"Do you hear me, damn it?" Muldoon bellowed.
How good are these animals? she wondered. Good enough to cut off my retreat? There wasn't much distance back to the fence, not really-
They attacked.
There was no sound.
The first animal charged from the foliage at the base of a tree to the left. It sprang forward and she turned to run. The second attacked from the other side, clearly intending to catch her as she ran, and it leapt into the air, claws raised to attack, and she darted like a broken field runner, and the animal crashed down in the dirt. Now she was running flat out, not daring to look back, her breaths coming in deep gasps, seeing the bars of the fence emerge from the haze, seeing Muldoon throw the gate wide, seeing him reaching for her, shouting to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her through so hard she was yanked off her feet and fell to the ground. And she turned in time to see first one, then two-then tbree-animals hit the fence and snarl.
"Good work," Muldoon shouted. He was taunting the animals now, snarling back, and it drove them wild. They flung themselves at the fence, leaping forward, and one of them nearly made it over the top. "Christ, that was close! These bastards can jump!"
She got to her feet, looking at the scrapes and bruises, the blood running down her leg. All she could think was: three animals here. And two on the roof. That meant one was still missing, somewhere.
"Come on, help me," Muldoon said. "Let's keep 'em interested!"
Grant left the visitor center and moved quickly forward, into the mist. He found the path among the palm trees and followed it north. Up ahead, the rectangular maintenance shed emerged from the fog.
There was no door that he could see at all. He walked on, around the corner. At the back, screened by planting, Grant saw a concrete loading dock for trucks. He scrambled up to face a vertical rolling door of corrugated steel; it was locked. He jumped down again and continued around the building. Farther ahead, to his right, Grant saw an ordinary door. It was propped open with a man's shoe.
Grant stepped inside and squinted in the darkness. He listened, heard nothing. He picked up his radio and turned it on.
"This is Grant," he said. "I'm inside."
Wu looked up at the skylight. The two raptors still peered down into Malcolm's room, but they seemed distracted by the noises outside. He went to the lodge window. Outside, the three velociraptors continued to charge the fence. Ellie was running back and forth, safely behind the bars. But the raptors no longer seemed to be seriously trying to get her. Now they almost seemed to be playing, circling back from the fence, rearing up and snarling, then dropping down low, to circle again and finally charge. Their behavior had taken on the distinct quality of display, rather than serious attack.
"Like birds," Muldoon said. "Putting on a show."
Wu nodded. "They're intelligent. They see they can't get her. They're not really trying."
The radio crackled. "-side."
Wu gripped the radio. "Say again, Dr. Grant?"
"I'm inside," Grant said.
"Dr. Grant, you're in the maintenance building?"
"Yes," Grant said. And he added, "Maybe you should call me Alan."
"All right, Alan. If you're standing just inside the cast door, you see a lot of pipes and tubing." Wu closed his eyes, visualizing it, "Straight ahead is a big recessed well in the center of the building that goes two stories underground. To your left is a metal walkway with railings."
"I see it."
"Go along the walkway."
"I'm going." Faintly, the radio carried the clang of his footsteps on metal.
"After you go twenty or thirty feet, you'll see another walkway going right."
"I see it," Grant said.
"Follow that walkway."
"Okay."
"As you continue," Wu said, "you will come to a ladder on your left. Going down into the pit."
"I see it."
"Go down the ladder."
There was a long pause. Wu ran his fingers through his damp hair, Muldoon frowned tensely.
"Okay, I'm down the ladder," Grant said.
"Good," Wu said. "Now, straight ahead of you should be two large yellow tanks that are marked 'Flammable.' "
"They say 'In-flammable.' And then something underneath. In Spanish."
"Those are the ones," Wu said. "Those are the two fuel tanks for the generator. One of them has been run dry, and so we have to switch over to the other. If you look at the bottom of the tanks, you'll see a white pipe coming out."
"Four-inch PVC?"
"Yes. PVC. Follow that pipe as it goes back."
"Okay. I'm following it… Ow!"
"What happened?"
"Nothing. I hit my head."
There was a pause.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, fine. Just… hurt my head. Stupid."
"Keep following the pipe."
"Okay, okay," Grant said. He sounded irritable. "Okay. The pipe goes to a big aluminum box with air vents in the sides. Says 'Honda.' It looks like the generator."
"Yes," Wu said. "That's the generator. If you walk around to the side, you'll see a panel with two buttons."
"I see them. Yellow and red?"
"That's right," Wu said. "Press the yellow one first, and while you hold it down, press the red one."
"Right."
There was another pause. It lasted almost a minute. Wu and Muldoon looked at each other.
"Alan?"
"It didn't work," Grant said.
"Did you hold down the yellow first and then press the red?" Wu asked.
"Yes, I did," Grant said. He sounded annoyed. "I did exactly what you told me to do. There was a hum, and then a click, click, click, very fast, and then the hum stopped, and nothing after that."
"Try it again."
"I already did," Grant said. "It didn't work."
"Okay, just a minute." Wu frowned. "It sounds like the generator is trying to fire up but it can't for some reason. Alan?"
"I'm here."
"Go around to the back of the generator, to where the plastic pipe runs in. "
"Okay." A pause; then Grant said, "The pipe goes into a round black cylinder that looks like a fuel pump."
"That's right," Wu said. "That's exactly what it is. It's the fuel pump. Look for a little valve at the top."
"A valve?"
"It should be sticking up at the top, with a little metal tab that you can turn."
"I found it. But it's on the side, not the top."
"Okay. Twist it open."
"Air is coming out."
"Good. Wait until-"
"-now liquid is coming out. It smells like gas."
"Okay. Close the valve." Wu turned to Muldoon, shaking his head. "Pump lost its prime. Alan?"
"Yes."
"Try the buttons again."
A moment later, Wu heard the faint coughing and sputtering as the generator turned over, and then the steady chugging sound as it caught. "It's on," Grant said.
"Good work, Alan! Good work!"
"Now what?" Grant said. He sounded flat, dull. "The lights haven't even come on in here."
"Go back to the control room, and I'll talk you through restoring the systems manually."
"That's what I have to do now?"
" Yes."
"Okay," Grant said. "I'll call you when I get there." There was a final hiss, and silence.
"Alan?"
The radio was dead.
Tim went through the swinging doors at the back of the dining room and entered the kitchen. A big stainless-steel table in the center of the room, a big stove with lots of burners to the left, and, beyond that, big walk-in refrigerators. Tim started opening the refrigerators, looking for ice cream. Smoke came out in the humid air as he opened each one.
"How come the stove is on?" Lex said, releasing his hand.
"It's not on."
"They all have little blue flames."
"Those're pilot lights."
"What're pilot lights?" They had an electric stove at home.
"Never mind," Tim said, opening another refrigerator. "But it means I can cook you something." In this next refrigerator, he found all kinds of stuff, cartons of milk, and piles of vegetables, and a stack of T-bone steaks, fish-but no ice cream.
"You still want ice cream?"
"I told you, didn't I?"
The next refrigerator was huge. A stainless steel door, with a wide horizontal handle. He tugged on the handle, pulled it open, and saw a walk-in freezer. It was a whole room, and it was freezing cold.
"Timmy…"
"Will you wait a minute?" he said, annoyed. "I'm trying to find your ice cream.
"Timmy… something's here."
She was whispering, and for a moment the last two words didn't register. Then Tim hurried back out of the freezer, seeing the edge of the wreathed in glowing green smoke. Lex stood by the steel worktable. She was looking back to the kitchen door.