Cowan, Swain and Ross
Midday sun streamed into the San Francisco law offices of Cowan, Swain and Ross, giving the room a cheerfulness that Donald Gennaro did not feel. He listened on the phone and looked at his boss, Daniel Ross, cold as an undertaker in his dark pinstripe suit.
"I understand, John," Gennaro said. "And Grant agreed to come? Good, good… yes, that sounds fine to me. My congratulations, John." He hung up the phone and turned to Ross.
"We can't trust Hammond any more. He's under too much pressure. The EPA's investigating him, he's behind schedule on his Costa Rican resort, and the investors are getting nervous. There have been too many rumors of problems down there. Too many workmen have died. And now this business about a living procompsit-whatever on the mainland… "
"What does that mean?" Ross said.
"Maybe nothing," Gennaro said. "But Hamachi is one of our principal investors. I got a report last week from Hamachi's representative in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. According to the report, some new kind of lizard is biting children on the coast."
Ross blinked. "New lizard?"
"Yes," Gennaro said. "We can't screw around with this. We've got to inspect that island right away. I've asked Hammond to arrange independent site inspections every week for the next three weeks."
"And what does Hammond say?"
"He insists nothing is wrong on the island. Claims he has all these security precautions."
"But you don't believe him," Ross said.
"No," Gennaro said. "I don't."
Donald Gennaro had come to Cowan, Swain from a background in investment banking. Cowan, Swain's high-tech clients frequently needed capitalization, and Gennaro helped them find the money. One of his first assignments, back in 1982, had been to accompany John Hammond while the old man, then nearly seventy, put together the funding to start the InGen corporation. They eventually raised almost a billion dollars, and Gcnnaro remembered it as a wild ride.
"Hammond's a dreamer," Gennaro said.
"A potentially dangerous dreamer," Ross said. "We should never have gotten involved. What is our financial position?"
"The firm," Gennaro said, "owns five percent."
"General or limited?"
"General."
Ross shook his head. "We should never have done that."
"It seemed wise at the time," Gennaro said. "Hell, it was eight years ago. We took it in lieu of some fees. And, if you remember, Hammond's plan was extremely speculative. He was really pushing the envelope. Nobody really thought he could pull it off."
"But apparently he has," Ross said. "In any case, I agree that an inspection is overdue. What about your site experts?"
"I'm starting with experts Hammond already hired as consultants, early in the project." Gennaro tossed a list onto Ross's desk. "First group is a paleontologist, a paleobotanist, and a mathematician. They go down this weekend. I'll go with them."
"Will they tell you the truth?" Ross said.
"I think so. None of them had much to do with the island, and one of them-the mathematician, Ian Malcolm-was openly hostile to the project from the start. Insisted it would never work, could never work."
"And who else?"
"Just a technical person: the computer system analyst. Review the park's computers and fix some bugs. He should be there by Friday morning."
Fine," Ross said. "You're making the arrangements?"
"Hammond asked to place the calls himself. I think he wants to pretend that he's not in trouble, that it's just a social invitation. Showing off his island."
"All right," Ross said. "But just make sure it happens. Stay on top of it. I want this Costa Rican situation resolved within a week." Ross got up, and walked out of the room.
Gennaro dialed, heard the whining hiss of a radiophone. Then he heard a voice say, "Grant here."
"Hi, Dr. Grant, this is Donald Gennaro. I'm the general counsel for InGen. We talked a few years back, I don't know if you remember-"
"I remember," Grant said.
"Well," Gennaro said. "I just got off the phone with John Hammond, who tells me the good news that you're coming down to our island in Costa Rica…"
"Yes," Grant said. "I guess we're going down there tomorrow."
"Well, I just want to extend my thanks to you for doing this on short notice. Everybody at InGen appreciates it. We've asked fan Malcolm, who like you was one of the early consultants, to come down as well. He's the mathematician at UT in Austin?"
"John Hammond mentioned that," Grant said.
"Well, good," Gennaro said. "And I'll be coming, too, as a matter of fact. By the way, this specimen you have found of a pro… procom… what is it?"
"Procompsognathus," Grant said.
"Yes. Do you have the specimen with you, Dr. Grant? The actual specimen?"
"No," Grant said. "I've only seen an X-ray. The specimen is in New York. A woman from Columbia University called me."
"Well, I wonder if you could give me the details on that," Gennaro said. "Then I can run down that specimen for Mr. Hammond, who's very excited about it. I'm sure you want to see the actual specimens too. Perhaps I can even get it delivered to the island while you're all down there," Gennaro said.
Grant gave him the information. "Well, that's fine, Dr. Grant," Gennaro said. "My regards to Dr. Sattler. I look forward to meeting you and him tomorrow." And Gennaro hung up.
Plans
"This just came," Ellie said the next day, walking to the back of the trailer with a thick manila envelope. "One of the kids brought it back from town. It's from Hammond."
Grant noticed the blue-and-white InGen logo as he tore open the envelope. Inside there was no cover letter, just a bound stack of paper. Pulling it out, he discovered it was blueprints. They were reduced, forming a thick book. The cover was marked: ISLA NUBLAR RESORT GUEST FACILITIES (FULL SET: SAFARI LODGE).
"What the hell is this?" he said.
As he flipped open the book, a sheet of paper fell out.
Dear Alan and Ellie:
As you can imagine we don't have much in the way of formal promotional materials yet. But this should give you some idea of the Isla Nublar project. I think it's Very exciting!
Looking forward to discussing this with you! Hope you can join us!
Regards,
John
"I don't get it," Grant said. He flipped through the sheets. "These are architectural plans." He turned to the top sheet:
VISITOR CENTER/LODGE ISLA NUBLAR RESORT
CLIENT InGen Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.
ARCHITECTS Dunning, Murphy amp; Associates, New
York. Richard Murphy, design partner;
Theodore Chen, senior designer;
Sheldon James, administrative partner.
ENGINEERS Harlow, Whitney amp; Fields, Boston,
structural; A.T.Misikawa, Osaka,
mechanical.
LANDSCAPING Shepperton Rogers, London;
A.Ashikiga, H. Ieyasu, Kanazawa.
ELECTRICAL N. V. Kobayashi, Tokyo. A. R
Makasawa, senior consultant.
COMPUTER C/C Integrated Computer Systems, Inc.,
Cambridge, Mass. Dennis Nedry,
project supervisor.
Grant turned to the plans themselves. They were stamped INDUSTRIAL SECRETS DO NOT COPY and CONFIDENTIAL WORK PRODUCT-NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION. Each sheet was numbered, and at the top: "These plans represent the confidential creations of InGen Inc. You must have signed document 112/4A or you risk prosecution."
"Looks pretty paranoid to me," he said.
"Maybe there's a reason," Ellie said.
The next page was a topographical map. It showed Isla Nublar as an inverted teardrop, bulging at the north, tapering at the south. The island was eight miles long, and the map divided it into several large sections.
The northern section was marked VISITOR AREA and it contained structures marked "Visitor Arrivals," "Visitor Center/Administration," " Power/Desalinization/Support," "Hammond Res.," and "Safari Lodge." Grant could see the outline of a swimming pool, the rectangles of tennis courts, and the round squiggles that represented planting and shrubbery.
"Looks like a resort, all right," Ellie said.
There followed detail sheets for the Safari Lodge itself. In the elevation sketches, the lodge looked dramatic: a long low building with a series of pyramid shapes on the roof. But there was little about the other buildings in the visitor area.
And the rest of the island was even more mysterious. As far as Grant could tell, it was mostly open space. A network of roads, tunnels, and outlying buildings, and a long thin lake that appeared to be man-made, with concrete dams and barriers. But, for the most part, the island was divided into big curving areas with very little development at all. Each area was marked by codes: