Raptor Pen: Grant charges across the compound, ahead of Ellie, Malcom, and Gennaro. Hammond struggles to keep up. But Grant has stopped abruptly next to the Velociraptor pen, which we recognize as the heavily fortified cage we saw earlier, with the San Quentin towers at one end. Grant stands near the fence, eyes wide, dying for a glimpse.
Hammond catches up, slightly out of breath, he goes on about lunch plans, but Grant wants to know what the workers are doing at the pen.
Hammond: Oh . . . feeding them.
As they watch, a giant crane lowers something large down into the middle of the jungle foliage inside the pen. Something very large. It's a steer. The poor thing looks disconcerted as hell, helpless, its in a harness. Grant goes up to the viewing deck.
The others follow, staring as the steer disappears into the shroud of foliage. The line from the crane hangs for a moment. The jungle seems to grow very quiet. They all stare at the motionless crane line. It jerks suddenly, like a fishing pole finally getting a nibble. There's a pause -- and then a frenzy.
The line jerks every which way, the jungle plants sway and snap from some frantic activity within, there is a cacophony of growling, snapping, wet crunches that mean the steer is literally being torn to pieces and is almost makes it worse that we can't see anything of what's going on -- and then it's quiet again. The line jerks a few times, then stops. Slowly the sound of the jungle starts up again.
A voice comes from behind them.
Muldoon: They should all be destroyed.
They turn and look at the man who spoke. Robert Muldoon, the grim-faced man who was present at the accident in the beginning, is fortyish, British, Hammond's game warden from Kenya. He joins them and takes his hat off. When Muldoon talks, you listen. Muldoon has dealt with the raptors more than anyone.
Grant: What kind of metabolism do they have? What's their growth rate?
Muldoon: They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal. I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move.
Grant: Fast for a biped?
Muldoon: Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles an hour if they ever got out into the open, and they're astonishing jumpers.
Hammond: Yes, yes, yes. That's why we're taking extreme precautions.
Grant: Do they show intelligence? With their brain cavity.
Muldoon: They show extreme intelligence, even problem-solving intelligence. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally, but when she came in she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one... when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came.
Ellie: But the fences are electrified though, right?
Muldoon: That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember.
Behind them, the crane whirrs back to life, raising the cable back up out of the raptor pen. The guest turn and stare as the end portion of the cable becomes visible. The steer has been dragged completely away, leaving only the tattered, bloody harness.
Hammond [smiles]: Who's hungry?
Visitor Center Presentation Room: Hammond, Grant, Ellie, Malcom, and Gennaro eat lunch at a long table in the visitor's center restaurant. There is a large buffet table and two waiters to serve them. The room is darkened and Hammond is showing slides of various scenes all around them. Hammond's own recorded voice describes current and future features of the park while the slides flash artists' renderings of all them.
The real Hammond turns and speaks over the narration explaining none of these attractions have been finished yet. The park will open with the basic tour the visitors are about to take, and then other rides will come on line after six or twelve months. Spared no expense. More slides click past, a series of graphs dealing with profits, attendance and other fiscal projections.
Gennaro, who has become increasingly friendly with Hammond, even giddy, grins from ear to ear.
Gennaro: And we can charge anything we want, 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day, and people will pay it. And then there's the merchandise...
Hammond: Donald, Donald... This park was not built to cater only for the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals.
Gennaro: Sure, they will. Well, we'll have a, a coupon day or something.
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