Jurassic Park: A Novel (25 page)

“He’s right,” Arnold said. “We just always used the base count of two hundred thirty-eight because we assumed there couldn’t be more.”

Total Animals
                             
262

“Wait a minute,” Hammond said. “These animals can’t breed. The computer must be counting field mice or something.”

“I think so, too,” Arnold said. “It’s almost certainly an error in the visual tracking. But we’ll know soon enough.”

Hammond turned to Wu. “They can’t breed, can they?”

“No,” Wu said.

Total Animals
                             
270

“Where are they coming from?” Arnold said.

“Damned if I know,” Wu said.

They watched the numbers climb.

Total Animals
                             
283

Over the radio, they heard Gennaro say, “Holy shit, how much more?”

And they heard the girl say, “I’m getting hungry. When are we going home?”

“Pretty soon, Lex.”

On the screen, there was a flashing error message:

ERROR: Search Params: 300 Animals Not Found

“An error,” Hammond said, nodding. “I
thought
so. I had the feeling all along there must be an error.”

But a moment later the screen printed:

The radio crackled. “Now you see the flaw in your procedures,” Malcolm said. “You only tracked the expected number of dinosaurs. You were worried about losing animals, and your procedures were designed to advise you instantly if you had less than the expected number. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was, you had
more
than the expected number.”

“Christ,” Arnold said.

“There can’t be more,” Wu said. “We know how many we’ve released. There can’t be more than that.”

“Afraid so, Henry,” Malcolm said. “They’re breeding.”

“No.”

“Even if you don’t accept Grant’s eggshell, you can prove it with your own data. Take a look at the compy height graph. Arnold will put it up for you.”

“Notice anything about it?” Malcolm said.

“It’s a Gaussian distribution,” Wu said. “Normal curve.”

“But didn’t you say you introduced the compys in three batches? At six-month intervals?”

“Yes …”

“Then you should get a graph with peaks for each of the three separate batches that were introduced,” Malcolm said, tapping the keyboard. “Like this.”

“But you didn’t get this graph,” Malcolm said. “The graph you actually got is a graph of a breeding population. Your compys are breeding.”

Wu shook his head. “I don’t see how.”

“They’re breeding, and so are the othnielia, the maiasaurs, the hypsys—and the velociraptors.”

“Christ,” Muldoon said. “There are raptors free in the park.”

“Well, it’s not that bad,” Hammond said, looking at the screen. “We have increases in just three categories—well, five categories. Very small increases in two of them …”

“What are you talking about?” Wu said, loudly. “Don’t you know what this means?”

“Of course I know what this means, Henry,” Hammond said. “It means you screwed up.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You’ve got breeding dinosaurs out there, Henry.”

“But they’re all female,” Wu said. “It’s impossible. There must be a mistake. And look at the numbers. A small increase in the big animals, the maiasaurs and the hypsys. And big increases in the number of small animals. It just doesn’t make sense. It must be a mistake.”

The radio clicked. “Actually not,” Grant said. “I think these numbers confirm that breeding is taking place. In seven different sites around the island.”

The sky was growing darker. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Grant and the others leaned in the doors of the Jeep, staring at the screen on the dashboard. “Breeding sites?” Wu said, over the radio.

“Nests,” Grant said. “Assuming the average clutch is eight to twelve hatching eggs, these data would indicate the compys have two nests. The raptors have two nests. The othys have one nest. And the hypsys and the maias have one nest each.”

“Where are these nests?”

“We’ll have to find them,” Grant said. “Dinosaurs build their nests in secluded places.”

“But why are there so few big animals?” Wu said. “If there is a maia nest of eight to twelve eggs, there should be eight to twelve new maias. Not just one.”

“That’s right,” Grant said. “Except that the raptors and the compys that are loose in the park are probably eating the eggs of the bigger animals—and perhaps eating the newly hatched young, as well.”

“But we’ve never seen that,” Arnold said, over the radio.

“Raptors are nocturnal,” he said. “Is anyone watching the park at night?”

There was a long silence.

“I didn’t think so,” Grant said.

“It still doesn’t make sense,” Wu said. “You can’t support fifty additional animals on a couple of nests of eggs.”

“No,” Grant said. “I assume they are eating something else as well. Perhaps small rodents. Mice and rats?”

There was another silence.

“Let me guess,” Grant said. “When you first came to the island,
you had a problem with rats. But as time passed, the problem faded away.”

“Yes. That’s true.…”

“And you never thought to investigate why.”

“Well, we just assumed …” Arnold said.

“Look,” Wu said, “the fact remains, all the animals are female. They can’t breed.”

Grant had been thinking about that. He had recently learned of an intriguing West German study that he suspected held the answer. “When you made your dinosaur DNA,” Grant said, “you were working with fragmentary pieces, is that right?”

“Yes,” Wu said.

“In order to make a complete strand, were you ever required to include DNA fragments from other species?”

“Occasionally, yes,” Wu said. “It’s the only way to accomplish the job. Sometimes we included avian DNA, from a variety of birds, and sometimes reptilian DNA.”

“Any amphibian DNA? Specifically, frog DNA?”

“Possibly. I’d have to check.”

“Check,” Grant said. “I think you’ll find that holds the answer.”

Malcolm said, “Frog DNA? Why frog DNA?”

Gennaro said impatiently, “Listen, this is all very intriguing, but we’re forgetting the main question: have any animals gotten off the island?”

Grant said, “We can’t tell from these data.”

“Then how are we going to find out?”

“There’s only one way I know,” Grant said. “We’ll have to find the individual dinosaur nests, inspect them, and count the remaining egg fragments. From that we may be able to determine how many animals were originally hatched. And we can begin to assess whether any are missing.”

Malcolm said, “Even so, you won’t know if the missing animals are killed, or dead from natural causes, or whether they have left the island.”

“No,” Grant said, “but it’s a start. And I think we can get more information from an intensive look at the population graphs.”

“How are we going to find these nests?”

“Actually,” Grant said, “I think the computer will be able to help us with that.”

“Can we go back now?” Lex said. “I’m
hungry.
”

“Yes, let’s go,” Grant said, smiling at her. “You’ve been very patient.”