“Look!” Paul said.
There was a paved road on the shore and a double-gated portal designed to allow trucks to enter and exit the area safely. Eric and his mother raced to the portal and pushed on the corroded latch, trying to open the rusted gates.
At the same time, Alan waded to shore and scanned the canyon, searching for Billy. It didn’t take him long to spot his student.
Above, as Billy struggled with the harness, a huge Pteranodon lunged at him. He dodged as best he could—and the Pteranodon’s bite severed part of the harness!
Billy wriggled free and dropped into the water.
Eric and his parents were pushing the second gate open when they heard Billy’s cry. They turned and watched as Billy hit the water and sank—then quickly bobbed to the surface!
“He made it!” shouted Alan with relief.
Billy looked their way as a flock of Pteranodons circled above.
Alan was overjoyed to see Billy swimming toward him, safe and sound. But as Billy waded to shore, Alan’s smile quickly faded. The entire flock of Pteranodons was diving down from above in pursuit of their lost prey.
“Billy, look out!” Alan yelled.
Billy glanced behind him. Then he raced forward, motioning for his companions to turn and run.
“Get back!” Billy called. “Get back!”
The giant Pteranodon’s beak struck Billy with a calculated and brutal blow. Billy stumbled and fell to the ground.
Alan rushed forward, with Paul right after him.
Billy screamed as the entire flock of Pteranodons swarmed around him, picking at him with their beaks and claws.
“Billy!” Alan shouted.
He was about to race forward, but Paul held him back.
“It’s no use, Dr. Grant. No use. They’ll just attack you, too.”
Suddenly, three of the Pteranodons broke away from Billy and headed toward the other humans.
As difficult as it was to leave Billy behind, Alan and Paul made a run for it. They raced for the birdcage’s double-gated portal, where Eric and Amanda had just escaped, but the Pteranodons were too close. Alan knew they could never make it through the gates in time.
Just as the reptiles were about to swoop in for the kill, Alan and Paul dove back into the freezing water of the river.
Taking deep breaths, Alan and Paul dove down just as the terrible beak of the lead Pteranodon knifed toward them.
Alan’s lungs burned as he swam under the mesh line with Paul. When he resurfaced on the other side of the birdcage, he began gasping for air.
Suddenly, the mammoth Pteranodons crashed into the mesh behind them, screaming in rage through the bars.
“Over there!” Paul yelled. He and Alan swam to the dock up ahead. Amanda and Eric were already on the rusty barge.
Alan and Paul climbed on board; then Amanda and Eric pushed them away from the dock.
As the current drew them downstream, Eric took his first look at the incredible aviary and gasped with awe. It was a vast domed mesh structure that spanned the entire canyon. Eric saw the others catch their breath as they looked at the cage from which all but one of them had just escaped.
Shaking his head, Alan clenched his fists in anger.
What kind of mind would try to put Pteranodons in a birdcage?! Alan railed to himself. It was hubris, pure hubris. Pride so excessive that it failed to see the recklessness of its acts. And because of that recklessness, he had lost his apprentice and friend.
“Good-bye, Billy,” Alan whispered, sadly looking to the horizon.
“Good-bye, Billy,” Eric echoed beside Alan. “Thank you.”
Turning, Eric saw Alan looking his way, his eyes wide as if something were only now occurring to him.
Then the scientist quickly turned away. He heard the angry cries of the flying reptiles echoing off the canyon walls.
The giant Pteranodon who had been cheated of the prize she had taken to feed her young stood on the shore, staring at the iron gate.
She stalked toward it slowly, some instinct telling her that this familiar section of her world had changed in some small but vital way.
She nudged at the gate and heard a sharp, tinny sound that startled her. With an angry caw, she leaped back, her wings striking the gates as she fought to keep from falling.
Then she saw it. The gate hung an inch ajar. The shiny bar the prey had used to secure it in place was dangling helplessly.
She pushed at the gate and it moved.
Again.
Again.
The door opened—and the predator stepped through, into an unsuspecting world.
The food would be hers again.
No one was going to cheat her hatchlings.
No one.
CHAPTER 12
“MY OWN KID WAS right in front of me, and I didn’t do a thing,” said Paul angrily after starting the barge’s engine.
Amanda stood beside her husband at the stern, bailing water with a rusted bucket.
“You couldn’t have made that jump,” insisted Amanda.
“I should have tried. It should have been me on that beach back there, not Billy.”
“How would that have helped Eric?” asked Amanda. “He needs you, Paul. He needs us.”
“He could have died.”
“But he didn’t. And neither did you. . . . I’m sorry about Billy, Paul. I really am. But I’m glad you and Eric are alive.”
“Check it out,” Eric said to Alan at the bow after spying on his parents at the stern. “They almost look like they’re getting along.”
Alan grunted uncomfortably and turned away. Eric knew Alan was still thinking about Billy. And maybe something else . . .
“I’m sorry about Billy,” Eric said. “He saved my life.”
“You’re no better than the people who made this place,” Alan said softly.
“What?”
“That was the last thing I said to Billy,” explained Alan. “ ‘You’re no better than the people who made this place.’ ”
“Do you have any kids?” Eric asked.
“No,” said Alan. “Although I’ve studied them in the wild.”
Eric’s brow furrowed. He wasn’t quite sure how to take that.
Alan shrugged. “I have a theory that there’s two kinds of boys. Those who want to be astronomers and those who want to be astronauts.”
Eric nodded. “I want to be an astronaut.”
Alan waved his hands awkwardly. “See, I was just the opposite. I never understood why anyone would want to go into space. It’s so dangerous. In space, you do one thing wrong and you’re dead. The astronomer—or the paleontologist—gets to study these amazing things from a place of complete safety.”
“Uh-huh,” Eric said.
One of the ways Eric had kept himself alive on the island was by figuring out what was on a dinosaur’s mind just by reading its body language.
Now Eric tried to do the same with Alan. As Alan talked, Eric studied the man’s hands, his eyes, his posture, and knew at once that Dr. Grant wasn’t trying to convince him of anything. The man was trying to convince himself!
Alan’s eyes lit up. “You see, then? Everything you really need to learn you can learn from the ground.”
Eric’s piercing gaze held the man. “But then you never get to go into space.”
“Exactly,” Alan said. “The difference between imagining and seeing. To be able to touch them. That’s what Billy wanted to do.”
It was at that moment the barge rounded a bend in the river and an incredible sight came into view.
“Dr. Grant—” Eric whispered.
The crimson sun was setting over a verdant valley filled with dinosaurs. Eric could see armored ankylosaurs with massive clubbed tails and duck-billed corythosaurs. The barge lazily floated under the gigantic, arching necks of fifty-foot brachiosaurs.
With the drifting mist from the river, and the play of waning light on the lush vegetation, the scene looked like a primal Eden.
&n
bsp; Eric looked over to Alan. For a few long moments, the paleontologist appeared mesmerized by the beauty and wonder of the island.
“I can blame the people who made this island,” Alan finally said softly. “But I can’t blame the people who want to see it. To study it.” He gazed down at Eric. “After all, how’s a boy supposed to resist this?”
Eric nodded. He couldn’t have agreed more.
That night, as the barge floated farther downstream, the full moon passed behind the clouds. Lightning flickered in the distance and thunder quietly rumbled.
Alan had finished his shift steering the barge, and now it was Paul’s turn. The man took to it naturally, easily avoiding the riverbanks. Amanda and Eric sat nearby.
The barge rounded a bend, and an abandoned dock area with a loading crane and several sunken supply boats came into view. Suddenly, a familiar jingle pierced the darkness. Muffled but unmistakable came the sounds that could only mean Kirby Paint and Tile Plus—in Westgate.
Alan tensed. The Kirbys exchanged looks of panic, then scanned the shore.
“My sat-phone,” Paul whispered.
“The Spinosaurus,” Eric said.
Alan went to the barge’s rail. “Keep quiet.”
Paul cut the motor. The barge continued downstream and the ringing grew louder.
Alan’s eyes widened at the sight of seven mounds of dinosaur dung sitting on a patch of treeless, flat ground just beyond the riverbank. He looked to the Kirbys. An idea came to all of them at once.
“Find it before it stops ringing!” Alan said.
Amanda, Paul, and Alan jumped into the river and rushed to the bank. Eric was about to leap into the water when his mother raised her hand.
“Eric Kirby!” she called. “You stay right where you are! I’m still your mother!”
“Keep watch for us, son,” Paul added.
The boy nodded.
Alan, Amanda, and Paul sprinted toward the dark heaps.
Alan held his breath as he plunged his arms into the closest mound of dinosaur dung. The stench was overwhelming!
“I’ve got something!” Paul said as he dug into another pile. “I think I’ve got something!”
Alan watched Eric’s father withdraw a pager.
“Over here!” Amanda yelled. She was covered in dino dung, just like Alan and Paul.
The still-ringing phone was in her hand. Alan grabbed the phone from Amanda and answered it.
“You, too, can own a time-share in beautiful Guadalajara . . . ,” a recorded voice said.
Alan shut off the phone. He was about to turn when he saw Eric waving madly from the barge.
“Behind you!” Eric screamed.
Alan slowly turned. A fierce, twenty-foot-long, red-and-black-scaled, horned Carnotaurus stood directly before the trio. It was smaller than a rex, but still big enough to devour them. The dinosaur’s eyes were pitch-black, its arms were tiny, its body and tail stout. Its maw was filled with bladelike teeth. It drooled at the sight of them.
Grrrrhhhh-rggggghhhhhlll!
It sniffed. Once. Twice. Then again.
Bllll-eahhhhh!
With a look of distaste, it walked away. It seemed that even a Carnotaurus had its standards, and meat covered in dung was not on its menu for the evening.
“Can’t help but be a little offended,” Paul said.
Moments later, Alan and the others were back on the barge. Paul pointed out the dock they had spotted and aimed the barge for it. Amanda began fiercely scrubbing herself off.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Eric asked his mother. “I think I should swim over and cover myself in that stuff. That way, maybe the dinosaurs won’t want to . . . you know—”
“I’m not gonna be stinking of this,” Amanda said. “And neither is my son—or my husband.”
Eric caught another odd look pass between his parents. It seemed to him that the crisis was bringing his mother and father together.
Maybe there was hope for the Kirby family after all, thought Eric. If they could just get off this island!
The phone was still in Alan’s hands. The battery-level indicator was flashing. Its charge was running down.
“Whatever you do, don’t call the U.S. Embassy,” advised Paul. “They won’t do a thing.”
“Well, we don’t exactly have a Costa Rican phone book here,” said Alan. “So it will have to be somebody we know in the States. Someone we can absolutely count on to send help.”
“My brother Stan,” Paul said.
“I wouldn’t trust Stan to find a snowball in a blizzard,” Amanda said.
Paul looked at her, then shrugged and nodded. It seemed like she had a point.
“What’s that?” asked Eric, pointing toward the murky water. Just below the surface, a shimmering wave of silver passed beneath the boat. A single fish jumped from the water. Then another.
“Bonitos,” Alan said.
“Something must have scared them,” said Eric, tensing. He met Alan’s eyes. Eric had learned the hard way that nature had many warning signs. They were seeing one now.
Thunder sounded again. This time, much closer.
“Get the motor going,” Alan called to Paul, who nodded and tried to start the engine. It sputtered but would not turn over.
The phone beeped to indicate that the battery was getting even weaker. Alan closed his eyes and made a decision, then quickly dialed a familiar number.
“Who are you calling?” Amanda asked.
Alan ignored the question. The line rang three times. Four. Finally, someone answered.
“Hewwo?” a little boy said.
Alan knew the voice. “Charlie, get your mother. Right away!”
A long silence followed.
“Charlie, are you there?” Alan asked. He looked around anxiously.
“Hewwo?” Charlie repeated.
The phone beeped again. The battery was dangerously low now. Behind Alan, Paul continued to struggle with the motor.
“Charlie! It’s the dinosaur man!” Alan cried into the phone. “Go get Mommy, okay?”
“Okay,” said Charlie. The sound came of the phone being dropped onto a table.
Amanda and Eric watched Alan. They all knew their lives could be riding on this single phone call.
Suddenly, something distracted Eric. As he looked toward the bow, his body tensed and he called, “Dr. Grant!”
The phone pressed tightly to his ear, Alan turned and saw a gigantic fin rise from the water fifty feet behind them. It was heading right for them!
“Charlie? Charlie!” Alan yelled in desperation. “Are you getting Mommy? Charlie!”
With shattering force, the boat was rammed and everyone was sent tumbling! Alan slammed against the wheelhouse support bar. The phone slipped from his hand and fell to the deck, landing on the “end call” button. The connection was severed.
As lightning flashed and thunder roared, the Spinosaurus rose out of the dark water, its massive form towering over the barge.
RRRRHHH-AWWWHHHRRR!
Long crocodile-shaped jaws lunged toward Alan, who had only one thought before leaping away with all his strength—Never underestimate the reach of a superpredator!
He got clear, just barely.
The massive jaws connected with the barge instead. Then the Spinosaurus ripped the entire wheelhouse from the deck.
It started on the stern next, puncturing the fuel tank, clearly enjoying its little destructive fest. Fuel leaked into the river, spreading into a large slick.
Alan rushed toward the front of the craft. He herded the Kirbys into the dinosaur cage that had been left on the barge. He jumped in, too, and closed the door.
With any luck, the cage’s bars would be strong enough to protect them, like a shark cage in unfriendly waters.
But the Spinosaurus’s rampage near the stern made the entire craft unstable. When the dinosaur lifted the back of the boat from the water, the cage slid across the deck and slammed into the bow.
Ala
n realized that the cage door was pinned shut. They were trapped. Debris and pieces of abandoned equipment slid forward as the Spinosaurus lifted its end of the boat even higher.
Alan gasped as he saw the phone among the junk sliding toward oblivion—and heard it start to ring!
Reaching through the cage bars for the sliding phone, Alan strained until his arm felt as if it might tear from its socket.
The Spinosaurus dropped the barge and the phone slid back toward the stern again!
Alan saw the dinosaur’s jagged maw approaching. The cage was their only protection now. The dinosaur’s teeth fastened on it, lifting it a few feet from the deck. Alan and the others were knocked around like rag dolls as the cage was smashed back down.
The ringing phone flew through the air. Alan lunged for it, shouting in triumph as his fingers closed on the prize.
GRAGHHHHH-RAGHHHHH!
Furiously, the Spinosaurus battered the boat, sinking the barge, cage and all, into the river. As the icy water rose in the cage, Alan frantically pressed the phone’s “talk” button.
“ELLIE!” screamed Alan, praying it was her. Praying she had caller ID or star-six-nine or some other blasted form of suburban tele-technology that would give her a clue he was reliving his worst nightmare!
“Alan?” Ellie said. “Alan, is that—”
The deafening roar of the Spinosaurus came again, drowning out Ellie’s voice.
The water was now up to Alan’s neck. He pressed his face against the bars and kept the phone just over the waterline. The Kirbys struggled beside him.
“ELLIE!” Alan hollered. “SITE B, ELLIE! THE RIVER—”
Then the water closed over Alan like a fist. He jammed the phone into his waistband and held his breath as he and Paul tugged desperately on the cage door. All four were running out of air as the cage suffered another jarring impact. Their world tilted to one side and they rose up, as if they were being hauled by an insane machine.
The Spinosaurus lifted the cage out of the river in its powerful jaws. It shook the cage, trying to find a way in. As the cage toppled, its door swung open and Paul flew out, splashing into the river. He surfaced, out of breath and disoriented.
Jurassic Park<sup>TM</sup> III Novelization Page 6
