Dr. Alan Grant's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

The scraping on the tile stopped. Grant listened. The raptors were not leaving. They were waiting for the door to open. He looked at the steel between them and the children and understood he could not simply crack it and run. If he opened the door, the raptors would charge, and the girl and the boy would be caught in the corridor with no cover. He needed to pull the animals off the door first. He needed to send them somewhere else. He turned back to the console. "The tour feed," he said to the boy. "What else can it play?" The boy scrolled. Exhibit clips. Fence diagrams. A short film narrated by the old man who had built the park. And, near the bottom of the menu, a line marked LOBBY GREETER AUDIO. Grant leaned over the boy's shoulder. "Can you push sound to the lobby speakers from here? Only the lobby." "I think so," the boy said. His fingers moved. A speaker icon appeared beside the lobby zone. He muted every other zone on the map. Grant took the microphone off its cradle and set it down. He did not want his voice. He wanted a herd. He pointed at the exhibit menu. "Play the triceratops clip. Loud." The boy selected it. A low, wet bellow rolled out of the console monitor and, a second later, out of the lobby speakers on the tour camera feed. The horned model in the corner of the lobby seemed to roar from its own mouth. Grant heard the sound leak through the steel door as a muffled call. He heard something better. Claws left the tile outside. Two sets. Moving away from the door. Toward the lobby. On the greeter camera he watched them come into frame. The lean one stopped in the middle of the tile, head cocked at the model. The second circled behind it, low, testing the air. They did not know what a recording was. They only knew a large animal was calling inside the building, and a large animal meant either a fight or a meal. "Keep it playing," Grant said. He pulled Ellie up by the elbow. He lifted the girl. The puppy squirmed inside his jacket and he clamped his arm across it. Malcolm got his cane under him with the boy's help. Grant put his hand on the keypad. "When I open it, we go left, away from the lobby, to the service door at the end. Do not look back. Do not stop for anything." Ellie nodded. The girl nodded against his shoulder. He punched the code. The steel door slid. The corridor was empty. From the lobby behind them the bellow rolled again, and under it Grant heard the wet click of a raptor's jaw closing on plastic. He ran.