Jurassic Park / Парк Юрского периода. Майкл Крайтон

was separated from the road by a concrete moat. Outside each moat was a fence with a little lightning sign alongside it. That mystified them until they were finally able to figure out that the fences were electrified.

      “That’s odd,” she said. “Electrified fences at a resort?”

      “Miles of them,” Grant said. “Electrified fences and moats, together. And usually with a road alongside them as well.”

      “Just like a zoo,” Ellie said.

      They went back to the topographical map and looked closely at the contour lines. The roads ran oddly. The main road ran north-south, right through the central hills of the island, one section of road was cut into the side of a cliff, above a river. And the roads were raised up above ground level, so you could see over the fences.

      “You know,” Ellie said, “some of these dimensions are enormous. Look at this. This concrete moat is thirty feet wide. That’s like a military fortification.”

      “So are these buildings,” Grant said. He had noticed that each open division had a few buildings, usually located in out-of-the-way corners. But the buildings were all concrete, with thick walls. In side-view elevations they looked like concrete bunkers with small windows. Like the Nazi pillboxes from old war movies.

      At that moment, they heard a muffled explosion, and Grant put the papers aside. “Back to work,” he said.

      “Fire!”

      There was a slight vibration, and then yellow contour lines traced across the computer screen, and Alan Grant had a glimpse of the skeleton, beautifully defined, the long neck arched back. It was an infant velociraptor, and it looked perfect. Grant saw the complete skeleton, traced in bright yellow. It was indeed a young specimen. The outstanding characteristic of Velociraptor – the single-toed claw, which in a full-grown animal was a curved, six-inch-long weapon capable to rip open its prey, was in this infant no larger than the thorn on a rosebush. It was hardly visible at all on the screen. And Velociraptor was a lightly built dinosaur in any case, an animal as fine-boned as a bird, and presumably as intelligent.

      “Doesn’t look very fearsome,” one of the technicians said.

      “He wasn’t,” Grant said. “At least, not until he grew up.” Probably this baby had scavenged, feeding off carcasses killed by the adults, after the big animals had gorged themselves, and lay basking in the sun. Carnivores could eat as much as 25 percent of their body weight in a single meal, and it made them sleepy afterward. The babies would chitter and scramble over the bodies of the adults, and nip little bites from the dead animal. The babies were probably cute little animals.

      But an adult velociraptor was another matter entirely. Pound for pound, a velociraptor was the most rapacious dinosaur that ever lived. Although relatively small – about two hundred pounds, the size of a leopard – velociraptors were quick, intelligent, and vicious, able to attack with sharp jaws, powerful clawed forearms, and the devastating single claw on the foot.

      Velociraptors hunted in packs, and Grant thought it must have been a sight to see a dozen of these animals racing at full speed, leaping onto the back of a much larger dinosaur, tearing at the neck and slashing at the ribs and belly.

      “How did the baby die?” one of the workers asked.

      “I doubt we’ll know,” Grant replied. “Infant mortality in the wild is high. In African parks, it runs seventy percent among some carnivores. It could have been anything – disease, separation from the group, anything. Or even attack by an adult. We know these animals hunted in packs, but we don’t know anything about their social behavior in a group.”

      The students nodded. They had all studied animal behavior, and they knew, for example, that when a new male took over a lion pride, the first thing he did was kill all the cubs. The reason was genetic: the male had evolved to disseminate his genes as widely as possible, and by killing the cubs he brought all the females into heat, so that he could impregnate them. It also prevented the females from wasting their time nurturing the offspring of another male.

      Perhaps the velociraptor hunting pack was also ruled by a dominant male. They knew so little about dinosaurs, Grant thought. After 150 years of research and excavation all around the world, they still knew almost nothing about what the dinosaurs had really been like.

      “We’ve got to go,” Ellie said, “if we’re going to get to Choteau by five.”

      Hammond

      Gennaro’s secretary ran in with a new suitcase. It still had the sales tags on it. “You know, Mr. Gennaro,” she said severely, “when you forget to pack it makes me think you don’t really want to go on this trip.”

      “Maybe you’re right,” Gennaro said. “I’m missing my kid’s birthday.”

      “Well, I did the best I could on short notice,” his secretary said. “There’s running shoes your size, and khaki shorts and shirts, and a shaving kit. A pair of jeans and a sweatshirt if it gets cold. The car is downstairs to take you to the airport. You have to leave now to make the flight.”

      She left. Gennaro walked down the hallway, tearing the sales tags off the suitcase. As he passed the all-glass conference room, Dan Ross left the table and came outside.

      “Have a good trip,” Ross said. “But let’s be very clear about one thing. I don’t know how bad this situation actually is, Donald. But if there’s a problem on that island, burn it to the ground.”

      “Jesus, Dan… We’re talking about a big investment.”

      “Don’t hesitate. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Hear me?”

      Gennaro nodded. “I hear you,” he said. “But Hammond – ”

      “Screw Hammond,” Ross said.

      “My boy, my boy,” the familiar raspy voice said. “How have you been, my boy?”

      “Very well, sir,” Gennaro replied. He leaned back in the padded leather chair of the Gulfstream II jet as it flew east, toward the Rocky Mountains.

      “You never call me any more,” Hammond said reproachfully. “I’ve missed you, Donald. How is your lovely wife?”

      “She’s fine. Elizabeth’s fine. We have a little girl now.”

      Notes

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      coatimundis – коати (лат. Nasua narica) – млекопитающее из рода носух