Read Online Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization by Scott Ciencin - Free Book Online Page A

it. The gate hung an inch ajar. The shiny bar the prey had used to secure it in place was dangling helplessly.
    She pushed at the gate and it moved.
    Again.
    Again.
    The door opened—and the predator stepped through, into an unsuspecting world.
    The food would be hers again.
    No one was going to cheat her hatchlings.
    No one.

CHAPTER 12
     
    “M Y OWN KID WAS right in front of me, and I didn’t do a thing,” said Paul angrily after starting the barge’s engine.
    Amanda stood beside her husband at the stern, bailing water with a rusted bucket.
    “You couldn’t have made that jump,” insisted Amanda.
    “I should have tried. It should have been
me
on that beach back there, not Billy.”
    “How would that have helped Eric?” asked Amanda. “He needs you, Paul. He needs
us.”
    “He could have died.”
    “But he didn’t. And neither did you. . . . I’m sorry about Billy, Paul. I really am. But I’m
glad
you and Eric are alive.”
    “Check it out,” Eric said to Alan at the bow after spying on his parents at the stern. “They almost look like they’re getting along.”
    Alan grunted uncomfortably and turned away. Eric knew Alan was still thinking about Billy. And maybe something else . . .
    “I’m sorry about Billy,” Eric said. “He saved my life.”
    “You’re no better than the people who made this place,” Alan said softly.
    “What?”
    “That was the last thing I said to Billy,” explained Alan. “ ‘You’re no better than the people who made this place.’ ”
    “Do you have any kids?” Eric asked.
    “No,” said Alan. “Although I’ve studied them in the wild.”
    Eric’s brow furrowed. He wasn’t
quite
sure how to take that.
    Alan shrugged. “I have a theory that there’s two kinds of boys. Those who want to be astronomers and those who want to be astronauts.”
    Eric nodded. “I want to be an astronaut.”
    Alan waved his hands awkwardly. “See,
I
was just the opposite. I never understood why anyone would want to go into space. It’s so
dangerous.
In space, you do
one
thing wrong and you’re dead. The astronomer—or the paleontologist—gets to study these amazing things from a place of complete safety.”
    “Uh-huh,” Eric said.
    One of the ways Eric had kept himself alive on the island was by figuring out what was on a dinosaur’s mind just by reading its body language.
    Now Eric tried to do the same with Alan. As Alan talked, Eric studied the man’s hands, his eyes, his posture, and knew at once that Dr. Grant wasn’t trying to convince
him
of anything. The man was trying to convince
himself!
    Alan’s eyes lit up. “You see, then? Everything you really need to learn you can learn from the ground.”
    Eric’s piercing gaze held the man. “But then you never get to go into space.”
    “Exactly,” Alan said. “The difference between imagining and seeing. To be able to touch them. That’s what Billy wanted to do.”
    It was at that moment the barge rounded a bend in the river and an incredible sight came into view.
    “Dr. Grant—” Eric whispered.
    The crimson sun was setting over a verdant valley filled with dinosaurs. Eric could see armored ankylosaurs with massive clubbed tails and duck-billed corythosaurs. The barge lazily floated under the gigantic, arching necks of fifty-foot brachiosaurs.
    With the drifting mist from the river, and the play of waning light on the lush vegetation, the scene looked like a primal Eden.
    Eric looked over to Alan. For a few long moments, the paleontologist appeared mesmerized by the beauty and wonder of the island.
    “I can blame the people who made this island,” Alan finally said softly. “But I can’t blame the people who want to see it. To study it.” He gazed down at Eric. “After all, how’s a boy supposed to resist this?”
    Eric nodded. He couldn’t have agreed more.
    That night, as the barge floated farther downstream, the full moon passed behind the clouds. Lightning flickered in the distance and