Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park

"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.

He heard a low hissing sound, like a very large snake. The sound rose and fell softly. It was hardly audible. It might even be the wind, but he somehow knew it wasn't.

"Timmy," she whispered, "I'm scared."

He crept forward to the kitchen door and looked out. In the darkened dining room, he saw the orderly green rectangular pattern of the tabletops. And moving smoothly among them, silent as a ghost except for the hissing of its breath, was a velociraptor.

In the darkness of the maintenance room, Grant felt along the pipes, moving back toward the ladder. It was difficult to make his way in the dark, and somehow he found the noise of the generator disorienting. He came to the ladder, and had started back up when he realized there was something else in the room besides generator noise.

Grant paused, listening.

It was a man shouting.

It sounded like Gennaro.

"Where are you?" Grant shouted.

"Over here, " Gennaro said. "In the truck."

Grant couldn't see any truck. He squinted in the darkness. He looked out of the corner of his eye. He saw green glowing shapes, moving in the darkness. Then he saw the truck, and he turned toward it.

Tim found the silence chilling.

The velociraptor was six feet tall, and powerfully built, although its strong legs and tail were hidden by the tables. Tim could see only the muscular upper torso, the two forearms held tightly alongside the body, the claws dangling. He could see the iridescent speckled pattern on the back. The velociraptor was alert; as it came forward, it looked from side to side, moving its head with abrupt, bird-like jerks. The head also bobbed up and down as it walked, and the long straight tail dipped, which heightened the impression of a bird.

A gigantic, silent bird of prey.

The dining room was dark, but apparently the raptor could see well enough to move steadily forward. From time to time, it would bend over, lowering its head below the tables. Tim heard a rapid sniffing sound. Then the head would snap up, alertly, jerking back and fortb like a bird's.

Tim watched until he was sure the velociraptor was coming toward the kitchen. Was it following their scent? All the books said dinosaurs had a poor sense of smell, but this one seemed to do just fine. Anyway, what did books know? Here was the real thing.

Coming toward him.

He ducked back into the kitchen.

"Is something out there?" Lex said.

Tim didn't answer. He pushed her under a table in the corner, behind a large waste bin. He leaned close to her and whispered fiercely: "Stay here!" And then he ran for the refrigerator.

He grabbed a handful of cold steaks and hurried back to the door. He quietly placed the first of the steaks on the floor, then moved back a few steps, and put down the second…

Through his goggles, he saw Lex peeping around the bin. He waved her back. He placed the third steak, and the fourth, moving deeper into the kitchen.

The hissing was louder, and then the clawed hand gripped the door, and the big head peered cautiously around.

The velociraptor paused at the entrance to the kitchen.

Tim stood in a half-crouch at the back of the room, near the far leg of the steel worktable. But he had not had time to conceal himself; his head and shoulders still protruded over the tabletop. He was in clear view of the velociraptor.

Slowly, Tim lowered his body, sinking beneath the table… The velociraptor jerked its head around, looking directly at Tim.