Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization by Scott Ciencin Page B

thought that millions of years ago, all the dinosaurs became extinct. Wiped out. But you told me otherwise. When conditions changed, dinosaurs became other things. They evolved.”
    “A well-accepted theory,” Alan said.
    Ellie stared at him for a long moment. He could feel the love they would always share.
    “Alan,” she said with a seriousness he hadn’t expected, “don’t be afraid to evolve.”
    ***
    The next morning, Alan arrived at the excavation base camp in Fort Peck Lake, Montana. He found Billy Brennan, an associate professor and site manager, working his charm on Cheryl. She was one of a dozen college students at the site.
    “Dr. Grant!” Billy said as he quickly moved away from Cheryl and took one of the heavy bags Alan carried. Another was slung over Alan’s shoulder.
    “How was your trip?” Billy asked. “Did you get the funding we need to keep the site going?”
    Alan shook his head. “We’ll be broke in four weeks.”
    “Three weeks,” Billy said cheerfully. “I had to rent some equipment.”
    They left the glaring sun behind and entered one of the many tents making up the camp. The new equipment Billy had mentioned was on a nearby table. Alan frowned as he took in the dusty Macintosh feeding information to a squat mechanism the size of a small refrigerator. An arm stuck out from the machine and swept back and forth across a block of resinlike material.
    “Meet the future of paleontology,” said Billy.
    “Oh, yeah? Can it dig?” asked Alan. He hated technology.
    “It’s a rapid prototyper,” Billy said with patience. “I feed in the scan data from the raptor skull; the computer breaks it into thousands of slices; and this thing sculpts it, one layer at a time.”
    The machine’s arm stopped suddenly. Billy lifted a hinged top cover, reached inside, and carefully broke loose a hollowed-out object the size of a man’s fist. Shaking out the remaining dust, he raised the object into the afternoon light as if it were the Holy Grail.
    “I give you the resonating chamber of a Velociraptor!” Billy said proudly.
    “Don’t you mean the
computer-simulated
resonating chamber of a Velociraptor?” Alan corrected.
    “Whatever! Okay, now listen to this.” Billy put the chamber to his lips and blew through it as if it were a conch shell.
    Hrrrr-reeeeee!
    The sound it made was unique and piercing, the cry of an ancient animal. A nearby flock of birds immediately leaped into frightened flight.
    A shudder of memory sliced through Alan. The last time he’d heard that call was eight years ago on Jurassic Park. He’d almost been ripped to shreds by raptors.
    Shrugging off the memory, Alan focused instead on his talented student. Billy continued to blow into the chamber, changing the pitch and trying different types of calls.
    “This is brilliant, Billy,” said Alan, truly amazed at the feat. “But I’m afraid it’s a little late.”
    Looking past Alan, Billy noticed some activity beyond the tent. A Cadillac SUV had pulled up and a couple was getting out.
    “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” said Billy, watching Cheryl point the man and woman toward the tent. “Some amateurs wanted to come by and talk with you. I told them you’d be happy to chat with them.”
    Alan’s good mood faded. “Absolutely not. We have little enough time as it is.”
    “Too late,” Billy said.
    “What?” Alan looked over and saw the newcomers.
    “Dr. Grant?” the man asked, approaching him.
    “Yes?”
    “Paul Kirby. Kirby Enterprises.” Paul reached into his breast pocket and produced an impressive business card.
    Alan placed the resonating chamber in his pack—he’d examine it more closely later. Then he took Paul Kirby’s card and looked it over. The card told him almost nothing—except that money had been spent on it.
    “And this is my wife, Amanda,” Paul said.
    Amanda shook Alan’s hand and smiled. She looked tired.
    “What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby?” asked Alan tightly.
    “Well, sir, I am