I’ve heard the news about tomorrow. I know that you and Dr. Cruz are going out to try and catch the baby tyrannosaur. I just wanted you to know that I’ll be accompanying you.”
Hardcastle drummed the fingers of his right hand on the table and gave Dave an icy stare. “Like hell you are,” he growled.
Dave swallowed. “Now, Glenn, I’m afraid this isn’t up for debate. Eric wants me out there and I’m going to go. That’s just the way it is, and the sooner you accept it, the better it’s going to be for all of us.”
Dave felt all of the blood rush to his face. He hated confrontation, especially with Glenn. Despite his best attempts to hide his embarrassment, the expression on Hardcastle’s face revealed how badly he had failed.
Hardcastle remained seated and continued to dole out that same uncomfortable stare at Dave.
“Oh, is that right?” he said, in a surprisingly calm tone.
“That’s right,” Dave answered, surprised at how calm he sounded as well. “We both have a job to do. I think it’s clear that you don’t like me, and that’s okay.”
Hardcastle rolled his eyes and grinned. Something about the way Hardcastle reacted to his last statement triggered something inside of Dave that he’d always hoped was there, but was never quite sure. He suddenly began to feel an abundance of confidence wash over his entire body. The embarrassment and awkward feelings he’d been experiencing mere minutes earlier were suddenly vanishing. He returned a glare of his own to Glenn and then continued speaking.
“And now that we’ve gotten that out, I think I should clear the air about something else,” he said. “I have authority over you.”
Hardcastle suddenly sat straight up. His grin disappeared and was replaced with a scowl. “What did you just say?” he spat.
“Let me rephrase,” Dave said, “I’m not your equal in this company—I never have been. I’m actually superior to you, and I think that from this moment forward, I’m going to start acting like it.”
Glenn Hardcastle popped out of his chair and got his face within an inch of Dave’s. He was slightly shorter than Dave, so he had no choice but to look up slightly. This small detail only added to the wave of confidence Dave was riding. It was all he could do not to smile
“You’re saying you’re better than me?” Hardcastle growled.
“No,” Dave replied. “I’m saying that in the eyes of Eric and Gill Enterprises, I am your superior.”
Now it was Hardcastle’s turn to turn a shade of red—although, his change in color was due to another emotion. The rage he now felt was clearly evident due to the fact the man was beginning to tremble. Hardcastle kept his face inches away from Dave’s, and if anything, he got slightly closer.
Dave saw the gesture for what it was: a pathetic attempt to intimidate him. Well, the schoolboy antics weren’t going to work any longer. He’d had enough of Glenn Hardcastle.
“Are you going to hit me?” Dave asked.
Hardcastle continued to stare him down, but he made no reply.
“Because if you’re going to hit me, make it a good one,” Dave said. “And when you’re done, you’ll be on the first ship off this island.”
Hardcastle breathed in deeply through his nose, and Dave feared that in another few moments, smoke would begin to wisp out of the man’s ears. He was literally shaking now and seemed to be on the verge of an aneurysm.
Another minute passed, and when neither man said another word, Hardcastle suddenly turned away and headed for the door, the beer bottle in his right hand.
“Oh, Glenn,” Dave called out to him.
Hardcastle stopped in his tracks. He said nothing, and he didn’t turn to look back at him.
“I think you need to pick up that bottle cap you left on the floor,” Dave said.
Once again, Hardcastle said nothing and made no attempt to pick up the bottle cap. This didn’t surprise Dave, and he never expected him to actually pick it up. He was, however, making a point. The days of Glenn Hardcastle bullying him were now over and in the past.
Glenn stomped toward the door, but before he left the room, he took a final moment to throw his empty bottle in the trash can. He threw the bottle with enough force to make the glass shatter loudly. His anger and fury couldn’t have made Dave any happier.
Chapter 13
“Are you absolutely sure?” Silas asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Yes,” Jonathon answered. He was kneeling on the ground several yards ahead of the vehicle where Silas and Henry remained within the relative safety of the cage. Moments before, while Silas was driving and Henry was still trying to slow his heart rate after the encounter with the Spinosaurus, Jonathon had noticed something rather odd ahead of him. As soon as he’d noticed it, he immediately asked Silas to bring the vehicle to a stop so that he could investigate on foot. Now he was looking at something that not only puzzled him, but somehow left him with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“It’s definitely a dirt road,” he said. His tone suggested he was having trouble believing it himself.
“Well, are you sure it wasn’t there before?” Silas asked.
“Positive,” Jonathon said, his eyes trained on what he knew were relatively fresh tire tracks.
“Well, why the hell would a road be here now?” Silas asked.
“A very good question,” Jonathon answered. “Something is wrong here…very wrong.”
“Could there be someone else on this island?” Henry asked.
“There are tire tracks here,” Jonathon said. “I’d say the chances are really good we’re not alone on this island.”
A loud, thunderous roar suddenly echoed somewhere deep within the jungle foliage to the left of them.
“Wh—what wa
s that?” Henry stammered. “It sounded…big.”
“T-rex,” Silas whispered, his eyes wide.
“Are you sure?” Henry said.
Silas nodded, his blue eyes unblinking. “I could never forget that sound,” he answered.
“He’s right,” Jonathon said, as he stood and returned to the vehicle. He lifted the cage and returned to the seat next to Silas. “That’s a tyrannosaur. They seem to be plentiful on this part of the island.”
“And this is the side of the island you two decide we should land on?” Henry asked, noticeably worried. When Silas and Jonathon made no reply, he said, “So what do we do?”
Jonathon looked up at the sky and then down at his watch. Nightfall was going to hit soon. “We go deeper into this island, and we find a place to camp for the night. In the morning, we find the cave as quickly as possible so that I can get what I came for—and then we head back.”
“And then we go after what I came for,” Silas added, jerking a thumb toward his chest. He cranked up the all-terrain vehicle and eased it forward.
Jonathon nodded, but said nothing.
“Well, what about the tyrannosaurs?” Henry asked, his voice trembling slightly. “What are the chances of one of them attacking us?”
Jonathon peered in both directions as Silas eased their vehicle across the dirt road. The road stretched at least a mile in both directions before disappearing beyond a curve in the distance. “It’s not really the dinosaurs I’m afraid of right now,” he said, taking one final glance at the tire tracks imprinted on the loose soil.
***
Finding a home away from home for the night proved to be a lot more difficult than Jonathon thought it would be. It seemed his first trip to the island provided a lot more options for shelter and protection from dinosaurs. He thought of the large metal shipping container on the beach that he, Silas, and Annie Wedgeworth had slept in all those years ago and found himself longing for it immensely.
As the light continued to fade, he found himself on the verge of giving up. They would just have to find enough wood to build a large enough fire to keep the animals away for the night. Although they’d have to take shifts sleeping, it could work. He even remembered Lucy telling him that Angus and his thugs had done just that the night after they’d kidnapped her.
But then Jonathon looked at his father. He’d never be the same if anything happened to him, especially in such a land as foreign as where they now found themselves. It was his fault that his father was here on an island inhabited by dangerous dinosaurs. He was the dinosaur expert and, although Silas didn’t like to admit it, even he relied heavily on Jonathon’s expertise. The fact was that the overall safety of both men fell squarely on his shoulders.
Would a fire really be good enough?
He knew the answer was a definitive no. He had to keep looking. And besides, although a fire would probably be a great deterrent for dinosaurs, it could have the opposite effect for any humans that may be on the island. Orange flames flickering within the blackness of the jungle wouldn’t be hard to spot and would surely be investigated.
“Over here!” Silas called out just a little louder than Jonathon would’ve liked.
He trudged over to where the shout had originated and found Silas and Henry peering into a hole near the base of an enormous tree.
“Get away from there!” Jonathon snapped. “You don’t know wha—”
Suddenly, a loud shrill cut off Jonathon’s sentence and made all three men startle. Henry stumbled to the ground as he backed away from the hole and Silas quickly jerked him back to his feet.
A beaked mouth, resembling that of a large parrot, protruded from the dark void and opened. The same shrill rang out again. As Silas and Henry backed away even further, the animal boldly revealed the rest of its oddly shaped head. The dinosaur was dark brown in color, very similar to the color of the soil from which its subterranean home was constructed. A large neck frill (but no horns), and the mere size of the creature, was a dead giveaway that Silas and Henry had stumbled upon the nest of a Protoceratops.
Jonathon thought it odd that the second dinosaur he encountered on his first visit to the island was in fact the second dinosaur he’d encountered on his second visit there. The underground home the animal had built underneath the enormous tree would’ve probably been large enough for all three men to enjoy for the night. Talking the Protoceratops into leaving, however, would be a difficult task.
Silas suddenly pulled out his revolver and pulled back the hammer.
“No!” Jonathon shouted.
Silas quickly pointed the gun downward and away from the animal. “What?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.
“It’s not going to hurt you,” Jonathon replied. “It may have young down in that nest. It’s not an aggressive animal. You don’t have to kill it!”
“But it’s got exactly what we need,” Silas argued, pointing at the burrow with the barrel of his gun. “How else are we going to get it to leave?”
“My, you’re eager to shoot something,” Jonathon quipped. “We’re not shooting it to take its home,” he added.
Silas begrudgingly returned his weapon to the holster on his belt. He shook his head and grumbled something that Jonathon was unable to make out. The Protoceratops continued to protest very loudly.
“Son,” Henry said.
Jonathon whipped around to face his father. “Yeah, Dad?”
“Forgive me, because I know you’re the dino expert here, but is all the racket this thing is doing going to attract the more dangerous dinosaurs?” he asked with a worried expression.
“Yes,” Jonathon answered flatly. He then gazed up at the enormous leafy tree above them and marveled at how large and sturdy its branches were. As he examined the bottom branches, an idea suddenly occurred to him. “Silas, did I see you pack a large tarp in the storage compartment of the ATV?”
“Yes” he replied. “It’s camouflaged. I brought it in case we came across an area we had to travel on foot. I thought we could cover it up the vehicle and hide it from the dinos.”
Jonathon smiled to himself at the silly notion. He doubted that the dinosaurs would have anything to do with the ATV, camouflage tarp or no. Nevertheless, he was now grateful that Silas had brought the item as he had another use for it.
“I know what we can do,” he said. “Get that tarp.”
Chapter 14
The next morning was bright, or at least as bright as it could be considering sunlight was in short supply on the island. Usually when the sky was as bright as it currently was, it meant that the day was going to become uncomfortably hot and sticky. However, when Dave took a morning jog around the perimeter fencing, as was his usual morning ritual, he noticed a slight chill in the air. Part of him wondered if that was some sort of omen; a sign trying to tell him that accompanying Glenn Hardcastle on the day’s hunt was a doomed endeavor. Dave shook the unpleasant thought out of his head and continued his jog.
An hour later, he showered and dressed in attire fitting for the day’s activities. He rarely wore blue jeans, and he only had a single pair to his name on the island. He’d joked to Eric that there would be no way he’d be caught dead wearing any of his nice clothing outside of the fencing in the past. It seemed today he had an opportunity to put that statement to the test, and thus he’d found himself putting on the blue jeans without even really thinking about it. He put on the plain white T-shirt he’d decided on the night before, but he didn’t count on it being as chilly as it was. He grabbed a gray, hooded sweatshirt that zipped up in the front for added warmth.
Before heading out to meet Hardcastle and the others, Dave had one more stop to make. Eric had ordered him to check in with him before venturing off the island. There was something he needed to give him. When Dave arrived, Eric was already seated behind his large desk, reading a National Geographic. He was kicked back in the chair, his feet on the marble top.
“You wanted me to stop by?” Dave asked.
Eric
took his feet off the desk and leaned forward in his chair. He threw the yellow magazine off to the side. “Dave! Yes, come in,” he said. “I’ve got something for you.”
Eric reached over and pulled open his top right desk drawer. He retrieved a silver revolver.
Dave shook his head. “There’s no need for—”
“Yes, there is a need for it,” Eric argued. “Now, I know you’re not crazy about guns, but you’re going to take this one. Take care of yourself out there,” he said, carefully sliding the weapon across the desk in his direction.
Dave reluctantly took it and shoved it into his rear waistband.
“You nervous?” Eric asked.
Dave chuckled uneasily. “Would it matter to you if I am?” he said.
Eric frowned. “Look, I know you’re kind of stepping out of your comfort zone here, but that’s exactly why I’m making you do it. Everything will be just fine, and besides, all you have to do is supervise the operation. Let Glenn and Dr. Cruz do their thing. They run the show, and you run them…got it?”
Dave scratched his head and smiled. “Yeah, I got it.” He thought about his confrontation with Hardcastle the night before. “Have you seen Glenn this morning?”
