Michael Crichton - The Lost World

Idly, she swung her legs, and kicked a wire beneath the table. She bent over and saw that the terminal was unplugged. So she plugged it in.

The screen glowed, and a single word appeared:

LOGIN:

To proceed further, she knew she needed a password. Arby had a password. She glanced over and saw that he was still asleep. She didn't want to wake him up. She remembered that he had written it down on a piece of paper and stuck it in his pocket. Maybe it was still in his clothes she thought. She crossed the room, found the bundle of his wet, muddy clothes, and began going through the pockets. She found his wallet, the keys to his house, and some other stuff. Finally she found a piece of paper in his back pocket. It was damp, and streaked with mud. The ink had smeared, but she could still read his writing:

VIG/ amp;*849/

Kelly took the paper and went back to the computer. She typed in all the characters carefully, and pressed the return key. The screen went blank, and then a new screen came up. She was surprised. It was different from the screen she had seen earlier, in the trailer.

She was in the system. But the whole thing looked different. Maybe because this wasn't the radionet, she thought. She must be logged into the actual laboratory system. It had more graphics because the terminal was hard-wired. Maybe they even ran optical pipe out here.

Across the room, Levine said, "Kelly? How about it?"

"I'm working on it," she said,

Cautiously, she began to type. Rows of icons appeared rapidly across the screen, one after another.

She knew she was looking at a graphic interface of some kind, but the meaning of the images wasn't obvious to her, and there were no explanations. The people who had used this system were probably trained to know what the images meant. But Kelly didn't know. She wanted to get into the video system, yet none of the pictures suggested anything to do with video. She moved the cursor around, wondering what to do.

She decided she'd have to guess. She picked the diamond-shaped icon on the lower left, and clicked on it.

"Uh-oh," she said, alarmed.

Levine looked over. "Something wrong?"

"No," she said. "It's fine." She quickly clicked on the header, and got back to the previous screen. This time she tried one of the triangularshaped icons.

The screen changed again:

That's it, she thought. Immediately the image popped off, and the actual video images began to flash up on the screen. On this little cash register monitor, the pictures were tiny, but now she was in familiar territory, and she moved around quickly, moving the cursor, manipulating the images.

"What are you looking for?" she said.

"The Explorer," Thorne said.

She clicked the screen. The image zoomed up. "Got it," she said.

Levine said, "You do?" He sounded surprised.

Kelly looked at him and said, "Yeah, I do."

The two men came and stared at the screen over her shoulder. They could see the Explorer, on a shaded road. They could see the pachycephalosaurs, lots of them, milling around the car. The animals were poking at the tires and the front fender.

But they didn't see Sarah anywhere. "Where is she?" Thorne said.

Sarah Harding was underneath the car, lying on her face in the mud.

She had crawled there after she fell - it was the only place to go - and now she was staring out at the animals' feet milling all around her. She said, "Doc. Are you there? Doc? Doc." But the damned radio wasn't working again. The pachys were stamping and snorting, trying to get at her tinder the car.

Then she remembered that Thorne had said something about screwing down the battery pack. She reached behind her back, and found the pack, and twisted the cover shut tight.

Immediately, her earpiece began to crackle with static.

"Doc," she said.

"Where are you?" Thorne said.

"I'm under the car."

"Why? Did you already try it?"

"Try what?"

"Try to start it. To start the car."

"No," she said, "I didn't try to start it, I fell."

"Well, as long as you're under there, you can check the breakers," Thorne said.

"The breakers are under the car?"

"Some of them. Look up by the front wheels."

She twisted her body, sliding in the mud. "Okay. I'm looking."

"There's a box right behind the front bumper. Over on the left."

"I see it."

"Can you open it?"

"I think so." She crawled forward, and pulled at the latch. The lid came down. She was staring at three black switches. "I see three switches and they are all pointing up."

"Up?"

"Toward the front of the car."

"Hmmm," Thorne said. "That doesn't make sense. Can you read the writing?"

"Yes. It says '15 VV' and then '02 R."'

"Okay," he said. "That explains it."

"What?"

"The box is in backward. Flip all the switches the other way. Are you dry?"

"No, Doc. I'm soaking wet, lying in the damn mud."

"Well then, use your shirtsleeve or something."

Harding pulled herself forward, approaching the bumper. The nearest pachys snorted and banged on the bumper. They leaned down and twisted their heads, trying to get to her. "They have very bad breath," she said.

"Say again?"

"Never mind." She flipped the switches, one after another. She heard a hum, from the car above her. "Okay. I did it. The car is making a noise.

"That's fine," Thorne said.

"What do I do now?"

"Nothing. You better wait."

She lay back in the mud, looking at the feet of the pachys. They were moving, tramping all around her.

"How much time left?" she said.

"About ten minutes."

She said, "Well, I'm stuck under here, Doc."

"I know."

She looked at the animals. They were on all sides of the car. If anything, they seemed to be growing more active and excited. They stamped their feet and snuffled impatiently. Why were they so worked up? she wondered. And then, suddenly, they all thundered off. They ran toward the front of the car, and away, up the road. She twisted her body and watched them go.

There was silence.

"Doc?" she said.

"Yeah."

"Why'd they leave?"

"Stay under the car," Thorne said.

"Doc?"

"Don't talk." The radio clicked off.

She waited, not sure what was happening. She had heard the tension in Thorne's voice. She didn't know why. But now she heard a soft scuffling sound, and looking over, saw two feet standing by the driver's side of the car.

Two feet in muddy boots.

Men's boots.

Harding frowned. She recognized the boots. She recognized the khaki trousers, even though they were now caked with mud.

It was Dodgson.

The man's boots turned to face the door. She heard the door latch click. Dodgson was getting in the car.

Harding acted so swiftly, she was not aware of thinking. Grunting, she swung her body around sideways, reached out with her arms, grabbed both ankles, and pulled hard. Dodgson fell, giving a yell of surprise. He landed on his back, and turned, his face dark and angry.

He saw her and scowled. "No shit," he said. "I thought I finished you off on the boat."

Harding went red with rage, and started to crawl out from under the car. Dodgson scrambled to his knees as she was halfway out, but then she felt the ground begin to shake. And she immediately knew why. She saw Dodgson look over his shoulder, and flatten himself on the ground. Hurriedly, he started to crawl under the car beside her.

She turned in the mud, looking down along the length of the car. And she saw a tyrannosaurus coming up the road toward them. The ground vibrated with each step. Now Dodgson was crawling toward the center of the car, pushing himself close to her, but she ignored him. She watched the big feet with the splayed claws as they came alongside the car, and stopped. Each foot was three feet long. She heard the tyrannosaur growling.