He touched the screen and heard a beep.
[picture]
A moment later, the message box disappeared, and the original screen flashed back up.
"What happened?" Lex said. "What did you do? You touched something."
Of course! he thought. He had touched the screen. It was a touch screen! The red lights around the edges must be infrared sensors. Tim had never seen such a screen, but he'd read about them in magazines. He touched
RESET/REVERT.
Instantly the screen changed. He got a new message:
Over the radio, they heard the sound of raptors snarling. "I want to see," Lex said. "You should try VIEW."
"No, Lex."
"Well, I want VIEW," she said. And before he could grab her hand, she had pressed VIEW. The screen changed.
[picture]
"Uh-oh," she said.
"Lex, will you cut it out?"
"Look!" she said. "it worked! Ha!"
Around the room, the monitors showed quickly changing views of different parts of the park, Most of the images were misty gray, because of the exterior fog, but one showed the outside of the lodge, with a raptor on the roof, and then another switched to an image in bright sunlight, showing the bow of a ship, bright sunlight-
"What was that?" Tim said, leaning forward.
"What?"
"That picture!"
But the image had already changed, and now they were seeing the inside of the lodge, one room after another, and then he saw Malcolm, lying in a bed-
"Stop it," Lex said. "I see them!"
Tim touched the screen in several places, and got submenus. Then more submenus.
"Wait," Lex said. "You're confusing it…"
"Will you shut up! You don't know anything about computers!"
Now he had a list of monitors on the screen. One of them was marked SAFARI LODGE: LV2-4. Another was REMOTE: SHIPBOARD (VND). He pressed the screen several times.
Video images came up on monitors around the room. One showed the bow of the supply ship, and the ocean ahead. In the distance, Tim saw land-buildings along a shore, and a harbor. He recognized the harbor because he had flown over it in the helicopter the day before. It was Puntarenas. The ship seemed to be just minutes from landing.
But his attention was drawn by the next screen, which showed the roof of the safari lodge, in gray mist. The raptors were mostly bidden behind the pyramids, but their heads bobbed up and down, coming into view.
And then, on the third monitor, he could see inside a room. Malcolm was lying in a bed, and Ellie stood next to him. They were both looking upward. As they watched, Muldoon walked into the room, and joined them, looking up with an expression of concern.
"They see us," Lex said.
"I don't think so."
The radio crackled. On the screen, Muldoon lifted the radio to his lips. "Hello, Tim?"
"I'm here," Tim said.
"Ah, we haven't got a whole lot of time," Muldoon said, dully. "Better get that power grid on." And then Tim heard the raptors snarl, and saw one of the long heads duck down through the glass, briefly entering the picture from the top, snapping its jaws.
Hurry, Timmy!" Lex said. "Get the power on!"
The Grid
Tim suddenly found himself lost in a tangled series of monitor control screens, as he tried to get back to the main screen. Most systems had a single button or a single command to return to the previous screen, or to the main menu. But this system did not-or at least he didn't know it. Also, he was certain that help commands had been built into the system, but he couldn't find them, either, and Lex was jumping up and down and shouting in his ear, making him nervous.
Finally he got the main screen back. He wasn't sure what he had done, but it was back. He paused, looking for a command.
"Do something, Timmy!"
"Will you shut up? I'm trying to get help." He pushed TEMPLATE-MAIN. The screen filled with a complicated diagram, with interconnecting boxes and arrows.
No good. No good.
He pushed COMMON INTERFACE. The screen shifted:
[picture]
"What's that?" Lex said. "Why aren't you turning on the power, Timmy?"
He ignored her. Maybe help on this system was called "Info." He pushed INFO.
[picture]
"Tim-ee," Lex wailed, but he had already pushed FIND. He got another useless window. He pushed GO BACK.
On the radio, he heard Muldoon say, "How's it coming, Tim?" He didn't bother to answer. Frantic, he pushed buttons one after another.
Suddenly, without warning, the main screen was back.
[picture]
He studied the screen. ELECTRICAL MAIN and SETGRIDS DNL both looked like they might have something to do with grids. He noticed that SAFETY/HEALTH and CRITICAL LOCKS might be important, too. He heard the growl of the raptors. He had to make a choice. He pressed SETGRIDS DNL, and groaned when he saw it:
[picture]
He didn't know what to do. He pushed STANDARD PARAMETERS.
STANDARD PARAMETERS
Park Grids B4-C6 Outer Grids C2-D2
Zoological Grids BB-07 Pen Grids R4-R4
Lodge Grids F4-D4 Maint Grids E5-L6
Main Grids C4-G7 Sensor Grids D5-G4
Utility Grids AH-B5 Core Grids Al-Cl
Circuit Integrity Not Tested
Security Grids Remain Automatic
Tim shook his head in frustration. It took him a moment to realize that he had just gotten valuable information. He now knew the grid coordinates for the lodge! He pushed grid F4.
POWER GRID F4 (SAFARI LODCE)
COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505
(POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.
Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.11)
"It's not working," Lex said.
"I know!" He pushed another button. The screen flashed again.
POWER GRID D4 (SAFARI LODCE)
COMMAND CANNOT BE EXECUTED. ERROR-505
(POWER INCOMPATIBLE WITH COMMAND ERROR.
Ref Manual Pages 4.09-4.1 1)
Tim tried to stay calm, to think it through. For some reason he was getting a consistent error message whenever he tried to turn on a grid. It was saying the power was incompatible with the command he was giving. But what did that mean? Why was power incompatible?
"Timmy…" Lex said, tugging at his arm.
'Not now, Lex."
"Yes, now, " she said, and she pulled him away from the screen and the console. And then he heard the snarling of raptors.
It was coming from the hallway.
In the skylight above Malcolm's bed, the raptors had almost bitten through the second metal bar. They could now poke their heads entirely through the shattered glass, and lunge and snarl at the people below. Then after a moment they would pull back, and resume chewing on the metal.
Malcolm said, "It won't be long now. Three, four minutes." He pressed the button on the radio: "Tim, are you there? Tim?"
There was no answer.
Tim slipped out the door and saw the velociraptor, down at the far end of the corridor, standing by the balcony, He stared in astonishment. How had it gotten out of the freezer?
Then, as he watched, a second raptor suddenly appeared on the balcony, and he understood. The raptor hadn't come from the freezer at all. It had come from outside. It had jumped from the ground below. The second raptor landed silently, perfectly balanced on the railing. Tim couldn't believe it. The big animal had jumped ten feet straight up. More than ten feet. Their legs must be incredibly powerful.
Lex whispered, "I thought you said they couldn't-"
"Ssshh." Tim was trying to think, but he watched with a kind of fascinated dread as the third raptor leapt to the balcony. The animals milled aimlessly in the corridor for a moment, and then they began to move forward in single file. Coming toward him and Lex.
Quietly, Tim pushed against the door at his back, to re-enter the control room. But the door was stuck. He pushed harder.
"We're locked out," Lex whispered. "Look." She pointed to the slot for the security card alongside the door. A bright red dot glowed. Somehow the security doors had been activated. "You idiot, you locked us out!"
Tim looked down the corridor. He saw several more doors, but each had a red light glowing alongside. That meant all the doors were locked. There was nowhere they could go.
Then he saw a slumped shape on the floor at the far end of the corridor. It was a dead guard. A white security card was clipped to his belt.