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Muldoon's Vengeance PART TWO OF TWO
By Dino-dave
An earth shaking clap heralded the arrival of the juvenile rex, who had burst out of the foliage and collided head on with the adult female. She toppled over and began sliding down the embankment. Her foot hooked the juvenile’s ankle, who had began snapping at Muldoon. The juvenile rex smacked into the earth and left a tear in the mud as it’s unconscious head flopped over the embankment. Muldoon stared wide eyed as the two super predators rolled down the hill and plunged into the green veil of the jungle.
Muldoon continued down the parched dirt track, shaken by his brush with death. He tried to repair the rifle as he walked, using pieces of branch to unclog the shell lodged in the barrel. As he finished unblocking the gun he heard the soft hiss of water lapping the shore. He rounded a corner and sighed thankfully at the sight of the docks. Several boats were moored next to the rickety wooden piers that lined the small cove. Some had onboard radios, but the batteries had been drained. He checked the fuel supplies of each, and filled the best boat he could find with the fuel from the others using cartons he found on the pier. He hoped he had enough fuel to make it close to the shore so that the tide would drag the boat in. Muldoon leaned his rifle against the rim of the boat and made one last journey around the boats to gather supplies.
As he was circling rope around his arm he heard an unpleasant noise trickle out of the jungle. Muldoon carefully placed the rope on the pier and started to run back to retrieve his rifle. A slender animal snarled out the trees, eyes trained on Muldoon scampering along the bay. Muldoon recognised the animal as the intelligent raptor that had deserted her partner near the compound. He stopped, noticing that the raptor would cross his path before he could reach his rifle. The raptor screamed in disappointment and began to stalk him. She lengthened her neck and straightened her legs to challenge Muldoon. He crouched and backed off onto a pier. From a gap between two small vessels he could see his boat three piers away from him. He could swim it.
The raptor clicked and hissed as she stepped onto the pier, eyes flashing with intelligence. She bowed her head and coiled her legs like spring, preparing to pounce. Muldoon jumped as she did to try and trick the animal, but this time the raptor did not change altitude, she just sailed on her current trajectory. Even if Muldoon ducked suddenly now he would still be unable to avoid the animal. Muldoon landed and braced himself. The raptor’s feet impacted his chest and the two cartwheeled along the pier. They unfolded at the end of the pier, the raptor firmly pinning Muldoon.
The raptor adjusted itself so that her feet held Muldoon down while her forelimbs were free to scratch Muldoon’s face. She had learnt from their last encounter that scoring the chest was pointless. The raptor raised it’s three bony fingers high into the air and brought it’s razor sharp talons down diagonally across Muldoon’s face. Muldoon screamed in pain as blood welled up in the gashes and dribbled down his cheeks. He lifted a leg and wedged it into the underside of the animal. With all his frustration he kicked the raptor up and back over his head. She soared for several metres before disappearing into a round splash of foam. Muldoon heard the raptor squeal as she tried to swim in the shallow water.
Muldoon took the opportunity and rolled off the edge of the pier into the water. He watched as his blood clouded the water around him. Muldoon leaned forward and began to tear through the water, swimming as fast as he could. He could see his boat next to the pier was less than twenty metres away from him. The raptor began kicking the water energetically and gradually moved. She growled as she gained speed and began paddling towards Muldoon. Muldoon turned five metres away from the pier and saw the bobbing head just above the surface of the water quickly approaching him. Muldoon flung his arms over his head and desperately swam for the pier. The raptor was less than a metre away from his legs as he eased himself onto the wooden pier. Suddenly the plank buckled and snapped and Muldoon’s legs sank into the water. The raptor clapped her jaws around Muldoon’s leg. He screamed in agony and reached for his rifle resting on the rim of his boat. He could feel the blood streaming round his ankles as he clasped his fingers round the weapon. He pulled it from the boat and slammed the butt of the gun into the animal’s head. She squealed and sank into the blood stained water. Muldoon sighed with relief and tended to his wounds.
That sigh echoed in Michael Stephens’ office. Muldoon leaned back into the shadows. Stephens could see two brown eyes glaring at him from the darkness.
‘I suppose you want to know what I found…’ Muldoon said. His tone was harsh and commanding. ‘In the bunker…in that file’
‘Y,..Yes actually.’ Stephens finished his first sentence in Muldoon’s presence.
‘I had always wondered how Hammond actually got that park up and running. I mean I’d heard he’d made millions through being a successful entrepreneur but a park like that must have cost billions. Don’t you agree?’
Stephens nodded slowly.
‘I found a sheet describing a so-called ‘Site B’. Apparently there is another island not far from Nublar that is the home to dinosaurs before they are ready to be shipped over to the main attraction. Hammond had certainly kept a secret there!’ Muldoon chuckled. ‘But then I returned to the question I yearned to know the answer to. Where on earth had Hammond got the funding for both of these islands?’
‘I flicked through the pages of this file and came to a page titled ‘SUMMARY’. On it were the records of money transferred to John’s bank account from The United States Government.’
Stephens looked away.
‘I also found a page detailing The United States’ Military involvement in transporting the dinosaurs across to the island. All this time I was asking myself ‘Why would The United States Government be interested in a theme park like this?’’ Muldoon scorned at Stephens.
‘And it was only when I came across a page about the selective cloning of certain vicious dinosaurs that I realised. You were testing weapons.’
Stephens sat up ‘Now you listen here…’
‘You used the mirage of a theme park to get people to go to your phoney island. That’s why you bred herbivores. Just to convince people the island was a theme park. That explains why the herbivores were so weak and had such short lifespans. You hadn’t concentrated on making the herbivores accurate or healthy, you only made sure that the predators were effective in killing people.’
‘What you are saying…’ Stephens stuttered.
‘That’s why the raptors I looked after were so intelligent and ruthless. They were killing machines’ Muldoons’ eyes burnt through the darkness with intense anger. He produced a creased piece of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it and smoothed it out on the desk. At the bottom was a signature with the words ‘Michael Stephens : Jurassic Park Project Chairman’. Below it were his phone numbers and addresses. ‘You were in charge.’
Michael Stephens collapsed into his chair. He had enough of excuses. He knew Muldoon was right.
‘We invited scientists, experts like Alan Grant to come to the island to see how well intelligent people who knew about dinosaurs would cope. We knew there were dinosaur experts in other countries, we wanted to see whether knowing about the animals would be an effective defence against those beasts.’ Stephens explained. ‘We had a mock up disaster ready and waiting for them when they returned from the tour. When Nedry stepped in, we didn’t need to create a disaster. We let the chaos continue and studied the animals’ behaviour through the security cameras.’
Muldoon felt his anger brewing like a storm, but he contained it. ‘I can’t believe someone like Hammond would have agreed to the deaths of so many people’ Muldoon said, shaking his head.
‘Oh Hammond didn’t know people were going to die. But we thought he would desert the place as soon as the dinosaurs got out. That’s why we sent his grandchildren onto the island, so that he would have stay there until he got them back.’ Stephens was impressed with the level of thinking that had gone into making Jurassic Park a well oiled death trap.
Muldoon stood up, sickened by the presence of this man ‘People I loved, friends died on that island.’
‘We had to test those animals, they could have proved to be an effective weapon.’ Stephens said.
‘So you’re not even going to use them as a weapon?!’ Muldoon roared.
‘They failed. People escaped. Many people.’ Stephens said coolly.
Muldoon leaned on Stephens’ desk and stared right into his eyes. ‘You make the handful who survived sound like a bad thing. All of those people; gifted people, experts in their fields died for no reason. And you sit here thinking that you have the right to order the execution of all those people, just because of your damned curiousity?!’
‘There are men in this world who might kill us!!’
Muldoon walked to the door and reached for the handle. He turned to stare coldly at the murderer sitting at his desk ‘Yes there are. Men like you.’
The door slammed firmly.
Stephens sat in silence for a moment, then chuckled. He reached for his cell phone next to his computer and realised it had gone. He looked up at the shadow outside his door. He stood up to call Muldoon back into his office when he realised the shadow at his door was not human. The handle turned, the door slowly swung open and an intelligent female raptor gracefully wandered into the room. As the animal drowsily walked into the room Stephens noticed a large bruise on her head where the butt of a rifle had knocked her unconscious. Stephens dropped his hankerchief as the realisation hit him. He was going to be a victim of his own weapon.
8/7/2003 3:24:46 PM
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